Who'd Like A Cocktail? #116

Power Girl explains the problems of dating Kryptonians

Who'd Like A Cocktail? #85

Black Alice produces the best Etrigan rhyme ever!

Bumper week this week following the no-show of my comics last weekend.

• Booster Gold #33 - understandable that the title's tying in closely with Justice League: Generation Lost and the whole hunt for Max Lord thing, but it was nice seeing the JLI-era League once more.
• Brightest Day #3 - nice, too, to see J'onn J'onnz being a detective once more, working out who was brought to Earth before him; and is it me or is Ronnie Raymond looking waaaaaaaaaaay younger than ever before?
• Doom Patrol #11 - oh man, and they thought Grant Morrison's Doom Patrol was weird! This is cool, though, with Ambush Bug helping the team out - the line about "saving that for last" almost got the Cocktail post this week as I literally snorted when I read it!
• JSA All-Stars #7 - from the cover you'd expect the service to be a closed casket affair as Damage is laid to rest; there's a touching eulogy from Judomaster which runs throughout most of this issue, giving it a quieter, respectful air. Very well done.
• Co-feature Liberty Belle & Hourman - the good guy / bad guy team up continues to make this an enjoyable story even if it is starting to drag a little.
• Justice League: Generation Lost #3 - it's Fire's turn to be tricked by Max Lord into becoming a renegade as the team, now with extra Blue Beetle which is always good, continue the hunt. Great line from Ice when she explains she doesn't know what the OMACs are - "I'm pretty sure I was deceased when they showed up the first time!"
• Justice Society of America #39 - now that, my friends, is a cliffhanger! Excellent issue!
• PunisherMax #8 - three stories running in parallel this issue with lines being crossed by the end of it.
• Secret Six #22 - aside from the splendid rhyme quoted above, this issue had several cool moments ranging from the cold with Catman and his father, to the sad with Black Alice and her father, to the funny with Ragdoll . . . just being Ragdoll, really.
• The Stand: Hardcases #1 - the focus of the story shifts to the bad guys as Flagg begins gathering his troops.
• Superman: New Krypton Vol 1 - picked up the trade of this pretty much on a whim so will read it over the next few days.

And what made me smile:

Booster Gold stands up for the JLI!

Who'd Like A Cocktail? #84

Robotman gets caught out staring at Saturn Girl's behind

• BLACKEST NIGHT DIRECTOR'S CUT #1 - finally got round to picking this up, partly to satisfy the collector in me. The cover gallery's nice, the script to issue #1 gives an insight into how comics are made and the unused scenes - particularly the Rainbow Raiders suicide - were interesting. Certainly not essential to the Blackest Night series, but an enjoyable add-on.
• THE BRAVE AND THE BOLD #34 - I'm sure some of us have seen this type of story before: a two parter involving time travel almost guarantees a couple of things 1) that the first issue will have odd, seemingly insignificant details dotted throughout (in this case the moving time sphere and the pink fluff) and 2) that the second issue will explain these as being caused by the same characters working behind the scenes to ensure their present selves don't see them. It's not a bad story, but neither is it anything above ordinary - it seems like an exercise for Straczynski to be able to tie up the various anomalies in an interesting way next month.
• GREEN LANTERN #54 - Atrocitus comes back, along with Red Lantern cat Dex-Star who makes a great entrance. The entities of the various Corps are named and shown to Jordan and the others and the mysterious cloaked figure frees Sodam Yat from Daxam's star. Oh, and Lobo turns up leading to a great next issue caption: Lobo punches people with rings. Hard.
• GREEN LANTERN CORPS #48 - Tony Bedard's first issue as writer isn't too bad; admittedly I don't think he's got Atrocitus's voice down yet but John Stewart's handled well.
• JUSTICE LEAGUE: GENERATION LOST #2 - well, I guess those first couple of pages answer the critics who wondered about how Max Lord would deal with the physical evidence of his crimes / existence. Nothing much happens apart from scenes where the main characters are all shown attempting to convince other heroes that they're right and being turned down. But hey, always nice to see Jaime Reyes's Blue Beetle.
• JUSTICE LEAGUE: THE RISE OF ARSENAL #3 - oh, you gotta go down before you can come up or some such other homily springs to mind with this. Arsenal goes back to the dope, then gets forced to go cold turkey and starts hallucinating his dead daughter Lian. One more issue to go.
• POWER GIRL #12 - I know this series is continuing, but this issue for me feels like the end. It's a wonderful, wonderful wrap up issue that still leaves plots not so much hanging as available. Having set the bar so high on this series, Palmiotti, Gray and Conner have almost guaranteed a slump in quality when Winick takes over next month but I don't want to tarnish this last issue snapshot with negativity about the new team. Power Girl has, for just over a year, been consistently one of the best books out there: fun, well-written, wonderful art, and characters that you end up caring about. There's no way Blackest Night could have made a cross-over into this world and as much as I enjoyed that series, I'm glad Power Girl never had to deal with it in these pages. I'm seriously going to miss this book even though I plan on sticking with the title if you see what I mean.
• PROJECT SUPERPOWERS: CHAPTER TWO #9 - okay, so all the heroes are piling on Zeus and after spending ages just growling Catman - sorry, Man-Cat finally gets to tear up the imposter Kid Terror who, paradoxically, may turn out to be just what they need against the mad god.
• TEEN TITANS #83 - oh god where do I start? I've stuck with different titles through rough patches before but I'm seriously considering dropping this until Henderson either leaves or is kicked off as writer. Changeling's yelling out "Raven!" every five minutes; Superboy and Wonder Girl are apparently splitting up because... well, I'm not sure, really; Changeling's yelling out "Raven!" every five minutes; Aquagirl fancies Superboy; Changeling's yelling out "Raven!" every five minutes; two doctors spout more pseudo-science nonsense than ever before; and why the hell would Changeling become a chimpanzee to mend a broken computer?! This is becoming a truly dreadful title with every issue, a car crash that I can't help staring at. Someone please tell me Henderson's going to be fired soon?
• Co-feature: COVEN OF THREE - not a bad start to a tale about three teenage magicians; always nice to see Traci 13 (even if she looks younger than when she was in Tales of the Unexpected a couple of years ago) and I wonder how Black Alice will be reconciled with her Secret Six appearances but this is still better than the main story.

And what made me smile will surprise no regular reader of this blog: Power Girl #12 just delivers so much this month like this -

and this - 

and this -

Once again a big thank you to Jimmy Palmiotti, Justin Gray and Amanda Conner for their excellent run on this book. Those of you who haven't picked it up can get the whole thing in two trade paperbacks with the second one out this year.

Who'd Like A Cocktail? #81

Jeanette and Bane discuss fine cuisine

• The Boys #42 - Mother's Milk works out what Butcher's doing and isn't too happy about it while poor old Hughie is still being kept at arm's length.
• Brightest Day #1 - so the next big storyline kicks off with Aquaman raising dead sea creatures, Martian Manhunter remembering the old days differently and Hath-Set getting a hold of the Hawks' original bones. A good start all in all.
• Doom Patrol #10 - more crazy happenings with the DCU's weirdest heroes. As much as I like this title, I keep waiting for a cancellation notice to be posted somewhere . . .
• JSA All-Stars #6 - Johnny Sorrow's plan is revealed at last and the All-Stars regroup and take stock of where they're going. Anna Fortune seems to be sticking around which is cool as I like the character, though the implied attraction to Atom Smasher's bound to cause friction with Stargirl.
• Liberty Belle & Hourman co-feature - heroes and villains working together and actually getting on! This is a great little mini-series whose strength is the interaction between the characters - I've pretty much forgotten what they're all after but I'm happy to keep reading nonetheless!
• Secret Six #21 - if there was an award for best cover, this issue would win hands down. Catman continues on his rampage to find his son while Black Alice flips out and becomes the Demon Estrogen! Damn, I love this book!

And what made me smile:

There were several laugh out loud moments in Secret Six but this little exchange between Power Girl, Hourman and Citizen Steel from JSA All-Stars won out for me.

Who'd Like A Cocktail? #75

Gee, would you look at that - 75th edition of Who'd Like A Cocktail?

• Doom Patrol #8 - a quick one page summary of Blackest Night and Giffen's right back to his own storyline. It should be nutty enough to please fans of the old Morrison run but, for my money, nowhere near as needlessly pretentious. This is good, solid (if weird) superheroics.
• Justice League: Rise And Fall Special - poor old Green Arrow's gone and done a bad thing and all his friends are angry with him and "have to stop him -- before he kills again!" Strange as it's not the first time he's done it but there you go. I like the character so will tag along for the ride and see what happens.
• Magog #7 - with the whole Mother of Magog sub plot bubbling away, it looks like next issue we get a visit from Tommy Tomorrow and the Planeteers!
• Punishermax #5 - the Kingpin storyline concludes, nicely leading in to the next round where Bullseye looks to be getting a pseudo-Colin Farrell makeover. This is shaping up to be a cool series, and not just for the Steve Dillon artwork.
• Secret Six #19 - Black Alice and Ragdoll getting sweet? Awww, how nice! That last page, though? Can't wait for the next issue!

And what made me smile:

Never has a next issue box looked so good! (Giffen + Doom Patrol) x Ambush Bug = Awesome!

Who'd Like A Cocktail? #63

I'm off enjoying a family Christmas get together but managed to get this done before I left,

• Booster Gold #27 - Booster lays Ted to rest and we finally get to catch up with Goldstar . . . and she is so in the wrong place at the wrong time!
• DC Universe Holiday Special '09 #1 - as I've said before, the thing about anthologies is you can never tell what you're going to get. On the whole, though, these short stories were pretty good - particularly liked the Red Tornado one, myself.
• Doom Patrol #5 - the Doom Patrol take on the Black Lanterns with everyone ending up going through a Boom Tube.
• Metal Men second feature - "Giffen, Dematteis and Maguire? I didn't know those guys were still alive!"
• Green Arrow/Black Canary #27 - so Dark Arrow's Everyman, yeah? Okay . . .
• second feature - an origin story of Cupid which is actually interesting! Why did it take Kreisberg so long to come up with this?!
• Magog #4 - that's Magog's mother?!
• Punisher Max #2 - man, that Kingpin is one seriously messed up fella.
• Secret Six #16 - yay! Black Alice - that mental teenager with the really short temper - is back and has joined our favourite band of villains.

And what made me smile this week:

Black Alice shows why she is just perfect for this team!