Who'd Like A Cocktail? #14

Another tricky decision this week as to who got the Cocktail post: Countdown To Final Crisis #14 was a good, solid read as things really seem to be kicking into gear now; Blue Beetle #23 was as entertaining as ever; Teen Titans #55 stepped out of the shadow of Geoff Johns at last and moved various characters forward; and the lives of doctors Gordon and Nelson in Countdown To Mystery #5 took a turn for the strange.

Despite those and a bunch of other titles I picked up - not least the second trade paperback of the Tangent Comics line - I just had to go for Uncle Sam And The Freedom Fighters #5 for a whole bunch of reasons, not least of which was the gorgeous cover and the fact that the very first page contains the immortal line: "She wants me to father a thousand explosive insect children."

This title's been splendid from day one and has built on the strong characters introduced in the first mini-series that followed the events of Infinite Crisis. Both in the first mini-series and this one, the writers Justin Gray and Jimmy Palmiotti haven't shied away from being brutal with their characters - I think the first series had one of the highest body counts of recent years and even with today's wholesale slaughter at DC that's saying something.

And it looks like the deaths aren't about to stop.

The line about "explosive children" comes from the Human Bomb who is being forced by his one-time team-mate Red Bee to impregnate her following her transformation into an alien insect/human hybrid. Stripped of his containment suit, however, the Human Bomb does what a bomb does and begins to countdown to an explosion.

Mind controlling her team-mates and using it as a way of removing female competition, Red Bee commands Miss America - a character that Gray and Palmiotti brought back into the DCU in the first Uncle Sam series - to absorb the Bomb's blast and fly into space before it explodes, presumably killing the all American heroine. Of course, with no body to be cradled in someone's arms, there's always the chance that Miss America could return but based on the writers' previous series, I don't hold out much hope.

Something else Gray and Palmiotti have done with these series is the introduction of new heroes and villains, some brand new, others as the latest incarnations of older heroes.

The latest Firebrand, along with the other members of the team have been stuck to the walls and, once they've been forced to mate with Red Bee, will be eaten by the resulting progeny. Breaking free, Black Condor manages to attack Red Bee and stoically pronounces that for everyone to be freed, Red Bee must die.

Ever the liberal, Firebrand doesn't agree while one of the newest heroes introduced - the new Captain Triumph - has no qualms whatsoever about Condor's rough treatment of his former team-mate as can be seen in the picture.

Condor's efforts, though, are for nothing as the mind-controlled Human Bomb attacks him only to be commanded by Red Bee to kill him.

It's a great series and I for one would be well behind an ongoing written by Gray and Palmiotti and illustrated by Renato Arlem who, despite his tendency to use the same scene several times in one issue, is a damn fine artist.