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Batman: Streets of Gotham #20
Writer: Paul Dini
Artists: Dustin Nguyen and Derek Fridolfs
Cover Artist: Dustin Nguyen
Publisher: DC

The penultimate chapter of The House of Hush sets up the arc for its final issue. The book starts off with Catwoman and Batman canvasing Gotham, being attacked by bedbugs, and having an overall entertaining conversation. Afterward, the issue shifts focus towards the villains as well as the gloomy history of the city. By the end, one villain has turned on the other and now sets his eye on Batman.
With both this arc and this series coming to an end, I find myself feelings sad. This issue was a lot of story and not a lot of action, and I’m perfectly fine with that because that just means more action for the finale. I love that Dini has been incorporating the history of Gotham, bringing in young versions of Martha and Thomas, as well as the the Justice Society, into the this story. I feel it adds a great depth to the overall development and progression of a great book. The art in this issue is some of the best work I’ve seen by Dustin Nguyen. While doing a consistently great job portraying Batman, Catwoman, and the Gotham backdrop, Nguyen has been impressive with the numerous flashbacks and additional characters, specifically the Justice Society. 4/5

Brightest Day #21
Writers: Geoff Johns and Peter J. Tomasi
Artists: Patrick Gleason, Ivan Reis, and Joe Prado
Cover Artist: Gary Frank, Nathan Eyring, and Ivan Reis
Publisher: DC

A handful of issues until the end and the mystery behind Brightest Day is beginning to unravel. The issue starts off with a multitude of superheroes cleaning up the mess left behind from the short lived Aquawar. The writers took this opportunity to do a bit of recapping, as the heroes shared what they knew about the Life Entity and what that meant for the remaining individuals brought back to life. The majority of the issue focused on the long absent Martian Manhunter, who is still on Mars, dealing with D’Kay. The two argued and fought, even transforming into some really creepy creatures. In the end, J’onn concluded that it was more important to destroy D’Kay than it was to rebuild the population of Mars with a psychopath, so he he flew the both of them into the sun, only to be revived yet again by the Life entity. This time, however, he appears to be chosen for a much different role.
Personally, Martian Manhunter’s story has been the least interesting to me this entire time, mainly due to the slow progress of the plot. That being said, I thought that the conclusion, or near conclusion, of his story was quite satisfying. With so few issues left, it will be interesting to see whether or not all of the individuals brought back in the conclusion of Blackest Night will be making an appearance in this series, regardless of whether they’ve appeared before. 3/5

Green Lantern #63
Writer: Geoff Johns
Artists: Ed Benes, Ardian Syaf, and Rob Hunter
Cover Artists: Doug Mahnke, Christian Alamy, and Gene Ha
Publisher: DC

This issue was the prologue to the upcoming War of the Green Lanterns, which the different Green Lantern series have been setting up for a while now. The issue starts off with a trip thousands of years into the past, depicting Krona’s actions which led him to be banished by the other Guardians. It is then revealed to us that he, Krona, has also acquired the Predator, the entity of Love, though unless I’m mistaken that has not actually happened yet in the pages of Brightest Day. Sinestro arrives and immediately goes into how none of this would have happened had he been there, and after his impressive showing in Green Lantern Corps, I’m inclined to believe him. The colorful gang attempt to track Krona, bringing them to a book of lost secrets.
The past couple of issues have seemed the most distant from the upcoming War of the Green Lanterns event, because quite frankly Green Lantern Hal Jordan hasn’t been the main focus of the book. With this issue and the previous one, there is a much stronger connection between Hal’s story and the direction towards a Green Lantern war. The tension in Hal’s life is clearly taking its toll and his duty as a Green Lantern is starting to consume him. The promo makes it look like not all the current Green Lanterns will be remaining Green Lanterns, so it will be interesting what, if any, role these revelations about Hal will play. 3.5/5

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Arnab Pradhan
arnab@comicattack.net