The Pull List 3/5
- Rogue Trooper #1: After Judge Dredd, probably the most popular character of the 2000 AD universe is Rogue Trooper. IDW has brought him to the States in a new series. On an Earth destroyed and contaminated by a war between the Norts and Southerners, a genetically engineered super soldier wanders the land, trying to find out who betrayed him and his fellow GIs. I’ve seen covers and some pages from the British comics but now I finally get the full scope of how cool a character he is and and IDW has another awesome series in their catalog.
- Batman/Superman Annual: After defeating Mongul in issues 5-7, his son, Jochi, arrives with an ultimatum for Superman and Batamn, gather two other champions each and face him for the fate of Planet Earth. Superman recruits Steel and Supergirl while Batman recruits Red Hood and Batgirl. The group is also joined by Krypto and they enter Jochi’s massive moon sized base to find a tournament for leadership underway. Batman and Red Hood intervene to save Jochi and he agrees to fight alongside them while Superman, Supergirl and Krypto enter as a second team. Steel and Batgirl meanwhile work to take down the moon’s systems and eventually take out it’s planet destroying gun before Superman and Batman beat each other to death in the final round. Jochi tries to appeal to the citizens of Warworld to show some restraint but they turn on him and the entire planetoid is punched into the Phantom Zone by Superman.
- New Warriors #2: The new team is slowly coming together as Justice and Speedball save Sungirl from a squad of High Evolutionary henchmen, who are supposedly working to save humanity from mutants, inhumans and anyone else dubbed unworthy. Meanwhile, Kain aka Scarlet Spider and Hummingbird get off on slightly the wrong foot with Atlantean Water Snake but join her against more HE foot soldiers and Nova is captured by the High Evolutionary himself.
- The Punisher #3: Frank faces off against Electro, but lacking powers and not prepared for a super villain, he makes a strategic retreat to regroup. Frank learns that Dos Soles are planning a massive attack with Electro blacking out the city for it and launches an attack against their HQ but is ambushed and shocked unconscious by Electro.
- Deadpool: The Gauntlet #9: After a romantic cruise back to NYC, Deadpool and Shiklah learn that Dracula killed Shiklah’s brothers and she vows revenge. A swarm of vampires dressed like various costumed characters (to avoid the sun) attack and Deadpool and Shiklah take refuge in a church. The monstrous Fearsome Four arrive and Deadpool bursts out of the church’s stained glass window ready for action.
- Night of the Living Deadpool #4: Deadpool’s zombie adventure wraps up this issues as, guided by the severed head of AIM scientist Clarence, Wade arrives at the AIM lab where everything started. With a massive swarm of zombies closing in, Wade drinks all of their super healing serum derived from clones of himself and allows the swarm to eat him, transferring his consciousness into all of them so that eventually, everyone on the planet becomes a hive minded Deadpool.
- Captain America #18: Cap and Falcon arrive at the SHIELD base holding a secret weapon, the Gungnir helicarrier. Dr. Mindbubble, the secret weapon against Cap any other super soldiers, mind controls the SHIELD agents brought by Maria Hill and activates the weapon, causing Maria to call in the entirety of SHIELD to try and stop it.
- Iron Man #22: After one of the new Mandarin ring wielders, Lord Remaker, launched a missile at their HQ, Tony believed his brother Arno was dead but Arno is alive after entering the armor suit he was working on. Red Threat, realizing how insane her fellow ring wielders are, works to help stop them from destroying the Stark brothers’ city, Troy, but a mysterious force cuts off both her arms and steals her and the other two Mandarin rings. Red Threat tells Tony that Troy will always be a target if he’s there, so he leaves it in the control of Arno. The thief of the rings is revealed to be the already insanely dangerous Malekith, who is looking to collect all the rings and become the new Mandarin.
- Nova #14: Nova and Beta Ray Bill track the evil slaver/pirate Skaarn to Knowhere, an intergalactic outpost carved out of the head of a dead Celestial. Nova is attacked by a war robot Skaarn steals and threatens to kill all of Bill’s people unless they agree to be teleported to the other side of the galaxy. Nova somehow creates a fake version of himself and stays behind to try and stop Skaarn and runs across Cosmo, a super intelligent Soviet cosmonaut dog who used to run Knowhere before Skaarn took it.
- Forever Evil: Arkham War #6: Bane engages in the final battle against the Arkham inmates, who are now juiced on Venom thanks to the Scarecrow. Attacking Blackgate Prison, the Arkhamites take on Bane’s Talon soldiers but Bane allows himself to be captured by Man-Bat, who brings him to Arkham Asylum. After a final battle where the Venom runs out, Penguin approaches the victorious Bane and agrees to make the Arkham inmates disappear in exchange for working with him to run the city. Penguin leaves Scarecrow, who Bane strings up as a warning and then decides to stay and protect Gotham (and puts on a familiar fur lined jacket)
- Detective Comics #29: Batman finally breaks the spell of Gothtopia this issue as he manages to deceive Scarecrow and the other rogues long enough to slip the antidote to Scarecrow’s latest serum into a shipment that was to distribute it across the entire eastern seaboard. With his allies out of their illusion, they take down Scarecrow and inject him with the same serum he used on everyone to hopefully keep him docile for longer than usual.
- Green Arrow #29: I don’t know how they are going to get out of the cliffhanger of this issue as Oliver takes an arrow directly to the head from his nemesis, Komodo after Oliver infiltrates the meeting place of the four weapon clans of The Outsiders, who are planning a massive attack against Europe. Back in Seattle, Diggle, Henry and Naomi make a deal with Billy Tockman aka The Clock King to help them take down Richard Dragon, whose been single handedly taking control of Seattle criminal organizations.
- Swamp Thing #29: Alec learns about he existence of a mysterious cult called The Sureen, who worship the avatar of the Green. Alec blesses them with a fruit that apparently is the closest a human can get to touching the green and then learns they have a power to allow Alec to enter their bodies and become human again, which he takes them up on but they were apparently not as humble and loyal as they seem, as they steal his plant body while he is unconscious.
- Avengers AI #10: The Avengers, both robotic and human, discover the source of the cheap gas app that is causing people to go insane and riot. The app is horrified to find out what is happening and offers to lobotomize himself, stopping the rioting. SHIELD Agent Monica Chang, meanwhile, heads to Illinois with a squad of Jocasta drones and captures a Life Model Decoy working with Dimitrios, the evil AI launching the attacks, but this may be exactly what he wanted to happen.
- Moon Knight #1: One of the weirdest Marvel heroes is back with a new Moon Knight series from Warren Ellis. Mark Spector, a mercenary, was seemingly killed in front of a temple in Egypt that was used to worship the god, Khonshu. Khonshu’s various aspects entered Mark and he became a vigilante, protecting travelers during the night from any harm but also possibly going insane. Learning about a serial killer targeting fit men, Moon Knight investigates and finds a horribly disfigured SHIELD agent hiding in the depths of NYC’s tunnels, killing and incorporating but mechanical and organic parts to try and prove he’s still effective. Mark takes him down with a well placed moon shaped boomerang.
- Turok #2: Turok and his former enemy turned ally, Andar, witness a group of English soldiers torturing Andar’s tribe for information on gold and unloading cages containing dinosaurs. Andar’s sister, Kita, is taken by the leader of the soldiers daughter, Marion, as a playmate. Regrouping, Turok nurses the dinosaur that attacked he and Andar back to health and sets up a series of traps to use against the English. After they throw Andar’s uncle off of the fortification they built, Turok attacks and leads the troops into the traps, killing most of them. He also manages to take Marion hostage, causing her father to unleash a massive T-Rex from the hold of the ship.
- Twilight Zone #3: Trevor Richmond finally confronts the man who “stole” his identity after Trevor gave it up to escape prosecution and learns he’s a man named Ross who was diagnosed with untreatable bone marrow cancer, giving him possibly three years at most to live. He took the deal from Expediated Services Limited to take Trevor’s place and enjoy the benefits of his wealth and the love of Trevor’s girlfriend until he died. Trevor vows that he will kill Ross if necessary to get his life back.
- Forever Evil #6: The epic event is almost at it’s end as the unlikely team of heroes and villains led by Batman and Lex Luthor attack the fallen Watchtower and try to free Dick Grayson, whose heart as been wired to a nuclear bomb that can only be defused by killing him. The Crime Syndicate arrives and a massive battle breaks out, with Black Adam taking on Ultraman and Captain Cold and Black Manta taking on Johnny Quick and Atomica. Cold manages to take down Johnny by activating his cold gun through a voice activation feature and freezing and destroying his leg. They also find a person the Syndicate was keeping hostage and unwittingly unleash Mazahs aka Alexander Luthor, the evil Shazam, who vows to kill everyone. Meanwhile, Lex Luthor takes it upon himself to kill Dick to save everyone and seemingly does so by suffocating him, causing Batman to start beating him mercilessly.