Who'd Like A Cocktail? #255

Yeah, you tell . . . hey, hang on, that's what I do . . .

Monday Memories #47 - JLA: Earth 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? #249

Bad guys saving the world? Seems to be a theme this week.

Who'd Like A Cocktail? #245

And, as we all know, size matters

Who'd Like A Cocktail? #241

Oh, how things could have been different...

Perusing Previews - September 2013

I mentioned a while back about branching out from DC but I still have a fondness for superheroes. This collection from Dark Horse might tempt me . . .

Monday Memories #19 - JLA: Our Worlds At War #1

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 Was Who Is Who #27

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 Malagigi's chance.

LUTHOR - ah, anyone else remember the days of multiple Earths and different variations of both heroes and villains? Well, I guess they never went away for that long, what with Elseworlds, Hypertime, Infinite Crisis, Countdown and all the others (not to mention the forthcoming Earth-2 - this is being written in mid-March, people!) but you know what I mean. It got so that Lex Luthor had various versions featured in Who's Who:

Why So Scared?

Last week I mentioned next year's Lego DC Super-heroes game that features not just Batman but a whole host of other DC characters. Over at the Bricktuts site, they've got pictures of some of them:

I'm kinda wishing Lex Luthor came with a detachable wig, and note that you get either peace loving or warrior Wonder Woman, but the one that made me chuckle (and gave me this post's title) was Robin:

Why is his extra/alternate head so scared?!

What else can we expect? Hal Jordan being hit on the head with a variety of objects? Aquaman with a detachable hand? Pantha with a spring-loaded head?

Monday Memes #46

J.G. Jones must have known he was tapping into an iconic look when he took Superman's classic flying pose and gave it to Lex Luthor on the cover of 52 #39.

And here's two cracking Green Lantern covers featuring Hal Jordan just for the heck of it.

That Time I Interviewed Garth Ennis

Ten years or so ago a writing friend of mine set up The Alien Online, a website featuring monthly columns on a variety of subjects and he asked me to write one on comics. Sadly the site didn't last more than a year or two before biting the dust despite the best intentions of the owner but it was fun while it lasted. The trouble with writing a monthly column, though, was the lack of immediacy - with this blog if I read something interesting, I can post about it in minutes. Back then, it had to be written up and sent over to the editor before seeing the light of day by which time other, larger sites had long since published it and moved on.

However, it did give me the opportunity to interview Garth Ennis. I say interview - I wrote out my questions and sent them to him (using paper and pen - this was the old days!) and he was kind enough to write back with his answers. Moving some old papers around the other day, I came across his reply which got me to thinking: with The Alien Online long-since dead and, in all honesty, not having had a huge readership back in the day (because this blog gets zillions of hits per hour), not many people would have seen this.

So here, for your delectation, warts and all, is a Garth Ennis interview from 2001:

The New Protector

So the DC Source blog revealed what follows Brightest Day - Brightest Day Aftermath: The Search - with the following description:

"Following the exciting conclusion to Brightest Day, the new protector of Earth has been chosen - but one reluctant hero makes a return to try and convince Batman, Superman and the rest of the DC Universe’s heroes that this may not be a good thing at all."

as well as showing the art for the cover:

I'm guessing the figure on the right is the "reluctant hero" while the one in front is "the new protector" so here goes my guesses:

The reluctant hero is Deadman - he's been one of the main character's of Brightest Day and has yet to fulfill his mission (at least at the time of writing) When he does, as with all the others, the white ring will then kill him hence him making a return for this Aftermath series.

The new protector? Judging by the silhouette and how pissed Superman looks, I'm going for Lex Luthor which is why the reluctant hero has to convince the heroes "that this may not be a good thing at all."

Of course, if I'm right it probably won't take much convincing!

All Star Superman Movie

I mentioned a few days ago that I'd recently picked up the trades of All Star Superman. It's a great story, one of the better I've read by Morrison in a while, dealing with Superman's last days after being poisoned by Lex Luthor.

Now I find there's going to be a DC Animated film of it:

Movie Trailers - Movies Blog

This looks awesome!

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.

Friday Night Fights - Beware The Javelin, My Son!

DC has some fantastic villains, many of whom we've seen in this round of Friday Night Fights where Spacebooger has decreed that the bad guys win. The usual arch enemies - the Joker and Lex Luthor - spring to mind, but also the bigger, more cosmic guys: the Anti-Monitor and Darkseid for example.

The Javelin, however, cannot rank amongst them. He's a guy who flies. And throws javelins. That's it.

But that's still enough to kick Green Lantern's arse, though!

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention - those javelins? They're trick javelins!

"Bright-eyes"?!! Is Jordan flirting with him?!

Flirting or not, it isn't going to help him as that damn Javelin has a . . . er . . . javelin just right for Jordan. Damn that yellow impurity!!

And who says Germans don't have a sense of humour?!

As you all seemed to enjoy Jordan getting beaten last week, I figured I'd stick with the theme of DC's current boy wonder being smacked around by second rate villains.

And remember:

Hal Jordan's humiliation first appeared in Green Lantern #173, cover dated February 1984, written by Len Wein with art by his majesty Dave Gibbons.

Friday Night Fights - Two For One

Recently frustrated by Hero Sandwich pre-empting me by using a fight from Crisis On Infinite Earths that I had lined up (no hard feelings, Scott!) I figured I'd dig something else out from that series:

Earth-4 (remember that?) where the bad guys of Lex Luthor and Brainiac have taken over and who have they left on guard duty?

The Trickster and The Riddler?! What use are they going to be against anyone?!

Particularly when that anyone is a green, giant ape flying through the air! Oh yeah!

Remember to head over to Spacebooger and vote on your favourite fight, folks!

This sole-socking-simian-smackdown was first shown in Crisis on Infinite Earths #9, cover dated December 1985, written by Marv Wolfman, with art by the wonderful George Perez and Jerry Ordway.

Who'd Like A Cocktail? #2

It was something of a tough week this week to choose which comic to babble about; Booster Gold #2 was a clear front runner for a while, as was Green Lantern #23. The Search For Ray Palmer Wildstorm one-shot almost made it and there was the Ostrander written Suicide Squad to consider among others.

Eventually, though, I went for the Justice League of America Wedding Special which is essentially Dwayne McDuffie's first issue as writer of Justice League of America.

I'll admit I don't really know the guy's work; a quick look through my database shows a couple of one-shots and the dreadful wrap-up he did for the last series of Firestorm. As far as I'm aware, that was a job he was handed and told to finish it as soon as rather than him running it into the ground and that's kind of encouraging. Those last three issues of Firestorm were terrible but this Wedding Special mostly works.

I say mostly as there's a couple of things that niggle - particularly the appearance of Felix Faust in the Hall of Doom (pictured on the right) as well as Major Force in the double splash page showcasing the villains Luthor has assembled. Faust is meant to be imprisoned in Dr Fate's tower as at the end of 52 - a fate which is shown in this week's Black Adam #2 - and Major Force was killed by Captain Atom/Monarch at the end of Battle For Bludhaven. I know Force has died and returned several times, but even so - post-Infinite Crisis, continuity in the DCU is supposed to be a lot smoother.

Those quibbles aside, however, this was an enjoyable story even if, despite the title, it didn't actually focus on the wedding at all. McDuffie seems to have a handle on the characters as shown by the exchange between Red Arrow and Batman and it was nice to read a copy of JLoA without trying to remember which characters' narration boxes were which colour. As much as I enjoyed Brad Meltzer's run on the series (as well as Identity Crisis) trying to work out who was narrating based on the colour of the box was a pain in the arse.

The Wedding Planner leaves me eager for the main run of McDuffie's JLoA; while it wasn't the best comic ever, it was more than enough to whet the appetite.