Gint's 3-6-13 Pull-List Review

At the back of every DC issue each month, they do a 2-page bit called Channel 52 where they have fake news anchor Bethany Snow with Calendar Man and Ambush Bug recap what's been going on in the DCNew. The goal being to tease some of the other books out there so you'd buy them. Well, the whole Channel 52 thing is dumb. Its absolutely silly and not at all entertaining.

Onto the reviews... 

Third Place:
Animal Man #18

***SPOILER ALERT***

Rotworld comes to an end in Animal Man in a more bitter than sweet fashion this month... which brings us to our spoiler.

Jeff Lemire and Steve Pugh kill Cliff Baker. True, he had a shitty mullet, but did they really have to kill him? Aren't there more stories to tell when the character can keep having them? It certainly doesn't endear me to Buddy Baker any more than before. EVERY super hero has some familial tradgedy in their past. What was cool about Buddy is that he didn't have that. It was interesting and unique. Now he's just any other guy that can channel the powers of animals.

Overall Rotworld was kind of a letdown. It wasn't so much the crossover I was expecting. Animal Man and Swamp Thing were barely together through the whole story as they were split up in each other's books.

I think Lemire is leaving the title after this issue, so its now on the fence as to whether I'll keep getting it.

Second Place:
Swamp Thing #18

And like Jeff Lemire leaving Animal Man, I believe this is Scott Snyder's last issue of Swamp Thing. Its a shame too. He can write his ass off and its been a great book. Yanic Paquette's art doesn't hurt either and I have no idea whether he's staying or going.

This epilogue to Rotworld, unlike the one in Animal Man gave me the closure I was looking for. Snyder really wrote a complete story. You can read issues 1 through 18 and get a great book. The way he writes the love between Abigail and Swamp Thing is so good that you pay no attention that she's in love with a big tree guy.

So another changing creative team puts another book on the bubble for the Pull-List. We had a lot of fun while it lasted though.

First Place:
Green Lantern #18

Only two more issues to go before Geoff Johns retires from writing what's been the best and most consistent book in the last 10 years. He doesn't disappoint, but the artwork does.

Fill in artist Szymon (that's not a type-o) Kudranski takes over drawing duties on all of the Land of the Dead scenes. He's not a bad artist, but when you plop his work in the middle of so many consecutive issues by Doug Mahnke, its like, "what the fuck?" When this is collected its going to stick out like a sore thumb.

In a twist that even I didn't see coming, Sinestro gets pulled out of the Land of the Dead and Hal has to decide whether he should just kill himself or not. I think Geoff Johns is planning on Hal riding in like the cavalry and saving everyone ass in a couple issues. At least that's what I'm hoping for.

The best book of the week if not the best artwork.

Panel of the Week:

The best artwork this week clearly goes to Yanic Paquette who has been nothing but stellar on Swamp Thing.

-Gint