Who'd Like A Cocktail? #105

See, there are worse things than pelicans

• THE BOYS #48 - with one of the best pastiche covers ever, the new Boys storyline gets underway. The Homelander's plans seem to be underway and Butcher's previous bastardry comes back to haunt him.
• BRIGHTEST DAY #13 - a Hawkman-heavy issue is never a bad thing even when all he's doing is beating the crap out of things which, let's face it, is what he does best. A quick cameo by the Resurrection Man reminds us that Deadman still has a mission to find the Chosen One and as a certain Batman has recently returned, there's no prizes for guessing who next issue will feature.
• CROSSED: FAMILY VALUES #5 - for a moment at the start of this issue there was a flash of what the Crossed world offers to writers: an exploration of how normal people deal with the extreme crap they find themselves in. Then they had to go and bring the corseted and stockinged mother into things as a cartoon villain out to get them. Ah well, not long to go now.
• DOOM PATROL #16 - would it be remiss of me to mention that I've met Brian Keene, author of this issue? And that he's a good friend of my mate Tim? Probably, so I won't. Even though it's something of a fill-in, this is still a good fun issue with some wonderful Giffen artwork. It manages to further Robotman's character as well, pushing him towards the horrible realisation that he may be turning into the Chief. Talking of Robotman, just about any other issue would have ended with that wonderful splash page of the alternate reality Cliff roaring in and I'd have been happy with that. Carrying on with an excellent next panel was just laugh out loud funny! A damn fine issue.
• FREEDOM FIGHTERS #3 - Phantom Lady turns out to be the ace in the hole to get rid of the renegade shamans before Firebrand's conspiracy theories take over. And hey, Miss America's back! Another cool issue of paranoid politics and superheroics.
• JSA ALL-STARS #12 - despite the cover depicting a big space battle, the vast majority of this issue deals with Cyclone and her attempts at leading a normal, de-powered life in university. Until not one but two apparent clones of her super-powered self turn up . . . or do they? Neither Roxy nor one of Cyclone's university friends seem to notice the doubles . . .
• LADY MECHANIKA #0 - finally managed to get my hands on this even though it's been out for a couple of weeks. The art's gorgeous and the steampunk genre is one I enjoy so I'll be sticking with this. The only slight quibble is Benitez's dialogue. Mostly it's okay but every now and then it's just a bit clunky and forced. But hey, it's an introductory issue so here's hoping it'll improve.
• SECRET SIX #27 - both teams go berserk in Skataris and Catman makes a passable Warlord. It's all a bit hectic, to be honest, and I'll be glad once they're back in the real world again.

And what made me smile:

Recipes at the back of Lady Mechanika! This is what we want!

Friday Night Fights - Damn Right!

It's Friday night, everybody, and that means Spacebooger is ready for some carnage!

A couple of weeks ago, Snell over at Slay, Monstrobot... chose a fight that showed we sometimes think alike - I had the exact same Judge Dredd fight ready for the following week. I still wanted to use Dredd in the contest so scoured my Complete Case Files and found this little beauty:

The back story here is that Judge Dredd has allowed the citizens of Mega-City One to take part in a referendum to decide whether they retain the Judge system or return to democracy. Scared by the potential outcome, Judge Grice attempted to have Dredd assassinated by other Judges and fix the vote. Having survived the assassination attempt, Dredd pays the plot's ring-leader a visit.

The rest I shall simply leave to Dredd . . .

Oh, man . . . that's going to hurt!

You know the drill by now, people: head over to Spacebooger by clicking on the picture below, check out the other fights and vote for your favourite!

This judgement was laid down by John Wagner with art by Jeff Anderson and was taken from Judge Dredd: The Complete Case Files #16

Mixed Signals?

Okay, this may have been more timely if I'd posted it last weekend but hey, I only found it yesterday.

So, it's Halloween at the offices of the Daily Planet and the whole regular crowd have dressed up:

Jimmy Olsen's dressed as Superman (oh, the irony); Cat Grant as Power Girl; Ron Troupe as Mr Terrific; someone as Zauriel and possibly Blaze (more irony!) and the ever irascible Perry White who hasn't bothered.

But who's that, over on the right of the picture?

It's Clark Kent - too busy with a story to dress up - and his wife Lois Lane.

Dressed as Wonder Woman?!

Am I the only one who finds that weird? This is a recent story and Lois knows all too well that Clark is Superman and yet she dresses up like his Amazonian fellow Justice Leaguer?! And in case you think her costume's just for the "Mayor's soiree", she still wearing it later at home:

I really don't want to even hint at the world of fan-fiction here but they're a married couple, he's going to find her attractive and she's dressed like his friend Wonder Woman . . .

Just saying, that's all . . .

Game On?

Even in this new world, Batman and Catwoman
still can't admit their feelings for each other

I'll happily admit I'm not a huge gamer; I have an XBox and own maybe three or four games. Those I do own, I'll play over and over - I'm still playing Red Dead Redemption even after gaining 100% in it months ago!

The thing that keeps pulling me back to it (along with several of the GTA games) is the freedom to pretty much do what I want in the world. I still find myself taking on side missions every now and then, but I'm happy riding around the place, doing my own thing. It's prevarication at it's worst in some ways (as there are many other things I could be doing) but it's a way of relaxing for me.

Green Lantern and Power Girl against some Na'vi.
Actually, I'd pay to see that.

With that in mind, I've been reading the numerous reports about the impending arrival of DCU Online with only slight interest. Yes, it'd be nice to have the opportunity to play as some of my favourite characters, head off and complete missions, using fancy powers and flying round cities but pretty much everything I've seen (including the photos here) seem to show it as little more than a fighting game.

Am I missing something here? Is there more to this game than teaming up with another hero on one side of the screen to beat the snot out of a bunch of villains on the other side? If so, it doesn't appear to be coming through to me.

Killer Frost and Heat Wave prove opposites
don't attract

Those sort of games bore the crap out of me, they really do, and I'm painfully aware that it's partly because of the ridiculous combinations of button pushes needed to perform the double backflip-elbow smash-face plant-gonad pull on your opponent that you're hoping to do to win some extra power up or something. I just never got the hang of those things, even years ago when I first tried them in my 20's, so you can't blame it on age. Give me a straight forward aim and shoot combination and I'm happy.

So, it seems unlikely that I'll be plunging into the digital world of DCU Online even to find the answer to the question: Why does Circe look like Tarot, Witch of the Black Rose?

Who'd Like A Cocktail? #104

You gotta love Wildcat

• GREEN ARROW #5 - something of a holding issue, this one, as Green Arrow goes up against the Black Lanterns once more, their brief return the result of his misguided attempt at doing some good. Looks like next issue Ollie starts to face off against his mother as well.
• JUSTICE LEAGUE: GENERATION LOST #12 - * sigh * so this is the issue that reveals Ice's new origin, what editor Brian Cunningham called "a credible and tragic origin that does not negate what we already know." I'm not going into detail here (I feel a longer, more ranting post coming on in a few days) but that line there is a flat out lie.
• JUSTICE SOCIETY OF AMERICA #44 - new writer  Marc Guggenheim and artist Scott Kolins take the reins and throw the Society up against a new (maybe? I'm not recognising him) villain that can easily stand his ground against them. It's a good, solid issue that acts as a jumping on point but seriously, if they leave Green Lantern Alan Scott paralysed I will have words with them.
• NEONOMICON #2 - finally, the second issue turns up at my comic shop! This is a great issue, full of HP Lovecraft pastiches and Moore's take on a weird Cthulhu sex cult. Jacen Burrows's art is fantastically detailed without being cluttered but how some of the scenes got past the censor I'm not sure! Thoroughly recommended!
• SUPERMAN: EARTH ONE - I was a little hesitant to pick this up, not being entirely impressed by Straczynski's run on The Brave and The Bold but it turned out to be a pretty good decision. It doesn't really bring anything new to the basics of Superman's origins - the exploding Krypton, the rocket ship, the Kansas farm - but it does focus more on the young man's thoughts and worries about whether he should put on the red and blue uniform. All in all a good read.
• TEEN TITANS #88 - man, this is a breath of fresh air after the last year or so of Felicia Henderson's scripts. As with Justice Society this week, this issue serves as something of a jumping on point in that the main characters are sketched out so that new readers know who they are without the story being anything convoluted. Shame Bombshell didn't make the team, but it's good to have Ravager back.
• TIME MASTERS: VANISHING POINT #4 - while the main heroes are split up and apparently imprisoned in cages of their own, Black Beetle (surely with that armour he should be called Red Beetle?!) manages to convince the Linear Men to work with him. Talking of whom, I don't remember Matthew Ryder being such a dick before . . .
• ZATANNA #6 - once again a clear, straight forward story comes to a conclusion. I'm not damning with faint praise here: Zatanna's a damn good title and is worth picking up, but it'd be nice to see something of an ongoing, overall storyline.

And what made me smile:

Okay, that's a bit ruder than what you're used to here but being a Lovecraft fan I had to laugh at what Alan Moore did with the title of Comte d'Erlette's most famous tome!

Friday Night Fights - Brains Vs Brawn

It's Friday . . . ahh, you all know by now what that means: FIGHTS!!

So, picture the scene: a bunch of meta-human villains have been dumped on a far distant planet and left to fend for themselves. In a bizarre attempt at putting together some ground rules for their new world, Psimon steps forward and, basically, tells the lady villains that they're going to be, as Giganta puts it . . .

Baby factories. Psimon, my friend, if you ever want to get people to do something for you, it's best not to make them feel like nothing more than a breeding herd. Not surprisingly, someone doesn't like Psimon's idea.

It's the Joker, that Clown Prince of Crime, the really funny guy who commits those wacky, clown themed crimes . . .

Oops - that was the Joker from the 60's. This is the homicidal maniac who has no problem taking a rock to someone's plastic skull!

All the while, dishing out advice on how to form a society . . .

. . . as well as dishing out the pain!

Yeah, it's hard to believe that this is the same guy who had a hideout called a Ha-Hacienda!

Nope, no questions . . .

Now get yourselves over to Spacebooger by clicking the picture below, check out the other fights and then vote for me! Or one of the others, if you like.

This erudite yet violent lesson on societal origins first appeared in Salvation Run #2, cover dated February 2008, written by Bill Willingham with art by Sean Chen and Walden Wong.

What With Christmas Coming Up And All . . .

Think I've just found something to add to my Christmas list:

That's the cover to The DC Chronicle Year by Year which has been published by DK Publishing. From the DC Source blog article about it:

THE DC CHRONICLE YEAR BY YEAR traces DC’s fascinating story, from the beginnings to the present day. Remember the year you first picked up a comic? Flip to that page and see what else was going on in the DC Comics universe.

I am sold, I really am - it looks gorgeous and if DK's other books (and I'm specifically thinking of the DC Comics Encyclopedia) are anything to go by, this will be great!

Of course, it would be petty to point out that Wonder Woman is featured prominently on the cover wearing her classic costume and not the new one.

So I won't.