The Bum’s Rush #40

I'm back again, this time taking a crack at Paul Milligan's "The Bum's Rush". I was kind of unsure what to write about, but I figure I'll take this opportunity to comment on current comic books that I'm reading, instead of 5-15 year-old ones. That'd be a nice little spin, huh? It's definitely different for me.

So, what I'm gonna do is provide you with what I consider the highlights of my "pull list" and then I'll show you my full pull list. Let's get started...

- Justin Gray and Jimmy Palmiotti's Hawkman is definitely a monthly highlight and the first on this little list. These guys took over from the magnificent Geoff Johns, who brought the character back out of continuity hell and limbo via his awesome JSA book, and completely made this title their own. I used to shy away from saying it was better than Johns' run, but now? Nope.

This is, without-a-doubt, better than Johns' run! It's old-school, action comic fun with two of the most badass characters in the DC Universe: Hawkman and Hawkgirl.

- Another entry in my pull list is by the same two guys, Justin Gray and Jimmy Palmiotti: Jonah Hex. This book revolves around the title character, who is a scarred, rough, and hard-boiled, old west bounty hunter.

I picked it up originally simply because I enjoyed the two writers' Hawkman run. I'm glad I did, because I was absolutely blown away. You see, despite the fact that I rave nonstop about my favorite super hero comic books, I'm gradually getting very jaded by the whole super hero genre; not the old stuff, but the new stuff. I found this title at the right time, because it's not a damn thing like any book that's being put out today; you'll find no capes here, just good, old-fashioned stories.

And this book got me really interested in Jonah Hex, so that when DC released their Showcase Presents Jonah Hex v.1 black-and-white trade, I picked it up and was, once again, blown away!

At only issue #3 (as of this writing), I almost consider it the best monthly book I'm reading...

- Okay, next up is Marvel Team-Up, Robert Kirkman's nod to the Marvel old-school.

This book goes above and beyond in terms of showcasing my favorite, second rate characters, while also having the best characterizations of some of Marvel's banner characters. Kirkman's Spider-Man is the best Spider-Man I've read in years! Robert also brought back Terror, Inc's Terror (Shreck from the old Epic line), Moon Knight, and Sleepwalker; characters that have been in limbo for waaaaay too long.

It's another one of those books that I can't wait to pick up each month. Unfortunately, I don't feel like it's going to last as long as I'd like for it to...

- Fear Agent... what's that? Why, it's only the best new book to come out in the past two months, that's what!

I'm horribly in love with action books, if you can't already tell, and this one definitely falls into that category. Fear Agent has one thing on the other books I'm reading though: it's funny! It's also a book that'll make you wish you could kick ass much ass as the title character, Heath Huston, one of the best new characters in comics.

Heath's an alien exterminator, the last of Texas' Fear Agents and he's something of a combination of Ash from The Evil Dead and the John McClaine from Die Hard. You'll just have to read the book to understand what I'm talking about.

The common factor each of these books have is the simple fact that they manage to really put a feeling of excitement in me that I haven't had in years. There's just a feeling that only a comic book fan can describe that goes along with being a kid and getting excited about a trip to the comic store. I remember that feeling well... when I was fourteen or fifteen years old and running down to the mailbox to get that month's copy of X-Men or to the comic shop to pick up an issue of Darkhawk. These books definitely pull me back to that time.

But that doesn't mean I don't enjoy the other books I buy... because if I didn't, why would I be buying them? So, what else am I picking up each month?

- Astonishing X-Men (on hiatus)
- Birds of Prey
- B.P.R.D. - The Black Flame (mini)
- The Flash
- Exiles (as of the latest issue, which takes place in the 2099 universe)
- Ghost Rider (mini)
- Godland
- Infinite Crisis (mini)
- JSA
- JSA Classified
- New Excalibur
- Runaways (about to drop it, I think)
- Ultimate Fantastic Four
- Ultimate Spider-Man
- Ultimate X-Men (as of #66 when Kirkman began writing)
- Uncanny X-Men
- Wolverine
- X-Men: Deadly Genesis (mini)

So, you can see, I'm picking up quite a few titles each month. Many of them are mini-series, which will be ending soon... plus I'm considering dropping a couple ongoing books, simply because they're just not as good as they were. I try to stick with a title for a while, just to see if I like where it's going or not, but sometimes I just have to give up on it.

I hope you enjoyed the trip through my pull list. Maybe you'll give one of my highlight books a chance if you aren't already reading 'em!