Gint's 8-26-15 Pull-List Review

We had a DC-heavy week at the old Pull-List. I guess if you've been following us long enough, you know that's not a surprise.

Fifth Place:

Superman #43

This month we learn the exact circumstances of why Lois leaked Superman's secret identity to the public: to save his life. Supes gets himself in a pretty serious pickle, so Lois does what she can to get him out of it. He's a huge dick afterwards, but I assume he'll come around. After all, she did it with the best intentions. Yeah yeah "road to hell" and all that.

What's still weird to me about the New 52 universe, is that there's no romance between Lois and Clark. Its hinted at in this issue that Lois has feelings for him, but Clark shuts her down pretty hard citing his relationship with Diana. Maybe there's a long game being played with this, but I don't like it. DC has made a lot of questionable relationship decisions since the New 52 launched. You'd think my checkered past and I would understand, but heroes should be better than me. Even at relationships.

PS Supes' solar flare power is still super dumb.

Fourth Place:

Prez #3

This is the least fun-friendly issue so far. Not only does the quirky comedy get darker than usual, but even light-hearted Beth Ross' character takes a darker turn. Instead of the bright ray of hope in this dismal future, Beth is a straight up bitch in this issue. She comes off as more of an entitled celebutant than a normal well-adjusted teenager. I trust writer Mark Russell is just opening up different facets of who Beth is. She did lose her father last issue after all.

The most frightening thing in the book is Russell and Caldwell's take on Amazon and how the corporation treats its employees in this dystopia. Its so over-the-top, but not so far that you can't see things like this happening if all the dominoes fall in the right directions.

Politics and social woes have never been my game. I prefer to enjoy myself and not fret over things I ultimately have no control over. Prez is reinforcing the fact that I'll be happy I'm dead by the time the world gets really shitty to live in.

Third Place:

Lando #3

Are we seeing the secret origin of Lobot? Maybe, but probably not. Since the book started, I never thought Lobot would sound the way Charles Soule writes him. He's got no dialog in The Empire Strikes Back, so who really knows? This issue we find out a little more about the workings of Lobot's headpiece and that he's constantly struggling against it to keep his humanity. That leads me to believe by Empire, he's lost that humanity, because he's essentially a robot.

But the big reveal is that while digging through the stolen ship, Lando finds Emperor Palpatine has been keeping Sith artifacts. The ship he stole is essentially a museum of historical artifacts. I think its a pretty neat angle that Lando doesn't realize Palpatine IS a Sith since those religions have been dead for so long.

At the end of the issue, he and Ugnaught Sava Korin trip something in the Sith room that comes to life. The smoothest brother in the galaxy is in for a hard ride.

Second Place:

He-Man: The Eternity War #9

The lesson this issue is "you do not fuck with Skeletor." He and his crew have been the anti-heroes so far going up against the far worse Hordak. But once Skeletor takes out Horak's entire force at Castle Grayskull, HE then has the power. But Hordak goes down a little too easily, so I assume writer Dan Abnett has something else up his sleeve.

Meanwhile, King Adam is dealing with a cold and not being He-Man anymore. He's not handling it well and is becoming a total dick. The decision to either attack Hordak without He-Man or surrender is killing the poor kid. And like usual, Zodac isn't anywhere to be found for advice. The Sorceress (Teela) doesn't offer much in the way of help either.

Coolest thing? Seeing Hordak's forces invade tons of planets in tons of universes, INCLUDING the one Queen Marlena was sent to in the Masters of the Universe vs. DC Universe mini: DC Earth! Pop Mhan doesn't get to draw any of it, but you assume if Hordak is tearing up the planet, the DC heroes are fighting back his armies and Fright Zones. Awesome.

First Place:

JLA #3

Who loves the real Justice League? I love the real Justice League. The first 40-some issues of the New 52's Justice League were rushed through so fast, you never got any sense of who this team was as a team. Before you knew it, Hal was being the martyr and leaving Earth, then Shazam was introduced, now Power Ring is on the team... fuck. Slow it down and just tell me some good Justice League (and Cyborg) stories.

Bryan Hitch has set a complicated plot in motion. If this guy's not careful, he's going to shit the bed on the landing. But so far, everything is clear and understandable. Rao (the Kryptonian god) is being a hands-on god to Earth's people. Superman is cool with it, Batman... not so much. In the meantime Hal and Barry get zapped mysteriously to the Krypton of 250,000 years ago. This is no doubt connected to Rao's appearance on Earth.

I'm pretty sure issue #3 here was late. Or maybe that's my imagination because Hitch is writing and drawing. This is one of my favorite books at the moment, so I sincerely hope Hitch busts his balls to get it done. I don't want a different creative team, and I certainly don't want a different Justice League.

Panel of the Week:

There wasn't one panel in any of these books that was either exemplary or shit. So you get nothing.

-Gint