Queen & Country #23:
Mike Hawthorne's art is excellent on this title, but somehow I feel that the story is treading water. Tara Chace is surveilling a Zimbawean political rebel, up close and personal. Lots of other people are talking to other people. While this title has never dipped in the kinds of explosive cliches of, say, television's Alias, it normally is able to remain taut and riveting. The inner politics between intelligence departments in Britain ... not so much. I'm kind of disappointed. I'll be glad when this storyline is over.

Mystique #11:
The phrase that leaps to my mind here is Ferengi Rule of Acquisition #285: "No good deed goes unpunished." Forge and Mystique don't exactly go on a date, and on the way out of it, they catch word of an amber alert on a mutant child. This does not work out well for Forge and Raven, as Manuel Garcia's delicious artwork (echoing the Dodsons in some places, particularly a panel on a rooftop, and Kano in some spots) melds well with Vaughan's crisp and smart scripting. Forge is handled smartly and with real nuance. I enjoyed this issue a great deal, and I'm happy I made the jump to start buying this title after some really great action adventure writing fron Vaughan. Of course, now that I like it, marvel will probably cancel it.

Wizard #150:
I normally never buy Wizard. I only picked it up after reading that it would have a huge comic book movie preview, which I figured could help me out with stuff at my CBR, as shmucks are always quoting Wizard. However, I also know that this magazine has been completed for months (I worked at magazines for years, I know the lead time they need), so anything in here was either ancient history or a secret so well kept it should be scary. After reading it from cover to cover, there wer maybe a couple of quotes I didn't already have, but otherwise nothing of import. Plus, it's nowhere near as funny as Toyfare. Wotta rip. Ah well.

Buy Pile Breakdown: Only Mystique managed to entertain. Not a good week at all ... argh.

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

4 #2:
Again, I had to move this book to the top of the pile. I'm reading along -- and let me assure you, the art is simply splendid, a joy to behold -- and the story is humming along, hitting the requisite marks and all. The FF is broke. Okay. Great. Reed spaces out on picking the boy (a kid who can alter reality, yow) up at school. Johnny discovers all his "friends" were fakes. The whole family moves into a two bedroom motel suite in Manhattan. Yeah. Uh huh. Then, near the end, something jogs my brain. Reed Richards has ... well, if not friend, colleagues. Tony Stark. Chuck Xavier. Even Thomas freakin' Fireheart. Why not shack up at the X-Mansion in Westchester for a few weeks? Sue has to teach English ... what, Tony Stark couldn't set you up with a consultancy? All of a sudden, everybody can't remember the phone numbers for these guys? Dumb comics. I hate that.

Losers #8:
Not bad. The team goes in for some more madness in the Carribean, still chasing down the people who stole their lives. I somehow don't remember too much about it, oddly enough.

Punisher #3:
Taut, tense storytelling, as Punisher holds everybody in terror, even as he's chained and captured. Some enthusiastic capos are tailing the National Security geeks who teamed up with Micro (this appears to be from a few years back ...) to take down the man himself. Nobody died here, but it's still an interesting read. Why not buy it, then? Well, it was close ... but there's a grim edge of humor that Ennis introduces into the Punisher that I really enjoy, and without that, it's just a psychopathic white guy killing people. I can watch the President if I wanna see that, and he's on TV for free.

Batman #624:
More "100 Batarangs." Witty banter and some fighting. No real action. All the things that worked in Punisher failed to happen here. Not that it's bad, it's just not really riveting.

Conan #1:
On the first three pages, there's a beheading. That's the way you make a freakin' barbarian comic. Busiek grimly introduces the work, and the crisp, clear artwork doesn't over do the gore while communicating the harsh, frozen realities of the time. This issue, in just a few pages, is everything I wanted in Brath.

Caper #4:
This issue starting a new storyline, is good ... but it doesn't have the whimsical threat of the Weiss brothers, and their descendent is kind of a joyless crone. This has some of the feel of, say, American Century, which I also didn't like. Some may. Not me, though.

Crimson Dynamo #6:
I'm so sorry this title got cancelled. Man ... this was a great issue, with a solution that's been developed for months prior, action, suspense, and laughs. I really liked this title, and came to enjoy it too late for any of my purchases to make a difference -- the week I was considering adding it to the Buy Pile on principle, the cancellation was announced. Ah well. Really rather entertaining, though.

Coup D'Etat #4: The Authority:
Like the closing acts of Empire, its easy to see how the Authority could take over the US. The whole issue is summed up in the last page -- what now? The issue itself was a very simple one.

Ultimate Fantastic Four #3:
Smart. Very smart. As Warren Ellis said, this title is purely science fiction, and it's fun. However, this decompressed issue could have been accomplished in, say, twelve pages with similar effects. The Mole Man bit is ... well, just weird. Interesting, but worth study.

El Cazador #5
Boring. Why do the CrossGen books that are all "historical" so ... dry? Blah.

Flash #207:
Navel gazing, post-modern whining. Uh huh. I liked some of the characterization on Wally, who's left his lottery winning millionaire days behind to be a "hero of the people" (the comparison to the others in the JLA pantheon was smart). I still don't find it anywhere near compelling enough to spend money on.

Negation #27:
The eve of the War shows what Evinlea's been up to (not good), shows Komptin's new job (nasty work), brings Danik to Negation space (tricky) and weaves together threads that have wandered around unnoticed for years. Good stuff ... but still waiting for the collection. That's the only way the super-decompressed material here works out.

G.I. Joe #27:
My retailers were shocked to see me put this back. Jerwa's writing hits a lot of the right marks, and has some good tension (especially between Scarlett and Snake Eyes, and Hawk's anger seemed good as well), plus amazing artwork (I remarked to myself that Storm Shadow has never looked this good). Still, I found the visual storytelling somewhat muddled -- whether that came from the script or from artistic decisions during the pencil stage, I dunno. but the fight scenes lacked oomph, the sequence of events in the final third of the issue were less than clear, and I couldn't spend my money on this. I'm just as surprised as you.

JLA #93:
This was terrible. The only character Denny O'Neill got right was (of course) Batman (who had a great line on a viewscreen ... like he won't deign to be amongst the rest of 'em, which I liked). The ending was lame and anti-climactic (and a little depressing), the character action (well ... okay, Wonder Woman had a nice moment) was less than compelling. Blah.

Silver Surfer #6:
This title is wading its way towards comprehensibility, but it's not there yet. Norrin Radd's supporting cast is still wholly unexplained (and largely confusing), and a lot is still going on. None of it I care about, but hey.

Superman #202:
I asked Steve, my beloved comics pusher, "Hey, what happened to all that 'Mister Majestic in Metropolis' stuff?" He said, "Ah, DC got Michael Turner, so they decided to just drop it." I fumed. This pseudo-Krypton story is ... well, it's boring. I understand it -- I'd have called it "Kandor Strikes Back" (which isn't the spoiler it sounds like), but ... ah, I just can't be bothered to care. Oh, and yes, it's pretty, but so is Jessica Simpson, and she's clearly nobody you'd wanna spend twenty two pages of talking with either.

Tom Strong #25:
Geoff Johns came up with an interesting new application of reality altering powers, where Tom Strong saves the day by being a pal. I kind of enjoyed it ... but it was no Alan Moore. Eh.

Legion #30:
I can't believe I got suckered into this crappy time travel storyline by a Superboy costume. The "Not So Great Darkness Saga" ends with a convoluted and wildly goofy close that stains the entire work and makes Darkseid look at lot dumber than he should be. Disappointing.

Transformers Generation One Volume 3 #2:
Another surprise to be left at the store. I'm a wholly maniacal Transfan ... and this was (again) a case of muddled visual storytelling. Script, pencils ... I can't tell where the decision was made. It's got some fun action, but I'm not really clear about why this new character Sunstorm (who I like a lot) got so ... impressive. He reads like one of the ridiculous power-ups I used to do for my Transformers characters when I wanted to trump playmates. Still too vague, too unclear.

Read Pile Roundup: A purely adequate week with the stupidity of 4 being the biggest problem and both G.I. Joe and Transformers being close to jump-worthy, but never really getting there.

So, How Was It This Week? This was not a good week for comics. Argh.

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