Who'd Like A Cocktail? #127

Power Girl describes Zatanna's magic household goods

Bumper haul this week as I missed last week's delivery.

• BOOSTER GOLD #43 - the end of Giffen & DeMatteis's run on Booster Gold seems a little rushed; he heads to the future, teams up with the Legion and gets cured of his chronal leprosy before heading back home. Flashpoint's up next so it'll be all change for Booster over the next couple of months. Sad to see Giffen & DeMatteis leave as I like their stuff, but it'll be nice to have Dan Jurgens at the helm again.
• BRIGHTEST DAY #24 - you've probably read the issue by now or at least seen news articles about this issue but just in case - spoilers ahoy! Alec Holland's back and, for the first time, he's really, honestly become Swamp Thing and his first task is to whack the snot out of the Black Lantern Swamp Thing from last issue. At the same time, Deadman dies but then returns in his original spirit/ghost form. The heroes who became elementals are returned to their normal forms (though Hawkgirl appears to remain as an air elemental.) There's a bunch of epilogues dealing with several heroes who have their own problems - not least of which is Firestorm who's apparently going to detonate in 90 days - before the big reveal at the end: John Constantine returns to the DCU! I enjoyed Brightest Day on the whole though it did seem to wander a little in the middle and may benefit from a re-reading in one sitting. Roll on Brightest Day: Aftermath.
• GREEN ARROW #11 - another issue which is just a big fight, really. Now that Brightest Day's over with maybe Green Arrow can get back to his own story.
• GREEN LANTERN #65 - Krona manages to subdue Kilowog (though it wouldn't surprise me if the big fella slipped his chains at the end of the tale) while Hal and Guy team up with Kyle and John, each of them becoming different coloured Lanterns. This is a fast moving story, barrelling along at break-neck speed, pulling you along in its wake.
• GREEN LANTERN CORPS #59 - as Ganthet tries to stave off an attack by the Krona-controlled Lanterns, Jordan and the "Crayola cavalry" arrive to help, though the little guy's none too happy with Jordan's rash decision for the four of them to put on blue, indigo, red and yellow power rings. And just when things start looking better, Mogo arrives, blasting all five of them.
• GREEN LANTERN: EMERALD WARRIORS #9 - it's almost an unwritten law: Mogo arrives and someone (in this case Guy Gardner) has to make some quip about him socialising. Can we move past that, please? The four members of the "Crayola cavalry" head beneath Oa's surface to escape Mogo and head towards the central power battery, intent on removing the Parallax entity and thus removing Krona's hold over the GL Corps. They find the original gauntlet and battery created by Krona eons before and then split up, Kyle and John heading to Mogo's surface, Hal and Guy trying to penetrate the battery. Thing is, a bunch of Guardians, now hosts to the other entities, stand in their way.
• JUSTICE LEAGUE: GENERATION LOST #24 - as the JLI face down OMAC Prime, Booster Gold goes toe-to-toe with Max Lord in the big finale battle. Power Girl and Captain Atom arrive and complicate matters (what with OMAC Prime being able to absorb their powers) but it's Blue Beetle who manages to save the day, allowing OMAC Prime to take his powers, knowing that he'll still be in control of them. Captain Atom forces Max Lord to undo the global mind wipe but before the JLI can capture him, the wily sod teleports out. A couple of weeks later and he's on YouTube (or the DCU equivalent) telling the world he's a lovely man and the JLI are heroes. Batman and Booster obviously don't believe him which leads to the wonderful news I mentioned on Friday: a new JLI book! Despite this series having its ups and downs (which I'll be coming back to later) on the whole it's been pretty good and while I'd rather someone else write the new JLI book (Giffen and DeMatteis aren't doing anything now that they've left Booster Gold...) if it has to be Winick I can live with that.
• JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #56 - has Congorilla become more British over the last issue or two? All the "Tally ho!" and "Codswallop!" make this issue a great read from a dialogue point of view but it doesn't really save it from being something of a sprawling, loose mash-up of scenes leading to a shock last page that . . . well, isn't much of a shock. Not a bad issue, but nowhere near as good as it should be.
• JUSTICE SOCIETY OF AMERICA #50 - the extra sized issue has several tales of the JSA the first, Cornerstone, showing how modern heroes were inspired (directly or otherwise) by their predecessors though Aquaman's apparent link to the Flash comics is a little forced and makes no sense and Wonder Woman being seen as a new pin-up in the mould of Liberty Bell denigrates both of them. Infinitum appears to start off on the old Earth-2 (how else to explain Huntress fighting with Infinity, Inc?) before going on to make the biggest change in terms of story, introducing a new, tougher Per Degaton. Truth & Justice examines the McCarthy-era hearing that forced the JSA to retire although in this version they appear to ignore the hearing and pledge to carry on which is something of a ret-con. Still, not a bad story, spoiled only by Howard Chaykin's preference to give everyone huge faces with massive chins. Inaugural details Dr. Fate's return and Flash becoming Mayor of Monument Point as well as the new Degaton's attack on the JSA. Sadly, it also refutes the cover which shows Green Lantern Alan Scott in his normal costume. I saw that and thought "Yay! They've ditched that hideous white and green thing he wore last issue." No such luck; it's still there.
• POWER GIRL #23 - the dinosaur bashing is wrapped up very quickly (and off-panel as well) as Power Girl and Zatanna team up to take down Siphon. Despite facing a foe who uses the same method of attack as Zatanna - spells spoken backwards - neither of them think to cover his mouth as their first mode of attack which seems a bit dim. Still, it's all finished quickly before the reveal at the end of Power Girl's new public persona as a red-head in glasses which seems to work. Another fun issue, I still get surprised when I read the credits and find Winick's writing this book.
• TEEN TITANS #94 - hmmm, not sure about this one. Raven appeared to have a bit of a freak out, intimating that new girl Solstice isn't all she seems, and leading to another spat between her and Beast Boy. Various team members are spirited away and taken to a big, bad demon who wants to get back to Earth and indulge his wrath. All a bit so-so, really.
• ZATANNA #12 - a smart and funny done-in-one, this has Zatanna touring San Francisco before finding a murder scene and coming up against a killer who can turn back time. The solution's neatly done and it's great to see a hero actually having fun while taking down a bad guy. The only stumbling block is the English bad guy's dialogue but I can overlook that because of the lovely art and the sheer enjoyment of this story.

And what made me smile:

Hal and Guy share an intimate moment.