Hey, everyone, come on, grab your friends!  We’ll go to very distant lands!

Jake and Finn have stopped playing with BMO and are back for a second round of Adventure Time trade paperback mathematics!  Adventure Time volume two collects issues five through nine of the series that’s sweeter than Peppermint Butler.  Within these flippin’ sweet pages are stories of Finn and Jake turning into robots, traveling in Princess Bubblegum’s time machine, and laying some smack down on the Ice King.  Make your kids (or, hell, yourself) happy and pick it up!

Liches and zombies need not apply.

Scott Snyder just finished what is sure to become a classic Joker story in the main Batman series, but, before he made a name for himself, Snyder wrote one of the creepiest runs of Detective Comics ever.  Set during the period of time where Dick Grayson was Batman, this extended run has an entirely different tone from other Batman books as Grayson is all about the sarcasm and acrobatics, both brought to life by Jock’s expressive pencils.  Faced with a complicated murder mystery to solve, Grayson must team-up with Commissioner Gordon to crack the case.  Not only do Gordon and Grayson share sleuthing duties, but the story is also evenly split between them.  Gordon must deal with the arrival of his prodigal son, James, Jr., who may or may not be entirely sane.  Snyder is incredibly dept at pacing horror and suspense on the page, a talent uses handily during many of Gordon and James, Jr.’s scenes together.  Just remember to watch out for that water running under the bathroom door.

One thing you will certainly not find in Image Comics Five Weapons miniseries is a sorting hat.

That just makes it all the more important to choose wisely when you’re enrolling in The School of Five Weapons, because the weapon you choose will define the rest of your life.  Knives, staves, archery, exotics, and guns may be deadly, but they have nothing on the brain of Tyler, the most recent arrival to the premiere assassin school.  Join Jimmie Robinson (Bomb Queen), handling both art and writing duties, as he leads you through the halls of the deadliest high school in the country.  

Just don’t call it Harry Potter with guns.

Talking raccoons make every comic better.

Brian Michael Bendis got to sample the Guardians of the Galaxy in his recent run on Avengers Assemble, but now he launches deep into the stars with the beginning of another ongoing Guardians of the Galaxy series.  The first point one issue details the origins of Starlord, the boy from Earth who grows-up to lead the meanest bunch of space police in the universe.  With crisp, detailed artwork from Steve McNiven (Civil War), the addition of Iron Man, and the eminent Marvel Studios film adaptation the only reason to skip this book is if you’re off planet.

 

The best team is the one that doesn’t know it’s a team.

That’s the premise of Nick Spencer’s (Morning Glories, Thunder Agents, Thief of Thieves) new run on Secret Avengers.  Joining the Marvel NOW! line, Secret Avengers #1 builds the extremely covert team of Hawkeye, Hulk, Nick Fury, Black Widow, and Winter Soldier to send them on their mission.  And it does it with only one word.  Basically, every member of the team becomes activated by a single word, completes their mission, is told the word again, and walks off into the sunset blissfully ignorant of everything they just did.  It’s covert ops at it’s most covert.  And when it’s drawn by a master of the dark and gritty like Luke Ross, it’s practically so covert it’s not even there.  Or if you want a little more boisterous version, maybe the Skottie Young variant cover will suit you.

As Magneto said, villains it is then.

Uncanny X-Men #1 by Brian Michael Bendis and Chris Bachalo is all about the baddies.  Serving as the companion book to Bendis’ other X-Men title, All-New X-Men, Uncanny stars Cyclops, Magneto, Emma Frost, and a bunch of other good-for-nothings.  Unlike any other X-Men book before it, this time around it’s the Brotherhood of (Evil) Mutants in the limelight.  Now that Cyclops has assembled his team he’s on a mission to enact his vision of mutant dominance, one which he’s willing to carry out by whatever means necessary.

Since tonight’s list seems all about murdery murder, it seems only fair to let a female master assassin in on the mix.  Katana #1, spinning out of the soon-to-be-released Justice League of America, stars the widowed sword-wielding hired killer of the same name.  With her family’s souls residing in the very sword she uses to slay her enemies, the Soultaker, Katana has to be careful not to let its power and conscience forestall her mission.  Anyone reading Birds of Prey should be familiar with Katana‘s character and mission, as well as fans of the classic Outsiders series.  

Finally, for those who have been hanging on the edge of their seat since the release of the first New 52 Batman hardcover, the wait is over!  Batman: Night of the Owls continues the onslaught of The Court as they descend on Gotham in an effort to purge it of the social elite.  But Nightwing, Batgirl, Batman, Robin, and the rest of the Bat-Family may have something to say about that.  This thick hardcover edition comes packed with the entire Court of the Owls crossover, which includes Batman #8-9, the Batman Annual, Detective Comics #9, Dark Knight #9, Batwing #9, Batman and Robin #9, Red Hood and the Outlaws #9, Birds of Prey #9, Batgirl #9, Nightwing #8-9, and All-Star Western #9.  That’s a lot of Batman punching Talon action for a minimal price.

 

Andy Diggle and Jock, the superstar creative team behind Green Arrow Year One and The Losers (which is a thousand times better than the film, by the way), lend their talents to a new creator owned series from Image Comics this Wednesday.  Blending political thrillers, Clerks, and gritty noir storytelling, Snapshot is a four issue miniseries bound to thrill you more than once.  When an lifelong nerd employee of a comic store (this is sounding familiar…) finds a cellphone full of grisly images of someone’s murder, he has no other option than to run as fast and as far as he can.  But it’s never that easy is it?  If you’ve been enjoying the sketchy, moody artwork of Jock in the Batman back-up stories or in Scott Snyder’s previous Detective Comics run, The Black Mirror, then Snapshot is your cup of tea.

Sorcery receives a modern update in Top Cow‘s Son of Merlin miniseries.

Building off of the classic Arthurian figures of myth, Son of Merlin picks up when a respected professor of science finds out he’s actually the descendant of the famous wizard, Merlin.  And, I don’t know if you’ve heard, but science and magic don’t exactly see eye-to-eye.  However, before the good doctor can think through his new predicament, he’s being hounded by the immortal Morgan le Fay.  But there’s a whole secret underground society of ancient magic users that might just be willing to come to his aid.  Drawn in the gorgeous, expressive tradition of the famous Top Cow books to come before it like Fathom, Charismagic, and Witchblade, Son of Merlin will cast its spell over you.

I say, my dear Watson, the zombie is a foot!

Though not strictly a Sherlock Holmes versus zombies story, The New Deadwardians is about the closest to it you’ll ever get.  Written by cult favorite author and comic legend Dan Abnett, this post-Victorian England horror/mystery yarn takes places in an alternate reality where, after a zombie infection spread throughout the population, the majority of the remaining English citizens had to submit to becoming vampires in order to fight them off.  Now, it’s the vampires who’ve becoming the upper-class aristocracy while the zombie population are cordoned off on the outskirts of town.  Chief Inspector Suttle, a forever young himself, is tasked with solving a grisly crime, the first in nearly a decade, during a growing zombie uprising.  It’s all elementary from there.

Love is in air for the DC Universe this Wednesday.

To celebrate Valentine’s Day a week early, DC releases its most romantic anthology yet, the Young Romance DC New 52 Special.  Containing six unique stories of famous DC couples like Aquaman and Mera, Midnighter and Apollo, and Catwoman and Batman spending their special day together in the only way superpowered crime fighters can, as well as stories of Wonder Woman, Dick Grayson, and others coming to terms with the relationships they’ve entered into.  Each of the stories is written and drawn by a talented creator, like Andy Diggle, Gene Ha, Ann Nocenti, Kyle Higgins, Becky Cloonan, and Peter Milligan.  And for those old school romantics, the issue comes with usable Valentine’s Day cards.  Oh, amore!

 

If it’s Comic List Highlights and it’s Pulp Fiction, then it’s time for your New 52 Update (just go with it, it’s gonna be a thing for a bit).  In the New 52 Update we, the comicly nerdy, employees of Pulp Fiction tell you, the hungry for information, customers which DC Relaunch books ship this week with a one word description of each.

*Action Comics – Kneepads  *Animal Man – Aardvark  *Batgirl – Walking  *OMAC – Mohawk

*Batwing – Incorporated  *Detective Comics – Dolls  *Green Arrow – Liberal

*Hawk & Dove – Feet  *Justice League International – Skeets  *Men of War – Napalm

*Static Shock – McDuffie  *Stormwatch – Mysterious  *Swamp Thing – Plant

Can you handle the epic amount of epic-dipped epicness contained in the epic slipcase of epic that is the Dark Tower Omnibus Slipcase hardcover?  I’m afraid the answer is “no”, but I also know that such a fact will not divert you from purchasing such an epic edition.  How do I know this?  Allow me to tell you what is held within its crisp, clean pages and you, too, will know.  In short, every single Dark Tower related miniseries printed up to this point.  That’s six different series!  All of which expand, deepen, and advance the backstory of Stephen King’s classic epic.  But wait, you claim you can handle that amount of epic sauce.  Well, what about the second included volume which holds the vast library of back matter that every issue of the series has contained to this point?  What’s that page count total, Johnny?  Oh yeah, 296 pages!!!!!!  All encased in a beautiful slipcover.  Mmm, mmm, thas good epic.

X-Men: First Class (The BEST superhero movie of this past summer!) is coming out in the next couple of weeks and you don’t want to be caught without a copy.  Like, seriously, bad things.  But even more than that, you don’t want to be caught without friends with which to watch it.  None better than the new X-Men First Class Minimates.  Now, to be clear, these are not the characters from the First Class movie.  No, these are the original team of X-Men.  That’s Angel, Cyclops, Jean Grey, and Ice Man, for the uninitiated.  At this point in the paragraph, you might be asking yourself, “Did he just make a link with the movie for no other reason than they share the same name?”.  Yes.  That and these minimates are freakin’ sweet, as is X-Men:  First Class.

Do you like tin cans and can openers?  I guess no one really “likes” these objects, per say, but if you’re comfortably indifferent to them, then these new Iron Man and Wolverine Vinyl figures should cause you to tingle.  The newest releases in the immensely cuddly Pop Vinyl! line of Marvel big headed thingies, these two fan favorites share an equal level of cuteness with the previous releases.  Oh, and they’re bobble-heads.
So…yeah…tin can…can opener…get it?

 

For your benefit, here’s a list of all the DC #1 issues that have been announced and their creative teams.  The revealed covers are at the bottom of the page.

Also, keep your ears, eyes, noses, and, uh, elbows peeled for upcoming information, exclusive to Pulp, that applies to all of these DC relaunch titles.

1. Aquaman #1 by Geoff Johns and Ivan Reis

2. Batgirl #1 by Gail Simone and Ardian Syaf (starring Barbara Gordon)

3. Batman #1 by Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo

4. Batwoman #1 by J.H. Williams III, W. Haden Blackman, and Amy Reeder

5. Captain Atom #1 by J.T. Krul and Freddie Williams II

6. DC Universe Presents #1 by Paul Jenkins and Bernard Chang

7. Detective Comics #1 written and drawn by Tony Daniel

8. Flash #1 by Brian Buccellato and Francis Manapul

9. The Fury of Firestorm by Ethan Van Sciver, Gail Simone, and Yildiray Cinar

10. Green Arrow #1 by J.T. Krul and Dan Jurgens

11. Green Lantern #1 by Geoff Johns and Doug Mahnke

12. Green Lantern Corps #1 by Pete Tomasi and Fernando Pasarin (focuses on Guy Gardner and John Stewart)

13. Green Lantern:  The New Guardians #1 by Tony Bedard and Tyler Kirkham (this book would follow a group consisting of all the lantern colors lead by Kyle Rayner)

14. Grifter #1 by Nathan Edmondson and CAFU (Wildstorm character)

15. Savage Hawkman #1 by Tony Daniel and Philip Tan

16. Justice League #1 by Geoff Johns and Jim Lee

17. Justice League International #1 by Dan Jurgens and Aaron Lopresti

18. Legion Lost #1 by Fabian Nicieza and Pete Woods

19. Mr. Terrific #1 by Eric Wallace and Roger Robinson

20. Nightwing #1 by Kyle Higgins and Eddy Barrows

21. OMAC #1 by Dan Didio and Keith Giffen

22. Red Lanterns #1 by Peter Milligan and Ed Benes

23. Superman #1 written and drawn by George Perez

24. Teen Titans #1 by Scott Lobdell and Brett Booth

25. Wonder Woman #1 by Brian Azzarello and Cliff Chiang

26. Animal Man #1 by Jeff Lemire and Travel Foreman

27. Batman and Robin #1 by Pete Tomasi and Patrick Gleason

28. Batman: The Dark Knight #1 written and drawn by David Finch

29. Birds of Prey#1 by  Duane Swierczynski and Jesus Saiz

30. Catwoman #1 by Judd Winick and Guillem March

31. Superboy #1 by Scott Lobdell and R.B. Salva

32. Swamp Thing #1 by Scott Snyder and Yanick Paquette

33. Action Comics #1 by Grant Morrison and Rags Morales

34. Red Hood and the Outlaws #1 by Scott Lobdell and Kenneth Rocafort

35. Batwing #1 by Judd Winick and Ben Oliver

36.  Supergirl #1 by Michael Green and Mike Johnson

37. Stormwatch #1 by Paul Cornell and Miguel Sepulveda

38. Justice League Dark #1 by Peter Milligan and Mikel Janin

39. Demon Knights #1 by Paul Cornell and Diogenes Neves

40. Frankenstein: Agent of SHADE #1 by Jeff Lemire and Alberto Ponticelli

41. Resurrection Man #1 by Dan Abnett & Andy Lanning and Fernando Dagnino

42. I, Vampire #1 by Josh Fialkov and Andrea Sorrentino

43. Voodoo #1 by Ron Marz and Sami Basri

44. Legion of Superheroes #1 by Paul Levitz and Francis Portela

45. Static Shock #1 by Felicia Henderson, John Rozum and Scott McDaniel

46. Hawk and Dove #1 by Sterling Gates and Rob Liefeld

47. Suicide Squad #1 by Adam Glass and Marco Rudy

48. Blue Beetle #1 by Tony Bedard and Ig Guara

49. Deathstroke #1 by Kyle Higgins and Joe Bennett

50. Blackhawks #1 by Mike Costa and Ken Lashley

51. Sgt. Rock and the Men of War #1 by Ivan Brandon and Tom Derenick

52. All-Star Western #1 by Jimmy Palmiotti, Justin Grey, and Moritat

© 2013 Pulp Fiction Comics & Games Suffusion theme by Sayontan Sinha