PoserPoints #8

Wolverine #1 (Marvel)
By: Benjamin Percy, Adam Kubert, Frank Martin
​and Benjamin Percy, Viktor Bogdanovic, Matthew Wilson

Wolverine brings two stories for the price of one.  In the first story, you see that folks are chasing a synthetic drug called pollen and Mutant blood in an attempt to evolve to an in-between species.  You find Wolverine chasing the "pale girl" who is the source of the "pollen" which is running rampant.

In the second book, OMEGA RED shows up on Krakoa, and Wolverine is immediately suspicious, but Magneto tells him not to be.  Attempting to discover why Omega was covered in blood, Logan heads to Paris to investigate, and discovers the rise of the Vampire class helmed by Dracula himself.

As have been asked of all new X books, do you have to read everything to be able to successfully enjoy Wolverine...I don't think so.  As long as you know what Krakoa is, and the significance of the flowers, you should be fine.  However, the reading list is back, on the final page of this issue and Wolverine and all of the other new titles (including the new Giant-Size, and Cable) are also included in the running order.  So it may not be essential, but you may get a fuller picture.

What should you do? If you are liking everything that is going down in the new X world, pick it up, it gives a new layer of universal-wide conflict.  I thought both stories in this book are setting up an interesting question as to why everyone is craving mutant blood.

Batman #89 (DC)
​By: James Tynion IV, Carlo Pagulayan, Guillem March, Danny Miki

Now all of the reports of Batman 89 being out everywhere makes a hell of a lot of sense, there is a lot of character identifying in this issue, and potential sub-arcs of the plot:

• Gunsmith has a dope backstory
• The designer looks like one of my hype beast student's fever dreams
• Will the Penguin be OK
• Wait, the Joker's not really dead?
• "Please call it the batspawn"
• Is Harley really betraying her puddin?

What should you do?​ Since it sounds like a lot of the internet didn't have this book on their pull lists, ya done fucked up a-a-ron....Buy the 2nd printing!

Bang #1 (Dark Horse)
By: Matt Kindt, Wilfredo Torres, Nayoung Kip, Nate Piekros

So what if James Bond/Batman/Sherlock Holmes etc. realized they were a copy-of-a-copy of a copy, and someone else could describe to them the battle plan to win.  That's the entirety of this book, and it is hella interesting. To me, it almost feels like this scene from oft-forgotten about flick Moon

Nonetheless, solid #1, with a lot of wiggle room to grow and branch to other types of characters in this realm.

Heartbeat #4 (Boom! Studios)
​By: Maria Llovet

I love seeing what a writer/artist can do when they have everything in their hands from start to finish.  Not to slight folks who specialize in one or the other (because I can do neither), but sometimes you wonder if anything gets lost in translation.  That's not the case with this provoking and beautiful series by Maria Llovet.  This picks up in the post-coital bliss of Eva and Don's controversial hook-up. And it just spirals out of control from there.  Mack feels betrayed and storms away, Don makes not-so-veiled threats to kill Mack, and Eva's phone is discovered with her secretive stash of photos.  What seemed to be going so oddly right at the end of book 3 has about-faced quickly.

What should you do? I'd love to see what kind of added little gems would be included in the TPB version of this.  Also, I think it was advertised as a 5 issue run, but I want more. I think shit is starting to hit the fan in spectacular ways, and I'm not sure how it would be resolved by the time we see that fated END. at the end of book 5.