YMMV / Brightest Day

• Alternate Character Interpretation: Mera being not so hung up over Tula and Garth remaining dead seems a little cavalier. That said, it could also be that considering everything that has happened to the Aquafamily, and indeed, other pairings who remain estranged by the mortal divide, the both of them being reunited in death seems like an actual consolation in retrospect, and that she at least has another chance with Arthur puts her emotional reprieve (she went through a Trauma Conga Line and became a Red Lantern for goodness sake) into perspective.
• Angst? What Angst?: Dawn has got an absurd level of this going on in the story. She has next to no problems with failing to save her sister or being stuck with the guy who killed her. Hell, she's not even all that interested in finding out what her connection to the white light is. She's more concerned with Boston's problems or being his sudden love interest.
• Crack Pairing: While it started in Blackest Night, there have been comments concerning Atrocitus and his... "attraction" to Mera. Carol Ferris even detects a spark of love in Atrocitus' heart that wasn't there before. It is absolutely helped by the fact that Atrocitus' very first ring construct is Red Lantern!Mera.
  Hal Jordan: So, you still have a sweet spot for the Queen of the Seas?
  Atrocitus: I have nothing to explain to you, Jordan!
• Ensemble Dark Horse: Dex-Starr and the new Rocket Red. Larfleeze continues to steal the show as well.
  • Deathstorm, full stop! So much so that he's now featured in the DCnU as one of the members of the Crime Syndicate.
• Fan Nickname: Johns has referred to the resurrected Deadman as "Aliveman". Fans have also used "Liveman" (not that one, though they reference it often) and "Un-Deadman".
• Fridge Brilliance: Professor Zoom becomes the first of the resurrected to achieve his objective and keep his life. In fact, he completes his mission before it's even assigned. This makes perfect sense when you consider he's the fastest of them all and is the chief rival to the Fastest Man Alive. He's a time-traveler whose backstory as given in The Flash plays out retroactively.
• Hilarious in Hindsight:
  • Batman: The Brave and the Bold introduced a version of Firestorm that combined Jason Rusch and Ronnie Raymond before it happened in the mainline comics. Doesn't count as Canon Immigrant due to the use of re-imagined versions of Rusch and Raymond (a brainy high-schooler and his ex-jock teacher as the body and mind of Firestorm respectively).
  • Doubles with Blackest Night on this one, but there have been critics who have pointed out that Johns relies heavily on Alan Moore and his work on Green Lantern mythos. With the release of Brightest Day #23, this may appear more true: The Dark Avatar is Swamp Thing after the Green was corrupted by Nekron's attack. HOWEVER, one must take a step backward to see that this isn't completely true. While Johns owes Moore a bit (hey, did anyone just want to leave the fertile ground of story potential alone forever, just because Moore wrote it?), it's actually Len Wein that Johns has been honoring the most: Len Wein wrote just as much, if not more work for Green Lantern, created Nekron, AND created Swamp Thing.
• Replacement Scrappy: Deathstroke's Titans were poorly received due to their brutal execution of Ryan Choi, done in a way that made it painfully clear the readers were supposed to consider them badass villains. Their first issue received negative criticism from most comic sites, and even Gail Simone, as gracious as she's known to be, said she hated the issue where Ryan died. Negative criticism of the series didn't stop there, especially when the Marvel Family and Arsenal got dragged into it, worse for the wear.
• Rooting for the Empire: In Fandom; for Max Lord, whose mission is ostensibly to stop Magog from starting a war.
• Strangled by the Red String: Boston and Dawn's romance comes off more as pandering to male wish fulfillment than a meaningful relationship. Really just there to give Boston an ideal supportive female for whom he can selflessly sacrifice himself in the end. Dawn shows no real romantic interest in Boston. She is friendly, but nothing would imply she's attracted to him. It's no wonder that it quickly died not soon after, despite being one of the few things to carry over into the New 52 reboot.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character:
  • Structure-wise, it would've made more sense to have Hawk fall in with Deathstroke's bastard Titans since the character has a history of violent behavior and was even an ex-villain with the book exploring Slade manipulating Hank's anger problems while Dove tries to save him. Likewise, with the amount of focus the book tried to put on the Black Marvel Family, it would've made more sense to put Osiris's plotline in a Marvel Family series. Since Osiris and Freddy Freeman were the only Shazam-related characters who still had powers at this point, reviving Black Adam and Isis would've thematically worked alongside Freddy trying to help Billy and Mary after the Wizard took away their powers as well.
  • Deathstorm creating Black Lantern copies of the resurrected. You'd think this would lead to some Mirror Match shenanigans which would bring up interesting points. Black Lantern Hawkgirl would be Kendra, not Shiera. Black Lantern Hawk could give Hank a massive guilt trip for all the terrible things he has done to Dawn when he was Extant. Black Lantern Jonn temping normal Jonn to give up on Earth and choose Mars instead. The list goes on. Instead, they stand around as background filler till they and Deathstorm are all anticlimactically killed by the White Light entity.
• The Woobie: Dex-Starr and the JLI. Most notably Ice, whose dreams of retirement and a relationship with Guy Gardner were savagely dashed.
  • Hawkman and Deadman as well considering how the life entity screwed them over.
• Unintentionally Unsympathetic: The Life Entity. Even if its actions were meant to serve the greater good, the things it did afterward (not reviving Hawkgirl and leaving Deadman once again trapped in a state of limbo between life and death) were nothing short of dick moves.