Who'd Like A Cocktail? #212

That's squirrels for you - always looking for the good in people. Usually in their ears.

Sunday afternoon comics - two weeks' worth!

BLUE BEETLE #16 - sold out by his new friend Moonrunner, Beetle's captured by the heavies of Lady Styx and is told he's going to be part of The Hunted, the Battle Royale style hunting show featured in Threshold. He puts up a fight, aided by surprise ally Sky Witness who bites the dust, before Jaime's captured. Meanwhile, his friends and family receive a pre-recorded message from Beetle saying he'll be back.

Something of a swan song and lead in to Beetle's upcoming appearances in Threshold, there wasn't much to this final issue. The series has been a bit patchy but enjoyable on the whole and I'll miss it.

DEMON KNIGHTS #16 - several members of the Demon Knights are brought together thirty years after the team disbanded last issue by one of their own - Al Jabr who, unlike some of the others, has aged normally meaning he won't be joining them in their adventures against someone claiming to be the Biblical Cain - who also happens to be a vampire - and is planning to lead an army to Themyscira to get a bunch of vampire Amazons under his control. Elsewhere, Vandal Savage is torturing a literally speechless Jason Blood.

New writer Robert Vendetti doesn't do too bad a job following Paul Cornell, though I'm no fan of vampires as a plot device, and Vandal Savage seems a lot less fun. Still, not bad.

FRANKENSTEIN, AGENT OF S.H.A.D.E. #16 - Frank and the crew are dispatched to stop a bunch of bio-terrorists launching a bomb which will spread viral diseases across the planet. The bomb's stopped, the terrorists are dispatched and everything's wrapped up in record time for the finale of the series.

While Kindt's work had been better over the last couple of issues, this just seemed as rushed as his first few issues - bugger all pacing, just bouncing from one scene to the next. That said, I'll still miss this strange little corner of the DCU.

GREEN LANTERN #16 - B'dg turns up looking for Jordan but ends up finding Simon Baz and takes it upon himself to try and train the new GL as quickly as he can. They find messages from both Hal and Sinestro in Baz's ring (I should be beyond sniggering at that by now) and on the way to find Hal, they find time for Baz to help his brother in law out of a coma. Oh, and the dead guy Hal and Sinestro have been following turns out to be Tomar-Re.

Not bad although the bulk of the issue is Baz willing his comatose brother in law back to health which proves what a great Lantern he is, I suppose.

GREEN LANTERN CORPS #16 - Guy's in prison which just happens to get attacked by the Third Army while his brother and sister are visiting. B'dg and Baz turn up and help out and they clue Guy in on what's happening with Hal and the Guardians.

One big fight throughout most of the issue before Guy finds out what the Guardians are up to. Not a bad issue, though.

GREEN LANTERN: NEW GUARDIANS #16 - Kyle's still on Zamaron where they're trying to teach him how to channel the power of love without much success. Ganthet turns up and discovers that the Zamarons had lied to him and the other Guardians when they said they'd help him; they're actually hoping Kyle or someone will stop the little blue meanies which leads to a big fight, the Zamarons about to overpower Ganthet before Kyle stops them, loving the little guy like a father despite everything he's done. This last sacrifice allows Kyle to become a White Lantern which scare Ganthet off.

Not bad at all, although Kyle didn't really look like himself due to the guest artist. Still, a fair bit happened here.

JUSTICE LEAGUE #16 - Aquaman's trying his best to get the League to back off and let him talk things through with his brother but Supes, Bats and Wondy are all, frankly, acting like idiots so it's no wonder Ocean Master launches war against the surface. Cyborg manages to go look for help and ends up calling in the reserves. There's a nice little conversation between Cyborg's dad and T.O. Morrow about Morrow's "weather machine", an android he's built - strange because Red Tornado's already been seen in Earth 2.

The Shazam! back-up features Sivana rounding up another of the deadly sins while Black Adam kicks Billy's behind, forcing him to realise the new super gig's not all it's cracked up to be.

When are the League going to start working together?

SAUCER COUNTRY #11 - Michael takes Arcadia back to his childhood haunts where he and his sister once believed fairies existed. With everything that's happened to them recently, that's not so far fetched, although their existence is never flatly stated one way or the other and a possible allegorical reason is given for them which turns out to be a little obvious if a little grim. Even so, this is a good stand alone issue and, with its cancellation from #14, the next few issues should be interesting.

SWORD OF SORCERY #4 - Amethyst has obviously been hanging round with John Constantine and the rest of the Justice League Dark fellows as she starts the issue in the House of Mystery. Before going back to Gemworld, she heads to Chicago (with John's blessing) for a pizza and gets caught up in a rather run of the mill demonic summoning which she ends up defeating before John turns up and sends her back to Gemworld.

Not bad - Constantine's not a total dick but he makes it clear that he still knows more than Amy does, and the Stalker back-up series holds promise.

THRESHOLD #1 - Jediah Caul, renegade Lantern, ends up on the run and hunted along with Stealth, an updated Ric Starr and the mention of a new T'om T'morra. It's a little bit set up of the characters with Caul getting most of the screen time before we're introduced to the other two, but it's done very well. And the Larfleeze back-up story promises to be a lot of fun with Giffen making the most of the ridiculous character.

I was looking forward to this and while I wasn't disappointed, I've no doubt the main story will get a little meatier as we go along.

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And what made me smile was this page:

or more specifically

Heh!