Who'd Like A Cocktail? #199

He doesn't, you know. It's down to all the preservatives. He's like a hot dog sausage; he'll last forever.

It's Sunday afternoon - can you says "Comics", children?

CROSSED: BADLANDS #15 - the deconstruction and humiliation of the wannabe writers continues at Gideon Welles's writers' retreat with the graphic killing of a pig and some surprise girl on girl action. Clooney, our protagonist, is getting set up to be exposed as a potential escapee while down in the town, the deputy struggles to survive against the Crossed.

Not bad, on the whole.

DEMON KNIGHTS #13 - it appears Etrigan's sold his compatriots to Lucifer (who's clearly borrowed Gary Oldman's armour from Dracula) so as to be free of Jason Blood. As the other team members are being tortured in hell, however, some of them seem to be coping with it better than others; Vandal Savage is able to laugh it off; the Horsewoman relives her crippling and the death of her parents with little surprise; and the Shining Knight seems immune to the demons of hell. And I think Etrigan himself is going to betray Lucifer again. Oh, and the Questing Queen turns up as well.

Splendid stuff - saddened to hear that Paul Cornell's leaving in a few issues, though.

FRANKENSTEIN: AGENT OF S.H.A.D.E. #13 - Frankenstein discovers his maker, Victor, is now an agent of the Rot and they return from the Leviathan Graveyard to find the Rot has conquered the Earth. Getting to Metropolis, Frank find Velcoro who informs him that Father Time and the rest of S.H.A.D.E. has been destroyed.

The story's not bad, but the pacing is terrible; it really is all over the place.

GREEN LANTERN CORPS #13 - the Third Army continues to create recruits; Gardner's never heard of before last issue arch enemy is released; the Guardians deliberately betray Gardner after promoting him; they also tease John Stewart with the possibility of being able to resurrect Mogo; and then the Third Army kill their first Lantern.

I can't see how the Guardians could be redeemed by the end of this; they really have become bad, manipulative bastards and, I think, are going to end up being replaced by the lovely Guardians that previously guarded the First Lantern.

Cracking stuff, though.

THE PHANTOM STRANGER #1 - the Phantom Stranger finds Raven at the funeral of a small boy and tells her he can help, but instead of getting her somewhere safe from her father - the demon Trigon - he takes her right to him. This act of betrayal clears another of his pieces of silver though Trigon laughs at him as he has to live alone. And then we see the Stranger has a family life after all.

It's clunky and ridiculous and I wasn't enjoying it at all until those last couple of pages. Giving the Stranger a definite origin seemed a waste of a mystery but apparently giving him a wife and children (I say apparently as I'm not convinced they're real, yet) came as a real surprise so well done for that.

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And what made me smile:

You never can eat just one mammoth, can you?