Weekly (Monthly?) Pull List September 2013

Well due to taking a weekend to relax and play video games, then blogger deciding to not save my 80% complete post last week, followed by getting a flat and finding out all my tires needed to be replaced, I haven't posted a Weekly Pull list for 3 weeks. As you can imagine, I've bought a few books since then so instead of going through each one individually I will be grouping them a bit.

To start with I have Sonic the Hedgehog 252. I picked this up to push me over the minimum for the punch card at the store. That being said, it wasn't a waste of money at all. It serves as a transition to the next storyline, "Countdown to Chaos" and has Sonic and Tails being confused about what's going on and how they got back. Their confusion mimics the reader's making this certainly an interesting read. 3 out of 5.

Next up we've got Thor: God of Thunder 12. This is another transition issue. After the Gorr story, the three Thors return to Earth. There are a lot of great moments in this book: A bartender readying 2 barrels of mead when he here's the thunder of Thor approaching, when Thor the Avenger visits Jane Foster to find out she has cancer. He also meets Rosalind Solomon when he accepts her Youtube invitation to the S.H.I.E.L.D. ball and joins her in Antarctica to investigate a whale graveyard. The young Thor visits Earth to find the wenches and mead he seeks and the all-father Thor visits the remains of our world. Solid issue and promises good things. 3 out of 5.

Now let's jump over to Image for Lazarus 2 and 3. After discovering that a few of his children are behind the previous attack. He sends Forever to rendezvous with the Morray Family to discuss the attack and a truce. Meanwhile Johanna and Jonah are plotting to start a war by killing Forever when she gets back to Carlyle territory. Once again, this book is excellent. It's hinting at an all out gang war which I'm super excited about. Collectively gets a 7 out of 10.

Next up we'll jump over to Marvel for the Battle of the Atom crossover in the X-Men books. I've got the first three parts in X-Men: Battle of the Atom 1, All New X-Men 16, and X-Men 5 It's a pretty cliche hero vs hero story, but they added a twist. It involves three different teams from three different eras. It's a really neat story that thoroughly explores the differences between the characters and their past/future selves. While the story isn't super clear yet, I'm hopeful that it will continue to be innovative and clever, and with Bendis at the helm? I'm not too worried. More on that later. All-in-all it's an average of 4 out of 5.

Next up we have Justice League 23. This is the end of the Trinity War story. It was pretty good. I was all for it until the last bit where it reveals that it's more of a prelude to the Forever Evil story. 3 out of 5. As a prelude it's up to a 4 out of 5. Now for Forever Evil 1. The actual prelude to this story, this follows the Crime Syndicate as they've taken over the world, the heroes are nowhere to be found, which brings us to Villains Month where the villains take over the books from the heroes. It's a decent book, waiting for it to pick up and get into the story. 4 out of 5.

For the villains month books we've got Count Vertigo taking over Green Arrow, and Deadshot and Killer Frost taking over Justice League of America. Count Vertigo is a great back story to the villain who's been present recently in the Green Arrow book. It's not the most original story as he was abused and tormented by his peers after being abandoned by his mother, whom he eventually gets revenge on. He ends up getting on a helicopter to head to Seattle. 4 out of 5.

The Deadshot issue is another flashback introduction to the gun for hire Floyd Lawton who watched his parents get killed. This issue shows him getting revenge on the man who hired the pair that kills his parents. It's a decent issue and makes him a pretty cool character. 3.5 out of 5.

Killer Frost is yet another origin issue. This one is the most unique and almost the darkest. It's well written and after reading her origin in the 80s Firestorm series, I think it's one of the best updated origins of any character in the New 52. I just wish we were able to explore her story and relationship with Firestorm more.

So that's it for books this week. There was a signing this week at the local shop where I got to meet Dave Beaty and get a print from him of his inks on Brightest Day Issue 6.

Also new cards of his work that just came out:

I also got a signed version of Brian Augustyn's Gotham by Gaslight:

Weekly Pull List 8-21-13

Big week this week. had a nice variety too. First off we have Sonic Universe 55. I picked this up because I needed an extra book to spend enough for the punch card and the idea of a pirate sonic is super cool. Unfortunately we don't see Sonic at all in this issue. It's more Blaze, Marine, Amy Rose, Cream, Bark, and Bean. I don't know any of these characters apart from their roles in Worlds Collide. That being said, I did thoroughly enjoy this issue. Blaze and co. are roaming the high seas looking for the final Sol Emerald when they come across another ship that opens fire on them. A battle ensues and the issue ends with Blaze onboard Captain Metal's ship as her boat and her friends are sinking. Much like the Worlds Collide series, there's not a ton to talk about. The art does what it needs to. The story is interesting. The twist is unnecessary and doesn't mean a ton to me as I haven't read the story that the supposed prisoner was introduced in. Good book. 3 out of 5.

Next we'll head to Image with Steve Niles' Chin Music 2. Last issue seemed to just introduce the characters. Issue 2 introduces the story.  We follow Elliot Ness investigating a crime scene where he eventually tells the press to not release that Capone is dead to the press. Ness visits Daniel Shaw to arrest him as he robbed Ness the opportunity of bringing Capone in so he will become a legend. The issue ends with Shaw agreeing to bring Capone in alive. Once again, Steve Niles brings out a really awesome, intriguing idea and story. Messing with history is always interesting and adding a mystical element is such a cool way to do it. Shaw is a man who apparently can't die and now he's supposed to bring back the dead Capone? I'm in for the ride. Tony Harris' art is super stylized and eerie and really adds to the story. Super cool book. 4 out of 5.

I decided to try something new with Batman Beyond Unlimited 1. This is a collection of digital issues of Batman Beyond and Justice League Beyond that were released over the last month. Written by Kyle Higgins who was on the Fat Man on Batman podcast recently. While I haven't watched Batman Beyond and this continues that story, I still enjoyed this book. It's interesting seeing the future of the DCU. I like this book, but not enough to buy each issue. I may be picking up the trade when it comes out, tho I think I need to watch the series before I'll really care about these characters. 2.5 out of 5.

Continuing with DC we'll head to Superman Unchained 3. We pick back up with the stand off with Superman, Gen. Lane, and Wraith. A minor scuffle ensues andSuperman surrenders to the seemingly friendly Wraith. When something attacks Tokyo, Superman and Wraith fly across the world when suddenly (gasp) Wraith says he has to kill Superman! This book is losing quality with each episode. The story is losing it's surprise and intrigue with each issue. There were subtle hints throughout the issue that Brainiac is involved. If that's the case I may still be interested, but this villain isn't very intriguing at all and I don't find myself caring what's going to happen. 2 out of 5

Trinity of Sin: Pandora 3 is a Trinity War Tie-in. We get some more back story of Pandora through the ages, which is interesting to see the training she received and to see it pay off at the end when she kills Envy. She promises to explain how, but also says it won't be till next issue. So yeah. Not a whole lot of bearing on the actual trinity war as her fight with the sins goes unseen by everyone. It's a weird decision and I'll have to wait to see how it plays out. Story itself is alright, but the set up gets this book up to a 3 out of 5.

We continue Trinity War with Justice League Dark 23. Everyone's fighting for the box again. Shazam manages to grab hold of it, sending a magical pulse throughout the world to be felt by all the magic characters, allowing Deadman to sense Madame Xanadu's location. The story ends when Constantine shows up and takes the box. It doesn't effect him negatively as "you can't soil a pot that's already filthy" which I found interesting. Zatana and Constantine whisk away to find Madame Xanadu and meet up with Batman and crew. She reveals that the box is actually a doorway and the Outsider says it's time to open it. A lot of good action, but realistically this book could have been half this long. As I mentioned before, I wish that we could have seen better interplay between this issue and what happened in Pandora's book. You can see where they cross if you examine both books. Decent story. Art is great as always. I'm looking forward to the end. See how they work that out. 3 out of 5.

Finally we have The Sixth Gun 33. Drake is mourning his inability to do anything while Kirby Hale, Gord Cantrell, and friends go looking for the dream hunters who are pursuing Becky. And Becky herself is trapped in an alternate reality dream where Hume is still alive and has killed Drake. There's a somewhat tense dinner scene that's interrupted by the dream hunters. When Hume is speared from through the window, Becky grabs his Sixth Gun and heads out to intercept them with Hume's men. Next issue promises to be a nice, epic fight which is super exciting. However, last book hinted that this one would be dealing with dragons so I will not keep my hopes up. This issue is up to par for Bunn and Hurtt. On a side note, he was on a recent Fight for Comics podcast doing an interview. It's a great one and we get some awesome insight into this book. Definitely check it out! 4 out of 5.

That's all for this week. Next week will be much lighter so I will review some trades I read as well.

Weekly Pull List 8-14-13

And we're back to talk about the comics I picked up this week. A little bigger week than last week. Wait, what's that? There's no post for last week? Well I suppose it will be an extra long post since I need to catch up.

Let's start with Green Arrow 23 - We catch up with Ollie and Shado as they work on escaping Count Vertigo and his mountain lair. There's some really cool action sequences and I really like how the book portrays Vertigo as a hapless, amateur of a villain. We first see him undergoing brain surgery to fix the damage done to him and his vertigo device last issue. There's a fantastic flashback sequence that is drawn as if on old parchment in shadowy silhouettes. It's beautiful and some of the best comic art I've seen. The comic ends with the pair driving away then a tease of a new villain, Richard Dragon, arriving to take over Seattle. Fantastic issue! I love the new take on Vertigo, the art is incredibly awesome, and the tease is quite intriguing. They wrapped up the Vertigo arc a bit quickly but they really set him up to get better and be a classic nemesis to Green Arrow. 5 out of 5.

Helheim 6 - This wraps up the first story starring the undead Rikard. He confronts the second witch and his new companion manages to kill her as she tries to get away. The witch's dark magic pulls many dead souls out of the Helheim that is the undead Rikard and in a moment of clarity he has Rikard's father behead the monster. The book again ends with a tease of the young girl walking through the empty village and into a cabin where Rikard's body is being sewn back up by some demonic looking characters. This book's pacing has been very odd throughout. The first couple issues seemed slow and thepace has been quickening until this book where it went way to fast. I wish this had been an 8-10 issue arc or just start a bit later in the story and skim over the content of the first issues in flashback. Still a solid book that has lots of intriguing magic and mystical forces in it. At least it leaves me excited for some more Rikard stories. 3 out of 5.

Trinity of Sin: Phantom Stranger 11 - This is an odd book where Phantom Stranger has taken Batman, Deadman, and Katana into "Heaven's Basement" in order to talk to Dr. Light to get some clues on his killer. Naturally he doesn't really know anything and in bringing them there, the Stranger has broken a promise so he apparently killed by an angel. As a Trinity War Tie-In this book works in that it's not necessary to the overall story. On the other hand, it's superfluous. The characters know nothing more after this issue than they did before. The dialogue is pretty good and the art works well for the world of "heaven's basement." 2 out of 5.

Now onto this week: We get part 4 of Trinity War in Justice League of America 7. Pandora visits Lex Luthor to see if he can open the box, Martian Manhunter and a bunch of others find the Outsider and interrogate him, Catwoman and her team visit the House of Mystery and find Batman, Katana, and Deadman, and the book ends with Wonder Woman breaking in and grabbing Pandora's box before Lex can. Again this issue didn't do a whole lot to progress the story. I feel like most of it could have been told in 5 or 6 pages. Doug Mahnke's art is gorgeous and really saves the book from being boring. This story was apparently spoiled when Geoff Johns announced the next event in DC, but I have managed to avoid that spoiler so far. Anyways, 3 out of 5.

Constantine 6 - Following the Trinity War Tie-In last month, Constantine is nearly dead and in the astral plane fighting Chris who has been waiting in the Astral Plane for a time to kill Constantine. There's a new cult led by Tannarak who is out to get something from Constantine and while he's distracted with being MOSTLY dead, Tannarak is able to find Constantine's place and raid it of some artifacts. Fun book. Not entirely sure what's going on, but I am definitely interested in the next few issues.  3 out of 5.

Thor: God of Thunder 11 - The conclusion of the Godbomb story picks up as the bomb is exploding and all the gods throughout time begin to die at once. Thor grabs hold of the 2 Mjolnirs and tries to take the bomb into himself to save the rest of the gods. All the other gods begin praying to Thor and give him enough strength to become the god of gods and survive the godbomb. Thor kills Gorr with his axe and they drink Mead. Thor takes some worldless gods to the world with no gods that he visited before to nicely wrap up the story. As I said before, I was getting a little tired of the Gorr story. This wrapped it up perfectly and was a great palate cleanser to get us to a new story next issue. Jason Aaron is a master story teller and brought out some fantastic story from Thors of three eras and will continue to kick some ass as the series goes. Great story, beautiful art, nigh perfect wrap up. 5 out of 5.

Weekly Pull List 7-31-13

Trinity of Sin: Pandora 2 - This book is a tie-in to the Trinity War, which I don't understand as Pandora is at the heart of the story. Pandora hears that Superman killed someone and decides to go with the other part of the prophecy from before: "The purest of heart or the darkest." So she hunts down Vandal Savage to try the darkest. When he touches it, he falls down injured and is apparently useless. Average book. The story isn't very intriguing and the writing is par at best. It doesn't have anything apparently important towards Trinity War. The characters aren't super interesting. Quick read, and the art is beautiful so it earns a 1.5 out of 5.

Sonic the Hedgehog 251 - The Worlds Collide crossover wraps up with an invasion of the Wily Egg. Sonic and Mega Man go super and demolish a lot of the base and get to the chaos gems to return the universes back to normal. They say their farewells and reverse the genesis wave. In the end, Mega Man goes back to his home and Sonic and Dr. Eggman disappear into a white light, clearly leading into the next story line which is mildly intriguing. I really enjoyed this crossover. I know it was cheesy and cliche, but it did what it needed to. It was a great read and super fun, which is not all that prevalent in a lot of comics nowadays. The story by Ian Flynn was solid throughout and the art was cartoonish in the most epic way. Love the book, love the series. Book: 4 out of 5. Series: 4.5 out of 5

Weekly Pull List 7-24-13

Justice League Dark 22 - Part 3 of Trinity War. The Phantom Stranger shows up while the Justice Leagues are analyzing Dr. Light's body and tells them of Wonder Woman's plan to find the Justice League Dark. They go to New York to find Wonder Woman and have a quick standoff. The Question shows Superman an article that reveals that Dr. Psycho is the one behind Dr. Light's death leading him to escape in a rage. A scuffle nearly ensues before Zatana whisks away Diana and the JLD as Constantine lures Shazam away for his own schemes. The book ends with a nice little voice over moment of the mysterious man who has kidnapped Madame Xanadu and is explaining that the "knights" are moving into place nicely and reveals he has a mole in the Justice League! Gasp!! Interesting next step in the story. Another mole? pretty contrived and not very exciting. This series so far has been great books with very underwhelming endings and contrived twists. The story is decent, but seems to be lacking something. Something like a good reason for existing. Not great, but interested to see where it's headed. Especially after the next book. 3 out of 5.

Constantine 5 - This book as well as the character is one I really had little interest in. A few months ago I watched the movie and realized I kinda like the occult story. I picked this one up as it's a tie-in to the Trinity War and takes place after Constantine and Shazam take off. They arrive at a bar apparently frequents and John tricks Shazam into changing back to Billy and manages to take the magical power from him to fight off the demon who is apparently chasing them. The story is rather obnoxious and out there, but it's written in a way that I don't care about that. It's an excellent, quick read and I'm looking forward to picking up another issue or two. The art is rather brilliant. It has a fantastic balance of realism and stylistic imagery that works perfectly to evoke the demonic, surreal story. This book is an excellent surprise in that I wasn't expecting it to be great and it still blew me away. 4 out of 5.

Lastly, I picked up The Sixth Gun: Sons of the Gun 5. This is apparently the last issue of this mini series. I thought it was six, not five. This issue brings together all of General Hume's horsemen and their journeys to a place where a disease has been infecting the town. They destroy all the demons when the widow Hume shows up and recruits/guilts them into joining her. The survivors start heading toward the group when they shoot them all down as they are villains. This series is great. It answers the question I didn't know I was asking about how the men got wrapped up with Missy Hume after banishing the general. I can't wait to go back and read the main series to see how this one helps enhance it. Brian Churilla's artwork homages Brian Hurtt's work on The Sixth Gun while making it a little darker and more oriented to the villainous story. Great book and great series! 4.5 out of 5.

Weekly Pull List 7-17-13

Justice League of America 6 - Part 2 of the Trinity War. The fighting in Kahndaq continues until Superman tells them to stop and turns himself in. ONce in custody Superman is visited by Batman and Wonder Woman. A discussion of science vs. mythology ensues and is followed by Diana going to talk to Hephaestus and then when science and mythology fail, she goes to find the Justice League Dark to see if magic would work better. The last page introduces us to the Question for the first time in the New 52 I believe. I am excited to see what happens with the Question as he's a pretty awesome detective character. Great moments are when Vibe totally takes out the Flash with a crazy sweet audio blast, and finding the Question. They do touch more on Superman being brainwashed which is a good thing. Solid issue, good writing, fun art, exciting set up. 3.5 out of 5.

Sonic Universe 54. In the penultimate issue of the Worlds Collide crossover. This issue is mostly a fight between Sonic and Mega Man and Metal Sonic and Bass. Great action sequences including a montage of them teaming up and using all of Mega Man's new weapons from the series. Pretty awesome. 4 out of 5.

Thor God of Thunder 10. Part Four of the Godbomb arc. Gorr has completed the godbomb and revels in his imminent victory when his wife calls him her god. With his vision of gods, Gorr doesn't like this and kills her. His son realizes this and decides to help the Thors earn their escape and regain their hammers (or axe in the case of young Thor). With weapons in tow they attack Gorr who is working on activating the godbomb. Again a very nice issue. It's a little weird when the other gods refer to them as a Thor, but mostly it's just a very fun ride with beautiful art and ends with the bomb going off in a glorious cliffhanger. Again, it you like Thor at all you should be picking up this book. At the very least in Trade. While I thoroughly enjoy what Jason Aaron is doing with this book, I am ready for the Gorr story to be done, which it is next issue according to the letters page. This just gets me even more excited for the coming issues. Another shout out to Esad Ribic and Ive Svorcina for the amazing pencils and extraordinarily beautiful colors respectively. 3.5 out of 5

Finally, and I mean that in every sense of the word, we get to Scarlet 7. In this issue we see Scarlet set up a rally as a distraction so she can break into the mayor's office and try to blackmail/threaten him into firing all of the cops who are corrupt in the city. This issue isn't great. It's a transition between parts of the story. Very much filler, but it makes for an interesting story. This series always leaves you wanting more which is due to Bendis being an epic writer. Maleev as usual brings out the story in a beautiful way with his gritty, rough art. The only real problem with this book is that the creators are so busy that this one takes too long between issues. While the book is always good, this one was not worth the long wait, unless the next few issues come out quickly. 3 out of 5.

Weekly Pull List 7-3-2013

I finally got Sixth Gun 31! It's a good one as I mentioned before. One of the weirder arcs of the book that hints at a super awesome dark past of the Six. Super anxious. Here's a good article about it in the Washington Post.

Next up was Sonic the Hedgehog 250. Part Nine of the Worlds Collide. This book is what I didn't know I've been waiting for over the last few months. It has a splash page of Sonic and Mega Man and their team facing off against nearly every Mega Man boss. It is a fantastic page and worth the entire series so far. There's also one that shows Sonic racing through the battle taking out a bunch of robots. Super cool. As far as plot, there's a huge battle and Sonic and Mega Man decide to invade the base of the evil Drs. As they are flying up to the Wily Egg, Dr. Light gets thrown out and is plummeting to his Death!! With two of the greatest splash pages I've seen in comics this book gets a 5 out of 5.

Tying in to last week's prep for Trinity War is Trinity of Sin: Pandora 1. Finally getting to a plot that was hinted at two years ago at the onset of the New 52, TOS Pandora follows the mythological character as she gets doomed to walk the Earth forever due to her releasing the seven deadly sins on the world. We follow her over the centuries to see how she was tormented. She's about to get revenge of sorts on Wrath when she's summoned by a member of the Council who punished her to apologize for her punishment. He gives her a hint of how to stop them and says the council has been destroyed (as seen in the Shazam backups in Justice League, so I guess I'll go read those.) The book ends with a clear direction where we are going. Pandora heads off to find the box and Superman as only the purest of hearts can use it for good. Comic in itself gets a 3, but it gets an extra point for being a great, clear set up for the Trinity War. 4 out of 5.

Finally we get Green Arrow 22. Another great story from Jeff Lemire as we follow Ollie on his quest for the three dragons and Komodo to get his revenge. He invades a castle and finds Shado tied up. Upon releasing her he is attacked by Count Vertigo. The depiction of the vertigo attack is fantastic. It's as if they punched out pieces of the image and twisted them around. It's incredible. If you enjoyed Arrow then this book is a good choice. It has several trick arrows, Count Vertigo, Shado (who apparently had a kid with Robert Queen, Olivers father, and that's who's hanging out with Komodo.) Anyways, great book. Lot's of classic Green Arrow stuff. 3.5 out of 5.

What are you reading this week? What are your thoughts on Trinity War?

Weekly Pull List 6-28-2013

Solid week this week as I start to prepare for the DC crossover of the summer, Trinity War. This story will cross the three Justice League books.

Let's start with Jusstice League 21. This is the finale of the Shazam backup storyline in the previous issues of Justice League. I am not a huge fan of the character so it wasn't great for me. It's very well written and the art is very solid. we see the introduction of the super-powered Batson family, as well as a super-powered tiger. Fantastic artwork and Geoff Johns' solid writing make it a solid book and if I cared about Shazam at all I would have enjoyed it more. 2.5 out of 5.

Next up is Justice League Dark 21. Again a wrap up to a story I haven't been following. It's a bunch of magical characters fighting Doctor Destiny. It was probably a good story guest starring the Swamp Thing and the wrap up is pretty good. Written by Jeff Lemire Ray Fawkes and art by Mikel Janin, the story was tight and crisp artwork really sold it. I enjoyed it although I would have liked it better had I read the full story, I imagine. The Flash makes an appearance as well zooming around the city and stopping other monsters. Without the cameos I would have enjoyed this much less as I have little background with most of the characters. Decent, but better with context. 3 out of 5.

Justice League of America 5 follows the JLA as they infiltrate the headquarters of the Secret Society as Catwoman has supposedly been killed. Alas! It was Martian Manhunter all along! Not a great reveal as I don't think anyone actually thought she was dead. This book actually serves as somewhat of a prelude to Trinity War as Steve Trevor and Amanda Waller discuss their team to see if they're ready to fight the Justice League. The wrap up of the Secret Society story works much better than the set up of the crossover. Not a great book, but it works all right for me. 3 out of 5.

Lazarus 1. The premiere issue of Greg Rucka's new story follows a dystopian future where wealth is power and power rests in a handful of families. They each have a superior family member called a Lazarus. The book opens with one such person, Forever Carlyle being shot dead. Then getting up and killing her assailants. It's incredibly intriguing and introduces us to a superbly built world where I am looking forward very much to exploring! There's hints of an undertone of family and love that I'm sure will be explored. Greg Rucka does fantastic work and the art by Lark is superb. Stylistic, yet beautiful and a very beautiful blue tinted palette. Three word review would be: Intriguing and Mysterious.
4.5 out of 5.