Brightest Day Swims Close to the Horizon…
Face it DC Fans, the last couple months have been nothing if not bleak.
Heck, even before the Blackest Night was animating corpses and murdering heroes left and right, several crises left beloved wives raped and murdered, martians punctured and burned to Choco-dust , and the original Batman shot by a time bullet trapped in time! But, thanks to DC’s May solicits out this month, it seems after the Blackest Night will come the Brightest Day! And leading the pack of solicits came quite the image (we decided to be nice and put it right over there for your viewing pleasure). For the cover of DC’s Brightest Day #1, its new bi-monthly book, it would seem after being all ‘deadite’ like… Arthur aka Aquaman aka King of the Seven Seas aka The Only JLA Member Able To Pull Off Wearing Orange is back in the land of the living!
But for how long? If we look at Artie’s long career, well, it may not bode so well. Not that he’s played the whole “I’m dead!” / “Now I’m alive!” card like some others (we’re looking at you, Ollie, Diana, Kal-El, Hal Jordan, Kyle Rayner, Jason Todd, and Donna Troy…) he has had his fair share of just-plain-ick moments. For a complete run down, we recommend you check out this great article from NPR. For those who are click-impaired, or just want to gist though, allow us to simplify: Every time Arthur takes one step forward (growing a manly beard and installing a hook for a hand, a’thank’yew…) it doesn’t take long for him to drown two steps back (water hand? octopus head?). And with our preview cover tease depicting Aquaman perhaps have to face his recent stint as a Black Lantern, and a wife who may stay a blood-burping bride of Atrocitus, just how will Aquaman rebuild his life in the post Blackest Night DCU?
In addition to that teaser cover for Brightest Day #1, DC also let loose solicits spinning out of events to come. Over in the Oan space of the DCU, we now have a trio of books. Geoff Johns and Doug Mahnke stay put on Green Lantern. Green Lantern Corps will now be headed up by R.E.B.E.L.S. scribe Tony Bedard and Ardian Syaf take hold of the reigns. And Peter Tomasi fans worry not, as he and Fernando Pasarin will be moving to a new book, Green Lantern: Emerald Warriors, starring everyone’s favorite hot headed former bar owner, Guy Gardner. Also spinning out of the Blackest Night after party will be a new book founded on some old favorites. Judd Winick joins Keith Giffen to scribe Justice League: Generation Lost. The book catches up with Booster Gold, Captain Atom, Fire, and Ice, as they take on the mystery of who’s taking out their former JLA colleagues. My money in on Dan DiDio, as seen last as the villain of the chart topping Ambush Bug series.
So ComicMixers… plenty to discuss here. Will Arthur be back to stay? Will another emerald tinged book make it’s way into your pull boxes? Will Marvel make any claims that the ‘Brightest Day’ won’t shine a single ray of light on their own ‘Heroic Age’? As our Aunt Linda would say… “Discuss!”
I don't read DC superheroes, so I may be misremembering, but doesn't Aquaman have a pirate hook?
He had a hook at the same time he grew out a beard, and ditched the orange shirt for some metal bands. Then he gave up the hook, got his orange shirt back, shaved, and got a hand made out of mystic healing water. Then he became an octupus. Then he died. Currently, he's a Black Lantern.
I laughed, but I know you're not joking.Poor, poor Aquaman.
Aquaman is probably the least exciting thing about Brightest Day.
TO be pedantic: It's a bi-weekly, not bi-monthly (or, in all likelihood, even semi-monthly) series.
I love the idea of Arthur coming back, but the fact that he's coming back in the pages of a Green Lantern event rather than having his own AQUAMAN: REBIRTH mini tells me that DC still isn't confident about the character. I think we need to collect some of the best Aquaman stories and put them out in trades. Make the great tales of this character readily available so people can read and WANT this hero back. And since the Infinite Crisis re-altered his history again, bringing back some of the silver age elements, let's firmly establish his origin and why he belongs in the DCUniverse.When Marv Wolfman wrote his HISTORY OF THE DCU years back, he treated the third member of DC's trinity not as Wonder Woman but as Aquaman. I always found that interesting and would like to see that aspect played up.(And if anyone at DC is reading, I would love to write AQUAMAN SECRET ORIGIN. I would make it swashbuckling, Shakespearean and epic. And Phil Jimenez or Darick Robertson should draw it. Just saying.)
I agree, that they need a "Secret" (or not so secret, really) Origin for Arthur. I think you'd be a fine choice Alan. But I'd love to see someone like Mike Norton take the reigns.
I'll take "Mid-Life Crisis" for $400, Alex. I agree with Brandon, poor Aquaman. Kid's dead and wifey is a Red Lantern.
Are they going to tell him to use a bulb wrench again? I mean, thats what we do use to change a light bulb, right? Poor Captain Fishstick. Can never catch a break. He's about as popular as Underwater Spock.