DC and Marvel Comics Pull List Week of Oct. 1

There are only two titles you don’t want to miss this week at the comic shop: BATMAN #680 and NIGHTWING #149. Why? I really don’t know anymore. Where is Grant going with this whole story is still a mystery. We’ll probably find out two to three years from now in true Grant fashion.

I’m going to entertain the idea of picking up VIXEN: RETURN OF THE LION #1 (OF 5). Her character plot has been central to the JLA saga since it’s recent relaunch, but quite frankly I still don’t care about Vixen. There just isn’t that much vested interest in the character to warrant picking it up.

Frankly, I’d have the same qualms about picking up a Red Tornado Mini-Series. Honestly, I’m tired of all the Red Tornado/Amazo story arcs that have found their way into the pages of JLA. One was good, but too many within the first 25 issues just got monotonous. There is a crisis on our hands after all, let’s deal more with that.

Back to Vixen, JLA #25 centers around Vixen and Animal Man - he’s eaten meat WHO KNOWS WHAT THIS WILL MEAN FOR THE CRISIS! That having been said, I’m not fully backing Justice League of America #25 despite it being a #25 issue (every 25th issue is usually a great story, not banking on that here).

On the Marvel side, is it me or is the whole Cable and Bishop arc taking way too long?

DC COMICS
BATMAN #680
It’s “Batman R.I.P.” part 5 – and this issue features two events so monumental that one comic can barely contain them! First, Batman faces off against The Club of Villains. Then, The Joker makes his stand, challenging the Dark Knight to the ultimate battle of wits. Will Batman survive either of these threats – or could this be the end of Gotham City’s greatest hero?

JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #25
Vixen and Animal Man journey into the sacred Tantu Totem to solve the mystery of their altered powers. But Anansi, the African spider god responsible for these changes, has only begun reshaping the powers and histories of the Justice League, as eight-year-old Bruce Wayne shoots the burglar who killed his parents, Wonder Woman retires from the JLA after the tragic death of her husband, Superman, and The Green Lantern Corps quarantines Earth after one of their number destroys an American city. With the team’s history changing before Vixen’s eyes, is the JLA we now know gone forever?

NIGHTWING #149
A “Batman R.I.P.” tie-in! With Batman missing in action, Nightwing faces off against The Dark Knight’s most dangerous enemies – Killer Croc, Penguin, Mr. Freeze, Poison Ivy, Two-Face and The Joker – to save the life of a woman marked for death.

TERROR TITANS #1 (OF 6)
They stood against the Teen Titans, and now the Terror Titans spin off into their own miniseries! Clock King hatches a plan for his team of teenage legacy villains, as well as their deadly new member – the Teen Titans’ own Ravager! But if he’s to succeed, Clock King must first stabilize the underground metahuman gladiator arena known as the Dark Side Club! Join TEEN TITANS scribe Sean McKeever and artist Joe Bennett (52, CHECKMATE) for a journey into the darkest, coldest and most brutal corners of the teen psyche!

VIXEN: RETURN OF THE LION #1 (OF 5)
On a mission against the mega-mobsters of Intergang, the Justice League makes a stunning discovery revealing the truth behind the death of Vixen’s mother. Long ago, poachers were fingered in her murder, but stunning proof arrives exposing the identity of her real killer! And the man responsible is still alive, making a vicious play for power in the homeland Vixen left years ago.

This groundbreaking 5-issue miniseries by rising stars G. Willow Wilson (OUTSIDERS: AQUAMAN/METAMORPHO, CAIRO, AIR) and Cafu (Black Panther) plunges the League’s animal-powered warrior into a deeply spiritual, but instantly deadly, quest for vengeance – and draws the League itself into the newest chapter of Intergang’s ever-expanding race for domination.

MARVEL COMICS
CABLE # 7
The Story: “WAITING FOR THE END OF THE WORLD,” PART 1
When Bishop travels back to the present in search of intel that will aid his search for Cable and the mutant baby, he’s intercepted by the X-Force! With Cyclops eagerly waiting to interrogate his former comrade, it would appear that the game is over for the time-traveling cop. So why is Bishop smiling? What trick does he have up his sleeve? And what does this mean for Cable and the baby?

CIVIL WAR: HOUSE OF M # 2
The Story: The untold story of Magneto’s rise to power continues! The mutant army grows with the additions of Quicksilver, the Scarlet Witch, Polaris…and Charles Xavier?! Together, this amazingly powerful team sets their sights on the liberation of Genosha. But Magneto and Xavier have very different philosophies on human/mutant relations. Will they become enemies, as they did in our world…or will their alliance make them unstoppable? Christos N. Gage (HOUSE OF M: AVENGERS) and Andrea Di Vito (ANNIHILATION) bring you perhaps the most important – but never before seen – chapter in the House of M saga!