This Week's Comics - 1/4/12

It's the first Pull List of the New Year, and it seems my selection matches the new sales charts that are out; Marvel takes the cake.

Yes, folks, not a single DC title gets on my list this week, nor any indies or semi-mainstream companies or the one created by the guy who owns the comic store. This week is entirely Marvel.



Avengers Annual #1


Bright colors. Skin tight costumes. Loud, destructive powers. It's like they read all my New Year's Resolutions.



MARVEL (obviously)

Avengers Academy #24:  This title hasn't held my interest so much with the move to the West Coast, so hopefully having X-23 more involved will bring some of the old earnest semi-dark storytelling back to the forefront. Mr. Gage is stretched a bit thin these days, and this isn't my favorite of what he's putting out there.

Avengers Annual #1:  Finally capitalizing on a story teased and introduced many months ago, Brian Michael Bendis is giving us the Avengers vs. Wonder Man & his Revengers fight. The outcome is pretty much obvious, but some good Avengers history stuff should come up, plus emotional confrontations like Ms. Marvel, and maybe even some Scarlet Witch conversation.

Avengers X-Sanction #2:  This miniseries is, quite frankly, pretty terrible. Even if the writing wasn't somehow boring (a feat, considering it's Cable taking down the Avengers) the art is just juvenile and off-putting. Still, it's all about Hope and A vs X at this point, so I'll stick around I guess.

Uncanny X-Force #19.1:  X-Force's AofA allies return to their home dimension and take on Weapon X. Also more info on that X-terminated team. This Point One is setting the stage for a new on-going Age of Apocalypse book. While I'm not sure I'm buying that, I AM sure that anything Rick Remender does these days, esp with this alternate universe characters, is pure gold.

Uncanny X-Men #4:  A fast turn-around and we get another Uncanny comic, but a one-off story about the Phalanx. Looking forward to it.

Wolverine and the X-Men: Alpha and Omega #1:  I like Aaron's Wolverine and the X-Men, but I don't know much about this writer despite his reputation and I've never ever liked Quentin Quire. Might read this in trades, or back issues, but hopefully it doesn't affect much of the main X-Men storylines (read: stop using Quentin so much.)

X-Club #2:  I like this writer, and his other work giving us X-Club stories has been fun, but not spectacular. The first issue was boring, except for the humor, and Danger turning on her allies is old hat. This is more of a downloadable type of comic, not essential if you're following Utopia X-Men.

X-Men #23:  Honestly this eastern european sentinel war story arc should have been done 2 or 3 issues ago. It's boring, War Machine is uninteresting, and the team hasn't really accomplished much of anything at all. Storm is awesome, and a reckless super vampire Jubilee is cooler than expected, but this conclusion would have to be insanely terrific to wash out the taste of the last few issues.

Hope everyone had a lovely New Year's Eve.