Pull List Recommendations 8/21/198/20/2019
First up from DC is Batman #77. This issue continues Tom King’s City of Bane storyline, with Michel Janin and Tony S. Daniel on art. Bane has taken over Gotham, with Psycho Pirate using his powers to control the other villains to be used as his army. Leading the army is none other than Batman’s father, Batman! And at his side, Gotham Girl! At this point, this duo has proved themselves to be more than formidable, against any opponent. The last issue saw The Atom trying to get into Gotham to take back control of the city from the villains. He’s met by Gotham Girl, who explains to him that even the President of the United States has delivered an order for heroes NOT to interfere with the situation in Gotham! Not a victim of the Psycho Pirate, it would seem the American Government is actually just relieved their worst city is finally under control, even if it means Bane is in charge. While the Atom is getting his butt whooped by Gotham Girl, a certain Selina Kyle has returned to Gotham with her very wounded former fiancé. Selina is smart, and while she nurses Bruce back to health, knows to keep her mouth shut about anything Gotham Girl’s ears might pick up and come find them. With Issue 77, I’m hoping we see a little more from Bruce and Selina. I know the issue starts with Damian trying to get into Gotham, same as the Atom, but to what end? The Bat Family knows at this point they can’t get in, so what is Damian’s endgame?
My second DC pull this week is going to be Superman: Year One #2. This title is written by Frank Miller and drawn by John Romita Jr, both absolute legends in the industry on their own. Miller is probably best known for The Dark Knight trilogy, Daredevil, and Batman and Robin, whereas Romita Jr. is a second-generation DC artist known for that same Daredevil run, Wolverine, and Kickass. The Year One titles, as you may be able to guess, go over the origins of various superheroes, from whatever point the writer decides to call their beginning, through their first year as a Superhero. For Clark Kent, his beginning was on Krypton as Kal-El, and that is where the first issue began. Miller writes this series with an almost stream-of-consciousness style of narration that I think fits the story very well. We see Krypton destroyed, Kal-El’s journey and arrival on Earth, his time growing up and the challenges he and his adoptive parents face all from young Clark’s inner dialogue. Issue one saw us all the way through high school until Clark joins the army and moves out! I imagine we’ll be continuing with his story in a similar style with issue 2 tomorrow. Over at Marvel, my first pick is Fearless #2! This is a particularly brilliant series meant to celebrate the women of the Marvel universe! I was lucky enough to get the Jenny Frison variant of issue 1, which will connect with the next two covers to display the women of the series. Each issue has three separate stories showcasing various aspects of the Marvel women. One story, called Campfire Song, ties the three issues together. In issue one, we saw Sue Storm, Auroro Monroe, and Carol Danvers (the Invisible Woman, Storm, and Captain Marvel, respectively) invited as keynote speakers to a girls’ empowerment summer camp. For their various reasons, our heroines are all feeling a little like skipping out on this engagement but are all convinced one way or another to follow through on their word. Campfire Song was paired with two other short stories, one that I honestly did not understand about some girls at a fashion shoot, and one funny one about a bunch of heroines being turned into little chibis! The latter was written and drawn by the stellar current Captain Marvel team, Kelly Thompson and Carmen Carnero. This week’s #2 sees a continuation of the Campfire Song story through the eyes of Ms. Marvel, who to her surprise is an attendee! It’s companion stories will feature Linda Carter’s Night Nurse leading in one, and X-23 teaming up with her sister clone Honey Badger on another. Once again, this issue of Fearless sounds like a ton of fun! I am all for anything celebrating strong and powerful women! Next up for Marvel, I’ll be reading Donny Cates’ Guardians of the Galaxy #8. This series has been such a thrill! I’ve been a big fan of Donny Cates for a few years at this point, and nothing he has done has disappointed. This Guardians issue will be continuing where the last left off, after the reveal that Rocket is in fact seriously ill and dying. This doesn’t stop him from being recruited for help by the remaining Guardians, as their team has almost all been taken by a massive spaceship that calls itself the Church of the Universal Truth, led by Starlord’s father from the future! Lots still to figure out with this one, and I cannot wait to see how Donny Cates plays this out! Is Rocket really dying? And, fill me in if I’m wrong, but we still don’t know what happened to make the core Guardians team hate him so much. So many questions! And Cates will be pulling this story off while also writing the Venom solo series and Absolute Carnage, a full-blown Marvel Comics event! Cates surely is proving himself to be the next big gun over at Marvel, and I am all here for it. Second to last on my pull list is Jane Foster: Valkyrie #2 by Jason Aaron and Al Ewing, art by Cafu. I hardly even needed to read the first issue to know I wanted this on my list, Jason Aaron wrote Jane Foster through her time as The Mighty Thor, an absolutely fantastic story, and just recently this summer he carried out War of the Realms. At the end of War of the Realms, Jane Foster picks up the hammer of the War Thor and battles at the God of Thunder one last time. After, the hammer shatters, reforms, and becomes the All Weapon for Jane, making her, “…last of the Valkyries. And the first of her kind.” Well said! Issue one gave us a neat perspective on aftermath of something like War of the Realms in the twenty-first century. In an age of live streaming, hashtags, hit and view counts, a group of low-level thieves managed to steal some Asgardian gear and are using it for making viral videos of them committing crimes. Jane takes them down, but not before one member flees the scene with a special sword, and he is subsequently struck down with by none other than Bullseye. This is particularly bad because this special sword was DragonFrang of Brunnhilde, the leader of the former Valkyries. Its special powers include hiding the user from God Sight (like Heimdall), greatly improve their combat skills, and call forth their flying horse. Jane calls on Heimdall, who is then found and taken out by Bullseye on a Pegasus! In this next issue, I’m hoping we learn more about Jane’s new Valkyrie abilities. We’ve gotten a few tidbits, but I’m hoping there’s more! Aaron and Ewing are working in an area where most things are based in magic and original myths, so there aren’t many rules. I’m looking forward to seeing what they do with this creative freedom! How will Jane fight Bullseye, superpowered as it is with perfect marksmanship, when he has a weapon giving him even better skills, makes him invisible to gods, and gives him a convenient flying ride? We’ll see today! And last but most certainly not least, I’m getting Powers of X #3. This is one half of Johnathon Hickman’s reworking of the X-Men. Hickman is legendary at Marvel Comics, most popularly for his runs on the Fantastic Four and the Avengers, so I was excited to learn he was “fixing” the X-Men. When I really started getting into reading a lot of comics on a weekly basis for the first time, the world of the X-Men was fairly shaky. It’s referenced a little bit in a previous issue by Hickman, but there have been so many conflicting and confusing X-Men stories that they needed someone to some in and straighten it out. That’s what Hickman is doing with House of X and Powers of X. As I understand it, House of X goes over How Xavier is setting up this Utopia for the Mutants, and Powers of X tells the story of its future history. They are each 6 issue mini-series’, with a couple of really gorgeous connecting variants between the issues, if that’s what you’re into (I am!). To be incredibly short about it, Charles Xavier used a mutant plant to set up a system of gateways around the world that takes only Mutants to this Utopian world, hidden away in the South Pacific. He tells the world, “This is our new mutant nation, we have things to trade you need and cannot get elsewhere, if you want to be peaceful, come talk.” Ok, I’m paraphrasing. But as we well know, Mutant kind has not exactly been widely accepted among basic humanity, and a secret organization built to keep mutants from taking over begins actively working to stop this new nation from progressing. My favorite issue so far was House of X #2, where Hickman completely retcons Moira MacTaggert’s story. Before this, she was a bit of a mutant fan girl but had no powers herself. True, she started the New Mutants, but that was ultimately the extent of her importance. Not anymore. Hickman has now established Moira to be a Mutant with the power of Immortality, just not in the traditional sense. In Moira’s first life, she died an old woman. In her second life, she awoke with all of her knowledge in utero, meaning she was born remembering who she is, her past learnings and experiences, etc. It’s a neat power. Any time she dies, she wakes up in the womb with the mind of the person who just died perfectly intact with memories of all her previous lives. Eventually she starts to use this to try and find a cure for mutants, as she initially thinks this is what will save them. She is stopped by Mystique and her wife, Destiny, who can see the future. With Moira creating a cure, she saw a future of destruction and persecution starting for the mutants and uses this to teach Moira a lesson: you are not actually immortal. Some day Moira will not be imbued with her former consciousness before birth, and her body will not survive, and that will be the end of Moira MacTaggert. Destiny tells her to use the gift she has been given to find a different way to save the mutants and kills her slowly, so she’ll never forget. Hickman goes on to show the various different lives Moira lives after this encounter—I can’t go over all of them here, I encourage anyone to catch up! In issue 2 of Powers of X, we see the moment Moira goes with Xavier to ask Magneto to help them set up this Utopia. In today’s issue, I honestly don’t know what to expect! This week is a break in his alternating House and Powers—last week was Powers, and this week we have Powers again. Good enough reason to assume it’ll be something big? I hope so! Once I get my hands on these and read them, I’ll be making another post on what actually happens in each book. Now go out, support your local comic book shop, and buy some comics! Get sweaty about something you love; it’ll make your day better.
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