Spotlight on Secret Wars #9: And so it comes to an end. I went into the final issue of Marvel’s universe-shattering event with hope for something satisfying to close things out, but it was a slim hope. I should have known to trust Jonathan Hickman to put a strong finish together not just for the Secret Wars event, but his entire tenure at Marvel, and the Marvel Universe itself.

I’d rather not spoil the story here and this is not a review per se, but in the broadest terms terms Secret Wars #9 succeeds in delivering the end of every thing. Anyone following Marvel Comics in general or this story specifically knew that it was going to require an epic story to cap things off. Hickman managed to boil it all down to where his Marvel work began: Reed Richards and Victor Von Doom. I’m not a huge fan of either character, but I found myself buying in completely.

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Spotlight on Uncanny X-Men #1: As disappointed as I am with All-New All-Different Marvel generally, and the newest crop of X-titles specifically, there’s no way I’d pass up the debut of another volume of Uncanny X-Men.

The hook for this latest relaunch is that the team is populated primarily by villains and antagonists like Sabretooth, Mystique, and their leader Magneto. While I’m unclear on what’s motivating these characters to stand together as heroes, there’s potential given writer Cullen Bunn’s success with his recent Magneto solo series. Bunn has a reputation for doing good things with the bad guys and he has a lot of badness to work with here.

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Spotlight on Lazarus #14: I look forward to this book every month. The world building, characters, action, and political intrigue are exactly what I didn’t even realize I was looking for. As a long time Marvel reader, it’s often a challenge to explore new worlds. Rucka and Lark have made that a joy in this book and it’s probably among my top three ongoing titles right now. It’s plausible science fiction in a world based on an extrapolation of our own. That’s exactly the kind of stuff I’m into, but I could have easily missed this if I hadn’t taken a chance on it. Highly recommended for fans of the dark, dark future our society is doomed to face.

The current Conclave story has been a blast as we see each of the families represented for the first time and the drama continues to build in this issue. Forever’s relationships are changing on every level and it’s a huge setup for the conclusion to this arc and a lot that’s coming down the road.

– Greg Rucka, Mike Lark, and Santi Arcas’ Lazarus is published monthly by Image Comics.

My Latest Pull List for 1/14/2015:

• AMAZING X-MEN #15
• AVENGERS #40
• BATMAN ETERNAL #41
• CAPTAIN MARVEL #11
• CYCLOPS #9
• LAZARUS #14
• STAR WARS #1
• X-FORCE #14

Weekly comic books are a big part of my life and I regularly post what I’ll be picking up each Wednesday here and on Reddit’s /r/comicbooks.

Check back every week to see what’s on My Latest Pull List and share your thoughts what you’re reading this week.

Eight books on my list and unfortunately not much time to talk about them. I worry for what that suggests for my reading time… Have a great week, everyone!

• ALL-NEW X-FACTOR #9 – It’s not as challenging as a weekly schedule, but the bi-weekly shipping of the All-New Marvel Now line makes it so easy to fall behind. I’m not quite up-to-date here, but I love Peter David’s new direction for X-Factor.
• AMAZING X-MEN #8 – I couldn’t be more excited for the return of Craig Kyle and Chris Yost to the X-Men line, even if the first issue features a Wolverine/Wendigo story.
• AMAZING X-MEN ANNUAL #1 – I’m committed to the Amazing X-Men title, particularly with the new creative team. This was an issue I’m seriously considering skipping though. Sal Larooca’s art would have held a lot of appeal at one time, but even that isn’t enough to make this a “must buy.”
• BATMAN ETERNAL #9 – OK. A weekly title is just too much for my reading schedule. I like that DC is delivering a weekly dose of Scott Snyder’s Batman, but I’d enjoy it a lot more if I had time to keep up. The main things keeping me on board are the promise that the main Batman series will tie into Batman Eternal after Zero Year, and the false hope that I’ll catch up before then.
• CYCLOPS #2 – I still don’t believe there’s a real need for this title, but as expected I loved Greg Rucka, Russell Dautermann, and Chris Sotomayor’s first issue. I’ll be sticking with this title for the duration, which I’m assuming will come when young Cyclops rejoins the original five in the pages of All-New X-Men. Alexander Lozano’s cover art is an added bonus.
• MAGNETO #5 – Much like Cyclops, I question whether the current line of solo X-Men titles are really necessary as these characters already get a lot of panel time. I wasn’t as taken with this series as I was with Cyclops, but it’s certainly winning me over. 
• MOON KNIGHT #4 – Warren Ellis and Declan Shalvey’s take on Moon Knight is quite frankly amazing. I’ve always been a fan of the character and this is shaping up to be a brilliant treatment of Marc Spector. The series so far has focused on single issue stories, but I’m expecting things to come together over time much like Ellis’ Secret Avengers and Thunderbolts runs. 
• ORIGINAL SIN #3 – I’m not completely sold on what’s going on here given all of the obscure villains and space bullets, but I’m intrigued enough to continue and this will likely be the first book I read this Wednesday.

Weekly comic books are a big part of my life and I regularly post what I’ll be picking up each Wednesday along with cover artwork and previews courtesy of Comixology’s Pull List app.

Check back every week to see what’s on My Latest Pull List and share your thoughts what you’re reading this week.

I’d thought this was going to be a light week based on my Marvel books, but the final number for my list is eight new books.

• AVENGERS #30 – Even with a long weekend, I only managed to get through Original Sin #2 and still need to read Avengers #29 before I can get to this.
• BATMAN ETERNAL #8 – A weekly title might just be too much for me. If DC paired digital copies with all of their books there’s no way I’d be behind on this book.
• BATMAN #31 – Always happy to see this on my list. Zero Year has been running for a long time and I’m still enjoying every issue.
• GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY #15 – Last issue was interesting. Not sure how I feel about the inlusion of Venom, but the first issue following The Trial of Jean Grey was enough to keep me on board.
• HALO ESCALATION #6 – Waiting to read this series in its entirety.
• SERENITY LEAVES ON THE WIND #5 – Waiting to read this series in its entirety.
• THANOS ANNUAL #1 – This will be a call in the store.
• UNCANNY AVENGERS #20 – I’m enjoying this arc (didn’t care for the annual a few weeks ago apart from the Art Adams cover). My only concern is that the book feels more and more out of touch with the Marvel Universe. That may all be changing with the announcement of the Remender’s upcoming AXIS event.

Weekly comic books are a big part of my life and I regularly post what I’ll be picking up each Wednesday along with cover artwork and previews courtesy of Comixology’s Pull List app.

Check back every week to see what’s on My Latest Pull List and share your thoughts what you’re reading this week.