Monday Memories #38 - Green Lantern Corps Quarterly #4

Each Monday this year I'll be taking a look back at a random comic, prestige format issue, graphic novel or collection of reprints from amongst my 3,000 or so comics that date from 1962 to 2003 - I figured anything in the last ten years would be too recent to hark back to.

The comics are chosen completely at random and apart from a four week lead-in period, even I don't know what I'll be looking at in the weeks to come!

Who Was Who Is Who #22

So for want of anything better to write about on a Monday, 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 2012, who might make it and who hasn't got Johnny Peril's chance.

IRONWOLF - okay, what do we have here? Galactic Empire (sorry Empire Galaktika)? Check. 61st Century? Check. Anti-gravity trees? Check. Utterly ridiculous costume? Double check. Zero chance of seeing this guy again. Triple check.

Justice League Detroit - Crisis On Infinite Earths

Over the next few weeks on a Tuesday, I'll be working my way through the Justice League of America titles from 1985 to 1987, trying to work out if the Justice League Detroit era really was as bad as we think it was. Why am I doing this? Why the hell not.

INFINITY INC. #19, written by Roy Thomas with art by Todd McFarlane and Steve Montana;
JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #244 - #245, written by Gerry Conway with art by Joe Staton, Mike Machlan and Luke McDonnell;
JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA ANNUAL #3, written by Dan Mishkin with art by Rick Hoberg and Mike Gustovich.

With the revelation in Justice League of America #243 that Steel's grandfather was the World War II hero Commander Steel (shown last week - you are reading these, right?) we pick up the story in the pages of Infinity Inc #19 where we find the Commander, with the aid of the mysterious Mekanique, has headed over to Earth-Two in order to recruit the Infinitors:

Commander Steel isn't exactly being honest, describing JL Detroit as "a bunch of super-powered young criminals" that he wants the Infinitors to defeat. Note the red sky in the background - the Crisis on Infinite Earths has begun making this one of the last times that Earth-Two would appear.

Who'd Like A Cocktail? #100

The Ultra-Humanite displays his "legendary impatience"

Blimey! 100 Cocktail posts and the vast majority of them completed and published every Sunday at 1pm. Okay, enough patting myself on the back - time for comics!

• CROSSED: FAMILY VALUES #4 - as I mentioned last time, Javier Barreno's art here has just become a little too cartoony to take seriously which is a shame when you're dealing with a subject matter of this sort. The violence loses its shock when the characters are edging towards human versions of Wile E. Coyote. So people get shot to bits, so characters get run over, so what? It doesn't matter that much when they look like cartoons. A shame as the story's okay but the art let's it down; I'm not saying it's bad, just not the right style.
• GREEN ARROW #4 - so Martian Manhunter visits briefly, just like he did in Brightest Day #9 - actually the first few pages of this issue are basically a retread of that issue's visit which explains my sense of deja vu! Aside from that, there seems to be a new bad girl in Ollie's city who's threatening his new friend Mary. Certainly not terrible, but this series seems to be treading water a little.
• JUSTICE SOCIETY OF AMERICA #43 - this, an epilogue to the recent cross-over between Justice Society and Justice League, was easily the best issue of the lot. Robinson crafted a discussion between Green Lantern Alan Scott and Obsidian that was heartfelt and genuine without being melodramatic or saccharine. Of course, establishing a rule that Obsidian and his sister Jade can't come within half a mile of each other runs the risk of another writer or artist simply putting them in the same place together at some point down the line. And once that happens, the internet will scream its indignation! Seriously, though, this was a really nice issue.
• JUSTICE SOCIETY OF AMERICA SPECIAL #1 - this, on the other hand, was a little bit messy, wrapping up as it did the storyline from the recently cancelled Magog series. A little sprawling, perhaps due to a four or six issue arc being crammed into one issue, it still ends on something of a cliff hanger which, in all likelihood, won't get picked up ever again. Ah well.
• TEEN TITANS #87 - for the first time in months, an issue of Teen Titans that I really, really enjoyed. Not that I read it, simply that it's the last issue with Henderson writing. I skipped over pretty much the whole thing and can't wait for JT Krul to take over next issue. Anything has to better than the last year or so.
• Co feature - COVEN OF THREE - nicely wrapped up even if the three protagonists are shown to be in a worse emotional state than when they started.
• TIME MASTERS: VANISHING POINT #3 - while I prefer the dorsal-finned, bulked up, UN flag wearing version of Despero to the lateral-finned version here, it's nice to see the guy back in business. Not to mention the Linear Men - I'd been wondering where they were for some time. You can count on Dan Jurgens for some straightforward storytelling (and trust me, that's not a complaint) along with some lovely art and this series continues to supply both.

And what made me smile:

Rock in the face!