World War Hulk #4
This one was a bit of a let down as I’ve loved the first three issues, but this one didn’t impress me as much. The battle between Hulk and Dr. Strange was a little hard to follow at points and some of the coloring effects were a little weird. Plus the whole fight is I’m assuming based on an old plot point from some Dr. Strange story that I’ve never heard of, and I’m not doing any research to figure out what’s going on. That fight is the first half of the issue, with the second half being the Illuminati against each other. The fight is suitably emotional and this part I thought was well drawn. I mean to be fair it’s John Romita Jr., and on a bad day he’s still better than most people. All that said, still enjoying the mini, not buying any extra tie-ins and getting the whole story, so I call it a win. —3 out of 5

PULL LIST 9-19-07 World War Hulk #4 Marvel Comics Present #1 The Umbrella Academy: Apocalypse Suite #1 Tales of the Sinestro Corps Presents Parallax Checkmate #18 Irredeemable Ant-Man #12 Repo #4

Marvel Comics Present #1
Wasn’t around for the first incarnation of MCP, so I don’t have any bad memories of it, and came to this pretty fresh. There are five stories in this first issue and as with any anthology you’re going to have hits and misses. I wouldn’t say any of the stories were particularly bad. The first story “Vanguard” looks to be a superhero police procedural story, is well drawn in a painted style and there’s a very interesting twist at the end. The second story is the highlight; a Hellcat story created by Kathryn and Stuart Immonen, is of course beautiful and has a lot of fun moments. Then there’s a decent but unspectacular Spider-Man story, an Omega Flight tale focusing on the new Guardian, and a pretty charming Alicia Masters story about her relationship with The Thing. There’s a pretty good ratio of good to bad stuff here and you get plenty of story for 4 bucks. If they can keep this level consistent this could be a title to look forward to. A query though, how are they going to collect this in a trade? —3 out of 5 for the whole package.

The Umbrella Academy: Apocalypse Suite #1
Call this the pleasant surprise of the week. I wasn’t planning on buying this, but checked out the art at the shop and went for it. I’m glad I did. Gabriel Ba‘s art looks great with Dave Stewart‘s colors, in fact it’s those colors that make me enjoy his art more here than when he was drawing Casanova. And Gerard Way knocks it out of the park on his first try with a crazy story of super-powered kids taking on a living Eiffel Tower and, swear to god, my favorite line of the week “Zombie Robot Gustave Eiffel.” It’s a good fun comic with great art and great dialog. Jump on it now before you’re too late. —5 out of 5

Tales of the Sinestro Corps Presents Parallax
Well, that was something. I’ve been harping about how good the Sinestro Corp event has been, but I guess every event is allowed a misstep. And boy is this a total misstep. It’s hardly a story, showing Kyle Raynor, the former Green Lantern now taken over by Parallax, deal with some personal baggage while talking with Parallax. It would have been okay if there was some forward movement, like if Kyle had been able to defeat Parallax, or if it had revealed some interesting character points. Instead we get 32 pages with no new information which leaves Kyle in the same place he was when the issue began. The art isn’t horrible but there’s nothing that stands out about it. DC has three more of these specials planned, and this issue just says that I need to check them out before I decide to buy the other ones. —1 out of 5

Checkmate #18
Yes! I can fully put my endorsement behind Checkmate again, as this issue is another example of how good this book can be when it’s not bogged down by crossovers. “The Fall of the Wall” starts here as Amanda Waller continues her recruitment program for the new Suicide Squad, this time going after Scandal Savage. Unfortunately, her team leaves behind a damning clue that sets the rest of Checkmate on her, which could lead to her downfall. Greg Rucka is at his best writing action packed espionage tales as he does here, and it’s great fun watching the pieces fall together. Part of me suspects that Waller is going to find a way out of this situation and get away scott free. The other half of me wants to see her taken down hard. Either way it should be fun. —4 out of 5

Irredeemable Ant-Man #12
I’m not going to spend anytime moaning about how this book never found an audience. To be totally honest, this book came close to being dropped off my pull list several times, and I mostly stuck with it because it was essentially a mini-series. It had some fun moments, but on the whole I just couldn’t enjoy the lead character enough, and I’m not surprised it ended up cancelled. I just wish books like this and Nextwave could succeed, as they are really interesting Marvel books that I wish we had more of. They showed the Marvel of 2000, when editorial would let creators take the reigns and give us books like Morrison’s New X-Men, Milligan’s X-Force, and the original Ultimate books. Low-selling books like this tell editorial that readers want the same old stories and mega-events. I always like seeing books that at least take a chance. And at least it can be said that this book looked pretty. Phil Hester‘s art was a great fit for this humorous but still action packed story by Robert Kirkman. This issue wraps up all the series plotlines and ships Ant-Man off to the Initiative, so at least Marvel plans on using this character some more. It’s been a good run, but I’m not going to really shed a tear. —3 out of 5

Repo #4
Ugh, I had such high hopes for this mini, but coming to the end, it just hasn’t been very good. Rob G‘s pencils look about a million times better in black and white, or maybe they just need a better colorist, “˜cause the job done here is a hatchet job. The colors just flatten everything out and kill all the personality that is usually in his art. Writer Rick Spears wants the script to be edgy and fun, but it’s really neither. The dialog is totally clichéd, it would be a stretch to call the characters one note, and the plot is really nothing I haven’t seen before. Overall, this has been a disappointment. Go out and buy some of Spears and G’s earlier work, or pick up Pirates of Coney Island, which is also written by Spears. —2 out of 5