The Pull List 10/30
- TMNT Villains: Bebop and Rocksteady: It’s been way to long since Bebop and Rocksteady were in anything Turtle related but they are back with a vengeance in the incredible IDW TMNT universe. A couple of dumb street thugs, they volunteer for the Foot clan’s mutant program and beat all comers to become their warthog and rhino alter egos. Their first mission as mutants goes south as they underestimate their own strength and take out an entire rival gang, and almost Karai as well. She almost kills them but realizes they are loyal, dumb and powerful, so she spares them.
- Guardians of the Galaxy #8: The distinctive art of Francesco Francavilla takes over the latest issue of Guardians, as they head back to Earth to rescue SWORD director, Abigail Brand, who’s space station was taken over by Thanos’ troops. Outmanned and outgunned, Angela comes to the unexpected rescue.
- Avengers AI #5: Things are getting weirder in this robotic flavored Avengers book, as the general public is quickly turning against all robots and the mysterious Alexis, who the AI team found in a hospital, rediscovers part of her identity and learns she has some of sort of predictive software that allows her to stop a bombing before it happens. Cyborg Victor, who seemingly sacrificed himself last issue to stop a bomb from going off, finds himself in the AI world of the Diamond.
- Captain America: Living Legend #2: Cap manages to find the lone surviving astronaut of the destroyed DEUS space station, whose dark energy went out of control and turned metal in living creatures. Cap takes down one these creatures and he and the doctor arrive at the DEUS crash site, where an old enemy of Cap, Sgt. Volkov is waiting. Volkov was a cosmonaut and a soldier in WWII who has developed some sort of telekinetic power.
- The Trial of the Punisher #2: We all knew as soon as Frank Castle turned himself in to the police, there was some ulterior motive and that’s proven correct in the conclusion of this mini series. Frank turned himself in as part of a elaborate plan to take down some high ranking mafia officers, who were being tried in the same court house that Frank was being tried in. There’s a great cameo from Matt Murdock this issue and some flashbacks to various skirmishes between The Punisher and Daredevil.
- Ash and the Army of Darkness #1: Just in time for Halloween, Dynamited launches it’s new Army of Darkness series. Picking up immediately where Army of Darkness left off, Ash finds that things are not back to normal as S-Mart is somehow back in the Middle Ages and his wise man ally has been corrupted by the Book of the Dead and leading a new army of Deadites. Ash is cast into a pit of Deadites and left for dead while King Arthur learns the news from a mysterious knight. 30 Days of Night writer Steve Niles is writing this new series and it’s much darker than the previous Army of Darkness books by Dynamite.
- Swamp Thing Annual #2: Much like Rocky and other champions before him, Swamp Thing must train before taking on his up and coming rival for the title. With the title and power of avatar of the Green up for grabs, Alec Holland meets with some eccentric former avatars, including the gentlemanly Wolf and Lady Weeds, who tries to teach Alec that he doesn’t need to protect his body or fear death, as the entire plant world is his body. He also meets with the fake Swamp Thing that was created by the Green before Alec returned and learned the important lesson that he always has the option to say no.
- TMNT #27: The epic City Fall story is almost at it’s explosive finale and in this issue, Shredder gathers all the criminal gangs of NYC together to assert his power and executes the leader of the Savate gang before Splinter, Mike, Raph, Don, April, Old Hob and Slash launch an all out assault and manage to finally get Leo back, although he still needs to fight off the brainwashing done by Shredder and the witch Kitsune. Casey also gets back in action and he and Purple Dragon Angel take on Casey’s dad, Hun, the new leader of the Purple Dragons who pledge loyalty to Shredder.
- Thor: Crown of Fools: A one shot just in time for Thor: The Dark World, this story finds Thor, Sif and the Warriors Three investigating the mysteriously aggressive behavior of some of the animals of Asgard and discover a mysterious castle. Upon entering, each warrior is shown the one thing they most desire, but these gifts corrupt their minds and put them against each other. Thor manages to break the spell and finds a lost frost giant with the ancient Crown of Fools. Thor knocks it away and manages to get everyone back to normal. A classic Thor backup finds Balder the Brave being sent by Odin to meet with Loki but being betrayed by Loki and his new ally, Malekith the Dark Elf.
- Dinosaurs Attack #4: The penultimate issue of this miniseries finds the military and dinosaurs engaging in a deadly battle that leaves both sides decimated except for a lone female soldier and a baby dinosaur while on the space station above Earth, the other scientists start to suspect that Dr. Elias Thorne may have purposely caused the time disaster and may need to stop him by any means necessary.
- Godzilla: Rulers of the Earth #5: It’s a monster mash this issue as Varan, Rodan and the two Gargantuas cause havoc in China and rookie Kaiju researcher Lucy decides to free one of the Garguantua captured by the Chinese and sees it’s possible mate as it battles Varan into the China Sea.
- Five Ghosts #6: In the first ongoing issue, possessed treasure hunter Fabian Gray travels to Japan at the request of an old flame looking for the ancient sword Masamune and comes up against a demon given a Dreamstone by the mysterious men looking to capture Fabian. Fabian uses the power of the samurai Musashi to stop the demon and continues his quest for Dreamstones to free himself from the five ghosts that haunt him and free his sister.
- GI Joe #9: Tons of maneuvering before the culmination of the Threat Matrix story next issue. Scarlett believes Duke is a Cobra traitor after he receives a call from Destro, who gives Duke the location of the Mad Monk in New York City. Duke runs off to track him down while the rest of the Joes deal with three separate threats, including a dirty bomb on a subway train and possibly on the Rooselvelt Island tram as well as twins Zandar and Zanra running amok. Before getting betrayed by Destro, the Mad Monk launched his own betrayal and leaked the evidence of Destro’s call to Duke to Cobra Commander, who launches an attack against Destro’s castle.