Brightest Day: The Labors of the Twelve

jedispyder · Post by **jedispyder** » Sat Aug 14, 2010 9:44 am

So in issue #7 we were told what the Labors of the Twelve that the Entity desires them to do:
1. Deadman - Locate "the chosen one" that will take the Entity's place
2. Hawkman - Prevent the queen of Hawkworld from leaving its place [Completed]
3. Hawkgirl - Prevent Hath-Set from killing Hawkman [Completed]
4. Martian Manhunter - Burn down the newly-formed forest in Star City [Completed]
5. Aquaman - Locate Jackson Hyde [Completed]
6. Firestorm - Defeat the Black Lantern Firestorm, before he destroys the Entity
7. Hawk - Catch the boomerang Captain Boomerang throws at Dawn Granger
8. Professor Zoom - Free Barry from the Speed Force [Completed]
9. Captain Boomerang - Throw a boomerang at Dawn Granger
10. Osiris - To free his sister Adrianna [Completed]
11. Maxwell Lord - Prevent Magog from plunging the world into war [Completed]
12. Jade - Help her brother, Obsidian to "balance the darkness" and save their friends from Eclipso. [Completed]

I'm very intrigued by MM's task to burn down the Star City forest considering it was the Entity that grew the forest in the first place. It's not only that one that's contradictory, such as seeing Captain Boomerang have to throw a boomerang at Dove yet having Hawk catch it? I do enjoy Max Lord's labor, which we're told in interviews will be handled in the Generation Lost maxi-series and not in the Magog title (which is great since I don't want to buy that). Osiris is in Titans right now and we already see Adrianna's stone form cracking, so we know it'll be handled there. Guessing Jade's labor will be handled in JLoA and JSoA.

What does everyone else think about the labors?

Tragic Angelus · Post by **Tragic Angelus** » Sat Aug 14, 2010 11:52 am

Yeah, I'm pretty sure those who appear in another book will handle the majority of their task there. Hawk already mentioned his to Dove in the latest issue of Birds of Prey, so it's no secret. They all know their task.

What gets me is that the Entity is dying now, and needs a replacement now. I'm wondering if it won't be Deadman himself by the end of it all, or another hero/villain elevated up. Tho leave it to Johns to introduce a character/being to have it die..

I'm interested in how Hawk and Digger's tasks tie together, as I'm not sure how it'll work out. If all he has to do is throw but it's supposed to be stopped? There's definitely more to it there. Along the lines of the forest. I wonder if it wasn't the Entity who caused it to grow maybe? something else like Deadman's sadness at the lack of life in the rubble?

And Aquaman's target is clearly Black Manta's long lost Son. No two ways about it. Looks like Arthur has to steal his child now in return.

Definitely interesting, and glad we at least know the goals this early in the game as opposed to them dragging it thru to the midway point. We're basically 1/3 the way down if you count the 0 issue, because if I recall there's supposed to be 26 issues, unless it's moved to 24. Either way, I'd say Act 1 is done, and we're about to enter Act 2 from here on out.

jedispyder · Post by **jedispyder** » Sat Aug 14, 2010 12:01 pm

I'm wondering what relation Black Manta's son has with the Entity/White Light. We see him in the poster ad with a trident that had white energy coming out of it. A lot of people are speculating that Green Arrow has something big to do with the White Lantern due to his, well, you know what happened at the end of his last issue, lol. There are also people saying Dove could be a successor as well since she has a connection to the White Light (which would explain why 2 of the labors involve her).

Tragic Angelus · Post by **Tragic Angelus** » Sat Aug 14, 2010 12:06 pm

Oh that's a good point about it being Dove. She's definitely connected to it, and helped Deadman figure stuff out. Or maybe it's how Don will come back, by becoming the new Entity. I'd say tho that Dove is defintely the top candidate for right now, though why she'd have to be attacked by Boomerang doesn't make much sense that way. And a "so Hawk can complete his goal" won't work for me, because honestly both their goals could be something else, or Hawks could jsut be to protect Dove until she's chosen. We'll see soon enough.

jedispyder · Post by **jedispyder** » Sat Aug 14, 2010 12:53 pm

I wonder if it has to do with Boomerang's boomerangs being made of (here I'm just hypothesizing) Black Lantern energy, maybe it helps jump start the White Lantern energy into? As in it's the whole "And I just want to get mugged at knifepoint / to get cut enough to wake me up / cause I know that I don't want to die / sitting around watching my life go by."

Tragic Angelus · Post by **Tragic Angelus** » Sat Aug 14, 2010 2:15 pm

I suppose that could be a connection, though I don't know yet if it's Black Lantern Energy, tho really there's not much else it could be. So far I think we've only seen them explode right? Barry caught a dozen of them and tossed them before they exploded, so if that's all they can do that's a bit unique. Tho maybe he has't learned how to work on razor and other specialties yet. They all clearly still have some ties to BL energy, Boomerang, Aquaman, and Firestorm being the ones that have the most as far as I know (I'm not reading Titans or Generation Lost, so I can't speak for the two there).

I'm really more interested in the death of the Entity than any other revelation. It was clear Deadman was going to weild the Lantern, no doubt about that, but it's death makes me wonder if the death of the other 7 Entities could be far behind? They're being collected/used now, so something with Entities is coming to a head.

As someone who is thrilled about the idea of Entities, and absolutely loves them, I'm not happy to see one go, let alone possibly the rest. All I wanted during Blackest Night was Entity Revelations, no joke, and it was my favorite moment when we got them. I really want to know their future and connection if they can die and have replacements, or if this person capturing them is trying to prevent replacements even.

jedispyder · Post by **jedispyder** » Sat Aug 14, 2010 7:37 pm

In Generation Lost we've had Max try to use mind-control on people only to suck up their energy instead and kill them. Which is weird since he mind-wiped everyone on the planet with no problem before. And there hasn't exactly been anything in Titans with Osiris except he had an outburst of energy that killed a guy. He of course freaked out over it but it might just be his normal power he's still not completely used to.

Tragic Angelus · Post by **Tragic Angelus** » Sat Aug 14, 2010 10:33 pm

Huh... that's really odd about Max.. Because yeah he did it to Guy right away in Blackest Night 8, then everyone in the world in Brightest Day 0 right after. Maybe a reasoning later on?

And yeah.. I don't recall Osiris having an energy outburst.. he was more like Black Adam, and just had those abilities. But the Black Marvel Family's power base was different so who knows. Even Isis had different abilities from Adam. So long as it wasn't white, I'd say it's maybe not 100% connected, but i wouldn't rule it out.

Mr Wallstreet · Post by **Mr Wallstreet** » Mon Aug 16, 2010 7:20 am

So it looks like half the characters are working towards something and the other half are working to prevent that half from accomplishing it.

This sounds like LOST-y and condratcitory but extremely intriguing.

Who or what is The Entity?

Tragic Angelus · Post by **Tragic Angelus** » Mon Aug 16, 2010 7:38 am

The White Entity of Life from Blackest Night that Nekron sought to kill to end all life in the Universe. The Ion, Parallax, etc of what would be the White Lantern Corps, who lives in the centre of the Earth, origin of all life in the Universe, etc.

That one.

Tragic Angelus · Post by **Tragic Angelus** » Wed Aug 25, 2010 5:17 pm

Well it seems Jade has completed her Task in this weeks JLA by helping balance out her brother when they seperated, and she was fully restored. It seems as well that they can't be around each other for fear that they're connection to the Starheart will heat up again and merge them once more, so for now they need to stay away from each other. Also of note, she recharged Kyle's ring slightly with her power, which seems new to me.

But that's 2 of 12 completed that I know of. Again Max and Osiris are the two I'm not following in their respective titles, so I don't know about them yet, though doubt they're done.

jedispyder · Post by **jedispyder** » Wed Aug 25, 2010 9:10 pm

I'll update on Max and Osiris, and obviously nothing yet.

Tragic Angelus · Post by **Tragic Angelus** » Mon Sep 20, 2010 8:17 am

Another Update: Looks like J'onn isn't supposed to burn down the Star City forest but rather the one he'd started building on Mars? The forest in Star City basically went wild trying to destroy him when he came to it, and Green Arrow got him out, and now he's headed back to Mars I believe where the other Martian being that arrived on Earth before he did is going to meet him. It also seems that's why he's killing any plant life he touches now, so he can complete his mission.

jedispyder · Post by **jedispyder** » Mon Sep 20, 2010 11:28 pm

An update on Max, he approached Magog at the end of the last Generation Lost and hired him to kill Captain Atom.

One thing I wanted to note about the Star City Forest, it appears that in the December issue we'll have Swamp Thing and Abby make their first reappearance in the DCU. The Lady of the Forest strongly resembles Abby and the design the forest makes in the background looks a lot like Swamp Thing, so it's not 100% certain but it's 100% rumored.

jedispyder · Post by **jedispyder** » Mon Sep 20, 2010 11:37 pm

Also, I just read the JLoA/JSoA crossover and I don't fully understand how Jade completed her labor. No mention of Eclipso at all and it didn't exactly seem like she saved Obsidian all that much, lol.

Tragic Angelus · Post by **Tragic Angelus** » Tue Sep 21, 2010 4:33 am

I avoided the JSA issues myself so I'm not all to sure either but yeah, I couldn't figure much out with the exception of I'm guessing she just overcame the power and 'balanced' their abilities by managing to seperate herself from Obsidian was the main thing. I.. think...

Mr Wallstreet · Post by **Mr Wallstreet** » Wed Sep 22, 2010 7:00 am

Looks like I'll definitely be picking up Brightest Day when its released in tpb. Mostly for J'onn, GA, Aquaman & Sinestro.

jedispyder · Post by **jedispyder** » Wed Sep 22, 2010 2:13 pm

In the newest issue of Titans, Amon (while under hallucinations) finds out in order to free Isis he must make great sacrifices. After he kills someone again in rage, he goes back to HQ to find a larger crack in Isis' statue. He thinks now in order to save Isis he must continue to kill even though he doesn't want to. He's torn now on his love for his sister vs his love of life...

Then in the new Generation Lost we find out the reason Max needs to stop Magog is because Magog creates the Kingdom Come universe. In the future after Superman has put up his tights for some reason, he has a team of other superheroes (including Captain Atom in his Wildstorm uniform) and they go hunting after Parasite in Kansas (aka Smallville, more than likely). When they confront and try to kill Parasite, he obviously fights back and ruptures Captain Atom's suit which unleashes a nuclear blast that kills a shiton of people (the big event that happened in Kingdom Come). So in the current time by Max hiring Magog to kill Captain Atom, Parasite can never try to escape from Captain Atom and accidentally unleash hell. We also see that Max alters Magog's nifty magic staff with something sciency, maybe a failsafe?

Tragic Angelus · Post by **Tragic Angelus** » Wed Sep 22, 2010 9:41 pm

Mr Wallstreet wrote:Looks like I'll definitely be picking up Brightest Day when its released in tpb. Mostly for J'onn, GA, Aquaman & Sinestro.

For the most part, different books are focusing on different people.

Brightest Day proper is focusing on Firestorm, Aquaman, J'onn, Deadman, Hawkman and Hawkgirl.

Green Arrow is pretty much in his own book only. He's so far only showed up in the 1 issue of Brightest Day.

Sinestro, along with Hal, has pretty much been kept to Green Lantern, other than maybe the first or second issue when he found the White Lantern in New Mexico.

But Brightest Day itself has been pretty entertaining. I just hate though, how we focus on 1 or 2 characters for about 2 issues, then we abruptly switch to another 2 for 2 issues. They're all good stories, but it's like right as you get into one of them, it's gone for an issue or two. That's really my only complaint.

jedispyder · Post by **jedispyder** » Wed Sep 22, 2010 10:09 pm

The had it a lot better organized in 52 with splitting up the stories between characters, that's for sure.