Off The Shelf Reviews: Brightest Day #24
If you've been listening to the podcast for any length of time, you've heard me talk about Brightest Day. This biweekly series has been going on for the past year and wraps up this week with issue #24. So, was the whole journey worth it? Read on to find out.
The first thing I noticed about this issue was the price: $4.99?!? For a company thats been yelling "Holding the line at $2.99", it really surprised me given the fact that unlike Action Comics #900, this issue wasn't *that* much bigger than it normally was. To me, it seemed like DC knew that tons of people would be buying this considering it was the last issue and decided to get as much money as they thought they could.
Money aside, how was the issue? Brightest Day has been very up and down over the course of the past year. For the most part, the series was pretty great aside from a few issues that felt like "filler issues". And issue #23 was very confusing to me and made me realize that I no longer had any idea how it was going to end, so I went into the issue not knowing what to expect. Overall, this issue was great! There was plenty of action, the twists that confused me in the last issue were (somewhat) explained, along with all the loose ends that have been dangling since the beginning of this series. We finally realize what role each and every person that was brought back had to play.
The ending, however, completely threw me for a loop (which all good comics should). I completely expected this to be one of those stories where it ends with a simple happy ending and everyone going about their separate ways. No way. I'm not going to reveal much more due to spoilers, but a couple of characters get the major shaft, and it made me really feel sorry for those characters. That to me says a lot about this issue: it made me feel sorry for people that do not actually exist. I have to hand it to Geoff Johns, he really knows how to write, specifically he is really gifted at making second tier heroes really shine and come into the spotlight.
As I've been wondering throughout this series, the story isn't completely wrapped up in this issue. The series goes on to "Brightest Day Aftermath: The Search", and the last few pages of this will show you what you can expect from this series. In addition, the series gives additional loose ends for various characters that may be explored in other issues as we move into the summer. Oh, and a piece of advice: if you are like me and do not recognize the character on the last page, do a google search on Brightest Day #24 spoilers. Apparently this was a very big deal, except that I really didn't get it until later when an article I read explained it to me.
CONCLUSION: Wait for the Trade. If you've been buying all the single issues up to now, you're going to want to pick this up. However, if you've been on the fence this whole year about whether or not it was worth jumping in, I think you should wait for the trade(s). This is a pretty awesome story, and I think reading it all in one sitting will make it that much more epic.
Am I right? Or am I just completely insane? Let me know in the comments, or email them to ocdcast@gmail.com and I'll read them on the next OCD podcast!