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Welcome one and all to the newest edition of The Pull List, my weekly comic communication composition. We have another very light week which I am always thankful for. In fact, there’re only 5 DC comics and 11 Marvel comics for a total of 16 titles overall. I’m most pumped by Wednesday Comics #1. Say what you will about Marvel and DC and the amount of titles sold, but I think DC has been more innovative over the last few years and has taken more chances than Marvel, especially with the weekly comics and now Wednesday Comics.
Spoiler Alert
Marvel
-Amazing Spider-Man Annual #36- Tonight’s the big engagement party for May and JJJ Sr. Jonah brings all of May’s long-lost family, the Reilly’s and it is a big surprise for everyone. Peter is of course very awkward in conversation and plays the lovable loser part so well. Of course, the real surprise for Peter is when he’s attacked by a super-powered guy named the Raptor. He hates Peter for killing his family. Of course, when you attack Peter you attack Spider-Man and Spidey soon shows up. Eventually Spidey realizes that Raptor is not after Peter Parker but Ben Reilly, the clone of Peter Parker. It seems that Ben had killed this man’s family in an arson attack. Peter thought Ben was dead, but could it be he’s still alive? The Clone Saga hit back in the day and along with the Onslaught stuff was a big reason I stopped reading comics. I do trust that the story won’t suck as badly as it did in 1995 as I am hoping some of the excesses of the mid-90’s are gone forever. 1/1.
-Dark Reign: Skrull Kill Krew #3- This mini-series is really like the bastard child of Secret Invasion. Who else is buying this besides me? So the Skrull Kill Krew continue reforming their bodies and they are all back to normal, except the racist one who is now black. Ha! The irony! They take out some more Skrulls but the others aren’t aware the lesbian lets one of the Skrull’s go. This is quite a motley crue, a black guy, a racist hick, and a lesbian. They are sooo multi-cultural! Anyway, the big reveal at the end is that the SKK are actually genetically Skrulls. That should put them at odds with Norman, if it ever gets to that. Something tells me we won’t be seeing these guys after this mini-series. It’s enjoyable but it won’t have a long-lasting impact at all. 2/2.
-Dark X-Men #1- This wasn’t a full-length story which I guess is what I expected. Instead it deals with the individual members of the Dark X-Men and how they came to be on the team. This issue deals with Namor, Mimic and the Dark Beast. Namor has an interesting conversation with Namor and suspects that Namor is joining with the mutants because he wants something he can save seeing as he failed the Atlanteans. The Mimic was just a lost soul with these incredible powers. He is also bi-polar. I guess that’s a trait Norman can sympathize with. Finally we see the Dark Beast join the team. He seems to have his own agenda and is content goading Norman with his Green Goblin persona. 3/3.
-GeNext United #3- The GeNext crew find out that Doom is actually being possessed by demonic Kalima. The GeNext crew were separated from Hank and new arrival Skanda while they interrogate Sophia but when Kalima arrives Olivier borrows Sati’s powers and all the GeNext crew are dispersed away from Kalima. This is good, fun, action, and I enjoy these characters. 4/4.
-Ms. Marvel #41- The luminous beings lead Wolverine and Spidey to the little babies. It seems that the luminous beings are actually Ms. Marvel. Deadpool has successfully stolen the babies causing Ms. Marvel (the evil one) to search them out. They all end up at an AIM institute with Ms. Marvel trying to get the babies back and the New Avengers fighting to revive the original Ms. Marvel. It seems by issue’s end that the original Ms. Marvel has been reformed from the energies she released upon death. Enjoy your time on this book while you can Karla, it looks like Ms. Marvel is back. Talk about a lame-duck title character. Yeesh. This was good for what its worth. 5/5.
-Stand, The: American Nightmare #4- The plague has run its course and now it is just Darwinism doing the rest, as people are killing themselves off by being stupid or through other diseases. That is pretty bleak. Lloyd is trying to escape jail and is going crazy. Stu and Glen are relaxing and waxing philosophical but both are troubled by dreams of Flagg. Frannie and Harold are off to the plague center to see what’s going on and Flagg returns at the end to free Lloyd and have him join his army. It looks like a battle of good vs. evil is on the horizon. Another stunning issue, both in terms of written content and the beautiful art and colors in here. 6/6.
-Thor: Tales of Asgard #3- Ahhh, more Lee/Kirby reprints. These 5-page stories really just add depth to Asgard and the whole Norse legends that were being written about. We get some stories of Loki being a general pain in the arse, a Little Red Riding Hood tale, and a final epic story that sees the great sword being cracked that would start Ragnarok, or the end of all things. Thor and Loki get an army to head out and figure out who is behind all of this and we leave before they get too far in their journey. Even now these 5 page stories stand up well. 7/7.
-Uncanny X-Men First Class #1- Nightcrawler has a harrowing experience in NYC where he’s branded a monster. He is pretty dejected but gets his spirits lifted when he meets the Inhumans, who are over at the X-Mansion for a little dinner. There’s the requisite Wolverine fight (where he’s booted away by Gorgon) which is always fun. Nightcrawler goes with Colossus to Attilan and loves it there, until he sees the Terrigen Mist ceremony. He goes crazy and tries to stop the ceremony before getting blasted down. I’m surprised this is continued since most of the First Class stories are self-contained. That’s not a criticism at all. The way the people were talking in this issue puts this after X-Men #108, since Jean had the Phoenix power and Wolverine had already been booted into space. Most logically I think it fits between 109 and 110. 8/8.
-X-Men Forever #3- The mystery killer of Wolverine is revealed as Storm! Well, that is surprising. I guess that explains her recent attitude, especially towards Sabretooth. Wolverine was missing a claw and we see where it went by the end of the issue. Shadowcat has them and she slices one of Storm’s eyes out! Jean also makes mention of her love to Wolverine in a massive telepathic blast that Cyclops may take exception to. This has been interesting for sure, but I really doubt this is the direction Claremont would’ve taken the title back in 1991. 9/9.
-War of Kings: Warriors #1- This looks at the past events that shaped Gladiator and Blastaar. Gladiator was the star of the Strontian’s who killed the elders to become the praetor of the Shi’ar while Blastaar went on a similar journey to kill his father to regain all of his empire in the Negative Zone. It’s interesting to see more of the past of Gladiator who was always an enigmatic character. This adds great depth to the War of Kings storyline. 10/10.
-X-Men: Legacy #226- Rogue, Gambit and Danger show up as the X-Men are in the midst of battling the Dark Avengers during the Utopia tie-in. Rogue helps look for missing mutants but ends up fighting Ms. Marvel and then Ares. She steals some of his powers and then steals a tank. Tanks are cool. I liked having Rogue and Gambit brought back into the mix, though is Legacy now a Rogue/Gambit book or is this the return of the team format on here? 11/11.
DC
-Batman #688- They do the ol’ start near the end and then backtrack to the beginning bit and near the end Batman is pretty beat up in the Batcave. Now we set it up. Dick is Batman now and he’s been a lot less camera-shy than Bruce was. He takes out a Penguin operation, trains Damien and is all buddy-buddy with the GCPD. Little does he know that Two-Face has been tracking him and realizes that he is not the Batman he knew. You knew it had to happen that Dick would be second-guessed by the more familiar Batman villains. I like how they are differentiating the tactics used by Dick from those that Bruce used. It’s making him a unique Batman. 1/1.
-Green Lantern Corps #43- This is the prologue to Blackest Night and it showcases a guy named William Hand. He’s a GL villain I am not too familiar with but this issue does a great job explaining his origin and all. So he’s obsessed with death and is the perfect candidate for the scarred Guardian to make her first Black Lantern, but only after his viciously kills his family and himself. He’s revived and the Black Hand will extinguish all light. Blackest Night is setting itself up to be the best DC event since Sinestro Corps. 2/2.
-Red Robin #2- Red Robin takes out the baddies that attacked him last issue as we cut between the fighting and past events that led to Robin cutting away from Alfred, his family and his friends. He’s actually being tracked by Ra’s Al Ghul and they both believe that Bruce is alive and it seems that the two may work together. That’s a union that won’t end well for either of them I’d imagine. 3/3.
-Superman: World of New Krypton #5- Superman is put on trial by Zod and Superman testifies that the woman soldier with him was innocent and he did commit treason, though he didn’t do anything harmful. He is to be executed but Zod actually frees Superman by dropping the charges. His reasoning is that Superman is an asset to the military. So Superman is free, New Krypton is celebrating their annual celebration day and all is well and good until Zod is shot by an assassin. Yikes, that’s not good and New Krypton is going to probably face its own Civil War. 4/4.
-Wednesday Comics #1- This is a really cool concept. You have a ton of characters featured in one-page newspaper sized stories. Since this is the first issue the stories are really only being started. Batman has to stop a murder, Kamandi meets a mysterious man in the command bunk, Hawkman flies with the birds and wants to restore the sky, Deadman is out to solve a murder mystery and finds the killer, Superman battles an alien who communicated with him telepathically, Green Lantern is in space as his buds are drinking, Metamorpho is off to find a rare diamond, the Teen Titans are about to face off Trident, Adam Strange must stop an alien invasion, Supergirl chases Krypto and a super-cat, the Metal Men are in a bank and try to bust up a robbery, Wonder Woman has a dream about the human’s world, Sgt. Rock is captive in Nazi Germany, The Flash is losing Iris and Catwoman plans on stealing something I assume from the Demon. There’s just a lot to love here and a ton of big names. 5/5.
Awards
-Book of the Week- I’m really digging the Red Robin series so far. It’s my favorite of the Reborn series because of the departure we’ve seen from Robin. Plus, I just love the art of Bachs. It’s really good stuff.
-Disappointment of the Week- Everything was really good this week so I don’t need to give out this award.
-Cover of the Week- It is always tough to pick a winner in a week when there is no Alex Ross covers but I have a job to do. For me my favorite was Red Robin #2, with the dual image of Robin and Red Robin with Robin in the light showing his good and honorable and Red Robin in the dark showing how he’s gotten a bit darker in these trying times. It’s a really cool cover.
-The Bottom Line- There’s a lot to love this week. Probably the highlight was Wednesday Comics and it comes highly recommended. I don’t really have too much more to say. Just a really great week to be a comic book fan.
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