Buffy the Vampire Slayer #10
Please, Joss Whedon and Dark Horse, please, please, please, please, please let Cliff Richards become the regular artist on the series. I would be eternally grateful and would shower this book with endless praise. Richards fills in for this one off story that reveals a little secret about Dawn, while also looking into the past and future of Buffy and Willow as they have a tête-à-tête with a demon. I don’t understand why they’re not using Richards, as he employs a similar style to the regular artist, but his characters stay on model, and his faces show actual emotion. Revealing secrets is the name of the game this issue, and there are a lot of good bits strewn throughout. Joss is back to write this issue so you know the dialog will pop and everyone will sound like they’re supposed to. This is a very good issue of the series, much improved by the superior art. —4 out of 5

PULL LIST 01-04-08 Buffy the Vampire Slayer #10 The End League #1 Ultimate Human #1 Doktor Sleepless #4 Northlanders #2

The End League #1
Call it the surprise of the week. I picked this up because I was mostly intrigued by the preview art, but I knew nothing about the story. It was a bit easier to pick up on the strength of being written by Rick Remender, who’s Fear Agent I always enjoy. What we get here is pretty different series from Fear Agent‘s brand of Sci-fi. This is a straight up superhero story, set in a world where a Superman type hero screwed something up big in the 50’s, survived, and now tries to protect what’s left of the world from the growing number of villains. Remender writes that the story came from the idea that people are basically selfish so if they were given powers, a lot would become villainous. The characters and world are set up quickly, but all the details come naturally. The art comes from Mat Broome whose pencils, along with the coloring, make it look like a more detailed Daniel Acuna. The characters are designed well and show what they’re about merely from the look of them. It’s some fine work and I’m kind of excited about this series now. —4 out of 5

Ultimate Human #1
Warren Ellis time, part 1 here, as we get a new four part mini dealing with Iron Man and the Hulk. Bruce Banner comes to Tony Stark and asks for his help in curing him of the Hulk once and for all, so they make a quick trip to one of Stark’s more secluded research locations, only it turns out this is all part of the plan of the all new Ultimate Leader. The identity of the Leader is kind of a funny choice if you know Ellis’ career, but it doesn’t really get in the way of the story. Ellis uses his standard techno-babble here, really the whole thing is kind of Ellis on auto-pilot, which means that it’s still pretty good, there’s just no passion jumping off the page. Art comes from Cary Nord, who has recently done great work on the Conan series, and does similarly great work here. His Banner comes off as beaten and broken, and his Hulk is huge and powerful. It’s very high quality work. Not the deepest story in the world, but a fun little look at two characters and what could be a nice action story with great art. —3 out of 5

Doktor Sleepless #4
Warren Ellis time, part 2 with his creator owned series from Avatar about a possible lunatic futurist trying to kick-start some new ideas. This issue is more about the back story of the character and setting up some subplots, as the title character does not even show up this issue. This one is also filled with techno-babble, but you can tell that Ellis has more passion for this series than he does for Ultimate Human. Again, the style is typical Ellis, so if that’s you’re thing, you’ll enjoy it, and if it’s not, you’ll probably hate it. Art comes from Ivan Rodriguez, whose work is serviceable but not spectacular. He’s certainly not going to win any artist of the year awards, but neither is it bad enough to get in the way of the story. It’s easy to read art that does its part in getting the story across. My chief complaint is that I wish the story was moving a little faster, as this is a great example of decompressed story and I don’t know really where the story is going, but that sense of mystery of what the book is about keeps me coming back for more. —3 out of 5

Northlanders #2
More Viking madness from Brian Wood as we get some more background on Sven and his village. There’s a lot of talking this issue, but Wood still makes time to show some bloodshed. The dialog still sounds a bit anachronistic, but that’s better than using the old Thor-speak to try to set the mood. Maybe I’ve just read too much “Blade of the Immortal” which uses a similar kind of modern speech in ancient times, but the dialog doesn’t bug me. The art by Davide Gianfelice continues to impress me, showing the grim and brutal landscape this story takes place in. the colors are also effective here, with bright patches (mostly on the main character) to show signs of life, while keeping the rest of the palette fairly subdued. Two issues in and I’m really enjoying this series. We’ll see how it goes once the newness has worn off. —4 out of 5