October Pull List: Month of X – To Me My X-Fans

October 12, 2019

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Month of X: Powers and House of X Images

To Me My X-Fans! It's Month of X time.

It’s finally here. It’s October so it's not only time for another episode of the Pull List but this is a special month. It’s the Month of X. We’re going to discuss Jonathan Hickman starting his X-Men run with Powers of X and House of X that set the table for the upcoming Dawn of X that feels like a X-Men story that has been brewing since the Claremont era.

But you’ll have to wait for that Month of X discussion. Before we get to that we want to go through all the other great (and some not so great) comics we’re reading. Spoiler Alert: There are a LOT of great comic books out there. It’s actually becoming a problem for our wallets. Below are some of the highlights of the books we’re reading. It’s not a complete list, for that you have to listen to the episode.

Non-DC/Marvel Books:

Catalyst Prime Seven Days - A few months ago news came out that Gail Simone would be tapped to be the chief architect for Lion Forge’s Catalyst Prime superhero line of comics. If you haven’t been checking out some of the superhero books under Lion Forge you absolutely should. Noble and Superb are books we’ve mentioned on the Pull List before and there are many others. Well, Catalyst Prime Seven Days #1 just dropped and Simone is writing that. We’re cheating a bit by adding it to this list as we haven’t actually read it yet, but it was definitely bought and we couldn’t pass up the opportunity to tell others they should. If you want superhero books but outside of DC and Marvel then you need to be supporting Lion Forge’s Catalyst Prime line.
Transformers - This one hurts. As much as we loved James Robert’s run of More Than Meets the Eye and Lost Light, hearing that the latest run (not by Roberts) is not good breaks our hearts.
Power Rangers - Yes. Power Rangers comics are good. You should be reading them.

Justice League - DC Universe has put on a few more issues from Scott Snyder’s Justice League run. While the DC Universe app is clearly set up for video and not reading comics, it’s stills serviceable enough (It’s no Marvel Unlimited). Still, I’ve been able to go through and catch up on some DC books that I’ve missed. Snyder’s Justice League run is one of them. Now I can admit I was a bit frustrated with Dark Knight: Metal but now that there has been more time to flesh out the DC world thanks to books like Justice League, I want to revisit it.
Batman Annual #3 - With Joker all in the news right now, it felt like a good time to go back to the New 52 Batman run and reread the 3rd annual issue written by James Tynion. Titled ‘Friends’, it’s a chilling tale of just how terrifying the Joker can be.
The Flash - I feel like we talk about this book but at the same time not enough. Williamson is killing it on this run just like King is on his run with Batman. I know we're bias and we're Wally West marks but even we have to give credit with what Williamson is doing with Barry and the Speed Force (and other Forces). There have been so many great issues. Like the spotlight on the Trickster (Jesse James) in issue #66. Issue 80 just came out and if you're behind now is the time to catch up.
Flash Forward - It’s too early to call this one. It could be the redemptive arc that makes Wally the hero all of us who still know him to be the fastest man alive to be. Or it could be a dumping ground for characters that didn’t survive books that DC previously cancelled.
Batman (Tom King) - Tom King’s run on Batman is coming close to ending with the City of Bane story and it has been one helluva ride. While some might not like what he’s done with Bruce/Batman, I love it. I’m hoping that this opens up for a new status quo for Bruce.
Doomsday Clock - We talked about this last episode but Doomsday Clock is really coming together. It might not have always been the plan to delay this series for so long but the timing is working well with the rest of the DC Universe. There was good reason to be skeptical of not only DC Rebirth but also the concept of tying in Watchmen, but so far it's paying off. We'll see if Johns can stick the landing with issue 12...whenever that comes out.

Marvel

King Thor #1 - Oh you thought Jason Aaron was going to just go peacefully and quietly into the night after War of the Realms? Oh you sweet sweet souls. The epilogue to Aaron’s 7 year run on Thor is here and just when you thought you had it all figured out, he’s back to throw you right back off. The last panel of King Thor #1 will have you audibly shouting. And if you’re worried about where All-Father Thor will go from here once Aaron moves on, Marvel announces that Donny Cates (Thanos, Venom) will be the next writer to pick up writing the God of Thunder. So if you thought maybe you could get a breather…you were wrong. Very very wrong.
Captain America - On this podcast, we might not stand when the national anthem plays but we stand when we read Coates’ Captain America run. Yes, it’s that good. To say that Coates has hit his stride with this book is an understatement. Also once again it validates Nick Spencer's run. There's a lot of continuation from that story.
House of X/Powers of X - You know why we’re here. The Month of X content you were waiting for. The minute Marvel announced that Hickman was not only coming back to Marvel but writing X-Men, we were onboard. Making it even better, we had already decided to do a Chris Claremont X-Men run deep dive so the timing was perfect. The key to reading House of X and Powers of X is to make sure you're reading the information between the panels. There's a lot of important information in those pages and some times the most important information is what's omitted (or redacted).

Give the full episode a listen to hear about all the books we’ve been reading and get the full discussion. Make sure to tell us what you’ve been reading in the comments and leave us a 5 star review on iTunes.

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