Who'd Like A Cocktail? #133

What some people will do to get a promotion

With all the DC relaunch / reboot news over the last week or two I figured I'd run a quick poll to gauge the feelings of my lovely readers - check it out at the top of the page.
In the meantime, here's my usual look at my comics this week with Flashpoint ruling the roost:

• BOOSTER GOLD #45 - Booster stumbles round fighting Doomsday for a while before finding out what's happened to the world he knew. Or rather figuring it out . . . really, really quickly. I know Booster's nowhere near as dumb as many people believe but man, he out Batmanned Batman this issue. There's a nice twist as to who's controlling Doomsday in this world as well: turns out to be Nate Adam, the regular DCU's Captain Atom. Of course, they don't control him for long leaving Booster in the same cliffhanger position as last issue.
• FLASHPOINT: CITIZEN COLD #1 - Citizen Cold's the hero of Central City in this world, though anti-hero is probably closer to the truth as he's not averse to killing: Mr Freeze ends up a victim early on. Meantime the other Rogues are stuck in Iron Heights (though they intend to change that fairly quick) and Cold's sister has killed their father. The last page came as a bit of a surprise with the death of a character that you kind of expected to survive. All told, not a bad issue.
• FLASHPOINT: DEATHSTROKE & THE CURSE OF THE RAVAGER #1 - this was the title I was looking forward to the most and it didn't disappoint. Deathstroke as a pirate: I mean, what could go wrong, eh? Of course the last page feeds into the latest Flashpoint which means poor old Deathstroke gets Aquaman's trident in his guts which can't be comfortable.
• FLASHPOINT: EMPEROR AQUAMAN #1 - a lot of this issue is backstory, explaining how Aquaman came to ally himself with Geo-Force against Wonder Woman and her Amazons. Following the death of Mera, however, Aquaman betrayed Geo-Force and imprisoned him in such a way to turn his powers into a directional weapon which is how most of Western Europe is now underwater. Ocean Master plays the dutiful brother in the background but I can't help wondering if Mera's death was down to him in order to trigger the war against the Amazons for some reason. Guess we'll find out soon enough.
• FLASHPOINT: FRANKENSTEIN & THE CREATURES OF THE UNKNOWN #1 - this was a pleasant surprise - nothing like a sarcastic vampire from World War II to brighten your day, I always say! From battling Nazis (including killing Hitler which is never a bad thing) to coping with finding themselves suddenly in the present, this was a good read and possibly the best of the Flashpoint minis so far.
• PUNISHERMAX #14 - part present day with the Punisher in prison, part flashback to his life just after Vietnam this issue gives more clues as to how Frank Castle became the Punisher and there's a caption in here that, I think, is quite important. In previous issues, Bullseye claimed to know how the Punisher came to be and what his last words were to his wife. My take on this is that Frank allowed his wife and children to be murdered which would give him the licence to embrace the terrible side of him that would be known as the Punisher. In this issue, while taking out some trash he becomes aware of some thugs about to kill someone and thinks "I feel it before I see it. Ambush." Now if he can feel the ambush of another person, why would he not feel the ambush of the mob hit that claimed the lives of his family? And if he did feel it, why didn't he prevent it happening? Again, I think he allowed it to happen so that he could become the Punisher. Maybe we'll get to see if I'm right over the next few issues, maybe not. Either way, this is still a damn fine series.
• THE STAND: NO MAN'S LAND #5 - and they're off - the Boulder guys are setting off on their way to confront Flagg in Las Vegas, preparing to me their stand.

And what made me smile:

Seriously? American comic readers don't know that the Germans were known as Jerries in World War II?!