One of the best books spinning out of Brightest Day.
Fire finds her old Checkmate allies turn on her while the rest of the unofficially-reformed JLI fend off a horde of OMACs.
The Good
Mind wipes and "restart buttons" have been used a lot in comics lately (I'm thinking, specifically, of Iron Man purging his own memories and Brand New Day) but the angle Winick using here is really compelling. I got a good Philip K. Dick mind-job paranoia vibe here, given how the JLI are faced by, for lack of better term, Maxwell Lord-deniers who aren't unreasonable "Big Brother"-types but good people with perfectly reasonable disagreements given the overwhelming amount of evidence mounted against these apparent conspiracy theorists. The whole opening with Fire getting evicted from Checkmate then subsequently chasing Lord and being framed for burning an innocent, was really frustrating in the best way - - Winick didn't cheat with the story logic or the character motivations. I also liked the exploration of the new Blue Beetle powers here, especially with his handling of the OMAC's. Given time, he could be an even bigger player in the DCU. Dagnino does some great work that's evocative of Alan Davis at times and I was definitely impressed by Hi-Fi's coloring work. This is a well-produced book.
The Bad
I don't know if there's really much to complain about. This is solid superhero book. Maybe the only thing that takes this down is that it's getting kind of convoluted to have had such a big storyline about the fallout of Maxwell Lord's death, only to dredge it up all over again, but that's actually addressed in the story, itself, so it's negligible.
The Verdict - 4.5/5
Out of all the Brightest Day offshoots, this is really the best. If you're already familiar with the classic JLI, you'll get an extra kick out of this, but you don't need to know anything about them to enjoy this. It's light without being overly jokey, serious without being overly dark and it builds upon past continuity without getting bogged down in it. And, like I said, the art is very sleek.
