Who'd Like A Cocktail? #144

What? You think just because DC re-number all their titles
that I'm going to revert to Cocktail #1?

Due to delivery cock-ups and damage to a consignment, I end up looking at the old DCU one more time (with one more to come if you take DC Retroactive: JLA - The 90's into account)

• CHRONICLES OF WORMWOOD: THE LAST BATTLE #6 - the final issue finally arrives and it's a blast. Jimmy the Rabbit proves his mettle in a Star Wars style (see below) while Jay shows it doesn't pay to take people, even the Son of God, for granted. An excellent issue wrapping up a darn good story.
• FLASHPOINT: WONDER WOMAN AND THE FURIES #2 and #3 - it's one betrayal after another as Diana and Aquaman are locked into their roles by the actions of their closest, treacherous allies. Despite both of them attempting to alert the other that they're being played it all becomes terribly predictable and culminates in the war we all knew was coming.
• JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #60 - Robinson's swan-song comprises of glimpses of adventures that we will never see while he makes none too subtle allusions to the DC reboot, particularly Donna Troy's lack of visibility in the new world. It's an okay end to what has mostly been an okay run by Robinson - very few issues have really sparked for me but I will follow him into his new Earth-2 Justice Society title.
• POWER GIRL #27 - and the last of my on-going series that comes to an end because of Flashpoint and the reboot. Matthew Sturges writes a good done-in-one that highlights the fact that Power Girl's smart, something that many detractors (and some writers) seem to forget. While the last line - PG saying "We've got all the time in the world." - might be a slight nod to the fact this is ending, this issue could really be a fill-in at any point in the regular run and maybe that's best. The generally light hearted and fun tone of this series doesn't really lend itself to portentous doom-saying about the end of the universe so I'm glad Sturges didn't bother with it. I am going to miss this series, though.

While I normally go through my comics alphabetically, I figured with all the universe changing stuff going on, I'd separate these two out:

• FLASHPOINT #5 - "You changed time like an amateur!" Reverse-Flash tells Flash, dropping the big surprise of the series: that Barry Allen was to blame for the altered timeline, not Reverse-Flash at all. Of course he doesn't get to gloat for too long as this reality's Batman takes him down. And that's pretty much it - a handful of characters get tiny cameos (Gorilla Grodd / Superman, anyone?) in the war that's raging around them before Flash runs off and alters time once more, changing things into the new DC Uninverse complete with guest appearance of Strange Mystical Cryptic Lady who sets the groundwork for the next big DC event (I'm guessing.) It's not a bad issue but there's no real resolution to the Atlantis/Amazon war that the mini-series have been playing out against and as an introduction to the new DCU it's a little low-key - which isn't really what you want from an event comic, I'd have thought. Still, we're here now and I guess we see what September brings.
• JUSTICE LEAGUE #1 - Batman chases down a Parademon who later kills himself "For Darkseid!" (which shows that the unfulfilling Final Crisis can thankfully be put behind us) and teams up with a super-arrogant Hal Jordan who keeps referring to himself in the third person. It's a good, solid first issue with lovely art although it does make me wonder if the new DCU is a little more futuristic than the old. Despite time travel, anti-gravity discs and superheroes, the old DCU always looked contemporary for its time; in this issue, those police helicopters look way more advanced and I wonder if that's just Lee drawing cool helicopters or if it's something that we'll see reflected in other titles. One thing that bugged me was Jordan's ring constructs: they're way, way too imaginative and detailed for Jordan (at least the old DCU Jordan - gotta remember that!) who should be the more direct build-a-wall, use-a-boxing-glove type of ring slinger. A pre-Cyborg Vic Stone gets a look in (with Strange Mystical Cryptic Lady watching from the sidelines) before we're off to meet Superman for the first time. I have to say the costumes changes have been way down on my list of things to worry about with the reboot but Superman without the red pants/shorts? Works for me. All things considered, this is a good first issue, introducing us to the characters, seeing them work against and with each other and, for me at least, wanting more.

And what made me smile:

Jimmy the Rabbit as an AT-AT!