Greetings, fair readers! I regret to inform you that due to some other obligations in my personal life I was not able to complete this month’s column to my satisfaction. So, in lieu of the expanded column I had hoped to do, I present to you my thoughts on two recent releases from DC Comics.
ADVENTURE COMICS #516
Script by Paul Levitz
Art by Kevin Sharpe and Mario Alquiza
In the second issue of Paul Levitz’s run on Adventure Comics, there are some things that I don’t fully understand, most likely because I didn’t read The Last Stand of New Krypton miniseries and have little to no idea what precisely went down therein. The parts of this issue that I did understand are as follows:
R.J. Brande, former godfather and mentor to the Legion of Super-Heroes is dead. Anticipating such an event, he left behind a sort of holographic last will and testament, recapping the events that led to him becoming the fifth richest man in the galaxy and forming the Legion of Super-Heroes.
In my opinion, this issue mainly consists of an unnecessary recap of the origins of the Legion via R.J. Brande’s holographic ghost. The writing is mainly good, as Levitz’s always is, and the art does not disappoint either. But… something about this issue just feels a little odd, and out of place. I definitely think Levitz is doing a better job on the main Legion title right now, and I highly recommend that series.
The last twelve pages, however, are spectacularly done. Following up on the Brightest Day: Atom Special (which had nothing to do with Brightest Day, but does that really matter anymore?), the writer-artist team of Jeff Lemire and Mahmud Asrar deliver a long-awaited solo tale for Ray Palmer, something we haven’t seen in well over five years.
Ray Palmer’s lab has just been ransacked, his equipment stolen by an unknown culprit. Meanwhile, Ray’s estranged father has mysteriously suffered a stroke, and lies in a hospital bed, near death. Suspecting that the second-rate supervillain known as the Calculator may have been behind the mysterious hostage-taking at the Ivy Town Public Library days before, the Atom, with the help of Barbara Gordon, the communications wizard called Oracle, tracks Calculator down and proceeds to question him.
During the course of the questioning, the Calculator reveals that he may have had something to do with Ray’s father’s sudden illness. Before the Atom can get another sentence out, he collapses in pain and the villain informs him that he has been infected with a deadly pathogen designed to keep anyone from infiltrating the Calculator’s lair. The Atom has ten seconds to leave… or die.
BRIGHTEST DAY #7
Script by Geoff Johns and Peter Tomasi
Art by Ivan Reis, Patrick Gleason, Adrian Syaf, Scott Clark, and Joe Prado
Normally, it really bugs me when a team of artists this big works on a single issue, but it seems to work here somehow. The disparate styles mesh at times and clash at other times, but the overall effect is nice.
The writing here is as good as it has been in the past few issues, that being great. Geoff Johns and Peter Tomasi are obviously a match made in heaven, as I can never be completely sure which lines were done by which writer, a rare occurrence in the world of multi-writer works.
In the continuing story of Deadman, the White Lantern (thankfully that’s the term they decided on, and not the less-than-politically-correct White Power Battery) awakens him to Life, revealing that the Entity, the living embodiment of the universe’s life force, is dying, and that a replacement must be chosen. We also learn that those resurrected at the end of Blackest Night were brought back in order to “protect this world until the arrival of its newest champion”. I might also mention that the catalyst that brings about Boston Brand’s communion with Life is a hamburger. I will say no more.
In Australia, Martian Manhunter attempts to keep Miss Martian from dying, after finding her severely wounded while on a walkabout down under. After some form of Martian healing ritual, she awakens, her wounds mysteriously gone, and tells him that another Martian is out there, presumably a bad one.
Among the larger of the revelations in this issue is that Mera, Aquaman’s sea-wife, was sent from a rival kingdom of Atlantis to kill him. Before this can be explored in more depth, Aquaman is enveloped in white energy and told that he must find the new Aqualad, “Before they do.”
The comic ends with a montage of some Brightest Day-related events happening throughout the DC Universe titles, some with a few intriguing clues as to what may come next.
I highly recommend this series, as well as everything else Green Lantern-related that has been published in the last five years. Though, if you’re one of the Geoff Johns haters, I doubt this series will be enough to make you change your mind.
NEXT MONTH: More reviews. I promise.
Evan Henry is an aspiring comic book writer with several forthcoming projects. He has dabbled in various other forms of writing, including prose and amateur journalism.
Evan has been writing comic scripts since 2007 and poetry since 2008. In his free time, he enjoys reading on the subjects of philosophy, history, and political science, reading comic books and science fiction, and watching television programs about monkeys.
For information on sending review copies, Evan can be reached via e-mail at evanh2008@yahoo.com 
Merin on 
