Comics this week

Brightest Day- At the end of Blackest Night, there were a ton of unanswered questions. Or more accurately, 12 of them. The 12 heroes and villains who were resurrected at the end of Blackest Night are the focus of Brightest Day which will give us answers on why they had returned. It’s best to think of Brightest Day as an ensemble movie where there are various stories which tied up with each other. The main section on #1 is on Aquaman and Mera as they save some children from a group of pirates. After Aquaman summoned dead sharks and dead giant squids instead of living ones, Ivan Reis again prove why he is a superstar artist as the utter look of shock on the faces of Aquaman and Mera were priceless . The Hawkman and Hawkgirl section fared less well as it seems their story is more of a mystery set-up. Martian Manhunter and Firestorm have cameos in the issue as well. Geoff Johns seems to have learned from the mistake of Countdown as he largely focus on Aquaman and the Hawks in this issue, with the other 12 characters having their spotlight later. A good start and one good step in a year-long series.

Secret Six #21- After having his son kidnapped, Thomas Blake (the Catman) is now on the warpath. As he chased after the kidnappers, writer Gail Simone interweaved the story with flashbacks to Catman's youth. The actions of Blake's abusive father are disturbing in its normality and give you a basis for Blake’s brutality. As the rest of the Secret Six chase after Blake, even they are shocked by Catman's actions. I’m not usually a fan of flashbacks peppering the main story but Gail Simone did a very good job here. She also didn’t forgot the rest of the Six as she showed how Black Alice’s power affect her mental state. A good issue all around.

Uncanny X-Men #524- After the high octane start to "Second Coming," we finally got a break as the X-Men regroup to bury Nightcrawler. The loss of Nightcrawler is a problem for the X-Men as not only was he a long-time X-Man, he is also the main teleporter of the team. This is something Bastion knows as his talk with Donald Pierce proves. He wants to take out all mutants with teleporting powers and with the death of Nightcrawler and Ariel, he’s halfway there already. It all prove what we all knows; Cyclops suck as a leader. As this issue shows, he is a desperate man out of ideas on how to save the mutant race and is now grasping at straws. The reactions of Beast and Wolverine show that at least some of the X-Men suspect this. Wolverine's anger at Hope was especially telling. Outside the bad art, this is a good issue.