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Hey all! It’s time for another week of DC reviews. The bad news is that I’ve only got two for you, the good news is that they’re both great books.

Minor spoilers ahead!

Brightest Day #11
Writer(s): Geoff Johns and Peter J. Tomasi
Artist(s): Patrick Gleason, Ivan Reis, Joe Prado, Rebecca Bachman, Keith Champagne, and Tom Nguyen
Cover Artist: David Finch
Publisher: DC

I’m not sure if this was the plan from the beginning or if this change is in response to reader feedback, but the way that the pacing has been laid out in the recent issues is working much better. This issue, much like the last two, focused on two of the resurrected characters: Aquaman and Firestorm. The Aquaman portion features a fight between Aquaman and Black Manta, who doesn’t hold anything back, including bringing up how he killed Aquaman’s son. Firestorm’s tale had a little more meat to the story. The evil within Firestorm, who would like to be called Deathstorm, has decided that he would like to destroy the universe by getting Ronnie and Jason to fight one another. The battle takes a turn for the worse as Deathstorm appears to absorb Professor Stein and Jason’s father into his own matrix. Even more troubling for the universe, Deathstorm has his sight set on the White Lantern.
I thought this issue was great. The choice to have this issue alternate stories every two pages worked out fantastically. The combination of the content and the pacing of the stories keeps the action constantly building up to the major reveal as well as the preview of what’s in store. Overall, this is probably the issue that has a perfect balance of story and pacing. 4.5/5

Red Hood: the Lost Days #5
Writer: Judd Winick
Artist: Jeremy Haun
Cover Artist: Billy Tucci
Publisher: DC

For the past couple of issues we have witnessed Jason Todd traveling from place to place, receiving training from all kinds of scum. This issue starts off where the last ended, with Jason taking on a gang looking to bomb London. After searching high and low for persons of Middle Eastern descent, who had bombs planted on them to make them look like terrorists, Jason was able to successfully negate the start of a war. However, on his return to his apartment he is greeted by members of the Russian gang whose plans he had just foiled. He gets down to the last hoodlum, who proceeds to beg for his life while offering Jason a number of gifts. All of the criminal’s propositions get repeatedly rejected, until he offers Jason the one thing he can’t refuse: Joker’s location.
This issue had a great feel to it. The story itself felt just a tad drawn out, but the hook at the end was well worth it. What the issue did exceptionally well was the manner in which Jason Todd was portrayed. If this issue was a reader’s first introduction to Jason Todd, although why that would be the case I can’t imagine, the reader would know two things. One, that Jason Todd believes in helping and saving innocent people. Two, he doesn’t mind killing criminals to make that happen. 3.5/5

Be sure to check out previous editions of Crisis of Infinite Reviews by clicking here!

Arnab Pradhan
arnab@comicattack.net