With Captain America and The Avengers inching closer to big screen reality, Marvel hasn’t forgotten that it’s also a comic book company. To illustrate that, Marvel is coming out with several comics that will pave the way for the movies and will also enhance the stories and characters with exclusive content.

One such example of this is the upcoming Steve Rogers: Super Soldier, which comes from award-winning scribe Ed Brubaker and artist Dale Eaglesham. It’s the sequel to Captain America: Reborn and in it Steve Rogers must face dark secrets from his past that threaten the future of the entire world. A heroes work is never done.

We’ve got a preview for this new book after the jump. Expect this new book to hit store shelves in May.

The siege of Asgard continues, Indigo becomes the new choice of color and Captain America “officially” returns in this latest edition of The Pull List Comic Reviews! Due to time constraints and unforeseen delays, this week’s column is abbreviated. As always, WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD.

PULL OF THE WEEK:

Atom & Hawkman #46
DC Comics – $2.99 US
Writer: Geoff Johns
Artist: Ryan Sook
Score: 9/10

Ray Palmer, known better as the Atom, has been knocked down more than most during his career as a costumed crime-fighter, but he always manages to pick himself up. Not surprisingly, that compassion of his has earned him an Indigo ring, and with the dead seemingly winning the war, Ray has figured out a way to swing the battle to the good guys; even if the good guys aren’t all necessarily “good” to begin with.

I would never have thought that, of all the Blackest Night-themed “continuation” issues, this would be the best of the bunch (so far), but with Geoff Johns at the helm, I should have known better. Johns uses a This Is Your Life presentation of Ray Palmer’s history as a canvas to show just how much the character brings to the table, and in doing so, the writer sets the stage for what could be the turning point in war against Nekron.

Artist Ryan Sook simply crushed this issue. Everything in this issue was pitch-perfect, from Ray’s past to the horrific present – every panel led to the next without skipping a beat. Instead, the body of work in this issue touched on varying types of visual storytelling that not only worked incredibly well, but also showed the artist’s vast range of skills.

Wrap all this up and throw in the aforementioned revelation of the Indigo rings, and you’re left with a can’t-miss issue that’s also the Pull of the Week.

Another week, another batch of great comics from the fine filks at Marvel. This week sees the release of several books we’re looking forward to including a new X-Force, Captain America: Reborn #6, Kick-Ass #8, Secret Warriors #12 and the latest New Avengers.

As always, be sure to check out the previews of some covers for these comics after the jump. New comics go on sale this Wednesday at a comic shop near you. To locate your nearest comic shop that carrier your favorite titles, use this handy guide.

Comics On-Sale:

AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #619 (GNTLT)
AVENGERS: THE INITIATIVE #32 (S)
CAPTAIN AMERICA: REBORN #6 CASSADAY VARIANT
CAPTAIN AMERICA: REBORN #6 GATEFOLD COVER
CAPTAIN AMERICA: REBORN #6 QUESADA VARIANT
DAREDEVIL #504
DARK REIGN: HAWKEYE #5 (DR)
FALL OF THE HULKS: GAMMA 2ND PRINTING VARIANT
FALL OF THE HULKS: RED HULK #1
FANTASTIC FOUR #575
FANTASTIC FOUR #575 SEVEN DECADES VARIANT
GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY #22
HALO: BLOOD LINE #2

Welcome to another edition of The Pull List Comic Reviews! Since the hectic holiday schedule and copious amounts of eggnog have affected my time and brain cells, respectively, this week’s reviews are more of the quickie variety. While short and sweet – well, as short and sweet as I’m going to get – there’s enough yuletide cheer to make even Gotham warm over. As always, WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD.

PULL OF THE WEEK:

Avengers: The Initiative #31
Marvel Comics – $2.99 US
Writer: Christos N Gage
Artist: Rafa Sandoval
Score: 8.5/10

The music’s pumping, the booze is flowing and the girls are dancing. Seems like Taskmaster’s right where he wants to be, until Norman Osborn decides to come to Camp H.A.M.M.E.R. for an inspection. Nobody said pimpin’ was easy, especially since Taskmaster has to get his place running on all cylinders before the boss arrives, bearing “gifts.”

Incredibly solid issue by writer Gage. Throughout the entire string of storylines, like “Civil War,” “Secret Invasion” and “Dark Reign,” select characters from both sides of the fight have begun to question whether or not they’re on the right side. Makes for some good reading and interesting dynamics as “Siege” starts to pick up steam. Artist Sandoval continues to be consistently good, especially where Taskmaster is included in the scene.

Welcome to another edition of The Pull List Comic Reviews! The latest mutant milestone issue gets top billing, Spidey winds up in the wrong sandbox and Guy Gardner sees a whole lot more than just red. As always, WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD.

PULL OF THE WEEK:

X-Factor #200
Marvel Comics – $4.99 US
Writer: Peter David
Artists: Bing Cansino, Marco Santucci, Karl Moline
Score: 9.5/10

X-Factor Investigations makes the move from Detroit to New York in hopes of wrangling some new clients of the super-hero variety, but when their first client winds up being Franklin and Valeria Richards – the children to Reed and Sue Richards of the Fantastic Four – the team realizes that all is not what it seems.

Long-time X-Factor scribe Peter David continues to mix jaw-dropping plot bombs with great characterizations and intelligent humor in this over-sized anniversary special. The mystery of the missing Invisible Woman, on it’s own, is a great story, but throw in Monet’s father being abducted by terrorists, Siryn’s shocking rendezvous with an old flame (hint: he’s nuts) and Layla Miller’s surprising allegiance to Latveria, and you’ve got one hell of a jump-on issue.

The art team of Bing Cansino and Marco Santucci do a great job of pacing this mammoth story, and their takes on the characters are both familiar and fresh. With a title that relies heavily on many speaking scenes, which should come as no surprise to current readers, their art is right on the money, but they also flex their proverbial muscle in the action scenes, especially where the Thing is involved.

WARNING – This article does, in fact, contain spoilers regarding recent comic book releases. If you have not read your comics, don’t say we didn’t warn you.

In this day and age it is very hard to keep things secret for too long. The secret cameo in Zombieland or the end of the fourth Twilight novel or that Bruce Willis is a ghost in the 6th Sense just to name a few. The big surprises are not longer allowed to surprise us because some people insist on ruining them for us because they want to show off that they were the first in the know.

Still other times, we often experience inadvertent spoilers because of marketing efforts. This is especially prevalent in comic books where the description of a comic in Previews gives enough information most times to allow the reader to know the end result of the current story arc as the next is already being promoted. Recent “big moments” like Magneto’s return to the X-Men series were ruined for anyone who picked up previews to see his face on the cover of an issue still two months from release.

It can be said though that someone is reading Previews “at their own risk” knowing that there may be spoilers within by the nature of the publication.

Happy Wednesday! This week there is a great mix and mash of comics, and we hope you’ll at least give a look at a few of these. First off: ever wonder what it would be like if the writer/artist of The Dark Knight Returns teams with the artist of Watchmen? Now you’ll know this week as Frank Miller and Dave Gibbons team up for The Life and Times of Martha Washington in the 21st century. The thing is PRICEY though, so at keep an eye out for a cheaper version when it hits stands.

From DC Comics this week, we have Philip Tan replacing Frank Quitely on Batman and Robin. Its worth getting to see the difference. There’s a Quitely cover at least. The good news is that Grant Morrison’s collaborator on Seaguy Cameron Stewart will be joining the team following Tan. Fortunately, Quitely is staying on as the cover artist, and every week he turns in a new cover I can’t help but make that my computer background. Just look at that sucker.

Also, from DC is Blackest Night #3, this juicy and horrific tale is crazy weird.  Almost Howling or Piranha-like but in comics. Not cheesy horror, but outlandish horror.

The final five issues of Brian K. Vaughan’s brilliant Ex Machina series starts this week and I kinda feel like I did when Y: The Last Man was ending. Something really special is ending and we’re never going to see it again.  Well, that’s a mixed bag. Though we’re going to have movie versions of these comics I just mentioned, Vaughan is slipping away from comics. With his Roundtable script being on this year’s Black List and selling that script for six figures, plus leaving the Lost writer’s room, I can only imagine that hopefully this means more comics for Vaughan but I fear that’s probably not the case.

From Marvel, the only thing really worth it is Ed Brubaker’s Captain America Reborn. What I like about Ed Brubaker is that while he’s a slow burn and you have to be ultra committed to sticking with him, and this book’s case it is painfully so, its always worth it in the end.  Its time to move the story forward, we get Captain America is Quantum Leaping through his life, now lets move forward from that.

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.

Its going to be a busy week with Comic-Con in San Diego starting on Thursday, but that hasn’t stopped Marvel from announcing a whole slew of new comics that are dropping this week. Sure, they will probably have some special editions available only at the Con, but this list is pretty extensive so even if you don’t happen to be in San Diego this week, I’m sure you’ll be able to find something you want to read at your local comic shop.

Following is all the new comics from the official Marvel Press release, complete with some great cover art for this week. Check it out:

Hey there True Believers, here’s your official list of comic books, collections and posters arriving in comic stores on July 22nd, 2009. For more information on any of these titles, and on upcoming mighty Marvel releases, please visit http://www.marvel.com/catalog/?date=2009-07-22 or contact your local comic book retailer at 1-888-comicbook.

Stay tuned each week for a brand new list of Marvel releases so that you’ll never miss your favorite heroes in action!

AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #596 2ND PRINTING VARIANT (DR)

AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #597 2ND PRINTING VARIANT (DR)

AMAZING SPIDER-MAN 600 ROSS COVER

AMAZING SPIDER-MAN 600 WRAPAROUND COVER

Captain America Reborn #1 – Marvel – $3.99

Score: 6.5

This review doesn’t have to do with the fact that Marvel is bringing back Steve Rogers, something many people are opposed to. Instead, it is based on the merits of the issue itself and how well the story inside is told, even if the central idea isn’t a popular one. The issue starts off with Steve Rogers giving a quick speech as he and the other soldiers get ready to storm Normandy on June 6th, 1944. D-Day. It flashes back to the present where Bucky-Cap and the Black Widow storm one of the H.A.M.M.E.R. helicarriers.

At the same time as Bucky and the Black Widow make their way through hordes of H.A.M.M.E.R. agents, the Vision, the Falcon and Sharon Carter, the woman who shot the fatal point blank bullets in to Steve Rogers, go talk to Henry Pym where Sharon admits her involvement in Steve’s death while under the control of the Red Skull and Armin Zola. She then begins to tell the details of that day that make her believe that Steve Rogers still might be able to be brought back. Back on the helicarrier, Bucky and the Black Widow search for an item that played a part in that fateful day one year ago when Steve was killed, only to be intercepted by Ares and Venom of Norman Osborn’s Avengers team.

And, as expected, an explanation of what just happened to Steve Rogers on that very day is explained in full, playing off the events of Captain America #600 and filling in the details that were left unspoken until now after Sharon began to remember all of the events of that day. Unfortunately, unlike Captain America #600, there were no creepily sexual cameos from the disturbed Crossbone and Sinn couple.

The issue itself feels very lean. Like even though there are supposed to be some big reveal moments, the idea that Steve is coming back isn’t a brand new idea in the minds of the reader and the events of Captain America #600 have shown the seeds of how it could happen. The pages with Sharon, Falcon, Vision and Hank Pym talking are pretty boring because of this as it is almost entirely old information and the new information doesn’t prove to be impactful enough to back it up. Norman Osborn, along with a “secret guest”, have a quick appearance that has much of the same lackluster effect.

This is a big week for comics. Steve Rogers returns from the dead, the really beautiful Justice League: Cry for Justice book comes out and another new Deadpool book (because one can never have enough of those) hts the comic store shelves.

“Nobody ever really stays dead in comics.” That’s about as tired a phrase as “Walk softly and carry a big stick.” Still, things certainly don’t change for Marvel Comics in this sense as they are bringing back Steve Rogers from the dead as Captain America in Captain America: Reborn #1. Eisner, and now Harvey, nominated writer Ed Brubaker guides this book with art by Bryan Hitch (Ultimates, Fantastic Four). I’m getting this one for sure.

Another Marvel book that I’m really pumped for is another Deadpool mini. Let’s count ’em: there’s regular Deadpool with Daniel Way and Paco Medina, there’s Deadpool: Suicide Kings (which is selling out big time) with Mike Benson and now there’s Deadpool: Merc with a Mouth.  Which, let’s just say, should fulfill your need for zombies – and dinosaurs and dimension-hopping. Ah, click on the link it should be a lot of fun.