Last week's Brightest Day #1 features a scene where a Somali pirate talks about his intention to rape a little girl before selling her into slavery. A few pages later, the pirate is eaten by a zombie shark, which bites his arm off in the process of attacking him. On the next page, another bad guy—presumably Black Manta—slits an old man's throat on-panel, and stabs two more people to death off-panel. This week's "Brightest Day"-branded Titans: Villains for Hire Special #1 apparently featured the death of a new-ish legacy character (confirming my theory that some folks at DC Comics apparently worship some pagan god that necessitates they begin new series with the sacrifice of a fictional character's life).
Some of DC's books this week featured a four-page preview of Green Arrow #1, another "Brightest Day"-branded book, which you can read on DC's Source blog, if you're so inclined. It features a gang about to rape a woman, until Green Arrow intervenes, shooting one of their noses off.
I knew "Brightest Day" wasn't meant to be taken 100% literal—it would be hard to out-bright DC's Silver Age, after all—but is it just me, or did the DCU get even darker as Blackest Night was ending?
I agree completely. I was so happy when I read about "Brightest Day", and am equally deflated that it turned out to be anything but.
ReplyDeleteWhat could have been...
As I've said elsewhere - many of the current crop of writers actually seem physically incapable of writing books that don't delve into the darkest bits of their own psyches. There are a handful of them who are capable of both controlling their own dark urges AND writing a good story at the same time, but none of them are the "hottest" writers who are controlling the direction of the companies right now - the guys in charge all seem utterly cynical about the whole idea of superheroes in general and can't write them straight - they have to write them cynically. So I wasn't expecting much from either DC's "Brightest Day" or Marvel's "Heroic Age" - if anything I'm expecting the top writers to get even worse about this to compensate for the supposedly "brighter" nature of the direction that the lines are taking.
ReplyDeleteAnd since that openly cynical, extremely brutal style of comics seems to sell well in the current market, I doubt things will change any time soon.
Jeff, Jer...
ReplyDeleteAs we've seen in the idiotic documentary that accompanied the otherwise excellent Crisis On Two Worlds, it's a editorial mandate that has turned up the sex, violence and despair up to eleven.
I liked Ryan Choi. I liked Ryan Choi better than I liked Ray Palmer. I felt the Atom book that featured Choi, written by Gail Simone based on notes by Grant Morrison, was fun and exciting and vastly entertaining. It was a rare, rare light-hearted book featuring an actively engaging legacy character....
so of course, Ryan Choi had to die, sacrificed to prove how bad-ass the Deathstroke Titans are.
I've said it before, and I'll say it here: this Generation Lost series is going to wipe the DCU of any trace of the Giffen/deMatties JLU.
I'm a diehard DC fanboy, and I really have no interest in anything the company is doing anymore. Like Thomas, I really enjoyed the Simone Atom book. In fact, I'd go so far as to say that in those 20 issues, Ryan was infinitely more memorable and likable than Ray has been over the course of 50 years.
ReplyDeleteJLI is all my all-time favorite DC run, and I do not have very high hopes for this Winick thing. Giffen, in general, is at his strongest when working with a talented scripter/co-plotter. Winick does not fit that bill.
Thanks for these reports on the "brightest" goings-on... They assure me that I'm not missing anything I'd enjoy by not following these comics.
ReplyDeletePersonally, I don't think the Blackest Night series really WAS "the Blackest Night," per the Guardians' prophecy. I think some of the stuff going on in "Brightest Day" bears that out. But, that's just me.
ReplyDeleteOh god, Thomas, I hope you're wrong.
ReplyDelete(I am horribly convinced...)
I never expected any change. It won't change until there's new editors and writers at DC and Marvel.
ReplyDeleteWhich is inevitable.
Every day Joe Quesada walks into work is another day in the longest Marvel EIC run in history.
These people (Joe Quesada and Dan Didio and all the rest) are now the old guard they came in to replace.
Change will come.