Brightest Day #17
Guess what happens in this comic...nothing, abso-frakin-lutely nothing!!!
The Good
David Finch's cover is awesome and the artwork continues to be nicely handled by the cadre of artists.
There's some truly touching moments with Boston Brand and his grandfather. Too bad the issue didn't follow that ray of light.
Really would like to see good ol' Deadman get a bit more spotlight in this series.
The Bad
EDIT!: After recounting the number of pages I must admit this is the same page length as any other issue, props to my man The Mighty Monarch on the correction. Though this issue's full length it feels like it's about 2/3 or so the length of a full issue. This caused me to feel like I was getting jerked in story and not getting my money's worth. This is chiefly due to the pacing of the issue and the time it allots to each story. Which for the better one's isn't nearly enough. The issue begins with a splash of Firestorm followed by another page or two then we jump to Deadman/The Hawk's story (the latter of which the issue focuses on), never to hear from Firestorm again. A lot of splash pages/full pages are devoted to the battle on Zamaron amounting to no more than padding.
Boston hooking up with Dove? Okay I know we saw this a few issues back and I didn't like it then. What (besides the writers' will) is this relationship based upon? She thought he died but he lived, so the logical response to that was to hook up? And according to the dialog they've been goin' at it pretty hot and heavy for a bit of time now. It's inorganic and illogical. Now If I'm wrong and something's been brewing with these two in Birds of Prey then I'll recant this, but until then this is the stupidest and most bass acwards thing I've seen in this series.
The Hawks story is one of the least interesting in the series (and this' coming from a guy who likes both characters) well the bulk of this issue is about them fighting Queen Shrike and her Man Hawks (seriously?) on Zamaron. Ummm remember how I complained about the entities picking hosts all willy nilly like in my GL 61 review? Well this selection makes more sense based on the Predators nature, but yeah, I don't like it cuz it's just going to drag out this tale that was already getting long in the tooth 3 months ago. Praying the writers end this ASAP so stories like Aquaman/Firestorm's can have a worthy conclusion
Since we're on the topic of Firestorm I must say their story's been moving at the pace of a directionally confused, mentally retarded snail. Yeah, they didn't destroy the universe...no surprise there. They're in the Anti-Matter Universe tough, still chasing Death Storm...and that's about it. DO SOMETHING!!!!
AND THE SOLICIT TALKED ABOUT AQUAMAN...WHERE THE HELL'S MY AQUAMAN?!
The Verdict
THIS BY FAR THE WORST ISSUE IN THE SERIES!!!! This issue was definitely filler. I feel like there was a story here that could've been compelling but never got the chance to go anywhere. That being said, I really can't recommend buying this comic. Do yourself a major favor and read whatever minor plot points occur in this issue on wikipedia.
