The Pull List: 1 July 2015, Part I

In the middle of a vast desert there is the Spire, a massive towering construction filled with more than a million people - both human and otherworldly. Shå is one such otherworldly figure: not only the last of her kind but also the captain of the city watch. When three people are randomly murdered in the bowels of the Spire, and one of them turns out to be the former nursemaid of the newly crowned Baroness, Shå is sent to solve the crime - or suffer the consequences.

The Spire is a new eight-part fantasy miniseries from Boom Studios. Writer Simon Spurrier is at the top of his game here, providing an extended first issue that's both packed with story and rich in world-building. There's a very strong sense of Mervyn Peake about the characters and the Gormenghast-like citadel in which they live.

It's also beautifully illustrated by artist Jeff Stokely and colourist André May. It has a varied and dynamic panel layout and very subtle, nuanced colours. If the script was influenced by Peake, then the art is influenced by a range of noted artists including Hayao Miyazaki and Jean "Moebius" Giraud.

Everything is set up wonderfully here: I can't wait to see what happens in the remaining eight issues. 'Proud stands the Spire,' claims one overly zealous guard. Proud stand Spurrier, Stokely and May too. This comic is great. (5/5)

Under the cut: reviews of Imperium, Onyx, The X Files and X-O Manowar.

Star Trek: Enterprise: "Demons"

It's 6 May 2005, and time for more Star Trek: Enterprise.

The Enterprise has returned to Earth as a group of allied civilizations begin negotiations for a trade alliance among them - the first step towards a broader coalition in the future. A dying woman sends T'Pol and Trip on an unexpected mission: somehow, somewhere on Earth, they have a child.

It's genuinely a surprise, after pointless Klingon continuity references, half-naked slave girls, and parallel universe shenanigans, to find Enterprise producing a decent episode again. "Demons" is great: it has an intriguing storyline, a fast pace, and it tells precisely the sort of story that Enterprise was set up to tell: not weird combinations of continuity minutia but actually Star Trek history. The negotiations going on in the background of this episode will lead, ultimately, to the United Federation of Planets.

Arachnophobia (1990)

Throughout the 1990s Amblin Entertainment seemed to be an unstoppable factory of populist family films, jumping genres from action to science fiction to horror, and forming the foundation for many children's film-going experience. Even when the bulk of the films weren't directed by Steven Spielberg, his presence was constantly felt throughout whether in the development of their screenplays or their particular visual aesthetic.

This long series of family films appeared to by-and-large conclude in 1990 with the release of Frank Marshall's Arachnophobia. Before that film the company produced the likes of The Goonies, Gremlins, Young Sherlock Holmes, Batteries Not Included as well as Spielberg's own E.T. the Extraterrestrial and Hook. After Arachnophobia the company seemed more likely to produce films like Cape Fear, The Bridges of Madison Country or To Wong Foo. Family films continued to emerge from Amblin, but that core vibe of its original 1980s films seemed to get left behind.

So in many respects Arachnophobia feels like the end of an era, straddling the gap between two kinds of film as well as two decades.

The West Wing: "What Kind of Day Has It Been"

In The West Wing’s first season finale, the President’s preparations for a town hall meeting with Virginian college students is interrupted when a United States fighter jet is shot down in Iraq’s no-fly zone. Toby is concerned when the space shuttle Columbia – whose crew includes his payload specialist brother – fails to return to Earth on time, Josh meets with the Vice-President to persuade him to back the President’s agenda on campaign finance reform, and a shocking cliffhanger brings an end to our first year alongside the Bartlet administration.

The episode’s title is identical to the first season finale of Sorkin’s Sports Night, and he re-used it as a small in-joke. ‘There was just something that felt right about doing that,’ Sorkin told an online forum.(1) The title was used a third time for the series finale of Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip, and a fourth time in the series finale of The Newsroom.

It is difficult to think of “What Kind of Day Has It Been” without thinking of its divisive cliffhanger ending, which some viewers loved and others actively hated. For now we shall put the closing moments aside, and focus on the bulk of the episode.

Star Trek: Enterprise: "In a Mirror, Darkly, Part II"

It's 29 April 2005, and time for more Star Trek: Enterprise.

In a bleak parallel universe, Commander Archer has commandeered the USS Defiant and plans to use it to take over the Terran Empire. Meanwhile T'Pol, inspired by the records of the Federation in the Defiant's data banks, is preparing an armed insurrection against her human overlords.

The first part of this parallel universe storyline worked itself into being a prequel to "Mirror, Mirror" and a sequel to "The Tholian Web". This second half continues in that vein, but adds an additional piece of continuity porn: a runaway Gorn, a species last seen in the original series episode "Arena". Add in appearances by parallel versions of pre-existing Enterprise characters like Admiral Gardner and Ambassador Soval, and you've got one unholy mess of fan-baiting Trek history, all thrown together and vigorously shaken into... well, into something.

The West Wing: "Lies, Damn Lies and Statistics"

In “Lies, Damn Lies and Statistics”, the Bartlet administration get the first taste of how the public will respond to their new “Let Bartlet be Bartlet” policy while the President and Leo continue their efforts to kick-start finance reform. Laurie finally graduates from law school, leading to a crisis for Sam when a British tabloid photographs him with her. Meanwhile C.J. faces up to her own personal crisis in confidence. The episode’s title comes from a Benjamin Disraeli quote: ‘There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics.’

This is a strong episode for C.J., who has undergone the most pronounced character development of any of the regular cast so far. We started the series with her a little under-confident and overwhelmed, and we recently saw her finally stand up to the President over the media’s coverage of his daughter. Here she admits that she feels she let her workmates down over Mandy’s leaked strategy memo, and worries that Leo is marginalising her as a result. By the episode’s end she seems to have recovered her confidence – and her expectations for the President’s new opinion poll, already much higher than anyone else’s, are satisfied.

The Pull List: 24 June 2015, Part II

Psychokinetic hair. That's the first thing with which the reader is confronted in issue 4 of Ninjak: a top-secret intelligence profile about psychokinetic hair. Ninjak is a knowingly ridiculous series, essentially blending James Bond with, well, ninjas. The first story arc of this recent relaunch has focused on Ninjak infiltrating an international gun-smuggling syndicate, only now his cover has been blown thanks to the mysterious assassin Roku. She has psychokinetic hair.

So if blonde English ninjas armed with Q-branch gadgets fending off red-haired assassins with prehensile locks sounds like your thing, then Valiant has the comic for you, At least, that's where I assumed this issue would go, since that's by and large where we left it last month. Instead this issue presents Roku's origin, and it's a dark fantasy filled with endless caverns, dark cults and monstrous demons.

That's one of the things I like the most about Valiant: their comics are very good at jumping tracks and switching genres. Juan Jose Ryp does outstanding artwork in this issue, with the assistance of Clay and Seth Mann and Marguerite Sauvage. It's possibly the prettiest comic of the week. Matt Kindt writes an intriguing story too, although it's always the tiniest bit suspect having all of this cod Asian mythology wrap around a Caucasian protagonist. Then again, that's pretty much Ninjak as the character was created, so I can hardly claim it's Kindt's fault.

This is another great book from Valiant, although you should note that the interiors aren't quite as sexualised as that cover. (4/5)

IDW. Written by Matt Kindt. Art by Juan Jose Ryp with Clay Mann, Seth Mann and Marguerite Sauvage. Colours by Ulises Arreola.

Under the cut: reviews of Annihilator, Aquaman, Black Widow, Justice League 3001 and Southern Cross.

Wind Blast (2010)

A debt-ridden boxer (Xia Yu) shoots a man dead in Hong Kong before fleeing to mainland China. A year later, a team of police officers have almost succeeded in tracking him down along the borders of the Gobi Desert - only to discover that a pair of assassins (Francis Ng and Yu Nan) are also on his trail.

Wind Blast is a 2010 Chinese action film written and directed by Gao Qunshu. It's not simply an action film: it's essentially a Chinese-language modern-day western, with lawmakers and criminals circling each other's trails on horseback while wearing cowboy hats. It's shot like a western, climaxes with a one-on-one showdown in the middle of an isolated town, and has a deliberate guitar-dominated musical score that brings to mind John Woo's 1996 action film Broken Arrow.

That's not to say it's not also a very Chinese-style film. The characters all seem to spend a remarkable amount of time talking about fate, destiny and honour, in that way that the protagonists of Chinese action films often seem to do. There's more than one slightly surreal moment, the most memorable of which is a climactic horse stampede. It's not simply that some horses are stampeding, it's that they do it through a town, and that they're remarkably tiny horses.