Welcome to another edition of The Pull List Comic Reviews! Superboy’s Adventure comes to an end, Daytripper continues to be trippy and the Rhino gets a happy ending that may actually stick. As always, WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD.

PULL OF THE WEEK:

Adventure Comics #6
DC Comics – $3.99 US
Writer: Geoff Johns
Artist: Francis Manapul
Score: 9/10

Superboy has been trying to “find himself” and determine if he’s more Superman than Lex Luthor, since his genetic make-up is made from both of them. Unfortunately, it’s Luthor who finds him first and serves notice that for all his intellect and power, Luthor still has that nasty little streak in him.

Honestly, this has been a fun, engaging run by superstar writer Geoff Johns. Equal parts adventure (which works great with the title) and drama, all revolved around Superboy’s own identity crisis, this arc hit all the right buttons without coming across as preachy or whiny; a testament to the writer’s considerable talent of making relevant topics matter in the pages of a comic book.

Continue Reading →

With 2009 coming to a close, the challenge was to pick and rank the 10 best comics from the entire year. I’ve estimated reading approximately 1,500+ issues over that time frame, so obviously it wasn’t the easiest task to complete. Still, after much deliberation, these are my picks for the 10 best comics of 2009.

1. Jonah Hex #50
DC Comics
Writers: Justin Gray, Jimmy Palmiotti
Artist: Darwyn Cooke
Originally reviewed on December 3, 2009

Perfection. Defined as the highest degree of proficiency, skill or excellence, perfection is near impossible to achieve, especially when every comic ever printed is subjective in nature. You know, “beauty is in the eye of the beholder” and all that jazz. Still, when I thought about all the comics I’ve read this past year, this issue of Jonah Hex kept coming back to me. While not perfect (frankly, what is?), it’s pretty close.

A wonderful done-in-one tale following our “hero” as he diligently goes about his day job, in this specific case while hunting down 50 various bad guys who had it coming to them. A fine story on it’s own. Now add a dash of romance – or the bounty hunter’s version of it – to the mix, sprinkle in a little personal vengeance, and top it off with a jolting reminder of how cruel life can be, and you’re left with a portrait of a man who makes no excuses for who he is or what he does, life expectations be damned.

Continue Reading →

Welcome to The Pull List Comic Reviews! Get comfy as a few titles elected to go with short stories this week, meaning we’ve got a lot to cover. As always, WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD.

PULL OF THE WEEK:

Deadpool #900 – Marvel Comics – $4.99 US
Writers: Jason Aaron, Fred Van Lente, Mike Benson, Joe Kelly, Duane Swierczynski, Victor Gischler, Charlie Huston Artists: Chris Staggs, Dalibor Talajic, Damion Scott, Rob Liefeld, Shawn Crystal, Sanford Greene, Kyle Baker
Score: 9.0

Has there been a hotter commodity in recent times than Deadpool? Hard to argue, but looking back you’ll find that the first issue of this title was launched last year amid much fanfare. Fast-forward twelve months and the character has starred in a one-shot (Deadpool: Games of Death), a mini-series (Deadpool: Suicide Kings), a second ongoing series (Deadpool: Merc With a Mouth) and an upcoming third ongoing (Deadpool Team-Up). What better way to hammer home his arrival in the spotlight – yeah, there was a Marvel Spotlight issue, too – than to give him a #900 issue, a first for comics?

The line-up of creators that contributed to this issue is ridiculous, so it’s no surprise that these seven short stories completely shine in their own right. Not a single dud in the mix. How could there be? He fights mimes in one short while staging a Vegas CSI scene in another, both with cataclysmic results. He gets abducted by aliens (poor aliens!) and spends quality time with his shrink (poor shrink!). He even puts the blinders on as he aims to collect on a childhood bet! Obviously, there’s no limits where ‘Pool is concerned.

Fourth walls be damned, in one memorable short he has a philosophical debate with his other inner-voices to determine which came first, the chicken or the egg. Accompanied by Kyle Baker’s visually trippy art, said short doesn’t end well for one reader, and bodes nothing but ill tidings to the rest of the readers out there, yourself included. But fear not as Deadpool embarks on a vacation cruise, systematically infuriating the entire crew and guests, and ultimately settling his differences with a fierce battle against Doc Ock… in ping pong.

Continue Reading →

If last week broke your wallet, this week is pretty light.

From DC/Vertigo we have The Nobody writer/artist Jeff Lemire’s ongoing series called Sweet Tooth. This one is about a boy named Gus who has deer-like antlers and is part of a group of kids with human/animal attributes that has made them immune to a recent pandemic. Its a little like the Vertigo epic Y: The Last Man and for a buck why not pick it up?

From Image we have the Chew reprints. I’ve been hearing nothing but positive things about this book, but have yet to even try it so I think picking up these four issues are a must have for me this week as well.

From Marvel, we have Ultimate Comics Spider-Man #2, which has beautiful David LaFuente art and the usual Bendis fun. We’re just going to have to face facts here, Brian Bendis will probably go down as the best Spider-Man writer ever and even though he is that, its not necessarily a terrible incident that you miss whole arcs as there is very little that ever happens.

Also, we have the profile book of Immortal Weapons #2. The last issue on “Fat Cobra,” written by Jason Aaron, was a gem of gluttony.  This issue is on the “Bride of Nine Spiders.”

As always, we here at The Flickcast care about what you read, so leave us a comment and let us know what you liked/didn’t like from this week’s comics. For a more complete list of what comes out this week, Midtown Comics has a great listing of everything.

Happy reading!

We are chock full of Vertigo Comics this week, as the mature line of DC Comics debuts its Crime Line with two hardcovers from Brian Azzarello (100 Bullets) and best selling mystery author Ian Rankin.

Azzarello offers us Filthy Rich about an ex-football player contracted to protect a mob boss’s daughter.  I’ve read a long preview of this and Azzarello’s acid tongue slips into every panel that somehow plays a jazz tune. I don’t know what it is, but just reading the pages I did I just thought I heard a Louis Armstrong song.

Ian Rankin gives us Dark Entries a crime line title featuring Vertigo’s longest running character, John Constantine, as he tackles a haunted house set up as a reality television program. I don’t know this doesn’t seem like a crime story, per se, but seems more appropriate for the main Hellblazer title.

The other Vertigo book is the first trade of The Unknown Soldier. I haven’t read this at all, but an interesting piece in last weekend’s New York Times, has left me interested in checking this trade out. For ten dollars, I’m sure there are worse things you could spend your money on.

Continue Reading →

The colossal and beautiful Wednesday Comics hits stands this week for its first installment of twelve weekly issues. I shouldn’t really explain to you why you should buy this comic, but does Paul Pope doing an Adam Strange story do it for you? No? How about the 100 Bullets team of Brian Azzarello and Eduardo Risso doing Batman? Or Neil Gaiman and Mike Allred doing Metamorpho? I’ll stop.  For $3.99 you’ll get a newspaper sized issue full of great comics.

We’re big fans of Chuck here at The Flickcast. Especially me, I’ve been waiting for this collection for what seems like months. Written by series writers Peter Johnson and Zev Borow, it seems like this series was the first phase of trying out TV series as comics if that series would end up getting canceled. Thankfully, Chuck was not canceled and we still have this fun comic.

My final recommendation is Jeff Lemire’s The Nobody, published by Vertigo Comics and inspired by H.G. Wells’ The Invisible Man. I hear nothing but wonderful things about his Essex County trilogy and just as many wonderful things about this book.

As always we here at The Flickcast care about what you read, and if these don’t get you going, Midtown Comics has an excellent list of this week’s listings.  So, tell us what you liked this week in the comments section. Happy reading!

Normally the Pull of the Week comes on the Thursday version of the Pull List but this week we decided to keep you in suspense and make you wait until today. –John

Pull of the Week:

USA Comics #1 – Marvel – $3.99
Score: 8.5

When I was younger, I had never known much about Golden Age comics other than that’s where Batman, Superman, Captain America, Namor and the first Human Torch came from. But with Marvel’s 70th Anniversary, they have made it easier to get acquainted with tons of heroes from their past that seemed to be lost in the annuls of time only to be reprinted or re-imagined these decades later. This story follows German journalist Emil Hansen as he is on a supply train interviewing a Nazi colonel during the early days of World War II.

Their train is attacked and destroyed by the Mighty Destroyer who dives out of the train with Emil in tow seconds before a bomb detonates. Emil, though not a Nazi, fears he has become a captive of the Destoyer. He is used as bait and tries to warn the Nazi’s only to be confronted by the Destroyer for trying to save them. Emil talks about how he may not be a Nazi, but Germany is his home and he loves it still. The Destroyer speaks powerful two very powerful words about what a man should do and what he shouldn’t be afraid to. The Destroyer keeps Emil with him as he sets what should be a standard trap on a railway but instead of just watching his target train derail, the Destroyer takes Emil and the two board that train. After some great action sequences fighting around the train, the Destroyer’s plan is revealed with an emotional final few pages.

Issues like this were part of what brought me originally in to comics. I didn’t need long story arcs extending over six months. Back when I first started reading, younger than 10 years old, I had no attention span. If it didn’t wrap up in a single issue, I didn’t remember what had happened four weeks later. The issues that stood out most from my youth were the great one shot stories. USA Comics #1 focusing on the Destroyer is a great comic. Though lacking humor, every other aspect of great comic writing is in this book. There is drama, action, compelling characters with an unusual relationship between the two and of course, conflict.

For someone who only saw the Destroyer before as a WWII version of the Punisher, this anti-Nazi can evoke so much more emotion from a reader than any current rendition of Frank Castle. For example, the explanation of his costume reveals a fantastic “Oh wow” moment that the Punisher could never achieve. Being currently in an era of big events that don’t have much long term consequence like Final Crisis or the Secret Invasion, the story being set in an actual major event such as WWII gives it so much more believability and weight as the reader sees what these characters must go through.

Starting off as Timely Comics, Marvel has gone through tremendous change over the years but like any company to last that long like DC or Archie, they have produced compelling characters. It is great to see a company that honors its history instead of just blindly pushing forward. USA Comics #1 does so in a way that is both captivating and relevant. By keeping the characters accurate to the original themes surrounding them and losing the campy dialogue that was so dominant during the Golden Age of comics, the book instantly becomes so much more accessible to readers new to the character. It’s also great to see one of Stan Lee’s earliest creations still in action after all these years as well.

Continue Reading →

For those of you who wanted more Watchmen the first time around or felt like something was missing from the film, you’re going to get your chance to see the movie the way director Zack Snyder intended. According to Variety, Warner Bros. has set a one-week theatrical release for Snyder’s director’s cut of Watchmen, which contains much of the additional footage excised from the initial theatrical release, starting July 17th at theaters in Dallas, Los Angeles, Minneapolis and New York.

Snyder made the announcement yesterday during an event at the studio to promote the DVD and Blu-ray releases of Watchmen: The Director’s Cut and 300: The Complete Experience on July 21st. The Watchmen director’s cut contains approximately 28 additional minutes of footage not seen before.

The theatrical run takes place during the week before Comic-Con in San Diego where Snyder is set to host a July 25th “BD Live” screening of Watchmen. Owners of the Blu-ray version of the film will be able to use the BD Live feature to watch the movie and discussion at Comic-Con simultaneously.

The DVD and Blu-Ray versions of Watchmen hit stores on July 21st.

Almost two years ago, it was announced the D.J. Caruso would direct and Carl Ellsworth would write a big screen adaptation of Brian K. Vaughn and Pia Guerra’s celebrated comic Y: The Last Man. Since that time and pretty much immediately, Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen star Shia LaBeouf’s name has been associated with the film and speculation had been that he was in talks to take on the lead role of Yorick Brown, the “last man” of the title who survived a plague that wiped out all other men.

But now, according to an interview with Wizard Magazine, you can take LaBeouf’s name off the list of potential Yoricks. Why? Well, according to the interview, the star feels that the character is too similar to the one he’s played in both Transformers movies: Sam Witwicky.

“You take Sam and you put a monkey on his shoulder,” said LaBeouf in the interview of Yorick’s simian sidekick Ampersand. “I don’t know if it’s that big a differential. It seems like he’s the ordinary guy in an extraordinary situation again.

He added, “I’m not willing to make that movie currently, and may be too old to play the role by the time it does come around.” So, now that LaBeouf is apparently out of the picture, who will take on the role of “the last man?” Well, to throw out a couple names just for fun, how about someone like Topher Grace or Adam Brody? They might work.