Just Stay at Home

I'm going to be straight with you: ever since I first started seeing them these Brightest Day variant covers have been creeping the hell out of me.

I can't really explain what it is. But they give me the same feeling that I get from seeing real old works of European sculpture. There's the unsettling feeling inside that... I just can't explain.

Brightest Day has had that feeling all along. Like something just isn't quite right. Behind all the different stories there seems to be something else going on. I don't really know what it is, but I've got a few guesses.

First and foremost: the ring's been telling Boston Brand to live. Now, some of it surely means to live his life now that he's got it back. But I think there's something more going on. I think the returnees are still dead.

Sure, they're alive. But I don't think it's quite alive in the way we usually think. There's clearly something wrong. Black Lantern Firestorm lurking in the matrix. Martian Manhunter's psychic feedback. Aquaman's powers. They've been brought back to life and yet... They haven't.

I think that what we're seeing here is a false resurrection. They look alive and they seem alive. They think they're alive. But I believe that beneath the surface they are all still dead. And that finding their way back to true life is their real mission.