The Pull List #36 - 12/30/15


A weekly column in which Jake gives short blurbs about the comics he’s picked up that week. Reviewed in the order read, which varies but generally by increasing anticipation.   Disclaimer: he knows very little about art, at least not enough to considerably honor such tremendous undertakings, so…yeh, there’s that.





Drax #2


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Writers: CM Punk & Cullen Bunn

Artist: Scott Hepburn

Color Artist: Matt Milla

Letterer: VC’s Clayton Cowles

Marvel



Terrax, former Herald of Galactus, and Drax the Destroyer walk into a bar.  Everyone in bar says “Crap, this isn’t going to be good…for the building and for our lives, but if someone were making a comic book about this it actually would be pretty good.” Roll on snare drum.  Curtains.  Inappropriate Watchmen references aside, Punk and Bunn (Punk’n’Bunn?) give us some great action and dialogue in Drax’s second issue.  The Terrax-Drax (Terrdrax?) confrontation doesn’t go down as one would expect and for that matter neither does most of the issue, which is a great thing as it keeps things unpredictable while a pattern of misconceptions arises.  We get an indication that Drax’s quest won’t be as straight forward as both he and the readers thought.  Such a script gives Hepburn a chance to flex both his comedic and frenetic muscles in both dialogue and fight scenes.  It’s a particularly strong showing as Hepburn captures both types of interactions equally well.  He and Milla also get a chance to go wild with the various alien species that the protagonist beats up in the issue.  Drax’s second outing is packed full of great dialogue, action, and set-up for the current plot, all of which culminate for a very enjoyable buy.



All-New Wolverine #3



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Writer: Tom Taylor

Art: David Lopez & David Navarrot

Color Art: Nathan Fairbairn

Letters: VC’s Cory Petit

Marvel



Wolverine deals with a bit of backstabbing and returns it with non-lethal stabbing in kind as she and her clones try to stay one step ahead of their Alchemax pursuers.  Taylor’s script is heavy on the action, but the dialogue we do get is excellent.  Laura’s posturing and threats go over nicely and her conversation with her clones as to why she isn’t snikt-ing everyone’s faces off is rather nice.  It reveals a bit more of Wolverine’s thinking and possibly naïveté as she tries to solve things without killing, though it’s obvious that she’s being pushed closer and closer to that edge as Alchemax continues to doggedly pursue what they believe to be their property.  The action scenes from the Davids are excellently choreographed and the framing throughout is fantastic.  Fairbairn gets to let loose a bit more thanks to the prevalence of explosions and car crashes in the issue.  The last page’s revelation had me grinning from the get-go and set up what should be an interesting team-up for next issue.  All-New Wolverine continues to excel and entertain. 



Mercury Heat #6



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Story: Kieron Gillen

Art: Nahuel Lopez

Color: Digikore Studios

Letters: Kurt Hathaway

Avatar Press



Luiza Bora faces off against the terrorists who are threatening to destroy the Mercury colony in the arc’s final issue.  Despite the arbitrary villain monologuing, Gillen keeps things interesting by getting to the core of the terrorists mission here on Mercury and their reasons for the atrocities they’ve committed/are attempting to commit.  Even more interesting is the come-down after the mission is over and the fallout that results from Luiza’s professional and personal choices.  Lopez’s action sequences are a sight to behold and are bloody treat.  He and Digikore light up the showdown as sparks and blood fly in the vacuum of space.  On the whole, Mercury Heat satisfies a particular itch thanks to its hard-nosed, graphic sci-fi setting as well as being a good story in its own right.  Can’t wait to see where the next issue goes.  



BOOK OF THE WEEK
 
Rat Queens #14

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Writer: Kurtis J. Wiebe

Artist: Tess Fowler

Colors: Tamra Bonvillain

Letters: Ed Brisson

Image



There’re revelations galore as Dee tells her brother of the terrible secret behind the eldritch entity their family worships, Hannah’s mom shows Hannah just what her father was doing throughout her childhood, and Violet and Betty fight a dragon.  Sorta.  Wiebe wisely balances out the weighty drama of the first two with the humor and charm of the latter.  He also gives us yet another wonderful repartee between Hannah and Tizzie which is always a joy and this one might be the best yet.  Not to be outdone, Fowler and Bonvillain supply these dialogue-heavy scenes with wondrous scenery and panel choices.  Sure, the use of past scenes told with new dialogue in Hannah and her mom’s conversation is likely a script direction, but it wouldn’t work nearly as well were it not for Fowler’s excellent framing.  The dragon confrontation might be one of the funniest scenes in Rat Queens (say something) and it’s thanks in large part to Fowler’s excellent character work and body language.  If next issue’s cover is any indication, Rat Queen’s looks to get rather messy in the coming days, and this issue sets up for that throw down nicely.  


So what did you pick up this week? Agree or disagree with anything said here? Let us know in the comments.

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