Brightest Day #7

The beef with the Brightest Day maxi-series has been that it's too fragmented - we only get snippets of stories about each character brought back to life by the White Lantern.

The other big problem is that we really don't know what's going on here. Why were these characters brought back to life? Why do some of them still have a connection to their "Black Lantern" side?

Thankfully, this issue finally moves beyond the mini-stories we've been getting, and sets up - or at least teases - the real purpose for their return.

Of course, we can't talk about it without giving too much away - but writer Geoff Johns (working here with Peter Tomasi) has used the story device before of showing glimpses of the future, and here it's the center of the story.

It's a good way to hook the reader, as these flashes entice us to hang around to see how these stories play out.

As usual, the art is something of a mix, from outstanding pages to average work - which is to be expected on a comic that uses five artists - Ivan Reis, Patrick Gleason, Ardian Syal, Scott Clark and Joe Prado - and three inkers.

But for the first time since the series started, the story seems to be kicking into gear. Hopefully we'll see more of the same for the rest of the run.

Grade: B+