Who Was Who Is Who #8

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So for want of anything better to write about on a Monday, and with DC's New 52 well under way (how long are they keeping that title do you think?) I'm going to go through all my copies of Who's Who and see if I can predict who will make it over to the new DCU by the end of this year, who might make it and who hasn't got a Chris KL-99's chance.

CATWOMAN - like Batman, there was never any real doubt that some version of Catwoman would appear in the new DCU. That the current Selina went and shagged Batman on a Gotham roof in her first issue cause the internet to melt down, however, making a lot of people wonder what had happened to the Catwoman they knew and loved. Not being a Bat/Cat reader, I wasn't particularly worried. With James Robinson's forthcoming Earth-2 title, however, I'm curious as to whether the Catwoman of E2 will still be married to E2's Batman and whether the Huntress (due to appear in the forthcoming Worlds' Finest) is going to be their daughter. So, E1 (or whatever) Catwoman in place, E2 Catwoman a possible.

THE CAVALIER - ah, the swashbuckling Batman villain. Nah, can't see him turning up.

CAVE CARSON - the DCU's resident spelunker, Cave hasn't appeared anywhere, except for the odd cameo, for a good few years now; for some reason, caving adventures appear to be further down the list of marketable comics than war stories, medieval knights or cowboys. Will we see him by year's end? Afriad I'm going with a no here.

CELSIUS - ex-wife of the Doom Patrol's Chief, she appeared out of nowhere, bummed around with the Patrol for a while before apparently dying during the Invasion a few years later. Aside from a few cameos, I don't think we've seen anything of her since then and with the Doom Patrol currently MIA from the New 52, I can't see Celsius re-appearing either.

Who'd Like A Cocktail? #84

Robotman gets caught out staring at Saturn Girl's behind

• BLACKEST NIGHT DIRECTOR'S CUT #1 - finally got round to picking this up, partly to satisfy the collector in me. The cover gallery's nice, the script to issue #1 gives an insight into how comics are made and the unused scenes - particularly the Rainbow Raiders suicide - were interesting. Certainly not essential to the Blackest Night series, but an enjoyable add-on.
• THE BRAVE AND THE BOLD #34 - I'm sure some of us have seen this type of story before: a two parter involving time travel almost guarantees a couple of things 1) that the first issue will have odd, seemingly insignificant details dotted throughout (in this case the moving time sphere and the pink fluff) and 2) that the second issue will explain these as being caused by the same characters working behind the scenes to ensure their present selves don't see them. It's not a bad story, but neither is it anything above ordinary - it seems like an exercise for Straczynski to be able to tie up the various anomalies in an interesting way next month.
• GREEN LANTERN #54 - Atrocitus comes back, along with Red Lantern cat Dex-Star who makes a great entrance. The entities of the various Corps are named and shown to Jordan and the others and the mysterious cloaked figure frees Sodam Yat from Daxam's star. Oh, and Lobo turns up leading to a great next issue caption: Lobo punches people with rings. Hard.
• GREEN LANTERN CORPS #48 - Tony Bedard's first issue as writer isn't too bad; admittedly I don't think he's got Atrocitus's voice down yet but John Stewart's handled well.
• JUSTICE LEAGUE: GENERATION LOST #2 - well, I guess those first couple of pages answer the critics who wondered about how Max Lord would deal with the physical evidence of his crimes / existence. Nothing much happens apart from scenes where the main characters are all shown attempting to convince other heroes that they're right and being turned down. But hey, always nice to see Jaime Reyes's Blue Beetle.
• JUSTICE LEAGUE: THE RISE OF ARSENAL #3 - oh, you gotta go down before you can come up or some such other homily springs to mind with this. Arsenal goes back to the dope, then gets forced to go cold turkey and starts hallucinating his dead daughter Lian. One more issue to go.
• POWER GIRL #12 - I know this series is continuing, but this issue for me feels like the end. It's a wonderful, wonderful wrap up issue that still leaves plots not so much hanging as available. Having set the bar so high on this series, Palmiotti, Gray and Conner have almost guaranteed a slump in quality when Winick takes over next month but I don't want to tarnish this last issue snapshot with negativity about the new team. Power Girl has, for just over a year, been consistently one of the best books out there: fun, well-written, wonderful art, and characters that you end up caring about. There's no way Blackest Night could have made a cross-over into this world and as much as I enjoyed that series, I'm glad Power Girl never had to deal with it in these pages. I'm seriously going to miss this book even though I plan on sticking with the title if you see what I mean.
• PROJECT SUPERPOWERS: CHAPTER TWO #9 - okay, so all the heroes are piling on Zeus and after spending ages just growling Catman - sorry, Man-Cat finally gets to tear up the imposter Kid Terror who, paradoxically, may turn out to be just what they need against the mad god.
• TEEN TITANS #83 - oh god where do I start? I've stuck with different titles through rough patches before but I'm seriously considering dropping this until Henderson either leaves or is kicked off as writer. Changeling's yelling out "Raven!" every five minutes; Superboy and Wonder Girl are apparently splitting up because... well, I'm not sure, really; Changeling's yelling out "Raven!" every five minutes; Aquagirl fancies Superboy; Changeling's yelling out "Raven!" every five minutes; two doctors spout more pseudo-science nonsense than ever before; and why the hell would Changeling become a chimpanzee to mend a broken computer?! This is becoming a truly dreadful title with every issue, a car crash that I can't help staring at. Someone please tell me Henderson's going to be fired soon?
• Co-feature: COVEN OF THREE - not a bad start to a tale about three teenage magicians; always nice to see Traci 13 (even if she looks younger than when she was in Tales of the Unexpected a couple of years ago) and I wonder how Black Alice will be reconciled with her Secret Six appearances but this is still better than the main story.

And what made me smile will surprise no regular reader of this blog: Power Girl #12 just delivers so much this month like this -

and this - 

and this -

Once again a big thank you to Jimmy Palmiotti, Justin Gray and Amanda Conner for their excellent run on this book. Those of you who haven't picked it up can get the whole thing in two trade paperbacks with the second one out this year.

Friday Night Fights - Two For One

Recently frustrated by Hero Sandwich pre-empting me by using a fight from Crisis On Infinite Earths that I had lined up (no hard feelings, Scott!) I figured I'd dig something else out from that series:

Earth-4 (remember that?) where the bad guys of Lex Luthor and Brainiac have taken over and who have they left on guard duty?

The Trickster and The Riddler?! What use are they going to be against anyone?!

Particularly when that anyone is a green, giant ape flying through the air! Oh yeah!

Remember to head over to Spacebooger and vote on your favourite fight, folks!

This sole-socking-simian-smackdown was first shown in Crisis on Infinite Earths #9, cover dated December 1985, written by Marv Wolfman, with art by the wonderful George Perez and Jerry Ordway.