blurred_view's Brightest Day #23 - Rise and Fall review

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    Why Does DC Think I Know Anything About Him?

    With Brightest Day nearing its end, the Entity finally gets to the point of all its convoluted scheming, and the character we have been waiting for arrives. This character's identity was spoiled for many people before this issue, but even disregarding that, the big arrival does not really have the impact the story probably wants it to have.


    I'll do my best not to say who the character is, even though you probably already know.

    The Entity begins calling together the resurrected in Star City's mysterious forest for the big stand against the dark entity we have heard so much about. And as the cover shows, the heroes who the Entity apparently killed have in fact been turned into elemental beings to aid in the final confrontation. Yes, it is very Captain Planet. This works fine, especially since we have stopped expecting anything the Entity does to make much sense long ago. Though, it is disappointing that Jade, a character who actually did once have an elemental power applicable to this situation, is completely left out of things as she has been for the majority of this series.

    The identity of the character who arrives in this issue makes a lot of sense, and in small ways, it has been hinted toward for awhile. But that said, it does not work that well in the story. Despite the minor hints, it really does come out of nowhere for readers. DC is possibly overlooking the fact that a lot of readers do not know this character. Yes, they know the character by name, but most do not know much beyond the name. Many may not have even realized that this was actually a DC character. This is a cult favorite character, whose best days were a long time ago. In trying to make this a surprise reveal, the series really has not prepared readers to be familiar with this character and understand what all this means. This issue throws readers into the deep end of the character's mythology and expects that to work, but the only reason I have any clue what the cliffhanger means is because I read G-Man's helpful article last night. Otherwise, my only reaction to the end of this issue would be a frustrated "...What?"

    The art gets a little rushed, especially in the panels showing heroes all over the world trying to perform disaster relief. Details are glossed over, and some costumes are simply wrong. But besides that, the art is solid and does its job.

    Brightest Day does fumble its big reveal with unrealistic expectations of its readers, but the intense and disaster movie-like feel of this story covers for some of that, giving some decent entertainment value on its own. The character being used does at least make sense, and hopefully, next issue will provide the exposition this issue needed to make all readers of this series familiar with him. It is a solid issue. However, the fact that all the other character-oriented stories are now mostly over does a lot to diminish my interest, since it was really the stories of the likes of Aquaman and Martian Manhunter that were carrying this series and not the mystery of the Entity.

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