Who Was Who Is Who #20

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 Human Target's chance.

HERCULES - with Wonder Woman's premise of gods and monsters, it wouldn't surprise me at all if Hercules turns up there so I'm going for a possible here.

Who'd Like A Cocktail? #119

Ravager encapsulates my feelings about those bloody things

Who'd Like A Cocktail? #112

Ah, Hourman - how often have I felt like that?

DC start their run of gorgeous, minimalist covers and what do I do? Go and splash a whole bunch of text over them.

Who's Who In The JLA/JSA?

Last week's issue of Justice League of America (#48) had a couple of things that kinda threw me off balance when I was reading it. Hopefully long time readers know that I like to be as positive and upbeat about the comics I read as I can - Cthulhu knows there are plenty of comic blogs out there that bitch about things and I've never wanted to do that.

However (you just knew that was coming, didn't you?), like I said, Justice League... #48 had some things that I had to drag out here.

In an attempt to disrupt the Starheart taking over more heroes, Mr Terrific ropes in both Supergirl and Power Girl to help him build a device that will sort things out. It's great that Terrific recognises Power Girl is more than just a fighter - he specifically has her help because of her "scientific abilities" - and her reasoning about not really getting involved in that side of things with the Justice Society rings true. She wants to keep her Power Girl and Karen Starr personas separate. But then James Robinson has her say this:

Charles?! Who the hell is Charles?! The only Charles in the JSA was Charles McNider, the original Dr. Mid-Nite and he's been dead since Zero Hour! Was she confusing McNider with Pieter Cross, the current Dr. Mid-Nite?

Later on in the book, the good guys of both the JLA and the JSA take on Green Lantern Alan Scott who's possessed by the Starheart:

Now I'm not going to go on about the coloured and mini-icon styled caption boxes - others have done that better than I could - but I do need to pick up on something in them.

The captions at the top belong to Hourman, those below (mostly) to his wife, Jesse Quick. Here's what Jesse's say:

It's clearly Jesse's captions because she's got the Liberty Belle logo on the side . . . despite the fact that she's gone back to using the Jesse Quick name but that's almost by-the-by because she refers to her husband, Rick Tyler, as Rex.

Rex Tyler was the original Hourman and is Rick's father!

I'm not suggesting that Jesse and her father-in-law are having an affair that she can't stop thinking about when she's in the middle of a fight alongside her husband. What I am suggesting is that James Robinson (and I'm being charitable here) is obviously confused as to which heroes are currently in the JSA.

This book has three editors listed - Assistant Editor Rex Ogle, Associate Editor Adam Schlagman, and Editor Eddie Berganza. You'd think one of them would have caught these mistakes, surely.

Who'd Like A Cocktail? #65

And the first Cocktail post of 2010 rolls in all too quickly:

• Battlefields: Happy Valley #1 - Garth Ennis's wartime stories returns with an established bombing crew forced to accept a new pilot straight out of training. Genuine characters with dialogue that's so liberally peppered with profanity that even the main character comments on it!
• Black Terror #6 - this mini-series has started to drag of late; it could probably do with being read all in one sitting which (if I'm lucky) I might find time to do.
• Blackest Night #6 - something of a holding issue, this one, as the Deputy Lantern Corps is created in time to fight back against the forthcoming invasion, but still a good read. And I'm so looking forward to the forthcoming resurrected series that are advertised in the back of the book!
• Blackest Night: JSA #1 - the JSA fight back against the Black Lanterns; Power Girl gets pissed off; and Mr. Terrific realises he's been pre-empted just a little too late. A couple of gripes, though: how come Kal-L is in his standard and not Black Lantern costume? And why does Power Girl refer to him as her cousin in one panel and then, four panels later, as her uncle?!
• Crossed #8 - man, this is one messed up world.
• The Dark Tower: Battle of Jericho Hill #2 - wait, nine years went by? Just like that? This General Grissom looks like he's being set up just to act as the bad guy for this mini-series rather than some one of any note. Still, as ever, the art's gorgeous.
• Green Lantern #49 - John Stewart deals with the return of Xanshi and his dead wife excellently, just in time to get a big shock as he leaves. Oh and we kinda/sorta get the origin of Nekron as a little extra as well.
• Justice Society of America #34 - no surprise who the guest villain turned out to be; love how Liberty Belle rationalises how her and Hourman can be on different teams but still be married; and really liked the Society having safeguards in place to prevent further infiltration.
• The Stand: Soul Survivors #3 - Fran and Stu get together, leaving Harold to scheme his schemes.
• Teen Titans #78 - Deathstroke and his family fight against the Black Lanterns with a team-up at the end that I didn't see coming.

And what made me smile this week:

Mera gets feisty facing off against Wonder Woman in Blackest Night #6!

Friday Night Fights - Sokking It To The Nazis!

Friday Night Fights is onomatopoeia mad at the moment and what's better than hearing a solid punch land?

Why, the build up! Hourman takes on Baron Blitzkrieg in the blistering Crisis on Earth-X!

But what's this, our all-American hero defeated? Who could help him? Only the spirit of America, Uncle Sam himself!

What's better than hearing a solid punch land? Hearing it land on a Nazi!

Hail to the chief . . . and Spacebooger!

This bout of international relations first appeared in All-Star Squadron #35, cover dated July 1984, written by Roy Thomas with art by Rick Hoberg and Bill Collins.