Global Guardians #5 - Getting The Band Back Together

For the next few weeks, I'm going to be running through the DCU appearances of the Global Guardians post-Crisis and pre-Flashpoint (or at least all the appearances I have) and try to find out where they are now. Or were, pre-Flashpoint.

With the fall of the Queen Bee of Bialya and the rise of Sumaan Harjavti, the Global Guardians faced a question: should they remain in Bialya in the employ of its new leader or not?

Before answering that question, as any good team should do, they took stock of themselves, beginning in the pages of Justice League Quarterly #5, published soon after the events of Breakdowns as seen last week.

Global Guardians #3 - Our European Cousins

For the next few weeks, I'm going to be running through the DCU appearances of the Global Guardians post-Crisis, pre-Flashpoint (or at least all the appearances I have) and wonder why they never had a title of their own and find out where they are now. Or were, pre-Flashpoint.

After the events shown in last week's instalment, Jack O'Lantern and Owlwoman are seen safely ensconced as part of the Queen Bee's retinue following her usurping of the Bialyan throne. The Justice League, helpless in the face of her overwhelming support from the Bialyan people, leave with their tail between their legs.

Not long after that, Invasion! takes place where various alien races band together with the Dominators to try and take over the Earth. At the end of that, a decision's made to increase the scope of the League's activities and Justice League Europe is created, based in Paris which, you may remember, also houses the Dome, home of the Global Guardians.

Global Guardians #1 - Who's Who?

Back last year, I had some great fun - okay, some of it wasn't that great - looking back over two incarnations of the Justice League, specifically the much derided Justice League Detroit and the mostly forgotten but should be remembered and derided a bit more Jurgens League.

While I was wondering where to go next, commenter Jeremy Patterson wrote:

"How about instead of looking at another League, let's try to focus on some of the 'lesser light' superteams of the DCU, either:


*  A look at one of DC's two attempts at revamping the MLJ heroes: The early 1990s Impact Comics or the 2009-2010 attempt to integrate them into the DCU. (With 'New Crusaders' coming in 2012, it is time to take a look at the subject!).


*  Or at the many attempts to give focus to the Global Guardians, as the Global Guardians seemed to have never existed at all in the DCnU, so it is intriguing to see what went wrong with the G.G.!"

Having never read any of the Impact / Red Circle comics, I decided to go with Jeremy's second suggestion and take a look at the Global Guardians.

Please . . . try to contain your excitement.

Who'd Like A Cocktail #55

Double Sized Issue!

As I missed last week's comics due to being away I couldn't run through my usual Cocktail posts so here, along with this week's, are my thoughts on what I've been buying.

• Blackest Night #3 - oh, it's all starting to hit the fan now! And poor old Gen - I liked the last Firestorm series and to see her end up like this . . . almost brought a tear to my eye.
• The Brave And The Bold #27 - okay, a rather muted first issue from Mr Straczynski but nothing too terrible either.
• Final Crisis Aftermath: Escape #5 - the best thing about this issue? Those final words on the last page: "To be concluded."
• Green Arrow And Black Canary #24 - Cupid's kinda fun in a yet-another-Harley-Quinn kinda way but it's becoming grating. Nice to see Speedy back as well.
• Green Arrow co-feature - wait a second: Green Arrow thinks something's missing inside him so he has to go walkabout rather than discuss it with Black Canary? Didn't Mike Grell do this storyline years ago?
• JSA vs Kobra #4 - Mr Terrific lives up to his name as this continues to be one of the best mini-series out there.
• Strontium Dog: Traitor To His Kind collection - the second collection of the new stories of Johnny Alpha by John Wagner and Carlos Ezquerra.
• The Walking Dead Vol 8: Made To Suffer - I had to pick this up after the cliff hanger ending of Vol 7 and oh my word, what a story.
• Wednesday Comics #11 - just about all the stories seemed to be pausing this issue as though they're waiting for the final push to wrap up.

And what made me smile:

Nothing like the Flash preparing to punch someone's lights out!

And now for this week's comics:

• Blackest Night: Superman #2 - looks like the Psycho Pirate took no time at all in getting to Smallville straight from the pages of Blackest Night #3!
• Final Crisis Aftermath: Dance #5 - no surprises that Rising Sun's being mind controlled but the culprit kinda caught me by surprise.
• Justice League of America #37 - okay, hands up who thinks Amos Fortune's dead? Anyone? Anyone at all? And Mr Wein - can we please stop with all the puns?
• Power Girl #5 - still fun, still funny, still wonderful, still have doubts this will last long. Really - the last book I enjoyed this much was Blue Beetle and I was surprised that got past the year mark. If you're not reading this, you really should be - honest!
• Project Super Powers: Chapter Two #3 - oooooh, didn't see that twist coming - very nicely done, sirs!
• Wednesday Comics #12 - so that's it, all over. Could have sworn I read somewhere it was going to be 16 issues but hey, it was a nice run with, overall, more hits than misses. Hawkman almost got the Cocktail this week for "I had to whittle through."

but the Cocktail this week goes to:

Power Girl shows how to overcome a problem with x-ray vision!

Who'd Like A Cocktail? #42

Here's the weekly run down of the comics I picked up this week:

• The Brave And The Bold #24 - don't know much about Static so this issue seemed a little lacklustre - not bad, just nothing notwworthy;
• The Dark Tower: Fall Of Gilead #2 - this series just keeps getting better and better;
• Final Crisis Aftermath: Dance #2 - what are they doing to Rising Sun?  The guy deserves better;
• Green Arrow And Black Canary #21 - has Andrew Kreisberg actually read any Black Canary stories before? Last month it was all Canary's fault because of some repressed teenage angst, now he has her being a dumb blond thinking to herself: "I hope that whatever that is in her hands isn't more complicated to operate than a Dust Buster because when it comes to me and technology..."  Jeez, Kreisberg - she's the chairman of the Justice League for frick's sake!
• Masquerade #4 - a damn fine mini-series and I can't wait for Project Superpowers to continue;
• The Boys: Herogasm #2 - oh dear, someone's watching Hughie . . .
• Power Girl #2 - really enjoying this but I have a complaint: the Ultra-Humanite gets an origin story that completely ignores his Golden Age appearances?! Where's Delores Winters?! The All-Star Squadron?! Jimmy, Justin - sort this out!
• Project Superpowers: Chapter Two #0 - hey look, I can't wait for it to continue and here it is!

And what made me smile this week:

Power Girl's method of dealing with overly talkative villains!