Weekly Pull List 10-23-13

First up we have Wolverine and the X-Men 37. Part 9 of the Battle of the Atom story. X-Men fight each other. X-Men fight their future/past selves. X-Men get attacked by the missiles from a S.H.I.E.L.D. Helicarrier which were launched by Xorn. Not a great issue. Just want to be done with it. Pretty bored with it. Only one issue left and I'm ready for it. There's some really great panels of Iceman fighting future Iceman and other people as well. It's a decent issue mostly for the aspects of time travel it explores, even though it just bypasses the big question of why they can't send the past X-Men back to their time. The story is okay, but it's not very complex and tends to ignore plot points that would make the book interesting. 2 out of 5.

Next, I picked up Velvet #1. A brand new Ed Brubaker book from Image. I saw the cover and it reminded me of Scarlet and since I've had good luck with new image books recently I figured I'd give it a shot. And I'm glad I did. It's a solid little spy tale in Paris 1973 where an ARC-7 agent gets killed. Velvet Templeton has a history with the now dead Jefferson Keller. All signs point to another acquaintance, Frank Lancaster as the killer. Velvet makes her way to one of Lancaster's safe-houses to investigate when she realizes Frank's not the only one being set up. What an incredible start to a book. This spy story is a nice nod to a noir cop story. The book feels great. Velvet explores spy fiction and gives the reader exactly what they want in a greatly complex story. The art is incredibly beautiful. Steve Epting has an incredible photorealism that is purely astonishing. All around a great book, even thought it feels like an answer to Bendis' Scarlet and Rucka's Lazarus. I think all three are great, but this may be the best. 5 out of 5.

Finally I picked up Pretty Deadly 1. I picked this up since it's another Image number 1 and I figured why not. Written by Kelly Sue Deconnick and art by Emma Rios. They work quite well together to create a creepy, mystical, old-west world for their story. This issue introduces a bunch of stuff, but none of it fully enough for me to get into it. It's a decent story, but I think this one is worth waiting for the trade. 3 out of 5.

Weekly Pull List 10-16-13

Had a well-balanced, light week this week at the comic shop. First off I got Justice League of America 8. While it is a Forever Evil tie-in (and first of the 4-part arc in the book.) it was interesting enough to hold my focus. It follows the Martian Manhunter and Stargirl as Manhunter infiltrates what turns out to be a high tech prison holding the Justice League members. The book ends as Stargirl finds a way to escape! Into a world with a blackened sky and a burning US capitol. A well written issue. Matt Kindt knows how to use the Martian Manhunter character. Interesting set up and I love that I don't have to be reading the Forever Evil main series to follow it. I hope the JLA books continue in that vein. 

In the Marvel Universe I picked up Battle of the Atom Chapter 8 in Uncanny X-Men 13. Interestingly, when I put away my large stack of comics, I realized I never picked up part 4 so it's on order. This issue is a strange one. I don't really know what happens other than people fighting. They try to send the past X-Men back, but can't for some reason, so they test the time machine. It's odd. Not sure what's going to happen, but I'm hoping it'll pick up. With only 2 issues left, we shall see what goes on. 

Weekly Pull List 10-9-2013

Light week this week so it will be a short post. Which definitely helps to get it out in time. Oddly a Marvel-centric week. Battle of the Atom part 7 takes place in X-Men 6. It's a nice continuation of a fun, albeit convoluted story. There's a lot going on that isn't easy to follow, but it's easy to overlook assuming that the answers will actually come. The future "X-Men" reveal their evil intentions, but not yet their plan. This issue is decent but it's very useless outside the scope of the story. 3 of 5.

And the other book I picked up was Thor God of Thunder 14. Part 2 of the Accursed story. This book starts with the Dark Elf queen going to hide out with the mountain dwarves of Nidavellir. Thor is getting ready to head out when he is stopped by Volstagg and Freyja who have just come from the Congress of Worlds and they reveal that the council has planned for a League of Realms to hunt down Malekith. It's a bit Lord of the Rings with the elves, trolls, dwarves, etc joining forces. This book has moments of shear beauty when Malekith defeats another elf in a duel using sweet sorcery, great political talk, and even horror (when Malekith sneaks up on Thor in the dark with his glowing eyes). All around a great book. Jason Aaron kicks some ass  with his script and story, and Ron Garney is filling in nicely with the art.

Monthly Pull List September

Late again, but I've been adjusting back to working days again and no other real reason besides laziness. Let's start up with Lazarus 4. The plot thickens as Forever recovers from the bomb and heads to the Sequoia Compound to get checked out. Throughout the book we see two stories in parallel. One story follows Forever's fight of the troops trying to finish the job. Back in Sequoia we see Mason and Johanna plotting and setting Jonah up as the scapegoat. Still a great book! I love every minute of it. Rucka does fantastic work writing and his world is visualized beautifully by Lark's artwork. The only downside is that the story is unravelling too slowly in single issue form. Can't wait for the full story. 5 out of 5.

Thor God of Thunder 13 - Thor and friends are having a feast when it is interrupted when a visiting dark elf feels a "disturbance in the force" as Malekith the accursed is rescued from his prison. They go to investigate and a scuffle ensues until Thor uses his lightning and Mjolnir to cauterize an elf's wound. Great story, but it worries me when they do a story to specifically to tie in with something else, i.e. Thor 2 comes out in a month, and it has Malekith as the bad guy. That mild annoyance aside, this story looks to be good and I trust Jason Aaron to do good work.

Continuing the Battle of the Atom story we have Wolverine and the X-Men 36 and All New X-Men 17. More time travel and epic storytelling reveals that the future X-Men team are not actually the good guys. We also learn that they come from a future where a mutant was elected president and shortly assassinated, which drove the team a little nuts. We still know very little about why what's happening is going down. Past Beast, Ice Man, and Illyana Rasputin head to the future to find out that stuff out and to bring back future Colossus and others. Pretty sweet book that's more intriguing about its future than the quality of the book. 3.5 of 5.

Now to the land of DC! Teen Titans 23.2: Deathstroke 1. This issue follows Slade Wilson's long time rivalry with Deathblow as well as exploring his past with his son and introducing his daughter just a bit. It seems to be a recap of his same history as before the New 52. It doesn't seem to be updated at all, but it does work as a nice recap. Good issue if you like Deathstroke or need a brief recap then it really works. I don't think it's an overwhelmingly good issue, but it serves its purpose. 3 out of 5.

Justice League America 7.3 - Shadow Thief 1. This is a character I'd never even heard of but seemed interesting. When I read it, I was hooked. The origin's a bit cliched with a science experiment gone wrong, but also includes a suit that allows our protagonist the ability to pass through shadows. Aviva Metula is ex-Mossad, and now runs around killing aliens as they were behind the explosion that killed her parents. Tom DeFalco does well with the story and dialogue and Chad Hardin's art does what it needs to to keep the story going. 3.5 out of 5.

Green Arrow 24 - After a brief recap, we see that Oliver can no longer shoot straight as he's still being affected by Count Vertigo, who has followed him back to Seattle. Shado knocks out Oliver to go take out Vertigo by herself. She gets taken out by Komodo who doesn't want Vertigo's chaos to be stopped. Arrow wakes up and goes to find the Count. Since Oliver has been affected by the vertigo attack for a few days, he is able to find a pattern in his attack and take him out, including ripping out the device that shoots out the vertigo waves. Then finally we see the reveal of a man who has a score to settle with the dragon. And Diggle is introduced to the comics. Again, the comics are reflecting the TV show. I'm pretty okay with this though, as Diggle is a fantastic character in the show. This issue is great and has excellent set up for the three dragons story which should be coming up. As usual Andrea Sorrentino's artwork is incredibly complex and super cool. 5 out of 5.

Last up is The Sixth Gun 34 - Becky is still trapped in her dream realm, managing to kill her pursuers using the guns in the dream. She comes across a withered old body of Drake in a cage in her dream and is able to communicate with him outside of the dream. It's so cool! He tells her to ditch the sixth gun and runs through several worlds until she ends up at one where another Becky is married to what looks like another version of Kirby Hale, another of her cohorts, and has 2 kids. Still amazing. Favorite book every month. Can't wait for more. 5 out of 5.

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:

White House Down Has Fallen

White House Down and Olympus Has Fallen. Two very similar movies that came out around the same time. They both involve the white house being taken over by terrorists looking for the US Nuclear launch codes. So, let's discuss:

Olympus Has Fallen stars Aaron Eckhart as the president and Gerard Butler as his head of security. When a horrible accident occurs Butler is transferred to the Treasury Department. Eighteen months later Korean terrorists take over the white house via an air and ground assault and Butler's Mike Banning has to invade and take it back under the orders of Speaker of the House and acting president, Allan Trumbull played by Morgan Freeman.

On the other hand we have White House Down where we have a security guard for the Speaker of the House who is inside the white house with his daughter on a tour after having an interview for the secret service. During the tour, a repair crew pulls out weapons and takes over the white house. Tatum's security guard character rescues the president and saves the day.

So let's take a look and see how they stand up.
Plot: Olympus was pretty basic. We have the disgraced agent saving the day from Korean terrorists. White House Down had villains with a much more personal motivation and some complex twists. Tatum is a qualified candidate who just can't catch a break since he doesn't have the right degree, just the right experience. White House Down is borderline too much, but the fact that it's an inside job makes it a better choice than the cliche of Korean terrorists. Also, it's far more realistic that a few guys can take the White House from inside than a Korean bomber makes an unauthorized trip to it before being shot down.

Lead: I like Channing Tatum. I think he jokes too much to be a solid action star. Gerard Butler is as badass as it comes and his straight up action takes the cake. I get comic relief and it really helps a movie when done right. Tatum's character used jokes to lighten the mood whereas comedy inherent in the situations will always work better for me. Olympus had far fewer moments of comic relief and I enjoyed that a great deal more.

President: While Aaron Eckhart did a fantastic job as the caring President who held out on giving up the launch codes, Jamie Foxx actually had something to do and got to be a part of the action. The biggest problem I have with Foxx is that he manages to stick around the whole time when realistically he would be taken out of there at the first possible chance.

Other characters: Both movies had a child get stuck in the White House during the invasion. The use of Tatum's daughter felt as if its only purpose was to evoke emotion from the audience. I'm fine with that, except when it makes the story make less sense. Butler has to chase down the president's son and save him before worrying about the president in his safe room. Having it be the president's son is a lot better for me. The stakes of it being someone else's kid who he has a close relationship with makes the motivations more interesting than the following orders vs. following your heart conflict.

The Speaker of the House is played by Morgan Freeman and Richard Jenkins in Olympus and White House Down respectively. I think the twist in White House is contrived and not totally believable and of course Morgan Freeman is incredible. Especially since we got to see more of him and it was more of a realistic character.

To wrap up a post that could go on much longer were I to refresh my memories on these films, I liked Olympus Has Fallen much better. White House Down is not at all a bad movie, but the plots are far too similar not to compare. Olympus definitely felt like "Die Hard" in the White House, whereas Down felt closer to "Spy Hard" in the White House and seemed to make fun of itself more than it should have. I only wish that OHF had the invasion from WHD as then the arguments would be much more one sided.

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.