Monday Memories #40 - JLA Incarnations #2

Each Monday this year I'll be taking a look back at a random comic, prestige format issue, graphic novel or collection of reprints from amongst my 3,000 or so comics that date from 1962 to 2003 - I figured anything in the last ten years would be too recent to hark back to.

The comics are chosen completely at random and apart from a four week lead-in period, even I don't know what I'll be looking at in the weeks to come!

All That Glitters

Last week in Justice League, we saw various heroes try out for positions on team, including the latest version of Platinum from the Metal Men. Trouble is - as these situations so, so often do - there was a bit of a brawl when Platinum lost her equilibrium.

At one point, she threw Firestorm, Blue Devil and Goldrush away from her:

but luckily, Flash caught Goldrush:

A call back to the fact that earlier she'd been flirting with him. Skipping over the fact that Vixen's left leg appears to have been amputated, cast your eye over Goldrush - for a woman who's covered in golden armour, she looks awfully . . . pink.

There you go, the latest in the range of colouring corrections from Crisis on Earth-Prime.

Feel free to ignore this post if it later turns out her gold armour vanishes if she's knocked unconscious or something.

Now That's Art

DC Collectible have released a whole bunch of prints based around the DC heroes and story lines. Some work better for me than others, such as the lovely one below, but none of them are terrible.

Go take a look by clicking on the picture of Flash's Cosmic Treadmill.

Trinity War Speculation

DC's unveiled a big picture of the four page gatefold in the Free Comic Book Day issue (which I didn't get - need to speak to my comic book guy)

and Newsarama has a link to an absolutely massive version of it.

Not wanting to miss out on the speculation about Trinity War, I thought I'd have a quick look and see what we've got:

Who Was Who Is Who #16

So for want of anything better to write about on a Monday, I'm going to go through all my copies of Who's Who and see if I can predict who will make it over to the new DCU by the end of 2012, who might make it and who hasn't got a Galactic Golem's chance.

THE FLASH - well here we have one who's definitely already in place: the Barry Allen Flash. But we also have one who I'm betting we'll definitely see with the launch of Earth-2: the Jay Garrick Flash. Can't wait to see the guy with the tin hat again.

THE FLORONIC MAN - Jason Woodrue went through a few transformations before his stint in Swamp Thing turned him into something more than a simple villain. Will we see him again? It's possible he might return to Swamp Thing, but I don't think it'll happen before the end of the year.

Who'd Like A Cocktail? #172

Don't be too sure of that, Jaime

Who'd Like A Cocktail? #155?

See? It's not all bad.

Who'd Like A Cocktail? #151

Hal Jordan showing how NOT to win friends and influence people

Jurgens League #5 - Destiny's Hand

And here we go again, casting our eyes back over an older incarnation of the Justice League, this time from the early 90's when Dan Jurgens was in charge. With that in mind, I had to call this the

JUSTICE LEAGUE AMERICA #72 - 75, written by Dan Jurgens with art by Dan Jurgens, Rick Burchett, Bob Smith and Romeo Tanghal.

Monday Memes #37

There's nothing like being stuck between a rock and a hard place, is there? Or, in these cases, between one group of friends and another:

And you know things are coming to a head if you end up . . . er . . . going head to head:

Anyone want to guess at the chances of Green Arrow and Flash going up against each other in this new DCU?

Who'd Like A Cocktail? #144

What? You think just because DC re-number all their titles
that I'm going to revert to Cocktail #1?

Who'd Like A Cocktail? #143

Haven't we all, Guy, haven't we all . . .

Who'd Like A Cocktail? #141

Forever? Well, at least until September.

A Bargain At Twice The Price

Well I've just ordered this:

Showcase Presents: The Trial of the Flash, twenty four issues for a mere £10.49 over here in the (currently) rioting UK.

That should keep me quiet for a few days.

Who'd Like A Cocktail? #140

Deadshot asks what we've been thinking for a while

Who'd Like A Cocktail? #137

Because, you know, a man of science would really be worried about his soul.

Justice League Detroit - Passing The Torch

Over the next few weeks on a Tuesday, I'll be working my way through the Justice League of America titles from 1985 to 1987, trying to work out if the Justice League Detroit era really was as bad as we think it was. Why? Why the hell not.

JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #237 - #239 written by Gerry Conway with art by Chuck Patton and Mike Machlan.

When Jason Todd took over from Dick Grayson as Robin, readers didn't much care for him and we all know how that ended up. Tim Drake, though, was embraced from the outset and the most oft-cited reason for that is that he had Dick Grayson's blessing.

With the introductory arc over (see last week) the new League was coming to terms with itself, the members beginning to gel as a team though there was still plenty of work to be done. However there was one thing that still hadn't been addressed: most of the old League were there when Aquaman disbanded it but where have Superman, Wonder Woman and the Flash been?

#237 starts with Vixen and Aquaman discussing the fact that his wife Mera has recently left him, giving us an insight as to why he's been acting like such a jerk recently. But the whereabouts of his three former team members has also been weighing heavily on him. As luck would have it, his old friends turn up at the remains of the satellite headquarters pretty much on cue.

Who'd Like A Cocktail? #132

Butcher illustrates one of the reasons why The Boys is a mature readers title

Flashpoint #1 - A Few Things Of Note

Unlike previous years' big events, I won't be annotating Flashpoint and it's various associated spin-off titles, but last week's Flashpoint #1 did contain a couple of things that either made me chuckle or wonder if there was any real significance. The annotater in me couldn't help but then think: hmmm, there may be a blog post in this.

The big two-page spread (click on the above to embiggen) that gave us our first look at the Batman held a few things: the "Wayne's World" sign in the bottom left was obviously a call-out to that dreadful, goddam movie; the "Queen of Hearts Roulette" sign probably references the JSA villain Roulette, created by Geoff Johns; and as with the best alternate worlds, there's zepplins in the air.

Retroactive - The 80's Part 2

As DC Comics are celebrating the creators that made an impact in the 70's, 80's and 90's, I thought I'd wander through the same decades and pull out my favourite comic of each year.

Welcome back to the 80's!