The Pull List: Wednesday, April 22, 2009

Now I’m as excited as the next Wolverine fan for next week’s release of X-Men Origins: Wolverine, but it think that Marvel is taking their capitalization on the movie’s hype to extremes with the so-called Wolverine Art Appreciation Variant covers that they’re slapping on so many titles this month. Marvel already gets enough flack for spreading Wolverine too thin across so many titles, but at least the character is actually in all those books! Marvel’s most commercially successful mutant is nowhere to be seen in the pages of Hulk #11, Incredible Hercules #128, or many other titles featuring Wolverine variant covers this month. Hurm…. Although I didn’t buy any Wolverine variant covers this week, there was plenty of other goodness on the shelves to keep me busy:

Amazing Spider-Man #592
Arkham Asylum #1 (One-Shot)
Astonishing X-Men #29
Batman: Brave and the Bold #4
Battlestar Galactica: The Final Five #1
Dark Reign: Elektra #2 of 5
Detective Comics #583
Hulk #11
Immortal Iron Fist #25
Incredible Hercules #128
Justice League America #32
Jungle Girl Season Two #4
Kick-Ass #6
Messiah War: X-Force #14
Mighty Avengers #24
New Avengers #52
Red Sonja #43
Sgt. Rock: The Lost Battalion #5 of 6
Terminator Salvation #0
Thor #601
The War That Time Forgot #12
Wolverine: First Class #14
Wolverine: Origins #35

This week I was most looking forward to Immortal Iron Fist #25, which continued from the cliffhanger at the end of issue #23. The exploration of the history of the Iron Fist and the legends and lore of the other heavenly cities beyond K’un Lun has been great, and added a lot of depth to Danny Rand’s character. Sgt. Rock: The Lost Battalion #5 was also among my most anticipated comics this week. Billy Tucci has done a fantastic job with this series that shows his true passion for the character and his stories. In the “guilty pleasure” category this week was Jungle Girl Season Two #4. After seeing the cover take shape with multiple posts by artist Frank Cho in his Comic Art Fans (CAF) gallery, I really had to pick up the finished version.

Check out the full list of the week's new releases at the Diamond Comics web site.