A Comics Pull List: This Week’s Best in Comics

By Nate Munson
12 years Ago

Every Wednesday at every comic shop across the world is new comic book day&period; That morning owners and employees alike wake up early and drag themselves to work in order to put move last week&&num;8217&semi;s books to older racks and make room for the new books&period; More importantly&semi; they organize the orders that regular customers receive weekly, otherwise known as the pull list&period; (Some larger chains opt for Tuesday delivery, for a nominal fee, due to the large stock they receive and must ready for customers every Wednesday&period;)&NewLine; Let&&num;8217&semi;s talk about my pull list and what I recommend to readers&period; The goal is to provide this weekly as long as my schedule permits&period; I&&num;8217&semi;ll try to be as spoiler free as possible and offer short reviews&period; My pull list is rather large, but that is because I manage a comic shop as my day job&period; I get a substantial discount, I may not buy as many books every week without that discount&period; Therefore, I&&num;8217&semi;ll read books that I don&&num;8217&semi;t recommend to everyone&period;&NewLine; This was a small week with it being the fifth week in a month and most publishers releasing less books because of it&period; They often reserve the rest of the month for the bulk of their titles and I&&num;8217&semi;m not actually 100&percnt; clear on why this is&period; Readers may further notice a lack of titles by DC while Marvel and other publishers are present&period; The reason for this is simple&colon; I usually skip out on annuals due to the five dollar price tag&period; DC likes to release annuals during fourth and fifth weeks&period; I also opted not to read Batman vs Bane&colon; Forever Evil Aftermath in order to avoid spoilers&period; You see&semi; DC hasn&&num;8217&semi;t shipped Forever Evil &num; 7&period; &period; &period; the conclusion of the Forever Evil event&period;&NewLine;&NewLine;<h1 style="margin-bottom&colon; 0in&semi;" align="LEFT"> All-New X-Men &num; 26 by Brian Michael Bendis&colon;</h1>&NewLine;<a href="https&colon;//cdn&period;bagogames&period;com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/05105357/DIG020008&lowbar;3&period;jpg"><img class="aligncenter wp-image-61562 size-full" src="https&colon;//cdn&period;bagogames&period;com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/05105357/DIG020008&lowbar;3&period;jpg" alt="Pull List X-Men" width="640" height="983" /></a> This is one of my favorite books right now&period; The opening pages show us that a young Jean Grey is having nightmares about the Phoenix force&period; This leads to some of the classic relationship drama that X-Books are chalk full of&period; Meanwhile X-23, the female clone of Wolverine, seems to be struck by extreme paranoia&period; She claims a shape shifter has infiltrated the group&period; In the end we see a future team of X-Men closing in on the All-New X-Men&period; &period; &period; clearly with ill intent in mind&period;&NewLine; While I&&num;8217&semi;m not a Bendis fanboy, I will admit more often than not he writes a great story with phenomenal character interaction&period; Stuart Immonen draws very distinct characters and there&&num;8217&semi;s never any confusion about who that blonde girl is regardless of whether or not she is in uniform&period; I wasn&&num;8217&semi;t always a fan, but seeing him draw new and old X-characters sold me instantly&period; This isn&&num;8217&semi;t a bad jumping on point to be honest&period; I&&num;8217&semi;d recommend this book above most else written by marvel&period; &period; &period; except the next book on the list&period;&NewLine;&NewLine;<h1 style="margin-bottom&colon; 0in&semi;" align="LEFT"> Amazing Spider-Man &num;1 by Dan Slott&colon;</h1>&NewLine;<a href="https&colon;//cdn&period;bagogames&period;com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/05105351/3567561-spiderman12n-1-web&period;jpg"><img class="aligncenter wp-image-61563 size-full" src="https&colon;//cdn&period;bagogames&period;com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/05105351/3567561-spiderman12n-1-web&period;jpg" alt="ASM 1 Pull List" width="635" height="964" /></a> Dan Slott and Humberto Ramos have been working together to crate a mighty fine Spider-Story for years&period; Ramos&&num;8217&semi;s art is quality as always and Dan Slott always finds a way to keep his plots fresh and fun&period; This is a must read&excl; Finally, Peter Parker is Spider-Man again&excl; For over a year, Spidey&&num;8217&semi;s body had been usurped by Doctor octopus in Superior Spider-Man (also written by Dan Slott)&period;&NewLine; I am a HUGE Spider-Man fan&semi; so of course I see this as a triumph&period; Peter Parker will always be the only Spider-Man for me, though granted, not everyone agrees, and some would have preferred to see Superior Spider-Man last a little longer&period; Don&&num;8217&semi;t get me wrong&semi; it was well written, but I was looking forward to Pete&&num;8217&semi;s return since Superior Spider-Man &num;1&period; I can&&num;8217&semi;t talk much about the issue without spoiling a lot&period; White rabbit has a new group and Spidey stops the heist&period; Peter deals with the aftermath of Otto Octavius running around in his body for far too long&period; Seriously, pick up this book&excl;&NewLine;&NewLine;<h1 style="margin-bottom&colon; 0in&semi;" align="LEFT"> Avengers &num; 28 by Jonathan Hickman&colon;</h1>&NewLine;<a href="https&colon;//cdn&period;bagogames&period;com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/05105344/marvel-the-avengers-issue-28&period;jpg"><img class="aligncenter wp-image-61564 size-full" src="https&colon;//cdn&period;bagogames&period;com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/05105344/marvel-the-avengers-issue-28&period;jpg" alt="Avengers 28 pull list" width="461" height="700" /></a> I look forward to this book weekly&period; The writing is smart and Hickamn knows his cast of characters, and they interact well and grow organically as this issues progress&period; Despite being a serious book, just enough humor is injected to keep it light and its art by Salvador Larocca is simply gorgeous&period;&NewLine; Not everyone is a fan around our shop though, so your mileage may vary&period; The current plot revolves around AIM (Advanced Idea Mechanics) and the scientist supreme trying to become a real force on a trans-universal scale&period; The world is not enough&excl; They&&num;8217&semi;ve collected Avengers from other parallel worlds to give the protagonists fits and even turned some Avengers against their own&period; Since this book is in the middle of an arc&semi; I don&&num;8217&semi;t recommend starting here&period; Instead jump in on the start of the story arc&colon; issue 24&period;&NewLine;&NewLine;<h1 style="margin-bottom&colon; 0in&semi;" align="LEFT"> Loki – Ragnarok and Roll &num; 3 by Eric M&period; Esquivel&colon;</h1>&NewLine;<a href="https&colon;//cdn&period;bagogames&period;com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/05105337/bat12&period;jpg"><img class="aligncenter wp-image-61565 size-full" src="https&colon;//cdn&period;bagogames&period;com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/05105337/bat12&period;jpg" alt="Loki pull list" width="716" height="1100" /></a> Boom&excl; Studios publishes many fine books including Zombies vs Fanboys and of course this fine title&period; Loki, God of Trickery and Lies, was cast down to Midgard (Earth) for transgressions against his pantheon&period; Here on Earth he cultivated a following of groupies through Twitter and rock &&num;8216&semi;n&&num;8217&semi; roll&period; The gods of several pantheons took umbrage and are trying to kill him, hijinks ensue&period; They have a more comedic feel than mainstream comics&period;&NewLine; The art is less realistic and more in tune with a lighthearted book and despite the book having adult themes and gore and doesn&&num;8217&semi;t feel all that dark&period; I&&num;8217&semi;ll admit that the book isn&&num;8217&semi;t for everyone, though I happen to enjoy it due to my interest in the Norse pantheon and how much I enjoyed Zombies vs Fanboys (a book about a zombie outbreak at comic-con)&period; Independent publishers often offer stories that you don&&num;8217&semi;t get from standard superhero books&period; Read some more in depth reviews before buying&period;&NewLine;&NewLine;<h1 style="margin-bottom&colon; 0in&semi;" align="LEFT"> Uber &num; 12 by Kieron Gillen&colon; </h1>&NewLine;<a href="https&colon;//cdn&period;bagogames&period;com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/05105329/Uber-12-reg&period;jpg"><img class="aligncenter wp-image-61566 size-full" src="https&colon;//cdn&period;bagogames&period;com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/05105329/Uber-12-reg&period;jpg" alt="Uber-12-reg pull list" width="1500" height="2318" /></a> I&&num;8217&semi;ve always enjoyed Kieron Gillen&&num;8217&semi;s work with other publishers and I myself like the more adult and graphic feel of books by publisher Avatar&period; They combined efforts to create a compelling story with gruesome art by Gabriel Andrade&period; Avatar comics are not for kids, however, and Uber is no different&period;&NewLine; The narrative is based around the idea that during World War II the Nazis developed a serum to create super soldiers&period; Super soldier is an understatement&period; These troops are called tank men or battleships&period; They can win a fulls scale battle single handed due to durability and strength&period; They also have a type of hyper lethal energy projection&period; This issue hallmarks Great Britain being attacked and their efforts to fight back with tank men of their own&period; The scientist behind the creation of tank men tries to experiment on herself, her efforts are halted by a loyal retainer&period; The epic tale of warfare is left with a cliffhanger&colon; a communique with shocking details&period; If you like Avatar comics or war stories, check it out&semi; otherwise give it a pass&period;&NewLine; This is what I read this week&period; What did you read&quest; What&&num;8217&semi;s on your Pull list&quest;&NewLine;

Categories: Comic Books, Geek Culture, Opinion
Tags: Avengers Comics Pull List DC Comics Marvel Spider-Man X-Men

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