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Welcome to the first edition of the TPL to be posted in August of 2009! I’ll keep the introductions brief (basically because I don’t have much to say) but I will mention that this is only a two-company review. DC is represented with 5 comics (6 if you count Wednesday Comics) and Marvel is represented by 16 comics. So there’re 21 total comics reviewed right here and you can expect the 22nd to be posted tomorrow.
Spoiler Alert
Marvel
-Agents of Atlas #9- Woo visits the Jade Claw and learns that there was a pact between the two dragons that Woo would never show up there lest he be captured. Oops, looks like someone forgot to tell him that! So M-11 is destroyed and this brings the rest of the Agents, who manage to rescue Woo and somehow M-11 is fine by the end of the issue. Dragons, robots, and espionage. What else do you need from a comic book? 1/1.
-All Winners Comics – Marvel 70th Anniversary #1- We see the All-Winners (Torch, Toro, Bucky, Cap, Whizzer, Namor and Miss America) battle a crazy time-traveler and his wife. This story focuses on the relationships of the All-Winners (including the replacement Cap and Bucky, which was a nice touch) and finally defeating the returning wife. It’s funny how stories like this really have no meaning whatsoever in the stories Marvel is telling or any of their storylines but it just adds so much to this 70th Anniversary celebration to get stories featuring the original stars of Marvel. 2/2.
-Amazing Spider-Man #601- Peter wakes up in the arms of Vin’s sister and has no idea what happened. She leaves in a huff (good one, Peter) and Peter has no idea what to do now that Mary-Jane is in town. He even set up a meeting with her and it takes a while for him to remember where it was. Luckily stopping some crime jogs his memory. He shows up at their meeting and ol MJ stood him up. Looks like she just over-slept but it is alluded to that she knows Spidey’s identity. Hmmm. There’s a back-up featuring a Bendis-written, Quesada-drawn story of Spider-Man and Jessica Jones and how Jessica was there to see Spider-Man stop Sandman at school and how it helped her become who she was. I have a feeling this was meant for last issue but didn’t make it. I don’t like how Marvel went through so much trouble to conceal Spidey’s identity and the first place he reveals it is in the pages of the New Avengers. The main story was cool and it is nice to have MJ back. 3/3.
-Black Panther #7- Just to get you caught up we have a new Black Panther and it is Shuri, the sister of T’Chaka. She’s on a trip to America and her envoy is attacked. She stops the attack but the question remains, who orchestrated this attack? T’Chaka is also suffering from the injuries he sustained and is trying to rehab. He also has a secret group of female warriors. What a saucy fellow! This is a new direction for Black Panther and aside from the Barack stuff (I’ve never seen a president appear in so many damned comic books) this is pretty good. 4/4.
-Captain America: Reborn #2- There’s a lot of stuff going on here so pay attention. Bucky and Black Widow are captured by Norman’s Dark Avengers, Cap is still being sent through time, Red Skull’s mind may be in Cap’s body, and Norman makes a powerplay, selling out Sharon as Cap’s murderer and making a reference to multiple Cap’s. I don’t think this is quite what I expected from here but this has been really cool. I was going to say this Norman stuff is over the top but his involvement has been really interesting so far. 5/5.
-Dark Reign: Zodiac #2- Zodiac continues his anarchic view of the new Dark Reign world and he is just all over the place. He beat Human Torch to a pulp, destroyed the hospital he was in, screws with HAMMERS sensors by convincing him that Galactus is coming when in fact it is just a huge Japanese robot in Time Square. Now where have I seen a man set on just anarchy before? Oh yeah, it was Heath Ledger’s Joker and it was done a lot better than this. Don’t even waste your time with this. It’s not a terrible story but there’s just no reason for it. 5/6.
-Deadpool: Merc With A Mouth #2- So Deadpool has his Zombie head and is with the AIM agent. They fight their way out of possession of the zombie cavemen before fighting off dinosaurs. They are in the Savage Land after all. They get captured by Hydra but the Zombie head is left behind. As long as you write Deadpool as a complete mental whackjob with conversations between his inner voices you have a happy reader. A really fun series so far. 6/7.
-Exiles #5- The Exiles fix the robot timeline with the help of the robots, one who was actually Hank Pym. They defeat Cerebro and this timeline is all fixed. So Morph tells them they can go back and fix the timeline from the first arc they couldn’t help the first time. Too bad this couldn’t last any longer than 6 issues. This just has a really enjoyable cast and Parker makes this a bit fresher than the previous runs on the title. 7/8.
-House of M: Masters of Evil #1- This is a great concept. Take the Hood and his gang and instead of having them in the Norman Osborn run US, have them placed in the Magneto run House of M. The characters are the same, they are still evil, and they still steal, but this time they are facing the mutants and actually being sympathetic characters for the human population who are sick of being under the mutants’ thumb. It’s just executed very well. 8/9.
-Hulk #13- This is just the Hulk #600 aftermath with Banner coming to terms about not being Hulk anymore and talking it out with Rick Jones, now known as the gamma-powered A-Bomb. Ares shows up to see if Hulk really is gone and Norman finds out he is. Banner rides off into the sunset (figuratively, not literally). This was a good follow-up to Hulk #600. I think that Loeb really has a handle on the Hulk character and this was really well-written, especially the Banner/Jones conversation. 9/10.
-Invincible Iron Man #16- Norman struggles with perfecting his Iron Man armor, Maria Hill is losing her mind, Tony fights off Madame Masque and leaves her behind to fight Pepper one on one as he flies off to take care of business. There’s nothing wrong with this book but I just don’t know if I like the direction Stark is taking. He’s getting dumber and less relevant as Dark Reign progresses. I actually liked the character during Civil War but he’s completely faded now. It’s interesting and I won’t knock it for that, but it’s not rocking my world or anything. 10/11.
-Luke Cage: Noir #1- This is an odd choice for a Noir title but it may be more interesting than the Luke Cage in the current Marvel Universe. Cage comes out of prison and back to his home in Harlem to see things have changed. His woman is dead, his friends aren’t quite the same as when he left and he’s even offered some cash from a wealthy man looking for who killed his wife in Harlem. This is not only cool, but it may just be the most interesting Noir title yet. 11/12.
-Ultimatum: Fantastic Four Requiem #1- The Fantastic Four seemed to have the least devastation of all the Ultimate characters. All of the FF are alive, but all are changed. Johnny had to witness the death of his father, Sue and Reed witnessed the death of their relationship and Thing witnessed his killing of Dr. Doom. The FF are changed and this title really showcases how the Ultimatum changed them. A really nice way to tie off the FF’s involvement here and their whole series to boot. 12/13.
-Ultimatum: X-Men Requiem #1- This is another great Ultimatum tie-up issue. However, while the FF got off relatively scott-free in the death department, the X-Men were just brutalized. This is really the burial of those characters with Captain America coming to pay his respects (and turn away Sabretooth, Mystique and Assemble). This was a bittersweet issue and a real end to the X-Men in the Ultimate Universe. 13/14.
-War of Kings: Warriors #2- Like the first issue this takes a look at two main characters of War Of Kings from right before the War of Kings saga. We see Crystal before the wedding trying to iron out some Kree/Inhuman hostility. She actually is able to take a few steps towards unity. The second looks at Lilandra and how she staved off a Brood invasion when she was young. This just adds to the characters in the story. It isn’t an essential part of War of Kings but it was pertinent to avid readers of the series. 14/15.
-War of Kings #6- This is the big huge fight to end the War of King mini-series. It’s an all-out Black Bolt/Vulcan battle with both guys going balls to the wall to kill the other. The big ending sees Crystal trying to teleport Black Bolt out of there before the huge weapon goes off but Vulcan pulls him back in before they leave and the device explodes, with Black Bolt and Vulcan in it, and a huge hole has been ripped in space and time. That is a heavy ending. It not only stopped the war but it actually kept things moving in a new direction. This was a great ending. 15/16.
DC
-Final Crisis: Run #4- I’ve had a chance to read all the Final Crisis Aftermath titles and this is definitely my favorite of the four (followed by Dance). The reason is you have a villain who is really a huge joke trying to make a name for himself. And he fails, he’s still a loser. He manages to take out the D-list villains he was hanging with but only with the help of the female Immortus had in his employ. He heads to STAR labs for something but finds a 26-dimensional hypergriffin. This guy is just such a loser and everything in here has been so entertaining. 1/1.
-Justice League: Cry for Justice #2-All the different people looking for Justice (or vengeance) converge in Gotham to combat the villain Prometheus. This is a table-setting issue that just gets all the key members together, including introducing Capt. Marvel and Supergirl into the title. I enjoy some of the banter between Lantern and Arrow and Robinson’s little essay at the end is a great read. Yeah the story may be a bit simplistic, but it’s fun and I can enjoy it. 2/2.
-Red Circle: The Hangman #1- I thought this was a cool concept so I picked it up. I think this is JMS’ Golden Age revival of DC characters a la his The Twelve mini-series that doesn’t appear will ever end. The Hangman is the story of a Civil War doctor who was falsely accused of spying and was ordered to be executed. He encounters a spirit (who is either evil or an angel, and if that sounds weird the writing of it was excellent) and the doctor is given a new lease on life as the Hangman, an immortal who makes sure that justice is given to those who deserve it. This is a cool concept. We’ve seen it before in things like the Spectre and the whole becoming Hangman at night is sort of like the original Hulk or even Ghost Rider but we’ll see how it pans out. This was a good origin tale. 3/3.
-Secret Six #12- The Six suffer some huge internal issues as the Banshee woman faces off (and beats) Wonder Woman. The Six actually hand over Wonder Woman in exchange for Artemis as Artemis escapes with the Bane and Scandal. The rest of the Six are brought by the, well, warden I guess you’d call him and they learn his true motives. He wants to recreate Dante’s inferno and he’s bringing Wonder Woman to the seventh level where he has a devil waiting to feed on her. This is really cool out of the box stuff and this is one of the few non-Batman or Superman title I buy from DC. Since it’s Villains United tie-in it’s been really off-beat and just plain great. 4/4.
-Superman: World of New Krytpon #6- Zod has been severely wounded and is basically on life-support. Kal questions the assassin and the assassin just wants to ensure the survival of his people. The prisoner ends up escaping and heads towards Earth. It seems he wants to start a war. Kal heads to Earth but in a costume most people remember him by, the Superman outside. I guess World Without Superman is no more? This is still interesting though I wonder if this was always the plan to have Superman come back this quickly. I still thought this was fine and if you had questions about picking it up now would be a good time since it is the start of a new arc. 5/5.
Awards
-Book of the Week- When it boils down to it only one title could deserve this spot and it is War Of Kings #6. It was just an epic battle and it had a great conclusion. This, more than any other of Abnett and Lanning’s books, definitely changed the cosmic scope of the Marvel Universe and I really look forward to how these changes will be felt.
-Disappointment of the Week- Dark Reign: Zodiac is just a title I don’t like. Maybe it’s just a little too much over my head. Whatever the reason, I just don’t care for the main character or what he’s trying to do.
-Cover of the Week- Deadpool: Merc With A Mouth had an awesome cover with the Zombie Pool looking up in the water to eat the real Deadpool in a cool Jaws type homage. Arthur Suydam (where’d he disappear to) returns to win the award he owned when I first started The Pull List V2.0.
-The Bottom Line- You know you’re in a good week when there is only one misstep to be found! I really enjoyed what this week had to offer. Major things were ended (War of Kings, Ultimatum), some cool mini-series’ debuted (Luke Cage, Masters of Evil) and everything here was a blast to read. I look forward to next week but for now I’m just put my legs up and relax!
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Questions? Comments? Shoot me an email.
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