brightest day | the m0vie blog

Peter Tomasi & Fernando Pasarin’s Green Lantern: Emerald Warriors (Review/Retrospective)

Posted on February 15, 2012 by Darren

Emerald Warriors suffers a bit from being a rather obvious lead-in series to the War of the Green Lanterns crossover than DC was pushing for its space cops to coincide with the release of the Green Lantern film. It’s very clear that the book is written with an editorial mandate to establish certain characters and dynamics, and I think it suffers to a certain extent, because of this – to the point where the series wasn’t renewed as part of the DCnU relaunch, which makes it seem like the series never really existed as anything more than a tie-in to a large event, rather than a cosmic comic book in its own right. It’s a shame, because Peter Tomasi has been one of the most consistant second-tier writers at DC, and his Guy Gardner is second-to-none. Also, you know, it looks incredible.

A breath of fresh air...

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Filed under: Comics | Tagged: batman, brightest day, dc, dc comics, Emerald Knights, Emerald Warriors, Fernando Pasarin, geoff johns, green lantern, Green Lantern: Emerald Warriors, Guy Gardner, Justice League International, peter tomasi, review, Scott Snyder, sodam yat, Tomasi, war of the green lanterns | Leave a comment »

Geoff Johns’ Run on Green Lantern – Brightest Day (Review)

Posted on February 1, 2012 by Darren

It must be difficult to follow an absolutely huge event like Blackest Night, which cemented Green Lantern as one of DC’s largest franchises (perhaps second only to the Batman books under Grant Morrison). After all, the gigantic crossover was the culmination of over five years of work by architect Geoff Johns, and it might have been easy for the writer to pack it all in and call it a day. However, he didn’t. This collection, covering the entire New Guardians story arc, is very clearly a bridge between two big Green Lantern events – Blackest Night and War of the Green Lanterns. It also works a launching pad for a whole host of other titles, from Brightest Day to Emerald Warriors to Green Lantern Corps. However, the collection works at its very best when it is smaller in scope, and more intimate – when it pauses to wonder what happens to a world-saving superhero when the heat of the great big galactic threat has passed.

Hal's still got really poor self-image...

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Filed under: Comics | Tagged: Abin Sur, blackest night, brightest day, Carol Ferris, comic books, dc comics, geoff johns, grant morrison, green lantern: brightest day, green lantern: rebirth, green lantern: the new guardians, Greenlantern, hal jordan, Hector Hammond, lex luthor, Power ring (DC Comics), ryan reynolds, sinestro, the new gaurdians (review), the new guardians | 2 Comments »

Brightest Day (Hardcover Vol. 1-3) (Review/Retrospective)

Posted on January 18, 2012 by Darren

This January, I’m going to take a look at some of DC’s biggest “events.” This one’s not so much an “event” as a bi-weekly miniseries, but let’s count it anyway…

Balancing the internal storylines is a tough task for any anthology, especially one running over the course of an entire year. In this respect, 52 feels like the exception rather than the rule. It’s a fairly fundamental problem with Brightest Day that not all of the plotlines are interesting (and certainly not all of the time). It’s a rather strange phenomenon: the early issues try to balance the characters somewhat evenly across the issues, and feels somewhat awkward in trying to devote an equal amount of space to stories that aren’t equally compelling; on the other hand, the second and final thirds seems more comfortable devoting large stretches of single issues to certain characters (and to have other members of the ensemble go unheard from for issues at a time), which has the bizarre effect of meaning that a cliffhanger or two isn’t picked up for two or three chapters. It’s a tough balance to get right, and I’m sad to say that Brightest Day doesn’t acquit itself particularly admirably. It’s a shame, because there are some interesting ideas here.

Everything burns...

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Filed under: Comics | Tagged: blackest night, boston, brightest day, Brightest Day (DC comics), Captain Boomerang, captain cold, dc universe, flash, geoff johns, green lantern, green lantern: rebirth, Greenlantern, Martian Manhunter, maxwell lord, peter tomasi, reverse flash, The Flash: Rebirth | 2 Comments »

The Crisis Surrounding “Crisis Crossovers”

Posted on March 9, 2010 by Darren

We’re a bit late to the party, but this week we’ll be celebrating the 75th anniversary of DC Comics, with a look at the medium, the company and the characters in a selection of bonus features running Monday through Friday. This is one of those articles. Be sure to join us for the rest.

In 2012, we will witness the first true superhero crossover on the big screen, with Iron Man, Captain America and Thor joining forces as The Avengers to battle evil. The Hulk may even get in on the action. However,this sort of overlap is hardly new to the source material which will inform the film. It seems that the comic book medium is dominated by the crossover fad, with the two major companies churning out massive event after massive event. Is this a good thing which demonstrates the strength and flexibility of the monthly-publishing schedule, or does this style of writing only serve to make the medium even more insular?