Who'd Like A Cocktail? #3

For the second time in a row, a week containing a Garth Ennis comic - two, actually, and one of them was a Garth Ennis DCU comic at that - gets beaten to the dubious position of starring in a Who'd Like A Cocktail? post.

As strong as JLA/Hitman #1 was and as wonderful as it was to read about Tommy Monaghan again, it was Justice Society of America #9 that worked best for me this week. Other highlights included Streets of Glory #1 (the other Ennis written comic), the Green Arrow And Black Canary Wedding Special #1 and the better than expected Countdown To Mystery #1.

Each of these first issues, though, were beaten by JSoA #9 which showed once again why Geoff Johns is such a good writer. There are moments of comedy such as Flash gently warning off a firefighter from Stargirl or the charity boxing match between father and son Wildcats as well as the gruesome scene of an old Titans villain, Goth, being discovered murdered. In each scene, Johns ably manages the characters, staying true to each of them. His writing - particularly his dialogue - has come a long way since the less than brilliant Day of Judgement back in 1999. He now has the measure of the characters and in particular one that, when he was writing JSA, he was reluctant to introduce.

Power Girl was not his favourite character but he has, over the years, obviously grown to respect her, recently installing her as chairwoman of the JSA. She may still be finding her feet a little - as illustrated by the brief hesitation below - when it comes to making decisions but that's to be expected when starting a new job.

With the new story arc, Thy Kingdom Come, beginning, Power Girl is likely to play a major part; the story involves the arrival into the DCU of the Kingdom Come Superman - since the last issue of 52, I guess that should be the Earth-22 Superman. Incidentally, the last page of JSoA #9 is a clear pastiche of the cover of Crisis On Infinite Earths #7 and as such has been added to the relevant page over at The Annotated Infinite Crisis.

With this new Kal-El - older and looking like her Earth-2 cousin who died at the end of Infinite Crisis - coming into her life, Power Girl is likely to have a difficult time ahead of her.