Green Lantern #52 Notes Done

A little later than expected (due to my doing a parachute jump last Saturday which was just superb, and then driving to and from London yesterday to see - among others - the great Alan Moore himself performing stand-up comedy!) but the notes are up for Green Lantern #52 over at the Annotated Blackest Night.

Typically, the last issue of Blackest Night is out tomorrow and I'm away for the weekend coming so who knows when I'll have chance to get the notes done.

Who'd Like A Cocktail? #77

Kilowog comes up with an interesting expletive in Green Lantern #52

• Black Terror #9 - Phil Hester obviously learnt his writing skills at the Kevin Smith School of Getting as Many Words as Possible On To The Page; this all seemed a little crammed in, especially at the start, with no real pay-off except the reveal that Black Terror's secret wish was . . . a ghostly flying pirate ship.
• Green Lantern #52 - Sinestro the White Lantern; John Stewart being cool and collected; Nekron suffering his first real loss; and on top of that, the reveal that Compassion is a many-tentacled thing.
• Justice League: The Rise of Arsenal #1 - come on, did we really need to see what Lian went through?
• Power Girl #10 - the circle is almost complete as Ultrahumanite returns to give Power Girl grief . . . in the body of Terra! "The banana and bad behaviour", "What have you done with Terra's brain?" . . . damn I'm going to miss this team when they go.
• The Stand: Soul Survivors #5 - the adaptation gets to the halfway point and the good guys are on the move.

And what made me smile:

Power Girl's team have a little dig at themselves!

Friday Night Fights - The Winners

The winners of the previous rounds of Friday Night Fights will be up this evening at Spacebooger, preparing you, me and everyone else for next week's Prize Fight where everyone who won a round has to compete one last time.

Remember, head over and vote!

So Should He Call You 'Wart?

Last week's issue of Green Lantern Corps contained a conversation between Lanterns Kilowog and John Stewart which contained a line that made me wince and remember something from years gone by.

In the midst of the battle with the Black Lanterns, Stewart and Kilowog discuss the approaching planet of Xanshi which Stewart has a history with and is determined to stop. And then this crops up:

Now I don't know where you're reading this from (probably America as most of my hits come from the States) but here in dear old Britain, the word "wog" has something of a history and nothing about it is good. From the Wikipedia article on the word:

"Wog in the UK is usually regarded as a racially offensive slang word referring to dark skinned, non-white people from Africa or Asia. It can be applied to any darker-skinned people, but is particularly applied to Afro-Caribbeans, as well as immigrants from the Indian subcontinent. Use of the word is discouraged in Britain, and most dictionaries refer to the word with the caution that it is derogatory and offensive."

Now I'm not for one second suggesting that either John Stewart or through him the writer Pete Tomasi is referring to Kilowog in a derogatory or offensive matter; in all likelihood it's a simple mistake: Tomasi simply contracted Kilowog's name without realising the implications.

It's a shame, though, as it certainly jarred with me.

Twenty years ago (dear god, have I been reading comics that long?!) the same situation cropped up in Justice League America #45 when Blue Beetle approached Kilowog with a crazy idea (they did that a lot back then) which Kilowog was initially reluctant to go through with. The whole thing started with this:

Back then, writers Keith Giffen and J.M. DeMatteis used the same contraction and made it clear Kilowog wasn't in favour of it.

Shame Pete Tomasi hadn't read that issue.

Who'd Like A Cocktail? #76

Quote from Etrigan the Demon in The Brave And The Bold #32

• Battlefields: The Firefly And His Majesty #1 - the continuing story of the Tankies, I can't help but wonder if this relatively light hearted war tale is going to end nastily.
• Booster Gold #30 - Dan Jurgens's run is fast coming to an end with most of his loose ends wrapped up. I like his writing and his art so it's a shame to see him go but at least Booster, Goldstar and Rip will be in good hands with Giffen and DeMatteis . . . I hope! And hey, woah, hold on there - Hypertime?!
• The Brave And The Bold #32 - when did Aquaman go all Star Trek Vulcan on us? That whole "My thoughts are your thoughts... my will is your will." is straight out of a Vulcan mind meld . . . and I know that even without being a Star Trek fan!
• Green Arrow #31 - so here begins the Fall of Green Arrow who, annoyingly, has been turned into the same kind of jerk he was years ago: arrogant and selfish, unwilling to listen to his friends - I thought he'd grown out of that with the whole marriage to Black Canary? Oh, and now we dark Speedy? Poor old Green Arrow . . .
• Green Lantern Corps #46 - something of a holding issue to get to Blackest Night #8 but still a good read; could have done with more Anti-Monitor but that's just me!

And what made me smile:

Big on Star Trek references this week by the look of it! Never thought of Guy Gardner as a Trekkie but I can go with it.

Notes On Green Lantern Corps #46 Published

Just updated the Annotated Blackest Night with notes for Green Lantern Corps #46

as well as updating the Character Map.

Enjoy!

New Power Girl Creative Team Announced

Cover to Power Girl #13

And, for me at least, it's not good news.

Over at the DCU blog, the new creative team for Power Girl has been released - art wise, the new artist Sami Basri (whose cover for issue #13 is on the right) looks promising. It's nice and clean although they've gone for the classic costume rather than the latest Amanda Conner design but hey, it's not terrible.

Writing wise . . . well, there's where I kinda got dismayed. Replacing the fun and witty Jimmy Palmiotti and Justin Grey is Judd Winick.

Judd.

Fricking.

Winick.

I'm not a fan and nor are many of the commenters over at the original post linked above. The very first comment simply reads "Nooooooooooooooooooooooooo...." a sentiment I can heartily get behind.

I'm not a fan of his work on Green Lantern or Green Arrow - though I stuck out both runs because of the characters - and the Trials of Shazam left me cold. I'm just waiting for Power Girl's supporting characters to become relevant . . . we'll discover Terra is gay or PG's cat is HIV or Dr Mid-Nite's blindness is cause by global warming or something. I've nothing against serious fiction dealing with real issues but not in the pages of Power Girl, thank you very much.

Winick, of course, is also writing the up-coming Justice League: Generation Lost so of course he'll be tying Power Girl into that . . . which makes me wonder if this is the only reason he's managed to get this damn writing gig.

Damn it all . . .

Friday Night Fights - The Devil You Say

Here's a little experiment - for the last two weeks, the votes of Friday Night Fights have been kind enough to go my way, giving me not only my first wins in the competition, but also two consecutive wins which is really nice.

Both my winning fights featured Green Lantern Hal Jordan getting his arse kicked - surely that can't be a coincidence? But what's the contributing factor here: Green Lantern or Hal Jordan?

In an attempt to work out the winning formula, I present to you a different Green Lantern, this time it's Kyle Rayner, being smacked around:

Never mind the mention of Venusian womb-mates, that's Kyle facing off against the DCU's big bad devil, Neron.

And I don't care where you're from or what your name is, but that's gonna hurt no matter what!

And how humiliating is that? Battered and left senseless just to pass a message along.

So remember, folks:

Head over to Spacebooger, check out the other fights, and vote, vote, vote! (Okay, you can only vote once but you know what I mean.

Yet another Green Lantern bashing first appeared in Underworld Unleashed cover dated December 1995, written by Mark Waid, with art by Howard Porter and Dennis Janke.

This Is Almost Embarrassing

Cool - I won last week's Friday Night Fight! Second win in a row!

I've been participating for some time and these are the first ones I've ever won. Looks like I've stumbled upon the winning formula . . . Hal Jordan getting his arse kicked!

Who'd Like A Cocktail? #75

Gee, would you look at that - 75th edition of Who'd Like A Cocktail?

• Doom Patrol #8 - a quick one page summary of Blackest Night and Giffen's right back to his own storyline. It should be nutty enough to please fans of the old Morrison run but, for my money, nowhere near as needlessly pretentious. This is good, solid (if weird) superheroics.
• Justice League: Rise And Fall Special - poor old Green Arrow's gone and done a bad thing and all his friends are angry with him and "have to stop him -- before he kills again!" Strange as it's not the first time he's done it but there you go. I like the character so will tag along for the ride and see what happens.
• Magog #7 - with the whole Mother of Magog sub plot bubbling away, it looks like next issue we get a visit from Tommy Tomorrow and the Planeteers!
• Punishermax #5 - the Kingpin storyline concludes, nicely leading in to the next round where Bullseye looks to be getting a pseudo-Colin Farrell makeover. This is shaping up to be a cool series, and not just for the Steve Dillon artwork.
• Secret Six #19 - Black Alice and Ragdoll getting sweet? Awww, how nice! That last page, though? Can't wait for the next issue!

And what made me smile:

Never has a next issue box looked so good! (Giffen + Doom Patrol) x Ambush Bug = Awesome!

All Change For Power Girl

Cover to Power Girl #10

Regular readers know that Power Girl is easily one of my favourite comic books right now - it's consistently fun to read, has excellent dialogue and (this almost goes without saying) the art by Amanda Conner is simply stunning.

So it's a little disappointing to read here that the creative team of Jimmy Palmiotti, Justin Gray and Conner are leaving after issue #12. From the article, Palmiotti says:

"...Amanda always said she could just commit to the book for a year, and as we got into the series we realized that we just couldn't do the same type of book with another artist at this point and decided it was a good idea to leave with her and give another team a shot."

As the three creators have produced such a good book together it's understandable that if one is leaving the others wouldn't want to carry on with someone else. I've had a quick scan through the forums over at CBR and the main reaction seems to be "Well if they're not writing/drawing the book, I'm dropping it."

I'm disappointed in the creative team change - like I said, I really enjoy Power Girl - but I'll certainly stick with the title following the change, if only to see what the new team (whoever they are) do with Power Girl, her supporting characters and all the rest. Hell, if I can stick with Green Arrow/Black Canary through Kreisberg's run just because I like the characters, I can do it with this title. Again from the article:

The fan favorite writer also added that he hopes readers will stick with the book because the new creative [team] provides lots of "bang for your buck."

"They are a brilliant choice and my only suggestion to them is to keep it all fun."

I know it can be something of a company line to take, welcoming on a new team and saying they're great, but if Palmiotti is giving them the okay then that's got to be an encouragement.

Speculation on the forums about who's taking over is rife: Gail Simone (who's just left Wonder Woman) has been touted as a possible and even Giffen & DeMatteis (which would be great but unlikely) but I guess we wait and see.

Whatever, my thanks for the last few issues to the team and all the best for their future projects.

Friday Night Fights - Beware The Javelin, My Son!

DC has some fantastic villains, many of whom we've seen in this round of Friday Night Fights where Spacebooger has decreed that the bad guys win. The usual arch enemies - the Joker and Lex Luthor - spring to mind, but also the bigger, more cosmic guys: the Anti-Monitor and Darkseid for example.

The Javelin, however, cannot rank amongst them. He's a guy who flies. And throws javelins. That's it.

But that's still enough to kick Green Lantern's arse, though!

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention - those javelins? They're trick javelins!

"Bright-eyes"?!! Is Jordan flirting with him?!

Flirting or not, it isn't going to help him as that damn Javelin has a . . . er . . . javelin just right for Jordan. Damn that yellow impurity!!

And who says Germans don't have a sense of humour?!

As you all seemed to enjoy Jordan getting beaten last week, I figured I'd stick with the theme of DC's current boy wonder being smacked around by second rate villains.

And remember:

Hal Jordan's humiliation first appeared in Green Lantern #173, cover dated February 1984, written by Len Wein with art by his majesty Dave Gibbons.

Why Thank You

Not exactly an Oscar winner's speech, but thanks to everyone who voted in last week's Friday Night Fight - I won!

Now to get something ready for tomorrow night . . .

Annotations For Blackest Night #7 Done

I've just published the annotations for Blackest Night #7 over at (where else?) the Annotated Blackest Night.

Enjoy!

Who'd Like A Cocktail? #74

I read that line above in The Boys and thought "well that's just perfect for this week's low title count Cocktail post."

• The Boys #40 - poor old Wee Hughie's looking to get on the wrong end of a paranoid Butcher who's so used to betrayal and double dealing that he can't contemplate taking something at face value.
• Crossed #9 - the series finishes in the only way it could, I guess, open ended. Even though the forthcoming sequel (more correctly a separate story written in the same fictional world) won't be written by Ennis, I'll be picking that up as well.
• Justice League: Cry For Justice #7 - well, that's that over with then. Not entirely terrible following it's very shaky start but still less than I was expecting from James Robinson. And come on, killing Lian Harper? Jeez, that was low.
• JSA All-Stars #4 - Johnny Sorrow manages to snatch Stargirl and drop her in the Subtle Realms, betraying the rest of the Society at the same time.
• Co-feature Liberty Belle & Hourman - the husband/wife hero/villain teams are still trying to find that damn book; this isn't bad but feels like it is starting to drag a little, a result of the slightly cramped page count in which to tell the story - difficult to get things going in such a short time, but still fun nonetheless.
• Punisher Max: Butterfly one shot - hmmm, okay, this was nicely told up to the end where it didn't seem to do anything. Maybe that was the point?

And what made me smile:

Stool Shadow? *snort* Only Garth Ennis would call a hero Stool Shadow . . .

Friday Night Fights - Good Bad As Gold

These days, following Green Lantern: Rebirth and the success of Blackest Night, Hal Jordan's pretty much one of the golden boys of DC. Of course, that wasn't always the case. Times was, he was getting his arse kicked on a regular basis by a guy wearing a gold suit!

And that full page spread's the opening punch!

The most powerful weapon in the universe and it's no use at all!

And just when Jordan thinks he's got the upper hand, there's that two-fisted punch.

Goldface - a villain so, so in need of the same reboot that Black Hand, Hector Hammond and other Green Lantern villains have had.

Enjoy the fight? Make sure you head over to Spacebooger and vote for your favourite!

Jordan's beat down first appeared in Green Lantern #145, cover dated October 1981, written by Marv Wolfman with art by Joe Staton.

Blackest Night #8 Cover Revealed

The Source, DC Comics' blog, revealed the inked cover of Blackest Night #8 which has Sinestro pretty much front and centre:

Looks like just about everyone with a ring bursting out of Nekron's skull?  Bruce Wayne's skull? Some poor bastard's skull!  Have just noticed, though, that Mera appears to be missing . . . doesn't bode well for her.

Who'd Like A Cocktail? #73

A couple of days late due to having last weekend away, but what the heck - here's what I picked up:

• Black Terror #8 - Black Terror finally finds the original American Crusader and ends up helping create a new one. Not a bad series, but still seems to be lurching from one fight to the next a little.
• Blackest Night #7 - the Guardians' secret is revealed and Sinestro claims his position as the best and biggest Lantern in the Universe! Oh, crap.
• Blackest Night: JSA #3 - Power Girl doesn't give up against the Black Lantern Superman and Mr Terrific comes up with a way of getting rid of the Black Lanterns en masse. Of course, it has to be a one time only deal, doesn't it . . .
• Chronicles of Wormwood: The Last Battle #3 - you'd think the Antichrist having a rough time of it would be the right thing to happen, but you can't help feeling sorry for the poor bugger.
• The Dark Tower: The Battle of Jericho Hill #4 - traitors revealed and friends die as the end of Gilead draws ever nearer.
• Green Arrow #30 - well, so much for the Green Arrow / Black Canary title of this book. Still, new writer J.T. Krul works a good story into the Blackest Night event, and artist Diogenes Neves is such a huge improvement on Sienkiewicz. Hopefully this book will manage to claw it's way back from the last few months.
• Justice Society of America #36 - another alternate future looking back tale, this time with the Nazi's in control. This should be good.
• Project Superpowers: Chapter Two #7 - what seems like four thousand sub-plots are crammed into one issue here but it looks safe to say that Kid Terror's secret is going to come to light soon.
• Teen Titans #80 - as one door opens, another closes. Just as Green Arrow starts to recover, Teen Titans continues its downward slide. The writing here is dreadful: Holocaust spends the whole issue saying how lovely and kind he is then flips in a split second? Wonder Girl and Beast Boy's supposed antagonism is clumsy at best and no-one else seems to do anything.
• Co-feature Ravager - this, on the other hand, is still ticking along nicely with Ravager seeking revenge.

And what made me smile:

You might not get it if you haven't been reading Chronicles of Wormwood: The Last Battle but it made me laugh!

More Blackest Night Annotations Done

Just published the notes for Green Lantern #51, Green Lantern Corps #45 and Blackest Night: JSA #3 over at the Annotated Blackest Night.

I'll be starting on the detailed notes for Blackest Night #7 today.

Enjoy!