Friday 26 February 2010

Friday Night Fights - Good Nite

The bad guys win over at Spacebooger for this round of Friday Night Fights and for this week's entry, I've gone all sombre and maudlin as a true hero bites the dust in the pages of perhaps the super-hero book, Watchmen.

Poor Hollis Mason.  Poor Nite Owl.


HHUUGGHH indeed.

This chuckle free fight first appeared in Watchmen #8 cover dated April 1987, written by (as if I had to tell you) Alan Moore with art by the god like Dave Gibbons, though the scans come from my tired, worn out, well read and beloved copy of the trade paperback.

And remember:

Thursday 25 February 2010

Bad Timing

I'm away this weekend - myself and a bunch of fellow writers will be tucking ourselves away in a small cottage, spending the weekend writing, drinking and cooking.

We do this maybe once a year or so and it's a great laugh; trouble is, I'd normally get my comics tomorrow but won't be able to . . . and Blackest Night #7 is out this week.

Really bad timing on DC's part, I think . . .

No-one tell me what happens, okay?

Monday 22 February 2010

Blackest Night: The Flash #3 Notes Published

Just published the brief synopsis of Blackest Night: The Flash #3 over at the Annotated Blackest Night. Green Lantern #51 and Green Lantern Corps #45 coming soon.
Enjoy!

Sunday 21 February 2010

Who'd Like A Cocktail? #72


I'm actually away this weekend but thanks to Blogger's scheduling function, I can still get my Cocktail post in!

  • Battlefields: Happy Valley #3 - a sombre ending which came as no real surprise but was handled delicately and with care by Ennis who once more showed he's more than swearing and violence.
  • Blackest Night: The Flash #3 - as much as the White Lantern (?) symbol over Reverse Flash's chest was intriguing, the most interesting part of this issue, like those before it, were the Rogues. It comes to something when the bad guys hold more fascination than the main character.
  • Green Lantern #51 - more blood on Parallax's hands than the Anti-Monitor? Spectre, dude, the Anti-Monitor wiped out thousands of universes! Universes! And that bit with Hector Hammond? Can anyone say "groundwork for up-coming storyline?!"
  • Green Lantern Corps #45 - the whole "battle your personal demons" thing was a little cheesey but it's good to have Gardner back at last.
  • Justice League of America #42 - okay, a little all-over-the-place but not bad on the whole, though the couple of two page spreads weren't incredibly clear and I ended up reading down the page instead of across, but I'm liking the new villains.
  • Magog #6 - tying in with Justice Society of America Annual #2 from a couple of weeks ago, this is Magog's side of things concerning the big JSA vs Magog fight along with the aftermath.
  • Marvels: Eye of The Camera #6 - my god, this has actually arrived?! I'm not going to bother reading it until I re-read the earlier issues again, it's been so long.
  • Power Girl #9 - did no-one tell Satanna that leopard-print went out with the 70's? Another damn fine issue where sub-plots from previous issues crop up again, making the story feel genuine. And hey, Terra's back to save Power Girl!
  • The Stand: Soul Survivors #4 - damn, those were some big weasels!
And what made me smile wince:
Owwwwwwww!

Friday 19 February 2010

Friday Night Fight - Tears Of The Batman

Another Friday Night, another Fight where the bad guys win as decreed by Spacebooger.

This week we're off to another world, an Elseworld, where for the sake of a nail, all sorts of crap goes down.


Ask and you shall receive, Joker - Robin and Batgirl to the rescue of Batman who's been captured by the Clown Prince of Crime's new high tech wristbands. But wait! What's this?


Damn that infernal technology of his!


The Joker's out for some twisted form of revenge, killing Robin and Batgirl as Batman looks on until . . .


Oooooh, something tells me he's not going to sleep well tonight . . .

This mind-snapping torture first appeared in Justice League of America: The Nail #1, cover dated August 1998, written by Alan Davis with art by Davis and Mark Farmer, though the scans come from the trade paperback.

And remember, friends:

Thursday 18 February 2010

A Public Service Announcement


Tomorrow is Friday which brings with it the traditional Friday Night Fight over at Spacebooger where myself and several other bloggers post fights for your delectation.

Fred's been hosting the fights for a while now and recently altered the voting system to allow readers and fighters alike to simply click on a poll to vote for their favourite.

Please do me, Fred and all the other bloggers a favour every Friday - head over to Spacebooger, check out the links to the other fights and then cast your vote for your favourite.

Cheers!

Tuesday 16 February 2010

Booster Gold #32


It's Booster Gold written by Keith Giffen and J. M. DeMatteis! You know you want it!

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?

Sunday 14 February 2010

Who'd Like A Cocktail? #71


Horrendously busy in work over the last week, so much so I didn't even get a chance to post a Friday Night Fight. Still got my comics, though:

  • Blackest Night: Wonder Woman #3 - missed this last week but have to be honest and say I have no idea why Mera's rage is so great, what the big secret was or what Wonder Woman hinted at. No idea at all.
  • Booster Gold #29 - the destruction of Coast City's about to happen all over again and Booster's right in the middle of it.
    • Second Feature: Blue Beetle - ah, all good things come to an end, I guess. I shall miss Blue Beetle both as a series and a back-up in this comic. It was a good, fun series which is what I like but at least Matt Sturges was able to finish off his storyline.
  • The Dark Tower: Battle of Jericho Hill #3 - oooooh, traitors everywhere, it seems.
  • Green Arrow/Black Canary #29 - warning! The cover of this issue does not in any way reflect the contents! As usual, clumsy dialogue, horrible art and . . . I'm sorry, but . . . Hilt?! Bwah-ha-ha! Oh my dear lord that has to be the crappiest, most contrived villain name in the world! A guy with a knife handle sticking out the back of his head, whose name is Hilton, is being set up to become a bad guy called Hilt?!
  • JSA All-Stars #3 - Power Girl and Magog throw down just before the events of last week's Justice Society Annual and sub-plots galore are introduced.
    • Second Feature: Liberty Belle & Hourman - light and fun, this isn't exactly taxing but it's pretty good.
  • Punishermax #4 - Jason Aaron turns in a good Garth Ennis pastiche with the advent of the Mennonite taking on the Punisher, ably helped along by gorgeous Steve Dillon art.
  • Secret Six #18 - the identity of Mockingbird is revealed in a sort of "Why didn't I see that coming?" kind of way and the Six and the Squad team up against the Black Lanterns.
And what made me smile:
I remember a similar scene in Young Justice with Superboy and Impulse complaining about their books getting cancelled but this made me chuckle. Farewell, Blue Beetle . . .

Blackest Night: Wonder Woman #3 Notes Done

Just published the (admittedly) brief notes for Blackest Night: Wonder Woman #3 over at the Annotated Blackest Night.

Was it just me or does anyone actually get the whole thing about why Mera's so angry in this issue?  Wonder Woman talks about understanding her rage and years of hiding behind lies, but . . . nothing seems to make sense.

Anyone?

Saturday 13 February 2010

New Pages

Been hideously busy over the last week or so but just dropping by to point out the new pages feature on the blog.

Just below the banner, at the top of the posts section, are a couple of new sections called Links and About The Crisis.

Oh, and I've also started playing with Google Buzz - I'm a bit of a Google fan so if you want to come play, have a look at my profile here.

Enjoy!

Sunday 7 February 2010

Who'd Like A Cocktail? #70



  • The Boys #39 - the crap gets ready to hit the fan as Butcher discovers just who Wee Hughie's been dating.
  • Doom Patrol #7 - woah, wait a second - when did Oberon get that head of hair?!
    • Metal Men co-feature - ah, farewell Metal Men, it was good fun while it lasted.
  • Justice Society of America Annual #2 - this ties in nicely with events in Magog and the JSA All-Stars, so much so that if you haven't read Magog you might be a little lost. There were a lot of questions when Magog received his ongoing series, many revolving around why such a minor character who was also a pain in the arse should have a series. Turns out, written by Keith Giffen, it's not so bad and this issue goes some way to rounding out - or at least highlighting - who he is. He's a jerk who, as Power Girl says, is "going about this the wrong way . . . but he's doing the right thing."
  • The Question #37 - another done in one Blackest Night tie-in. It was okay but I find Sienkiewicz's art just plain ugly.
  • Red Tornado #6 - and the mini-series comes to an end rather quietly. That's not a criticism; if anything, the reaction of Red Inferno was somewhat fitting. I wish DC writers/artists would get a handle on how old Traya is and how she speaks - wasn't she in her early teens in Young Justice? Here she looks to be about 5 or 6.
And what made me smile:

Maybe the joke's a little obvious but Maguire's artwork sells it.

Friday 5 February 2010

Friday Night Fights - Only A Master Of Evil

I had something else planned for tonight's fight, something that I'd already scanned in and written up. As it is, I woke this morning with a totally different scene in my head - yes, I wake up thinking about comics and blogging and . . . Star Wars!

Pulled from the pages of the Marvel Comics adaptation of Star Wars (before it became known as Episode IV: A New Hope) comes the battle between Ben Kenobi and Darth Vader:

I love that last panel on the page above - Vader and Kenobi facing off with the lightsabers locked between them . . . takes me back to reading the story when I was a kid!


Even though the dialogue isn't spot-on from the film, it still manages to work somehow . . . much like the terrible dialogue in the film, actually!


Oh sure, we all know Ben's coming back as a ghost in the next film but right now, at this instant, this is a great win for the bad guys, thus fulfilling Spacebooger's demands that the good guys lose in this round of Friday Night Fights.

Remember to head over to Spacebooger, check out the other fights and cast your vote!

This completed circle was first shown in Star Wars #4, cover dated October 1977, written by Roy Thomas with are by Howard Chaykin and Steve Leialoha, but the scans come from the collection Star Wars: A Long Time Ago... Volume 1 published in 2002.

Tuesday 2 February 2010

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