May 2010 ~ The Blog of OA

5/31/10

Official GL Movie Synopsis Released

5/31/2010

Comic Book Movie has once again come up with an exclusive on the Green Lantern movie, this time releasing the official plot synopsis for the film. The overview does change some reflect some of the updating done on the script.

Notable is the mention of Parallax as the main villain rather than Legion as it appeared in the first draft. While it is a change in name, the description of Legion in that first draft seemed very much like an amalgam of both characters. This seems to reflect Geoff Johns input and while it may at first seem like a bad thing, it's not hard to realize that Legion hasn't been seen since Emerald Dawn and using Parallax would certainly be more contemporary.

The synopsis came from a contact that Allied Integrated Marketing, a firm that handles publicity and promotions for many movie studios including Warner Brothers. AIM confirmed to Comic Book Movie.com that the release was legitimate. The release also cements the casting information for Taika Waitit as Tom Kalmaku that was rumored months ago.

Here's the release in its entirety from Comic Book Movie.com:

5/31/2010

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I don't think I've actually every won anything that didn't come by chance unless you count some awards I won when I was a part of the Star Trek fan community. But those came from people you know, not strangers. It's always nice to get recognized for your efforts, especially in the case of this blog since there really isn't much interactivity and I can only really trust Google Analytics to tell me if anyone is reading my rantings.

In fact I've viewed this site as a one-year experiment of sorts and then I'll evaluate whether this is worth the effort to keep going. I'm sure at this point I will since it is an outlet for me to express my love of the Green Lantern mythos in a world where I don't have that real-world interaction.

Needless to say I was very surprised today when I noticed that Martin Gray, a fellow blogger and poster on the Raging Bullets podcast website, posted a message in one of my articles stating that he had nominated me for a Kreativ Blogger Award (nominating is the same as winning). The award could be looked at as blogger chainmail since you forward it on to seven more sites, but I look at it more as another way to promote blogs to garner them a bigger audience and yet another way to network together. Blogging can be hard work, especially if it's a one person job and, like mine, tends to be graphic intensive, so any way to attract people to your site is welcomed.

5/31/2010

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Guy's ominous words

Tony Bedard kicks off his tenure as the writer of Green Lantern Corps, joined by Ardian Syaf's pencils and Vicente Cifuentes. This new team has a lot of live up to considering how great Peter Tomasi and Patrick Gleason were during their run.

The Story -

The issue starts of with an extended version of the conversation we first witnessed in Green Lantern #53 between Ganthet, Guy Gardner and Atrocitus. We do learn that the threat represented by the mysterious figure that appeared in that issue of Green Lantern is enough to get these three to conspire together in a plan that if, as Guy Gardner puts it, "we go through with this, Jordan and I are done bein' friends. For good." Of course Guy makes this comment after four minutes of missing conversation. The missing four minutes must include the knowledge of the missing entities as we see Atrocitus mention them is this week's Green Lantern #54.

5/31/2010

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The second issue of Green Lantern released this May hit the stands as more of our mysterious diminutive figure's plot is revealed, Atrocitus and Dex-Starr find kindred spirits in the subways of New York City and the White Lantern gives Hal Jordan a new mission.

The Story

Hello Kitty!

Under the streets of New York City live goes on unaware that New York has gain two new unusual citizens. Amidst the violence caused by a band of thugs on a subway car, Dex-Starr and Atrocitus make a notable entrance, vomiting red rage and destruction on the thugs. The two find New York home due to the rage they sense the city is full of due to the actions of people like these gang members.

Jump to New Mexico where Hal, Carol and Sinestro continue to discuss the White Lantern, the conversation overlapping with the events of Brightest Day #1. As shown there, none of the three New Guardians are capable of lifting the power battery, with the not-too-surprising allusion to King Arthur and the Sword in the Stone. However the dialogue continues passed those shown in Brightest Day and when all three New Guardians attempt to lift the battery in unison, the battery reveals images of the Resurrected 12, exclaiming "Help Me Live!"

5/31/2010

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Back in March there were rumors of a Green Lantern CG animated television series being put together by Bruce Timm to play off of the live action film. This week Phil Kent, no relation to Clark, showed a slide during an Time Warner's investors meeting featuring some of the Cartoon Network's original programming that included the title "Green Lantern: The Animated Series".

Ryan Reynolds in the GL uniform....sorta!

5/13/2010

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MTV's Splashpage released a behind the scenes picture today of Ryan Reynolds wearing his Green Lantern costume....kind of. We knew a while back that Green Lantern's uniform would be done with CGI and the picture that MTV provided confirms all that.

While the picture reveals nothing, it is cool to see Reynolds as Hal with the aviator style sunglasses on. The dots painted on his neck hints that the uniform will rise up his neck to that poing. Also, it's interesting that he doesn't have the ring on in this picture either to keep it under wraps from prying photographers or they took it off for a break in filming and this is Reynolds either leaving the set or on his way back.

Wow...this doesn't look anything like the comics! : > Photo via MTV.

Hector Hammond Revealed and More GL Movie News

5/10/2010

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There's been a flurry of behind the scenes leaks and reports coming out of New Orleans and the filming of the upcoming Green Lantern film over the past couple of weeks. Here's a recounting of all the major news with links back to sources where I have them.

Today a British website leaked a behind the scenes shot snapped of Peter Sarsgaard in Hector Hammond makeup, and boy does he look creepy..er, great! I don't think Sarsgaard is in costume yet, so I'm guessing he's making his way from the makeup trailer to costuming.

I've done some photoshop work to show a blowup of Hector's head and it looks like he does indeed have a mustache although it is a little hard to see. There's also no telling if this is the final evolution of Hammond or merely a stage in the growth of his head.

Another Tongue, a voice over agency that Mark Strong uses, reported that Strong has taken a break from his John Carter project to fly to New Orleans for makeup testing. According to ComicBookMovie Stong's Sinestro will sport special contact lenses and a mustache. Sinestro will maintain a British accent since it "suits his character" and his costume, like Hal's, will be CGI.

ComicbookMovie.com's photo with areas highlighted

ComicBookMovie also got a major scoop with pictures of Martin Jordan's jet of doom. The plane is an experimental one of course and it's the destruction of the jet and the elder Jordan's death that so clearly defines Hal Jordan's character.

The picture at right is a composite of several photos that the site posted - I've just taken detail from the closeups and overlayed them here to keep the number of photos down to a minimum.

Photo via ComicBookMovie.com

The jet was taken out of this hangar and used for some filming of some exterior shots. Continuing their awesome string of exclusive reports from New Orleans, ComicBookMovie also posted that the Lakefront Airport was being used as Ferris Aircraft. A new front was built over the airports terminal to give Ferris it's own unique look.

Geoff Johns has said that he's seen footage from the Abin Sur death scene and that it looks incredible. The rumors are circulating with an ever increasing sense of reliability that we will be seeing a teaser for the movie at Comic Con this summer and that this particular footage will be used for the teaser. Whether this is a full-on teaser trailer or just footage they are going to show is unknown at this point, but hopefully it will be confirmed before July gets here.

Ferris air image via ComicBookMovie.com

Next summer's film calendar looks to be a very crowded one at this point, with some more films announced that will be competing with the Green Lantern film for box office receipts. In addition to Thor, Captain America, and Xmen: First Class as direct superhero film competition, the top secret "Super 8" project by partners J.J. Abrams and Steven Speilberg will released next summer, as will the next Transformers film. Now sprinkle the next Pirate of the Caribbean, the last Harry Potter film and a Kung Fu Panda sequel and you get an idea of kind of crazy film calendar there will be next summer. The winners and losers are sure to be separated by the jobs that each studio's marketing department does for sure.

Comments by Chris Nolan have lead to the notion that there is indeed a unified DC Universe in the making with both of Nolan's Batman's films being the first two links in a chain. Green Lantern would be the third link in the chain according to IESB, with there being some talk of making reference to Gotham City in the film. There was at one time a rumor of having the ring fly through Smallville in its hunt for Hal Jordan which would further strengthen that notion. Warners is apparently at work on a new Superman film for 2012 with could, along with Batman and Green Lantern help set the stage for a Justice League project which could then be used to spring out Wonder Woman and the Flash as solo film projects. Geoff Johns also made a tantalizing comment at a recent convention when asked about such a JL film, replying, "ask me again in San Diego", again hinting that big things are afoot behind the scenes at DC Entertainment.

5/10/2010

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When the Absolute Green Lantern: Rebirth was announced months ago there was some trepidation that a book like this wasn't warranted since there weren't nearly as many pages of story to justify the Absolute treatment. And some fans, perhaps rightly so, feel that enough time simply hasn't passed yet to determine if it stands the test of time and made it a story worthy an Absolute edition.

However, if you look at what Green Lantern: Rebirth has done for the entire Green Lantern mythos and the impact it has had on the greater DC Universe at large since it was printed in 2005, there's enough there to see why Rebirth got the Absolute treatment. At a price tag lower than the other Absolute editions, is it worth picking up?

The Story

The slip-cased edition's back cover

I'm not going to recount the story for you in detail, but if you haven't read Green Lantern: Rebirth and are on this site then leave, go pick it up and read it because it truly is required reading for any self respecting fan at this stage of the game. Ultra superfast version: Hal comes back and the true nature of what happened during Emerald Twilight is revealed as a plot between Sinestro and Parallax, the entity of fear. Oh, and Hal one punches Batman.

DC added the first issue of the new ongoing title to the Absolute edition as well as a Darwyn Cooke tale from the Secret Files that came out after Rebirth. Also included are the preview story pages that appeared in Wizard Magazine. So the added pages, plus the supplemental material, make the book a bit thicker than you'd initially expect it to be, hence the lower price tag. The retail on this edition is $75, although you can certainly find it much cheaper at a number of online retailers.

The Presentation

The first thing I have to say is that the presentation is breathtaking. The artwork on the slipcover, the dust jacket and the actual cover to the book are all unique - no duplication at all - and the colors just pop. It appears that there's some silk screen or vinyl on the cover that further adds dimension to Ethan Van Sciver's art. There's a sewn in green bookmark as well.

Green Lantern: Rebirth is perhaps the defining moment in Ethan Van Sciver's career, catapulting him the forefront of today's comic artists. And, simply put, this Absolute edition is a showcase of Van Sciver's talent and the larger format really allows us to appreciate all the hard work that Ethan put into this miniseries.

The Supplemental Material

The cover to Rebirth's third issue.

What makes the Absolute line stand out to me beyond just giving us a larger slip-cased edition are all the extras that supplement the actual story. There's a lot of extra goodies to peruse once you finish reliving the resurrection of perhaps the greatest cosmic mythology in comics history.

Right off the bat is the original proposal that Geoff Johns pitched to DC dated January 21st, 2004. There's not much new to be learned from the proposal, but it's interesting to see how Geoff tackled any potential hesitation on DC's part by addressing a number of questions about the story and how things were going to work with his rationale for a number of the writing choices he made.

There's also a breakdown of all the issues as Geoff saw them at this point. What's interesting here is to see some elements that were changed or removed all together as the story evolved. Most intriguing to me was how Johns originally planned to have Parallax take over Batman and Hal overcoming a second attempt by the entity to possess him. The script for the first issue is included as well, showing us some of the direction that Johns was feeding Ethan Van Sciver and is a script for a flashback scene between Tomar-Re, Sinestro and Hal that was cut from the fifth issue.

Amongst the bonus artwork are some of the ads and promotional materials for Rebirth and prototype sketches from Van Sciver for a Hal Green Lantern action figure, complete with a 3D symbol logo that could be put in his chest. Unfortunately for us it wasn't used in that first wave of Green Lantern DC Direct figures that came out shortly after the relaunch of the Green Lantern title since it's far superior to the one we did get.

I have, however, really disappointed in the lack of a cover gallery showing all the different covers used in Rebirth like we recently saw in the Blackest Night Directors' Cut. There's also nothing in the way a retrospective from Geoff Johns about the evolution of the story and all that we've seen since 2005.

The most glaring omission to me is the lack of a commentary or footnotes section like the wonderful included in the Absolute Edition of DC: The New Frontier. I really felt that, especially with the recent conclusion of Blackest Night, a look at some of the symbolism and connective tissue that ties these two stories was certainly in order.

In the very least I expected to at least see the Wizard commentary included that talked about some really cool things like some of the symbolism that Van Sciver and Moose Baumann added. For example, when we first see Carol Ferris in Rebirth she's wearing a scarf that Baumann colored yellow to symbolize that, at this point in the story, she's untouchable with yellow representing her separation from Hal. The inclusion of that kind of information to me was absolutely essential to this volume to make it a "must have" - and even more so had it been updated to show some of the seeds that Geoff was planting for the future. Fortunately for me I printed out those comments from Wizard's website for myself, but it's an incredible shame not to see them included.

What do I Think

The book looks gorgeous and Rebirth is one of those stories that will be shown to have left an indelible mark on the history of the Green Lantern characters. If it weren't for the missing commentary and cover gallery the Absolute edition would be damn near perfect. Even so, this book is the way to read Rebirth and I'd certainly recommend it to anyone, but shop around and get a good price for it.

Four out of five lanterns.

Brightest Day 1 Review

5/07/2010

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Brightest Day #0 really did a great job of whetting our appetites for this new series spinning out of Blackest Night. The first issue was released this week and the mystery behind the return of the "Resurrected Dozen" deepened with each new element that Geoff Johns and Pete Tomassi revealed throughout this initial issue.

The Story

The battle of wills continues

Back in Silver City, New Mexico where the White Lantern battery appeared, local law enforcement struggle to pick up the battery as Hal Jordan, Carol Ferris and Sinestro arrive on the scene. Hal intervenes in a brief struggle between the police and Sinestro before Sinestro reveals that the white entity that disappeared at the end of Blackest Night #8 evolved into the white lantern.

It's revealed that no one can lift the battery and Carol makes allusions to the Sword in the Stone and the three are left to wonder who the lantern's King Arthur is.

Not surprisingly on that note do we jump to Boston Brand, who continues to ponder why he has returned, why he's the only one with a white ring, and why that ring keeps moving him around. The ring has deposited him on a boat run by a child slavery ring, but the ring continues to only allow Boston to witness events without being seen. Before the child peddling scum can harm a little girl both Mera and Aquaman arrive to thwart them.

Aquaman's strange continued link to his days as a Black Lantern come back to haunt everyone as the sea creatures he summons to deal with the slavers are carcasses of dead sea life, and they don't respond to Arthur Curry's commands so much and blatantly kill the bad guys. Both Mera and Aquaman watch in shock and we are left to ponder along with Boston Brand just what is wrong with the king of the seven seas.

News reports of these events reach Wesport, Massachusetts where we witness a fish monger's seemingly over the top reaction to the news of the return of Aquaman as he kills everyone in his shop upon hearing the news. Jump to Pittsburgh University where Professor Stein and Ray Palmer try to help Ronnie Raymond and Jason Rusch come to terms with their new status quo. The two seem to be unable to separate and their two page appearance comes to a quick close as Ray Palmer is about to tell them some bad news.

Meanwhile on Mars, J'onn J'onzz is discovering new life when he gets flashes of a different version of his initial arrival on Earth, one where he is choking Professor Erdel. The psychic flash also altered his appearance where Black Lantern elements shine through. J'onn departs Mars looking for a woman who appeared in the vision.

The Hawks, drawn by the Star Sapphire crystal to their corpse in the Andes mountains, confront the mysterious team trying to lay claim to the bodies of Kafu and Chay-ara. Carter and Shiera Hall fail to reclaim the skeletons and we learn that none other than Hath-Set is behind the scenes and now in full possession of the remains. The issue closes with the murderous fish monger leaving behind the burning remains of his store as he walks into the ocean to reveal his true identity...Black Manta.

The Art

As he did during Blackest Night, Ivan Reis continues to show why he's one of the best talents out there right now. I'm sure he's a bit relieved to be doing a book with fewer characters! Plainly, this book is gorgeous.

The Writing

If anything I have to say that I felt this issue was a little unbalanced. Some elements, like the opening scene, Aquaman and Mera's confrontation with the slavers, Black Manta's scenes, and the sequence with the Hawks were very intriguing and drew me in. The others, though, didn't failed to captivate me. I think that's just due to the amount of time spent on them and I hope that as the issues progress we'll see the spotlight widen for those characters as their arcs, and those of the characters not shown in this first issue, become more important to the overall story.

What I think

Brightest Day is off to a great start despite being a little uneven in the first issue. There is, after all, a lot of ground to cover and we can only expect so much time devoted to each subplot as all the elements begin to be established. This will be a tricky balancing act, but one that I'm positive Johns and Tomassi will have mastered in the weeks to come.

Four out of five lanterns.

Blackest Night Director's Cut Review

5/05/2010

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I love reading the behind the scenes stuff on how stories are created and what thoughts were going through a creative team's mind when they put together a great story. DC Comics released a Director's Cut for Blackest Night that does just that, giving us a backstage pass to see how this event has come to be one of the best events in DC history.

Your Blackest Night backstage pass

The meat of the issue is the commentary from Geoff Johns, Alex Sinclair, Ivan Reis, Adam Schlagman, Nick Napolitano, Eddie Berganza, Joe Prado, and Oclair Albert. This is really fun as you can also picture yourself as a fly in the room as they go through all eight issues, joking with each other and talking about some of the creative decisions they made as Blackest Night got more and more fleshed out. You also really get a sense of what a team effort creating comics can be when each member of the team adds little touches here and there that really add dimension and drama to a story as epic as this one was.

Following the commentary is an eight page cover gallery including all the covers and variants that were printed, including all the miniseries and tie-ins. Scattered amongst the images are memorable quotes from the story, punctuating all the fantastic artwork represented here. Someday there needs to be a poster for Blackest Night that iconically represents this story, much like there was for the original Crisis on Infinite Earths.

Next up is the actual script for the first issue, and that's really interested because you see what artistic direction Geoff gives the rest of the team. Following that are couple of cut scenes from the event, one featuring the Rainbow Raiders, one with Ragman, and a cover image of Black Lantern Kilowog stomped on Hal Jordan's chest. It's not hard to understand why those scenes were cut due to the shear scope of this event it would have been easy to over-pack it. Both these scenes seem like logical cuts, but it would be cool to see them added fully finished into any Absolute Edition that might show up down the road.

There's a behind the scenes glimpse into the creation of the new Hal figure coming out is one the remaining waves of Blackest Night action figures and then the issue concludes with a whole lot of pages featuring all the cool character designs created for the event.

If you loved Blackest Night this book is a must for only $6. My only criticism is that the book should have had a hard stock cover for an issue of this size. Five lanterns.

5/05/2010

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Like Green Lantern 53, this week's Green Lantern Corps 47 is an epilogue to Blackest Night. However this issue also marks the departure of Peter Tomasi and Pat Gleason from the title as Tomasi heads over to helm Green Lantern Emerald Warriors and Gleason tackles Brightest Day.

The Story -

Light it up!

Oa was hit hard by the assault of the Black Lantern Corps, with the Central Power Battery left ripped from its moorings and hundreds of rings left without bearers. So the issue starts notably with the remains of the Corps lighting up the main battery.

Guy and Kyle spend some panels recounting all they've been through during the event, Guy is either hiding from Kyle the mission he's undertaking with Ganthet and Atrocitus as we saw in the closing moments of Green Lantern 53, or it could simply be a case of these events transpiring before that issue.

There's a great scene where a memorial tree is erected on Mogo to honor the fallen members of the Corps, with each dead lantern represented as a face on one of the leaves. Since the remains of all the dead lanterns remain in Mogo's core it was decided that the tree would replace the crypts on OA.

There are signs of the growing distrust of the Guardians by the Corps, with the little blue smurfs not even showing up to the ceremony to honor the dead who perished serving the will of the Guardians. I think that this is only one rift that's begun to widen between the Corps and their diminutive leaders, one that will take the whole mythos in some exciting directions.

Salaak also directs Mogo to release all the Green Lantern rings that need new masters, so Tony Bedard will have a chance to create some of his own unique characters to add to the Green Lantern universe in the months to come.

Soranik Natu and Kyle Rayner reconnect at the site of Kyle's mural, with Natu motivating Kyle to start it over again as a way to instill morale in the Corps in the face of all they've lost during the recent events. Knowing that Kilowog will be starring in the Emerald Warriors title it's not surprise to see him turn down his post as the drill instructor. What's surprising is the selection of Stel as his replacement.

The uneasy alliance crumbles

Vath and Isamot Kol are two of the more interesting characters created for this title and in his goodbye to these characters Peter Tomasi once again plays off of the cultural rift between Rann and Thanagar. Vath lost his legs during Blackest Night and Kol donated his own legs to Vath since he might regrow them. Kol did what he thought anyone would do to help their dearest comrade, however Vath is still blinded by the racial hatred that Rann has and only thinks of how he would look to his fellow Rannians. Despite how much both men have grown to support each other, some hatred and fear still exists.

Kol's anger rises at the ungratefulness for his sacrifice and Vath is about to loose his new legs when they are made to realize the foolishness of their actions. The two reconcile and another chapter of their journey is left for Tony Bedard to write.

Guys, Arisia and Kyle kick the door down to the Guardians' chamber, demanding that they be allowed to meet despite the efforts of the Guardians to brush them off. Arisia actually clocks one of them in the face in a great "oh yeah!" moment reminiscent of some of the confrontations that Hal has had with them in the past.

Guy rightfully calls the Guardians out for blaming a lack of knowledge of some events on Scar's actions, reminding them that more important than that is the realization that the Guardians' actions have done much to undermine the Corps itself, and that those actions, like the Third Law, will prevent good candidates from joining the Corps.

Guys throws the failure of the Manhunters and the Alpha Lanterns in the Guardian's faces and Kyle reminds them that is wasn't a lack of emotion that took out Nekron, but beings with heart. Kyle tells the Guardians that they have to earn the trust of Corps again if they are to ever get back on track.

All this prompts Salaak to speak up against the Guardians for the first time, reminding them they he is not a puppet that will mindlessly follow their every command. He is putting himself in the role of the Guardian's conscience and plans to question some of their policies when he feels they are not in the best interest of the Corps.

Guy is distraught seeing what's left of Warriors and both he and Kyle talk about how the bar is needed, like the mural, to provide a place for the betterment of the well being of the Corps. As they are talking a message comes through from the Guardians that they have repealed the Third Law, and the two clink beer bottles toasting the future. The issue draws to an end, but there is a great two page spread promoting Emerald Warriors that shows some pretty intense scenes.

The Writing -
As much as Geoff Johns is credited for the revitalization of the Green Lantern mythos, I've long thought that Peter Tomasi was really the driving force for Green Lantern: Rebirth when he was an editor. The Green Lantern Corps can be difficult to write, managing a large cast and stories that have to have cosmic significance. Throughout this run Tomasi has done both these things very well, and while it's a shame to see him leave this book, he's going to rock Emerald Warriors hard.

The Art -
Pat Gleason's work is top notch, as usual. He captures all the right emotions from the anger Arisia feels for the Guardians to the solemn look on the Corps' faces during the dedication of the memorial tree. His art will be missed in the Green Lantern books.

What Do I Think?

This book has what you need after an exhausting event like Blackest Night - an epilogue that lets you know where everyone stands and sets the stage for what's about to come. Five lanterns.

Green Lantern 53 Review

5/03/2010

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How do you follow up an epic story like Blackest Night in the main Green Lantern title? With a big dose of creepy and laying the groundwork for even more great stories, that's how! And Green Lantern #53 does just that as Geoff Johns shows us that he's got a lot lot of awesomeness planned for the next several years.

5/03/2010

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All in all Blackest Night was one of the best, if not the best, events that DC has ever pulled off. The zero issue of Brightest Day picks up just after Blackest Night ends and like a lot of people I am really looking for to seeing what's going to happen with the "Resurrected Dozen".

The Story

The issue starts out with Deadman, or Aliveman as he's been referred to by many people, at his grave site, where a baby bird has just fallen and died after hitting his grave marker. "Carpe Diem" is front and center in a nice touch of connecting this issue with Blackest Night #8, but we find that Boston Brand isn't exactly happy that he's back among the living.

Boston Brand's always been an interesting character and I'm not sure how much has been revealed about his life before Deadman, so I'm intrigued with what we'll learn about him in this title. My hunch is that he'll be dead again by issue 26, but time will tell. Nevertheless, it's been years since Brand felt pain or hunger, so the sudden return of those pangs and the realization that there is no one among the living for him to return to are really hitting home for him. He takes his frustration out on his grave marker, shattering hit before seeing the fallen bird on the ground. It's only then that the only White Power Ring in existence and residing on Brand's left hand comes to life.

Everyone wondered how long "Dead means dead" would last, and it's not long as Brand's ring, perhaps fueled by his regret that the baby bird is dead, resurrects it. Yeah, I know, that's not exactly the kind of return from the dead that they meant, but I think this is the first of other returns that we'll see as time progresses in this story.

Well, that didn't last long!

While it's a little thing, it does give us some idea of what the power of this ring is and just why it may be the most sought after power ring. The power to return life, or possibly to even create life, is one that I think we'll see people fighting over throughout Brightest Day, and I suspect that we may find that there is a price to be paid for being resurrected. That being said, Brand disappears in a white light, called to help someone who may be the white entity that went missing after the dust settled in Blackest Night.

Brand appears at Amnesty Bay, where Mera and Aquaman have been celebrating the return of Arthur Curry. But Aquaman is rather pensive, wondering why he was chosen to return when others hadn't. In a moment of foreshadowing we see Curry's reflection in the ocean is that of Black Lantern Aquaman and he tells Mera that he has a bad feeling about this return to the land of the living.

In a white flash Deadman leaves the Atlanteans behind as he is taken by the ring to Eobard Thrawne's cell at Iron Heights Penitentiary just as Barry Allen whizzes in to check in on a much thinner and possibly younger Digger Harkness. Captain Boomerang has also been doing some thinking about the nature of his return, and he expresses to the Flash that he doesn't plan on staying in prison haunted by the reason why he is back.

Again Brand pops out and reappears at the Stonechat Museum where Carter and Shiera Hall are also getting busy after reminiscing about their past lives, and in fact Carter sees the ghosts of those past lives as he as Shiera are embracing. A crystal shard from the Star Sapphires that was given to Shiera attaches itself to the Claw of Horus. Simultaneously we see explorers in the Andes mountains unearthing the remains of Khufu and Chay-ara. The hawks take flight and head South, presumably to the Andes and their first bodies.

Maxwell Lord is preparing to do some extreme mental manipulation and trying to anticipate the major nosebleed it will cause as Boston Brand appears. Lord will either be successful as wiping the memories of his crimes from minds of the DC heroes, or he'll be Public Enemy number one. Moments later Deadman appears on Mars where Guy Gardner and Hal Jordan have made a visit to J'onn J'onzz, completely with a large box of Choco cookies and milk. J'onn reveals that he plans to nurture his home planet back to life and that water has appeared deep underground.

Again Brand disappears and shows up as Jade is on Oa undergoing some tests overseen by Soranik Natu, and the writing is on the wall for the inevitable catfight that these two will have over Kyle Rayner. Speaking of Kyle, he shows up and allays Jade's concerns over her actions as a Black Lantern. As Kyle and Natu leave Jade a White Lantern symbol appears.

In New York City Jason Rusch and Ronnie Raymond struggle to deal with Black Lantern Firestorm's murder of Jason's girlfriend. Ronnie has no memory of the events of Blackest Night but knowing the effects it has has on Jason and Jason's control of the Firestorm matrix has left him out of sorts and unsure of how to deal with Jason. Deadman appears here, too, to witness the two merge into Firestorm before popping out and appearing in Kahndaq, where Osiris is being hailed for his return and pledging to restore not only his nation, but Black Adam and Isis as well.

Next Deadman appears in Arlington, Virginia, where Hawk and Dove are beating down some bad guys, and Hawk is making up for lost time by really taking it to them. Hawk is really getting aggressive in fighting crime, promising to take a number of "preemptive strikes". Jump to Star City where Deadman laments the loss of life caused by Prometheus during the "Justice League: Cry for Justice" miniseries. Once again Brand hears a cry for help with the added request that he help the rest of the "Resurrected Dozen".

Brand's White Lantern ring suddenly stars up and a giant star shaped forest burst forth from the ruins of Star City. Boston questions the ring, asking what it wants and why were they brought back, but the only reply he gets is "help me live". In the issue's epilogue, the White Lantern Power Battery that appears at the end of Blackest Night #8 lies in a crater in New Mexico, denying anyone who tries to touch it. The issue closes with Sinestro arriving on the scene, ready to reclaim the power he held for so short a time.

The Art

Fernando Pasarin does a great job with this issue, capturing the subtleties of the facial expressions of each of the cast members and really setting the tone for this title. However my greatest pet peeve crops us in this issue - Hal and Guy Gardner's boots are green, not white. Kyle and Soranik Natu's boots were correct - can we please get some consistency?

The Writing

It's Geoff Johns and Peter Tomasi - so you can't go wrong with these two guys who've redefined the Green Lantern mythos for today's comic audience. Brightest Day #0 moves at a good pace, using Boston Brand to hop between all the resurrected characters in somewhat of a predictable manner and serving as a primer for the epic story that's about to unfold over the next half year.

So What do I Think?

Brightest Day #0 does a good job of priming us for the next 26 issues, giving us glimpses of all the main characters we'll see throughout the series while foreshadowing some of the plot and sprinkling bits of information about the events to unfold. With Johns and Tomasi working on this story jointly, I have high hopes for Brightest Day and I'm really looking forward to what's to come.

If you're not sure if you want to commit to this bi-weekly series, this issue could be the determining factor for you.

Four out of five lanterns.