Who'd Like A Cocktail? #39

A bumper haul this week:

• Battlefields: The Tankies #2 - if it weren't for my self-imposed family friendly position on this blog, there's several scenes I'd love to quote from this issue!
• Crossed #5 - and the same goes for this one!
• Final Crisis Aftermath: Ink #1 - much as enjoyed Sturges and Willingham's Final Crisis Aftermath: Run, I wonder if DC saved the best till last? This was really good.
• Green Lantern #41 - Agent Orange gets an origin story of sorts.
• Justice League of America #33 - with the news that Dwayne McDuffie's been fired from writing this title, I have to wonder what's going to happen to it. Is Geoff Johns going to take over as has been rumoured?
• Justice Society of America #27 - and talking of Johns, Jerry Ordway's fill-in story's not bad at all.
• The Last Days of Animal Man #1 - picked up on the off chance it might be good and, for a first issue, it's not bad.
• The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: Century: 1910 - wooyay! Alan Moore and Kevin O'Neill! Damn this is good!
• The Stand: American Nightmares #3 - the trip through the Lincoln Tunnel - one of the best scenes in the original book - and they managed to nail it here!
• Teen Titans #71 - poor old Ravager's out on her own but at least she's got the back-up feature next month.
• Trinity #52 - and that's it, it's all over and, for me, was a better Crisis than that Final one.

And what made me smile this week:

An Alan Moore one-liner from The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: Century: 1910

A King-Sized What?

I know this is the sort of thing covered by What Were They Thinking (hopefully the site'll be back up soon) and may even have appeared on there already, but when I read this a couple of days ago, I just knew I had to post it.

That's 1940's slang written in the mid-80's and spoke by Tarantula in the pages of All-Star Squadron #43.

How times change!

Fan Made Green Lantern Trailer

Holy crap, this looks superb!

Who Was That Masked Woman?

I've been re-reading JSA over the last couple of days, cataloging the series for the lovely people over at Collectorz.com and have come across something that doesn't really sit right with me: the identity of the Crimson Avenger.

One of the things I like about the Collectorz comic database is that it allows you to record which characters appear in particular issues and, as I was updating JSA #33 onwards, I came across the fantastically designed Crimson Avenger. Now in both the Collectorz database and elsewhere, this version of the Avenger is listed with a secret identity/alter ego of one Jill Carlyle.

Trouble is, I can't find anywhere - in a comic I mean - that definitively states that's her name.

The issues of JSA would be the most obvious place to start, of course, but throughout the Stealing Thunder storyline and #52 and #53 where she takes Wildcat to task, no mention is made of her real name.  She simply appears, does what she needs to do, and vanishes in a haze of red mist.

The Wikipedia entry also lists her as Carlyle although it does go so far as to include the line "She... might be called Jill Carlyle." (that's my emphasis there) as well as the data panel entry which lists her alter ego as "Unknown."

The Comic Book Database lists her as Carlyle with no mention of where that name comes from but the DC Comics Encyclopedia lists her alter ego as unknown as well:

That scan's from the updated and expanded version, by the way.

So where has Jill Carlyle come from?  The closest I can come to is this page from JSA #53:

Click on it to make it readable. In that page, the Avenger relives the murder of Jill Kyle before heading off, presumably, to track down Kyle's killer because that's what she does. That's not her grave, just that off the latest victim she has to avenge.

If anyone knows where the name of Jill Carlyle came from, please post a comment and let me know.

Who'd Like A Cocktail? #38

Been a bit quiet round here lately as I've just been manic in work. Still, least there's always comics to look forward to on the weekend!

• Black Terror #4 - a good solid end to what's been a good, solid story; shame the last issue was a little delayed but the wrap-up was worth it.
• The Boys: Herogasm #1 - "Krow eht tfahs . . eldarc eht sllab . . . " One for the Preacher fans!
• The Brave And The Bold #23 - what are the chances Magog will be turning up in Booster Gold's title sometime soon?
• Final Crisis Aftermath: Dance #1 - "Suspension of disbelief: ON." Best line in the comic and it was on the first page; the rest was so-so from there on in.
• Green Arrow And Black Canary #20 - oh, so it's all Dinah's fault is it? Riiiiiiiiiiight, of course it is.
• Secret Six #9 - why isn't Gail Simone writing everything in the DCU?
• Trinity #51 - the big three are back to normal at last.
• Vigilante #6 - that Vigilante: he's all "I'm gonna kill Jericho," then when he has the chance . . . actually, I think he might have done something worse than kill him.

And what made me smile:

Bane from Secret Six #9 who tried, bless him, he really did!

Blackest Night: Superman #1

Co-Feature Blues

I'm kinda sad that the new Captain Atom co-feature will appear in Action Comics. I like the character - have done since the very early days - and after the mauling he had during Countdown where he became Monarch once more and presided over the destruction of an entire Earth, I'm interested as to how he's dealt with.

The interview here at Newsarama with the story's writers, James Robinson and Greg Rucka, is interesting and grabs my interest more than a little. Greg Rucka says:

"I can tell you tight now that when the co-feature starts, the fan reaction is going to be "What the ---?" I think that there will be a contingent that will be ticked off by it - there’s always that contingent who, when they find something different that’s not explained immediately, they become furious. So the furious brigade will be burning us in effigy from the start, but it makes sense - there’s a reason for it all."

and, a little later:

"NRAMA: Would it be fair to say that there’s a fair amount of redemption in this story, or a putting him back on the tracks in a sense?


GR: I think it’s very fair to say that, in many ways, this is a very redemptive story."

all of which makes me rather depressed.  I'm not a huge an of Superman and have never picked up his titles as an ongoing, just the occasional trade paperback. And with the state of the economy right now, there's no real way I can pick up a new title just for the back-up story.

So I guess I'll have to settle for reading about it on the net and hope against hope that the Captain Atom story will get collected some point down the line.

Who'd Like A Cocktail? #37

A quick trip through this week's comics:

• Booster Gold #20 - enjoyable despite Booster's inconsistency when it comes to hitting women (see previous post)
• Dark Tower: Fall of Gilead #1 - all this trouble over a stolen breakfast fruit. Oh, wait a second . . .
• Final Crisis Aftermath: Escape #1 - anyone else think a "build your own Wonder Woman" is kinda creepy?
• Green Lantern Corps #36 - Sodam'll be fine; after all he's alive in the 31st century in Legion of Three Worlds, right?
• Punisher # 70 - well that all wrapped up quickly, didn't it?
• Titans # 13 - who's taking bets on whether the Titans and their Teen team are dead? Anyone? Anyone at all?
• Trinity #50 - "Oh God. It's not over." Come on, Lois, it's got another two issues to go.

And what made me chuckle this week:

Heh heh - four astronauts fantastically disappointed at their rocket being downed by Booster Gold!

He May Not Be "Into It" . . .

. . . but there's no reason Booster Gold wouldn't hit a woman if he had to.

This week's Booster Gold #20 sees our time hopping hero come up against Task Force X, the 1950's Suicide Squad and, within moments of arriving, he's confronted by Karin Grace who attempts to take him in quietly. Booster, never the most subtle of heroes, suggests he just flies away:

Grace calls him on that decision, challenging him by raising the point that he'd have to hit her which duly gives Booster pause:

and he reluctantly goes with her. After all, it's better than hitting a woman, right?

But as we're dealing with a time-travelling hero, what say we wind the clock back some twenty odd years, back to the late 80's when Booster was still a relatively new character. With the Justice League having been revamped, Booster was brought in to audition for membership in Justice League #4. While he was rejected at first, he ended up battling the Royal Flush Gang, earning a place on the team and even winning approval from Batman.

The Royal Flush Gang was made up of the Ten, Jack, Queen, King and Ace of Spades. Having dispatched most of them, Booster went looking for Ten:

Yeah, Booster, you wouldn't hit a lady, would you? You know, one that isn't attacking you or even armed?

Actually he would because in the future "equality of the sexes is a given so we can hit anyone."

Now I'm not saying Booster should have smacked Grace and high-tailed it out of there, but he shouldn't have agreed to go with her just to avoid hitting a woman.

And the even more annoying thing? Both stories were written by Keith Giffen!

Who'd Like A Cocktail? #36

A quote heavy Cocktail this week:

• The Boys #30 - "Off Iceland, actually." - now that's how you get rid of a problem.
• Final Crisis Aftermath: Run! #1 - "It ain't just nipples, buddy!" - Willingham and Sturges; I love these guys!
• Justice Society of America #26 - "He ate the candles too." - ah, that Starman . . . he's just crazy.
• Marvels: Eye of The Camera #5 - "Storm. With the hair, the outfit." - can't imagine Halle Berry with a white Mohican, somehow.
• Power Girl #1 - "Work on getting me a doorknob." - this was so well worth the wait!
• Seaguy: Slaves of Mickey Eye #2 - "You weren't eight months pregnant when you left this morning!!" - my brain hurts!
• Strange Adventures #3 - "Bad guy down. End of story." - oh, Comet, you're so naive at times.
• Trinity #49 - "What... makes the end of the world like a... Damn... got nothing..." - well I wasn't expecting Krona to do that.

And while there were several things that made me smile or laugh out loud this week, it's got to be Power Girl:

Friday Night Fights - Fist Fight!

To this day, Garth Ennis and John McCrea's Hitman remains one of my favourite comic series of all time. The wild swings between touching, heartfelt stories and laugh out loud moments liberally sprinkled with violence made the series a joy to read month after month.

For tonight's Fight, though, I wanted to feature one of the short lived characters Ennis and McCrea produced: Nightfist! He will hit you with his fist!

Oh yeah, that's One Panel of Pain right there!

Head over to Spacebooger and make sure you vote on your favourite.

This prime example of "does what it says on the tin" was first seen in Hitman #5 cover dated September 1996, written by Garth Ennis with art by John McCrea.

A Little Research Needed

Back in the late 80's, well before the success of 52, Trinity or *cough* Countdown, DC's experiment with weekly comics wasn't as well received.

Action Comics, the one that launched Superman and could be said to have started the whole superhero thing, took their main character and, between #601 and #642, squeezed him into a two page spread while the remaining pages were filled in an anthology style with stories starring other characters. Oh, and they published it weekly.

Action Comics Weekly was an odd title - it had it's minus points like the time when Green Lantern (Hal Jordan) appeared on the Oprah Winfrey show; or there was the laboriously plotted and dreadfully illustrated Black Canary tale Bitter Fruit; but it also had some plus points.

One of them was the gorgeous Mike Mignola cover of #614 shown on the right but there was also that time when Deadman met D.B. Cooper  (who turned out to be the Devil/an alien astronaut); it had Blackhawk doing what he does best (flying planes and trying to pull anything in a skirt); and had Catwoman frame Holly Robinson's husband for the murder of two security guards which she threw out of a hotel room window to their deaths, all in retaliation for him killing Holly.  That's right - Holly died and Catwoman killed people.

Re-reading them recently, though, I did come across something that made me chuckle. I've picked up the woeful attempts of American writers to come up with believable British dialogue before in the Cor Blimey Guv'nor posts and while this isn't speech, it's the same sort of thing:

That's Speedy and Nightwing rushing to save the life of an ambassador who's attending a rally for the Labour party. That's Labour party.

See, over here, we spell that L-A-B-O-U-R.

Don't even get me started on using the Union Flag as a symbol of Labour . . .

Who Is Batgirl?

I don't read the Bat-titles so I've no real idea what's going on over there except when big events - like Batman: R.I.P. - intrude on the DCU. When I saw this over at The Source:

I admit I was a little intrigued. I know about the Oracle: The Cure mini series that's happening (though not what's happening in it) and kinda hope that Oracle doesn't return as Batgirl. She's such a good character as she is that it would be a shame, I think, for her to go back to her old alter-ego.

Is it going to be Cassandra Cain? Don't think so - too easy. So who does that leave?

My completely uneducated guess is it'll be Spoiler. I've no evidence, no grounding, no inside (or outside) information - that's simply a guess.

Of course, not reading the Bat-titles, I won't know if I'm right or wrong!

Who'd Like A Cocktail? #35

After last week's miserable haul, I'm certainly glad I went in to get my comics yesterday:

• Battlefields: The Tankies #1 - Garth Ennis and Carlos Ezquerra united once more: does it get much better?
• Blackest Night #0 - why do I think the perfect snack to eat with this comic is a bag of Skittles?
• Final Crisis: Legion Of Three Worlds #3 - didn't Final Crisis finally finish months ago? Crap, that reminds me I have to update the annotations. Still, least we got Conner Kent back, eh? (highlight to read)
  
• Green Lantern #40 - who's joining the Orange Lantern Corps next? The seagulls from Finding Nemo !
• Masquerade #3 - Fighting Yank was a right bastard, wasn't he?
• Teen Titans #70 - more gratuitous butt shots than a year's worth of Ed Benes comics.
• Trinity #48 - Krona gets his ass kicked once more.

And what made me smile this week:

PHENOMENAL COSMIC POWER! Oh yeah!

Now let's see if Caleb  borrows this picture! ;-)

A Eunuch's Gotta Do . . .

What's worse than getting shot by an Italian hitman who's recently been made into a eunuch?

Getting shot in the balls by an Italian hitman who's recently been made into a eunuch. That's more than a little spiteful, not to mention ironic.

Still, that's what you get when Spacebooger  demands One Panel of Pain.

Remember to head over there and check out the other fights and vote on your favourite.

This blood soaked bullet in the balls comes from the pages of Preacher #21 cover dated January 1997, written by Garth Ennis with art by Steve Dillon.