Weekly Pull List 6-19-2013

Very solid week for comics this week. I only picked up three books, but they are all great books.

We'll start with Sonic Universe 53 - We return to the world where the blue heroes take on the dastardly doctor duo. This issue wraps up part two of Worlds Collide by having the heroes rescue the rest of the roboticized masters (the friends of sonic turned into evil robotic versions.) They then start heading toward the base where Drs. Wily and Eggman are holding Dr. Light captive. Once again, good book. I think I'll hold off on reviews until the crossover is finished and just leave basic plot synopses for the issues. 4 out of 5

Next up we head to the beautiful, horrific, wild west in Sixth Gun: Sons of the Gun 4. This title follows the story of the wicked General Hume's comrades and vicious teammates. I re-read all four issues today which is definitely the way to read it. It is great to see the villains' story outside of the main book. This issue's main story follows Silas as he arrives in a town and begins to investigate the mysterious disease taking hold of people and a bunch of livestock with strange injuries. A few of the infected beg for Silas to put them out of his misery. As his gun, the fourth, calls up the spirits of those it has killed he brings about a sort of cult. The book ends with him stumbling into a barn and finding a crazed looking lady taking a bite out of a cow's neck. Interesting story and fantastic to see a cult sort of story in a very atypical setting. Bunn and Hurtt do great work as always and this is a fantastic prequel mini series. This is probably my favorite issue so far. It's an interesting concept of having the bearers of each gun get their own story in this pseudo prequel. 5 out of 5.

Finally I got Sixth Gun 32. As part 3 of this story, I was a bit lost until I got a digital copy of issue 31 which still hasn't come in yet. This story is following Becky through her "Ghost Dance" as she is passed out in the desert. Drake and the others set off to find the supposed skinwalkers who are Hacking into her ghost dance to hunt Becky down at the behest of Missy Hume. This story is close to being the best of the series to date. Her fever dream of sorts takes her into the past where she finds out that The Six have been reincarnated throughout the years. We see them as tomahawks and later as swords as she appears in medieval times at a castle under attack by dragons. We see the dark past of the Six as they are used in sword form in a seal much like one we saw in the first arc. After they activate the seal Becky appears on a street in the middle of some town and is confronted by a pale, older version of Silas Hedgepath, wielder of the Fourth gun and his crew which resembles the other gun holders we've seen in the Sons of the Gun. I really like this issue! It's setting up for some really neat story to connect both books through Becky's dream while still keeping a great story going in the book's present time. The art always pops off the page to portray the wicked feeling of the book. The story takes turns that hint at a fantastic history of the Six and promises to fulfill the desire to see more. I've said it plenty, but if you aren't reading Sixth Gun, go pick up the trade paperbacks at your LCS. 5 out of 5.

Weekly Pull List 4-17-13

And I'm back to talk about what comics I picked up this week. Again, been super busy with work and working on my novel for Camp NaNoWriMo. Yeah, there's a thing called National Novel Writing Month. It's a yearly event in November that gets people to write a novel in a month. They're doing a summer camp kind of thing for the month of April. I decided to take a shot at it. It started off great, but again super busy with work so I'm kind of running behind.

So today I picked up several books. Let's get started! Spoilers ahead!

Justice League #18 - Now this is my first issue of this one that I picked up. I've been kinda following the series but haven't been reading it religiously. This issue starts with Jason Todd and Alfred in the Batcave mourning the death of Damian when a mysterious figure breaks in and knocks them out before taking Batman's stash of Kryptonite. Meanwhile Superman and Wonder Woman are confronted by Batman over what the world views of them being together and how they can do anything. On the Justice League satellite, Firestorm and the new Atom get confronted by the return of Despero. As far as story, this book isn't really innovative. The story of Batman's contingency plans being stolen or going awry has been told many times (See JLA Tower of Babel, Batman No Man's Land, etc...). That being said, Geoff Johns is brilliant so I'm not too worried. As usual Ivan Reis' art is pretty beautiful. Overall a great book and I can't wait to see where it's going.

DC Universe Presents #19 - This is an interesting book. I've been following this title since issue 13 or so and it's an anthology kind of book. There's a few issues per story arc or there are one shots as the last few have been. I haven't been overly impressed by the last couple, but this is the final issue of this series so I figured I should finish it out. This issue was probably the biggest surprise this week. It follows a female scientist who comes across an artifact that seems it comes from 300 years in the future  when it's carbon dated. Anyways, a portal opens and Beowulf (yes the character from the poem) chases a shapeshifter to our time. At the end he ends up going back only to be followed by the scientist. I don't know what it was about this issue that was super exciting, but it was well written and intriguing. The art was pretty neat, but not overwhelmingly awesome. This seemed as a sort of set up for the issue Sword of Sorcery that started recently and I enjoyed it enough that I really want to go check out that series.

Sonic Universe #51 - Part 2 of the Worlds Collide Crossover. This book was a good continuation of the story that started last week. I had no real issues with it except that the continuity is kinda weird. Last issue the timeline jumps back a few days or something and this one continues from the jump back. I didn't pick up on that until halfway through which made for an odd read...

Sixth Gun: Sons of the Gun #3 - Again not an incredible book, but it was decent. The story still isn't as intriguing as the main series. Definitely worth a read if you enjoy the world of the Sixth Gun, but it might be worth waiting for the trade.

Finally, Sixth Gun #30 - This is the first issue in the next arc and it has the main character Becky getting trapped inside the spirit world or something like that. Hard to sum up the plot in a single sentence so that's how I'm doing it. Great beginning to a new story and I'm still in.

Sorry about the brevity of the reviews, I'm really tired. May come back and edit these tomorrow. We'll see. Thanks for reading!!

Plurality scribe adapts The Sixth Gun for NBC!!

Ryan Condal is the mastermind who wrote this short film called Plurality. He is an up and coming screenwriter and I am a fan. Why is that you ask? Well just watch the movie above. Then go Here to order the Sixth Gun trade paperbacks. Yes that's right. Ryan Condal is writing the television pilot for one of the greatest comic series in the last decade! The book follows Becky Montcrief after her father gives her a present on his deathbed. What present? Why only one of a group of six mystical guns. Each gun has a special power that it yields to its owner: One gun strikes with the force of a cannon shell, one spreads flames upon its victims, one that kills the victim by spreading a flesh-rotting disease, and one that can call up the spirits of the men and women it has shot down, etc...

 

Now I'm not normally a fan of "Weird Western" tales, but this one grabbed me. I have been following it since the book started 29 issues ago and it has yet to disappoint. So let's take this premise and add in the clever brain of Condal and what do we get? I'm hoping for a beautiful pilot that leads to a long lasting series. 

The comics were created by Cullen Bunn (left) and Brian Hurtt (right). They have also collaborated on The Damned series, which is a classic 1920s noir story. With demons!!! Hurtt has worked on Queen and Country, Gotham Central, and Captain America. Hurtt has recently become a "golden boy" of marvel, recently writing several team up arcs with Captain America, the acclaimed Deadpool Kills the Marvel Universe, Fear Itself: The Fearless, and Wolverine. 

Needless to say, I'm excited to see my favorite comic book become a new favorite TV series (I'm optimistic). Casting wise, we have Laura Ramsey (The Ruins) playing the female lead, Becky Montcrief. Other confirmed cast members are Graham McTavish (The Hobbit, Left) as Silas Hedgepeth, Aldis Hodge (Leverage, right) as Agent Mercer, and W. Earl Brown (Deadwood, Below) as General Hume.

Brown totally looks like a badass Hume!

Edit:
The Nerdist Writers Panel just released a podcast with Ryan Condal on it. I'm super excited to listen to this one!!! Check it out here!