DC has a surefire hit on their hands and on comic stands with this assemblage of story, talent, and characters. I get the distinct impression, however, that nothing is as it seems. Lucky for me, I only have to wait fourteen days to learn a little more about what's going on here. Read Full Review

The team has this series off to a strong start, so I'll be back next issue - even if it doesn't have a free ring offer with it. Read Full Review

The use of a whole team of artists for one issue is a bit of a an irritant. You can't help noticing the abrupt change in styles. And you can't help comparing the styles and thinking that some parts are better than others. The Hawkman sequence could have been drawn with more clarity and the Firestorm sequence just isn't up to par with the rest of the book. This kind of thing may be unavoidable considering the close deadlines under which this book is being produced. But it does detract from the general high quality of this title so far. Read Full Review

As the opening issue after the special zero issue setup, there's a lot going on here and it's going at a somewhat slow but solid approach. I much liked how Blackest Night did a similar route in taking its time to lay out the elements right and with a lot more time to work with here, there's even more potential, both for the story to grow and for the team to lose the audience. I really liked the zero issue and I liked a lot of what's here, but the tough part is going to be finding the right balance for each issue with the separate storylines that will eventually come together for the larger narrative. At this stage, I like pretty much all the characters involved outside of Firestorm, which is sad because I loved the old Firestorm series back in the day, and have hopes that through Brightest Day we can get some of these guys back to where they belong in the larger DC Universe. This is a very good first step towards it all. Read Full Review

I'm optimistic that the major concerns I have now will fade away as the series progresses, I just wish they wouldn't have been as apparent so early on. With great setups and an eclectic cast of characters, Brightest Day could certainly keep the same level of excitement going for a whole year. If Johns and Tomasi can strike a balance between characters while continuing to giving each their own unique voice, we'll be in for one hell of a year. Read Full Review

Its evident Im going to have to treat the creators of this book to a nice cup of clam chowduh and lobstuh roll in order to receive credit for New Bedford having the vilest seaport this side of Atlantic City. More apropos, the bi-monthly Brightest Day is the clear second coming of 52, and thats akin to all the crashed-waves and seagull-chirping to my ears. Read Full Review

However, if you are just looking for good tight storytelling, the decompressed nature of this title may put you off and you should wait for the trades. Read Full Review

Ultimately, the choppiness of Brightest Day #1 is excusable due to its strong ensemble of characters and creators. Fortunately, there is the promise of a more defined story down the road--otherwise this wouldnt be a comic worth talking about. Read Full Review

As I stated before I do not feel much affinity for the returned characters. As of right now the story is stretched in so many different directions it is hard to say if it is good. Is it intriguing? Yes. Is there action? Yes. Am I dying for the next issue? No. However it is really early in the run so Johns and Tomasi have plenty of time to start bringing things together. Roughly twenty five issues but I get the feeling by issue twelve I will have the cravings I once felt for Blackest Night. The real challenge for Johns and Tomasi is not to increase the quality of the story or to tie everything up by the end. They have more than proven their capability to do this in the Green Lantern titles. Their real challenge lies in makes some of these old characters exciting again and making us like and care for them. Read Full Review

It’s going to be a long series, clocking in at a planned 26 issues, and it would be easy to disregard this as merely an intro, but for readers that have been riding this train since 2008 this is a major disservice. What is the plot? Who are the bad guys? What is the damn point? Leaving these questions to be answered later is not an effective technique to get people interested. The third and supposedly final act to this epic should not start by leaving us wondering what the hell we’re doing getting involved in yet another long form story from DC. Read Full Review

Overall, I enjoyed Brightest Day as a whole, but it was far from the cohesive, directed story that it could have been. It doesn't seem as though the various roles that the twelve resurrected heroes and villains were to play were really hashed out all that clearly from the start, and as a result, it felt as though the writers were scrambling to jam some of those pieces into the puzzle they ended up putting together in the end. Read Full Review

The mystery questions are strong enough to propel the Brightest Day event, but I'm wondering if the writers and artists have enough time to do their work right. Some pinch-hitting seems to have been going on here and that made this issue an average read. Read Full Review

Other than the fact that there is very little being offered in this issue that we haven't seen before, there isn't much technically wrong with the issue. The writing isn't terribly offensive and, despite not appealing to my own personal preferences, the art isn't bad either. The problem with this issue is that it is just incredibly boring. The lack of a single focus really brings the issue down and the uninspired reuse of elements from Brightest Day #0 really kept me from enjoying this issue to the fullest. I'll stick around for a few more issues to see where they are going from here, but as far as first impressions go, I'm not impressed with Brightest Day. Read Full Review