PULL LIST 03-28 & 04-02-08 Secret Invasion #1 Green Lantern #29 Countdown to Adventure #8 Young Avengers Presents #3 New Avengers #39 Casanova #13 All Star Superman #10

Secret Invasion #1
Finally, Marvel starts this years big event, after what seems years of build up (if you believe Marvel’s hype, it has been years), and really I was pretty happy with this. There’s some good excitement as a couple of minor characters are revealed as Skrulls, the long promised throw down between the Mighty and New Avengers almost happens, and then a larger surprise happens on the last page. It’s mostly a set up issue, so while there are a few twists going on here, you know the bigger ones will be coming in later issues. Plus, it’s a Brian Bendis written comic, so you know you’ll get lots of dialogue that will appeal to fans of his work, but if you’ve disliked his work in the past, this issue won’t change your opinion. Who really brings his A-game this issue is Leinil Yu, ably assisted on inks by Mark Morales. Inkers are sometimes under-appreciated, but this is one of those cases when you can really see the work that Morales did, and how much it improves Yu’s pencils in comparison to his recent New Avengers work. I’ve been a Yu fan for a while, and this is the kind of work I was hoping to see. It’s also good because Yu is an on-time worker, so hopefully this won’t see a rash of delays as has plague recent event books. Overall, I’m down for the ride, I’m excited to see where it goes and I have faith in the creative team to make a fun book. Here’s hoping they don’t screw it up! —4 out of 5

Green Lantern #29
This is the start of the “Secret Origin” story arc, and while I wasn’t really looking forward to it when it was announced, I found the execution to be great. I’m not a long time GL fan, so I’ve never read a “full” origin for him, but I knew the nuts and bolt of the story, test pilot runs into an alien in the desert and is given the greatest weapon in the universe. Turns out there are more levels to that story, and writer Geoff Johns is taking this opportunity to tie Hal Jordan’s origin into his larger ongoing plot lines. Mostly, this is family drama involving Hal, his mother and his two brothers. This is scheduled to be a six issue story, which I’m worried will be too long, but I have faith in Johns on this series. Ivan Reis is back on art for this story, and he turns in some of his best work yet. He’s doing his best Bryan Hitch imitation here and pulls it off well. There is a lot of emotion that he gets out of his figures, and that does the story credit. If he can stay on time with the art, this will make for a nice story. This is as good a jumping on point as your going to find with the series, so if you’ve been wanting to check the series out, give this one a shot. —4 out of 5

Countdown to Adventure #8
4 bucks for half a book has been rough for this whole series, but the front half was totally worth it. The continuing adventures of Animal Man, Starfire, and Adam Strange comes to a close for now, as the three cure the people of San Diego of a terrible plague before another group of aliens are able to wipe out humanity. There’s just as much action as there is personal drama, which has been the hallmark of this series. I would love to see a regular series with these three characters, especially if it was written by Adam Beechen. I was kind of sad to see them retiring the new look for Adam Strange in favor of the old one, but it’s just a costume. The second half continues to be a waste for me, not helped by the fact I didn’t read the middle parts of the story. Any Countdown related material pretty much passed me by anyway; I’m just not a big enough DC fan to get interested in it. For all I know it could be really good, although the art was kind of plain. I see from the solicits that the trade for this series will include both sections, and I kind of wish they would split it up into two cheap trades, but DC can probably make more money including it all in a more expensive trade. The main story may be reason enough to pick it up, if you can find it cheap. This has been a good, fun sci-fi action story with a lot of great characters, and if you enjoyed the space sections of 52, you’ll enjoy this. Just don’t get upset about the price. —3 out of 5

Young Avengers Presents #3
Wiccan and Speed take the spotlight for this issue as they try to track down their supposed mother, the Scarlet Witch. They travel around the world to her usual haunts, finally coming to one of her old houses which is currently being squatted in by someone named Pandemonium, a demon character I’ve never heard of, but apparently had something to do with the old story of the Scarlet Witch and Vision’s kids. Honestly, the plot is pretty boring, and like the first two issues, spends a lot of time going nowhere. The script by Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa has no real interesting moments, no new insights into the characters, there’s really nothing here to recommend in terms of story. I did kind of enjoy Alina Urusov‘s art, a very manga inspired look that was bright and colorful and fit the characters well. It’s probably not for everyone, and the way the last few issues have gone, it looks like this series might be a bit of a waste. It’s time for Marvel to push hard to get the original creative team back. —1 out of 5

New Avengers #39
Here, Brian Bendis gets one last chance to set the seeds for Secret Invasion, this time teaming up with David Mack to look in on Echo and how she’s reacting to the invasion. She teams up with Wolverine after getting attacked by a Skrull who is presumably trying to replace her. The fight scene is pretty brutal, although it’s more evidence that no one at Marvel knows how quickly Wolverine regenerates these days, but it at least shows that the Skrulls are pretty powerful. David Mack’s art is from a style that’s not really my favorite, but I can see that it’s well designed and it reads very well, so I can forgive it. The stories kind of light but it works as a good hush before the storm issue. There’s nothing for me to say “don’t read it”, but not a lot for me to recommend. —3 out of 5

Casanova #13
Speaking of hush before the storm issues, Matt Fraction‘s little book that could leads up to its second season finale, so we get an issue where the writer moves all his pieces into place. I can’t say enough good things about the second arc of this series, and I can’t wait to see how it ends next month. This issues big trick is a series of flashbacks showing how series lead Casanova Quinn has affected the other characters in the series, which is interesting since he’s been absent from the series for the last five issues. The book has proven itself strong enough to carry on, even excel, without its lead character. As always Fabio Moon‘s work on the art in this series is a breath of fresh air. His work is deceptively simple but packed with detail. I just hope there’s not much of a break between the end of this arc and the beginning of the next. —4 out of 5

All Star Superman #10
A new issue of this series is always a reason to rejoice, and this issue is no exception. Superman begins filling out his last will and testament, and since this is a quasi silver age story, he’s writing it on a big wall in kryptonian. Supes spends the bulk of the issue trying to free the residents of the Bottle City of Kandor, without much success, but he does manage to find a cure for cancer, which is nice. I find that Superman stories are really hard to do, but Grant Morrison pulls off the perfect balance between sweet and serious. He’s found the right elements for all the things that make a good Superman story. And what can you say about Frank Quietly‘s artwork that hasn’t been said before. Sure, it takes a while to come out, but damn is it worth it. —5 out of 5