Who'd Like A Cocktail? #248

It's important to know the difference

A delayed Cocktail due to being away for the weekend.

AQUAMAN ANNUAL #1 - Aquaman helps his old team, the Others, retrieve the Helm of Atlantis from the villainous Morgaine le Fey. She offers each of them the chance to join her by betraying their friends and one of the team actually takes her up on it. However, her plans are thwarted and the team survives though it loses a member.

Not bad - it's a done in one by John Ostander who's definitely written better but manages to deliver a serviceable story here.

GREEN LANTERN ANNUAL #2 - the Green and Red Lanterns team up to take down Relic who's at the Source Wall with the Templar Guardians and Kyle as the White Lantern. Relic's intent on getting through the Wall to whatever lies beyond and while Kyle's willing to help him at first, it's not enough for the bad guy. As the Red and Greens attack, bolstered by the arrival of John Stewart and the Indigo Tribe, Kyle manages to punch Relic through the Wall but at the sacrifice of himself. At the end, all the teams get sent home by the Indigos with the GLC finding a new home on Mogo.

Again, not bad - something of an anti-climax, really. The Corps fight Relic, they lose someone but win overall. There's a nice slap in the face for Hal (see below) who is still a jerk one minute and a leader the next, while John manages to be the strategist. And anyone taking bets on how long Kyle's return remains a secret?

SWAMP THING ANNUAL #2 - Swamp Thing gets a quick history lesson about the previous avatars of the Green from one of the old ones called the Wolf who is acting as his sponsor in the forthcoming battle between Alec and the Seeder. The Wolf arranges for a couple of lessons in order to try and prepare Alec who, while being somewhat dense at first, quickly picks up what he's meant to.

This was very well done - Alec learns his lessons well and there's a nice little homage to a previous Swamp Thing that I'll touch on tomorrow. Very nice.

TEEN TITANS ANNUAL #2 - still thrown around in the timestream, Red Robin, Superboy and Wonder Girl end up in the future where they discover a Superboy has killed off most of the heroes, leaving only a rag tag bunch of new Titans to carry on the fight. The leader of this future team, Beast Boy, convinces Red Robin that he knows the right things to tell him because he, Red Robin, told him what would happen years before. Meanwhile our Superboy meets and beats the bad Superboy before the good one is pulled away somewhere, leaving the bad guy close to death. However, Beast Boy finds him, patches him up and knowingly sends the bad Superboy back in time with Red Robin and Wonder Girl.

Not bad - could have done with less of the Superboy fight as I didn't know the history of the bad guy (it's been revealed in other Super titles apparently) and the Titans meeting a horrible future sounds a bit too close to The Titans of Tomorrow...Today! storyline from a few years back. Still, not dreadful - and I liked the throwaway line about the bad Superboy having "ambushed the Movement in Coral City", probably the first time The Movement's definitely been acknowledged as being part of the DCU!

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And what made me smile:

Hal discovers Carol might have feelings for Kyle, something which I suggested might be on the cards here when I said "Anxious to get [Kyle] free, the new Guardians pull Carol Ferris across the universe so that she can rescue him ... why Carol? Why not one of the other Green Lanterns? Is there going to be a difficult romance brewing?"

Don't worry, Hal - this is the new DCU where couples aren't allowed to be happy so there's no way Carol and Kyle will settle down together.