Monthly Pull List December 2014

Alright, rapid catch up on all the books from last year. Now that the news is out, I got married on New Years Eve. It was a very successful surprise wedding. We were planning it throughout the end of the year which is why I've been so sporadic with these. As I head back to work in the new year, I will be working hard to get a set schedule rolling and stay on top of things. Alright, here we go.

Storm 6 starts off with some epilogue on the Death of Wolverine story, then it does a nice little tale of Storm flying a charter flight and dealing with a bit of Mutant hate. It's a fairly powerful story where she has to overcome adversity and fear in order to save the plane from a paramilitary attack. This issue was almost enough to get me interested in keeping with it for a few more issues, but I already dropped it at the store. The art is still pretty good. The cover is a pretty fantastic shot from inside the plane as someone records Storm fighting outside the window. It's a beautiful page. 4 out of 5.

Nightcrawler 9 came out as well. Nightcrawler up against a bunch of X-men and space pirates. There are some flashbacks to Kurt talking with Kitty and reminiscing about a time she was with Wolverine, in a mini-series that I read about 2 months ago. The story ends with Nightcrawler cornered. I hope that this story wraps up in the next issue so I can drop the book without feeling like I'm missing anything. Art is okay, as usual. Not much else to say about this book. 3 out of 5.

And the usual winner of Marvel, Thor 3. A three-way battle rages between the Goddess of Thunder, Dario Agger, and Malekith leading the Frost Giants. The battle sways back and forth quite epicly, only to be ended by Thor, with his metal hand, showing up and challenging his new replacement. Another epic issue that fully intrigues and entices me. Always a pleasure to read Aaron's work and Dauterman's art has certainly earned it's way into this book. Excellent book. 4.5 out of 5.

Next, we go over to IDW for G.I.Joe 4. Tensions rise as the Joes, Cobra and Rashidov and his separatists run covert ops to get ahead of each other. Excellently written and drawn even better, this book improves with every issue. While there may be a way for this issue to be better, I'm certainly not seeing it. 5 out of 5.

Over to DC we have Green Arrow 37. This book has the same problems I foresee it having for the extent of Kreisberg and Sokolowski's run. It feels like an alternate Arrow. That being said, I will not complain about that anymore. They set up a mysterious crime lord, John King, and introduced his daughter Mia as a new sidekick character. It feels a little too fan-fic, but it's actually a fun read. I'm hoping this arc keeps picking up. Art-wise, Daniel Sampere seems to be trying to mimic Andrea Sorrentino's art. It doesn't quite work as well, but I like it pretty well. It's a step in the right direction, at the very least. 3.5 out of 5.

DC's imprint Vertigo put out Wolf Moon 1. This is Cullen Bunn's take on a werewolf tale. He twists the lore a bit and makes the werewolf an abstract phenomenon that transfers to a new person on a monthly basis instead of being a single person. The main character has a personal vendetta against the wold and goes out to hunt it. There's a dark mystery to the book, Bunn's specialty, and Jeremy Haun's art is the perfect creepy and dark style to enhance the story. As far as first issues go, it doesn't get much better than this. 4.5 out of 5.

Now over to Bunn's other creepy, indie, mystery: The Empty Man 6 of 6. The end of the first mini-series in this strange new world. The ending wasn't incredibly satisfying, but the setup for what comes next is pretty great. Del Rey's art is great. I must say, it's pretty annoying that this book was marketed as x of 6. It implies there will be an end to the story. I'm fine with season ore mini-series style books, it's just mildly annoying that it's not clear from the start. Another great installation into the Bunn library. 4.5 out of 5.

Time to finish off with some Oni books. Terrible Lizard 2 starts off with a fight between Wrex and a giant gorilla with a stone crab-like claw. There's some good fighting, and loads of fun. Plot-wise it's a little slow, which is okay since it's geared towards kids. Mostly, this is just a really fun book without mush in the way of stakes or gravitas. I'll probably drop after the first arc. 3.5 out of 5.

Brides of Helheim 3 is next in this week's Cullen Bunn Pull List. Rikard is bringing the old sorcerer back home to answer to the witches and repay his blood debt. Promises/threats are made and they are greeted by the long-waiting Sigrid upon hitting shore, only to have the sorcerer turn her into or release a Valkyrie. Thus setting up a battle against someone the draugr is actually threatened by. A great read. A tense battle of wits as the pair of ungodly characters Jonah across the sea in a monstrous fish, who is being attacked by all the monsters enraged by the sorcerer's presence. A great read, and a wonderful setup for next issue? Yes, please! 4 out of 5.

Lastly, The Sixth Gun 45. A nicely crafted issue. Bookended by a chronicling of Screaming Crow and how he met the Chief of Thunder. The stage is almost set. Griselda has oiled the seal with the blood of the townspeople and taken care of the pesky thunderbirds. There was a surprise visit from an old friend, and all sorts of violence. A great way to set up the end of a series. 4.5 out of 5.

Monthly Pull List October 2014 Part 2, November Part 1

Alright, back to the grind. I've decided since a large amount of my books that I'm backed up on are for Axis that I will just do a full wrap up for all of those and the tie ins from my normal series'. Until then, Nightcrawler 8 came out. Kurt gets summoned by Bloody Bess, one of the Crimson Pirates we've been teased with in previous issues. His bamfs gather together with Rico and Ziggy and teleport the blackbird to follow and rescue Nightcrawler and Bess. The Shadow King mind controls the rest of the X-Men in the other jet. And the issue leaves off with Nightcrawler about to face off against the rest of the X-Men. Huge shocker with the current Axis plots. Another average story with pretty good action and some fun art. While not a super familiar story, it just feels unimportant. 2.5 out of 5.

Also from Marvel, and also fairly mediocre, Storm 5. While this issue s a lot better than the series has been, it's still meh. There are some things I really enjoy in this book. The premise is Storm trying to get out of the tricky situation she and Yukio are in by trying to channel Wolverine. This plays out quite nicely and ends with Ororo going on a bit of a rampage. This has been a weird arc for me. I've never seen Yukio before and am not overly familiar with Wolverine so I feel a bit out of the loop character-wise. It's a fun story and I think they accomplished what they were trying to do by telling a Wolverine story starring Storm. The art is good. Sometimes there are overly heavy black outlines that are a bit distracting but not a real issue. The cover is beautifully done. It's a take on the cover of Wolverine #1 and I just love it. Take a look! 3 out of 5.

My last book from Marvel that's not Axis related is Thor 2. Our new Goddess of Thunder takes on a few frost giants who have invaded the pacific and placed Roxxon Island under siege. A mini battle ensues. The Goddess of Thunder denies some allegations of being Thor. Dario Agger isn't fully convinced and is awed by her power. It's a bit strange that Malekith has teamed up with some Frost Giants but it cracks me up that he is walking around with Thor's arm hanging around his neck as a trophy. Russell Dauterman's art is pretty awesome. He plays with the panels to make the story seem disjointed and rough. It's always good to see a new artist start nailing it right away. It's not as stylized or dark as Ribic's stuff on the previous series, but I think it will fit with the feel of where the book is going. 4.5 out of 5.

Now over to DC/Dynamite for the epic finale to Batman 66 meets The Green Hornet in issue 6. The sam old light-hearted fun as the first 5 issues. It ends as expected and unsurprisingly leaves it open for another installment. As a whole, I think this is a pretty fun series. It would be a nice companion to anyone who bought the classic television series now available on BluRay. It works better as a whole story than as individual issues, but that does leave odd moments where we get narration of something that just happened since even the single issues are compilations of the multiple parts that were released online first. Fun story all around, which really is what comics are for. One last note about the beautiful covers. They were all done by the glorious Alex Ross. The detail and crispness makes them feel like they came from the television series. 3.5 out of 5.

Now to the world of Indie comics. I will start with Kirkman's Outcast issue 5. This book is doing a great job of exploring an anti-demon superpower and a preacher's inner conflict of doubting his faith. I really enjoy this book, and it is incredibly creepy. Just look at the cover. It's the preacher trying to pull Kyle off of the man he is trying to beat the snot out of. There's something in the way each of the characters' acts and is portrayed that really boosts the creep factor. The entire interrogation scene in this book is the best iteration of film noir I have seen on the page. It is styled so wonderfully that it really enhances the dark story. It's really exciting going on this journey to try to figure out how Kyle's power works and seeing where the duo is heading in their story. 5 out of 5.

Cullen Bunn has a new series out. Terrible Lizard 1 from Oni Press. This book is essentially a more grown-up take on Super Dinosaur from Kirkman. A daughter visits her dad at work at a lab where a temporal displacement experiment goes awry and a T-Rex shows up. This book seems to be a Godzilla-esque monster fighting series. At first read, it's not as great as Super Dinosaur since that book just totally went all out on the ridiculous scale. It embraced the childishness greatly. I'm not sure how many issues I'm in for, but I am excited to try it out. I'm not worried that Bunn will have a clear vision for this book in a few issue. The art is by Drew Moss and it definitely embraces the weirdness and absurdity of the story. I'm not fully sold on the T-Rex design. His face is a little odd looking and I need some more time with it. 3.5 out of 5.

Also from Oni Press and Cullen Bunn, the first two issues of Brides of Helheim came out. The first Helheim series focused on introducing us the the viking world and the character of Rikard. This new one takes place several years after the first one and seems to be more focused on the history of the dark arts and witchcraft in the era. It's a fresh take and I'm looking forward to some more. It's a beautiful world and promises to have some intriguing and exciting mysteries. So far, so good. 4.5 out of 5.

In the world of Sixth Gun, I had issue 44 and Days of the Dead 3. Days of the Dead continues to explore Eli Barlow and the Knights of Solomon. Strange magics are rampant and all that. This is the hardest miniseries to follow so far. It will make more sense as a story and how it ties in to the main story. Not a ton to say. This issue is full of action and leaves off on a nice cliffhanger. 3.5 out of 5.

In Sixth Gun 44 we see a great battle as the pawns are moved into place for the final battle. A narrative recapping some history unfolds around images of a great battle between Drake and Becky riding the thunderbirds and the serpentine hoards of the Grey Witch. Issues like this are why I love this series. A standalone story that is part of the larger arc and excels at making both excellent. This issue is definitely building to something epic and I can't wait to see how things go down.

Monthly Pull List Oct. 2014 Part 1.

Well I am getting settled into new job and new apartment. It's been a while since I've had the time and energy to post my weekly pull list. I have quite a stack of books to catch up on. I'll keep it quick. Over at IDW I got two issues of the brand new G.I.Joe series. The first arc is the fall of G.I.Joe. New writer Karen Traviss starts off after an apparent ceasefire. Cobra has foregone all its bad things and claims it is all about peace now. G.I.Joe is about to be disbanded as they no longer have any major purpose. Espionage, betrayal, complicated family ties crossing the boundaries of Cobra and a man named Rashidov and his separatists. Art is by Steve Kurth. His work is incredible. The watercolored painting with beautifully realistic pencils. Great story so far. Looking forward to seeing more from Traviss and Kurth. Especially after reading the letters in the back of issue two. Great stuff. 4.5 out of 5.

Over at Image, Rasputin #1. A supernatural version of the tale of Russia's greatest love machine. The premise is Rasputin telling the story on the day of his death. There's flashbacks to his childhood with an abusive dad. He beats up Rasputin's mom and he uses his mystical powers to heal her. He does the same to a bear that his dad fights later on. I picked it up because I have an unhealthy obsession with this song:

Also, I like the idea of a supernatural historical figure. Written by Alex Grecian and drawn by Riley Rossmo who work together to bring out a mysterious fun story. Strong first issue. Looking forward to more. 4 out of 5. 

Image also sent out Lazarus 12. Part of the conclave story, this issue is really the calm before the storm. A world of politics and counterintelligence building up to a big explosive conflict. There's a really cool scene where three different Lazaruses train with each other. A great story is unfolding. Rucka and Lark still work like a dream to bring you one of the best series around. 3.5 out of 5 as it's kind of a filler issue. 

Lastly from Image is Velvet 8. More gritty espionage and beautiful artwork as Velvet invades the Arc-7 headquarters to access a phone and make a mysterious call. This issue reads as an excellent heist movie. Lots of twists and turns Brubaker and Epting do not disappoint in their latest excellent issue. 5 out of 5. 

Batman '66 meets the  Green Hornet 5 is next. More of the same. Lots of fun, but nothing too dramatic. Only one more book, which is fine. Still feels like this is one episode split up over 6 issues. 3 out of 5.

My other books from DC are Green Arrow 35 and 36. Issue one of the Kingdom story. Also the first issue written by CW's Arrow writers Andrew Kreisberg and Ben Sokolowski. It's a perfectly fine issue. Standard Green Arrow. Biggest problem I have with the book is they try so hard to make it closer to the TV show. They introduce us to the new version of Felicity Smoak. She's a "evil" version of the show character. Hired to kill Oliver Queen. I think it should be fine. I'm still in. The new art is alright. Nothing compared to Sorrentino's work so I'm going into it with an open mind. Fun action-packed Green Arrow story. Nothing special on this front, but I will keep reading as I like Green Arrow. They should just call this book Arrow since it fits perfectly into the TV world. 2.5 out of 5.

Now over to Boom! for some Cullen Bunn action. The Empty Man 5. The calm before the storm. Everything in this book is building tension before next month's final issue. A brilliant book that creeps the heck out of me. It's been a fun ride so far and I'm confident that things will continue into the epic finale. Del Rey's art enhances the creep factor. 4 out of 5.

There were many books from Marvel over the last month or so. The new Thor #1 came out and teased the identity of the controversial, and mysterious female version of Thor and the next arc involving Malekith and frost giants. There's new art by Russell Dauterman. It's pretty great. It's not quite Ribic's smooth watery beauty, but it totally works with this new direction. I really like this direction it's going in, especially since it's still Jason Aaron. 4.5 out of 5.

The next two issues are Death of Wolverine tie in issues. They're fairly interesting as they contain some cool stories about the characters' pasts. Storm 4 has Ororo meeting up with an old friend, Yukio and helps with a secret underground mob fight. She promises to be Wolverine's replacement. It ends with a nice Cliffhanger as Storm is set up for a massive beating. Still an okay book. Probably my favorite issue so far. 3.5 out of 5

Nightcrawler 7 is pretty fun. It explores his relationship with Wolverine by revisiting some moments from the past in the danger room. This might be my last issue of this book, but it is a good issue to send off on. I like how honest it feels and think that Claremont has done some solid work with this book. It's not the best, but a solid book and I could understand people enjoying them. 4 out of 5. 

This is only about half of them. I have a bunch of stuff from Marvel in the Axis category and some stuff from Cullen Bunn and Oni Press to take a look at. 

Weekly Pull List August-September 2014

Well I moved. I have now caught up on my comics purchases and am mostly moved in out east so it's time to catch up. I will start off over at image. Velvet number 7 follows Colt and Roberts as they work counter-espionage on the official side of things. It's another brilliant issue. Brubaker and Epting are still a glorious pair. Beautifully realistic art really makes me wish it was a TV show. It would be incredibly awesome to see this on a high quality network like AMC or HBO. 5 out of 5.

Next up is Lazarus 11. Conclave part 1 has a wonderful scene exploring the politics of the world. Seeing interactions between two Lazaruses (Lazari?) is always interesting A lot of buildup and anticipation for something that I'm not sure where it's going to go. We're at the peak of the chain lift on the roller coaster getting ready to go over the edge. 4 out of 5.

Now over to DC. We have two Futures End tie-ins. The first is Justice League United which is a surprisingly interesting story. A classic "getting the band back together" story set in the future. Several members of the old JLU congregate to hunt down the Martian Manhunter, who has been captured by Gorilla Grodd and the guy behind the whole thing: Captain Atom!?! it's a decent story. I was interested enough to want to go get the next part of the story in the Justice League tie in. I want to read the main story, but I really wish it was much shorter. 52 is a lot of commitment for a mediocre story. I'll give it 3.5 out of 5 for a surprise ending, even though they just seem to be trying way too hard to find a place for Captain Atom in the New 52. 

The other tie in is Green Arrow which is a solid issue. It's a nice wrap up to this creative team. Has a few nice callbacks and such to other moments in the recent issues. Oliver fakes his own death on live TV in a fight with Deathstroke only to realize it was Magus. His sister Emiko is acting as the Green Arrow in Seattle. Not a bad issue. Sorrentino is amazing as usual. Another book that piques my interest in the Futures End story. 4 out of 5.

Last book from DC is Batman '66 meets the Green Hornet 4. Comic hilarity continues as the two teams continue to torment each other due to ill timed torment from the kings of crime. Another middle story that serves its purpose and not much else. Fun book all around, but I'm glad it's only six issues so I can get the next two and not have to worry about it any more. 3 out of 5.

Now over to Marvel! First up is Nightcrawler 6. This issue follows Kurt and the young Rico as they hunt down the mysterious mutant girl that the pirates are also after. An exciting battle ensues and they manage to rescue her. A fun story that doesn't seem to have any real impact on the world as a whole, apart from introducing the new mutant, Ziggy, and the mysterious bossman who promises his revenge. Another fun series that I will probably not be picking up anymore as it is not very exciting. It's a few minutes of joy, but I have no real connection to it and am trying to buy fewer comics. 2.5 out f 5.

Next up we have 3 issues in the Thor saga: Thor and Loki The Tenth Realm 4 and 5 and Thor God of Thunder 25. Battles rage until Loki brings Odin out of his prison in Asgard and back to the Tenth Realm. He halts the war upon realizing Angela is his long-lost daughter. Which begs the question: Have they truly never met before? Apparently not as Odin isn't around nearly as much as he seems to be and Angela showed up about 20 years ago and was mostly a Spawn character until merely a few years ago when she starting hanging out with the Guardians of the Galaxy. A mildly anticlimactic ending to the tale, but it works as a great setup to the new Thor series as Thor gets told a secret by Fury in Original Sin that makes him unworthy to wield the hammer. Making way for a lady Thor in a new upcoming series. In issue 25, King Thor's granddaughters are reading ancient stories about his past exploits when they come upon one in chains. It is revealed that this book is titled Unworthy and the book ends with Thor Odinson trying desperately to hoist Mjolnir off the surface of the moon. This book is and always has been fantastic! Looking forward to seeing where Aaron is taking us on this ride. The art on both of these series has been incredible. Different artists provide wonderful different takes on the characters as they traverse different realms or appear in different eras. These books are truly masterpieces. Overall they get 5 out of 5.

The last of my Marvel books and the first off my Cullen Bunn books is Magneto 9: A March to Axis. Eric breaks into a concentration camp of sorts in order to assassinate the Red Skull and save some of the kids in there. Everything goes to hell, of course. This issue is a setup to some massive war between the Avengers, X-Men, and the Red Skull who has apparently taken Xavier's mental powers? Interested to see where this is going. Walta does a wonderful job with the gritty looking art. Great issue that has me hooked until next issue. 4 of 5.

Now over to Boom! for the Empty Man 3. Apparently the Empty Man isn't a disease, it's an invasion! *gasp* We get a creepy scene where we see some Frankenstein seeming doctor talking to an apparent carrier of the Empty Man or something. Still a gloriously creepy mystery that promises an awesome finale to this story in a few issues. Del Ray's art is once again brilliantly murky. Love this book. 4 out of 5.

Now for the Sixth Gun 42 and Days of the Dead 2. The prequel uses Jesup to tell us some history of the Knights of Solomon and the Sword of Abraham. There's also the mysterious Yum Kimil who seems to be a cajun god of some sort. Real cool series and history. The main series is setting up the grand finale where the Grey Witch will be using Jesup and the six to recreate the world. Drake, Becky, and Nidawi are trying to plan a way to stop her, and the Knights of Solomon are doing the same. It's amazing how these two series are being released along side each other and are so entertwined. Of course I love these books. It has been well documented. 4.5 out of 5.

Weekly Pull List 8-13-14

Three books this week. And what an incredibly average week it was. I'll start with Justice League United 4. The wrap up to the big cosmic story is boring, the little story in Canada is pretty interesting but I wish it was on it's own. The setup is mildly intriguing. This is a book that I will be dropping when I move in a month or so. 2 out of 5.

Now to Marvel for Nightcrawler 5. Kurt is trying to fit in as a teacher at the Jean Grey School and still get used to his new life. Meanwhile, in Maryland, a group of fairly malicious looking mutants are after some girl for some reason. Kurt fixes the blackbird and takes it out for a midnight flight when he gets a call to find a new powerful mutant. Same girl? Yep. I really enjoy the very personal stuff that he goes through at the school while teaching in the Danger Room. He also has a great moment with one of the students toward the end. It's a nice little story, but I have no real interest in seeing where it goes. I will probably drop this one during the move as well. 3 out of 5.

Last up I picked up Amazing X-Men 10. This book was a really fun read. There's non stop action and thrills. The story has a classic tease, then jump back 20 minutes to see how we got there that they've been using quite a bit in this story. It works. There's many, many characters that I don't know or really care about being affected by a magical curse that only works on Canadian soil. By all rights I shouldn't like this book, but this book is just so fun! The art in this book is good, but nothing really noteworthy about it. Bright, colorful, and action-packed is all you can ask for. 3.5 out of 5.

Weekly Pull List 7-9-14

A very middling week this week as most of the issues are stories that aren't super important and are merely middle of the story. First of these is Justice League United 3. It feels like nothing happened in this issue. There's some techno babble about the zeta beam and they undo what happened last issue, then Manhunter helps win over the child who can destroy the world or something. Then Hawkman saves everyone by taking a bomb far into the atmosphere and blows up. Story is still rather boring. I'll finish this story next issue then see what the next story looks like. Likely to only be a few more issues for me. 1 out of 5.

On the Marvel side we have Amazing X-Men 9 where the team gets up to Canada to find Wolverine only to have him turn into a Wendigo and kill Talisman after she and Puck showed up to save him. It's not a great story but does have a few strong points. The first half of the book jumps around in time to tell the story in a montage style. It works very well here for some reason. They also escape their crashing Blackbird by Iceman freezing them all in a giant ice block then having Firestar thaw them out. Awesome teamwork being shown which is when the X-Men work so well as a story. That said, I have no real attachment to any of these characters or the story. Again I will probably finish out this arc then I'm out. 2 out of 5.

Next up we have Nightcrawler 4. Another issue spent trying to undo the villainy of last issue. Amanda and Kurt chase after Margali, who apparently set up all the trimega attacks in order for her to find a way to the afterlife and claim it for her own. There is a ton of action in this book and it wraps up nicely with Amanda making it through the afterlife portal. Kurt is left on Earth since he chose to leave heaven he is unable to return. This book shouldn't be as fun as it is, but I did quite enjoy it. There are actual stakes it seems. I am looking forward to seeing where this arc ends up. 3 out of 5.

Lastly for Marvel, Jason Aaron and Al Ewing take a break from their regularly scheduled books to bring the Original Sin tie-in miniseries Thor and Loki: The Tenth Realm 1. This book is super interesting. It's also a good way to take care or tie-ins for the big events. Instead of putting the story in the normal run of the book, just make a new miniseries so it's easy to skip them if you aren't interested. As far as story, this book is quite intriguing. It introduces the idea and history of a tenth realm and Thor's long thought dead sister. This book fits logically in the timeline of Thor: God of Thunder and Loki: Agent of Asgard which makes sense due to the two writers being the writers of those books. It's crazy that they're retconning the history of Thor and Asgard by adding a tenth realm and intriguing enough to hook me from the get go. Thor and Loki head out and break into the locked off and long-lost realm in search of the lost sister. Artwise this book is good. Not overwhelmingly great, but good. It's not as stylistic and gorgeous as Ribic's work on Thor but also not as cartoonish and jovial as Loki. The weird part is that Simone Bianchi does a full 2-page spread as Thor and Loki arrive in the tenth realm and it is beautifully painted. It works since it's a new world we haven't explored yet. Excellent book. Looking forward to seeing how it turns out. 4 out of 5.

Last up is Bunn's The Empty Man 2. This issue is all about history. More history of the virus which appears to cause all sorts of hallucinations, Langford apparently has a dead wife, son, and both parents, and hints that Jensen has some sort of bad history with the virus. We don't know exactly what yet, but it's there. This story is sufficiently dark and wonderful. Mystery at its finest. The art is a mystical, stylized painted style and it matches the story perfectly. It's a little too stylized. The character designs aren't always distinct enough to tell the characters apart at times. Looking forward to more as usual. 4 out of 5.

Weekly Pull List 6-4-14

I got a handful of books this week. First I will start with the Amazing X-Men title. There was issue 8 and annual 1. I'll start with the annual. It comprises two parts. The first is a story where they go to Africa to confront a monster from Storm's past and the 2nd is a history of Firestar with art as if it was drawn by a child. The Storm arc is great and a lot of fun. Art is absolutely beautiful. All the characters are crisp and emotional and there is an obscene amount of atmospheric art (dirt, sand, etc) that really enhances the entire book. I love it. The second part serves as a scrapbook honoring Firestar. There's a page that's only a faux-Egyptian style painting, one that's "drawn" by a student on his math notebook. Incredibly interesting idea. Execution wasn't great. There's several pages and they are all different, making it feel disjointed and choppy. As a collection of art it's pretty cool. As a story being told, it is pretty lame. Overall a decent annual. I'd give it a 3.5 out of 5 all together.

In Amazing X-Men 8 starts of the World War Wendigo story. Wolverine goes to Canada and meets an old friend only to try to find someone. Turns out he was attacked by a wendigo. Turns out there's tons of them. The other X-Men hope to get there in time to save Wolverine (who has no healing factor anymore.) Okay book. Not a huge fan of Wolverine, but he was used excellently. He's sniffing out a crime scene all detective-like. I like seeing a side of Wolverine that's not the tear everybody apart side. The art is pretty cool. Not incredible in any fashion, but also no problems with it. Solid book. 3 out of 5.

Next up Loki Agent of Asgard 5. Crazy fun book. Loki and Lorelei break into Asgard to find Sigurd and such. This issue acts the same as a third act of a heist movie where they reveal the twist and how they managed to pull it off. Super fun. Art is super cool looking. Where this book ends isn't great, but the journey totally works for me. It's fun which is exactly what I want from a comic book. 4 out of 5.

I finally found Magneto 3 so I was able to catch up on that series. In issue 3, Magneto infiltrates the Sentinel factory and he destroys it. In issue 4, he follows a lead to find some of the mutant smugglers to take them out. In issue 5, he meets a stalker of his and eventually agrees to have her help him. Bunn does great work on this series. The only real complaint I have is that it's moving pretty slowly. It's nice that the issues are fairly stand alone so they work fairly well on their own. Artwork on this book is by Gabriel Fernandez Walta and is wonderful. It has a nice watercolor feel to it, while being beautifully precise. I'll give these 3 collectively a 4.5 out of 5.

Last up for Marvel is Nightcrawler 3. Nightcrawler brings Amanda and their sorcerer friend Margali back to the mansion and fighting breaks out. All of a sudden many, many trimegas show up for a fight. It's a fairly decent read. Not super great, but it's alright. I've got probably 3 issues left for this to amaze me before I drop it. There is a really nice scene between Kurt and Logan in this issue. Logan's all friendly and brotherly towards him and it's a really great moment for both of them. 3 out of 5.

Now let's head over to Boom! Studios for The Empty Man issue 1. A new series by Cullen Bunn. It follows a multi-agency task force assigned to investigate a series of deaths somehow linked to the "empty man." It's unclear if it is some sort of virus, a supernatural monster, or just a plain old fashioned serial killer. Bunn doesn't disappoint with his ability to build the world and an incredible intrigue in what's going on. Can't wait to read more. Vaness R. Del Rey is on art and it looks gorgeous. There's a really sketchy style to it that really works in the horror genre. The characters are pretty decent so far, granted we haven't really seen them much. As usual Cullen Bunn has delivered a masterpiece. Incredible intro to the story and the world. 5 out of 5.

I also picked up Futures End 5 and 6 but don't really remember anything that happened. It's fairly uninteresting and most of the characters feel off due to it taking place 5 years in the future and they aren't the characters that we know now. It's not a great book. So I will be dropping it. Meh out of 5.

Justice League United 2 is another book that's not groundbreaking. It might as well be called Exposition United as it's a lot of talking. It serves the plot of the book, but doesn't do much else. These types of issues are a great argument for waiting for the trade so you can move right on in the story. Art still works fine and I am looking forward to a new arc in this book. That said, I did enjoy the brutal fighting between Lobo and Hawkman. Pretty excellent. 3 out of 5.

Over in Green Arrow 32 Oliver returns to Seattle only to find a super villain team-up in progress and Diggle kidnapped by Richard Dragon. Still my favorite art in a book on a monthly basis. There's some flashbacks that have stylized golden-age art look to them. The story has moments that feel fairly familiar but they are woven together in a new way to make it feel fresh. Great book as usual and it sets up a new story that promises to be good. 4.5 out of 5.