COMIC: Top of the Stack - Brightest Day #21 (Review)

Written by Geoff Johns & Peter J. Tomasi
Art by Ivan Reis, Patrick Gleason & Joe Prado
Cover by David Finch

Publisher: DC Comics
Price: $2.99

After the avalanche of Marvel books in the prior week that led to a huge stack, the first week of March arrived with only a handful of titles waiting to be read at my leisure. There were still several heavy hitters in the stack including one of the better issues of Avengers Academy and previous top of the stack winners from Boom Studios!, Chip N' Dale Rescue Rangers and Darkwing Duck also had new issues out as well. But in the end, it was the overwhelming emotional impact in Brightest Day #21 as the series enters its final few issues that made it my choice for top of the stack.

Brightest Day's writing team of Geoff Johns and Peter J. Tomasi have been guiding the book since it spinned out of DC's Blackest Night event and as a result the individual stories have stayed consistently cohesive and even begun to weave together leading to the clear climax of the title that is on the horizon.

With the end of the series in sight, the white power that Deadman wields - or really the white power that wields Deadman - in recent issues has started to collect from the characters it brought back to life: Firestar, Hawkman, Hawkgirl, Aquaman - for what it claims is the greater good. That path continues in this issue as Martian Manhunter finally accomplishes what he was brought back to do, to stop being split on what he calls home, and it brings the white power calling. However, unlike the other heroes J'onn is prepared and goes readily in hopes that it is for the best.

Many of the transformations between the martians are bizarre and creature-like but the pages that feature humanoid Martian Manhunter are just amazing to behold, especially that two-page splash when his life is returned by the white power.

I do not know if Brightest Day will lead into Flashpoint but I am sure that there will be a new story to follow at the conclusion of this series. I am not usually one for patience when it comes to long storylines but the stellar quality of Brightest Day in the last half of issues have been more than enough to make me wait to see it through. I have not been this compelled to follow a more than monthly comic book like this since the days of 52, which also happened to have been partly written by Geoff Johns. To the finish.

Check out GeekPlate's Tumblr for today's Martian themed picspam.