Who'd Like A Cocktail? #249

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

Monday Memories #34 - Justice League of America #162

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!

New DCU Team?

I saw this post over at Erin's blog and it intrigued me enough to comment on it over here. Erin found a photo from artist R.B. Silva which seems to depict an unusual grouping of DC characters:

and he includes a line about not being able to talk about it. The characters involved are Nightwing, Batgirl, Booster Gold, Hawkman, Shazam, Black Canary and Red Tornado.

• Nightwing and Batgirl on a team together? Sounds a little redundant to me
• Booster back in action is no bad thing
• Hawkman is, as far as I'm aware, going to be in the new Justice League of America
• Shazam is slated to join the ranks of the established Justice League
• Black Canary still heads up the Birds of Prey as far as I know
• Red Tornado is the one that piques my curiosity most - she's already appeared in Earth 2, albeit not active, and there's an embargo on the duplication of names between the two universes, over and above a handful of them, and the figure in that picture appears to be male. That also ties in with what T.O. Morrow said in the most recent Justice League issue.

Are we looking at an alternate League? Something that comes out of Trinity War? Or just an artist enjoying himself? I can't think of anything that immediately links these characters.

Who Was Who Is Who #38

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 Roving Ranger's chance.

THE RED TORNADO AND THE CYCLONE KIDS - while Ma Hunkle had something of a revival as the housekeeper for the reformed Justice Society, I can't see her making an appearance in the new Earth-2 series.

RED TORNADO - he's an android! He's blown apart! He's the Tornado Champion! He's blown apart! He's the Tornado Tyrant! He's blown apart! He's a wind elemental! He's blown apart! He glimpses the multiverse! He's blown apart! Blimey, poor old Tornado's had it rough over the years. Don't think we've seen him yet (I'm writing this at the start of April) though hints about his creator T.O. Morrow were dropped in Justice League early on so while he may show at some point, I don't think it'll be before the end of 2012.

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:

Justice League Detroit - Crisis On Infinite Earths

Over the next few weeks on a Tuesday, I'll be working my way through the Justice League of America titles from 1985 to 1987, trying to work out if the Justice League Detroit era really was as bad as we think it was. Why am I doing this? Why the hell not.

INFINITY INC. #19, written by Roy Thomas with art by Todd McFarlane and Steve Montana;
JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #244 - #245, written by Gerry Conway with art by Joe Staton, Mike Machlan and Luke McDonnell;
JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA ANNUAL #3, written by Dan Mishkin with art by Rick Hoberg and Mike Gustovich.

With the revelation in Justice League of America #243 that Steel's grandfather was the World War II hero Commander Steel (shown last week - you are reading these, right?) we pick up the story in the pages of Infinity Inc #19 where we find the Commander, with the aid of the mysterious Mekanique, has headed over to Earth-Two in order to recruit the Infinitors:

Commander Steel isn't exactly being honest, describing JL Detroit as "a bunch of super-powered young criminals" that he wants the Infinitors to defeat. Note the red sky in the background - the Crisis on Infinite Earths has begun making this one of the last times that Earth-Two would appear.

Retroactive - The 90's Part 3

As DC Comics are celebrating the creators that made an impact in the 70's, 80's and 90's, I thought I'd wander through the same decades and pull out my favourite comic of each year.

And here we are, finally at the end of the 90's.

Monday Memes #22

Like I said about the Iwo Jima image a couple of weeks ago, if there's a classic image, it'll be updated, reworked and used time and again. Take the cover of Crisis on Infinite Earths #7, for example. The original had Superman holding Supergirl's broken body but it could just as easily be

Green Lantern Kyle Rayner holding Donna Troy . . . Black Adam holding Osiris . . .

Red Torpedo cradling Red Tornado . . . or some lunar mummy thing holding Seaguy.

It's so versatile!

Retroactive - The 70's Part 2

As DC Comics are celebrating the creators that made an impact in the 70's, 80's and 90's, I thought I'd wander through the same decades and pull out my favourite comic of each year.

Any excuse to look at old comics, eh?

Retroactive - The 70's Part 1

As DC Comics are celebrating the creators that made an impact in the 70's, 80's and 90's, I thought I'd wander through the same decades and pull out my favourite comic of each year.

Any excuse to look at old comics, eh?

Monday Memes #3

Having a superhero team lay defeated before their enemies is a staple of comic covers so I've called this week's meme Team Defeated. Putting the covers together, though, made me realise that if your team is the Justice League, you're going to feature quite heavily, regardless of what iteration of the League you're in.

So here's Team Defeated Justice League #1

People give the Detroit League a hard time but they've been taken down by Despero. The uber-League were defeated by a freaking spider spirit.

The poor old Red Tornado should almost have a meme of his own - how many times has he defeated the League?

Who'd Like A Cocktail? #92

Hector Hammond's secret is out!

• GREEN ARROW #2 - well what do you know, looks like I was right. Isable Rochev turns out to be Ollie's mother after all. It's nice to see Green Arrow and Green Lantern palling round again, but wasn't Jordan all fired up a couple of months ago to bring Ollie to justice? Don't me me get Justice League: Cry For Justice out to double check, please.
• GREEN LANTERN #56 - hmm, is that cover and tag line reference John Carpenter's In The Mouth of Madness by any chance? Either way, Larfleeze makes a welcome return and Hector Hammond gets a makeover as all old GL villains do under Geoff Johns.
• GREEN LANTERN CORPS #50 - you know, if Cyborg Superman would just stop killing people, you could almost feel sorry for the guy.
• JUSTICE LEAGUE: GENERATION LOST #6 - despite the over the top build up from The Source blog the other day, this was something of a holding issue I felt. The team had already decided to catch Max Lord - remember that stirring last page from #5? To have Captain Atom suddenly have another, bigger reason to stop him sounds a little redundant.
• JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #47 - the main story's meandering a little now; a few issues ago it really felt like this series was picking up again but it really sort of a mish-mash of things. A few fight scenes, some snappy dialogue, but I'm not getting a real sense of the characters or the plot if I'm honest. The back up featuring Red Tornado left me with a question, though. Just about every time a robot goes haywire, you can almost guarantee dialogue written thus: "1101011010100100" Am I the only one who reads that as "One one zero one zero one one zero one zero one zero zero one zero zero." in the voice of Bender from Futurama?
• TEEN TITANS #85 - seriously, I skimmed this entire issue. All I got was "Oh, where's Raven?" "Oh the Wyld's dangerous!" "Oh, where's Raven?" "Keys!" "Doorways!" "Clumsy dialogue!" I swear, if I didn't know JT Krul was coming on board soon, this title would be the first one I'd have dropped in years.
• Co feature COVEN OF THREE - nice, snappy fun featuring three of the DCU's lower level magicians facing off against some old JLA foes. This is good.

And what made me smile:

Larfleeze finds out about Santa - brilliant!

Damn You, Internet!

For the last couple of months, I've had a handful of scanned images sat in my comics folder, waiting for me to get round to posting something connected with them.

As you can see, one of them's the cover of Justice League of America #146 from 1977 - a tale of the classic satellite era League taking on one of their oldest foes, the Construct, while at the same time dealing with the return of the previously destroyed Red Tornado.

I love the cover - the way Reddy's body is less exploding and more springing apart like some clown car, particularly the eyes and ears, makes me chuckle no end. But that wasn't what I was planning to post about.

See, it was the banner in the bottom right corner that caught my eye:

That's right - YOU could be in the Superman movie! I saw that and got to wondering: who did win that damn competition? I know - I spend too much time . . .

I did some hunting round on the net, checking out a few fan sites and the imdb entry of the film, trying to find out the names of the two winners but with no success. That led me to thinking about a blog post at some point down the line where I'd babble about the competition and how the winners had disappeared . . . or whether anyone had actually won at all! Maybe some dark conspiracy between DC and the film's producers meant the whole thing was a hoax, a way of boosting sales of the comic without ever having to cough up the prize?!

Jump to today and I start typing this damn post up finally. Just to be sure, though, I do a quick Google search using the words superman movie contest winner 1977 and, third from the top, is this entry for Superman: The Movie from the Superman wiki.

There for all to see, in the Trivia section, is a paragraph about the two winners, Edward Finneran from Massachusetts and Tim Hussey from California, detailing where they appear in the film.

Damn you, internet. Now what am I going to write about?

Who'd Like A Cocktail? #69

• Black Terror #7 - this series kinda seems to be stumbling from one big fight to another but does so with such abandon that I'm still enjoying it - plus it gave me this week's quote for the banner.
• Blackest Night: JSA #2 - oh, those sneaky, tricksy Black Lanterns! Who'd'a thought so many heroes could be so easily duped?
• Green Lantern #50 - Hal Jordan appears as Green Lantern and Parallax in the same issue and has the Spectre along as well. Jeez, it's like all his ex's turned up at once!
• Justice League: Cry For Justice #6 - was it just me or was this issue actually not that bad? Of course, we can all guess how it's going to turn out because of . . .
• Justice League of America #41 - . . . which takes place after the events of Justice League: Cry For Justice #7 which isn't out yet, but even this issue wasn't too bad. Poor old Reddy's been dismantled again but the time-travel aspect with Tomahawk and Miss Liberty looks like a nice set-up; even Green Arrow's grim hunt for Prometheus didn't impair it too much. For the first time in several months, this series seems to be picking up.
• Justice Society of America #35 - this was a really good issue; Mr Terrific's refusal to play by Mordru's rules; Wildcat's prison; even Dr Fate's drooling on the floor all worked superbly. Only one complaint: Flash's dialogue just didn't sound like Jay to me.
• Teen Titans #79 - have to admit this didn't work for me at all; it didn't flow at all, just jumped about everywhere: page 3, the Titans are all working out together and Static says he has to head home; page 4, Static's at his sister's apartment having travelled all the way to Dakota; page 5 and the Titans have just finished their workout. The rest of the issue's just as clumsy, really.
• Ravager co-feature - Ravager manages to break free of the bad guys but doesn't get the answers or closure she needs. Still better than the main story, though.

And what made me smile:

Never a truer word said.

Who'd Like A Cocktail? #66

Oh yes! My Cocktail posts have a new banner where each week I'll be including my favourite quote from the comics I pick up!

• The Boys #38 - the origin of the Female as provided by Frenchie shows that the poor woman's as messed up as the rest of the Boys.
• Doom Patrol #6 - Giffen takes us through the various incarnations of the Negative Man in a wonderfully understated little tale.
• Metal Men - more Metal Men mayhem and mirth. I wonder if this is going to bite the dust along with the other Second Features?
• JSA All-Stars #2 - Ah, Matthew Sturges and Freddie Williams deal up more Justice Society larks with the villain behind the attempted abduction of Stargirl finally revealed. Really enjoying this series already!
• Liberty Belle & Hourman - an okay start to a murder mystery that pits the married couple of the Justice Society against the unmarried couple of the Injustice Society.
• PunisherMax: Get Castle - living about half an hour's drive from the setting of this story, it was kinda nice to read some believable Welsh-accented dialogue! Oh, and for the benefit of the Americans in the audience, when Kevin says to the Punisher "Alright, butt? How's tricks?" he's not calling him an "ass" It's a Welsh term that means "mate" or "friend." Don't say you never learn anything reading this blog.
  
• Red Tornado #5 - things come to a head as Red Volcano goes after Red Tornado's family. Only one issue to go to find out if Reddy manages to save Traya.
• Suicide Squad #67 - Blackest Night resurrects dead series as well as dead heroes and villains! Great to see Gail Simone and John Ostrander writing together with loads of guest stars dropping in as well.
• Weird Western Tales #71 - this one's not as effective as Suicide Squad as it seems solely an excuse to show some of the Old West DC characters but hey, nice to see Renato Arlem's work as I like his art.

Should have picked up Blackest Night: Wonder Woman #2 as well but due to a snafu on my part, that's going to have to wait until next week.

And what made me smile:

Roxy, the All-Stars' new in-house AI messes with Power Girl's head!

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? #53

Back from having the best part of a week off and spending most of it working on the DC Project, I should be returning to more frequent posts. In the meantime, have a cocktail:

• The Boys #34 - World War II re-enactments were never like this!
• Final Crisis Aftermath: Run! #5 - still the most entertaining of the Final Crisis Aftermath series, I'll be sad when this is over.
• Justice League: Cry For Justice #3 - I was all ready to hate this having been sadly disappointed with the first two issues: I mean Green Arrow being okay with torturing villains? Just not going to happen. The dialogue is still leaden but with the emphasis shifted to Prometheus it's slightly better than #1 and #2. God knows if that'll continue, though.
• Red Tornado #1 - I kinda liked this. It's not earth-shattering but I've always liked Red Tornado and for six issues I'll play along.
• Strange Adventures #7 - oh, Jim Starlin you little scamp! Where are you going with this now?
• The Walking Dead Vol 7: The Calm Before - not a new release but I've been picking up the trades of this series for some time. With the cliffhanger this finishes on, I might need to track down Vol 8 sooner rather than later.
• Wednesday Comics #9 - still ticking over nicely with The Flash, Deadman and Hawkman standing out this week for me.

And what made me smile:

You gotta love Hawkman!