Brightest Day #3 - The jakob187 Review
Within the opening moments of Brightest Day #3, we get thrown right into the mix of Deadman meeting up with the Anti-Monitor, and it would seem that this would set the pace for what the rest of the book would have to offer us. Sadly, that pace happens to be too many questions and not enough substance.
Let's just get to the brunt of the problems now: the issue is too crammed, and because of that cramming, it doesn't feel like anything happens in this issue other than "hey, let's build up secrets and STILL not reveal anything". I understand the need for a good reveal, but I don't think that you should sacrifice the potential of building character for it. The one single character moment that seemed to pop up was Mera looking off in another direction as Arthur held her in his arms.
It feels as though there is too much being put into too few pages for the characters. Hawkman and Hawkgirl felt incredibly short, and yet there's kind of a big story going on there. Aquaman actually showed up this issue (making me wonder if the covers for issue #2 and #3 got mixed up), and the only honestly interesting thing was Mera as she looked away from Arthur, obviously either holding back a secret or afraid of what Arthur has become. Ronnie and Jason are finally separated, but there's nothing more than questions left about the voice, what happened with the Firestorm Matrix, what's up with Atom, Jason's dad, etc. Martian Manhunter investigates the murders from issue #2 and finds out something he didn't want to.
Here's the problem: all of the questions that have been raised over the last three issues...have now led to bigger questions! Questions are supposed to lead to answers, Johns. There was no real focus in this issue, and instead, it was all over the place. The last few issues have at least felt like they were all connected in some grand way. This felt like a massive segregation, only being linked by the fact that they were all resurrected...for some damn reason.
As the front of the book says itself: "why have they returned?". I'm not saying we need answers this soon in the story, but at the same time, giving a little bit of solid information rather than asking questions that lead to questions is much better storytelling...and far less flustering.
I still think these books need to be bi-weekly OVERSIZED issues with an extra dollar on the price tag to fit in more story. Hopefully, this series can pick it back up next issue with some solid stories.
