NCBD Pull or No Pull: October 17, 2018

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Submitted by RJ Carter on Mon, 10/15/2018 - 21:11

No matter how fastidious you are in maintaining your comic shop pull list in your never-ending battle to make sure you don't miss anything good (or accidentally waste your money on something not so much), it never hurts to do a last minute check on what's coming out this week so you can make those fine-tuned adjustments.

Here are our looks at this week's upcoming comics, and our hot takes on whether they're a pick or a pan. Your mileage may vary.

Exorsisters #1 (Image) With the CHARMED reboot hitting the small screen, there's definitely a renewed interest in female supernatural protagonists. In fact, I can't think of a time when there hasn't been, going back as far as Samantha Stephens and moving forward all the way up to Cassandra Clare's THE MORTAL INSTRUMENTS. While it's questionable parenting at best to tag your twin girls with phonetically identical names, EXORSISTERS looks like one that's worth giving a peek. Written by Ian Boothby with art by Gisele Lagace.
Savage Dragon #239 (Image) Wow. SAVAGE DRAGON is still chugging after all these years. And Freak Force? Superpatriot? The names evoke the 90s, but seriously, getting past the weird body proportions and forced perspective of that cover is going to take some serious suspension of disbelief. Swing and a miss on this one from Erik Larsen.
American Gods #7 (Dark Horse) So it's an adaptation of a television series that itself is an expanded adaptation of a novel. That could lend itself to a game of telephone where the message gets more distorted, but with original creator Neil Gaiman at the helm, that seems unlikely to be much of a problem. It may deviate from the primary source material, but if you've been following the show on television -- and especially if you haven't -- you may enjoy the new story. Myself, I find myself too frequently noticing the variations from the prime, which distracts me from truly enjoying it, but I dig the art fro P. Craig Russell.
Batman and the Justice League #1 (DC) There are many times I think I'd like to see the DC characters done in the Japanese art style. One the one hand, there's the AME-COMI GIRLS, which piques my interest. And on the other...there's BATMAN NINJA. Shiori Teshirogi's story is compiled from the chapters running serially in RED, and tell the story of a young boy whose parents went missing after a factory explosion. At the heart of their disappearance in Lex Luthor and The Joker, who have teamed up to take advantage of the mystical energy source they were investigating. When it proves too much for Batman...wait, what ever proves too much for Batman? Never mind, he calls in the Justice League to help, making them second fiddle to his marquee name presence (like WOLVERINE AND THE X-MEN). The cover shows we will see the Trinity of Batman, Superman and Wonder Woman, but not having read the chapters I don't know if the rest of the actual Justice League will come into play.
Lucifer #1 (DC) With LUCIFER fans excited that the television series has been saved from cancellation by Netflix, there should be a keen interest in this new volume of the series that inspired it. Of course, the television show bore very little resemblance to the Lucifer who spun out of Neil Gaiman's THE SANDMAN, and this version of the Devil by Dan Waters seems to be another deviation. Or perhaps he's simply crafted a tale where the Devil gets his due at the hands of someone more clever. With art by Max and Sebastian Fiumara, Lucifer gets a fresh start again -- and this time he's really starting from the bottom.
Teen Titans #23 (DC) The Puppeteer is back, and he's got an evil Robin to...no, wait, that's not the story at all. But danged if that cover doesn't look... puppety. Adam Glass and Bernard Chang take the Titans to Gotham City to save Commissioner Gordon from an assassin. Also, teen drama and looooooove. Mark this as a maybe.
Infinity Warps Weapon Hex #1 (of 2) (MARVEL) Okay, I'm at least as tired of the Infinity Wars titles as the next person, but these Infinity Warps are at least entertaining in the WHAT IF...? vein of comics. In this story by Ben Acker and Gerardo Sandoval, we get the (dare I say it) amalgam of Wolverine II and Scarlet Witch in the form of Weapon Hex!
Red Sonja #22 (DYNAMITE) Things don't go well for the flame-haired Hyrkanian when she nearly runs over an old witch, sparking a supernatural incident of road rage! Just in time for Halloween, with an alternate cosplay photo cover, this one-and-done by Amy Chu, Erik Burnham and Jonathan Lau looks like some sword-and-sorcery fun.
Garfield TV or Not TV #1 (BOOM! STUDIOS) If there's one thing Garfield's good at, it's not moving and watching television. Jim Davis's fat cat has a Halloween adventure from Mark Evanier and Scott Nickel when a creature comes out of the boob tube and into Jon Arbuckle's home! With art by David Alvarez and Antonio Alfaro.