Monday Memories #25 - Action Comics #616

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!

Who'd Like A Cocktail? #113

Oh, Guy Gardner . . . you charmer.

Who'd Like A Cocktail? #99

That's a president I'd vote for!

As I was away last weekend, you lucky people get a double sized edition of Who'd Like A Cocktail, the posts where I just babble away in bullet points about my comic books.

• BRIGHTEST DAY #10 - Firestorm gets some really bad news - he's the next Big Bang just waiting to happen. I wonder if Damage will be jealous when he hears about that. The new Aqualad makes his appearance culminating in a very tense stand-off between Aquaman and Black Manta that really makes me think Geoff Johns could carry off an Aquaman solo-series. All told, another good issue.
• DC UNIVERSE: LEGACIES #5 - they missed a great trick here, not having the original Crisis tie-in banner running across the cover! Of course, this being a post-Crisis depiction of Crisis on Infinite Earths, it isn't really a tie-in, but I'm nit-picking. Len Wein continues his stroll through the various ages of DC's history, stopping off at the big Crisis. This issue really is splendid, managing to focus on a normal family who observe some of the biggest DC events; sure it's been done before (Marvels is the obvious comparison) but that doesn't stop this being good. And hey, they got George Perez to do this issue as well!
• GREEN LANTERN CORPS #52 - the Alpha Lantern storyline comes to an end as Cyborg Superman is defeated once more (I'd like to say permanently this time, but we know that's not going to happen) and the Alpha's have their emotions restored.
• THE DARK TOWER: THE GUNSLINGER: THE JOURNEY BEGINS #5 - And so the journey that began a couple of years ago has come to the end of the bit where the journey begins. Or something.
• GREEN LANTERN: EMERALD WARRIORS #2 - Guy Gardner starts his top-secret mission and, no surprise, his friends Arisia and Kilowog tag along for the ride. There's not a great deal that happens this issue, to be honest, as it seems to be setting things up, introducing Zardor of Kralok and his mental powers, along with bringing Red Lantern Bleez back into things.
• THE BOYS: HIGHLAND LADDIE #2 - I love it when I'm right! Back in Cocktail #95, I wrote: "May I predict a hugely oversized adversary for Hughie, employed by the drug smugglers, who will also be quite humourous either in name and/or appearance?" and in this issue we meet the gigantic Wee Sarah. Still, Ennis's predictability doesn't prevent this being another top issue.
• JUSTICE LEAGUE: GENERATION LOST #10 -Warning! The cover of this issue is not reflected in the contents at all! Warning! Don't get me wrong - it's another cool cover, but at no point does a Year One style Batman hang around a JL International embassy building. The faux-JLI continue their attempt to find and foil Max Lord's plans and, just when it looks like Batman's figured out something's wrong, Lord's global mind-wipe kicks in again.
• JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #49 - this seems like a done-in-one just to bridge the gap between the end of last issue and a big 50th issue celebration. Trust me - introduce a mind-manipulator in the first few pages and you can guarantee anything that happens after that is all in someone's mind. And since when did Donna Troy swear so much?!
• POWER GIRL #16 - here we see the start of the fight which is going to dominate #18 featuring Power Girl's new nemesis, Divine. The rest of the issue's background on why she ends up in the Arctic in the first place. Having bashed Winick on this blog on more than one occasion, I have to admit to still liking this title; he's keeping it relatively light and the art's nice and clean so hopefully it's not going to go down the pan at any stage soon.
• PROJECT SUPERPOWERS: CHAPTER TWO #12 - all the heroes get together to beat the crap out of the Claw while the Death Defying 'Devil is outed as being the Devil himself! Well, maybe. The next issue solicit says that Chapter Three, out next year, will be the last one. Surely Dynamite aren't just going to roll this series up and put it away?
• ZATANNA #5 - another cracking issue of magical superheroics; this series just keeps on getting better. It's almost as much fun as the old Power Girl series was, just with more demons!

And what made me smile:

I had no intention of picking up Knight And Squire but after seeing the preview in the back of Justice League of America #49, I think I may!

Who'd Like A Cocktail? #80

Power Girl delivers an ass kicking to order

Bumper crop this week following last week's volcano-caused delay.

• Battlefields: The Firefly And His Majesty #2 - ah, humour building up to what will be a horrible, horrible ending. Damn, this series is good.
• The Brave And The Bold #33 - as soon as I saw Batgirl I sussed what was going on but you know what? It worked. Easily the best of the Straczynski issues so far, this quiet tale was a little sad but handled really well. Plus it has the gorgeous, gorgeous artwork of Cliff Chiang.
• Crossed: Family Values #1 - another foray into the world of the Crossed, this looks to be as nasty as the Garth Ennis series; even without the infection, we're dealing with a incestuous rapist so things can only get worse.
• The Dark Tower: Battle of Jericho Hill #5 - the preludes are done as Roland is left alone and in search of the Tower.
• Green Lantern #53 - so, who's the short guy in the cloak at the start of the issue? The scarred Guardian somehow regenerated? And why is Lex Luthor acting like a real estate agent? We all know how that turned out in Superman Returns.
• Green Lantern Corps #47 - man, Arisia's pissed and the Guardians know it! For once, after the Lanterns stand up for themselves, it looks as though the Guardians might actually be learning how to deal with people.
• Justice League of America #44 - okay, this book is still a little clunky in places but it seems to be getting better on the whole.
• Justice League: The Rise of Arsenal #2 - poor old Roy; grief makes you say some pretty mean and stupid things to those you love, doesn't it?
• Justice Society of America #38 - the Joker begging to be executed alongside the Batman? That kinda makes sense!
• Power Girl #11 - I suspect this may be the last but one issue of fun, well-written superheroics from this title. Power Girl goes up against the Ultra-Humanite who's tucked up in Terra's body and while that battle seems resolved, there's still Satanna to deal with.
• Teen Titans #82 - I am a slave to various titles, I see that now. I have to pick them up no matter how little I'm enjoying them. Teen Titans is a case in point as the writing is just awful (Superboy and Kid Flash fist-bumping after saying they need to bury their friends? Ugh. Wonder Girl being a stroppy cow and not talking to Superboy even though he's just returned from the dead? Ugh.) and even the art's become worse - Raven gets kidnapped at the end and the last panel (complete with clichéd "Nooo!" from Beast Boy) is the smallest on the page? Come on, that whole last page was just too cramped and badly  laid out. Can someone please get another team on this book?

But this made me smile:

As much fun as Power Girl is, she can be as mean and brutal as she needs to be when her friend's in danger.

Who'd Like A Cocktail? #54

Missed the start of a new round of Friday Night Fights over at Spacebooger on Friday due to being out with some friends and drinking beer. Still, plan to get back in the ring this Friday coming. Meanwhile - it's cocktail time!

• Blackest Night: Batman #2 - ahh, I knew those second rate corpses would come back and cause trouble but blimey they seem to have killed most of Gotham's PD! And what a family reunion to end on!
• Booster Gold #24 - wait a second - Kyle (Green Lantern) Rayner and Zatanna are married in this weird future?!
• Blue Beetle co-feature - Mr T's cooler now than he ever was in the 80's! Things look grim for Blue Beetle, though.
• Doom Patrol #2 - this feels a lot like Giffen''s run on Suicide Squad from a couple of years ago which is no bad thing as I really liked that series. Just have to wonder if this'll last more than twelve issues.
• Metal Men co-feature - heh, this is funny "Metal Men assemble!"  "Assemble what?"
• Green Lantern Corps #40 - the Blackest Night gets grimmer; we find out why Arisia's parents were introduced in Blackest Night: Tales of The Corps; and Guy Gardner gets impaled.
• Magog #1 - took a chance on this after reading a couple of generally positive reviews and because it's Giffen again. Let's see how this one gets on shall we?
• Secret Six #13 - damn this is still consistently one of the best reads out there, month after month.
• Wednesday Comics #10 - still more hits than misses with Kamandi and Hawkman topping the list this week.

And what made me smile:

Salaak shows why he's second in command to the Guardians!

It Was All Hal Jordan's Fault In The First Place

As I mentioned yesterday, I've just posted some notes about the Nekron story in Tales of The Green Lantern Corps over at the Annotated Blackest Night. To get those notes done, I obviously re-read the story, the first time I'd done so in ages. When I did, I noticed something a bit . . . odd.

In short, the Guardians have gather every Green Lantern on Oa - that's all 3,600 of them so you know it's going to be important. Hell, they even drafted in Charlie Vicker:

who seems to have a . . . close . . . relationship with Stel . . . which is fine, you know, I'm not judging - just going for the cheap joke.

Anyhow, like I said, it's an important meeting as evidenced by Tomar-Re and the other Honour Guards showing up:

I wonder why Guy Gardner and Kyle Rayner don't have those fancy red sashes now that they're Honour Guards . . . ?

Anyhow, like the bird-man says, "Time is of the essence!" There's no time to delay - things have to get going and, after the Guardians arrive, Jordan does just that. He gets going . . . at least his mouth does:

See, he's only just met Arisia who doesn't know squat about the Guardians or their history so Jordan fills her in concerning Krona, that bad guy who wanted desperately to see the origin of the universe.

And he takes three and a half pages to do it even though, as his good friend Tomar-Re said:

And what do the Guardians do when Jordan's babbling away about Krona?

Nothing!

They wait until he's finished!!

Sure, Guardian, explain the URGENT REASON you've brought them together after you let Jordan finish his story. Don't you realise:

It's so urgent you summon every Green Lantern, it's so urgent you bring them all to Oa all at once, it's all so very, very urgent but you let Jordan tell Krona's story for too long:

Not ready?!

Not ready?!


Who's fault is that?!

Hal Jordan - smug son of a bitch.

Friday Night Fights - Predator vs Terminator DC Style!

Been so busy in work lately I've had no time to do anything - except fight as Spacebooger demands!

So Dark Horse comics have the whole Predator/Terminator franchises sewn up. Who cares? Back in the early 90's, DC were doing their own thing with characters who had the same names:

 

Before Deathstroke became the uber assassin he's been claimed to be recently, even Arisia, the alien Green Lantern girlfriend of Hal Jordan, could kick his ass. Admittedly while she was possessed by the Predator who had also inhabited Carol Ferris, another of Jordan's girlfriends. Man, and I thought I'd been out with some strange girls . . .

But what's the best way to get a possessed alien off you?

A face full of CHOW! Trouble is, Deathstroke's just too confident:

And where's that flaming SHHPP ended up? I think every male reading this can tell by Deathstroke's bulging eyeball.

Is there anything worse than an alien girl punching you there? Only Spacebooger knows!

This interspecies related violence was first seen in Green Lantern Vol 2 #42, cover dated June 1993, written by Gerard Jones with art by Scott Kolins, Mark D. Bright, Steve Mattsson and Romeo Tanghal.