Who'd Like A Cocktail? #194

Uh-huh, that sounds believable.

Slightly delayed Cocktail due to watching the new Dredd movie on the weekend but here's last week's comics:

THE BOYS #70 - oh it's all coming to a head here. Hughie tries to get his head in the right place though a visit to Mother's Milk's mother might not help; I'm convinced Stillwell is going to throw Jess Bradley to the dogs; and Butcher . . . well, Butcher's totally lost it as his plan to wipe out everyone with even a vestige of Compound V nears completion with only Hughie to stand in his way.

Cannot wait for next issue.

EARTH 2 #0 - Terry Sloan turns out to be another guy planning to save the world from itself whether it wants it or not, even if that means betraying his friends and sacrificing hundreds of thousands of lives. Despite that summary, this is actually a very good issue that shows what happened before the launch of the series and delivers a little hint of another unnamed hero on Earth-2. Splendid stuff.

GREEN LANTERN #0 - so the new Green Lantern of Earth is to be an Arab American car thief. Sure, it's pointed out he's not a terrorist and he's stealing things so he can get money to his sister, but he's still a criminal. It just feels like too much of a gimmick, something to get the papers talking about the title. And, as Martin asks over at Too Dangerous for a Girl, why can't we have a female Earth-based GL?

For me, the one-page epilogue was more interesting.

NIGHT FORCE #7 - with the help of one of his Night Force, Baron Winters is able to discover the plans of his enemies just as they attempt to put them into action. While a lot of things go boom! and the good guys appear to win, there's enough threads left dangling that a second series could potentially appear if the good folks at DC would let it.

PHANTOM STRANGER #0 - the Phantom Stranger is given a definitive origin in the New 52 - while never explicitly named (a somewhat cowardly move on DC's part) he's clearly Judas, sent to wander the Earth until he makes amends for his betrayal of Christ. His first task (two thousand years later!) is to unwittingly help turn Jim Corrigan into the Spectre.

This was clunky to say the least, lacking any subtlety and delivering leaden dialogue galore. I'll give it a few more issues, but it's not off to the best start.

STORMWATCH #0 - Adam One - killed back in Stormwatch #5 - makes a reappearance and tells Jenny Quantum of the previous Century Babies who were not so much incarnations but shared spirits of her. He also tells her what happens to them when they get too big for their boots, as well as dropping hints that he's Merlin, before revealing that she's going to have to help save the world.

Not a terrible issue at all.

SWAMP THING #0 - this is less Swamp Thing through the ages and more Arcane killing Swamp Things through the ages! Here it's revealed that Arcane was behind the explosion that killed Alec Holland and sent his burning body flying into the swamp all those years ago. Thankfully, the Parliament of Trees have a back-up plan.

WORLDS' FINEST #0 - back on Earth 2 we get to see the young Robin and Supergirl in action way before they become Huntress and Power Girl plus we finally get to see Catwoman. Sadly, it's only fleeting before her tragic death but to balance that we get to see the start of the friendship between the two heroines. Despite the loss of Catwoman, this issue manages to be both fun and touching, something that seems lacking in most of the New 52 at the moment.

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And what made me smile:

It's not often Batman gets shushed!