The Pull List – Mystery Science Theater 3000 #3

Tom Servo is still a guest at the Marks family house, where after attending a confusing pizza roll party, he is ready to report on the life of teenage actress Shelley Marks. Jonah Heston narrowly survives his crash with his ride with the Black Cat and has found where the Rook’s hideout. Meanwhile, Crow sets out of the shadows to tell a spooky tale of horror, even if the characters or background sets don’t want to follow along. The crew of the Satellite of Love are thrown into another crazy episode as Kinga Forrester bubbles up three comics at once.

Issue three continues the Black Cat feature that previously ended at a literal cliffhanger. Jonah was left at a side of a cliff by the Black Cat as she attempted to jump a drawbridge on her motorcycle. She didn’t stick the landing and Jonah somehow made it further to the Rook’s hide by walking. Since Jonah isn’t the main star of this story, it’s up to the Black Cat to spring into action and save the day. Back in Tom Servo’s story, now named Tom Servo: Teen Reporter, Tom is observing the odd behavior of the Marks family and getting picked on by Chuck Aston, the family’s hired help. Normally a flying robot, Tom is enjoying his new humanoid body by walking, eating and putting it in danger by willingly let Shelley Marks do whatever she wants. Finally, Crow plays narrator to another horror story that doesn’t quite understand what horror means. In this tale, two explores in the snowy mountain find are taken by a group of monks during a storm. Tempted by cellar containing corpses with carrying precious cargo, the pair gives in to their greed and try to steal from the dead.

With bizarre story elements in the original version of these stories, the writers easily have enough material available to create amusing gags and cracks at every moment. Characters randomly change size, color, and positioning at any given panel, adding to the broken illusions of the batty plots. The fourth wall breaking scenes that forcefully interject a commercial product is hilarious, reminding readers that sometimes comics will have to sell out to keep the lights on. As Jonah and Crow reaching the conclusion of their respective stories, what crazy and public domain comic will she find next? The Bubbulat-R keeps fizzing up another batch of stories in next month’s issue.

Mystery Science Theater 3000 #3 will be released December 12th, 2018.