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!

Who'd Like A Cocktail? #226

Heheh... snort...ha... hahaha,,, sorry... heh...

Monday Memories #15 - Green Arrow #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!

DC's June Solicitations

TRINITY OF SIN: PANDORA #1 - sort of tempted by this but, I have to admit, more from the point of it's a multiversal title, something that feeds into the forthcoming Trinity War and so I'm more interested in how it fits in rather than the character herself. Maybe I'll pick it up, maybe not.

Perusing Previews - January 2013

The current economic climate sucks, doesn't it? While I'm nowhere near broke there's some potentially large scale repair work that's going to be needed on the house soon so I'm having to watch the pennies which means cutting down on things. I'm trying not to get more ongoing comic series but then I see this: Ame-Comi Girls #1. I've heard that it's good fun which isn't surprising as it's written by Palmiotti and Gray of All-Star Western, Power Girl and Freedom Fighters among many others, so it's really tempting . . .

New DC Series

It's been all over the net for the last couple of days so this is anything but breaking news, but I figured I'd chime in on the new DC series that were recently announced.

First up is Vibe.

No, seriously, DC are producing an ongoing solo series starring Vibe, quite possibly one of the most reviled characters they've ever produced. Can you think of another single hero that's been hated for so long and by so many? I can't.

But for whatever reason, a new Vibe series has been announced, written by Andrew Kreisberg who, according to this article, will be writing about Cisco "Paco" Ramone - no idea why they've decided to give him a new first name but I won't be picking this up. I only know Kreisberg's work from his run on Green Arrow/Black Canary from a few years ago which I didn't enjoy at all.

The other series is Katana, another minor character that's being given a chance to shine in the spot light.

As with Vibe, it's being written by a writer that I've read books by: Ann Nocenti. It was her god-awful run on the most recent Green Arrow series that made me drop the book, one of only a handful of instances where I've done that. As I've said before, I managed to stick with Teen Titans when Felicia Henderson was writing it so Nocenti's work had to be something else for me to drop it.

With that in mind, that'll be another new series I won't be picking up.

Having mentioned Green Arrow, I notice that with Nocenti moving over to Katana, Jeff Lemire will be taking over Ollie's adventures. Tempting as that is - because I really like his writing - I don't think I'll be rejoining that series either.

It can't be any coincidence that both Vibe and Katana will be appearing in next year's Justice League of America series, not to mention Green Arrow who with his new TV series is getting a bit more attention. That's obviously being used as a springboard for both of them but it's not going to tempt me.

Who'd Like A Cocktail? #200

Barry Allen proves he's incapable of reading the situation between two people

Who'd Like A Cocktail? #186

Please pardon my French

Who Else Would Wear It?

A good few years ago, before they had their latest falling out, DC and Marvel teamed up and produced a couple of cross-company series and one-shots. Perhaps the best and certainly the longest anticipated was Kurt Busiek and George Perez's JLA/Avengers mini-series.

The story pitted cosmic entities from both universes pitting the heroes against one another before they overcame their differences, teamed up, turned the tables and defeated the bad guys. In the midst of the story, though, they entered a shared reality where both teams had co-existed in their own universes, sharing annual crossovers and adventures which led to this splash page aboard the JLA's satellite:

It's a typical Perez scene, crammed full of lots of characters interacting with each other. Hawkeye and Green Arrow use trick shots to try and best each other; Red Tornado shows Vision and Scarlet Witch pictures of his adopted daughter, Traya; Guy Gardner tries chatting up Moondragon.

Over the years, I've read this series several times but it's only now I've noticed Sue Dibny's T-shirt:

DC's September Solicits

I don't normally go through the solicitations with any great detail, just enough to pick out a Don't Ask post and that's about it. With all these zero issues coming out in September, a few things caught my eye:

Written by TONY BEDARD and KEITH GIFFEN
Art and cover by IG GUARA and J.P. MAYER
On sale SEPTEMBER 19 • 32 pg, FC, $2.99 US • RATED T
Where was the Scarab before it merged with the current Blue Beetle, Jaime Reyes?

Look - Keith Giffen's writing Blue Beetle again! Couple that with the fact that the story's about the scarab before Jaime and the internet explodes with Ted Kord anticipation in three . . . two . . . one . . .

Who'd Like A Cocktail? #182

Boxing gloves are so 1960's

Who'd Like A Cocktail? #178

Good advice whatever world you're on

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 #18

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 Grim Ghost's chance.

GORILLA CITY - probably going to appear (if it hasn't already) but as it's a place I'm not counting it.

Who'd Like A Cocktail? #176

Speak for yourself, man.

Who's Like A Cocktail? #174

Man, you do not want the August General in Iron pissed off at you

Who'd Like A Cocktail? #170

You have no idea how many times I've said that to my wife.

Who'd Like A Cocktail? #165

With great power comes a really bad haircut.

Who'd Like A Cocktail? #161

Come on, Godiva, most of us would kill to be in space. Some of us have . . .

Green Arrow To Be Fun, Apparently

Green Arrow gets his third creative team since the relaunch with original writer J.T. Krul being replaced by Keith Giffen and Dan Jurgens from issue #3 and now with new writer Ann Nocenti taking the reins from issue #7 onwards.

I've not read anything by her so was interested to read the interview with her over at Newsarama where she talks about Ollie and what she wants to do with the series and there's one thing she keeps mentioning that gives me hope for the series.

Sure, she mentions that Ollie will start to develop his left leaning politics, that he'll be doing a bit more travelling and that his Achilles heel - the ladies - are going to be an important part in his adventures. Oh, and she's planning to beef up his rogues gallery as well which is something that never really been done successfully. Seriously, how many recurring villains for Green Arrow can you name? Merlyn the archer? Brick and Drakon from Winick's run? Any others that aren't already established villains for other heroes like Dr Light or Solomon Grundy?

But anyway, the main thing that cropped up in Nocenti's interview that caught my eye was the following:

"The main thing you'll see with Green Arrow is fun. I want Green Arrow to have fun. I don't want him to be a tortured hero . . . I am not going into Green Arrow's past to find something that will torture him. He's a happy guy. He's going to have fun."

I've said it time and again, it's the entertaining, fun comics that keep me reading and if Ann Nocenti can make me really look forward to reading Green Arrow each month, I'll be more than happy with that.