The Pull List

Due to lack of funds I could only grab three comics of the 9 I was wanting. I think I made the right choices:

AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #632
Words: Zeb Wells
Pictures: Chris Bachalo

Shed, Part 3 of 4: Without a doubt another fine example of how this Gauntlet story is making fresh starts out of Spider-Man's classic villains.
Okay, so the Lizard has completely taken of the mind of Curt Conners, to the point where the Lizard was able to kill Conners' young son Billy, very gruesome.
So, Spider-man tries to catch up to the Lizard in an attempt to reason with/stop him and finds the remains of the child as well as what appeared to be a dead Lizard.
Only he wasn't dead. He's still growing and changing so he was shedding.
They have a fight and Spidey is surprised to see the Lizard talking in complete sentences and actually thinking. Lizard tells him he has all the knowledge that Conners had, which means he has all the word usage the man had, which makes Lizard all the more dangerous.
Add to that the fact Lizard can now control the 'reptile' part of the human brain and you have the makings of a wide scope disaster on your hands!
Both the art and story work very well here. Bachalo's art works so well you can almost feel the Lizard's skin on the page. There could not have been a better choice for artist for this story!

THE THANOS IMPERATIVE: IGNITION
Words Dan Abnett & Andy Lanning
Pictures: Brad Walker

For months now the Cosmic heroes of the Marvel Universe have been dealing with The Fault, a crack of sorts in the fabric of our reality that connects to an alternate universe where there is no death and life has become of kind of cancer. Nova has been trying to learn more about it in hopes of being able to figure out how to close it while the Guardians of the Galaxy have been dealing with the Magus and his universal Church of Truth and trying to stop them from making it worse.
They all failed.
Nova finds out there are 'evil' versions of Marvel's heroes in this alternate universe. They are trying to come here and destroy all death and take over our universe.
As bad as that is, what the Guardians find is much worse: Thanos. The Mad Titan, lover of Death.
In this one shot which begins the event The Thanos Imperative, we see things coming together. The Universal Church has made a major move, involving the destruction of several planets, and has made the Fault bigger.
Thanos is slowly getting his mind together and regaining his strength which is generally bad for everyone.
The Magus learns first hand that failure is NOT an option.
In the end we know that the Other universe wants to destroy Death. But in order to do this they must destroy Death's Avatar: Thanos. History has proven this is a very difficult thing to do.

THOR #610
Words: Kieron Gillen
Pictures: Doug Braithwaite

Siege: Epilogue- Asgard in ruins. Gods fallen. A King shaken. These are things that destroy a man, but an Asgardian sees these as something to simply overcome and grow from.
This issue deals with the fall out of Siege #4. Balder no longer feels he is fit to be King, in his mind he should have moved Asgard from Earth a long time ago. After ending Thor's banishment he tries to turn the throne over to the Thunder God but is denied. Thor will be an advisor but Balder must remain King.
As the Asgardians try to find the bodies of their fellowGods they come across Ragnorok, the clone of Thor. In a knock down drag out, Thor makes his dominance known and puts the clone in it's place...well, in a few places, actually.
This is a great winding down issue and sets the stage for the next chapter in the saga of Thor. Where does Asgard go from here? What of Loki? Can a God be killed on earth and still return? Where did his spirit go if there is no more afterlife for the Asgardians? Does the deal he made with Mephisto and Hela in Siege: Loki play into this? Many questions and many more issues to come!