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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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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