Back again! It’s like I never left. This month hit us with five Wednesdays, son. That means five stacks of books to climb out from under in January. Well, I made my way through last week’s goodies, and now I turn my eyes to the future: The Fifth Wednesday! But wait, before I turn my eyes to the future, I quickly turn them back to the past for a look at what I read last week. Damn, all this eye-turning is making me dizzy. What does it mean when you see little white spots everywhere? Is that good? I forget. It’s not? Ohhh……..

Wow. How long was I out? When did it get dark? I’m hungry. Better tie up this Pull List quick. So here’s the scoop on the last batch. For a week when I bought a bunch of books, nothing really stunned me.

Superman Confidential fell flat due to delays. It was just too hard to care about the conclusion of an arc whose first five issues came out a million years ago.

Ultimates 3 was fun, but it didn’t knock me out (I need to stop comparing it to Ultimates 1 and 2, because it’s just different). If you were Sabretooth, and you were about to go head to head with Cap, do you think your battle cry would be “Suck it!”? Jeph Loeb does. Me, I’m not so sure. But these are fictional characters, so they can do whatever dance the writer wants as long as the story doesn’t suffer. I’m reserving judgment on this one for a couple more issues.

Marvel Zombies 2 was, on the whole, not as good on the inside as it was on the outside (can’t beat that “Nick Fury: Agent of the Dead!” cover). I still enjoyed it, but it lacked “oomph” (which was kind of a theme this week, at least for me).

I liked Ultimate Iron Man II, as well, even though there were a few panels where I had no idea what was going on. Some pictures tell a story better than others, and this book had some clunkers (it always looks great, but it doesn’t always strengthen the narrative). Oomph? Not so much.

Amazing Spider-Man…see, here’s the problem with three-issue stories: nothing happens. Or nothing of real consequence, anyway. I know this was just an intro arc, and it gave us some good moments. Plus, it got me interested in Dan Slott’s version of Spidey. And just like that, he’s gone, and a new team takes up the reins for next month. Which could be great…but the whole Brand New Day thing seemed a little anticlimactic, that’s all. An oomph-free zone.

Ultimate Fantastic Four was not something I was reading, but the start of a new story seemed like a good time to try it out. It wasn’t especially compelling…but I’ll check out the next issue for more Ultimate Thanos. Will there be an Ultimate Infinity Gauntlet? We’ll see…hope the next issue is packing some extra oomph in the trunk.

So that was last week in a nutshell. Which brings us to this week. And what a week it is (not really, I just wanted to say that). But there’s a few potential heaters headed our way.

From the DC side of things we have Black Adam:The Dark Age #6. I’m a fan of this series and of the Black Adam character especially. But this book needs to be done now. The events it spun out of (”52″, etc.) were a long time ago. Clip the string, kids. Two issues left after this one? Jeez…I’ll be there, but my patience is wearing thin.

Marvel fans have a few of my favorite books to look forward to on Wednesday. Captain America #34 may finally witness the unveiling of the new Cap (my money’s on Bucky), and I know we’ll all be there. Alex Ross cover, anyone? Uh-huh.

Daredevil #104 also drops this week. Everyone knows I love Daredevil. I have to say, this book may read better in trade form…but really, what doesn’t? No ads, higher-quality printing, stronger story-continuity, more momentum…reading trade paperbacks is the equivalent of watching a whole season of some TV show on DVD. I vastly prefer that experience, generally speaking. And yet I continue to buy books weekly. On account of how I’m a junkie. Or something.

So, I finally caught up on Bendis’ whole New Avengers run, just in time for this week’s New Avengers Annual #1. Anyone interested in the upcoming Skrull invasion needs to be reading this book. And speaking of the Invasion, did anyone else get that sweet Secret Invasion mini-poster that was free in the shops last week? Could Howard the Duck be a Skrull?!? You’ve been warned…

Earlier I mentioned that I liked writer Dan Slott’s take on old Webhead. Just my luck, then, that Wednesday will see the release of Spider-Man: Swing Shift Director’s Cut #1 (I always appreciate brevity in a title, don’t you?)…Supposedly this ties in to Brand New Day somehow. Anyway, right now I’m feeling charitable toward Mr. Slott, so I might cop this one. Although I resent the recent trend of charging an extra buck for these books with (often unnecessary) “extra” content. But whatevs…

What else? This week introduces new arcs to both Ultimate Spider-Man (#118) and Ultimate X-Men (#90). I’m on board for both, although my hopes are higher for Spidey than for our X-friends. After all, I’ve read a handful of Ultimate Spider-Man trades and enjoyed ‘em all (Bendis strikes again). As for the Ultim-X-Men, we’ll see. The new artist, Salvador Larroca, is not one of my favorites…I read his run on “newuniversal”, and I had a problem with the way he uses well-known actors as character models (one of the protagonists was depicted as Sawyer from Lost, for example). It just takes me out of the story. But maybe this new book will be better. Hmm….

Avengers: The Initiative #9 is a book I can finally buy, having caught up on Slott’s opening arc (and then some). I dig this one, especially now that all the World War Hulk crossover stuff (which brought the book down a bit) is well out of the way. In other “catching up” news, I’d like to buy the new issue of Bendis’ Mighty Avengers that comes out this week, but I haven’t been able to read all the back issues yet…I can’t seem to get my hands on #2. Yeah, I could get it online, but I’m waiting for it to come in to my shop. Or maybe I’ll just get the trade when it finally ships in March. At any rate, I might start buying the new issues and saving ‘em for later. It doesn’t hurt to have a few gems in the vault for a rainy day.

I think that’s it for me this week. I’m about to go read the two recent Moon Knight trades to see if he’s just “Batman in white”, as one customer recently put it. According to this same cat, however, the Midnighter is just “Batman, but gay”, so I think he has a limited frame of reference. Either way, I plan to enjoy myself. Maybe a little too much. So until next week, I wish you all a fond farewell. Now go get your literacy on…I won’t tell anyone you only look at the pictures.
Bagged and boarded,

Grip

Posted by Grip Grand on Sunday, January 27th, 2008 at 3:04 pm.