Who'd Like A Cocktail? #145

Booster Gold shows he has limits.

The new DC titles kick off in earnest among other stuff. What did I get?

• THE BOYS #58 - Butcher and Hughie figure out that Jack from Jupiter's been framed for a murder in the hopes that the Boys will go charging in and spark off a conflict between them and the Seven which might be on the way anyhow. Meanwhile Butcher lets the Legend know who's in charge and Hughie and Annie get one step closer to being good with each other again.  It's all building up to what could be a big brawl next issue but I think Ennis will pull back from the brink and save that for the last few issues. Damn fine issue.
• GREEN ARROW #1 - JT Krul back on Green Arrow and . . . it works better than his last attempt so far. One issue in and we get businessman Ollie Queen running round as Green Arrow fighting supervillains (though second rate villains to be honest) while at the same time establishing a support system. It's not bad at all and the last page gives us a glimpse of a bunch of super bad guys who are gunning for Arrow, possibly including a post-Flashpoint Killer Frost and maybe even Shatterfist. Better than I was expecting.
• JENNIFER BLOOD #4 - it's been so long since #3 that I'd sort of forgotten about this. Still, it's Ennis having fun, trotting out some Valley girls pretending to be Japanese schoolgirl themed ninjas who are no match for our heroine. It's a shame Ennis is leaving the title after #6; unsure if I'll continue with it after that at the moment.
• JUSTICE LEAGUE INTERNATIONAL #1 - this is one of the new titles I've really been looking forward to and, thankfully, I'm not disappointed. The team get set up in the first few pages with the UN calling the shots and picking the members and electing Booster as the leader, along with August General In Iron, Rocket Red (Gavril from Justice League: Generation Lost), Fire, Ice, Godiva (now named Dora, not Dorcas) and Vixen. Guy Gardner doesn't stick around long and Batman sneaks into the mission when the UN aren't looking. Said mission is to find a research team which quickly goes from bad to worse. It's good fun - the bickering between August General and Rocket Red is entertaining; Godiva's not above flirting with Booster; Batman trusts Booster (thus building on what happened in Booster's previous series); and Godiva gets to use some good British dialogue. Not much for Fire and Ice to do, but a good start nonetheless.
• KIRBY: GENESIS #2 and #3 - I missed #2 when it came out so picked it up this week. It's another cool romp through the Kirbyverse with new characters appearing at the drop of a hat and others breaking the fourth wall again. Good fun.
• STORMWATCH #1 - blimey, there's a lot going on here. Some of the team are attempting to recruit Apollo and having no luck at all; the moon is trying to grow a gigantic set of claws to take on the Earth; the Eminence of Blades gets taken over by something that reminds me of the big Mageddon eyeball thing from Grant Morisson's JLA; there's an enormous horned horn in the middle of nowhere; and then Midnighter turns up and kicks arse. This is a good opener and I'm keen to read more. Did I mention the moon is growing an huuuuuuuuuge set of claws?
• SWAMP THING #1 - of the four new DC titles this week, this is the one that grabbed me the least. Superman turns up to talk to Alec Holland about nature going weird while a big red collection of mastodon bones literally turns people's heads. And then Swamp Thing arrives. It's certainly not terrible and I'll stick with it a while, but as I say this was the one that did least for me.

And what made me smile:

The slightly NSFW pastiches of various classic comic covers from The Boys!