Green Lantern: Brightest Day
When the post-”Blackest Night” initiative at DC was given the name “Brightest Day,” a buddy of mine remarked, “You know, now they’re going to do a crossover for every verse of the Green Lantern oath.” To which I replied, “SHHHHHHH! Don’t give them ideas!” Fortunately writers Geoff “Green Lantern” Johns, Tony “Green Lantern Corps.” Bedard, and Peter “Emerald Warriors” Tomasi haven’t gone down that route yet, and the next major crossover is called “War of the Green Lanterns.” But before we get to that, we’ve got a whole volume of setup to get through! Those of you disappointed by the “Green Lantern” film may be suitably diverted by all the action here, provided you’ve been following the ongoing saga of Hal Jordan and co.
Remember the white lantern that was revealed at the end of “Blackest Night?” It turns out that not only is it semi-sentient, it has a mission for Hal Jordan, Carol Ferris, and Sinestro. The various “entities” that embody the core values of the emotional spectrum are all on Earth and in danger of being rounded up by a mysterious force. Parallax is already under his control and Ion soon follows. This isn’t just a mission for the three of them as Atrocitus, Larfleeze, Saint Walker and the entire Indigo Tribe find themselves in the search for the entity of their respective spectrum. For a lot of them, that comes with no strings attached. For Hal Jordan, he has to go off the grid with not only the Corps., but also his fellow superheroes… and that creates problems.
What did I like about this volume? Lobo showing up to collect the bounty on Atrocitus and the five-way throwdown that ensues. Larfleeze setting up shop in Minnesota and discovering Santa Claus. Hector Hammond’s “greedy” makeover in his ongoing quest to have Hal Jordan’s life. The revelation that the Indigo Lanterns, with the newly recruited Black Hand, have compassion forced upon them by their rings (because if they’re all nice people now, what were they like before that). It was also interesting to observe the shouting match of ideas between Atrocitus and The Spectre, along with the ongoing realization that while the latter may be fueled by rage, he’s really a big softie underneath it all (kinda, sorta). The bits with Dex-starr as well, because I’m a cat person.
I also can’t forget the art from Doug Mahnke. As I’ve said before, this series allows him some great opportunities to cut loose with the various alien designs and over-the-top ring creations. Even if his work is looking a little rougher than usual (no less than three inkers contributed to any given chapter)
Everything else just felt like means to an end or the dutiful follow-through on dull plot points. Chief amongst these plot points are Hal and Carol’s efforts to define their relationship. It was interesting to see where Carol wound up in this volume, but there wasn’t any spark or energy to their verbal sparring. Same goes for the tired reasoning Hal gives Barry Allen as to why he doesn’t want to involve the rest of the Justice League in this. “It’s too dangerous for you! I can do this faster by working with individuals I barely trust!” He doesn’t say those exact words, but they’re pretty close.
To be fair, something does happen to Barry that kinda justifies Hal’s fears, but it’s also something that we’ve seen a few times before. Diminishing returns have clearly set in on this particular “possession” trick. There’s also the matter of the final twist involving the individual behind the collection of the entities. Unless you’re well-versed in the “Green Lantern” mythos, it’ll fly right over your head. However, the infodump that comes in the final chapter does a decent enough job to explain why he’s a threat and set the stage for “War of the Green Lanterns.”
I’ll be reading that as this volume’s whole purpose was to get things into place for it. I can’t say I’m particularly excited about it as for everything that worked here, there was something that didn’t. Overall, “Brightest Day” trades on the goodwill I have for writer Geoff John’s work on “Green Lantern.” He has a large store of it, but let’s hope that this doesn’t become a regular thing. It’s not bottomless, you know.