It’s only fitting that the day we relaunch Nerdist.com, we’d have some colossally cool Pull List picks for you. Godzilla may not have stomped its way into theaters yet, but Legendary has an original graphic novel to get you ready for the kaiju craziness. Plus, Bryan Hitch blends humor and heroism to explosive effect in a brand new Real Heroes. Lastly, DC’s latest weekly event has landed on store shelves, and brought Batman Beyond and an apocalypse waiting to happen with it. And that’s just barely scratching the surface, because today is Comic Book Day and there’s a cornucopia of graphic goodness just waiting to be had.

Top Picks

Godzilla: Awakening | Legendary Comics | Max Borenstein, Greg Borenstein, Eric Battle, Yvel Guichet, Alan Quah, Lee Loughridge, Patrick Brosseau

Godzilla isn’t just a giant lizard with atomic breath, and Godzilla: Awakening isn’t just a prequel to the highly anticipated film starring the eponymous lizard. Rather, Godzilla: Awakening, an original graphic novel from Legendary Comics, lays down the foundation for a larger Godzilla-and-kaiju-filled universe. Written by the film’s screenwriter Max Borenstein and his brother Greg Borenstein, Godzilla: Awakening takes place decades prior to the 2014 film, and follows one Mr. Serizawa, a Hiroshima survivor-turned-government agent who grows obsessed with discovering the truth behind the massive kaiju he encounters while responding to a distress call in the South Pacific.

Although Mr. Serizawa is a reference to the character of Dr. Serizawa from the original 1954 film, he is entirely his own man. Whereas the original Serizawa created the Oxygen Destroyer that meant Godzilla’s doom, this Serizawa sees the monster as a scaly savior of sorts and seeks to learn the true purpose behind the behemoth. Still, the book manages to pay homage to the original while creating a world that is distinctly its own. With sweeping, cinematic artwork, massive scene-stealing monster mayhem, and compelling character work, Godzilla: Awakening is something you’ll find yourself tearing through like Godzilla would through so many cities.

If I have one complaint about Awakening, it’s that it feels a bit short. I found myself wishing that they had delved deeper into the world they were establishing and followed Serizawa further on his mad, Ahab-like quest for truth. That being said, it’s always nice to leave people hungry for more and this serves as an excellent appetizer to May 16th’s massive main course. Legendary Comics continues to make the most of its film wing’s considerable IP, and Godzilla: Awakening is a real atomic feather in its cap.

Real Heroes #2 | Image Comics | Bryan Hitch

Review by Charles Webb

Blending a little bit of The Three Amigos with glossy, Millar-style cynicism, Real Heroes is actually kind of clever – even if it takes the bulk of the second issue to wade through a bunch of resisting the call to action nonsense from our “fake” heroes. Hitch captures the allure and pants-wetting terror of being a superhero for a group of actors who don’t seem to have a whole lot else going for them besides the crushing grind of fame.

It’s that Millar-ness (and for once, I’m not using that as a dig against a book) that makes it work and that Millar-ness (now I am) which holds it back. See, more than a decade ago, the kind of larger-than-life suspicion of the rich and famous high life felt funny and incisive, especially when paired with big, explosion-heavy action. Now, a year after getting a Superman movie where our hero straight up snaps a dude’s neck (no, you let it go), this mode of storytelling just feels like heightened posturing.

Which is kind of my roundabout way of saying that first impressions aside, I want to know where Hitch is going with Real Heroes. We can connect the dots with this kind of thing (cynical non-heroes become frightened but enthusiastic saviors), but I’m curious about the route he plans to take to get there.

The New 52: Future’s End #1 | DC Comics | Brian Azzarello, Keith Giffen, Dan Jurgens, Jeff Lemire, Patrick Zircher

Review by Eric Diaz

DC’s success rate with weekly series is hit-and-miss, to say the least. Their first weekly back in 2006, titled simply 52, was a massive gamble that paid off. The follow-ups, not so much. DC seems to be righting that ship somewhat, as Batman: Eternal has been pretty good, and now this year they are introducing two other weekly book, the first of which hits today, The New 52: Future’s End, brought to us by writers Brian Azzarello, Jeff Lemire, Dan Jurgens, Keith Giffen (who worked on the original 52 series), and artist Patrick Zircher.

The real set-up for this book actually took place in the Free Comic Book Day issue #0, where the basic plot for this story appeared. Opening 35 years in the future, the world is a dystopian ruin, where robot OMACs (Omni Mind And Community) have assimilated many of Earth’s heroes and are targeting whatever human resistance is left. These OMACs were created by Bruce Wayne and Mr. Terrific decades prior before evolving into what they are now. So Bruce Wayne sends young Terry McGinnis (that’s Batman Beyond to you) back into the past to stop these machines from ever having been created, and therefore erasing this horrible future. If it sounds like the plot to X-Men: Days of Future Past, it’s because it’s the plot to X-Men: Days of Future Past.

So, in this first issue, Terry McGinnis arrives in the past, but not “our” present… he lands five years in our future, after the Sentinels OMACs have been created. We get glimpses of the DCU in five years’ time – Hawkman is a member of the Authority, Grifter is killing aliens posing as humans, Firestorm has a spiffy new costume, etc. Problem is, DC has already gone on record saying that this “five years later” future that the book is set in is just a “possible” future, meaning it almost certainly won’t come into play this way, meaning none of this matters. It’s fun to see Batman Beyond incorporated into the main DCU, and I think Patrick Zircher’s pencils are pretty good here, but just two issues in and there’s a warmed over “been there, done that” feel to all this. Brian Azzarello and Jeff Lemire in particular are really solid writers, and time will tell if they can make something out of this concept that right now feels like a rip on a story that’s classic and just happens to have a $200 million dollar movie opening in a couple weeks. The best I can give this book right now is a giant “meh.”

Pull List

DARK HORSE COMICS

JAN140194 ALLEY OOP COMPLETE SUNDAYS HC VOL 01 1934-1936 $75.00
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JAN140165 EMILY AND THE STRANGERS HC VOL 01 $12.99
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JAN140170 MURDER MYSTERIES HC 2ND ED $19.99
JAN140158 SHOOT FIRST TP $12.99
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JAN140160 TRUE LIVES OF FABULOUS KILLJOYS LTD ED HC $79.99
JAN140159 TRUE LIVES OF FABULOUS KILLJOYS TP $19.99
MAR140091 VEIL #3 (MR) $3.50

DC COMICS

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FEB140261 WORLD OF WARCRAFT DARK RIDERS TP $16.99

IDW PUBLISHING

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IMAGE COMICS

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MARVEL COMICS

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JAN140780 X-MEN NO MORE HUMANS OGN HC $24.99
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COMICS & GRAPHIC NOVELS

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What’s on your pull list this week?