Grip’s Pull List Holiday Edition–Dec. 28 ‘07/Jan. 04 ‘08
OK, OK. I missed a week somehow…why in the world? Oh, that’s right, the 2007 holiday gifting corridor. While your presents may all be unwrapped now, these recent holy days gave comic fans the gift that keeps on giving–namely, new comic delays. So last week’s books came out on Friday, as will this week’s (but more on that in a minute).
Let’s jump right into it, people. And by people, I mean me…and maybe like one other person is also reading this, so that guy…or girl. But probably guy. Anyway, last week was good for me, especially after the previous week’s anemic offering. Looking over the stack of books I’ve read since returning from the North Pole (dinner with the Clauses was fabulous!), I see DC couldn’t keep up with the House of Ideas, as Marvel books outnumber the Distinguished Competition 5 to 1. At least on my pull list, they did.
Representing DC is the lonely but distinguished Green Lantern #26. The Sinestro Corps War is over, and in its wake the Green Lanterns remain authorized to use deadly force. What does this mean for the emerald Corps? I’m still not sure, but it can’t be good. The story begins in this issue, the first appearance of the mysterious Alpha Lanterns. Stay tuned to see whether they’ll be an ass-kicking force for justice or a gang of murderous space-trolls bent on photonic revenge.
Over in the Marvel Universe, some of my favorite books saw the shelves last week. Daredevil #103 continues Ed Brubaker’s run, and I really like it. Daredevil is one of the best books out, although sometimes it reads better in trade form. You can’t have jaw-dropping revelations or shocking reveals in every issue…some chapters of a book just move the story along. This may have been one of those, but as part of the total arc it sets as high a standard as the rest. As I’ve said before, go back and read the Bendis run, then read the Brubaker trades that followed it…all are great. And then you’ll be all caught up like me, waiting for the next issue, debating whether to trade-wait so you can just buy the whole thing at once and read it in one sitting.
Another consistently great book (also by Brubaker…weird, huh?) is Captain America. Issue #33 dropped last week, and it was top notch as usual. Pick up the Brubaker Captain America Omnibus and read them all (well, up to issue #25…then you gotta get another trade after that, and a couple of back issues, but…just catch up). The way this book ends definitely hints at the identity of the “new” Captain America, but you’ll have to hold your breath ’til next time for the reveal.
What else? Thor #5 came out. I still like this book, but it’s stalling a little with the slow pacing. Thor hasn’t done much lately. When’s he gonna get a visit from all his old hero pals? Maybe never, after the way he sicced Mjolnir on Iron Man. We’ll see. But it’s still good…and it look’s great, so there’s that.
Captain Marvel #2 was fun, deepening the mystery, although it didn’t give us any answers. And who could forget Marvel Zombies 2 #3? Not me, because I did read it, and my memory is better than that. This book is basically dumb, but I like it. I’m really just in it for the snappy and sometimes out-of-character zombie banter. There are a million zombie books out, and some are no doubt better than this one (including Walking Dead, written, like M.Z. 2, by Robert Kirkman), but this book has zombie Spidey, and I’m a sucker for the snarky undead.
Well, that’s all for last week. But what about this week? It’s already Wednesday, and new comics still aren’t out! I will have to wait until Friday the 4th for the following hot items:
Thunderbolts #118…I love this book. Venom and Bullseye? On the same team? Run by Normon Osborne? Taking down unregistered heroes for the US government? So frakkin’ good. Also on the list: Ultimate Human #1. Ultimate Iron Man versus Ultimate Hulk? Yes, please. I’ll also be picking up Omega Unknown #4, a strange book with a slightly quirky and stylized look that seems to be telling a story just outside the realm of your regular flying-tights books…although what that story is, I couldn’t yet say.
What else will I buy this Friday? Find out next time on Grip’s Pull List! Brought to you by Associated British Foods, the makers of Ovaltine. “More Ovaltine, please!”
Until then, keep it bagged and boarded…
–Kool G-rip
January 3rd, 2008 at 6:12 pm
Okay. . .
So I’m the one other guy reading this. A few comments:
Green Lantern? Feh. It’s been a long time since I could muster up the energy to care about the constantly-shifting green plasma rules. New corps? Powered (somehow) by Sinestro/Anti-Monitor? Requiring Lanterns to kill, when they never had to before, in facing unimaginable dangers?
Whatever. At this point, post-Parallax/ion/yellow impurity on//off/Fearlessness//ability to deal w/fear nonsense, I’m mainly bitching because I’m still reading it for the pretty pictures, and hoping feebly that they’ll somehow pull it all together. Two mics.
Daredevil? Cool I guess. After Miller it’s all been downhill, with a couple bright spots. This run is actually one of the better ones; but it’s for sure not makin’ me hot & sweaty. One of the problems of setting the bar so high. Two and a half mics.
Cap is a surprise. . .every couple years I try to like this book, and make the mistake of actually picking it up to read it. Subpar art, silly, go nowhere/add nothing stories, general blah. The type of book that’s too bland to even be bad. Which is a crime for such a flagship character. What’s most impressive about the current state of affairs: they brought back the only Marvel character everyone thought would believably Stay Dead. And it somehow doesn’t totally suck. What’s most annoying about the current state of affairs: How the f#@k do you kill Captain America? It’s a no-win. . .remember the Death of Superman? ‘Nuff said. Two and a half mics.
Thor sucks. No, really. Get a grip. (HAR!) The past X years have been a blur of foolish narrative flailing, second-tier artists and fast-and-loose mythology. The Asgardians survived Ragnarok by becoming sleeper humans, who Heimdall/Thor has to awaken? Anybody read the Eternals? Feh. We miss Simonson. If not for the fact that we finally got to see Tony Stark get gobsmacked, this would get negative numbers. One mic.
This is beginning to reach nerd-length, so I’ll lump Cap and the Zombies together: good but not great, for some of the same reasons. Characters do what the writers want instead of what they’d do, but the art’s pretty cool. Whatever. Two and a half mics.
My Observations:
Pleasant Surprise: Action Comics
Yeah it’s just a comic but it’s still Disturbing: One More Day
Ultimate Spider-Man: Much better w/Immomen
Punisher: Comic’s version of MOP
Brave & The Bold: Good paper + Perez = Just buy it, already.
As a coda, I have to point out your egregious omission of the Real stars of the week: Ultimate Power, and Grendel. Are you on crack? How could these not be on your pull list?
Enough. Go write some rhymes.
January 3rd, 2008 at 11:44 pm
OK, first off, clearly my comics reviews are not hip-hop enough…I never thought to rate them with mics (are these, like, mics that you, um, read comics into?) And second, this is what I get for pretending to know something about something. Namely, comics. All I have is opinions, but clearly they are wrong, as evidenced by the well-reasoned argument above. Nonetheless, here’s my deal…
I love comics, but I’m far from an expert. I collected a few books when I was a kid (in a decade we called “the 80’s”…some of you may have seen it on VH1), stopped for a million years, then started up again fairly recently…when House of M came out, specifically. Consequently, the labyrinthine continuity of the major comic universes is largely a blur to me, for better or worse. I mostly just go off whether I like the story/art combo platter and don’t worry too much about keeping track of what’s happening when, or how that relates to other books (past or present), or whether it all “makes sense” (for fantasy, after all, often eschews logic). Also, I still enjoy most comics that I read…I have yet to become a jaded hater the way I have with, say, rap songs. I’ve cut back on my pull list for financial and time reasons, but I’d probably read it all if I could, and enjoy much of it on some level. I like the funny books, what can I say? So that’s my non-philosophy of comic reviewing, and that’s why most of my so-called reviews are about how I like what I read, and also why they aren’t about stuff I don’t know about, like how great Walt Simonson is. Maybe they shouldn’t let newbs like me write these things, but that’s what’s so delightful about the internet. Yeah, fuck it, I said delightful…what, son?!
Anyway, with that out of the way, here’s some specifics…
Green Lantern is not a book I was reading until the Sinestro Corps War jumped off (yeah, I’m the guy who buys all the big “event” comics), but if you like the current DC Universe and enjoyed all of DC’s “Crisis” events, the first Sinestro Corps one-shot was off the hook. Sinestro had Cyborg Superman, Superboy Prime, and the %#@#$% Anti-Monitor on his bad-guy team! Who cares why/how? Kyle Rayner became Parallax! There was space-punching! Punching in space!! I liked all that. Yes, the total event didn’t always match up to the excitement of that one issue, but I enjoyed it on the whole. Great art, big story, Mogo (I love Mogo!)…I don’t know anything about Lanterns past, but as a single arc the Sinestro Corps War was good to me.
Now Daredevil…all downhill since Miller? Damn, that’s tough. Like I said, that’s kind of how I am with rap shit…always comparing the new Nas album to Illmatic, wishing Jay-Z would just make something as good as the Blueprint again…and with comics, that might leave me nothing to buy each week (that’s basically what happened with records, anyway). Besides, Frank Miller’s last work on Daredevil was in like 1986! That’s twenty years of downhill, by some folks’ math. Me, I embrace the new. On their own, these recent Daredevil stories are hot, as one jaw-dropping thing after another happens to the double D. The shit won Bendis an Eisner, so someone other than me must like it (which is meaningless, but still). And the ongoing Brubaker run that followed really jumped off with a bang. Granted, the story is in a bit of a lull, but the bigger picture is sunny for this book (though grim for Matt Murdock).
Now with Captain America, I think this whole story is great, especially if you read it collected. While it’s true that killing off Cap may eventually lead nowhere (I mean, even if Bucky–or someone else–plays the part of Cap for a while, Steve Rogers can’t really be dead, can he?), I think it has made for a great run from Brubaker (who also won an Eisner recently…coincidence?). This is not a book I read for the art, although I think it tells the story well. At any rate, I enjoy it for what it is and has been, and not for what it may yet turn out to be.
Next is Thor. I have no history with Thor, thus no expectations. I like the relaunch so far, despite its pace…I think it’s going to be a very long run for Straczynski, so maybe he’s just easing in. The art is dope, so you can’t complain about that. As far as the whole “this is just like Eternals” thing…well, yeah, I thought that when I read it as well. But the “awakening” concept is not unique to Eternals, so I gave it a pass. Again, I’m looking for reasons to like these things, not trying to find a way to hate more stuff. I guess that makes me a bad cricket…I mean critic.
Now, I passed nerd-length long ago, so…I mostly agree about Captain Marvel and the Zombies. That said, I liked them anyway…that may say something about me, but I’m owning it. Besides, “Characters do what the writers want instead of what they’d do”? I was kind of in agreement with this statement, right up until I remembered that these are fictional characters. They wouldn’t “do” anything unless some writer told them to. I’m willing to accept multiple authors’ takes on the same character as equally valid…that’s what allowed for books like Miller’s original Dark Knight (not that the books under discussion even approach that comic milestone). Is it a good story or not? That’s my main criteria.
Action Comics…stopped reading it a while back for whatever reason…if Action Comics was a song, I would say it needed a hook. Supes was my first favorite superhero, and I’ll always love him, but I no longer read him weekly.
One More Day…I only read the first and last issues and found them to be, er, lame. Quesada’s Peter Parker looks all misshapen sometimes, and his Spidey sometimes looks like one of those encephalitic babies whose swollen skull is all full of fluid. He’s got an 8-head, to quote Spike Lee in Do the Right Thing. As for the last issue…spoiler alert…making it so no one knows Peter Parker’s identity anymore, particularly after the events of Civil War, just kind of sucks. In my opinion. I don’t care that much about the MJ thing, but that seems suckward, too.
Ultimate Spidey…I’m not fully up to date, I’ve read a bunch of the trades out of order, but I have added it to the pull list starting with the new arc, beginning in upcoming issue 118.
Punisher…don’t read it, would like to (used to in the 80’s), need to catch up and read the Ennis run from the start. This is on my list of trade-runs to cop.
Brave & The Bold…good paper, true. Perez, dope. It was on my list until about two issues ago, when I realized I just wasn’t really looking forward to reading it anymore. It’s high-quality, but somehow it lost my interest. Maybe the overall story stopped engaging me. It is one of the best-looking comics out, though, so if that’s your main thing, definitely buy it. I just needed to save some dough…it was one of the last titles to get cut from my pull list.
Coda: never read Grendel, some interest in it, but shouldn’t I go back and read the “classic” stuff first? Ultimate Power…barely ever comes out, haven’t read the previous 8 issues, why get number 9 (number 9, number 9, etc.)? Maybe I’ll read it when it’s collected. But anyway, that’s why these weren’t on my list. Oh, and also, as the above-posted comments suggest, I am on crack.
And that, friends, is why this crap-ass blog is called Grip’s Pull List…it’s just a list of what I personally, actually bought and what I plan to buy in the future. No more. It’s far from all-encompassing. In fact, I only bought 6 books last week. That encompasses hardly anything at all, compared to the sheaves of stories that hit the shelves every week. So what I’m saying is, why would anyone even read the worthless and irrelevant drivel I’ve been spewing? Isn’t it really just fluff-content to pad out this fledgling Routine Fly site? And my reply to my own rhetorical questions is, No reason. And yes. In that order.
Obviously, I have some back-reading to do. Gotta go catch up on 60-plus years of comic continuity. And write an apology to Walt Simonson. Til next time, thanks for the dance.
Bagged and boarded,
Grip
PS: I wrote like 50 rhymes while I was typing this one sentence alone. I’m on my grizzly like a bear-trap…
January 4th, 2008 at 11:03 am
god damn, you guys have too much time to write. i also read grips pull list (ayyoooo!). i, like grip, also read comics in the 80’s (as anyone else whose age starts with a “3″). i recently moved back to my hometown, Keene NH. while i was in california doing the biggest shows of my career as a hip-hop dj at reputable clubs such as the e3 playhouse and coastline brewery, my friend cory bought and opened his own comic store – “Comic Boom!”. anyhow when i returned to the east coast (the birthplace of hip-hop and shitty winters) i designed his logo, business card, signage, t-shirts, gift certificates, stickers etc… i have been getting paid in comics. i read mostly marvel, all x-men titles, hulk, some dare devil, and a few randoms here and there. and badger just came back out, i used to read badger back in 86-87 and i always enjoyed it, grip- if you are into snarky comedy in your comics check out badger.
i have also caught up on some good trades, the ultimates 1 and 2 (to get ready for 3 which is starting now as you know.
and my favorite recently “the watchmen”, i was told that the watchmen was a big influence on jj abrams the co writer of lost. (any lost heads?)
i have more to write, but i have to go back to work now. -sha
January 4th, 2008 at 11:04 am
i will give my pull list later…. ayoooooo
January 4th, 2008 at 4:28 pm
Just got back from the comic shop. Bought a few more issues than I expected…guess I was feelin’ frisky. But more on those in a separate post. Glad to see you’re keeping up on your comic consumption, Sha. I gotta check out Badger…I remember seeing it back in my youth, but our paths never intersected. Maybe now is a good time to get familiar. Like Shalem, I also read mostly Marvels these days, although before DC got too deep into their Countdown fiasco my pull list was actually weighted a little more toward our friends in the various justice leagues and societies, etc. But recent DC events (Countdown, Amazons Attack, et al.) have left a bad taste in my mouth, despite intermittent moments of relative glory (see my above comments on the Sinestro Corp). However, I’ll always love DC, and I continue to give new arcs a chance…for instance, this week I bought Teen Titans: Year One #1. Who knows, it might be good. And I’m still looking forward to Final Crisis (mmm, Grant Morrison). Some people hate any DC Crisis (or they only like Infinite Earths). Me, I like crises…
As far as the X-books, I haven’t been keeping up, although Wolverine is always on my list (but not the ongoing Wolverine Origins…ugh). I’ll read Messiah Complex when it’s collected (everyone at my shop seems to like it), but I don’t care to follow a story across that many different titles. Especially when I’m not buying them regularly.
When it comes to trades I, too, have recently caught up with the Ultimates (well, I’m actually halfway through the big hardcover of Ultimates 2…so shiny!) in preparation for Ultimates 3 and Ultimate Human (out today). I love me some Ultimates. Thought I wouldn’t, for whatever reason…I was wrong.
Lastly, the Watchmen. I read this book for the first time in the junior-high era (when it was introduced to me by my then-best friend’s wise older brother…a dynamic young man named Joss Whedon…but that’s a story for another day) and I’ve re-read it a number of times since. Reviewers more esteemed than myself have already exhausted the list of superlatives in an attempt to pile well-deserved praise on the Watchmen’s plate. If you were only going to own two graphic novels ever, this would be one of them (but what would the other one be? My gut says Dark Knight Returns, but…well?). Alan Moore’s story operates on so many levels, I get something more out of it each time I go back. This is true of much of his work, and I suppose that’s part of why he’s one of the most lauded creators of all time. I’ve enjoyed everything I’ve ever read by Mr. Moore (collected DC Universe stories, V for Vendetta, League of Extraordinary Gentlemen 1 & 2, Top 10, Supreme, you name it). Anyone who likes a little book in their comic, anyone who likes an unexpected twist, an unplumbed depth, should look to his body of work for sustenance. And now I have to go back and re-read the Watchmen again, just to see if I can find any clues to Lost in it! Yes, Shalem, there’s some Lost heads out here…and if they don’t deliver on this new season in full there’s gonna be some lost heads out here, if you know what I mean (damn you, not-unreasonable writer’s strike).
Well, I gotta go read this week’s books…I mean, um, go make some hot beats, B! So I’ma do that. Keep it reality-based, on the farilloscope.
Baggin’ and boardin’,
America’s Next Most Smartest White Rapper
aka Grip
January 4th, 2008 at 7:23 pm
Sha, you should get up on RF and start posting about the pats or something.. holler at me if you want to get down.
January 4th, 2008 at 7:25 pm
also, the coastline brewery hasn’t been the same since sha, sweet memories.
January 7th, 2008 at 11:52 am
“i read comic books kid/ yeah mar-vel”-kool keith