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Saturday, July 10, 2010

Brightest Day #5 - Sept. 2010

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Comics Weekend "Under Pressure" by Geoff Johns, Peter J. Tomasi, Ivan Reis, Ardian Syaf, and more.

Despite the cover, this issue of Brightest Day opens up the way all us Aqua-Fans would like, so I'm going to get out of the way and let the sequence play out:
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We cut to Georgetown, where Boston Brand is convinced by Hawk to try and bring his brother Don (aka the original Dove) back from the dead. There's no way this can go wrong!

Meanwhile, we catch up with Aquaman and Mera, in a pitched battle with their attackers, one that Mera is desperate to end, quickly:
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We then find Hawkman and Hawkgirl in the weird alt-dimension they've traveled into. Something is very, very wrong--we see that they are slowly dying inside.

As if that wasn't enough, they are attacked by a pack of animal/human hybrids, only to be rescued(?) by a similarly-scary looking group of real hawk men. One of them grabs Shiera and takes off!

Back under water, Mera finally slows down enough for her husband to ask what all this is about:
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Needless to say, to be continued!


After last issue being completely devoid of Aqua-Action, its of course great to see Aquaman and Mera get so much to do this time (bonus points to Johns and/or Tomasi, for having Arthur and Mera come to the rescue of am exploding oil rig--considering how far in advance comics need to be produced, I'm assuming this was just a sadly timely coincidence).

I love Mera creating the giant, super-scary hard-water sharks, and Aquaman's general air of confidence--"They don't like us shutting them down, they can take it up with me." ("Um, Judge Feldman? There's someone named 'Aquaman' here to see you...").

The big cliffhanger is of course a bit of a concern, but there's still a ways to go...

10 comments:

Tegan said...

Y'know, that might explain that whole scene with Wonder Woman in the Blackest Night... Mera's rage. Interesting stuff. I'm not sure I'm happy with it, but certainly interesting.

David J. Cutler said...

I kind of love it? I kind of love it. I find it boring when the big romance of a TV show (or comic) gets so resolved when the characters get together. I like them destined to be together but various wrenches keep getting thrown at them. This feels like a great wrench to me, and something that sort of (SORT OF) explains how big a vengeful witch she seemed to be in PAD's Aquaman run or after Arthur Jr. died. If she secretly betrayed her people to be with Aquaman and then it all went so poorly her freak outs are a little more justified in my brain.

Also, what great villains Mera's people make. Great stuff.

IADW said...

I fall on the 'love it' side at the moment too.

It just seams to add a bit more depth to their relationship and it's just refreshing that we can still be surprised by characters that have been around as long as Mera.

As for Mera's people looks like Aquaman will finish Brightest Day with a hot new rouges gallery too!

Josh Hill said...

LOVED this issue. I think the twist with Mera is great. I prefer this to be the dark secret as oppposed to the rumored "new Aqualad is the son of Black Manta and Mera".

Randy said...

Makes mores sense to me this way. Kinda like she betrayed her people to be with the man she fell in love with and nothing seemed to go right with it. Til now.

In life, there's rarely a 'Happily ever after.'

Wings1295 said...

Not sure I care for this twist, either, but hey, it's story, right?

Love the final page of Mera. Awesome.

rob! said...

Tegan--I bet you're right.

David--I agree, I think this is a fun, very old school comic book-y plot hook.

Dan--Yeah, any time we can get a solid new addition to Aquaman's Rogues Gallery, that's a net +.

Josh--I like the idea of Aqualad being the son of Manta, but not by Mera. I really would've hated that. Plus...ick.

Randy--Jeez, kinda dark for a Saturday morning!

Joe--Like I said above, I think its a good hook. Clearly Mera loves Aquaman, so the whole "turning against my programming" thing can work if executed well. As long as Arthur and Mera are happily together by BD, that's all I care about! DO YOU HEAR ME, DC?

wich2 said...

Enjoy, folks...

For my part, I'm getting tired of the overdone Rage and Destruction, with characters who look like they're constipated most of the time.

(Gee, it must be a bitch to be a superhero!)

-Craig

Joe Slab said...

Loved the issue even though if like Tegan I'm not sure I like specific developments...

One line felt very out of place for me: Mera thinks her life with Arthur up until now has been a fairy tale ?!?

Also, if Siren is either Hila or V'lana, wouldn't Arthur have recognized her?

Anonymous said...

So it's a case of the 'ol "sent to kill said person, but ended up falling in love". This would also explain why in Blackest Night Mera told BL Aquaman that she "never wanted children".