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89 Days, 14 Hours, 32 Minutes, and 59 Seconds

Warning, the following contains relatively-minor SPOILERS for Brightest Day #24.

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Brightest Day #24 shipped yesterday and I was expecting some sort of announcement regarding spin-offs titles.  That’s been DC’s standard operating procedure for years now.  They produce a massive crossover, then use the buzz generated to launch a bunch of new titles.  Not so this time around.  In fact, they didn’t even promote the already-solicited Brightest Day Aftermath: The Search for the Swamp Thing.  Kinda weird.

Personally I was hoping for an announcement regarding a brand-new Firestorm ongoing series.  No such luck.  However, we did get the following curiosity-piquing page.

Brightest Day #24 epilogue

While we didn’t get an announcement of where to find Firestorm after Brightest Day, DC clearly has ideas to continue his adventures.  Such a great cliffhanger!  And that photo of Ronnie and the Professor just makes you want to cry, doesn’t it.  Great page by Scott Clark and Dave Beaty!

I couldn’t help but wonder about the significance of 89 1/2 days from now.  Was there a hidden meaning?  Does the combination of the numbers 89:14:32:59 mean anything?  Nothing I can think of.  Could it be a reference to a particular date?  Would Firestorm’s next adventure be published in 89 1/2 days?  Time to do some math!  If you start from yesterday at lunchtime (when new comics typically go on sale) and move the calendar forward 89 1/2 days, you land on July 26, 2011.   Near as I can tell, that day doesn’t have any significance for Firestorm.  I don’t see any new comics solicited that week that might tie into the Nuclear Man either.   Then I remembered that Brightest Day #24 was originally supposed to ship the week before.  The final issue was delayed by one week.  So let’s do that math again, but start from lunchtime on April 20.  Leaping forward 89 1/2 days lands us on July 19, 2011.  While it’s one day off, it’s worth noting that the Firestorm The Nuclear Man trade paperback ships on July 20, 2011.  So could the countdown clock be a subtle nod to the release of the trade paperback collecting Firestorm’s earliest adventures?  I doubt it, but it’s fun to speculate these conspiracy-like theories.  Also worth noting, 89 1/2 days in “comic book time” might last two years in the real-world.  For example, in “comic book time” Clark Kent has been Superman for only 10 years.  That’s 70+ years worth of real-world adventures packed into just 10 “comic book time” years.   :)

Whether there is hidden meaning in the countdown clock or not, this epilogue page provided a great cliffhanger that I can’t wait to see resolved!  Now that Brightest Day is over, what did you all think of the Firestorm segments?

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8 Comments

  1. liquidcross says:

    You pretty much nailed it. It’s an opening if they choose to go the ongoing (or even miniseries) route, and if they don’t…well, 90 days is a LONG time in comicspace.

  2. matt ishii says:

    they could do the mike carey pitch with this! They take 4 new people into the matrix to balance the matrix. And Stein could be the dead guy from the original proposal!

  3. Firestormfan89 says:

    I really enjoyed reading your last several posts, Shag. Great recaps of BN and BD. I feel encouraged after reading the cliffhanger that at the least Firestorm will soon be featured prominently in some capacity, hopefully another ongoing series. If I had to guess about the 89 and a half days thing, I would speculate that is about how long Flashpoint is going to last so hopefully after that we will see more of our favorite Nuclear Man.

  4. Caz says:

    Well the Aquaman ongoing series has already been announced so I’m not sure if that is going to hold any kind of semblance to Brightest Day besides the characters. Hopefully we’ll see Beaty and Clark return to Ronnie & Jason for a Firestorm limited/ongoing.

  5. Shag says:

    Thanks for the comments guys! I appreciate the feedback.

    @liquidcross – 90 days in comics is even longer than 24 hours in the TV show 24.

    @Firestormfan89 – You’re probably correct about the 89 days and Flashpoint. I was just having fun with my conspiracy theories.

    @matt ishii – Good thought, but I’m pretty sure the Mike Carey pitch is forever in the “what could have been” pile. I hope the Professor is still utilized in some capacity, even if it’s just in flashbacks.

    @Caz – I’m all about bringing back Clark & Beaty! That would be great!

    Thanks again!
    Shag

  6. Still annoyed at the handling of Professor Stein. Not just that he died, but the lack of significant use of Stein since he and Jason got together. He spent more time being someone or another’s prisoner than he did actually being Firestorm (there was that “Year” preceding “One Year Later,” but we barely got to SEE any of that!).

  7. Spinks says:

    Hey Shag

    Where’s the count-down counter?

    I figured you would be adding it to the page any day now. I’ve been expecting to see this for days because I’m not good with calendar Math.

    Spinks

  8. Shag says:

    @Spinks – I was totally going to set-up a countdown clock! But once I started thinking about “comic book time” versus “real time”, I realized that once it reached zero nothing would have happened with Firestorm in the comics yet. Who knows, if more people ask, maybe I’ll go ahead and set one up anyway.

    Thanks!

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