The Pull List #89 - January 11, 2017

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.






Updates: Ms. Marvel and Southern Bastards have been moved to the Trade-Wait category.  Batgirl and the Birds of Prey has been dropped.





Silk #16

Writer: Robbie Thompson
Artist: Irene Strychalski
Colorists: Ian Herring & Irma Knivila
Letterer: VC’s Travis Lanham
Marvel
This entire issue is just an exercise of waiting for the other shoe to drop.  It’s pretty transparent and frustrating.



Unbeatable Squirrel Girl #16

Writer: Ryan North (Will Murray)
Artist: Erica Henderson (Steve Ditko)
Color Artist: Rico Renzi
Letterer: Travis Lanham
Marvel
25th anniversary celebration!  Squirrel Girl’s origin story!  Squirrel Girl’s birthdays!  Sentences fragments without verbs!  Pure fun!



BOOK OF THE WEEK
Detective Comics #948

Writer: James Tynion IV & Marguerite Bennett
Artist: Ben Oliver
Letters: Marilyn Patrizio
DC
With the Victim Syndicate storyline concluded(?), its time to clean up loose ends with Batman and Batwoman.  Namely, the hold-overs from the Colony and Monster Men arcs.  Tynion and  Bennett deliver a Batwoman-centric storyline, which is both refreshing and very welcome, given her intrinsic ties to the story so far.  While some may see this as a cheap lead-in to her soon-to-debut solo series, one can’t escape the fact that Detective Comics has been a Batwoman's book, even more so than Batman’s.  Oliver’s art work is flawless, an amazing blend of beauty and mystery.  While solo narrowing on a team book is sometimes hit-or-miss, this one looks to be great.  



But wait, there’s more!

CharlieDanger82 is helping out this week to cover some the new titles for DC Rebirth. Think of it like a backup story in your favorite book, just with less talented writing.








Titans #7
http://static7.comicvine.com/uploads/scale_large/6/67663/5640824-07.jpg
Writer: Dan Abnett
Art: Lee Weeks
Colors: Tom Kalisz
Letterer: Carlos M. Mangual
DC Comics

Oh no, DC has put 2 of my favorite books together. Whatever will I do? Oh, yeah, I remember, I'll enjoy the hell out of it. As the Titans settle in to their new base of operations in NYC (the Titan's Tower!), a romance between two Titans starts to bloom, a new villain is introduced, a lot of forms are in need of filling out and Wally finds an old friend in the form of Superman, who of course remembers Wally from his own world! While it maintains the all ages tone of the series, Titans is still a book that's so much fun to read from the character interactions to intense action scenes. Lee Weeks did a wonderful job with the art this week as well. It was just an all around great issue.





Writer: Todd McFarlane, Tom Leveen
Art: Syzmon Kudranski, Todd McFarlane
Colors: FCO Plascencia
Letterer: Tom Orzechowski
Image Comics

Can I just take a moment to talk about how satisfying it is to have a book like Spawn on the Pull List? I know calling an Image book (especially an Image launch book, like Spawn, Youngblood, Wild C.A.T.S, Cyberforce or Shadowhawk) an "indie" book is like calling Deadpool a "second tier X-Men character", but it's true. Sure, it's a lot bigger now than it was then and has amazing books that are far from the traditional superhero book, but, when it started, Image was formed because some of the best artists in the industry had stories to tell and the freedom to tell them... y'know, like any other non-superhero-centric indie creator. As a child of the 80's I only really had the "Big 2" to choose from. Sure, Dark Horse came in at the end of the 80's, but for the most part all that really appealed to me were the Aliens & Predator licensed books. Martha Washington and Concrete weren't the X-Men or Justice League. I liked my superheroes and since I was an aspiring comic book artist, I liked the guys who could draw the hell out of said heroes, like Rob Liefeld, Marc Silvestri, Todd McFarlane and, especially, Jim Lee. So when they all broke away from Marvel to form a company with all new superheroes, Image became my first TRUE indie comic experience. From there, I was able to discover some of my favorite books, like Poison Elves, the Crow, Blue Monday (originally an Oni Publishing book) and so many more that shaped my art as well as my interests through the years. Without books like Spawn, I'd never have discover the wonder of Henry & Glenn Forever & Ever, since I'd still be neck deep in Marvel and DC. Image opened the door to a new world of indie storytelling for me using the same superhero formula I was completely familiar with. Thanks for letting me say that. Anyway, on to the Spawn #269 review.

 This week in Spawn, It's all about Earl. It's about the turmoil Al has thrown his life into, about trying to be a good person and about making some really tough decisions in life that can either save or bury him. The storytelling is really well done and Kudranski's art is truly fantastic. With a startling revelation on the last page, Spawn has secured itself a space on the Pull List for a while.


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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