Dark Reign The List Punisher One Shot

Since the Punisher began waging his one man mission against Osborn’s criminal organization, he has inflicted heavy damages on Osborn’s reputation as commander of H.A.M.M.E.R. Osborn has finally had enough, deciding to pull out the big guns by sending his Dark Avengers to kill Frank Castle once and for all. “The List” in the comic’s title is actually a pet project of Norman Osborn’s; he writes out a list of “problems” that he feels he can solve while running H.A.M.M.E.R and sets out to address them. “The List” is a series of one shots encompassing the Marvel U with a different issue in a different series almost every week (e.g The Incredible Hulk, Secret Warriors, Daredevil ,etc) which stays in continuity with that on-going series while telling a new story. This idea of encompassing different series in a single narrative thread is ingenious because it gives readers a chance to sample different Marvel books that are out there while they read books in “The List” catalogue. Because of this series I’m reading the phenomenally written “Secret Warriors” which also comes out this week and you should probably get.

Spider-Man Clone Saga #2

A few weeks ago I recommended this series because it promised to be a new rehash of the original Clone Saga, which can be fun, but after reading the first issue, I’m going to have to tell you to completely forget about it. The original writers billed this as “ the way the clone saga was meant to be told” which apparently means “the way the clone saga was meant to be told in the 90’s”. The art and dialogue are very outdated, taking a reader back to another era – but not in a good way – making this title very hard to read. It seems like the writers just used the original script without making any changes or updates that would have made it more modern, a move necessary if they wanted to add anything to this stale mess. The only reason you should even think about buying this is out of nostalgia for 90’s comics.

Abe Sapien One Shot

“Hellboy” series favorite and protagonist in his own series Abe Sapien gets a one shot this month and it sounds like standard “Hellboy” stuff. The story takes place a few decades in the past as Abe is called in to investigate a haunting involving the ghost of a young boy, but, as usual, it ends up being a much bigger problem than he was led to believe. I recently got into the “Hellboy” mythos when a roommate lent me the first 4 volumes, and I have to say it’s a very cool series with an eclectic range of influences. It borrows a lot from hardboiled crime fiction of the ‘30’s and ‘40’s, H. P. Lovecraft horror books and superstitions, and folklore from dozens of cultures around the world. This month’s “Abe Sapien” will surely not disappoint current readers and will definitely encourage new readers to start picking it up monthly. My only complaint is that series artist and writer Mike Mignola won’t be illustrating this issue.