Pull List Roundtable 12/7/2016 – Wonder Woman ’77 Meets the Bionic Woman #1, Reggie and Me #1, Star Wars: Doctor Aphra #1 & More!

A&A Adventures of Archer & Armstrong #10 – Crazy good fun and hijinks from this mismatched duo.

Cyborg #6 – Didn’t expect to continue reading this, but this opening arc has been compelling. Now we also get debut of the new “She-borg” Variant.

Death of Hawkman #3 – Loving this mini and curious how Hawkman’s world changes at the end for Rebirth.

Green Lanterns #12 – One of the top three DC Rebirth titles! The Phantom Lantern arc continues.

Superman #12 – I really enjoyed the opening arcs so far including the preceding Super Sons one. Not too excited about the next two-parter with Frankenstein, but Superman #14’s Multiplicity arc launch is another one I’m excited for!

JOSIE AND THE PUSSYCATS #3 – Issue 2 might have been the most fun comic I’ve read in forever. It just threw every trope in the book and had a great time making fun of them. COMIC BOOK SCEINCE! It just worked so well. It is always hard to judge a book based on only a few issues, but JOSIE AND THE PUSSYCATS is definitely a contender for comic of the year for me.

REGGIE AND ME #1 – More Archie relaunch! This time we got Tom DeFalco (Spider-Girl!) and Sandy Jarrell shining the spotlight on Reggie Mantle. Reggie is the ultimate egotist, and I am really curious how you can make a series (even a 5 issue mini series like this one) about Reggie entertaining. But the Archie relaunch has had a lot more hits than misses, so I will definitely check it out.

NOVA #1 – Richard Rider is back!!! I actually do like Sam Alexander, but the original Nova was in the first comic I ever bought for myself (AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #351), so he’s always been one of my favorites. Hopefully this isn’t a fake out and we have Rider to stay.

CLONE CONSPIRACY #3 – This one has taken some real odd twists and turns. It started as a “simple” Jackal story, and has someone evolved into “a massive zombie threat threatens the entire multiverse.” Not quite sure that is the right scale for a Spider-Man story, but I have enjoyed Slott’s run, so I am not inclined to be too judgmental. It’s been an excellent read even if it wasn’t quite what I expected going in.

STAR WARS: DOCTOR APHRA #1 – Not sure she really needs her own series, but I really enjoyed the character in DARTH VADER. This book was actually solicited as a secret project for the first few issues, I guess so people wouldn’t know for sure if she survived the end of DARTH VADER’s series. I have been following all of Marvel’s Star Wars books, so I will pick it up. But I would have preferred they continue DARTH VADER instead of this.

BATMAN #12 – Tom King has done something real brilliant here. He parses out foreshadowing in a way that makes you feel a lot of angst. At the end of his first arc, Gotham Girl’s narrations reveals that Batman will killed sometime relatively soon. Last issue, Catwoman seemed to turn traitor selling Batman out to Bane. Now, my initial instinct is to simply say “this was all part of Batman’s plan.” But every time I thought that, the reveal about the “impending death of Batman.” I found myself thinking about BATMAN #11 for literally days afterwards. That is great comic writing. Loved King’s VISION, and his work on BATMAN might be even better.

Arclight #3 – I was worried that when the excellent and experimental Image series 8House disappeared, that none of the stories in that strange anthology book would be continued. I’m happy to see that Image is finishing its inaugural story, which I didn’t much understand, but which was purely stunning thanks to the art of Marian Churchland. I hope we see the rest of 8House in this way too, as the other comics were also very good.

Dr. Aphra #1 – I enjoyed this character quite a bit during the Darth Vader series, as well as those of her droids, and am looking forward to seeing Kieron Gillen continue writing her tales. Gillen is such a good writer, and I love when he upends expectations of what an editorially-mandated or licensed property could be.

Motor Crush #1 – I like the work that Cameron Stewart, Brendan Fletcher, and Babs Tarr did on Batgirl, so I’m definitely down to see what they might do without the kind of editorial interference that comes with writing a Bat-book. This should be pretty cool.

Shade the Changing Girl #3 – This looks like it’s going to be the only Young Animal title I stick with, and it’s been a pleasant surprise, except for Marley Zircon’s art, which I already knew I’d love.

The Woods #28 – This comic has just gotten so good lately, as James Tynion IV and Michael Dialynas move towards their big finish. A truly excellent comic.