Who'd Like A Cocktail? #242

Who said romance was dead?

Who'd Like A Cocktail? #220

Superboy's not impressed with Red Robin's new digs.

Who'd Like A Cocktail? #215

It's the car.

Who'd Like A Cocktail? #201

You'd think the daughter of an archaeologist would read something better, wouldn't you?

DC Trades

DC have released a list of the collections they'll be putting out next year, bringing together the early issues of their New 52 titles. Obviously I won't be picking up collections of the series I'm getting but there's a handful of titles that I'm sort of interested in:

More Ships Than You Can Count

Snell over at Slay, Monstrobot... has already picked up on one aspect of the secret files and origins confidential information written by Geoff Johns at the back of this week's Justice League which purports to be a transcript of a conversation / interrogation between Amanda Waller and Steve Trevor but something else caught my eye right at the start of it, in the second paragraph:

You read that? Trevor has "saved over twenty-three lost ships"

How many more? One or two? Then why not say twenty-four or -five? Ten more? What's wrong with saying thirty-three?

If it was "saved over fifty lost ships" or "saved over a hundred lost ships" I could understand but who the hell stops counting at twenty-three?

Apparently Geoff Johns does. I wonder if he has trouble keeping track of the "over one series" he's writing for DC at the moment.

Who'd Like A Cocktail? #109

You're not alone, Ray; I miss them too.

Who'd Like A Cocktail? #67

• Blackest Night: Wonder Woman #2 - missed this last week so picked up now; gorgeous artwork from Nicola Scott and Eduardo Pansica and despite knowing what was going to happen to Wonder Woman (having read Blackest Night #6) the story still held me . . . right up till the end. Even though Aphrodite's intervention was kinda fitting within the confines of the story, it was still "all just a dream." Disappointing.
• Booster Gold #28 - I can't help wondering, given the recent news about Giffen and DeMatteis taking over this title, whether Dan Jurgens is building up to a big finale - wouldn't be the first time he's had a hand in destroying Coast City!
• Blue Beetle - oh, Jaime, what have you done now? Looks like this, too, is building to a finale and it'll be a shame to see Beetle go.
  
• Catwoman #83 - have to admit I was looking forward to these resurrected titles but they seem to be fairly formulaic now - villain rises as Black Lantern, attacks hero, is destroyed after fight. Still, halfway through so I'll grab the rest.
• Green Arrow/Black Canary #28 - I'm just sticking with this title because of the characters now; I don't like Sienkiewicz's art, I don't like Kreisberg's writing though I do approve of his attempt to beef up Green Arrow's rogues gallery. But that's about it.
• Green Arrow - what do you know? A second feature that doesn't actually feature any of the main characters.
• Magog #5 - Giffen continues building up to the inevitable conflict between Magog and the Justice Society.
• Neonomicon prologue - all new Alan Moore! Just when you thought this week's comics were a little light on substance! Can't wait for the series to begin proper later this year.
• The Power Of Shazam #48 - again, a little formulaic as the Catwoman issue above but, to be fair, there's the slight spin of Osiris actually fighting against the black power ring from the start.
• Punishermax #3 - what is it about Steve Dillon drawing horrible old ladies?
• Secret Six #17 - the Six pretty much get shafted by Amanda Waller, the Suicide Squad and the Black Lanterns. Another tightly plotted issue by Simone and Ostrander.

And what made me smile:

Ah, Ragdoll . . .

Final Crisis #4 Annotations Complete

Finished the notes on Final Crisis #4 over at the Annotated Final Crisis.

There's a few things I need a hand with in this issue in so far as identifying a couple of characters. You can find all the ones in the Help Needed page but lets see if we can get something out here as well:

Pages 12-13 - Panel 1    In the skies above Checkmate's castle, Hawkgirl battles Silver Swan though I'm unsure as to who the flaming, flying character on the left is. Anyone?

Pages 12-13 - Panel 3    Green Lantern Alan Scott stands in front of a large screen depicting the status of various heroes. In the very top right hand corner is an unknown gold coloured man.  --  solved; it was Robotman.

Pages 12-13 - Panel 5    Not reading Checkmate, I'm unsure of who the speaker is; beside him are Amanda Waller and The Question, Rene Montoya.  --  solved; it was Taleb Beni Khalid.

Page 24 - Panel 2    Above the Checkmate castle from the top down are Killer Moth; an unknown Justifier; Hawkgirl; possibly Sun Girl; Green Lantern Alan Scott; Bolt; Man-Bat; and, in the whirlpool, Typhoon.

Who'd Like A Cocktail? #13

Despite being really busy with boring things like work, I'm going to endeavour to get back into the weekly swing of things as far as the Cocktail posts go. Having said that, I'm away next weekend so that one might be delayed as well.

Tricky one this week: The Four Horsemen came to a satisfying conclusion with #6; Green Arrow And Black Canary #4 almost redeemed Judd Winick's urge to kill every hero from the previous issue (though I still have reservations which I'll deal with in another post); Green Lantern Corps #20 almost made it but the short hand conversation between Kyle and Guy rankled a little; Countdown To Final Crisis #16 killed a lot more people; Salvation Run #3 almost got the Cocktail for the great surprise ending; The Boys #14, while a good solid read, didn't do anything spectacular; and the frankly bizarre Teen Titans Lost Annual #1 was just too . . . bizarre to cope with unless you'd taken as many drugs as Bob Haney had.

Which you couldn't because he'd taken all of them. All of them.

As you can tell from the picture, though, it was Suicide Squad #5 that stood out for me this week.

Having taken his time in explaining how Colonel Rick Flag (previously thought dead) was back in the Squad, John Ostrander's story begins to pick up pace nicely as the first mission for the new Squad is placed in jeopardy before the members even leave the warm and welcoming corridors of Belle Reve prison.

Giving the bad guys the most attention this month, Ostrander neatly reveals that The General is still as devious a son of a bitch as he ever was. Unknown to Amanda Waller, the Squad's leader, The General is in control of Flag and plans to sell the Squad down the river to the very people they're due to go up against.

On top of that, Bronze Tiger has to reprimand Captain Boomerang for pissing off Deadshot, neatly foreshadowing an upcoming conflict between the pair. Deadshot and the original Boomerang were never the best of friends and with the new Captain's ill considered attempt to annoy him, it's certain that things will quickly come to a head.

Rather than rush into explaining how Flag returned, Ostrander once more showed what a damn fine writer he is by bringing him back in a way that, while bizarre, made perfect sense within the larger world of the DCU. Using the same steady flow, he has built the series towards what promises to be a damn fine climax which should hit just before Final Crisis.

I for one can't wait.