Who'd Like A Cocktail? #139

Power Girl may need to brush up on her compliments

The good thing about missing my comics last week is that I had a bumper haul this week:

• THE BOYS: BUTCHER, BAKER, CANDLESTICKMAKER #1 - it's the origin of Butcher from The Boys at long last told by the man himself to his dead father. It's a solid tale of Butcher's youth and hatred of his father and how he eventually signed up to join the Royal Marines.
• BRIGHTEST DAY AFTERMATH: THE SEARCH FOR SWAMP THING #2 - and from one excellent portrayal of a British bloke to another. No, I kid - this issue's plagued as much as the last one was with dreadful, forced British dialogue. The story's not improved either.
• DC RETROACTIVE: GREEN LANTERN - THE 70's #1 - a little disappointing, this. The art was excellent and it was nice to see Hal Jordan and Ollie Queen together again but the story itself was just a little . . . lacking.
• DC RETROACTIVE: JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA - THE 70's #1 - this, however, was splendid! Damn good fun from Cary Bates as we see the classic satellite era League head to Earth-Prime to rescue Adam Strange, calling into the offices of DC Comics at the same time. Splendidly done and well worth a read!
• FLASHPOINT: DEADMAN AND THE FLYING GRAYSONS #2 - if there's anything constant in these alternate worlds, it's that Ma and Pa Grayson are going to die sooner or later. Couple that with Starfire turning up in league with the Amazons and Dick Grayson's not going to be having a good time any day soon.
• FLASHPOINT: HAL JORDAN #2 - this was kinda fun as Jordan and Carol Ferris take on a hydra dropped on to Ferris Air by those cranky Amazonians. It's silly enough to be entertaining.
• FLASHPOINT: KID FLASH LOST #2 - Hot Pursuit sacrifices herself to give Kid Flash the speed he needs to try and track down the Flash and prevent time from altering. Of course, with the reboot coming up and Flashpoint showing how the DCU alters, it's kinda safe to say he's not going to do too well at that.
• FLASHPOINT: LOIS LANE AND THE RESISTANCE #2 - this was fun, though: Grifter and the others find where the secret weapon is that can take down the Amazons just before one of their group turns out to be a traitor. Godiva gets some time in the limelight - wonder if that's because she'll be in the new Justice League International title?
• FLASHPOINT: PROJECT SUPERMAN #2 - the Kal-El of Flashpoint isn't having a happy time at all, being used as a guinea pig by the military while Subject Zero uses him to attempt an escape. A good issue on the whole.
• FLASHPOINT: LEGION OF DOOM #2 - Heat Wave re-enacts a brutal scene from American History X while Plastic Man turns out to be a right nutter in this world. Mind you, with the ending of Heat Wave piloting the flying prison into Detroit, it's fair to say that he's not exactly stable either.
• FLASHPOINT: THE OUTSIDER #2 - a bunch of flashbacks showing the Outsider defeating (among others) Black Adam are wrapped round his attempt to discover who has orchestrated the attack against him. The last page surprise is just that - it's the Martian Manhunter!
• GREEN ARROW #14 - Ollie continues to help the feds take down the Reverend Miggs but again without much luck. Not as good as the last issue, perhaps because of Batman's appearance as a James Bond Q figure - he turns up, gives Ollie some specially made arrows  which Ollie then uses. It just put me in mind of the Eddie Izzard sketch about Bond always using exactly what he's been given. Not a bad issue by any means, just not as good as #13
• GREEN LANTERN CORPS #62 - I think we all knew that the whole true love lie thing that Kyle pulled during Blackest Night would come back to haunt him at some point, but I'm sad to see him and Soranik Natu break up. The poor sod's had no luck at all with girlfriends and this pair made a good couple.
• GREEN LANTERN: EMERALD WARRIORS #12 - another done in one where Guy Gardner recruits some cannon fodder Lanterns, they go off and fight a monster no-one's ever heard of and some of them don't survive. This is just marking time till the reboot.
• JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #59 - finally, the Eclipso storyline comes to an end, Donna Troy's not dead and the JLA disbands once more. This series has had more lows than highs since Robinson took over and I won't be too sorry to see it fade away.
• JUSTICE SOCIETY OF AMERICA #53 - was I the only one who thought Jesse Quick's behaviour was out of character? She's been a hero for years now but makes a rookie mistake that puts her whole team in jeopardy for no real reason.
• POWER GIRL #26 - a fill-in issue before the reboot, this was a nice, heartfelt story about normal women taking on the bad guys, helping out Power Girl and succeeding without powers. It was done really well with the touch of humour that makes this series one of my favourites; the only slight gripe I have is the lack of diversity among the cos-players. Where was the yellow and gold costume or the blue and white thing? A small gripe in an otherwise good issue.
• TEEN TITANS #98 - can anyone explain why JT Krul has taken this long to pull a good surprise out of the blue? The return of Superboy-Prime was good enough but that last page? Excellent work! Shame it's too little, too late.
• WAR OF THE GREEN LANTERNS: AFTERMATH #1 - why is this first issue out now when Green Lantern Corps #62 above takes place after the second issue of this series? Still, it was pretty good: the Guardians really did come across as jerks, Ganthet got to get all cuddly and loved-up, and some of the Lanterns proposed to execute Sinestro . . . because that worked out so well last time.
• ZATANNA #15 - another fill-in issue before the reboot. Not bad - the art's nice - but nowhere near as good as this series has been.

And what made me smile:

Adam Strange being called a John Carter of Mars rip-off! And . . .

Splendid!