Pull List Review: Zeroes and Heroes

Sorry I'm late! I was hoping to be farther along in Dishonored for tomorrow's post and forgot about Monday's! As it stands, you're getting the rest of my Pull List Review, in which I tell you how I dropped some issues and will be picking at least one up to replace it...

Red Hood and the Outlaws #0 This issue is the back story of Jason Todd. It's not particularly different from the previous DC Universe -- Jason lost his scummy parents early on, became a thief, and was eventually recruited by Batman, only to die at the hands of the Joker. A trip to the Lazarus Pit revived him, and now we have the Red Hood. The interesting part in this issue came in a mini chapter at the end of the issue, where it is revealed that Joker had a hand in every individual part of Jason's life that led up to his parents dying and him meeting Batman and becoming Robin (and dying). I believe that's a new spin, though not particularly interesting (to me). Unfortunately, this issue was all Jason all the time. I read this book for Jason, Arsenal, and Starfire. So this gets a 6/10. Art was fine, story ok, but I'm already tired of DC rehashing old tales.
Teen Titans #0 Similar to the above, this issue was all about an ex-Batman sidekick! It focused on Tim Drake and his obsession with Batman, which eventually leads to him working with the caped crusader. It was mildly interesting due to my lack of familiarity with the character, but that's about it. My problem with the issue is the way they "solve" the time gap where Tim should have been Robin -- he never becomes Robin! He takes on the moniker of "Red Robin" upon inception, weakening the character development and leaving me to wonder if he immediately left Batman to form the Titans, or if Bats really partnered with a Red Robin for a bit... 6/10, and I'm really not liking #0s. And I haven't been enjoying Teen Titans for a bit now. It is officially being dropped as of this issue, though I'll keep an eye on the series to see if it perks up.
Batman #0 This is an early adventure of Bruce Wayne (pre-cowl) attempting to apprehend the Red Hood (Joker's first moniker, not Jason Todd) and his gang. It shows Bruce being excessively sloppy and doesn't do much as a background issue. Funnily enough, it is also "to be continued" in such a way that there should be a direct sequel. Which I guess would make... issue 1/2? Didn't Thunderbolts pull something like this? 4/10. Extremely uninteresting and I've dropped the book. I know Joker's coming back in a big way... But I just don't care. I think I might stick to picking up arcs that interest me as they come out, the in-between issues really detract from Batman for me.
The Ravagers #0 This backstory is mostly about Beast Boy, with a bit of Terra and the rest of the gang thrown in. I'm already sick of how slow this book has been moving, I'm not even going to bother going into detail for this -- it takes place while the cast is still being tortured/altered in The Colony, and that's enough of that. 6/10 for art and some general interest, but I'm dropping the book. I'll wait until a) each character gets an individual style (I'm sick of Tron suits on everyone) and b) picks up with some decent stories (not this poorly plotted escape plan). I like the concept, though, so I WILL keep an eye on it. There's just no reason to read it one issue at a time, it's painful.
Avengers vs X-Men #11 This issue is the big showdown between the Avengers and the remaining Phoenix Two (Scott and Emma). It's interesting on the action scale, though it suffers from the comic book scale of powers -- earlier issues have the Avengers struggling against 1 character with 1/5th of the power Scott and Emma now have split solely between them, and they manage to go almost toe to toe with the duo, thanks to a little help from Xavier (and the rest of the mutants who've turned on Scott and Emma). So much so, in fact, that Scott takes out Emma so he can have all the power to himself... becoming DARK PHOENIX! Oh no! I couldn't have possibly seen that one coming! ... :/ Oh well. Also, the "heavy hitters" Hope and Scarlet Witch do literally nothing the entire fight. Because that makes sense. 7/10 for action and art, loses points for plausibility (which may seem inane in a comic book review, but bite me).
Avengers vs X-Men #12 Scott's first action is to kill Professor X. That's right, Charles is dead (again). Then he pounds on the Avengers until Hope and Wanda finally step in and... well, pretty simply take him out. This issue (and end of the arc) reminds me of a Dragon Ball Z episode. The Phoenix Force possesses Hope, which it should probably have done from the first place. Hope feels that she can control it but, with a little nudge from Wanda, decides that there should be "No More Phoenix." The Nerd has decided that there should be "No More No More." The most interesting result of this action? The Phoenix Force explodes into a bunch of little fireballs that reignite the X-Gene across the globe, meaning mutants are no longer the endangered species they've been since House of M. I, personally, kind of liked it being a more exclusive club, but I'll accept it if it leads to interesting storylines. Scott is seen imprisoned for his misdeeds, while the other ex-Phoenix members are in hiding. Scott's just a bit smug, and I like it. Issue gets an 8/10, series gets a 7/10. I dislike comic book reset buttons, but at least this one took awhile... right? This is the end of this event, and I'll not be picking any of the related follow ups, so I guess this is dropped, to some extent.
Age of Apocalypse #7 The gang is looking for away to take away Wolvie's Celestial given powers. They hope to find the answers in the late Reed Richard's notebooks, which AoA's Emma Frost tells them Victor Von Doom has. Woot! Some Doctor Doom action! The team travels to Latveria, find it a human reservation of sorts, and split up! One group is captured by Emma (that sneaky witch! Apparently the lobotomy to remove her powers was a ruse!), while Prophet and the others meet up with Doom. Oh, and a subplot with Graydon hanging out with his pops (Sabertooth) starts (and starts to go poorly). Meh. I don't mind a change of scope and pace, so we'll see how it goes. 6/10, because I still don't care for the art.
Age of Apocalypse #8 BAM! Prophet and crew are betrayed by Doom and handed over to Emma as part of Doom's plan to win favor with the mutants. Nightcrawler-wanna-be shows up, appraised the goods, then goes to tell his masters. Doom pushed a button and basically resets Emma, freeing the captives and giving them an ultimatum -- help HIM gain the power of the Celestials, or deal with Weapon Omega on their own. Prophet doesn't want Doom to be the ultimate power and bails. Deadeye disagrees and decides to stay with Doom... Long enough for the group to leave and her to hook up with him, where she promptly removes his head and brings it to Prophet. Because they can plumb his disembodied cranium for info, there's an app for that. Oh, and Graydon and Sabertooth didn't get along at all. Which is pretty much all that can be said for that. Well, the issue had some interesting twists (and some not so much), but it did see a Doom killed, and that's pretty rare. I'll give it a 7/10 and will stick it out for another issue before cutting it. I really do have a soft spot for Post Apocalyptic setting, obviously.

In other news, I also read Uncanny X-Force #1 and really enjoyed it. I'll be hunting down the series and giving it its own review in the future. And it is part of the reason I'm trying to stick it with the current AoA, being that is spawned from events that happened in Uncanny X-Force.

As I mentioned in my post about reboots, I also picked up some other Batman #0s. The only one that was mildly interesting to me was Batman and Robin, though I still have issues with the timeline, so I'm not adding anything new to my pull list from DC.

Currently, I'm only adding All New X-Men, though I am looking at some other Marvel Now! titles. I need something to bolster the hits taken this month...

Tune in tomorrow (night) for my follow up to my Dishonored review (... even though I haven't finished the game) and my quest for an old RPG...

Pull List Review: Agents and Outlaws (and Stuff)

This post will finish off this month's Pull List Review -- there shouldn't be that many more titles than the last post.

Venom #22 This issue stands as a sort of epilogue to the Crime Master run. It is the "final" show down between Venom and Jack O' Lantern. Between images of Venom hunting and then fighting Jack, we are shown many images of his childhood in relation to his abusive father. It's laid on pretty thick, leading up to the ending where, despite all the horrible things Jack has done (including killing Venom's uncle and desecrating Venom's father's corpse), Venom decides to capture instead of kill him, sending him to a super-villain prison. Because it would be wrong to kill the big name killer, but not the several foot soldiers we saw Flash kill on the way to Crime Master... This is a 5/10 for me. Art is fine, writing is fine, alcoholic father is harped on too much and the ending makes little sense for a character like Venom.
Venom #23 This issue has Venom tracking down and then fighting an Occult Nazi group, apparently led by the fallen Hellstrom. For some reason, Venom has some mild protection from Hellstrom's magic and fire, something about a mark Mephisto placed on him. The issue ends with Venom getting covered in possession goop, turning Flash/Venom into a campy, demonic-looking symbiote (with horns and wings to boot). Throughout, more harping on Flash's abusive father. Apparently we've forgotten since last issue or every other time it's been brought up. 6/10, only because I'm interested to see what happens. I'm already sick of Flash's flaws being spelled out every issue.
Red Hood and the Outlaws #12 The cover alone makes this an awesome issue. As always, I love the art style. The story is interesting as well, with a fairly nice twist that has Starfire's sister being a good guy, only pretending in the last issue. We'll see how long that lasts, but I'd be happy to see something a bit different. I'm still really enjoying the differences with this trio, it almost reminds me of Marvel's Thunderbolts -- they're all damaged characters trying to get by in their own way. This is a solid 8/10 -- it's not higher simply because it was a relatively low key issue and I feel like Red Hood has been tacked on for this adventure.
The Ravagers #4 This title, more than any other, really drives home that the New 52 was a complete universe reboot. Sure, some things stayed in tact, but apparently more did not. Since I only had a working knowledge of DC before, this comes as a bit jarring when I'm learning something that doesn't quite mesh with my understanding of characters. In this issue, we are following Beast Boy (and Terra) as they rescue the others from Brother Blood. In an attempt at humor, the ritual Brother Blood is trying to accomplish is elaborate and not fully understood. That being said, we do lose Lightning to the "Red Place" and the group escapes, finally back together (well, sans Lightning). Early on, we find that Terra and Best Boy's powers seem to be growing/changing as they get farther away from the Colony -- it will be interesting to see how this plays out in them and the others. The final note is Caitlin asking herself if she's made a mistake -- not longer are the young Meta-Humans abused children to her; now she realizes that they are time bombs waiting to explode, with no thought given to the lives of others or themselves. Issue gets a 6/10 for the characters being mildly interesting. The story itself is still in the 'meh' stage, which isn't good for a new series -- they need to pick it up somehow. ... And, instead, next issue is going to be #0, the origins of Terra and Beast Boy. Maybe the promised Superboy vs. Caitlin after that will be interesting.
Avengers vs X-Men #9 Namor is defeated but many of the Avengers are held captive. With the help of Storm, the Avengers locate their missing team members and stage a rescue mission. Unfortunately, Colossus and Illyana are waiting for them. Spidey steps up to the plate and stays behind to hold them off while the other Avengers make their escape. Spidey takes an epic beat down but, as he's on the floor in a pool of blood, he goads the siblings into fighting each other -- neither feels the other is using the Phoenix Force appropriately. They are both knocked out, transferring their power to Emma and Cyclops. The power is affecting Emma negatively -- she is beginning to reach out and read everyone's mind, and is concerned about what she'll do next. Cyclops uses his extra power to punch a hole between dimensions, uncovering the Avengers' hide out. Rated a 9/10. I liked the Spidey last stand, and Emma going nuts will be interesting.
Avengers vs X-Men #10 This issue is the first show down between Scott and Hope. The few Avengers available throw themselves at Scott while Hope flees. While Cyclops ruins everyone in his way, Hope meets up with the Thunderer, and they use a mystical dragon (who apparently beat the phoenix in a previous incarnation) to hurt Scott. Unfortunately, the dragon is too young. Hope surprises herself, then, when she unleashed mystical dragon flames at Scott -- somehow she absorbed the power. Then she flees and runs into Scarlet Witch. Scarlet takes a stab at Scott but is inneffective against his new strength -- and then there's Hope, who's now absorbed the dragon fire AND Scarlet's Chaos magic. She CHAOS PUNCHES Scott to the moon (literally), and the turning point in the battle is revealed. Scott, after waking up, realizes he's going to need Emma's power. Emma is busy on Utopia, making sure every mutant thinks what she wants to think -- or else. Next issue looks to be Scott vs. Emma. This issue gets a 7/10. It's interesting enough, but the mystical dragon popping up was a little too convenient (possibly because I'm not reading any other related issues). I'm hoping this event ends soon, it hasn't particularly held my interest.
Age of Apocalypse #6 In this issue, we see Monet St. Croix revealing herself to the world as Penance. She plans on making the world a better place for mutant-kind so that they aren't living in filth and squalor. Weapon Omega decides to recruit her, but in the process she reverts Colossus back to his old, Apocalypse hating ways. Prophet reveals himself after the confrontation and explains his hand in her rebirth, and makes a trade -- he'll give her Sugarman and help her overthrow Omega for special consideration in regards to the remnants of the human race. Deadeye, whom this book follows, doesn't agree with this plan at all -- the only good mutant is a dead one, as far as she's concerned. Pretty boring issue, actually, and I don't care for the art still. 4/10, but I'm not kicking the book yet -- next issue promises the inclusion of Dr. Doom, and I'm looking forward to that at least.
Batman #12 This issue... was barely about Batman at all. It's about a girl who lives in the Narrows with her brother. They run into trouble and Batman saves them. She then tries to help him out after figuring out how Batman accesses the power grid (because she's an engineer down in the sewers where the grid is kept). She sort of helps Batman, he tells her to cut it out, and it ends with her saying no, basically. I ran a Google search and found out that she actually made an appearance in Batman #7, where she uses a defibrillator on Batman after he is beaten by the Owls. I assume they have bigger plans for her, but I don't know why they'd give her such a backwards introduction. 5/10. The writing was done well and I didn't hate the overall story, but the art was very inconsistent and I'd rather have Batman in my Batman comic...

I am still missing/behind on Teen Titans. I'll lump them all together next month or do a quick catch up post if I get the missing issue before then.

Additionally, I'll be dropping Batman from the pull list -- I'll pick up issue zero the next time I pick up pulls, but after that I'm done. Eventually, Batman and Robin will take its place, I just need to do some catching up. I'll also be looking to catch up on X-Force and see if I should add that, but for now there will just be a short reduction. Ravagers and Teen Titans haven't held my interest very well, so their suspect to be dropped soon too. We'll see.

Remember, if you're ever looking to get into comics and needs some suggestions or tips, feel free to ask! I reply to all comments!

Dusting off the Pull List (Updated and Finished)

Got a large batch from Joker's Child and I've been finally catching up on my pull list.

I'll post a short, potentially spoiler-ific synopsis, my brief opinion on the issue, and add any additional notes I have as needed. If that works well, I'll be doing the same for all future renditions of "Pull List" posts.

Amazing Spider-Man #688
This issue revolves around a fight between Spider-Man and the Lizard in the sewers. There are flashbacks set hours before the encounter, leading up to Morbius and the Horizon Labs crew helping Spider-Man take the Lizard out, permanatly:

I really thought he was going to do it. In my head, I said "finaly!" Spidey was finally going to put down one of his villains that would never be rehabilitated or that had taken many lives. I was, of course, let down. Morbius had cooked up a serum to permanently regress the Lizard. Unfortunately, that's all it did; after the end of the "Shed" arc, Curt Connors' mind is gone. Unbeknownst to anyone present, the Lizard's mind is now stuck in Connors body.

That alone is an interesting twist that I look forward to seeing. After the death of his son, I thought Connors had finally lost all potentially interesting stories. I was wrong. If I were to arbitrarily give it a number score, I'd say an 8. What that means to me is that I liked it. It didn't wow me, but it was solid.

Hmm, explaining that kind of makes it less arbitrary... but there it is.

Amazing Spider-Man #689 Connors-Lizard plots to re-inject himself with Lizard juice. To this end, he turns Spider-Man on Moribius by causing Morbius to attack Sajani (of Horizon Labs) due to extreme blood lost. Morbius flees, apologizing constantly. Spidey follows and pounds on him, sounding like a drug addicts relative tired of throwing interventions. Connors-Lizard injects himself but only succeeds in regrowing his arm (Connors' original goal). He then injects Max Modell (head of Horizon Labs) so he can study the change and find a way to overcome it. Modell begins to transform at the end of the issue. Spidey has become a little too proclamation heavy. It's almost like the character is bipolar, going from wanting to save everyone to eradicating everything he determines is a monster (we'll see he far he goes on this end). This issue gets a 7. Good content, good story, poor Spidey dialogue throughout.
Amazing Spider-Man #690 Connors converts the Horizon Labs staff to Lizards while Spidey beats on Morbius. In the middle of the fight, Spidey gets a DIRE warning from Madame Web (... not a character I approve of AT ALL). Spidey wraps up Morbius, has an opportunity to pull out his literal Avengers membership card, then makes it back to Horizon just before it locks down due to the Lizard epidemic. Connors himself has finally found the correct serum to get his scales back, but the issue closes on a moment of doubt -- is being a mammal all that bad? Considering the harsh words Spidey has for Morbius, the ending of their one sided fight was anti-climactic. I believe next issue is supposed to be the true turning point for Spidey -- maybe the (Curt) Lizard will die (again)? A 7 for me. No problems, but nothing particularly exemplary.
Avenging Spider-Man #9 Spidey hitches a ride with Carol Danvers in a junk heap of a plane. They are almost hit by a young girl using a faulty jetpack. They save her and are immediately fired upon by some private security forces working alongside Boston police. Carol, now using the name Captain Marvel, fights the mech-equipped security while Spidey tries to learn information from the jetpack girl, who is apparently a Robin Hood (calling herself Robyn Hood) style bank robber. After she surrenders and is still fired on by the security force, she absorbs the blow and grows into a giant as more security forces arrive. Like other Avenging issues, this wasn't much of a Spidey story. I found the security forces to be unbelievable in the level of violence they were allowed to use in the name of the law. Issue gets a 6.
Scarlet Spider #7 Scarlet is baking in the Houston heat when an exploding building almost falls on him. He ends up saving a helpless crowd and a falling victim. The victim turns into a one night stand who turns out to be the one who blew up the building who turns out to be the daughter of the Roxxon CEO, the owner of the building. Scarlet finds all this out after some digging, which leads to the introduction of one of the campiest looking super teams I have ever seen, the Rangers! The most interesting thing in this issue was Kaine hooking up with the girl, who was ostensibly on an adrenaline high. It's a situation Peter would have handled wildly different and a refreshing reminder that Kaine is NOT Peter. Hopefully it will stay that way. Arbitrary rating is a 6.
Ultimate Spider-Man #12 This issue is the apparent final showdown with the Prowler, Miles' uncle. Miles decides not to work for him or be bullied by him. He decides to tell his parents (though we don't see if he does or not in this issue), then he was a pretty awesp,e fight that ends with one of the Prowlers gloves (stolen/borrowed from the Shocker) explodes, apparently killing him. So far, this Spider-Man has his own new sets of problems, and they seem pretty interesting. I'd like to see him more interaction on the external world, but for now this was at least a good issue. Gets an 8 from me.
Spider-Men #1, #2, and #3 So for, not a terrible cross over, if a little forced. Mysterio has somehow stumbled onto a way to travel between dimensions (or at least is at the site of a portal). Spidey finds the abandoned warehouse due to an obligatory shaft of light and is eventually pushed into said portal. He almost immediately meets Miles-Spidey. The next issue features Miles, (Ultimate) Nick Fury, and (Amazing) Peter trying to figure out what's going on, after a short fight scene (where Ultimate Spidey somehow manages to win -- silly venom sting). After the longest word bubble I have ever seen, Nick fury decides to send Peter with Miles to learn about this dimension's Peter. The third issue features a Mysterio avatar fighting the Spider-Men. His surprise tactic is to slip them a chemical that causes their fears to manifest and be able to physically hurt them (not explained well -- yet anyways). Mysterious loses, per usual, though the avatar does blow up and knock Miles out. He comes to with the Ultimates having arrive and Peter having run off. Last panel is Peter unmasking to (Ultimate) Aunt May and Gwen, crying (... not really sure why. Maybe seeing a young Gwen? We'll see). So far, my favorite part about the run is Miles reaction to meeting a Peter Parker, though I wish they could take some training time together (and someone get that boy some webs, damn it!) I'll rate the series as a whole when it finished in a couple episodes.
Venom #20 This is a fairly eventful title that doesn't sell itself as large as I would expect. Flash discovers his mother missing and is attacked by Death Adder. This is followed by the death of Death Adder when Flash snaps his neck, finally doing as a Venom character should -- taking out the trash, permanently. Flash then finds the Human Fly (along with his mother) and procedes to maim him (by ripping his wings off) to find out where the Crime Master is. The end of the episode shows Betty meeting the Crime Master face to face, only to learn that it his her brother, Bennet. I'd have to re-read the Crime Master introduction to see how I feel about the reveal. For now, it was a decent issue and gets an 7 for being a turning point for the new Venom. It'd be better if I was more interested in the villains he's taking on. I'd like to see what happens to Eddie Brock, specifically.
Venom #21 Another eventful title, but it feels VERY rushed for all that happens. Venom kills off random Crime Master thugs while making his way into the hidden base. Crime Master is busy getting a little too touchy-feely with his sister (it's not overtly creepy, but close enough). Venom fights Megatek, who has his head bitten of by Eddie Brock in the modified (I guess) Toxin symbiote. Venom and Toxin fight, which apparently ends in the fiery death of Toxin AND Eddie Brock. I doubt they're killing off Eddie right now, but at the very least he wasn't looking much better then Anakin at the end of Episode III. Speaking of Star Wars, after Venom easily dispatches Jack O'Lantern, he his disabled by Crime Master. Flash looks very Luke Skywalker-esque and then pleads with Betty for help, who ends up shooting Crime Master in the back, causing him to fall into the same vat of liquid Jack just went into. ...Uh. Why build all that up just to kill almost everyone off? So far, I'm not pleased with Flash's rouge gallery. This issue gets a 7, though only because a lot of interesting things happen. It loses points for happening so quickly.
Avengers vs X-Men #7 and #8 The first issue is the follow up to Scott's statement of "No More Mutants." We see the Pheonix Five taking the high road by continuing to rebuild the world while discrediting the Avengers (supposedly -- I assume you need to be reading the ancillary issues, but I don't personally feel the need, I'm getting a bit sick of cross-overs). There are a couple fights here and there (because everyone and their mother can teleport), with the biggest news being that the Scarlet Which is the Avenger's biggest gun, actually able to hurt the Five. The issue ends with some dissent among the Five -- Namor wants to rule the world his way. Emma helps him by giving him and only him the location of the Avengers (and kissing him?). The follow up issue opens with Namor destroying Wakanda and it taking the full might of the Avengers just to knock him down. Fortunately, that was all it took -- the Phoenix Force abandoned Namor and was spread among the remaining Four. The heroes then take refuge in the mystical city where Kung Fu was born... Yup. The idea is that Hope is going to undergo some secret, mystical training to combat the Phoenix Force. This series has become the Michael Bay film of comic books. Tons of explosions, not very much plot movement. I'm not going to bother rating the individual issues -- I'll rate the event after the 12 issues have run their course.
Age of Apocalypse #5 This series... isn't as interesting to me as the earlier AoA stuff. This issue featured Jean getting more training from the X-Terminated and then going on a mission to try and recruit the up-and-coming Quentin Quire, who had managed to build a network of psychics that were subservient to him. Jean has a mental conversation with him, explaining that she has lost all of her powers and showed when Wolverine became infected with Apocalypse's seed. She then offers to help Quentin sort through the voices in his head. In response, he kills himself. Uh. What? This issue gets a 4 from me. I don't care for the art, the X-team and, really, the series hasn't been as interesting as I'd hoped. As an ongoing title, the pace doesn't keep up with previous AoA arcs. If next issue doesn't redeem it, I'll drop it from my list and wait to pick it up when the series has ended. Maybe I'll swap in something else -- a hunt of old Exiles issues or maybe switch in X-Treme X-men. We'll see.
Batman #11 This issue the conclusion to the Night of Owls. I've seen a lot of praise for the story arc, but I'm personally not seeing it. This issue has B-Man squaring off against the man once called Lincoln March, now calling himself Thomas Wayne. Supposedly, his is Bruce's long lost brother that Bruce's parents kept secret in a home for damaged children -- he had been hurt in a car accident that, as far as anyone else had known, had led to the early birth and death of the actual Thomas Wayne. Batman denies it, and a fight ensues. Thomas, in his advanced Owl Armor, drags Bats throughout Gotham, going on a tirade about how his parents left him and Bruce forgot about him so Gotham could belong only to Bruce. Batman eventually shuts the rant up and the fight concludes with an under-construction tower exploding and falling on top of Thomas. No body was found, of course. Later, Bruce has a conversation with Dick Grayson. The main purpose for this convo is so Bruce can explain that he looked up all the records on Thomas Wayne, and there is no way that Lincoln-Thomas could really be his brother. Or, you know, Probably not. With a capitol P. And that's how they leave use -- probably, mostly sure. But not really. Which, in my opinion, is a lousy way to end it. Going hard one either side of the fence wouldn't detract from a new, potentially interesting villain. Obscurity in a comic following the greatest detective... As if Batman wouldn't have managed to collect a DNA sample during the fight. It's BATMAN! Issue gets a 6 after all is said and done, which is pretty much how I felt about the entire "Night of the Owls" run. Solid art and a decent story, but it relies far too heavily on the DC reboot to be vague and interesting. I might just be expecting too much from Batman, so I'll hang on for a bit and see what's coming up next before I kick the title to the curb.
The Ravagers #3 This issue... wasn't that exciting. We're introduced to Brother Blood (kind of), see Thunder and Lightning fighting in the buff against a horde of mindless zealots, and watch while Beast Boy and Terra make their way back to the group in order to save them. I'm waiting to see where this series goes. So far, it doesn't seem to have any major direction, at least nothing I would consider sustainable. Then again, most of Gen 13 was spent with a team of teenagers on the run... This issue gets a 4. Still sticking with the series, but this issue didn't interest me much at all.
Red Hood and the Outlaws #11 This issue shows Roy Harper being interrogated by the enemy (soldiers of The Blight) while regaling his captors with a brief tale of Starfire's origin. Major spotlight for this issue is the revelation of Starfire's sister, who looks pretty damn awesome at the moment. Cat-fight next issue. I'm NOT really sure what's going on with Jason's date. She travelled with them to Starfire's ship (... Starfire), and given a warriors jumpsuit to wear. I dunno if the Isabel is a known DC entity or not, we'll see (I refuse to look it up). If not, her inclusion seems pointless, other than a potential catalyst of motivation (which will be a bit contrived, if you ask me). At the tail end of the issue is a snippet involving Essence in her quest to kill the All Caste. I... don't particularly care about these snippets -- if the All Caste are so dangerous, why have I seen several offed already? Rating is an 8. It got me looking forward to the next issue, gave me some interesting background, and I love the art of this title.

I am going to go ahead and post this now. I still need to review Spider-Men #1, #2 and #3, Avengers vs X-Men #7 and #8, Venom #21, Age of Apocalypse #5, and Batman #11, but I'd rather have something up now and update it as I'm going along. All set! And next Pull List I will definitely be doing something different with how I break these posts down.

Unfortunately, I never put Teen Titans on my Pull List and am missing issue 10. Next time I get a chance, I'll pick it up and add Teen Titans to the next Pull List post.

For now, expect this post to be updated with the listed issues in the near future! For future posts, I'll consider breaking Pull List Reviews up a bit more -- I have enough Spider titles to make an entire post, I think.

Tell me what you think about the new theme please!

Pull List

Welcome to this... err... well, I don't expect these to come with any regularity due to the length of time between trips to the comic book store and then the time it takes to read them, but we'll have to make do. So welcome to this moment's Pull List update!

I'll post the issues/series I picked up, do mini reviews/comments on them, then move on to a small list of other items I picked up, commenting on these items only if I have a good (enough) reason.

The Pull List:

(For some reason, I can't get this image to stay horizontal. Just tilt your head, it's an interactive blog today!)

The Ravagers #1,2 - Picked this series up simply because they are starting to integrate Gen 13 characters into the regular DC universe. So far, it's alright. I'm not as familiar with the Wildstorm characters or the DC characters in this, so it's interesting. Group of kids were captured and trained/tortured into becoming "Ravagers", specially trained killers. First issue has Caitlin Fairchild (formerly of Gen 13) and the group on the run. There seems to be some back story I'm missing, I'll follow up when I can. This will keep as long as the story pans out to be interesting.

Spider-Men #1 - New run starting this week. (Amazing) Peter Parker was teleported by (Ultimate) Mysterio to the Ultimate dimension. It will be interesting for Peter to see a world in which he died. Personally, I think this is more of a gimmick hoping to increase sales of the new Ultimate Spider-Man, but we'll see.

Star Wars: Blood Ties #1,2 - Picked these up on a whim (the tag "Boba Fett is Dead" caught my eye). Seeing as how these take place before the films, it's obvious Boba is alive and well. It's a decent revenge/hunt story, better probably if you read earlier Blood Ties runs. Interesting note: they show Boba's face. First time I've seen it (outside of young Boba in films -- and, I suppose, Jango Fett, the man Boba is a clone of). Will probably finish this series up.

Scarlet Spider #6 - This issue was a perfect Super-Hero comic issue. Good action and interesting story developments occurring. Here's hoping this continues to pan out -- Kaine as the Scarlet Spider is going better than I expected, as long as I maintain the capacity for suspension of disbelief.

The Amazing Spider-Man #687, Annual 39 - Coming to a close on The Ends of the Earth. This issue apparently sees the death of a relatively major Marvel character. Not sure how I feel about that, but we'll see how well it sticks in the next issue. Spidey may finally lose the pretty terrible tagline of "Nobody dies!"

Ultimate Spider-Man #11 - USM finally had a decent action issue. I really DON'T like (Ultimate) Scorpion. Also, the whole aspect of Miles being really new to everything is getting fairly old, they need to stop dragging it out. The (Ultimate) Prowler is interesting, and I like the family conflict, hopefully it accelerates upcoming issues.

Age of Apocalypse #4 - Not liking this series as much as I was hoping. First, I obviously missed a few major events in the AoA timeline (no clue when Jean and Sabertooth lost powers). So I need to do some back tracking. But I also don't care for the team this follows (the X-Terminated). They remind me of a watered down Watchmen. Still, I've got hope that this will pick up, and I like the idea of Wolverine as a villain. Wish the Wolverine vs Hulk fight was done in more detail here, but I suppose that fights been done before.

Avengers vs X-Men #5 - Interesting plot twist at the end. Otherwise, not much to see here. At all. They're pushing the ancillary issues from other series too much with this event, I think. The main story could have been told in three well done issues, and it's still going on. Hopefully the twist leads to an interesting conclusion (though I expect a non-conclusive reset button coming up, just like World War Hulk).

Batman #10, Annual - This series is picking up, but I guess I'm just not enough of a fan of Batman. Owl story line concludes in one more issue. Mildly interesting plot twist just occurred, I'm interested to see how it turns out. After that, though, I'll probably only give it a few more issues for it to prove itself as a Pull List item. My problem with the Bat is that there are too many series featuring him, similar to Spider-Man before the shut down most of the additional series. I'm not getting the whole story just reading "Batman", but I'm not shelling out more money to follow "Detective", "Dark Knight", etc...

Random Pick Ups:
Star Wars: Agent of the Empire #1 - Generic spy story with a super advanced robot doing the combat. Not for me, though I liked running into Han Solo.

Highlight of the Month (and probably year):

The Amazing Spider-Man #300! My wife, who obviously loves me very much, picked me up this rare issue for our "paper" anniversary gift. This issue features the first full appearance of Venom, one of my favorite villains (and characters) of all time -- and yes, I know every issue he appeared in in the 90's was pretty terrible. I love them anyway. This issue is now the prize of my collection, followed up by an artist-signed issue of Maximum Carnage number one (... incidentally, also bought by the wife... I think she has more rare comic books than I do!).

Also, just got Spider-Man vs Wolverine in the mail!! Looking forward to this issue especially!



Next time on Thunder, Like Lightning: Comics for Beginners conclusion and Suggested Reads