Every week I go to the comic book store (Comics Ink in Culver City, CA, hey Steve and Jason!) and grab a lot of comics. I sort these into two piles -- the "buy" pile (things I intend to spend money on, most often a small pile) and the "read" pile (often huge, including lots of stuff I don't actually like but wanna stay well informed about). In no particular order, here's some thoughts about all that.

Robotech #5:
I can't decide if it's genius or laziness, but Faerber has deftly duplicated the "new-kid-on-Macross-Island" love triangle formula almost flawlessly. Roy Fokker (all skill and hidden angst) plays the Rick Hunter role with Claudia Grant (all camera angles and frustrated sighs) does an inspired Lisa Hayes. The spin on the play is Jan Morris as an aggressive Minmei substitute, far more interested in getting next to Roy than he is in enjoying her company. Pulling in future big names (Anatole Leonard, T.R. Edwards as Roy's boss, etc.) is a smart move continuity wise, but if I didn't know who these people were (and that adds a lot to the enjoyment of this title), they'd be talking heads, as there's not a great deal of time to flesh out character. I'm still enjoying this walk down memory lane, but it's a very exclusive walkway.

G.I. Joe #16:
First things first: the art, done by Tim Seeley and Cory Hamscher, is drastically improved -- crisp detail, fine facial expressions, vivid backgrounds. The story is a lot more subtle than I normally expect from Blaylock, with some shades and nuances to it, and the story flows like it's straight out of today's headlines. I'd consider this one of the most enjoyable issues of the run, and the storyline has a manageable cast (only three Joes for the most part) and an interesting slant. I'm not sure why one of the characters shares my first na ... oh heck, I know. I just realized what is going on. Cobra's putting something together. Something serious. I only figured it out because I noticed that my namesake is called upon. I won't spoil it for you (unless ... I know, I'll put it on the next line in white text, so you can copy/outline it if you want a spoiler), but it's something lots of people have asked for online. Rock on, Devil's Due.

SPOILERS BELOW IN WHITE TEXT:

In this issue, three boys -- Julius, Alexander and the teenaged Hannibal -- are spotlighted. They're all insanely fast, terribly smart, have an interest in history and science. Hannibal's also an amazing fighter, able to knock down adult special forces troops. The last time those three names were used in a G.I. Joe comic was issue #49 of the old run -- where they put together Serpentor. Since the Feds started it this time, they were trying to benefit from Mindbender's work and develop a bunch of super soldiers (when will they learn this never works?) based on historical templates. Cool. Only place where it falls down is that Hannibal had dreadlocks and looked like the guy from Roc. Very cool.

END SPOILERS

Micronauts: Karza #2:
Jim Krueger pulls out an old time-travel storytelling chestnut here, as we watch Karza rise to power. It's pretty cool. It also spotlights the insane problem of any tyrant -- you wanna train a suitable heir, but you don't want them to whack you before you are ready to die. The tyrants in the Microverse have yet to solve this conundrum. Still, Ryan Archer gets a hard lesson and the reader gets a history lesson, so this is a solid book that doesn't leap out as anything special.

Queen & Country #15:
Saving the best for last. "Emotional" is the best adjective I'd apply to this issue, despite having a really great fight scene. Tara Chace deals with some uncomfortable emotional terrain in her personal and professional lives, kicks butt pretty harshly, and closes the case without betraying her old friend. Greg Rucka continues to turn in one the best comic on the stands. There's just not much to say without spoiling the delicate plot points. Fine, fine work.

Buy Pile Breakdown: I can see why I wasn't heartbroken that my Wednesday turned out so weird, making me miss my comics run. This was a staggeringly light week on the Buy Pile, with only Q&C making itself an above-average read.

Then there's the stuff on the "read pile" that I don't bring home ...

Action Comics #802:
They really should share whatever it is they're smoking in the Superman office. There are three really embarrasingly stupid things in this issue. First, there's what I call the "Luke on Dagobah" or "Atari Force" Villain Identity Theorem, which our dear pal Zod brings to play in a way that is both cliche and predictable. That sucks. Second, the plague of metahumanity that's been sweeping the country involves splicing Kryptonian genes into the human metagene trigger. That's just goofy. Finally, and here's the piece de resistance: to fight the "plague" they have to drop technology into the sun and turn it red. Not that the plants have spent several million years adapting to the specific kind of sunlight that comes to our planet, forming the basis of the food chain and keeping everybody alive. Not that anybody takes five freakin' seconds to do some research on what the effects might be. No, everybody's focused on the fact that Supes will lose his powers. Get Justin Timberlake down here to cry us a river. I swear every one of these Super books wake up early in the morning so they have more time to suck. Yowza.

Sentinel #1:
I actually read this book three times in less than twenty minutes. It went by really fast. It felt like it was for an audience a lot younger than me, and I didn't derive any entertainment from it. It was actually less interesting than the web preview of the first sixteen pages.

First #30:
Ingra, that sneaky evil clan head, has a secret. It's an involved secret. It's a secret that will mean bad things for lots of people, and just plain surprise others. It's also very funny, in my mind. I expect carnage, but truth be told, the events of this issue could have been done in ten pages convincingly. Ehh.

Alias #21:
A quiet and somewhat goofy ending for one of the most disturbing storylines of the year. The embarrasingly sad guest star from last issue is gone in a few pages (thankfully) but this one kind of coasts in for a landing.

Daredevil #45:
I almost just wrote "ditto" here. Both of Bendis' Marvel books kind of limped in this month. Maybe he was overworked. Hard to know. In any case, the Owl gets his this month, Matt gets what he asks for in a way he may not like, and things settle down. Ehh.

G.I. Joe Frontline #6:
The movie cliches continue, as the small Joe task force shivers its way around an abandones antarctic research station, slowly surrounded by Really Bad Things (tm). I'm gonna hop back on when this closes out.

Read Pile Roundup: If I hadn't run into Top Cow head honcho Jim McLaughlin (who, amusingly, didn't remember me from when he came out to court NPO as a Wizard rep), I could have easily forgotten I even went to the store. I did get home and notice I forgot three offerings from Marvel completely, including the Lai Brothers on Thor, but I'm also not terribly broken up about that. It is still the Read Pile, after all. A forgettable week all around.

Next time I see a week this light, I may just wait and pick up the Buy PIle bits the next go-round. Life's too short.