Fables #23:
As predicted, Red Riding Hood is not all she seems. As predicted, Prince Charming's run for mayor could not be timed more badly. As predicted, All Hell is on its way to Breaking Loose. Another enjoyable issue that is a little more insular than it needs to be (the three "men in black" are obscure to even regular readers, I can't imagine how new readers would see them), but still rather good.

Gotham Central #17:
Very Law & Order as the police procedural carries on. I find I read this the same way I watch that series, save the occasional costume that poops up (often near the end, as in this issue) which gives it a fun, fanboy spin. Otherwise, it's just plain investigative footwork, save one really nice character bit with a detective and her son. Good and reliable but not stellar.

JSA #59:
After numerous months, this self-contained issue jumped to the Buy Pile. Per Degaton (or is it just plain "Degaton" these days?) bounces around in time for two reasons: to watch the heroes of the JSA suffer and die at their inevitable end points in spacetime, and then to travel back to the present day and taunt them about it. He's got this time machine, he realizes they always kick his butt, so he says (minor spoiler here, but if you read the first few pages, you can guess at it) "If I can't hurt them the old-fashioned way, I'll watch life do it for me." Really masterfully done, grimly depicted, and really, really interesting. The best issue I read this week, with only one "huh" moment (the mirror with Hector and Lyta Hall ... who was that?).

Buy Pile Breakdown: Two reliable favorites, one great jump, and all for less than nine bucks. Yay!

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

Stormwatch: Team Achilles #20:
The cover, which hearkens back to the good old days, is a tease. Stormwatch goes all Rex Mundi/Heaven's War out of nowhere (damn you Matrix movies!) with Knights Templar, the scion of Jesus and more conspiracy theory madness than Mulder could even handle. Oh, and Santini and Flint allegedly got married, and are (to quote Karen on Will & Grace) "shagging like two lieutenants after lights out." I'll go with "ew" on that. Anyhoo, just when I was getting interested, I tuned out again. There are so many different spiritual paths, it is only western egocentrism that leads so many to believe that only a conspiracy from a Judeao-Christian POV could hold the strings to the world's puppets. I'm bored. I already have my talky Wildstorm book in WildCATs 3.0 and it's considerably more interesting and less cliched. I'll be back in a few issues.

Avengers/Thunderbolts #1:
The Thunderbolts have, it seems, become the kind of superhero team I would wanna be a part of. They stomp corrupt dictators senseless (without killing anyone, which is cool), destroy WMDs, garner public support ... they're handling business with surgical precision. The Avengers, honestly, looked jealous. Cap decides to be a buttinsky because of all the hassle Zemo has been for, what, the last seventy billion years. A fight is clearly coming, but the pacing here is deft and smart, the storytelling interesting (I liked Hawkeye here ... don't ask, I just couldn't pick up a part of "The Hard High Shaft" storyline in his own title), and I had a lot of fun with it. It missed the mark by a margin so small it's almost invisible, but there it is.

100 Bullets #49:
I got really confused and had to head to the shelves, because I clearly lost track of this title for a few months. This read like a chapter in a novel, which isn't bad, but somewhat less than a book I'll review in a second, it really didn't let me in at all. I miss Agent Graves.

Captain America #24:
This is really, really entertaining! I'm stunned to be saying that about a title and a character I've hated for years. Nick Fury, Steve Rogers and Fidel Castro, chillin' together. That's how crazy this gets. Cap almost throws Castro out a window into the ocean. Man! There's much more to this very textured and complicated story (I note in all books with "Captain America" in the title have him heading to or in Cuba), and I am enjoying it so much I really debated buying it, as I have all of Morales' issues. OTOH, I heard a rumor that he's already on the way out, which is kind of my luck with Marvel.

Nightwing #91:
Nightwing is angry. Okay. He beats up people. Right. His war with Blockbuster, which seems to have been going on for twelve hundred issues, is escalating towards some fever pitch. Uh huh. All I could think was, "I bet he'd be a lot calmer if Oracle hadn't dumped him."

Cerebus #300:
I had to read it. I just had to. I'd never gotten into Cerebus and my images of Dave Sim are mainly ideological -- the original GDI, DIY, take orders from no one guy -- and online -- the ranting, strident misogynist loon. Now, I never read anything to give me any of this info, this is all hearsay and scuttlebutt. But regardless, virtually 25 years worth of comics were coming to an end. I had to look. I picked up the issue, read it all the way through ... and didn't understand a bit of it. I found the "story" such as it was, wholly incomprehensible (to me, a new reader). It must make sense in a larger narrative body, but it had nothing for me, being late to the party. Going out with a whimper, I'd say.

El Cazador: Blackjack Tom #1:
Dull. Dreadfully dull. Like the old Classics comics we read as kids, with stories of Bluebeard or what have you. Blah.

Coup D'Etat Afterword:
The Wetworks story evoked no feeling from me at all, and the Sleeper story was okay, but still not impressive. I've never seen what the appeal of that series is, though, so I may just be missing out. A forgettable post script, in my mind, as it didn't bear much on the grander story (unlike the aforementioned Stormwatch one).

Way of the Rat #22
It was a funny, Po Po focused issue that surely didn't need 22 pages to tell. Still, the standard artwork and storytelling provide the standard amount -- slightly above average -- of entertainment. This would be a very low rung Buy Pile series in better economic times.

Ultimate X-Men #43:
Ultimate Emma Frost shows up (she's not a telepath, oh, and she shtupped the Professor in the past) to become one of the President's men, gathering her own team of "new mutants" for nothing more than marketing. No fights. No missions. No hunting down rogue or lost mutants. Allegedly. On her team? Hank McCoy (yep), Alex Summers, Dazzler and some other familiar names with new Ultimatized schemes. It's an interesting take on things, but is still quite slow and (as with most Ultimate books) surely takes the scenic route to get anywhere at all.

Fallen Angel #9:
A piece of the cross. Some slight hints at Angel's powers. Tough talk. A bit too The Passion for my tastes. This title has been all sizzle and no steak all through it's run, and this issue is no different. I should stop reading this.

4 #3:
My notes say "maudlin." Reed gets a job normally reserved for graduates of ITT or DeVry, Sue has coffee with Willie Lumpkin, and Johnny and Ben smack each other around. Also, a disturbing reappearance of Moon Knight on Marvel reality TV. This series makes me tired, because it really is beautifully depicted, but the premise is so staggeringly dumb that it infects every panel. The dialogue is okay, the art is amazing, the plot boggles the mind.

Scion #43:
I felt like I was watching the last scenes of a great adventure movie. The series is over, and I enjoyed it, even if the final war with the hidden kingdom of Tigris happened really, really too fast. It was like the film version of Starship Troopers -- okay, but not compelling. Still, I'm gonna miss Scion.

Green Arrow #36:
The Riddler does what he's best at -- distracting people -- but Edward Nigma is a supporting character here, not the show. The central figure is ... well, dull. It's a sadly common malady. The title character kind of scratches his head and grunts a lot. This could easily be better. Feh.

Iron Fist #1:
Good fight scenes. That's about all the praise I have for this dangerously decompressed, navel-gazing debut issue. It won't last long enough for Ray Park to hit the silver screens at this rate ...

JLA #94:
We're gonna party like it's 1989. This very silver-agey reteaming of Chris Claremont, John Byrne and Jerry Ordway on a story that feels ... well, the pacings will make fans of Crisis on Infinite Earths feel comfortable. Byrne's art is pretty much what you'd expect -- solid, unimposing, familiar. The inking followed suit. It's a comfortable old-school story that shouldn't make anybody angry. In that inoffensive, harmless style, I set it back on the shelves.

Powers #37:
The "historical" storyline is over ... and it happened in a way that I found surprising. I was entertained -- finally -- but it did seem like taking the really long scenic route to get there. Eh.

Promethea #29:
Had this not been so linked to numerous issues I did not buy, I'd have bought this issue. My good friends All Hell and Breaking Loose met once again, with virtually every ABC character making an appearance (the group shot felt a little forced, honestly), with art styles changing for altered states of perception (which I felt worked really well), with killer robots thinking patterned after a criminal called Painted Doll (think Joker meets Daredevil) discover what they are and decide to defy all brands of sense. There was so much to love, it was difficult to leave this one at the store. After reading it, I sat the issue down and said, "Wow." The retail monkey Adam (who I call nothing but little girl's names, like Dr. Cox does to JT on Scrubs) asked, "wow good or wow bad?" I replied, "I feel like Alan Moore broke into my house, got me drunk, schnackered me and left without waiting for me to wake up." "That's ... quite a visual, and good use of the verb 'to schnacker,'" he admitted. After a few minutes, I decided that I liked the feeling. I said, "Like Spider said, 'I may have gotten raped by a jar of clear vaseline, but I'm naked, and I know something happened.' I don't get that very often, so I'm gonna give that thumbs up." I'm fascinated to see how it all ends (as I understand it will, shortly).

She Hulk #1:
I was surprised to enjoy this. It did, as many people in my shop noted, feel very similar in tone to Ally McBeal (with less interesting supporting characters ... her "boyfriend" was so stereotyped I can't remember his name at all). It wasn't "funny" per se, in terms of, say, Formerly Known as Justice League, but it was amusing and had some action and had some good character bits. And, I was happy to see, some not-too-shabby lawyering (for a comic book, I mean, it's not even Law & Order). The factors that kept me from buying it, or recommending money being spent on it, is lackluster characterization on anybody who's not gamma powered and green (Cap and Hawkeye stood out ... Hawkeye in particular should have been defending her like crazy) and art that was goofy and serviceable, where I feel She-Hulk needs to have some stature. Worth watching, for a bit.

Action Comics #813:
The more I read this "Godfall" storyline (which I'm still gonna call "Kandor Strikes Back"), the more I miss the interesting Mr. Majestic stories that started out. The "antagonist" is a shell, a set of directions without ever forming a character. Supes' new supporting cast are equally cardboard. I have no emotional investment in what happens. At least it looks pretty (damn you Michael Turner! I kid, I kid ...).

Transformers Armada: More Than Meets The Eye #1:
I started reading this, and my eyes started glazing over before I finished the first entry. If they hadn't used G1 names, it may have been different, but that wasn't any Blurr I was interested in seeing, and so on, et cetera, blah blah. Regardless of my half-hearted desire to know more about a TF continuity that I'm ignorant of, I'll stick to the web if I really need to find something.

Toyfare #81:
This issue wasn't very funny. The main reason I read this magazine is the captions in the end and "Twisted Toyfare Theatre" (the bit with the frozen frames of Beast Wars was good). It was okay. It has some tolerable coverage of the G.I. Joe movie, but it was just expanded bits of news I've reported over on my Comicbookresources.com column. I wasn't motivated to buy it.

Read Pile Roundup: Several "almost good enough" books, only one really stupid one (which still had great moments), it was a long week of reading but not a bad one.

So, How Was It This Week? A week of issues that tips the needle past "okay" into "good."

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