Gint's 9-25-13 Pull-List Review

We've got four books that should be great and one that will no doubt be boring.

Fifth Place:
Green Lantern #23.4

Yeah, this is the boring one. Dale Eaglesham draws a beautiful book and Matt Kindt does his best to make the story of Sinestro new and exciting... but I've been there before. Being a Green Lantern fan I know all this stuff forward and backward. Just another pointless villain origin story that REALLY doesn't tie into the Villains Month schtick.

The very end is kind of a cliffhanger, but I don't know what that means. Technically Sinestro should have nothing to do with Earth's problems with the Crime Syndicate. But I keep seeing him on promo materials. Please DC, leave the guy alone.

This was it. The last Villains Month tie-in I was going to get. Here's to October and being excited about DC books again.

Fourth Place:
Guardians of the Galaxy #6

Man, Marvel really isn't interested in one artist on a book are they? First we had Steve McNiven on Guardians. Then we had McNiven and Sara Pichelli. Now we have Pichelli and Olivier Coipel. All in 6 issues. They're all phenominal artists, so I shouldn't complain too much, but c'mon, Marvel. Get it together.

Angela (of Neil Gaiman fame) shows up and I guess that's a big deal. She's really tough and it takes all of the Guardians to subdue her. The Watcher also shows up and does his, "I'm sworn not to interfere until I interfere" bit. The Watcher is probably the most useless character in any comic book universe.

So yeah, it was an entertaining issue.

Third Place:
Nova #8

I'm not really sure why this issue warranted the Infinity header... I mean, I guess Thanos was in it, but it wound up being a pretty straight forward, well told Nova issue.

There was some real concern when I saw the Infinity header that this would be another issue that dumped me right in the middle of a Marvel event I knew nothing about. Turns out Zeb Wells can tell a great story with or without being shoehorned into bigger corporate business. And lets not forget Paco Medina, who's art I've really grown to love even though he draws Sam Alexander a little too old.

Thanos sends some hot, crazy bitch named Kaldera (sounds like a He-Man character) to kill Sam and extinguish the Nova Corps. Sam meanwhile is being recruited for a new superhero team by Speedball and Vance Astrovik. Also, Wells drops a TON of hits about Richard Rider. JUST SAY WHAT HAPPENED TO HIM SO FAR!!! FUCK!

Again. Good issue.

Second Place:
The Wake #4

When I think of The Wake, I think of the story of Lee Archer being trapped underwater with all those mer-creatures. So I'm always surprised when I open an issue and all the flashbacks/flashforwards show up. I'm really curious how Scott Snyder is going to tie all that stuff into the main story.

Sean Murphy's art continues to impress. The way he lets you see the backside of the characters' viewscreens when you're looking at them is a small little touch that makes for some really interesting visuals.

Next issue marks the halfway point of the series. I'm already sad to see it end.

First Place:
Saga #14

Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples, man. They're making magic. Even making me give a shit about Gwendolyn, and I fucking hate her.

This book is emotional. The whole thing so far is really about love. And that might sound kind of lame, but its really well fucking done. The emotional cores that anchor each character are so natural. Each character's voice is unmistakable for another. That has to do with not only Vaughan's dialog, but Staples "acting" of the characters.

This book has one of the single most touching pages in all of comic books. I'd like to know if when Vaughan and Staples wrote it they said, "gold."

Page of the Week:

Sean Murphy's work on The Wake. And boobies.

-Gint