Friday Night Fights - Punch Lines

Over at Spacebooger, the fights keep rolling in. This time round, the rules are that I can't use any character I've featured so far - this means Catwoman and Green Lantern Hal Jordan are off limits for the rest of the fights.

This week, then, I've been trawling through some old trades and came across this little gem:

Yep, that's the Creeper facing off against the Joker; it's not often you get to see the Clown Prince of Crime in a fist fight, mainly because he just stands there and gets BIFFED!

Those last couple of panels above might look like the Joker's down and out . . .

. . . but no! That's lead weighted coat tails in action, folks!

And in a quick reversal of fortune, the Joker flips the Creeper head over heels.

Head over to Spacebooger, folks, check out the other fights and remember:

This hilarious (apparently) stand-up fight between stand-ups first appeared in The Joker #3 cover dated September 1975, written by Denny O'Neil with art by Ernie Chan and José Luis García-López.

Jonah Hex Poster

Suddenly, the summer doesn't look so empty.

No Cocktail Post This Week

Not because I'm away or am busy or anything along those lines, rather it's caused by this:

Yep, that's the Eyjafjallajokull volcano in Iceland that's played havoc with air traffic into and out of the UK where I live.

One of the casualties of the recent ban on flights around the UK has obviously been the delivery of comics to this wonderful nation so I have nothing to read this weekend but, on the bright side, should have a bumper batch next week.

Friday Night Fight - Cutting Jordan Some Slack

It's Friday, so that means another Friday Night Fight hosted by Spacebooger.

Over the last few weeks, I've shown Green Lantern Hal Jordan being smacked around by some of the lamest villains I could find but you know what? I still have a fondness for the guy and a while back his books were top of my reading list.

So, just for the hell of it, and to show I don't hate Jordan completely, here he is back in 1993:

That's Mongul kicking him around (literally) shortly after Jordan had discovered the mess Mongul had made of Coast City. This was during the Reign of the Supermen storyline and Jordan had just returned from space to find his home town utterly destroyed. Obviously, he's a bit peeved.

With some ring-constructed armour and the hammer of Steel (who had appeared earlier) Jordan's ready to do this:

Love him or hate him, Jordan used to be a force to be reckoned with so while it might cost me some votes in the poll over at Spacebooger, I'm still happy to use this.

Now remember:

This hammer-in-the-face blow first appeared in Green Lantern #46 cover dated October 1993, written by Gerard Jones, with gorgeous art by M.D. Bright and Romeo Tanghal.

I Have A Confession To Make

I like Batman: The Killing Joke, I really do. I've read it countless times over the years and bought the Deluxe edition a couple of years ago.

Today, though, I've noticed for the very first time that the Joker's wearing a hat on the cover.

How weird is that?

What's Good For One . . .

Just read the CBR report on the DC Brightest Day Panel which was entertaining on the whole but one thing leapt out which I thought I'd just throw out here:

The topic of characters NOT brought back to life in "Blackest Night" went across the panel and the crowd, and Sattler asked if there was anyone fans were hoping would be brought back "other than Ralph and Sue Dibny and Ted Kord." Several fans noted Damage and one asked for Aztek. When it came to the Blue Beetle, [James] Robinson said that it was because he died a dramatic heroes death and because people liked Jaime Reyes so much, they decided it was best to leave it be. "I love Ted Kord too, but to resurrect that character would be a terrible thing."

Now I happen to agree that the Jaime Reyes Blue Beetle is a great character - shame his ongoing series didn't run as long as I'd like but it was cool and he's still getting a little bit of exposure in Teen Titans and the upcoming Justice League: Generation Lost.

But the line about deciding to leave Ted Kord as one of the dead because of the heroic nature of his death . . . that doesn't really wash.

Here's the last part of that quote again but with a couple of names changed:

When it came to the Flash, [James] Robinson said that it was because he died a dramatic heroes death and because people liked Wally West so much, they decided it was best to leave it be. "I love Barry Allen too, but to resurrect that character would be a terrible thing."

That doesn't really work, does it? I'm loathe to get in to rating how heroic one character's death was compared to another, but Allen died in Crisis on Infinite Earths for the sake of the entire Multiverse! It doesn't get more dramatic than that and yet, despite people liking Wally West so much, Allen gets to come back.

I'm not complaining about which character has or hasn't returned, just the ridiculous, contradictory reasoning behind leaving one character dead and allowing another to return.

Do what you need to do, DC, but is it too much to ask for consistency?

Justice League: Generation Lost #5

Who'd have thought I'd be pushing a Judd Winick written comic? I'm just a sucker for Soviet-style artwork I guess.

Who'd Like A Cocktail? #79

Catman shows money is no protection in Secret Six #20

• Booster Gold #31 - the cover proclaims this issue is The End of an Era! as Dan Jurgens finishes his run as writer/artist on the title. It leaves things in a relatively tidy fashion for Giffen and DeMatteis to pick things up from next issue and starts to work in a little leeway with regards changing the past. Booster himself ends up feeling better than he has recently, Goldstar's back on the team and Rip Hunter's heading off to look for Batman. For me, though, the nicest touch was Booster visiting Siberia in 1908 to witness the Tunguska event without actually being part of it. Too often in time-travelling stories, the characters have to be revealed to be part of the event (witness Goldstar being the model for the Mona Lisa a few issues back) and it was just nice to have Booster and Rip watching something without the tired reveal of a twist. Anyway, sad to see Jurgens go but looking forward to Giffen and DeMatteis!
• Brightest Day #0 - a set-up issue as expected, this laid out the characters that have returned from the dead in Blackest Night, putting them in place for their individual stories that take place in either Brightest Day itself or other DCU titles. The ones holding most interest for me are Hawkman and Hawkgirl, Max Lord and the JLI, Martian Manhunter, Jade and the Green Lanterns, Firestorm and Sinestro.
• Green Arrow #32 - another end of an era as Green Arrow's story comes to a close. I'm a little peeved that he and Black Canary are splitting up again and that Ollie's becoming the lone hunter again but, for my sins, I'll be picking up the new series as well - it's the characters I follow more than the writer in most cases so I'll stick along for the ride. It was nice to see Canary vocalise what most readers have been saying, that Arrow's killing of Prometheus was nothing new and that he'd killed before.
• Magog #8 - as guest stars go, The Shield seems a little . . . C-list to say the least, and the Planeteers sub-plot rolls on.
• PunisherMax #6 - oh this is good! I don't know if the art of Steve Dillon just makes Jason Aaron channel Garth Ennis but this series is rolling along nicely. Bullseye's never a character I've had much to do with (not straying that much into the Marvel Universe) but this version works a treat!
• Secret Six #20 - hard to believe Catman was a joke character only a few years ago. Here he's driven, methodical and utterly ruthless. As the rest of the team go to help him, Bane and Jeanette look to hire others. I guess this means a second Six will be kicking around over the next few issues and when the originals return, there's bound to be a fight!

And what made me smile:

Bullseye does away with that whole "kill you with a toothpick" thing in splendid fashion!

Friday Night Fight - Physics = Pain

So here we go with the first round of the new Friday Night Fights as promoted by Spacebooger - Minimum Clonage where we can only use one character once. So who am I going for?

Yep, that's Catwoman, probably DC's premier femme fatale - thing is, this isn't a Batman book . . .

Nor is this a physics text book despite the interesting fact Catwoman produces . . .

Oh man . . . don't get me wrong, I'm no lover of Prometheus here but just about every guy should show some sympathy with him at this point . . . the speed of sound between his legs . . . ouch . . .

I'm guessing "Huh. Wuh. Tuhh." is all the answer Catwoman's going to get right now.

This fine display of physics in action comes from JLA #17 cover dated April 1998, written by Grant Morrison with art by Arnie Jorgenson, Dave Meikis and Mark Pennington.

Remember folks:

Click on the picture to go direct to the fight which will be up at 4PM (EST) on Friday.

New Time Masters Mini-Series

Cover to Time Masters: Vanishing Point #1

I'm not a massive Batman fan - I tend to pick up trades every now and then but nothing ongoing - so most of what I know about the whole death and return of Batman comes from Final Crisis and reading various articles on the internet. As such, I won't be picking up the forthcoming The Return of Bruce Wayne; I'll probably wait a year or so and grab it once it's collected.

However, I will be getting Time Masters: Vanishing Point, the new six issue mini-series from Dan Jurgens revealed on the DCU blog.

I've long been a fan of Jurgens - more for his art than his writing if I'm honest - and I like both Booster Gold and Rip Hunter in the current Booster Gold series so it makes sense to pick it up. Plus I've recently been going through a few of the Superman trades I have, in particular the death and return of the Superman where Jurgens played a major part, and there's mention of both Waverider and Vanishing Point itself in the books. Again, only reading Superman titles in trades leaves me with only a small amount of knowledge about Vanishing Point and the Linear Men but both are concepts that I find intriguing - people at the end of time keeping an eye on things is a brilliant idea so I'm interested in what Jurgens does with those in this mini-series.

And, of course, there's this line from the article linked above which describes Time Masters: Vanishing Point as:

"a story chock full of clues that point toward the next major DCU event"

Not that it comes as any real surprise but just a couple of weeks after Blackest Night finishes and in the week Brightest Day starts, there's already talk of the next major event.

They're not hanging around in DC are they?

New Fight, New Rules

Fred over at Spacebooger has released the rules for the next round of Friday Night Fights called:

What's Minimum Clonage? The rules this time state that once a fighter has used one character in any round, they cannot use the same character in any further rounds. As I scored a couple of victories in the last fights by having Hal Jordan being beaten by Goldface and Javelin, my plans to use Jordan's humiliating defeats time and time again has, alas, been scuppered.

Guess I'll have to find something else to use.

Remember, folks - every Friday you can head over to Spacebooger, check out all the fights and vote for your favourite. Fred's said he has dozens if not hundreds of visits to the fights but so very few people vote - democracy in action, I guess!

You don't have to vote for me, but please come along and vote for someone!

Who'd Like A Cocktail? #78

You don't miss it till it's gone, do you? I've had no net access for the last couple of days and at the moment it's kinda patchy so I'm waiting on an engineer to arrive tomorrow. No Cocktail post last week either as I was away. Anyhow, in the meantime: comics!

• The Boys #41 - Oh poor Wee Hughie's getting in deeper and deeper and Butcher's thinking the worst. Paranoia's a bad thing, people.
• Doom Patrol #9 - I'm really enjoying this series so am just waiting for the cancellation notice to arrive. Like The All New Atom, Blue Beetle and Shadowpact over the last couple of years, this is a fun comic that's probably not going to survive more's the pity. Trust me, people: if you're not getting this, add it to your pull list before it's too late.
• JSA All-Stars #5 - I'm liking Anna Fortune, the All-Stars' new spell caster; she's presumably British (unless my ear for dialogue's completely off) and has a cool look. More of her, Mr Sturges, more I say!
• Liberty Belle & Hourman co-feature - this is really working out to be kinda cool as well with the two teams . . . er . . . teaming up and bickering. Shame they'll end up as enemies once more after this.
• Project Superpowers: Chapter Two #8 - holy crap! None of them can die! Lady Satan dies and gets a name change; the Green Lama strikes a deal; and the real Kid Terror's reaaaaaaaaaaally pissed off! This series seemed to be wandering for a bit but it looks like it's back on track.

And what made me smile:

I love that badge (button for the American readers) that Ambush Bug's wearing! And why does that symbol on the belt look so damn familiar . . . ? Anyone?

Blackest Night #8 Annotations Done!

I've just published the notes for the final issue of Blackest Night over at (where else?) the Annotated Blackest Night.

There's a handful of unknowns that I need to collate on to the Help Needed page at the site; I need to update the Character Map but other than that, it's pretty much done and dusted.

Hope you like it!

Maybe now I can get round to finishing the annotations for Underworld Unleashed over at the Annotated DC Project . . .

Friday Night Fights - Green Lantern Vs The Los Angeles Chronicle

This is it: the championship bout, the final fight of Spacebooger's round of battles where the bad guys win. Those of us who were lucky enough to win one of the twelve initial rounds have to post a final fight tonight to decide the overall winner and I'm once more going for the lucky rabbit's foot that is Green Lantern Hal Jordan being defeated by the lamest villain I could find:

That's the Shark that GL's going up against this time, a villain who had a small appearance in the latest Green Lantern series as a bigger and badder villain but he's not the enemy that Jordan has to watch out for this time round . . .

GL's power ring might protect him from mortal harm but it's no use against a discarded copy of the Los Angeles Chronicle!

And with the Lantern distracted and confused, the Shark takes advantage of the Chronicle's attack and pretty much wipes Lantern's mind . . .

. . . leaving him covered by the Chronicle, "the very instrument of his downfall"!

Now I want all of you (yes, even you at the back) to head over to Spacebooger's Baddest of The Bad post (which will be up at 4pm EST / 8pm GMT) check out the other fights and vote for your favourite!

The brightest light in the DC Universe was knocked out by a simple newspaper (okay, the Shark helped) in Green Lantern #175 cover dated April 1984, written by Len Wein with art by the wonderful Dave Gibbons.