Everyone knows that Wednesday is new comic book day. While picking up your new issues consider looking at some of the trade paperbacks and hard covers of past issues and story lines. But which ones should you choose?

That’s why every Tuesday, The Flickcast will recommend a collection of comics that are just as good, if not better, than the issues you are currently buying. Books that deserve to be read, and bought the next time you walk into your local comic book store.

“The hardest part is that I’m 83 years old. I do a great
Jack Benny, but no one really gets it anymore.”- Atomic Robo

Atomic Robo is a comic I have enjoyed reading for some time now. Every chance I get to recommend it to someone, I do and this was the book that started my love for it.

I was wandering through my local comic book shop. I knew that I wanted to buy a book, and I also knew that I didn’t want more of the same. I needed something different, something a little crazy, and something with some humor. Then, it appeared!

Its simple cover was filled with a robot with glowing blue eyes looking like it was seconds away from pounding in the heads of some crazier robots. How could I not buy this book? From there, I have read everything Atomic Robo, and you should too. Start with this Trade Paperback Tuesday pick, Atomic Robo and the Fightin’ Scientists of Tesladyne.

Atomic Robo is the story of the same-named robot that was built by Nikola Tesla in 1923. He has lived through the 20th century, had crazy adventures, and now has adventures with a team of action scientists! How can you not read a book with that description?

The first week of DC Comics New 52 has past. Following the release of Justice League #1, last Wednesday DC released its first week of full comic releases of the new relaunch. Excitement has never been higher for DC Comics, and one single question has been asked by comic fans, new and old, everywhere.

Are the books any good?

That’s what the DC Comics ‘New 52’ report card is here to answer! Each and every week, I will read and review each and every book of the ‘New 52.’ Letting you, the reader, know exactly which ones to buy, which ones you should avoid, and which ones you should give to your friend that has never read comics before.

So let’s get started. This week’s books are Action Comics, Animal Man, Batgirl, Batwing, Detective Comics, Green Arrow. All books will be graded on a scale of A to F. Check in tomorrow morning for our second half of last week’s comics. Withoutt further adieu, let’s get started with our first book: Action Comics #1.

This is it. This is the issue that everyone has been waiting for since DC Comics announced that it was relaunching its entire line with all number one issues. History is made as DC has swept most of its history under the rug. The characters are fresh, shiny, and inviting for the general public. As a first issue and introduction to the new DC Universe, how is it? Minor spoilers below.

Five Years Ago…

The issue begins with that tagline as we see the police chasing Batman who is chasing a cloaked figure across rooftops. The police fire on Batman and the cloaked figure. Thankfully, Green Lantern shows up to knock the cloaked figure off the roof, and save the Batman. Most of the book is spent with Batman and Green Lantern talking, and getting to know each other. GL quizzes Batman about what superpowers he possesses. While Batman proves himself by stealing Green Lantern’s ring right off of his hand, a brilliant character moment.

They Say He’s An Alien…

Batman and Green Lantern are able to track the cloaked figure. Who plants an alien bomb, but not before revealing who his master is. (Hint, think about a very tall Superman villain that was created by Jack Kirby, and whose name rhymes with rawhide.) The two survive, and decide to talk to an alien that lives in Metropolis and no longer wears his underwear on the outside.

Everything’s coming up Marvel this week as John Carle returns with his special edition of The Pull List. Sal Loria is back next week so be sure and check in then, and every week, for brand new installments of The Pull List Comic Reviews. – Ed.

Pull Of the Week

X-Factor #50 – Marvel – $3.99
Writer: Peter David Artist: Valentine De Landro
Score: 8.5

X-Factor #50 is the issue where everything finally comes full circle for the events of this entire volume of X-Factor. Ever since the House of M, Layla Miller has been a question mark in the Marvel U. Is her mutant power really that she just “knows stuff”? This issue finally answers the question as Peter David concludes his story arc revolving around Jamie and Layla eighty years in the future dealing with the Summers Rebellion against a corrupt man trying to destroy all mutants using the technology of Doctor Doom and employing a corrupted dupe of Multiple Man who had been misplaced in time during the “Messiah Complex”.

How Peter David did it definitely took some planning as all of the events that spun out of the House of M and created Layla Miller tied up perfectly in this issue and how it happened is something this reviewer never would have guessed when the series first launched with X-Factor #1.

The issue also ends with a short story where X-Factor Investigations picks up a case in New York after finally deciding to leave Detroit. Their first case which will be tackled in the renumbered X-Factor #200 next month is given to them by Franklin and Valeria Richards, children of Mr. Fantastic and the Invisible Woman, the latter of which has gone missing.

It is certainly an interesting coincidence that Marvel let X-Factor hit issue #50 before letting the next milestone number of issue #200 happen in next month’s renumbering the same way they did with Captain America #50 and Captain America #600. But much like Cap issues #50 and #600 were great issues, X-Factor is already going gangbusters so we can let it slide this time.

This is the first part of John’s pull list comic reviews for the week. The second part follows tomorrow.

Pull of the Week:

New Avengers #52 – Marvel – $3.99
Score: 8.5

If there was ever a team book that could get away with next to no-action and still consistently be the best read of the week, it’s the New Avengers. Brian Bendis knows these characters and knows how to bring them to life. The amazing part is that he does it with brief action sequences and is able to dive into the personalities of the New Avengers by simply sitting them down at a dinner table and meet as a team.  Everyone fits a role whether it be a cool and collected leader, a partially insecure spaz, the quiet bad ass or the person everyone thought was dead but was actually only just abducted and replaced by a Skrull. The magic is that Bendis has such a grip on these characters that his conversations between these characters feels like they have known each other for years.

The story revolves around the team being filled in by Doctor Strange, the former Sorcerer Supreme, about the attack he suffered at the hands of the Hood. Mystical cameos seemingly abound in this issue, the New Avengers head south to find another magical character who may be the next Sorcerer Supreme (who wasn’t actually who the reader was suspecting from the clues given pages before).  Bendis exhibits great understanding of character building and does it in an entertaining way in this issue.

This truly is a book that could still be enjoyable to read even if no action took place much like Bendis’ control over the characters has proved time and time again. Also, like the last issue, the dual art teams give the book a feel all of its own. Having two art teams seems like it’d be disjointed in the story telling but by splitting the teams between the conflict of Strange and the Hood and the other team working on the rest of the book, it only helps the “magic” of storytelling.