Who'd Like A Cocktail? #256

Batman's a chamomile tea fan. Who knew?

Who'd Like A Cocktail? #253

Judging by the construction of his sentence, I'd say it's fairly obvious he's not using it

Who'd Like A Cocktail? #249

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

Who'd Like A Cocktail? #237

Haven't we all?

Who'd Like A Cocktail? #236

Some people just can't get the hint

Who'd Like A Cocktail? #233

That's right, Flash - piss off the 40 foot giant...

Who'd Like A Cocktail? #230

Friends, eh?

WTF Was That All About? Part 2

Last week saw the final gatefold covers of DC's aborted WTF Certified event in April. The name of the now non-event was widely derided after it was revealed, and rightly so, but the covers themselves - the main cover supplemented by a surprise on the gatefold - was a neat idea. I tried to remain as spoiler free as I could, both in the run up to it when covers were being released on the net, and in my weekly Cocktail posts.

Now it's all over, I figure it's time for a quick look at the ones I bought, continued from yesterday. So, in alphabetical order...

Who'd Like A Cocktail? #225

Let's keep it simple, folks.

Who'd Like A Cocktail? #221

God demonstrating the argumentative capacity of a five year old

Who'd Like A Cocktail? #217

He's not wrong.

Who'd Like A Cocktail? #214

Admitting it is the first step.

Who'd Like A Cocktail? #211

You have to admit, he's got a point - the clue was in the name.

Here Is The News

Or at least a bit of news with some rumours. I don't often do a round-up but as I found a bunch of things that caught my eye this morning, I figured it was as good a way as any to really start the New Year.

J.M. DeMatteis on the Phantom Stranger - thankfully this interview does confirm what I hoped for back before Christmas in that DeMatteis is doing the dialogue. He says "Dan does the plots, Brent draws from that and then I script from Brent's astonishing art." Honestly, Brent Anderson's art isn't doing much for me at the moment but with DeMatteis on the book I'll be sticking round for a bit longer.

Justice League film characters rumoured - the list is here but it doesn't really hold any surprises. There's mention that "Green Lantern: Will be Ryan Reynold's character from the Green Lantern movie, but will be freshly written with a more serious tone" but no word whether Reynolds will be returning to the role which I think is doubtful.

Poster for new Sin City: A Dame to Kill For film revealed - possible poster featuring one of the girls of Old Town is up here. With any luck, the new film will remind us enough of the original Sin City film that we can forget about The Spirit film.

Finally some news about Lady Mechanika - it's been absolutely ages since issues #3 was out and I'd just about given up on this series, even more so when I read the headline that creator Joe Benitez has parted from publisher Aspen Comics. However, the article says the split's amicable and Benitez himself says "My plans for Lady Mechanika include finishing "The Mystery of the Mechanical Corpse" this upcoming year and also launching a monthly Lady Mechanika ongoing series."

A monthly? I guess that means a new writer/artist on it then because as much as I love Benitez's work, there seems no way he can run to a monthly schedule.

Dan Didio's Diabolical Dialogue

With last week's Phantom Stranger #3 it looks like I was right when I said I might be returning to Dan Didio's Diabolical Dialogue sometime soon.

The story's not terrible - it's not really making the most of the mystery surrounding the Stranger's apparent normal family; no-one's questioning who the wife and kids are or where they've come from - but it's not bad.

What does hurt for me is reading the leaden, clunking dialogue that Didio has his characters, and particularly the villain in this issue, speak:

"Dawn breaks, and I must return to my unholy resting place."

Sweet Cthulhu, even villains in the 70's didn't utter such nonsense.

That's right, mate - you go ahead and unleash your demon fury on the bloke. See how that works out.

You know, when DeMatteis takes over, I hope he's doing the dialogue.

Who'd Like A Cocktail? #207

Hawksmoor paraphrasing Oscar Wilde. A Haaaawwwksmoooor?

Who'd Like A Cocktail? #204

Garth Ennis's indictment of the superhero genre

Who'd Like A Cocktail? #199

He doesn't, you know. It's down to all the preservatives. He's like a hot dog sausage; he'll last forever.

Talk To The Badge

As well as providing some choice dialogue, last week's Phantom Stranger #0 also made me scratch my head with another moment where script and art in a Dan DiDio written comic didn't really mesh. Snell over at Slay, Monstrobot... beat to the punch last time but it seems to have happened again.

When introduced to the new Jim Corrigan before he becomes the Spectre, he's railing against Captain Hopkins in the latter's office:

Dan DiDio's Diabolical Dialogue

I really wanted to enjoy last week's Phantom Stranger #0 a lot more than I did - I like the character but this new iteration has stripped the mystery of his identity away and has given him a finite number of tasks to complete. Saying that, though, it's taken him two thousand years to do the first one (the creation of the Spectre) so we should be okay for the next few years.

But the main reason I didn't enjoy it was mostly the clunky, leaden dialogue:

Really? "An uncontrollable rage"? Even "I've been angry all my life" would be better; it sounds more natural, at least to my ears. And later, once the Spectre has been created, we're treated to this:

Right . . . Spectre . . . Wrath . . . I see what you did there, Dan . . . real subtle.

I can forgive one use of the "I am . . . just a stranger" line as a sort of nod back to the old days when the guy used to say it on an almost weekly basis, but to squeeze a second one in at the end of the issue seemed to just underline how old fashioned it sounds.

I'll be sticking with this series for a while but I've a feeling I may be using this post title again.