Who'd Like A Cocktail? #162

That's what comics need: good, old-fashioned politeness.

Who'd Like A Cocktail? #154

Always good to know what you're sitting on.

Who'd Like A Cocktail? #150

Or gender, and rightly so.

Who'd Like A Cocktail? #146

Madame Xanadu displays her grasp of British colloquialisms.

Who'd Like A Cocktail? #121

Negative Man lets us know who'll be playing Batman in the new movie

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!

Who'd Like A Cocktail? #60

As I was away last week, this week's Cocktail is yet another bumper sized double issue!

• The Boys #36 - the violent yet poignantly tinged origin of Mother's Milk comes to a close.
• The Boys: Herogasm #6 - Ennis's ability to lay sub-plots down that probably won't be referenced or see fruition for years to come is often overlooked by those concentrating on the profanity/violence or humour of his stories. The repercussions of this series will be worth looking out for.
• Doom Patrol #4 - the Blackest Night comes to the rest of the DCU and there's got to be nothing weirder than fighting your own resurrected corpse as Robotman finds out!
• Metal Men second feature - oh, I swear, it's like Justice League all over again with these guys! And hey, I'm not complaining!
• Magog #3 - more Giffen this week and while the main character isn't engaging me fully yet, I'm happy to tag along for Keith's writing.
• Project Superpowers: Chapter Two #4 - hmmm, that's a different take on Zeus.
• Project Superpowers: Meet The Bad Guys #3 - kinda strange introducing a bad guy for Samson considering what happened in Chapter Two #4 . . .
• Red Tornado #3 - ah, the old bad guy fooling newbie ploy. Like that isn't going to back fire on Red Volcano.
• Secret Six #15 - how cool is it to have John Ostrander writing Deadshot again? And how gratifying is it to have it be a damn good story?

And what made me smile:

Magog tuning out the usual supervillain blabbering!

And here's what I picked up this week:

• Black Terror #5 - honestly? I thought this series ended last issue. I'd forgotten all about it. Saying that, when it does turn up, it's still pretty good.
• Booster Gold #26 - nice to see Jurgens hasn't forgotten a couple of things left over from earlier issues (like the whereabouts of Goldstar for example) but at the same time this was something of a sentimental issue; you couldn't help feeling sorry for Booster and his inability to find the right words at Blue Beetle's eulogy.
• Chronicles of Wormwood: The Last Battle #2 - man, this series just gets better and better!
• Green Arrow / Black Canary #26 - still don't like Sienkiewicz's art. Sorry.
• Black Canary second feature - hmmm, you know, for once Kreisberg has me interested again in the story he's thrown together here.
• Green Lantern Corps #42 - that last page: damn it. I really liked that guy. Yeah, yeah, Hal's the one and only and all the rest of that but I've been with this guy from the start. Crap.
• JSA vs Kobra #6 - I've really enjoyed this story and it's a shame to see it end.
• Punishermax #1 - I pay next to no attention to Marvel continuity but isn't Kingpin the long time Daredevil/Spider-Man foe? Does this take place before then or what> Methinks I need to hunt round on the interwebs for the answer . . .

And what made me smile this week:

Steve Dillon, back on the Punisher!