Pull List Roundtable 8/3/2016 – 4001 A.D.: War Mother #1, Suicide Squad Rebirth #1, Animosity #1 & More!

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James Fulton

  • Daredevil Annual #1 – Charles Soule is revisiting the character Echo, with art by Vanessa Del Rey? This should be great.
  • Kill or Be Killed #1 – It’s time for another new series from Ed Brusker and Sean Phillips. That is never not a good a thing.
  • Sheriff of Babylon #9 – I know I recommend this every month, but it’s pretty much the best comic being published right now.
  • Trees #14 – I was starting to fear that this series had gone the way of plenty of other Warren Ellis comics (like Fell and Doktor Sleepless, for example), so I’m happy to see a new issue of this excellent post-alien encounter series. It’s one of Ellis’s best.
  • The Walking Dead #157 – The end of the last issue of TWD was truly surprising, so I’m looking forward to see what happens next.

John Babos

10 books this week.

  • 4001 A.D.: War Mother #1 – Picking it up because I am intrigued.
  • Batman Beyond #15 – The series winds down as an adult Tim Drake makes way for Terry McGinnis’ return in DC Rebirth.
  • DC Universe Rebirth #1 – This fourth printing Ethan Van Sciver cover is gorgeous!
  • Green Arrow #4, Green Lanterns #4, and Superman #4 and Nightwing #2 – My twice monthly series reads this week. The first two “green” ones I was expecting to read, the latter two are surprises. Picking up Superman for the Jon Kent Superboy lead in to Super Sons and reading Nightwing for his intriguing Court of Owls entanglement.
  • Harley Quinn #1 (Cover A) – Why not?
  • Marvel Tsum Tsum #1 – What on Earth is this and is this a sign Marvel is out of ideas? Yikes. So NOT getting this.
  • Squadron Supreme #10 – The road to Namor: Rebirth or Namor: Reassembled continues! I love this super-team and their creative team.
  • Suicide Squad Rebirth #1 – I am so excited. The promise of this book is to have the set-to-launch ongoing series more closely display the tone and intelligence show by John Ostrander’s run, but also have a team that resembles the movie cast. Glad to see the Suicide Squad gets a new logo in Rebirth because the New 52 one was terrible and so has every other one since the classic and timeless one used during John Ostrander’s influential 1980’s run.

Matt Graham –  Did you read Harley’s April Fool’s Special? It was a weird one shot until I realized it was a lead in to the Rebirth title.

Babos:  Yes I did and DC loved it so much it issued it for free last week to have at stores for possible Suicide Squad movie goers who attend their closest local comics shops.


Mike Maillaro

Back from a much needed break. Refreshed and ready to go! Thankfully, this is a pretty light week of comics for me, so let’s jump right in.

  • ANIMOSITY #1 – Another new series from Aftershock. In ANIMOSITY, all the animals of Earth have started to think, talk, and plot their revenge against humanity. What I love about Aftershock is that they get top notch creative teams (this one is by Marguerite Bennett & Rafael de Latorre) and let them cut loose with new and crazy ideas. Aftershock has only been around a short time, but they are already leaving a huge mark on the comic industry! At this point, I have all of Aftershock’s new releases on my pull list.
  • TORCHWOOD #1 – I miss TORCHWOOD! I know it gets a bad rap from some people, but I have been a huge fan of this Doctor Who spinoff from day one. Captain Jack Harkness (John Barrowman) is co-writing this one with his sister, so I hope that it will bring the series some new attention. Maybe at some point we can get a season 5??
  • SUICIDE SQUAD REBIRTH #1 – With the movie launching this week, this was pretty clever timing. Suicide Squad has been pretty solid since New-52, so I am expecting more of the same here.
  • TREES #14 – The problem with Warren Ellis is that he ends up doing many things at once, and the scheduling for his series end up consistently getting lost in the shuffle. Trees has been a very unique take on alien invasion…but this issue was originally solicited for October 2015. I barely remember what happened in the last issue at this point. Getting to the point where I may just start waiting for the trade, which is unfortunate because I love this book.
  • PAPER GIRLS #8 – The jump to the future helped kick this book from good to great. And with all the attention Stranger Things has been getting on Netflix, PAPER GIRLS is very much in the same spirit. Well worth giving a fair shot.
  • STRANGE ATTRACTORS #3 – Seems like all my favorite quirky series happen to be coming out this week. Strange Attractors is a reissue of an old series by Charles Soule about a mad scientist who believes he can manipulate events on an epic scale just be making little tweaks…such as rerouting traffic or ensuring a certain shop is closed at a certain time. It’s a very clever book with great characters.
  • VOTE LOKI #3 – After the exhausting National Conventions, I am about ready to just hand the country over to the God of Lies. At this point, it couldn’t be much worse than these clowns actually running for office.

Matt Graham

Two Top Picks this week:

  • Animosity #1 – I’ve been waiting for this book all summer. Marguerite Bennett (Insexts, Red Sonja), Rafael de Latorre (Superzero), and Rob Schwager create a world where animals become as intelligent as humans, or if they were already (my pets and yard animals get up to some antics), learn to talk and communicate amongst each other to take revenge on humanity and our civilization. A loyal dog who loves his girl must escort her from New York to San Francisco, where the dog knows she has a human who would protect her. Marguerite Bennett brings her black comic horror sensibilities to reenvision The Road and Animal Farm as a screwed up coming of age saga.
  • 4001 A.D. War Mother #1 – I’m still catching up on Valiant, but the cover had me double take a few weeks ago. I had an early look at a copy. Not my review copy, so I didn’t review it, but I will say: Fred Van Lente scripts the tale of The War Mother, a woman named Ana who scavenges the wastelands outside one of the last refuges of humanity to keep it going one more day. Not wanting to weigh a solo character’s first impression down with exposition, Ana has a talking AI gun to foil with. Thomas Giorello and Brian Reber bring it to life with the rare “thriving” wasteland as mother nature is fine, and claiming everything back from civilization.

I’ve had a friend who isn’t even into comics happen across the character on Instagram, and this is the book that had her step into a shop and start a pull list after months of talk about it. After reading it, I can vouch that it’s that compelling whether or not you follow Valiant. It’s that cool.

Otherwise:

  • Suicide Squad Rebirth #1 – The Squad is one of the few titles I stay consistent with at DC, and the 52 title was reliably entertaining. In a strange move for me, Jim Lee’s art is not the draw. In fact, I am annoyed that he’s doing 15 pages with 5 for back up solo stories by rotating talent. Wonder Woman and SS were the two Rebirth books DC had me on the hook with for the characters alone, but the executions don’t promise a smooth ride. Thankfully…
  • Lady Killer 2 #1 – Here’s the second season of a trained killer masquerading as a 1960s housewife and mother, bringing together two slices of Americana for bold new flavour. Eisner nominated writer and artist Joelle Jones (“I’m going to write a scene just so I can draw that stuff.”) and co-writer Jamie S. Rich have spun dark comedy and violent action into one of the best written and best illustrated books on shelves in 2015. Don’t miss out on Lady Killer’s 2016 return.
  • Harley Quinn #1 – I can get a repeat Harley fix here. Another reliable DC title, except I do follow this one for the talent with Jimmy Palmiotti and Amanda Conner spinning a wonderful re-approach to the character that sets it apart from the rest of DC. Pre-Rebirth, it was unhindered by…pretty much anything, and I hope for the same here.
  • Paper Girls #8 – This book edged out Lady Killer for me, so if you take the above excitement and dial it up, I don’t need to repeat myself. These characters and this script kill in different ways, and now that Netflix’s Stranger Things has sparked the 80s coming of age horror sci fi fire, you will read Paper Girls and realize Brian K. Vaughan and Cliff Chiang already did that last year. Not that there’s any competition. One’s a show, one’s a comic, and Winona Ryder and Cliff Chiang are two beautiful things that we have the liberty of enjoying together…but read Paper Girls. You can beat people in conversations with this drop and it was my book of 2015.
  • Tank Girl Two Girls One Tank #3 of 4 – It’s Tank Girl with a Paul Pope cover. It’s getting bought.
  • Daredevil Annual – Charles Soule and Vanessa Del Rey are pulling Echo out from the DD drawer. That’s three of my favourite things.
  • Uncanny X-Men #11
  • Tokyo Ghost #9
Mike Maillaro is a lifelong Jersey Boy and geek. Mike has been a comic fan for about 30 years from when his mom used to buy him Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle Adventures at our local newsstand. Thanks, Mom!! Mike's goal is to bring more positivity to the discussion of comics and pop culture.