Gint's 6-18-14 Pull-List Review

Only four books this week because my jealously over the Kyle/Carol business forced me to quit Green Lantern: New Guardians.

Fourth Place:

Nova #18

We pause our regularly scheduled Nova issue to bring you an Original Sin tie-in. I'm not following Original Sin, so this issue could have been a throwaway. But it was not.

Gerry Duggan turned this tie-in into a fairly integral piece of the overall story of Sam Alexander trying to find his father. The initial tie-in portion seemed off-putting at first, but after letting it marinate, its another good issue. Duggan (with David Baldeon on pencils) just keeps on rolling, even when faced with hooking their book into Marvel's overarching plans.

And since I am nothing but honest with you readers, I'd be lying if I said this issue didn't pique my interest in Original Sin just a bit. A couple little story beats were really pretty neat. Could be some interesting things they're doing over at the House of Ideas.

Third Place:

X-Men #15

Inks in a comic book really do make a world of difference. For as cool as some of Matteo Buffagni's figures and panel layouts are, I can't help feeling they'd be more dramatic with inks. Just colors on pencil is an interesting once in a while, but a book like X-Men deserves the full artwork treatment.

The Future, an guy named the Future, not the actual future, is coming to take his baby back that the X-Men (Jubiliee) stole. I forget the circumstances of Jubiliee coming across the baby she named Shogo, but this whole issue I sided with the bad guy. It IS his baby afterall. Bad guy or not.

I picked this title up on a whim when it was launched because the concept sounded interesting. Brian Wood's writing hasn't let me down.

Second Place:

Futures End #7

Another good read from the heavy hitting writing team of Brian Azzarello, Keith Giffen, Dan Jurgens and Jeff Lemire. I'm not sure what happened between issues 1-5 and 6-7, but this book has gotten pretty interesting.

Since the writers have seemed to let up on writing asshole characters, my interest has doubled. Even in new characters like Fifty Sue. I have no idea what she really does yet, but she's a cool addition to the Futures End cast.

Aaron Lopresti pencils this issue with Art Thibert on inks. Thibert's work makes Lopresti not look quite like Lopresti, but for my money, of the four artists that have been drawing this book (Patrick Zircher, Jesus Merino, Mark Irwin and Lopresti), Lopresti is the strongest of the four.

First Place:

Batman and Ra's al Ghul #32

The Hunt for Robin comes to a close with a shocking twist at the end. I trust Peter Tomasi and Patrick Gleason with all of my comics, but kicking off a New Gods-heavy next arc gives me pause.

But before we get there we have an issue full of the standard great comic making that this team is known for. What I really liked about this issue was the twist that each Lazarus Pit across the world has different properties when it comes to resurrection. I'd love to see a chart detailing all of them. Its a cool bit of information that makes the DC Universe a little richer.

Gleason's art is stellar. I've compared it to an adult Batman: The Animated Series before, but this issue he really cranks it up. The best way I can describe it is its like seeing a live action Animated Series movie. Great stuff.

Panel of the Week:

I would pay top dollar to see Patrick Gleason draw a Hellboy book after seeing this panel of Frankenstein.

-Gint