Another week and more comics. Fortunately, it never seems to end and we keep getting fun stuff to read. This week, we’re interested in a few titles including the latest Marvel Zombies, Avengers: The Origin and the premier of S.H.I.E.L.D. #1.

Remember, comics go on sale this Wednesday so get to your favorite comics store early for best selection. Don’t know where your nearest comic store is? Use this handy guide to find one.

Comics On-Sale:

AVENGERS: THE ORIGIN #1
CAPTAIN AMERICA/BLACK PANTHER: FLAGS OF OUR FATHERS #1
DEADPOOL & CABLE #25
DEADPOOL & CABLE #25 LIEFELD VARIANT
DEADPOOL CORPS #1
DEADPOOL CORPS #1 LIEFELD 2ND PRINTING VARIANT
DEADPOOL CORPS #1 SKETCH VARIANT
ELECTRIC ANT #1
ELECTRIC ANT #1 MACK VARIANT
IRON MAN MAGAZINE #1
IRON MAN POSTER BOOK
MARVEL ZOMBIES 5 #1

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Unfortunately, due to a scheduling snafu, I didn’t get my comics this week until late Wednesday night. As a result, I wasn’t able to get through them all in one sitting so there won’t be a Pull of the Week this week. But that won’t stop me from getting you two full days of comic reviews from the books I did get a chance to read this week.

Exiles #6 – Marvel – $3.99

Score: 4.0

And finally, Exiles comes to a bittersweet end. And it’s not bittersweet because we will miss our heroic team as they are shown off in classic fashion. It’s bittersweet because the book that was so lacking in story and character development after dragging the name of one of our favorite series through the mud has finally ended and we don’t need to see it dip even further away from the quality it once was. After only four issues, it was revealed that Exiles‘ second volume, which somehow trumped New Exiles for being the worst use of the Exiles team, would be coming to a quick end. So to “celebrate” the series finale, they decided to make it a “mega-sized” final issue to help tie up all those loose ends that originally should have been spread out over an ungodly number of painfully written issues.

Much like the rest of the series, Exiles #6 just isn’t good. After finding out their first mission was not a success, the Exiles return to the world to break up the alliance that was keeping mutant kind united and would ultimately lead to the end of the world by driving the wedge of Scott Summers’ infidelity between Jean Grey and Emma Frost. When this happens, a series of events plays out that explains the “true” origins of the Exiles teams and how the Timebroker, the bugs and the old couple weren’t ever really behind their formation.

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For yesterday’s The Pull List, go here.

New Avengers #55 – Marvel – $3.99

Score: 7.5

Though beaten out by another Marvel team book this week for Pull of the Week, New Avengers is still a great read. Coming off the “Who is the next Sorcerer Supreme?” storyline, this issue finds the Avengers back in New York where they continue their gauntlet with the Hood’s forces. As dissension grows amongst the Hood’s forces, the Wrecking Crew vocally airs their disappointment in their current arrangement. The Hood defends his position along with the help of his girlfriend, Madame Masque. Another of the Hood’s men, Chemistro, finds a piece of Stark-tech that would effectively disable the heroes powers, had it not been destroyed in their battle with the New Avengers.

Instead of giving the tech to his boss, the Hood, Chemistro takes it to Doctor Harrow hoping to reverse engineer it for their own purposes. The issue also follows up on the actions of Clint Barton after having called out Norman Osborn to the world as the former Green Goblin who has now been placed in charge of the nation’s security. A meeting of the Avengers has been called and Clint apologizes for his actions and going about them without talking to the team first. He then throws down his endgame plan… to kill Norman Osborn. This idea becomes the focus of the discussion between the underground Avengers until they receive word that a villain is letting loose in Times Square, Chemistro.

Coming off the not so surprising choice of Brother Voodoo as the new Sorcerer Supreme, this issue acts as a link back four issues before all the magical nonsense took place. The New Avengers are still up against this generation’s Masters of Evil, the Hood’s gang, and the events from a previous battle between the two have started to show some repercussions. No huge revelations occur within it but New Avengers #55 acts as a great setup issue for what is to come in the series. Solicits have shown that something big is going to happen between these two factions (don’t worry, we won’t spoil what they are) and this issue, from Bendis’s great dialogue amongst the Hood’s gang to the bleak cover showing a pile of New Avengers corpses laid out do a fantastic job of continuing the hype machine behind this series.

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

Pull of the Week:

Irredeemable #2 – Boom! – $3.99
Score: 8.5
After hearing all the buzz about this series, I went back and picked up the first issue as well as this week’s new release with issue #2. This issue picks up with Kaidan, a former teammate of the fallen hero, The Plutonian, on the search for any information regarding just who the new rogue used to be or what may be his weakness. Kaiden’s journey takes her to the ruins of Sky City, a place she and the Plutonian used to protect together, which is now just a scrap heap left in the Plutonian’s wake. Her journey takes her to a woman who was once the Plutonian’s girlfriend and in hearing the girl’s tale, Kaidan must also look back on her own experiences with someone she once considered a friend in order to see what may have caused him to snap.

Writer Mark Waid does a great job of overlapping super hero action on a gritty detective story. While the book has many of the standard super hero conventions that seemingly parody characters like Superman, such as his utterly laughable “secret” identity and the ability to fly to space in back in mere moments, the Plutonian is as far from the Man of Steel as they come.  Something has really snapped in this former hero, as witnessed by his actions in the first issue to one of his former teammates the Hornet, as well as the Hornet’s wife and baby. And while the actions of the Plutonian are gruesome in their own right, the scariest part about him are the moments left unseen and without description. Leaving only the aftermath as evidence, the reader is only given a small peek in to the obviously broken psyche of the man who was once considered his world’s greatest hero. Peter Krause does a great job illustrating the story in a style that resembles Dynamite’s The Boys. The two books actually share a lot in common with their takes on the super hero genre.

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