I bailed out of DC's Brightest Day after a promising first issue, but now a few months later I find myself bailing back in. I've always had a bit of a soft spot for Firestorm and he's taking on a primary role in the series, so... And considering I haven't been reading the series issues #11 and 12 cohere well enough that I shall buy another issue instead of re-bailing out. But what are they doing with the covers? They match so poorly I think the cover of #12 should've been on #11. Maybe because this is biweekly, two issues a month and ads sold to run in one issue of each book over the course of a month, the second issue in a month is filled with house ads. #12 has multiple ads ballyhooing the new lineup of Batman titles. And I find not a single one of them which I have even the slightest interest in reading. This is not good, whole year storyline leading up to this relaunch and instead of ending up someplace that would broaden the appeal of one of the primary DC characters I think they've ended up immersed in a massive navel-gaze.
I picked up Superman: World of Krypton, script by Cary Bates and art by Renato Arlem, out of Bates nostalgia. He was once the Superman writer, among other things. DC not very optimistic, burning off six issues in three double sized. I'm sad it wasn't better. The second "issue" i.e. parts 3 and 4, may be the best, the 5th part went off on a tangent about the Green Lantern Corps, then a little better, then kind of fades. Basically, it's an alternate Superman without a point of view. It borrows a line from the movie here, some other piece of DC mythology there, a bit of Superman mythology there. It's all surrounding the overall idea that the entire El family is on Earth instead of just Kal-El, aka Clark Kent aka Superman. But instead of take the one idea and thoroughly exploring it, the main idea, the theoretical raison d'etre of the series, becomes a clothesline on which to hang way too much else. Bad editing? Bates and switch that didn't end up looking like the proposal? And yet for all that I think it doesn't work, DC has gotten behind much worse in a big way. If the writer had been some big flavor of the day instead of the flavor of yesterday, DC could probably have turned this noble idea into a major to do instead of trying to hide it
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I've lost track of all the titles I've read, only to drop, only to pick up again because of a cool cover, only to drop again when the convulusion reached critical mass.
I've felt recently that one-shots and mini-series were the way to go, especially if the writer is good.
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