Who'd Like A Cocktail? #249

Bad guys saving the world? Seems to be a theme this week.

EARTH 2 #17 - As the rogue Superman decimates Earth 2's heroes and the World Army, with even Dr Fate falling before him, Batman steals into a secret holding facility for all the criminals and madmen locked up in years gone by, planning to use them against Superman. And the new Red Tornado gets activated with a human host who might be able to help the fight against Supes.

I've been both dreading and anticipating this first Earth 2 issue without James Robinson but have to admit to being pleased on the whole. It follows on nicely and doesn't disregard anything that's come before - I wonder if the new Red Tornado was Taylor's idea or just carried over from Robinson's notes - but either way it works. My only slight worry is that the title will give much more prominence to Batman than before, running the risk of this becoming yet another title with Bats at the forefront.

FATALE #18 - the band have to deal with the aftermath of Jo's murder of their drummer but, not surprisingly, are able to cope with it. The recording of their video, though, doesn't exactly go as planned and interested parties are made aware of Jo's presence.

Another cracking issue - you really should be buying this, you know.

FOREVER EVIL #3 - Batman hops Cyborg's dad can save his badly injured son; Lex figures out a way to spy on Ultraman as he beats up Black Adam; the Crime Syndicate kick the Rogues' collective butts. All of which leads to a teaming up of the bad guys who plan to make a stand against the Syndicate.

So-so, really - setting up the team of our bad guys against the other bad guys. Although it must be noted that this issue has one of the most misleading covers I've seen in a while. Compare the front cover to the last page:

 

The covers has the main characters smacking each other around; the last page has them banding together as the only hope of the world with not a punch being thrown.

GREEN LANTERN #25 - Hal unilaterally decides that only authorised ring wielders get to keep their rings; all others need to be arrested. Of course, he gets to decide who's authorised, something that Carol pick him up on straight away. While he ponders how best to follow up his new mandate, he and Kilowog go after Nol-Anj.

Hal continues his run of speaking first and thinking later; his new idea of the GL Corps being the arbiters of who gets a ring is exactly the sort of thing the old Guardians did and look how that ended up. Despite that, this is still pretty good.

THE MOVEMENT #6 - Katharsis and Tremor are forced to solve their differences in a novel fashion while Virtue appears to have cured Burden of his apparently demonic aspect. Elsewhere the new bad guys on the block take down Mouse.

It's . . . okay, I suppose. As I keep saying, I want to like this more than I do, mainly because I like Gail Simone's writing but it's taking a long time to gel.

PHANTOM STRANGER #13 - the Stranger confronts the Question and almost kills him before Zauriel intervenes. At the end of the issue, both of them and Pandora are summoned by John Constantine who's brought together a new team to "KILL EVIL!" which leads into the forthcoming Forever Evil: Blight crossover between this title, Pandora and Justice League Dark.

Not bad, but I'm not really looking forward to the Blight storyline.

THE STAR WARS #3 - the Imperial invasion of Aquilae continues while on the ground characters with very similar names (and dialogue in places) to those we're used to are slowly coming together in order to launch a counter attack.

It's good fun; not only is the art gorgeous but it's nice spotting both the differences and similarities between this and the version we all know.

STORMWATCH #25 - the team fight Extremax's right hand man, distracting him long enough so they can gain the third part of the artefact that both Extremax and the Kollective are after.

Ho hum; this really is inching closer to being dropped from my list. Which is a shame, as I was quite looking forward to some of Jim Starlin's work again.

SWAMP THING #25 - the battle between Swamp Thing and Seeder for the right to be that avatar of the Green goes badly for Swampy before he pulls a final trick out of the bag and defeats his competitor. When the Parliament of Trees call for Seeder's death, however, Swampy refuses and is left stunned when the Parliament metaphorically shrugs its shoulders and strips him of his role, giving it to Seeder instead.

A splendid issue both in terms of art and writing.

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And what made me smile:

Hal acts like a jerk and Carol gives him the (hidden) finger.

What is it about American comics where they're fine showing some violence but an offensive gesture is a no-no?