Gint's 1-15-14 Pull-List Review

None of these books were bad this week, but DC's failure to have one artist draw a whole book is more pronounced this week than most.

Fifth Place:

Rogues Rebellion #4

Scott Hepburn, who should be able to handle this book himself, had André Coelho to help him out. Coelho's pages are well done, but Hepburn has a neat little style that's set the tone for this book. It should be solely his.

For as good as this book has been up to this point, this issue was 95% filler. Besides Heat Wave making the ultimate sacrifice at the end, this book was just 20 pages of fanboy "who would wins" facing the Rogues off against a handful of Gotham villains. A lot of the interesting character moments that have made the first three issues so enjoyable seemed to get lost in the battle royale of the issue.

I say forgive and forget. Brian Buccellato has two issues to put this one behind him and wrap this one up in grand fashion.

Fourth Place:
Superman Wonder Woman #4

I guess the theme for this week is "Multiple Artists." Tony Daniel, who has been drawing the Christ out of this book only does the first half. Then Paulo Siqueira takes over. They're essentially two separate stories but DC is just flushing artistic consistency down the toilet at this point.

As far as Charles Soule's story goes... it was alright. Diana spends most of the issue philosophizing over the relationships of gods and that myths are almost tragedies in every case. Meanwhile, Supes gets schooled by Zod who uses the fortress to get Faora out of the Phantom Zone. Daniel draws Faora in her Man of Steel costume. Its nice to see DC recognizing the new status quo for the overall Superman design. Though I'll always prefer Ursa.

Though the last two issues have taken some slower steps than the first, this book is still the best representation of Superman in the DCU.

Third Place:

DC Universe vs. Masters of the Universe #4

This issue had the same problems Rogues Rebellion #4 did: lots of pages of "who would win" pitting heroes against heroes with a very limited number designated for plot and story advancement.

We get to the crux of this arc where the heroes AND Skeletor realize Orko's been playing them both. He's in league with Hordak and has Superman captured. Next issue promises the origin of Dark Orko which I'm pretty excited to hear about. Keith Giffen and Tony Bedard are going to have to work overtime to turn the comedic relief of the old cartoon into the most evil villain Eternia has seen.

The coolest part of this story is a quick couple panels with dialog that elude to Moss Man being Eternia's Avatar of the Green. A great little nod to the parallels between him and Swamp Thing.

Second Place:

Green Lantern Corps #27

As far as I can tell, if the Green Lantern writing team ignored the whole "finite ring engergy" angle and just focused on the Durlans trying to bring down the Corps, this could be a good story. However, they keep mucking it up with the worst GL plot idea in at least 10 years.

We get into some straight up space cop business this issue as John Stewart leads a group of Lanterns to help Lantern safehouses that have come under attack. The Khunds have teamed up with the Durlans and all hell is breaking loose. If you take out the finite reservoir angle, the story doesn't change. Less is more folks.

Bernard Chang, who is the reason I was excited about this book, drew about half of it. Seems to me every week that goes by I'm looking at straight-up fill-ins or shared artists. I guess gone are the days of one artist on an entire run.

First Place:
Nova #12

Month to month, Nova is EASILY one of the most consistent books on the Pull-List. Even though we've gone from Jeph Loeb to Zeb Wells to Gerry Duggan on writing duties, all of them have maintained an incredibly consistent dynamic and tone. Not to mention the art of Paco Medina seamlessly following Ed McGuinness. AND Medina draws the whole book. An approach DC has abandoned.

The learning curve for Sam Alexander is interesting. Duggan is off to a great start taking Sam from adventure to adventure while still searching for the helmets of dead Novas. The story telling is so smooth and organic, I can't imagine anyone not enjoying this book.

I really appreciate this Nova title. Its quelled any uncertainty I had when I heard about the relauch. If DC wants to see how a book is supposed to be done, they could learn a lesson from this one.

Panel of the Week:

Bruce Wayne with brown hair and brown eyes?! TRAVESTY! Colorist Veronica Gandini has clearly never seen Bruce Wayne before.

-Gint