Pull List

Here's my pull list for this week. I will post some reviews from the past couple of weeks tomorrow.

Boom has some stuff hitting tomorrow that is definitely worth a look.

Incredibles #0 - This is a recap of the series so far and should make for a nice kick-off to the new ongoing Incredibles book by Mark Waid. Seriously, if you're not reading this it's time to start. It's good fun for comic book fans of all ages.

28 Days Later #1 - A bridge between the two movies, this is an ongoing series by Fall of Cthulhu scribe Michael Alan Nelson. Could be fun.

Muppet Show TPB - I haven't had a chance to check this out yet but I'm hearing great things about it. The Boom Disney move has thus far resulted in some great kids books and this appears to be the pick of the litter. For just $9.99, it sounds like a good time to jump on.

Jennifer's Body HC - I have to hype this book. While I'm not the biggest Megan Fox advocate, a world of talent worked on this book for Boom! Studios, including my friends Dean Trippe and Ming Doyle. Be sure and check it out!

From Marvel we have, well, about all we've come to expect from Marvel; one Jason Aaron book.

Ghost Rider: Trials and Tribulations TPB - A Spirit of Vengeance based on the Bandit and the Snowman? How are Jason Aaron and I not already best friends?

And now for the freaking motherlode; DC Comics.

Batman and Robin #3 - Dick and Damian finally take it to the Circus of Strange as DC's bold new take on the Caped Crusader continues.

Batman: Widening Gyre #1 - I go back and forth on Kevin Smith as a comics scribe, but a Bruce Wayne as Batman break from all the Blackest Night and Batman Reborn action should be a lot of fun.

Blackest Night: Titans #1 - The group that has arguably suffered the most death in the DCU since Geoff Johns's tenure there have to deal with the dead rising. Undead teen heroes looking for a brightly colored Ryan's buffet of power? Tomorrow will be another bad day for the DCU.

Flash: Rebirth #4 - The rebirth of the one hero whose death seemed to really stick continues. I keep reading, even though it's not making a ton of sense to me.

Detective Comics #856 - Rucka's Batwoman and Morrison's Batman all on the same day? This will be the best non-fantasy football related day of the month.

Gotham City Sirens #3 - This is the last chance Dini gets to sell me on this book that seems to be geared more at young boys just discovering breasts than fans of comic books. Catwoman has no business being in this book at all. Batman's gone, probably dead, and Selina Kyle's largest concern is babysitting Gotham's most volatile vixens? Give me a break.

Green Lantern #45 - Wow. DC is really putting the screws to us this week. Johns and Mahnke continue to drag us down into the Blackest Night, as the War of the Light heats up.

Superman #691 - I'm still enjoying the heck out of this book each month.

Wednesday Comics #8 - Over the last couple of weeks, the good stayed good and the bad got much better. Let's hope that trend continues with issue eight.

Scalped #31 - Jason Aaron's genius crime epic continues to build to a glorious conflagration. I tell you, this is the book (with the exception of the main Bat-titles) that I anticipate the most each month. Epic!

That's it for this week. I'll be back tomorrow with some new reviews.

Pull List

Here's the pull list for this week.

Batgirl #1
Batman: Streets of Gotham #3
Blackest Night: Superman #1
Power Girl #4
Supergirl #44
Superman Annual #14
Wednesday Comics #7
Wolverine: Weapon X #4

And Marvel manages to slip a book in there at the end. No surprise it's a book written by Jason Aaron.

Three Week Recap

Adventure Comics #1 - I've been excited about this book for a while now and it was definitely worth the wait. Written by Geoff Johns and penciled by excellent new talent Francis Manapul, Adventure Comics tells the story of Connor Kent's return to the DCU. As ignorant as I am of Connor (I was a Marvel guy as a kid and have thus been fairly underexposed to the Teen Titans), I had no trouble following this book at all. Johns's script offers a great jump on point for the character and doesn't get bogged down in pages of exposition attempting to explain Superboy. He hits the high points and gets on with it. The gist of the story is this; Connor Kent, back from the dead, has returned to Smallville to live with Ma Kent and to walk in the footsteps of his forebear, Clark Kal-El Superman Kent. The tone of this issue is light-hearted while also being introspective. Johns really manages to get at the heart of what it must feel like to be a super-powered young man torn between two very distinct paths. Connor Kent is a young man going through changes and facing a lot of very tough decisions in his very near future. In a word, teenager. In true Johns fashion, the script highlights the human in superhuman. The script is accompanied by the wonderful art of Francis Manapul, a relative newcomer and Top Cow contributor that we'll be hearing a lot more from in the very near future. His style plays up the youthful exuberance of Connor Kent and offers a perfect compliment for what Johns is doing on the book. Top notch work all around. This is the best book I've read in three weeks. Still not sold? Well, there's an excellent Legion of Superheroes back-up feature as well. Lots of bang for the buck here!

Superman: World of New Krypton #6 - Things get crazy on New Krypton after (SPOILER ALERT) an attempted assassination on General Zod. Kal-El and his fellow commanders Gor and Ursa take control of the Kryptonian military in the absence of their beloved (by some) general. You have to hand it to Greg Rucka, the man is good at building suspence. He and James Robinson have spent the first five issues of this story establishing New Krypton, giving us glimpses of it's environment, fashion and socio-economic structure. All of which was intended to lay the ground work to a slow burn mystery worthy of some of Rucka's best work in the darker recesses of Gotham City. This week, the two finally press down on the accelarator. Is Earth responsible for the attack on New Krypton, can Kal-El solve this mystery in time to avert an all-out galactic war and will Superman return? World of New Krypton is one of the most rewarding and consistent books in the DCU right now. If you aren't reading it, then it's time to start.

Blackest Night #2 - Fights! And then some more fights! Blood! Shark attacks! More blood! Fights! Still loving it, but it was more action and less fright this month. There is a genuinely awesome and heartfelt exchange between Commissioner and Barbara Gordon that is interrupted by an amazing title page involving a busted up Hal Jordan and a Bat-signal. Fun issue, but mostly fights and establishing exposition. I expect things to heat up next month. Or cool down, rather. I mean, they're all dead, so they probably don't generate a lot of heat.

Blackest Night: Tales of the Corps #3 (of 3) - Green Lantern Kenny Loggins trains his daughter to deal with the Danger Zone and Killowog gets a brief Year One treatment. I smiled a lot while I read this. Good stuff.

Wednesday Comics #5 & #6 - The good is still good, the bad is still bad and the Paul Pope is still the excellent. Wonder Woman takes a turn for the better, Superman takes a turn for the worse and Catwoman continues to refuse to appear in the strip that shares her name. I'm still enjoying it each week, but I do agree with certain of my peers when they wish for more innovation in these pages. Hey, at least it all looks great, right? I mean, even Metal Men is a nice looking page.

Justice League of America: Cry For Justice #2 - I'm a pretty big James Robinson fan, but this book is sort of baffling to me. Hal Jordan is having threesomes, some guy in Reeboks with Mystique-skin is fighting the only intelligent gorilla in the DCU I don't give a damn about, and Ray Palmer is feeling really, really sorry for himself. The only saving grace so far has been the interaction between Green Lantern and Green Arrow, which recalls the Hard Traveling Heroes stuff by Neal Adams and (my personal favorite) Denny O'Neil. While Robinson doesn't quite nail O'Neil's voice for the characters, he does offer an entertaining approximation. I think I'd enjoy this book a lot more if it were just GL/GA, not a JLA lead-in.

Did I even read a Marvel book? Oh yeah!

Captain America: Reborn #2 - Captain America (Steve Rogers) takes a leisurely stroll through his own history and wonders if he could do anything to change the course of that history but ultimately decides against it on, well...on almost every single page. Go ahead Cap, kill Hitler, let's see what happens. So yeah, Rogers basically goes on a search for Daniel Farraday, Osborn kills Sharon Carter in the court of public opinion and Bucky and Natasha do their level best to beat the snot out of the worst Avengers line-up ever. Why is this even happening, again?

Job Hunting

I'm sorry I didn't put up a Grab These Books segment last week. What's it say when I don't even hit my own deadlines, right? Ugh.

Anyway, I was pretty focused on this new job I'd interviewed for and not very focused on anything else. Unfortunately I found out today that I didn't get the job, so it's a little more time on unemployment for me. Fortunately, I've got a couple of projects and a stack of comics from the library to occupy my time.

And of course, tomorrow is Wednesday. That counts for something.

I promise I'll write some reviews of the past two weeks' comics tomorrow. In the meantime, here's my pull list for this week.

BPRD 1947 #2
Action Comics #880
Adventure Comics #1 (!!!)
Blackest Night #2 (!!!)
Blackest Night: Batman #1
Green Lantern Corps #39
Superman: Secret Files #1
Wednesday Comics #6
Angel: Only Human #1 (Yeah, yeah. I'm a sucker for the big forehead.)
Marvels Project #1
Uncanny X-Men 514

If that's not enough, the second volume of JMS's Thor run comes out in trade paperback tomorrow. If you haven't started it, tomorrow would be a great time to do it. Grab Volumes 1 & 2. You can thank me later.

Big week this week. I can't wait to discuss it with you guys!

My First CBR Contribution

Okay, so it's not much. Really it's just a couple of quick thoughts on Wednesday Comics, but it is CBR and it is my name and it is a link to this very blog!

Woot!

Go read Mr. Callahan's Guest-Filled Splash Page column right now!