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Comic Wolf’s Pull Box Week of 5/16/18

What’s up Skill Floorians, it’s another exciting pile of comics. Most notably this week features the Mighty Thor: At the Gates of Valhalla special, a farewell to Jane Foster as Thor and an opportunity for Jason Aaron to look back at the time we’ve had with her. If you read my review of The Mighty Thor #706 you know I have some feelings about this, so stay tuned for more nerd rage!

The Brave and the Bold #4

We’re nearing the end of this series, much to my dismay. This issue had very little in the way of action, especially for being close to the end, but I enjoyed it immensely. After a brief sequence dealing with the fallout of last issue’s small fight, Batman (who has added a cloak to his ensemble to look less out of place) and Wonder Woman go to speak to the murdered king’s widow. She explains that the spell of forgetfulness over their home has caused them to forget much of their history, and that the king had a series of paintings done to honor King Nuada who died in the most recent war against Balor Evil Eye. That’s why I loved this issue really. A series of gorgeous paintings and just straight up telling of myth. What else could I even ask for? From the story, Batman gains a clue, which leads to a big reveal at the end to leave us hanging. I’m still REALLY enjoying the writing on this series. I can’t believe how naturally Batman and Wonder Woman are being made to fit into Celtic myth, it’s really a feat. This issue, the art deserves really special mention. I couldn’t find an image of one of the pages in question, but a majority of the book has the paintings taking up most of the page. The painting art reminds me of Ted Nasmith, an artist who did a lot of art for Tolkien’s worlds. It’s really beautiful, and stands out even from the already excellent looking book. If you haven’t been on this series, I highly recommend grabbing it or waiting for the trade for the art alone.

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Comic Wolf’s Pull Box Week of 5/9/18

Hey everyone, jumping right back to your regularly scheduled nonsense now that the FCBD special has passed. It’s a pretty light week, but also a balanced one with one (1) entry each in the categories DC, Marvel, and Indie. I’ll enjoy the easy week of writing, Getch will enjoy the easy week of editing, and y’all can enjoy not having me rattle on quite as long as usual. Off we go!

Detective Comics #980

“Batmen Eternal” prepares to transition over to “Rise of the Batmen” with this issue which escalates the conflict with The General, Brother Eye, and the newly brain warped Tim (Red Robin). Batman, Spoiler, and Orphan attempt to get in and control the nanites (O.M.A.C.) that have possessed many of the Colony soldiers plus Azrael and Batwing. There’s a lot going on here, obviously.

The conflict remains interesting and rooted in moral questions. For better or worse this is the idea of the Bat-family expanded to its most extreme. What does that mean for what they stand for? There’s no easy answer, and even though I’m sure the comic will end up wrapping neatly, it’s still important to bring up these questions. Cass (Orphan) and Stephanie (Spoiler) get to shine a bit which I appreciated since I’m not too familiar with them yet and need more of them in the spotlight. My major complaint is tied to them though; this book switches artists every issue or two, and the guy in charge of pencils on this one can only draw one female body. Everyone is absurdly curvy in the same skintight suit even though their shapes and costumes have (slightly) more distinction than that. It’s not a huge deal but was actively distracting in a few panels. We’re still headed toward something big, and no matter the outcome it should be pretty neat.

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Comic Wolf’s Pull Box Week of 5/2/18 – Free Comic Book Day Special

Welcome to a special and late edition of CWPB! As mentioned, Saturday was Free Comic Book Day and my store really goes all out. We had a ton of artists and vendors, plenty of guests, two small concerts, and a lot of awesome sales. This was my first FCBD working and despite the stress, it was a blast as expected. Super thankful to have been involved. Anyway, due to setup and then the day itself and then clean up and recovery from all that at the store I am behind and that’s why this is late. As promised, I’ll talk about some of the free books. Much like the Superman Specials, I’m gonna bump that up into the main content so no post-credit. You’ve already waited extra, so let’s not waste any more time on intro; to the comics!

Action Comics Special #1

After Action Comics #1000, a lot of change is coming to the world of Superman. Mostly Bendis writing Man of Steel. Anyway, creative teams are changing so a Special was put together before #1001 to let the current team wrap some stuff up. The book had three short stories. The primary one involved an enemy from the future who figured out Lois Lane’s connection to Superman and attacked her. It was a pretty tense story and was really good. The villain is all at once obvious but still interesting to see the journey to Superman figuring it out. The writing is excellent, this story being the main event from the current team. Barring AC#1000, this particular story is probably my favorite so far. There’s a second story where Lex, Lois, and Superman as Clark Kent attend the White House Correspondent Dinner. It’s mostly lighthearted and full of jokes like the real dinner, but the story is from Lex Luthor’s point of view and it sets up something significant that happened before. The last story is just a small cute story about Superman helping someone out and then also being a great husband to Lois. This whole issue feels a little redundant, given that we literally just got a big pile of short stories. However, it’s short and enjoyable enough to get a pass. Definitely worth checking out.

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Comic Wolf’s Pull Box Week of 4/11/18

Hey everyone, welcome back to CWPB! This week will be Part 1 of my 80 Years of Superman Special! By the time you’re reading this, tomorrow (4/18/18) will be the release of Action Comics #1000! This is a huge landmark, and is being massively celebrated. Due to the way I publish, I decided to do double the Superman coverage! Some hype stuff now, right before release and then a full review of the issue and some other cool Superman biz next week. As part of the Superman Special, I’m gonna bump the Post-Credit up to before the credits (like Marvel did with Age of Ultron, which fuck that movie but we’re not getting into that). To start, this week’s books!

Detective Comics #978

Detective Comics pushes forward, examining the wake of last issue’s ending. Colony soldiers, controlled by Ulysses, are killing people in an attempt to put more distance between Batman and Batwoman. The two of them agree to meet to discuss everything going on, while Tim stays back at the cave and tries to figure out what happened to cause the soldiers to start shooting. This arc remains pretty interesting, watching Ulysses pull strings from the shadows and get increasingly involved. This issue pushed the story forward a bit, but the real progress isn’t til the end so there isn’t too much to discuss here. It lacks the serious look at the characters that the previous arc had, and this particular issue is light on action or mystery. It’s still interesting and necessary – it’s not filler, just the slight lull before things pick up. The art had a few particularly excellent moments in this one too. Overall while this might not be the best issue of Detective Comics ever, it sets up a hell of a next issue. Come back in two weeks to see if it lives up to my expectations!

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Comic Wolf’s Pull Box Week of 3/14/18

Welcome all to more Comic Wolf’s Pull Box, your weekly dose of all* the comics! (*All may only include a handful of books). Got another good evenly split week, although with Detective and Action Comics being bi-weekly I almost wish they split them up. Still, looking especially forward to Detective Comics, plus another comic I picked up a week late. Off we go!

Action Comics #999

Action Comics #999 takes a bit of a break from the action, serving as a small break in between the previous arc (“Booster Shot” – see previous CWPBs for more info) and the giant-size issue coming out for the milestone #1000. I actually enjoyed this one quite a bit. It splits its time between focusing on Superman and focusing on his family again. Lois and her father argue since he doesn’t trust Superman and doesn’t always appreciate Lois and “Clark’s” positive discussion of Supes in the press. He doesn’t know that Clark is actually Superman, and also doesn’t know his grandson is part Kryptonian as a result. Meanwhile Superman gets rid of an asteroid that’s threatening Earth, and in doing so gets his hands on a resource he needs. After seeing how the Phantom Zone twisted Zod and his family, Superman begins to wonder whether or not it’s really a humane prison and starts looking for alternatives. Seeing Superman admit faults and strive for better morality is one of the few angles that interests me. I’ve always seen him as too perfect, to the point of being boring. I’m still not a huge fan, but the moments where Superman approaches what it means to be human are most important to me. My favorite bit of Superman comics ever is when he talks to a woman poised to jump off a building (Part One of the Superman: Grounded run). It reveals more layers to the Man of Steel than just black and white moralism, as he assures the woman that if she chooses to take her own life he won’t stop her. The run was intended to show Superman travelling across America and reconnecting with the people, moving from the big time cosmic threats back to being an American hero. A more grounded Superman is more interesting, and this issue aims for a similar feeling despite the fact that the Phantom Zone is a heavy sci-fi element. It still examines Superman as an actual person with flaws and the potential to make mistakes and not always automatically do the “moreally right” thing. Despite not moving the universe forward in any huge way, this is my favorite issue of Action Comics so far. Join us again in two weeks for #1000, celebrating 80 years with Superman!

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