Brightest Day Vol. 3 Paperback – September 18, 2012

For some reason this book and this book alone would not rotate on my Kindle. But besides that I really enjoyed this story.

Johns' brilliant Brightest Day story arc comes to a good, not great, end with this volume. After all the build up and mystery over the new protector of the Earth in the previous two volumes, the story feels unfortunately a tad rushed to close here. First and foremost, numerous characters are killed before Brightest Day ends and while a few of these are re-resurrected by the end a few are cruelly left dead. What's more frustrating however is that some of the minor characters such as Maxwell Lord, Jade, and Osiris, don't end up playing into the story at all. The missions they were supposedly tasked with the by White Lantern either end up factoring into other comic books or they are simply glossed over. Even Hawk, who had been a bigger part of the story at the beginning, ends up rather ignored. While the final reveal of the protector is fun, I can't help but feel that Johns didn't have enough time (possibly due to the impending New 52 relaunch) to wrap things up as completely as he may have wanted to or had planned to.

I am probably in the minority here, but I loved the conclusion to the Brightest Day saga! A lot better handled than it's predecessor event, Blackest Night, because Brightest Day where focused on a few characters and stayed close to a self-contained series, but did have tie-ins, that stood nicely on their own, that were not essential to the main event.I loved volume one, again, having been somewhat letdown by Blackest Night, so my expectations were low. I couldn't wait for volume two, which was slower paced but still a great addition.Brightest Day Volume 3 three is a really amazing and epic climax and conclusion to this series. Our main characters, Aquaman, Martian Manhunter, Firestorm, and Hawkman and Hawkgirl fulfill their personal missions for being brought to life as the story races to the finish line with main protagonist, Boston Brand formerly Deadman, lighting the way, well, sort of. Some of the other resurrected 12 appear to fulfill their mission to the grand scheme the white entity brought them back for. The forest raised in Star City comes into play in a major way. It was nice to see these under appreciated characters get spotlighted with beautiful artwork in such a grand story to not only save the earth but save who they are, for themselves and to us, the audience. I felt Johns and Tomasi did a great job with the characterization of these superheroes.

In the preceding two volumes, the Brightest Day arc juggled a dozen or so main characters and half a dozen subplots to somewhat uneven result. Some subplots or characters had more to do than others; some characters dropped out entirely and are not mentioned until the end. The mystery-driven plot introduced at the beginning of Brightest Day hinged on the explanation of how or why these particular characters were chosen and brought together by the mysterious white lantern entity. Unfortunately, not only is most of that unexplained, but what does get explained comes out of nowhere. Without getting into spoilers, the climax hinges on a major DC character that seems to spring into action with no warning, and the readers are told, through exposition, that this person was always key to the resolution of the conflict at hand. I wouldn't even properly consider this a deus ex machina or a twist per se, just a headscratcher with very little basis. All in all, there are good moments in this series, great art, and some time to shine for less well known characters like Deadman or Martian Manhunter. But it doesn't really add to the Lantern mythos and is more of a trippy side story when all is said and done.

If you're a fan of DC Comics, you have to read this three volume series! The DC creators are at the top of their game with this mini that provides the framework for the entire ongoing DCU. It's exciting and thrilling through all three volumes. I'd suggest reading all three volumes at once. You will not be able to put it down!Great art and wonderful writing all round. This makes a great argument that there should ALWAYS be an going series like "Brightest Day" that provides key developments with a broad cast of characters and that moves the DCU forward. I hope DC corporate learns the lesson here. We want more like this! This is exactly how comics should be!Now I can't wait to see what happens next! I sure hope the "Brightest Day: Aftermath Search for the Swamp Thing" gets collected! I'm also looking forward to "Flashpoint" and all it's spin offs! And even better, the brand new DCU New 52!! It's a great time to be a fan of DC!For those of you waiting for the 52 new series that been making so much news. Don't wait! Dive into the current DC collected editions. There's some great stories going on!

I'll be honest...the ending is a tad disappointing. Reason being...it focused too much on setting up the next stories, and not enough on the pay off.Problem is, the 52 wiped everything clean and these next stories never continued.Also, without reading the Generation Lost series...you dont know what some of the references mean.That being said.The Brightest Day event is wonderful.And it's about the journey, not just the end.I had tons of emotional experiences reading this...it was an amazing event.I was so happy to invest in the Blackest Night-Brightest Day series of TPBs.

Firstly, there are numerous reviews of this book in comparison to volume one (Brightest Day, Volume One) By Johns, Geoff (Author) Hardcover on 07-Dec-2010  and two  Brightest Day HC Vol 02  here, and mostly non-favourable, but I think they're a bit harsh. This event works much better as one book split into three volumes than three seperate books. I don't think you can review it properly as three different items. I would say volume one rates a 5, volume two a 4 and this one, volume three, a 3 - but that makes the whole 'event' a 4!!Yes, the set ups are flawed, yes it's annoying that all those characters ressurrected don't seem to have a purpose or even feature here but there is alot here that you don't get everywhere else. There is good characterisation, Deadman, Aquaman, and Mera especially. ( I didn't want to like the new Aqualad - as I was a Garth fan - but the background works well and enriches Aquaman's backstory.) The artwork is glorious throughout.No, it's not panel for panel greatness and by the abrupt ending there seems little point in alot of the storyline but it is very enagaging and I'd be quite happy to recommend the entire tale to anyone who likes what can and should be done with super-hero comics these days, but buy all three volumes and read them together! (Brightest Day, Volume One) By Johns, Geoff (Author) Hardcover on 07-Dec-2010Brightest Day HC Vol 02

Nice ending

Item arrived esrlg a nd was in excellent condition

A++++++

Great read bringing in some exciting characters