I’m particularly fired up for some brand new Adam Kubert art this week. The Kubert Brothers are probably my favorite comic artists working today, and this week we get Adam Kubert handling a Dan Slott Spider-Man issue, where our favorite web-slinger gets put on Norman Osborn’s List. This is probably the Must Buy of the week in my opinion, and there you have it.

Other good issues include the beginning of the Gauntlet story in Amazing Spider-Man. With Mark Waid writing and Paul Azaceta drawing the introduction, Joe Kelly and his I Kill Giants artist Niimura handle a Black Cat story.

From DC we get the penultimate issue of the Flash: Rebirth, with some incredible art from Ethan Van Sciver. At this point, with Blackest Night and everything else it seems like this book has kind of gone by the wayside and we know that Barry Allen is back and he is back to stay. So why stay with this book? Well, I feel like its still interesting to see how he comes back, plus all the Flashes together makes for some neat visuals.

Finally, an Indie book called Viking, written by one of the best comic writers that you may or may not know of, Ivan Brandon, takes on a viking crime book with artist Nic Klein. This is a beautifully dialogued, and gorgeously rendered book that is a feast for your eyes. Its easily the best put together comic on the market so I urge you all to try it out.

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, check out the one at Midtown Comics.

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.

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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.

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