So much goodness on this week’s pull list, I can’t even handle it… first off, we have the start of the final chapter of Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo’s totally brillz Batman: Zero Year, then Green Lantern’s biggest baddie Sinestro in his own ongoing title (can ya believe Larfleeze the Orange Lantern got one first? What were you thinking there, DC Comics??), and then the final issue of  Curse from BOOM!, which means some nasty werewolf action is going to be unleashed. Whoever said there’s not enough diverse genres in comics didn’t look at this week’s list. (Okay, two are superhero books, but technically one is a villain book.)

So get ready to spend some of your hard-earned money on Comixology or your local comic book store, ’cause you’re not gonna be able to pass up on all of these titles, are you?

Top Picks

Batman #30 / DC Comics / Scott Snyder / Greg Capullo / Danny Miki

review by Eric Diaz

With issue #30 of Batman, we enter the home stretch of Zero Year, Scott Snyder’s retelling of Batman’s origin for the New 52 universe.  Writer Scott Snyder has propelled himself, in really just a few short years, to one of the most important Batman creators in the history of the character, joining the likes of Frank Miller and Denny O’Neil. With issue 30’s Savage City, we finally see how Gotham became the Mad Max-ish post apocalyptic place we encountered at the start of Zero Year.  As the issue opens, we find that Edward Nygma, a/k/a The Riddler, has taken over the city, and in just this one storyline, Snyder has take a Batman villain that, while always one of the most famous, has also been one of the least taken seriously, and made him a terror almost on the level of the Joker, Two-Face, or Ra’s al Ghul. This is a Riddler who has brought Gotham to its knees, shows no mercy to those who don’t want to play along to his game, and yet doesn’t compromise the very thing that made him a notable Batman villain in the first place, his intellect. And maybe it’s blasphemy, but I also prefer Snyder’s version of how James Gordon and Batman became allies to anything in Year One. There, I said it. So far, he’s been doing everything right with his version of a much re-told tale, and managed to bring something new to the table. No easy task, Mr. Snyder.

Snyder has also managed to bring some classic comic booky “big thinking” back into the Batman title. This version of the story has the Riddler holding the city hostage with giant balloons emblazoned with question marks and filled with poison gas, giant television monitors on which he addresses the people of Gotham, all the kind of stuff Frank Miller totally shied away from when he did his version of Batman’s first year out in Year One. Snyder is embracing the pulpy roots of the character in a way that few have since the days when Miller redefined the Bat almost thirty years ago. Although there are traces of Miller’s Year One throughout this story, there are just as many traces of long forgotten Batman lore from the very early days of 1939 with characters like Doctor Death and, in this issue, Julie Madison, Bruce Wayne’s original love interest. (I’m a big fan of when new creators take over long running characters and embrace all aspects of their mythos, and don’t flush the ones that don’t fit with the times down the toilet.)

Greg Capullo’s art continues to improve upon itself issue after issue. Although he’s an artist that’s been around a long time now, something about Snyder’s Batman scripts brings out the best in him, and I really think we’re seeing maybe the best writer/artist duo on the Dark Knight since Denny O’Neill and Neal Adams. I know that’s high praise, but I think it’s deserved. How Zero Year goes down in Bat-history will be determined by how it all wraps up, but if the start of this final act is any indication, Snyder and Capullo have nothing to worry about.

Sinestro #1 / DC Comics / Cullen Bunn / Dale Eaglesham / Jason Wright

review by Eric Diaz

It seems that it was only yesterday that I was reviewing a first issue from writer Cullen Bunn about a high profile arch villain turned anti-hero who got his own ongoing series by popular demand (it wasn’t yesterday, but it was last month; I refer to Marvel’s Magneto #1, which was fairly awesome.) DC now has hired Mr. Bunn to work the same magic with Thall Sinestro that he did with Magneto, and for the most part, I’m intrigued so far. There’s no doubt that Geoff Johns, when he took over the Green Lantern franchise a decade ago, worked a miracle and not only brought Sinestro back from the dead, but made him one of DC’s most compelling and interesting villains. It makes sense DC would want to spin him off into his own book with the following he’s developed. But is it a good thing? Aren’t some villains better as villains, no matter how human and compelling, and not anti-heroes?

The first issue opens with a Sinestro in retreat: His Sinestro Corps (or Yellow Lantern Corps, to be precise) is now in the control of others, and he has had to witness the destruction of his home world. This is as down-and-out and defeated a Sinestro as we’ve ever seen. It’s at this point that one of his former Lanterns, Lyssa Drak, finds him in his exile and tries to convince him to take over the corps he created once again. Sinestro seems to have no interest, but circumstances force him to face the army he created. Sinestro discovers that not all his people died when his home word of Korugar pulled a Krypton and went boom-boom; Some are still out there. A guilt-ridden Sinestro gets his groove back and decides he’s going to save what’s left of his people. My problem with Sinestro as a protagonist (as opposed to Magneto) is that it’s hard to sympathize with him too much, or at least enough to forgive his flaws and follow his adventures on a regular basis. Magneto survived the Holocaust, and doesn’t want the same thing to happen to mutants; we get that. Ultimately, Sinestro is just a fascist. Magneto is filled with moments where you might not agree with what he does, but you get why he does it. No matter how complex you make him, at the end of the day Sinestro is a giant dictator, and I wonder if Bunn can make us sympathize with him in the long run.

Maybe the best part of this issue was the excellent artwork from Dale Eaglesham, former Justice Society of America and Fantastic Four artist. His pencil work is clean and tight and slightly old school without looking dated, and it was a pleasure to see his art again on a regular book. If anything can get me to follow Sinestro as a title despite my lack of total empathy for the lead, it’ll be Eaglesham’s art. Overall, I’m intrigued by this first issue, but it remains to be seen how much of the long haul I’m in it for when I find the protagonist a better villain than anti-hero. The jury’s out on this one.

Curse #4 | BOOM! Studios | Michael Moreci, Tim Daniel, Riley Rossmo, Colin Lorimer

Review by Dan Casey

All good things must come to an end, and by all accounts Curse #4 is a very good thing, so I’ve made my peace with the fact that this is the final issue. Over the course of the last three issues, Michael Moreci and Tim Daniel have woven an intricate web of murder, deceit, and desperation that has cast a shadow over a small town. With his son ravaged by an aggressive cancer, a local drunk threatening blackmail, the police searching for him, and a centuries-old werewolf locked in his basement, Laney Griffin is a man against the ropes. His options are running out and Anton, the aforementioned werewolf, is going to change into a ferocious, flesh-rending beast any day now. In short, there’s nowhere else for things to go; they have to come to a bloody head and that’s exactly what they do. When the shit hits the fan, it’s a whirlwind of blood, bullets, and beasts, but there’s a fluidity to the madness thanks to Riley Rossmo and Colin Lorimer’s delightfully dread-inducing art. While I anticipated the direction towards which the ending was heading, the journey to get there and the unsettling atmosphere Moreci and Daniel crafted with Curse made this one of the best books of 2014 and it’s only April.

Pull List

DARK HORSE COMICS

FEB140090 1 FOR $1 EMILY AND STRANGERS #1 $1.00
FEB140073 BPRD HELL ON EARTH #118 $3.50
DEC130115 BPRD HELL ON EARTH TP VOL 08 $19.99
DEC130093 BRAIN BOY TP VOL 01 PSY VS PSY $14.99
DEC130125 CHRONICLES OF CONAN TP VOL 26 LEGION O/T DEAD $19.99
DEC130138 CRIME DOES NOT PAY ARCHIVES HC VOL 07 $49.99
FEB140022 DARK HORSE PRESENTS #35 (MR) $7.99
OCT130082 GAME OF THRONES WEIRWOOD SNOW GLOBE $99.99
NOV130047 GHOST #3 $2.99
DEC130091 GHOST OMNIBUS TP VOL 05 $24.99
NOV130076 ITTY BITTY ABE SAPIEN PLUSH $14.99
NOV130075 ITTY BITTY HELLBOY PLUSH $14.99
DEC130139 ITTY BITTY HELLBOY TP $9.99
FEB140019 SKYMAN #4 $2.99
FEB140063 STAR WARS #7 LUCAS DRAFT $3.99
FEB140064 STAR WARS DARTH VADER & CRY OF SHADOWS #5 $3.50
DEC130071 STAR WARS ONGOING TP VOL 02 FROM RUINS OF ALDERAAN $19.99
DEC130105 TREKKER TRAIN TO AVALON BAY TP $9.99
FEB140029 WHITE SUITS #3 $3.99

DC COMICS

JAN140346 ADVENTURES OF SUPERMAN TP VOL 01 $14.99
FEB140282 AMERICAN VAMPIRE SECOND CYCLE #2 (MR) $2.99
FEB140198 BATMAN #30 (ZERO YEAR) $3.99
FEB140200 BATMAN #30 COMBO PACK (ZERO YEAR) $4.99
FEB140204 BATMAN AND WONDER WOMAN #30 $2.99
FEB140142 BATMAN ETERNAL #2 $2.99
FEB140206 BATWOMAN #30 $2.99
FEB140209 BIRDS OF PREY #30 $2.99
DEC130340 DAYTRIPPER DELUXE ED HC (MR) $34.99
JAN140352 FINAL CRISIS TP NEW EDITION $19.99
FEB140225 GREEN LANTERN NEW GUARDIANS #30 $2.99
FEB140211 HARLEY QUINN #5 $2.99
JAN140340 JOKER DEATH OF THE FAMILY TP (N52) $24.99
JAN140243 JUSTICE LEAGUE #29 (EVIL) $3.99
JAN140245 JUSTICE LEAGUE #29 COMBO PACK (EVIL) $4.99
NOV130241 JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA OMNIBUS HC VOL 01 $99.99
FEB140217 RED HOOD AND THE OUTLAWS #30 $2.99
FEB140218 SINESTRO #1 $2.99
FEB140236 SMALLVILLE SEASON 11 LANTERN #1 $3.99
FEB140194 SUPERGIRL #30 $2.99
FEB140170 TRINITY OF SIN PANDORA #10 $2.99
FEB140297 UNWRITTEN VOL 2 APOCALYPSE #4 (MR) $3.99
FEB140179 WONDER WOMAN #30 $2.99

IDW PUBLISHING

FEB140374 24 OMNIBUS TP $24.99
FEB140434 CROW PESTILENCE #2 $3.99
FEB140379 FRANKENSTEIN ALIVE ALIVE #3 $3.99
FEB140380 FRANKENSTEIN ALIVE ALIVE REANIMATED ED $5.99
FEB140442 GHOSTBUSTERS ONGOING TP VOL 07 HAPPY HORROR DAYS $17.99
FEB140370 GODZILLA HISTORYS GREATEST MONSTER TP $29.99
FEB140368 GODZILLA RULERS OF EARTH TP VOL 02 $17.99
FEB140445 HAUNTED HORROR #10 $3.99
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FEB140444 STAR MAGE #1 $3.99
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JAN140477 THUNDER AGENTS #7 $3.99
FEB140340 TRANSFORMERS DARK CYBERTRON TP VOL 01 $19.99
FEB140337 TRANSFORMERS WINDBLADE #1 DAWN O/T AUTOBOTS $3.99
FEB140417 X-FILES ANNUAL 2014 $7.99

IMAGE COMICS

FEB140643 A VOICE IN THE DARK #6 (MR) $3.99
SEP130518 ART OF MILLARWORLD HC $39.99
SEP130519 ART OF MILLARWORLD LTD SIGNED & NUMBERED ED HC $99.99
JAN140589 FIVE WEAPONS #8 $3.50
FEB140504 GENESIS GN $6.99
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FEB140615 MINIMUM WAGE #4 (MR) $3.50
DEC130584 MORNING GLORIES #38 (MR) $3.50
JAN140558 SEX CRIMINALS TP VOL 01 (MR) $9.99
FEB140517 SHOTGUN WEDDING #3 (MR) $3.99
FEB140634 STRAY BULLETS THE KILLERS #2 (MR) $3.50
FEB148000 TALES OF HONOR #1 2ND PTG $2.99
DEC130606 WITCHBLADE #174 CVR A CHRISTOPHER $2.99
DEC130607 WITCHBLADE #174 CVR B BRAGA $2.99

IMAGE COMICS/MCFARLANE TOYS

JAN140629 WALKING DEAD TV DIXON W/CHOPPER AF BOX SET PI

MARVEL COMICS

FEB140808 AMAZING X-MEN #6 $3.99
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FEB140684 HULK #1 ANMN $3.99
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JAN148388 SHE-HULK #2 2ND PTG WADA VAR ANMN $2.99
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JAN140812 THOR EPIC COLLECTION TP KINGDOM LOST $34.99
FEB140747 THOR GOD OF THUNDER #21 ANMN $3.99
FEB140778 ULTIMATE FF #1 $3.99
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FEB140763 WHAT IF AGE OF ULTRON #3 $3.99
FEB140749 WINTER SOLDIER BITTER MARCH #3 ANMN $3.99
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FEB140805 X-MEN #13 $3.99

COMICS & GRAPHIC NOVELS

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JAN141223 ALIVE GN $12.95
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FEB141421 ANA ALEXANDER PORCELAIN $3.99
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DEC130854 ARCHIE COMICS SPECTACULAR SPORTS TIME TP $5.99
JAN140871 ARCHIE FUNHOUSE DOUBLE DIGEST #4 $3.99
FEB141379 ARIOL SC VOL 04 BEAUTIFUL COW $12.99
FEB141359 AUTEUR #2 (MR) $3.99
FEB141218 BAD ASS #4 (MR) $3.99
FEB141031 BART SIMPSON TO THE RESCUE GN $15.99
FEB141490 BOHEMIANS GN $16.95
FEB141164 CAPT ACTION CAT #1 $3.99
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JAN140854 COLLECTED NINJA HIGH SCHOOL V2 TP $24.99
FEB141046 CURSE #4 $3.99
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DEC131145 DF MIRACLEMAN #1 CGC GRADED 9.8 $99.99
DEC131138 DF ORIGIN II #1 ROMITA SGN HAESER REMARK PI
FEB141249 DF TWILIGHT ZONE #1 FAT JACKS COMICRYPT EXC $10.00
FEB141381 DINOSAURS HC VOL 02 ALLOSAURUS $10.99
FEB141437 DOCTOR GRORDBORT PRES TRIUMPH HC $19.99
FEB141531 DOROHEDORO GN VOL 12 (MR) $12.99
FEB141328 FAIRY TAIL GN VOL 37 $10.99
FEB141348 FAMILY TIES GN $13.99
FEB141226 GAIJIN AMERICAN PRISONER OF WAR GN $19.99
JAN140862 GEARHEARTS STEAMPUNK GLAMOR REVUE #10 $3.99
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FEB141543 GFT INFERNO AGE OF DARKNESS A CVR JOHNSON $5.99
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FEB141556 GFT NEVERLAND AGE OF DARKNESS #2 C CVR DESJARDINS $2.99
FEB141585 GFT TALES FROM OZ TP VOL 01 $12.99
JAN140842 GHOST WOLF #1 $3.99
FEB140997 GOD IS DEAD #11 (MR) $3.99
FEB140998 GOD IS DEAD #11 CARNAGE WRAP CVR (MR) $3.99
FEB140999 GOD IS DEAD #11 END OF DAYS CVR (MR) $3.99
FEB141000 GOD IS DEAD #11 ICONIC CVR (MR) $3.99
JAN141245 GREEN LAMA SCIONS NOVEL $6.99
DEC131211 JACK HAGEE NO FREE LUNCH NOVEL HC $19.99
NOV131120 KNIGHTS OF THE DINNER TABLE #207 $5.99
DEC138419 KURT COBAIN WHEN I WAS AN ALIEN GN $18.95
JAN140878 MEGA MAN #35 REG CVR $2.99
JAN140822 MEN OF MYSTERY #92 $29.95
FEB140868 MERCENARY PIG #1 (MR) $4.99
FEB142549 MINECRAFT OFFICIAL MOJANG ESSENTIAL HANDBOOK $7.99
FEB141330 MISSIONS OF LOVE GN VOL 07 $10.99
FEB141329 NO 6 GN VOL 06 $10.99
FEB140884 OPERATION MARGARINE GN (MR) $12.95
OCT131288 PRE CODE CLASSICS WEIRD MYSTERIES SLIPCASED ED VOL 02 $64.99
FEB140872 RACHEL RISING TP VOL 04 WINTER GRAVES $16.99
FEB141074 REGULAR SHOW TP VOL 01 $14.99
FEB140984 ROVER RED CHARLIE #5 (MR) $3.99
FEB140985 ROVER RED CHARLIE #5 WRAP CVR (MR) $3.99
FEB141403 SAN HANNIBAL #1 $2.99
JAN141117 SHADOW #24 CALERO SUBSCRIPTION CVR $3.99
JAN141116 SHADOW #24 MOTTER CVR $3.99
JAN141115 SHADOW #24 ROSS CVR $3.99
JAN141244 SHEENA #1 $3.99
FEB141033 SIMPSONS COMICS #211 $2.99
FEB141181 SIX MILLION DOLLAR MAN SEASON 6 #2 HAESER CVR $3.99
FEB141179 SIX MILLION DOLLAR MAN SEASON 6 #2 ROSS CVR $3.99
FEB141125 SOLAR MAN O/T ATOM #1 $3.99
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JAN140884 SONIC UNIVERSE #62 REG CVR $2.99
FEB141530 SUNNY HC VOL 03 $22.99
JAN141045 TAROT WITCH OF THE BLACK ROSE #85 14TH ANN PHOTO CVR (MR) $15.00
JAN141044 TAROT WITCH OF THE BLACK ROSE #85 DLX ED (MR) $19.99
FEB141387 THEA STILTON HC VOL 03 VIKING SHIP $9.99
DEC130832 TIME LINCOLN CONTINENTAL ONE SHOT $3.99
FEB141037 TRANSLUCID #1 $3.99
FEB141167 WARLORD OF MARS #100 LINSNER CVR (MR) $7.99
JAN141262 WASTELAND #53 (MR) $3.99
FEB141496 WOLFSMUND GN VOL 04 $12.95
FEB141467 X-O MANOWAR #24 REG BERNARD (AH) $3.99

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What’s on your pull list this week? Let us know in the comments below.