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.

Black Panther #59:
Should auld acquaintance be forgot? The final arc of Marvel's finest series begins with Kasper Cole continues irritating me in the most enthralling way possible. Sam Wilson shows up with some really interesting characterization, the notorious 66 Bridges gang continues their black helicopter reign of terror, and things are tense everywhere you look. Still ... you can feel the winds have gone out of the sails. T'Challa himself seems to just be standing around, waiting for things to close down. The dialogue alone makes this book worth keeping up with, but in the words of the Wu-Tang Clan, "the glorious days are gone, and everybody's doing bad."

Dominion #2:
Money worries took the color away from this title, and the internecine struggles between superhumans acting for an alien power continue. You have a feeling that something is happening, but it's too far beneath the surface. I want to love this book, but the marginal lead Donald doesn't have enough charisma to carry anything. The insane female lead Maggie has a Typhoid Mary thing going on, but it never seems to go anywhere. I'm gonna give this book three more issues on the strength of Giffen's history, but this issue was a heapin' bowl of disappointment for me.

Gotham Central #7:
This one is gritty. Montoya's unwanted revelation continues to eat at her life, and the bodies continue to fall around her. Rucka's playing fast and loose with this story, and it's not his finest work, but still entertaining.

Legends of the Dark Knight #167:
McDuffie's storyline ends with a kind of a whimper, because the Feds act dangerously close to their real-life counterparts in terms of follow through and taking care of assets that were left lying around. I enjoyed the story, now I have it all to read, but that's more because of Blink himself being interesting. The early Batman is a sloppier operative, relying more on menace than skill. I'm still a bit let down by the story, but it remains head and shoulders over most of what I've read this month.

Grendel: God & Devil #4:
The sister-humping continues, and it's the only weird bit to a compelling story about the history of the Grendel legacy. Orion Assante's chartacterization continues to grow, and you can get a glimpse of the legend he will become. Pope Innocent shows momentary hints of what he's really about, and all around the story develops at a steady pace. Good stuff here, probably my favorite issue of the week.

Buy Pile Breakdown: Slow-moving overall, not really an inspired week for comics.

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

The Many Worlds of Tesla Strong
There was a lot of fun Silver-Age-ish stuff in this book, and the art was really fun. This book was really a kind of printed confection, and as such it worked excellently. The evil Strong family, strangely enough, were my favorites. A good read, and if I needed some sweets in my buy pile, this would have come home with me. Alas, I'm too cash conscious right now.

Battle of the Planets: Mark:
Sharrief (sp?) is becoming a really brisk writer, delivering dense and involved stories on a regular basis. It was a very thin margin that kept this issue on the Read PIle, a riveting story that both illuminates the leader of G-Force as a character and shines a light on heretofore unexplored areas of the BOTP universe. I liked this a lot, and I expect I may end up buying the Jason special, if it's as dark as the writer suggested in his online interviews.

H-E-R-O #4:
I don't get why people are so into this title. It's nothing special. It's merely adequate. I dunno, this was easy to let alone.

Human Defense Corps #1:
Bo-ring. That's all I got here.

Iron Man #68:
I'm having a hard time seeing the seams between Laws and Grell's writing, as this very smart story continues with a delicious betrayal and more of the high-octane intrigue that makes Iron Man such an interesting concept these days. I hope for this as a collection, so it can be read sans ads or interruptions.

JSA #48:
In the rush for #50, this title is doing way too much for way too little response. The Courtney/Billy thing finally finds some sense of something happening, and the rest of the team kind of keeps things moving without much actually happening. I'm still waiting for this title to recapture my imagination.

Marvel Universe: The End #5:
I remember when this book was fun -- the cosmic pharoah has been cast aside in favor of another zany Thanos scheme, doomed to come to a bad end. As much as "Thanos" and "Starlin" seem to go together, it's just not clicking in this storyline.

Power Company #16:
Busiek musta sprayed on some "Eau de Priest" as he uses funny section headers and whiplash storytelling to spice up the final moments. The center is not holding, and things are falling apart, as a partner departs and a client takes over. This book was always high in the "okay" range, rarely making it into the "wow" category that'd make me rush to buy it, and this month is one of the highest of those points.

Punisher #26:
Icky. Really disturbingly icky. It had some of the gallows humor I used to enjoy, and Frank's dialogue has never been as good, but ... eww. This was just a disturbing story from start to finish.

Savage Dragon #107:
When Invincible and Firebreather come to play, you know some mess is gonna start. Larsen has fun with other people's toys, using his Silver Age style storytelling with deft handling and entertaining results. I had fun, but money is tight, and this wasn't that much fun.

Star Wars Jedi: Shaak Ti:
The second spotlight on a member of the council, the title character remained a cipher, moved from plot point to plot point while the grander battles and themes of the Clone Wars carry on around them. I found it boring, and it surely wasn't worth five bucks.

Domino #1:
I was very pleasantly surprised by how entertaining this was -- a fast moving, light-hearted spy caper with everything you need contained in the 22 pages of the story. It's like watching an episode of Alias with lots of really fun quirks and story points. This will be a series to watch.

Adventures of Superman #616:
This is one of the worst Superman comics I've read in months, a new low-water mark in a franchise that's been really goofy for some time. Superman's comics are becoming a train wreck in slow motion -- so horrifyingly bad, but I can't look away.

Blood & Water #3:
This book is fun, but it never quite breaks the barrier -- a common problem for many Read Pile regulars. I enjoying the discovery of this brand of vampire life, but it feels like a kind of long-winded intellectual exercise more than a story that's going somewhere. I'm still keeping an eye on this one.

411 #2:
Brian Vaughn's opening story here was interesting, but the rest of them were boring.

Sigil #36 #2:
There's a BIG surprise in this issue, one I won't spoil, but Chuck Dixon is doing the damned thing on this title. I can't speak in too much detail about what happened, but I am really enjoying what's happening here.

Silken Ghost #1:
Feeling like the first half hour of a Saturday afternoon kung-fu movie, this is an entertaining start that will play best as the collected edition.

Sojourn #23:
"Been there, done that." The capture in Ankhara is replayed with a slight twist, and Arwyn never seems to see these things happening. If this wasn't one of the most beautifully drawn books on the stands, it would be in some considerable trouble.

Captain America #13:
"I'm not a soldier. I'm a failed prototype." Steve Rogers, in the words of Spider Jerusalem, really does moan at an Olympic level. His whininess and waffling are exhaustive. Can we get "The Death of Captain America" -- maybe pass on the legacy, or something?

Negation #18:
My notes say "a damned fine heist tale," as the Lizard Lady shows some of why she's so hip. I love this title, because it's characters (Matua, Kaine, Shassa, Lizard Lady and especially Charon) are all so fascinating. Good stuff.

Read Pile Roundup: No fair -- there's so much in the read pile that's almost there, that it ended up entertaining me more than what I paid cash for. Dangit!

I don't even know how to characterize this week, but it's something.