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.

COMIC: Top of the Stack - Brightest Day #7 (Review)

Written by Geoff Johns & Peter Tomasi
Art by Ivan Reis, Patrick Gleason, Ardian Syaf, Scott Clark & Joe Prado
Cover by David Finch

Publisher: DC Comics
Price: $2.99

In recent years DC has revitalized the market of weekly published comics. It started with 52, continued with Countdown and Trinity before they took a breather and did a shorter weekly run with Wednesday Comics. Now, after the last event, Blackest Night, DC has started a bi-weekly run with the title spinning out of that event - Brightest Day. Behind the minds of Green Lantern and Blackest Night - Geoff Johns and Peter Tomasi - Brightest Day focuses on the characters that were brought back to life and weaves a story among them that now nearly four months in is starting to come to fruition.

The first several issues were about the characters reacting to being back around and trying to get back to the lives they were living back before their deaths. All that time there was Boston Brand aka Deadman being pulled all across the Earth and galaxy by the power of the white ring that had appeared on his finger. In this issue, the power behind the white ring revealed itself and the reasons behind why it chose the characters it did were shown to readers and the characters themselves. And what seems to be in the future for this book looks to be life defining moments for these characters that will really show them how to live.

With a book that comes out more than once a month, the art chores have to be shared and DC split the work by each character's story so there are several artists every issue. And I have to say that the artwork on this book is superb, there is not a page that looks rushed at all, and the best thing is that the different looks and styles flow so well together that it is difficult to find any jarring pauses in the shifts between artists that sometimes plagues books. The cover by David Finch is just amazing and he has been a great addition to the DC titles. Fans of his will enjoy hearing that his own work will be gracing interiors soon in a new Batman book coming out this fall.

The future seems bright for this title, no pun intended but with Geoff Johns and Peter Tomasi as the creative force running it I do not foresee a drop in quality during this title's run. Geoff has literally turned everything he has touched recently into gold and Tomasi wrote a great Nightwing run a few years ago and now is flourishing on the Green Lantern Corps book alongside Geoff's main Green Lantern title. This is a title readers should definitely check out especially now that the plot has certainly thickened.

Check out Geek Plate's Tumblr today for a picspam starring DC's Brightest Day characters.