Human Target #7:
The first chapter of a new storyline, the title character barely bothers to show up as the members of a 1960s "revolutionary" Weathermen cell are being picked off, one by one, in the present day. The feds are predictably clueless, and violence hangs in the air like ripe fruit. Milligan and Chiang function together like fine Swiss clockworks, and this issue is another smooth, fascinating piece of entertainment.

Lucifer #47:
The time has come to evict the immortals, and baby archangel Elaine Belloc leads her intrepid crew of former angels and demonic warriors to serve the papers. It's a big story told in small terms, and I found the work masterfully done. In my experience, three out of every four issues of this title were above average, and one was merely adequate. This is a really good one, and the title hasn't missed a step in some time, so it's throwing my theory out the window. Mad ideas -- storytelling demons that eat towns, lost souls forming fairy tale horrors, giants hiding in lakes only to have the water parted to reveal them -- and great storytelling, visually and verbally.

Birds of Prey #64:
Barbara Gordon's in trouble, held captive by a rogue senator wielding the Patriot Act like a truncheon. Shiva and Cheshire are still keeping Black Canary busy, chasing down the murderer of Shiva and Canary's sensei. Savant is loose and angry. Canary gets an unexpected business offer. Gail Simone keeps a lot of plates spinning, and does it with a dash of humor and a heaping helping of action, all depicted with great skill and enthusiasm by Ed Benes and Alex Lei. This is one of the most consistent and entertaining superhero books on the stands, and this issue is another example of why.

Captain Marvel #20:
When I got to the tail end of this issue, with Genis dead set on something he was dead set on months ago, but from a different angle, I laughed and laughed and laughed. Peter David has strung together disparate story threads into a zany, time-and-space spanning romp that threatens to depopulate at least four major spacefaring cultures. The symmetry of it stood out to me, and I adore symmetry in my storytelling. Oh, and Marlo got dumped, which is funny all by itself. I adore this title, because I never, ever have any idea what's going to happen next, and it's always a madcap surprise. That's so ... refreshing.

Wonder Woman #201:
Last issue, the Greek god Ares tricked his dad Zeus into smashing Themyscria and tossing it across the sea. This, predictably, was a bad thing for the people living there, and even worse for people visiting. In the madness, the gorgon Stheno escaped (seemingly she'd been imprisoned for something) and freed the witch Circe (who, all by herself, caused the whole "War of the Gods" crossover of the mid nineties). None of that is good in the long term, for reasons that the story outlines, but sadly that's just the subplot. On the front burner, Ares has (without really doing anything direct, which is his real masterpiece) manipulated events to attack Diana at home on Paradise Island and in the US. People die, people get horribly battered, and Diana is up against the wall. Greg Rucka crafts a tense and terse tale, and the team of Shand Davis and Ray Snyder deliver on the artwork side, going from the claustrophobic offices of the Themyscrian embassy to the shattered glories of Themyscria itself (yes, I do like typing "Themyscria," why do you ask?). Another sample of fine storytelling at work.

Coup D'Etat #3: Wildcats 3.0:
I've left the previous two crossover books in the store because they seemed predictable and unimpressive. Not so much here. Joe Casey pisses on the corpse of superhero cliches, using his lead character Jack Marlowe to point a spotlight at the inefficiencies of spandex clad pugilism. "I've come here to try and talk you out of this nonsensical strategy that you all think is so revolutionary," he says to the Authority, aboard their Carrier, even going as far as to "wrap myself in the colors of our culture," and breaking out his old Spartan uniform. The only problem is that Casey uses the characterizations of the current Authority, which makes sense continuity wise but (in my mind) is wildly out of character for the group themselves. That's a larger editorial issue than could be dealt with here, and the creative team on this book should shoulder no fault for it. However, seeing the Midnighter raving like he was Hawkeye or Green Arrow ... it's sad. Best of all, even Jack considers it sad, and almost says as much, shaking his head and seeing "they will merely be supplanting one status quo for another ... I can't imagine this will be anything but a momentary aberration in the evolution of earth culture." I adore this freaking title.

Buy Pile Breakdown: Smart, well crafted stuff here. Very good week for purchases.

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

Superman/Batman #6:
I am writing this review first, of all the things I'm doing this week, because it's important to communicate how truly, staggeringly awful this issue is. When i sat it down, I turned to Steve the Comics Pusher and said, "That was appalling. It's an atrocity. Like a war crime. Like things that are prevented by the Geneva Convention. Someone call the Hague." There's so much wrong with this book, when I was asked what's become the seminal question -- "is this Monarchy bad?" -- I was forced to answer in the affirmative. From the top ... a Japanese wunderkind and part time super villain teams up with the titular heroes to build a giant Batman/Superman robot, made from the Metallo element, and ready to be piloted towards a rendezvous with a kryptonite meteor hurtling towards earth. That's just plain stupid, and one look at the thing is unsettling. Then it's explained that the radiation from the meteor is so extreme, even Green Lantern can't stop it. Now, the fact that Green Lantern (Kyle Rayner, even, for all the HEAT extremists) contained the power of a miniature sun with his ring in the DC One Million stunt, all of a sudden some wussy meteor is gonna give him the shivers. Embarrassing. Luthor, of course, goes stark raving mad, ranting all brands of incriminating info in earshot of global news media. Sloppy, and dangerously out of character for a man who wheedled his way to the nuclear football. Says Apokolips has been bankrolling and providing tech support for his whole administration. Uh, what? Kind of hard to hide boom tubes showing up when, oh, every hero with a laptop has the freaking signature on the things. Lex Money shoots up a derivative of Bane's Venom formula, mixed with Kryptonite. Into his own body. In addition to his "firepit" forged Apokoliptan armor. I began to swoon at that point. Plus there's Captain Atom, doing a strange James Kirk thing, there's Batman buying Lexcorp off-panel ... there's so much wrong here, so much minutiae about both characters jammed in for no good reason ... it boggles the senses. Some thought it was a notch below Monarchy levels because they said they could recognize some of what was happening, but quickly retracted it because I pointed out that was only because they all knew Lex, Supes, Bats and the rest of the cast inside and out, and had it been Jackson King and Union and some other remixed or unrecognized shmucks, this would be wholly impenetrable. Agreement all around. In the short months already passed, this is already the front runner for worst single issue of any comic published this year. It's simply heinous, and not for lack of trying, as McGuinness was clearly busting his butt to at least make sure it would look good, even though it made no sense. It could drive a man to drink ...

Abadazad #1:
This issue was, to be blunt, magical. The sheer skill and craft applied to making this tale work on multiple levels, from juvenile to adult, from gritty family drama to highfalutin' fantasy, is simply impressive. I was stunned how much I liked this, especially given a strong woman of color in a pivotal role. I came very close to buying this, and if I saw my six nieces more often, I probably would have. I'm following this with great interest.

Outsiders #9:
I feel so horrible for Jefferson Pierce -- made a cold blooded killer in Green Arrow and now jammed into an ill-conceived guest appearance with almost no purpose. When the real deus ex machina (amazingly apropos once you know who it is) shows up on the last panel, the pieces fall into place that will "take down" the really serious threat of Sabbac (the ghosts of the Golden Age are dangerous), but the issue itself was just goofy for no good reason. Still, any time the aforementioned plot device shows up, I'm interested for purely fanboy reasons, so I'm still reading ... dammit ...

Common Grounds #2:
The short stories here were smart and quick, told in very interesting styles. However, two short stories for three bucks seems like a raw deal, but this would be a buyable title at a lower price point. It wins on content and loses on packaging.

Pulse #1:
Jessica Jones goes to work for JJJ, and Ben Urich is her partner. That's basically what happened. Oh, and she's having Luke Cage's baby. And possibly living with him. Argh. I'm not really sure what happened with her and Ant-Man, but she's ... well, whatever. She's never been the most stable character, and Bendis keeps her moving pretty fast. I don't consider this issue very interesting.

Kiss Kiss Bang Bang #2:
Less enjoyable than the first issue, like the second half hour of most early Bond films, but still a good run with interesting characterization and a snappy plot. CrossGen is having a miniature creative renaissance.

Daredevil #57:
Someone pointed out that the Ben Urich (and his name is spelled wrong in the issue, I noted, "Uhrich") narration has a major snag in referring to the character it ultimately addresses, but aside from that it was a gritty, mean and lean story that was largely inevitable. Matt Murdock scared all the traditional powers out of Hell's Kitchen, but the Yakuza simply sent one hundred armed men to his door. Admittedly, he all of them, but with that kind of application to the task, he inevitably would have a bad experience. With this title so insular, avoiding the traps set in Thor these days, the characters are really growing and changing, and it's an interesting journey to watch.

Sojourn #32:
"Not bad," my notes say, but a fairly average tale of Arwyn's struggles (it echoes the Ankharan struggle note for note) once again made interesting by Greg Land's amazing artwork.

DC New Frontier #2:
There was a lot of good in this issue, including Wonder Woman showing Superman the door, Batman scaring the hell out of people, an inspirational full page splash with Wildcat, and the real passion of The Flash. Still ... seven bucks for a book with standard cover stock, ow! This "DCU in the Sixties" experiment is amazing in terms of the work being done (for an Elseworlds, anyway), but surely can't be worth that kind of money.

Elektra #33:
I left this at the store because Marvel just announced they were cancelling the title, just after I'd began buying it regularly. Why stay on board a sinking ship for a passing attraction? Anyway, this issue was a good one, but not stellar, with the "fear of Elektra" card played as heavily as it was in Rodi's first issue on the title. The slight repeating of fairly recent material makes this ring empty, even with the added twist of Elektra's illness, because (again) she barely made an appearance in the issue.

Fantastic Four #510
Invading heaven (actually heaven's waiting room) was a lot less ... I dunno ... visually spectacular than I expected it to be. The complicated teleological points raised are, indeed, interesting but don't really make the point with compelling visuals, which surprised me as I'm a fan of Weiringo's work. Not bad, and some mad ideas presented, but not great.

Rose & Thorn #3:
Gail Simone should really have made them release this all as a collected edition. This issue loses momentum from the last while doing some great foundation work for plot points -- treading water, but moving forward a bit.

Runaways #12:
Cloak and Dagger are, for a lack of a better word, stupid here. I really was amazed at how pat the ending was, how easily Vaughn returned to the status quo. I found that a little disappointing, as this title has been trending upwards in terms of content quality.

Adventures of Superman #625:
More elseworlds thoughts with Michael Turner prettying up the joint. Nothing to see here, folks, move along.

New X-Men #153:
Yes, Virginia, it's not your father's "Days of Future Past." Why do I even care? Silvestri seems to have tightened up the work here (or the inker realized how sloppy the last issue looked), but nothing really compelling happened here (despite the death of a new character ... sort of).

Robin #123:
Willingham is deep in the head of the Boy Wonder, making this a very interesting read. Johnny Warlock comes close to killing Robin and his teen girlfriend Spoiler, and the grit factor here is way over regular standards. Still, there's some charming high school hallway banter and a balance of the really complicated life of a teenager who beats people up. One to watch.

Read Pile Roundup: Wild variances from the terror of Superman/Batman to the glories of Abadazad and New Frontier, with tons of stuff in between.

So, How Was It This Week? Great purchases plus a wild roller coaster ride of reads slide this week just above the "good" line, so we'll call it thumbs up.

The Buy Pile is a weekly collection of comic reviews done by Hannibal Tabu (www.operative.net), originally published at UGO.com.