Posted in: Comics, Review | Tagged: Comics, dc, hellblazer, john constantine, lois lane, swamp thing

Brightest Day Aftermath And Lois Lane And The Resistance – Two DC Visions Of Britain

Two comics. Two Britains. Two realities. Both from DC.

First, Brightest Day Aftermath: Search For Swamp Thing #1. And something sticks out straight away. The cover.

This was the original artwork for the cover.

This was the teaser.

This was the reveal.

But then this was the promotional advert.

And this is the actual cover.

What the hell happened, was Hawkman meant to be in at the beginning and then switched out for Zatanna?

Okay that's one switch. But there's more to come. The previews that have been running in lots of DC books including Hellblazer itself, and in this week's DMZ, is different to the pages that are listed. For a start, the bloke who John meets in the pub is now Chas, according to the new dialogue. He's lost the moustache and the fat face… but it still doesn't much look like Chas. Also, they've tried, badly to deal with John Constantine appearing in the US at the end of Brightest Day to deal with Swamp Thing, popping back to London for some reason, and now coming back to Gotham to deal with Swamp Thing, basically, pretending that John didn't go to America before. Here are some before and afters.

Preview:

Actual:   

Preview:

Actual:

Preview:

Actual:

Of course a far greater sin is John Constantine;s language. Okay, you can "bollocks" and "bloody" but you can;t "shit", "cunt" or "fuck". Fine. But then, do you really have to use "plonker"? And also, check this, when did John Constantine start speaking like a Cockney? He's Scouse! Scouse, living in London for a while, admittedly, but seriously, "geezer"?

You'd hope that Dan Abnett, two Brits, would bring a better Britain to Flashpoint: Lois Lane And The Resistance. And they do, kind of. Except there's a problem with the artist, Eddie Nunez.

The cover sees Demon and Canterbury Cricket sneaking round a phone box. Neither character appears in this comic. The United Kingdom seems to be missing Wales and Scotland, not to mention Northern Ireland. Looks like he just got reference for England and nothing else…

The entirety of Britain has been lifted from the sea on a massive plateau. Except, look how big those buildings are. If that is meant to be all of Britain… did he think Britain is the size of small medieval town or something? Even squished up, there's not much room for the scenes we see in subsequent pages.

It's not totally the artist here of course. Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning do get Penny Black to say "wotcha". John Constantine saying "plonker". Reminds me of James Robinson writing Firearm saying "Stone the crows!". Stop it all of you!

And this week's DMZ has Zee wears a Union Flag on her shirt on the cover. In a chapter about identity, it's the best use of Britishisms of all of them…

Comics courtesy of Orbital Comics, off Leicester Square in London.

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