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Welcome to the very late edition of The Pull List! I just got overwhelmed with all the things going on right now, though I don’t know why. Work is going alright and school is pretty easy so far but I guess I just ran out of time to read the books and considering I got them late (on Monday, yikes!) that is the main reason of the delay. I still haven’t picked up the next shipment of books so the next one may be late, too.
Spoiler Alert
Marvel
-Amazing Spider-Man #606- Spidey’s love-life gets even more complicated, as Norah, MJ and Michele all end up on the same place. Furthermore, Black Cat is back on the scene and their kiss is recorded is seen ‘round the world. When Peter’s life gets more miserable, this book gets better. 1/1.
-Astonishing X-Men Sketchbook #1- This is a cool FREE book featuring some art from Phil Jiminez and his upcoming run on Astonishing X-Men as well as Spider-Man. It’s free and of course that gets a point. 2/2.
-Avengers: The Initiative #28- The New Warriors try to save some Initiative outcasts but Night Thrasher is captured and Norman tells him that he will work for them and his long-thought-dead brother will be resurrected. I find I am not really caring about the huge cast of characters here. There are tons of people in here and with just SO many people it’s tough to get emotionally invested in anybody. 2/3.
-Dark Reign The List – X-Men #1- Norman sends an old wife of Namor after him after making her a Atlantean-eating monster and Namor dispatches of her with the help of the X-Men and sends notice to Namor not to mess with him. This tied up the Utopia storyline nicely and set the X-Men on the path to their own stories. 3/4.
-Dark Reign: Made Men #1- This story focuses on five characters (Spymaster, Attuma, Jack O’Lantern, Gamma Corps & The Enforcers) in the current Dark Reign world. I think the comic itself was useless in terms of characters that are going to be used in the MU but Frank Tieri did a great job making you care about these characters and I really would like to see how characters like Jack, The Enforcer and the Corps will be used in this new universe. 4/5.
-Dark X-Men: The Confession #1- Well, Emma and Scott confess to each other (Cyclops has X-Force and Emma slept with Iron Man and Namor and is in their dark Cabal). Yay the X-Men are one big happy family again! This was all dialogue and $4.00 for all dialogue with not much new (we knew their secrets, for example) is not worth it nowadays. 4/6.
-Fantastic Four #571- This gets really cool, with Reed staying a week with the Reed’s and deciding he wants to change everything. The Celestials from one of the worlds have a problem with this. I really dig this story. Reed is his mad scientist best and when you multiply that by a thousand you have a cool take on the FF. 5/7.
-Guardians of the Galaxy #18- The Guardians are busy traveling through the timestream, this time stuck on Friday the 13th in January of 3009. This crazy trip culminates with Adam/Magus and you know things will be bad for the Guardians. Another solid outing from Lanning and Abnett. 6/8.
-Incredible Hercules #134- This continues the Cho/Mastermind Excello stuff and this is just a very smart, well-written book. It turns out that Athena is still with Cho and seems to be pulling some sort of strings. Cho as a co-star to this book (and alternating between the two stories in a bi-monthly book) is just a stroke of genius. 7/9.
-Incredible Hulk #602- Skaar tests his mettle against Juggernaut before Wolvie shows up and Lyra starts picking off the genetically altered women who have the powers of Hulk’s greatest enemies one by one. Both stories were surprisingly good and I love Olivetti’s art on here. 8/10.
-Marvel Zombies The Return #4- Hulk arrives on Earth for the big World War Hulk event only to encounter zombie Giant-Man. Hulk gets all zombified by the end of the issue. The Zombies are running rampant and Van Lente has really spun the Zombies in a good direction. 9/11.
-New Avengers #57- Norman makes a deal with the Wrecking Crew and the Hood’s gang so that he can get the power dampener and he finds the escaped New Avengers. Luke Cage, dying of a heart attack, sacrifices himself to the evil gang so that the rest of the Avengers can escape. The Bendis/Immonen team works well no matter what the book and I think New Avengers has been at its best the last few issues. 10/12.
-Nova #29- Nova and the Corps find a ship coming out of the rip in time and it houses a Nova Corps member who was lost 35 years ago. Nova and his men encounter the Starstalker who wants the man that is imprisoned on the Nova ship. The Mindless Ones show up at the end to cause problems, too. This has done a nice job after the War of Kings event and keeping the momentum going for Nova. 11/13.
-Wolverine First Class #19-This is a really fun tale of Wolverine and Kitty getting captured by the Skrulls and Kitty trying to escape. Capt. Marvel shows up at the end to help. David has brought an element of fun here that also manages to keep things in continuity. I really respect the skills of PAD. 12/14.
-Wolverine Giant Size Old Man Logan #1- Well, we finally have a conclusion. This is Wolvie finally busting loose and killing as many in-bred Hulks as he can for revenge. The ending was completely over the top (Hulk eating Wolvie and Wolvie clawing his way out) but was a fitting ending to the whole Old Man Logan story. Sure, the delays sucked, but the story was decent enough. 13/15.
-Wolverine Origins #40- Wolverine fights it out with Romulus and Romulus gets away in the end. I was sort of disappointed with this (we’ve been building to that?) but then I remember that Daniel Way has had this story going since issue #1 and I hope that this just won’t end the things that have been set up before. I just feel the ending was left too wide open and I don’t think this issue did justice to the previous 39. 13/16.
-Uncanny X-Men #515- Cyclops deals with being the leader of a refugee nation. The White Queen is increasingly stand-offish and the you know what hits the fan when Magneto shows up at the end. I think the story is heading off in a great direction (especially if Magneto is done well) but I don’t like Land’s art for the book. 14/17.
DC
-Blackest Night: Superman #2- Superman and Superboy continue fighting Superman of Earth-2 when the Psycho Pirate comes along and messes with everyone’s emotions. The Blackest Night wave has even hit new Krypton where Supergirl meets her father. Don’t worry folks; Ma Kent is ready to fight back. Yeah, that last page lost all believability for me. This isn’t like the Uncanny X-Men issue where Wolvie pops up from the sewers to take on the Hellfire Club; this is the mother of Superman, a woman as old as Aunt May. Seriously? Everything else was cool but that last page took me right out of the whole comic. I hope the ending isn’t stupid. 0/1.
-Detective Comics #857- Things gets a little weird for Batwoman. She saves her father from Alice and Alice is revealed as her sister. The back-up with the Question sees her trying to find out more information in the trading ring and getting nowhere fast (except towards death). Neither story was ground-breaking and were almost by the numbers but the art was really cool on Batwoman and I can appreciate that. 1/2.
-Final Crisis Aftermath: Dance #5- The supercool young team or whatever they are called reunite to battle a new villain who’s appeared on the scene. This story comes across as really youthful and fun and its different than any of the other three Aftermath titles. 2/3.
-Justice League of America #37- The JLA buck all odds to defeat the Royal Flush Gang. Wein wrote just a really cool JLA story that features the group overcoming tremendous odds without the big two. It’s just has the feel of a classic tale. 3/4.
-Superman/Batman #64- Superman and Batman investigate a Kryptonian plane that has been sent to them from the past thanks to a group of invading aliens. Everything on the ship is dead, but there is one escape pod that is gone. This is going to lead up to something called A Big Noise and my interest is piqued. 4/5.
Dynamite
-Project Superpowers 2 #3- Some armed forces try to take the Pentagon back but Green Lama wards them off and then loses control and chokes out Black Terror. It looks like Truth is killed and Kid Terror is not all he appears to be. This is another issue where these unknown characters are given a whole new lease on life in comics. I just really like what’s going on in this book. 1/1.
Awards
-Book of the Week- This was the toughest thing to award this week, just because none of the comics were really what I would call a blow-away title. Everything was average and nothing really stood out. I think Wolverine First Class was my favorite title of the week so this gets the award.
-Disappointment of the Week- There’s a lot to choose from this week (I had my critical glasses on, I guess). Blackest Night Superman #2 was the one for me, just because the ending was so out of left field. I still can’t believe it.
-Cover of the Week- Marvel Zombies #4 by Arthur Suydam was just a really cool cover that reminded me of the Secret Wars book from way back when and Hulk holding up the mountain. I don’t know where Arthur went, but he’s come back with three straight cover wins.
-The Bottom Line- This thing is already a week late so I won’t waste any time here. I’m ONE book into the edition that should’ve been posted this week and like I said I will try and have the 10/06 edition up by this Friday, Wednesday Comics up shortly after that and this Tuesday to be back on track. Well, finger’s crossed!
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Questions? Comments? Shoot me an email.
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