As we’ve said many time before, we love us some Marvel comics here at The Flickcast. Personally, I’ve been a huge fan of Nick Fury for a long time and am really enjoying the current book featuring the cigar chomping, eye patch wearing super agent known as Secret Warriors. Now, Marvel is poised to let Fury and his team loose again to battle the evil and sinister forces of H.A.M.M.E.R in the upcoming Secret Warriors #6.

Here’s all the info (including preview art, of course) from Marvel’s own electronic lips:

Nick Fury and his Secret Warriors have launched their offensive against Norman Osborn’s H.A.M.M.E.R., but the foot on Fury’s throat might be a sign that things won’t end well! Marvel’s most acclaimed new series of the year continues in Secret Warriors #6, as red-hot scribes Brian Michael Bendis (Dark Avengers) & Jonathan Hickman (upcoming Fantastic Four), team with Young Gun artist Stefano Caselli for the next shocking chapter in Nick Fury’s war against the Dark Reign!

What role does HYDRA play in this battle? What are Stonewall’s powers? And just what does Fury have up his sleeve? Strap in for answers—and a shocking conclusion that rocks Marvel’s world of subterfuge to its core! Plus, don’t miss an exciting variant cover by Tomm Coker, celebrating the sexy 70s!

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For yesterday’s The Pull List, go here.

Dark Reign: Sinister Spider-Man #1 – Marvel $3.99

Score: 7.5

(Sings) “Spider-Man. Spider-Man. Does whatever a spider can. Stops a bank robber. Eats his arm. Kills a stripper. Frames the Mayor. Watch out. Here comes the Spider-Man.” Not exactly the friendly neighborhood wall-crawler we all know and love right? Well of course not because good old Peter Parker isn’t the Spider-Man staring in this issue.

Instead, the Sinister Spider-Man is actually Venom of the Osborn sponsored Dark Avengers, a.k.a. Mac Gargan, a.k.a. the former Scorpion. For those not very familiar with the character, despite the amount of exposure he’s been getting all over Marvel lately by being tied to both Spider-Man and Norman Osborn, the issue gives a fair amount of background about who Venom once was and now is.

The issue starts out with “Genetic Terror of the Third Reich” General Wolfram, or just a Nazi with a dead wolf carcass on his head, robbing a bank in NYC. He is promptly stopped by the cities newly liked savior, Venom posing as the black suited Spider-Man. Venom, enjoying his new found heirdom, takes a moment to soak in the applause, kiss a few girls, and grab a few butts before taking off with Wolfram where he collects the money Wolfram robbed for himself and doing his own version of “taking a bite out of crime.” In other words, he ate Wolfy’s arm.

After a little flashback to his origins as a private detective and the deal he made with now Mayor J. Jonah Jameson that ultimately turned him in to the Scorpion, Venom heads to his favorite hangout, the strip club, where he finds a new favorite dancer, having eaten a previous one. Meanwhile, JJJ deals with the public scrutiny behind his mayoral run, including the rise in crime since his administration began. He is visited by a small, quirky doctor who wants to discuss a Super Villain Rehabilitation program which JJJ promptly shoots down.

Back at Avengers tower, Venom has taken his new favorite dancer back only to get yelled at by Norman for the bank’s missing money and Wolfram’s missing arm. Venom tells himself that Norman has just made his list, but he has other fish to fry first like JjJ who finds Venom’s dead stripper friend in his bed later that night. The issue concludes with a new “villain” popping his head up with the quirky doctor donning a white mask with a symbol like the Punisher’s on it, calling himself the Redeemer who sits in front of a group of villains that Venom had recently taken down.

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In a world where very little, if anything, is free, Marvel is trying to do something about that problem. How? Read on from the official Marvel press release:

“Marvel is proud to announce the debut of Agents of Atlas #0 today, available free to all fans courtesy of Marvel Digital Comics Unlimited! Collecting three new-reader friendly short stories from Secret Invasion: Who Do You Trust, Dark Reign: New Nation and Agents of Atlas #7, all written by critically-acclaimed scribe Jeff Parker, you’ll get the answers to your questions!

Who are the Agents of Atlas? What role did they play in Secret Invasion? What’s their new mission during Dark Reign? And just what’s it like to take a peek inside the mind of the enigmatic Mr. Lao?”

And as if that weren’t enough, Marvel has also made Agents of Atlas #1 live on Marvel Digital Comics Unlimited and its free to check out as well. Who says nothing in life is free? Now if I could just find out where they put that free beer.

For last week’s edition of The Pull List, click here and here.

Pull of the Week:

Captain America #600 – Marvel – $4.99
Score: 9.0

Without a doubt, Captain America #600 is a work of love. 104 pages dedicated to the Sentinel of Liberty that has been around for nearly seventy years. The sheer volume of work in the book including new stories, classic reprinted work and a cover gallery let the reader know just how important this character is to the creators who were privileged to play a part in it.

The issue begins with “Origin”, a two page painted summary of Cap’s history done by Alex Ross and Paul Dini. The pages are beautifully painted in a style that only Ross can capture with Dini telling Captain America’s origin in his own words. This had been originally published in Captain America: Red, White and Blue back in September of 2002. Of anything written, this two page synopsis of Cap’s history may be the best explanation of the essence of the character and his motivations.

The next piece of the book entitled, “One Year After” continues the current Brubaker story arc of the Captain America series as it takes a look at how the world deals with the aftermath one year after of Steve Rogers’ assassination on the steps of the New York courthouse where he was going to be tried for treason. Ed Brubaker hits every foreseeable corner of Captain America’s world as he catches up with Sharon Carter, Steve’s ex-lover who had been brainwashed in to delivering the fatal shots on Steve, as she begins finding pieces of her shattered memory and searches for the “most notorious murder weapon in the world”. The shooter of the first bullet to hit Steve Rogers, Crossbones, is given a spotlight as his fellow inmates praise his actions from a year ago, ultimately resulting in a prison riot. 

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Due to the holiday, this week’s books were out yesterday and the publishers treated us to a huge week of new top titles. Choosing this week’s Pull of the Week wasn’t an easy choice.

Pull of the Week:

Wolverine #72 – Marvel – $2.99
Score: 9.0

This is the Wolverine we know and love. Despite being fifty years down the line and having lived through one of the most traumatic experiences ever when he was tricked into killing his own teammates years ago by Mysterio, this issue of the “Old Man Logan” story proves that some people never really change. Logan is the best at what he does and this issue proves that even as an old man, he will still be the best.

The issue starts with a grim flashback of the day the villains won as the Red Skull explains to Captain America how he united the world’s super-villains in an effort to finally take over. There’s something very eerie about the Red Skull as he stands over the fallen Bucky-Cap, knowing that in this world, he has taken out both Steve Rogers and his successor successfully. Now, fifty years later, Skull stands in his trophy room surrounded by weapons and pieces of costume from various iconic heroes (including the costume and cape of the Sentry, giving me hope that he can be killed off and never brought back), reflecting on his successes as his minions bring him the corpse of Hawkeye and what they believe to be a dead Logan.

What comes next is one of the best fight one on one fight scenes in recent memory as Logan and the Skull take to each other using the weapons of the fallen heroes. Even knowing that this is an alternate reality, it’s still somewhat heart wrenching to see Logan forced to fight for his life and that of his family around the trophies the Red Skull had claimed off his former comrades. But like much of the rest of Logan’s life, the issue ends in tragic fashion before a very stark and powerful two page spread. Never before have two pages with literally no illustration on them been as meaningful as they are in this issue.

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This is part two of this week’s Pull List, check out yesterday’s reviews here.

Dark Reign: Young Avengers #1 – Marvel – $3.99
Score: 8.0
Under the cover headline “They’re exactly what you think”  stands a team of unknowns in the same pose as the Young Avengers on their first cover. In the opening pages the reader is introduced to this new cast of characters who introduce themselves to a group of liquor store robbers as the “Young Avengers”. The rag-tag group is made up of Coat of Arms (sword wielding artist who had brought the team together), Enchantress (not the classic Thor villain, but with similar powers), Egghead (a robot), Big Zero (a size changer with a bad attitude), Executioner (a weapons expert) and Melter (the team leader whose name is fairly self explanatory for his powers).

Originally announced as Norman Osborn’s own team of Young Avengers, this issue shows that the team actually has no affiliation with the former Green Goblin but instead came together in an effort to be heroes similar to the way the original Young Avengers had done. Their methods however quickly come into question as their “success” isn’t gained in the way any hero would have done.  This brings about what looks to be the theme of the issue, and hopefully the rest of the series, of “what makes a hero a hero?” Seen in actions of the characters, flashbacks and conversation between Melter and Coat of Arms, this seemingly simple question is one that is actually very hard to answer.  Even Melter, the one who is so in tuned with what his idea of what makes a hero and his desire to be one must question his own place on the team as the issue plays out.

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This is part one of this week’s Pull List, check back tomorrow for part two, and check out last week’s edition here and here.

Before we start off, I have to offer my apologies to a few readers. Despite all the hype and love people have for their pets,  I just couldn’t bring myself to purchase Lockjaw and the Pet Avengers…sorry again.
—- John

Pull of the Week:

Green Lantern Corps #36 – DC – $2.99
Score: 9.0

Continuing to move towards Blackest Night, writer Peter Tomasi takes the reader through three very different stories that all seem to be very dependent on each other. The first picks up with Sinestro, the leader of the Sinestro Corps, explaining to his daughter how the revelation of their relationship came to pass. It becomes quite a heart wrenching scene as Green Lantern Soranik must come to accept that the man, whose defeat made her the hero of her planet and people, is actually her father. Sinestro doesn’t come across as a typical mustache twirling super-villain in the scene either as there seem to be some honest intentions from the former tyrant. He explains to Soranik her role in what is supposedly destined to come.

At the same time there has been a breach in the facility where the Green Lantern Corps has been holding members of the Sinestro Corps captive for their despicable actions. These pages play out beautifully more as a news real feed than a comic book action sequence. Fleeting glimpses of the chaos are shown instead of following each of the specific Green or Yellow Lanterns during the battle. Instead, the overall drama of the confrontation is told with almost CNN-style narrative over what is definitely more than just the “Riot!” proclaimed on the cover of the issue.

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This is the second part of the Pull List reviews for this week’s comics. Read part one here.

Dark Reign: The Cabal – Marvel – $3.99
Overall Score: 5.5

Since Dark Reign: The Cabal is actually five smaller stories produced by completely different writing/art teams, there will be a short review for each piece, as opposed to trying to explain it as a whole.

“Doctor Doom:… And I’ll Get The Land”
Written by Jonathan Hickman and beautifully painted by Adi Granov, this vignette helps give insight into Doctor Doom’s thoughts of the Cabal and its future. While these thoughts and actions won’t be much surprise to someone who has followed the good Doctor, they are a great jumping on point for those not familiar with the character and his feelings of the current state of the Marvel U.

“Emma Frost: How I Survived Apocalyptic Fire”
Expert X-Scribe, Matt Fraction, teams with Daniel Acuna to present another recanting of what could be considered Emma Frost’s origin. Fraction doesn’t just show the reader what happened, he explains the effect of it on Emma and how that ties in to her current place in the Cabal.

“The Hood: Family Trust”
Now Marvel exclusive writer Rick Remender brings the reader to a private funeral with the Hood and the union of villains working under him. The story shows the Hood from two very different perspectives, the devout boyfriend and protective father who knows that his family is his top priority and the inspiring leader who gives a speech to keep his gang ready for what may come. One of the best aspects of the Hood is how relatively new the character is. Unlike classic villains like the Kingpin or Magneto that have been doing the same things for years, the Hood is still a wild card in the Marvel world. The short story does a tremendous job of helping build interest for his upcoming miniseries, Dark Reign: The Hood.

“Namor – The Sub-Mariner: The Judgment of Namor”
Playing off the story of the wise King Solomon, Namor sits in front of an Atlantean Court to hear a custody dispute between a militaristic father and pacifist mother over their mutant child. Though he has played the role of hero and villain in the past, Namor’s actions reflect he is neither, just a King and servant to his subjects. Of all the stories in Dark Reign: The Cabal, this is the only one where the art distracts from the story with Carmine Di Giandomenico’s somewhat loose and overly relaxed style. While providing insight in to a member of the Cabal, it gives only a brief connection to Namor’s involvement in the group.

“Loki: Dinner with Doom”
Writer Peter Milligan uses the mutual involvement of Loki and Doom in the Cabal as a tool for the two to communicate with each other about matters not concerning Osborn. Loki’s underhanded dealings with Doom do more to promote future issues of Thor than anything else.

Overall, Dark Reign: The Cabal provides small character building pieces of the members of the Cabal in short, easy to digest pieces. Unfortunately, they come across as more of a meager snack than a full meal due to their short length.  The stories read so fast but offer little in the way of satisfaction, they leave the reader wanting more than what the format of the issue could offer.

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