On The Pull 03/10/2018

New comics are due to hit the shelves on Wednesday so here’s a look ahead at some of the books we’ll be picking up this week.

Jo S: Double Batman-goodness headlines my pull-list this week: I don't think Tom King’s main Batman series needs any other trailing, with huge accolades from the PCG team as a whole, but I'm also picking up Batman/The Maxx: Arkham Dreams #1, as Sam Kieth’s wispy, wonky, wonderful art makes this unmissable for me. Unnerving mystery A Walk Through Hell takes the next spot - this has been been such assured, confident storytelling - a real credit to Aftershock. The most recent issue of Death Of the Inhumans left me gasping again - the drama is ramped up to the max in this and I’m holding out hope that comic book lore will hold up and the shocking losses of the first issue will be resolved somehow. I picked up War Bears last month on something of a whim and loved it - the story of a comic book within a comic book, wrapped in a history of wartime Canada and propaganda delivered via a magazine bombshell with a furry face, this is fascinating and rich. My whim-of-the-week this week is Jook Joint #1 - this passed by me in Previews but I caught some sample pages at the end of this week’s Cold Spots. Set in 1950s New Orleans (you got me right there), this jazz-horror blend looks like a gruesome ensemble, humming a tune you just have to dance to.

Matt C: Some weeks your pull-list seems designed to empty the contents of your wallet, other weeks things settle down a bit to give you a chance to catch up (or make an attempt to, at least). This week it's the latter scenario, with only a handful of take-homes for me. Top of the pile will be Batman #56, with Tom King's run on the series now feeling like it's built up so much momentum that it's unstoppable - don't resist, enjoy the brilliant ride. The Magic Order is one of Mark Millar's more effective high concepts, helped enormously by the illustrative prowess of Olivier Coipel, making me think this Netflix deal wasn't such a worrisome move after all. Cosmic Ghost Rider has been zany fun; not quite the successor to Donny Cates' run on Thanos I was hoping for, but a decent blast of diverting insanity all the same. Doctor Strange #6 has more galactic shenanigans for the Master of Mystic Arts, with Mark Waid showing he has plenty of tricks left up his sleeve, not least the surprising cliffhanger at the end of the last issue. The True Believers reprints ask 'What If?', offering some classic tales from the original 1970s series as the Watcher imagines how things could have turned out if certain events played out differently, starting off with What If Avengers Fought Evil During 1950s? and What If Jane Foster Found The Hammer Of Thor? And I guess we're all pondering that last one, right?