It all comes down to this, forget Hawkworld, forget the Aquaman’s battle (and apparently Aqualad for that matter), forget Martian Manhunter’s rogue green Martian female running amok and you can forget Firestorm and the Anti-Monitor. The penultimate issue of Brightest Day answers a bunch of questions and sets everything up nicely for the finale in two weeks. As critical as I have been over the past year of this book, I am very interested to see how it finally ends, and the ramifications for the 12 and the DC Universe.
Somewhere around the middle of this maxi-series Geoff Johns and team gave the 12 returned heroes and villains a vision of why they had their lives returned. Then, once they completed their task Johns & Co. started “eliminating” those returned via the White Lantern and a little thing called disintegration. Basically, the Hawks did their thing… zap, Aquaman his… zap, Martian Manhunter… zap, and in this issue Firestorm completed his task. Rather than being zapped, he was transformed into a being of pure fire connected to all fire on Earth. With that transformation, he was joined by the other Elements… Earth, Water and Wind (Martian Manhunter, Aquaman and the Hawks).
I know what you are thinking, didn’t Nickelodeon already tells us this story in Avatar: The Last Airbender? I know, I had the same thoughts. It appears though this group of rag tag elements will be there to assist Earth’s Protector in defeating the Dark Avatar. But, who will this unnamed avenging angel be? That would be telling and if you really want to know run out and pick up Brightest Day #23.
I have greatly enjoyed the past 4 issues of this series. And despite my lukewarm reception to the majority of Brightest Day, I really am excited to learn the conclusion, especially after the big reveal at the end of this issue. As the end of the journey is upon us, looking back I’m not sure this needed to be a 1 year 24 issue bi-monthly (or is it bi-weekly) series. It honestly reminded me a lot of Smallville with lots of filler and some flashes of brilliance. But if there is one thing Geoff Johns can do, it’s tell a story. That’s the reason I started this series and kept wanting to see where he was going to take me.
