Grendel: Devil's Reign #3:
I'm a regular buyer of this series, but I don't know that I would recommend it for anybody else. I am a real fan of the whole concept of Grendel, a nigh-immortal chaos spirit that can and does win in the end -- but this story is really fairly insular regarding the series. If you don't know what's going on, or at least have a willingness to do some considerable research catching up, I can't see any normal person getting into this issue. In a kind of dry, corporate way, Orion Assante takes over North America. That's basically this issue, and a cute after-story about the dirty work. But for me, it's a gem, a wonderful look into the relative "good" bad guys winning over even worse guys. I'm in favor of this, but it may be an idiosyncratic, acquired taste.

Fables #28:
Why would Fables get involved in World War II? Well, the answer is smarter than I expected, and lets Bill Willingham's brilliant sense of humor set up a really good gag. I found Tony Akins' pencils a bit indistinct on faces -- up close, I had a hard time distinguising the members of his Dog Company -- despite some really good depictions of them in specific panels. I loved the expanded characterization on Bigby Wolf, who's taking over this series one sly comment and one murder at a time. I'm riveted to see what's happening next, and considering that the very idea of Nazis bore me to tears, that's a huge testament to WIllingham's skill as a writer. Bravo!

Invincible #14:
I was happy enough to get this when my old co-worker Eric Stephenson at Image Comics dropped it in the mail to me, and I picked it up to show how happy I was with it. I've been meaning to jump on board this title for a while anyway. Robert Kirkman's teen angst is among the best in the business (and a new character, instead of walking in old footsteps) and the actual action also works well, with the angular art conveying it in a way I find pleasing. Best of all, and at the core of this issue's success, is the big emotional reveal, bringing Mark's mom into sharp focus, which leads to the illest bit of self-delusion I've seen since I was married. Really fine work, and getting better (more even pacing, smarter handling of nuance) every issue.

Buy Pile Breakdown: Two out of three recommendations ain't bad.

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

Powers #3:
This issue was merely "all right." There was some decent dialogue, there was some decent development in the overarching plot, but it seemed to be kind of running in place, you know? Ah well.

Authority #14:
A wussy and overwrought tale of Jack Hawksmoor. There's a short story where he "runs" from city to city, which serves the same purpose and does it in a much more entertaining fashion. Blech.

Punisher #10:
Sufficiently gritty enough, but I just find something wrong with the seemingly facile use of racial slurs by white writers. Yes, it was in character, yes, it made sense in the narrative. I don't have to buy it, however.

Gotham Central #22:
I don't watch Law & Order; Special Victims Unit because I find its subject matter often creepy (victims of sexual crimes, which I find unacceptable and illogical in every possible way, just make me too sad to deal with). Likewise, I often consider its endings unsatisfactory. This issue of Gotham Central reminded me of that. The character interplay between detectives worked fine for me, the plot was resolved in a logical and fairly interesting fashion ... I just didn't connect with it. It seemed a pyrrhic victory. Rucka's back next issue, let's see if that gets me back on board.

Avengers/Thunderbolts #6:
The Avengers have been uniformly stupid in every possible frame of this mini series, and the Thunderbolts have been universally smarter. For some reason this bothers me. I've never been short of reasons to hate Captain America, but this issue -- where he almost blows up the whole freakin' world because he'd rather punch than think (jackass), a lot of yammering goes back and forth for precious little action. I'm happy to see the 'bolts headed back to comic stands in a new series, but I just had a less-than-satisfied feeling about this issue and the mini as a whole.

Nightwing #96:
When I got to the store, every copy of this issue was polybagged with some game CD. Unwilling to damage a saleable product, I left it unread. Sorry Tarantula!

Alpha Flight #6:
I've read two reviews on this issue, and they had the same word I used in my notes on this issue: "anticlimactic." The Plodex had been built up as a specie that'd make the Khunds shiver in their armor, a race that made the Klingons look cuddly by comparison. Suffice it to say I did not get the smackdown I expected. Plus, the larger sin in my mind, the jokes were less than inspired and just not funny. Blah.

Bloodhound #2:
I read this issue and still didn't write a single word. Somehow this series is not capturing my attention.

Captain America #30:
I saw the cover, and screamed aloud, "Batroc zee Leepair!" Then I almost fell down laughing. Any issue with Batroc is guaranteed to be good for something. I'm still enjoying Kirkman's approach to Captain America, which is to kind of have him never know exactly what is going on and start to spontaneously whack the hell out of people with his shield. That's fun, and Kirkman knows it. The book has a kind of freewheeling sense to it that I don't ever remember seeing (but admittedly, I haven't read a whopping amount of Captain America) which is pretty entertaining. I have no beef with the issue itself, a good read on a character that I just don't fundamentally like.

Challengers of the Unknown #3
The first thought in my mind was, "wow, every single panel is so freakin' busy." There's a kind of information density here that's a little off putting. The basic story, rife with coincidences, was a bit simplistic -- shooting, then running, then shooting -- for the overwhelming amount of visual data conveyed in every panel. I mean, small things were super important to a meta-plot, but it was a bit of a climb to keep up. Which is good for fans of that. It overwhelmed me a hair, but I was a bit frazzled to start this week.

G.I. Joe Reloaded #6:
As noted in the Newsarama previews, Cobra takes over Hawaii. This is a fine, fine idea, and another poster on that site noted, "why isn't it happening in the main book?" That ideological conceit aside, the more serious tone of Reloaded fits this mathematically precise invasion quite well, as the whimsical tone of Hama's series fit the goofy dog-kicking invasion of a mid-west town. The militia-terrorist-McVeigh styled Cobra is refreshing in a way. This bold stroke has the series, which was languishing, on an upswing. Can Cobra hold the island? How will normal people get pineapples? Will they have Cobra insignia on them? I'll be making sure I find out.

Green Arrow #41:
The Blockbuster Book of Gangland Management must have gotten shipped outside of Bludhaven, because a Star City meta-criminal named Brick (who, strangely enough, looks a lot like Blockbuster) is doing the exact same plays. This is good for reading and bad for Green Arrow, as the fact he's still alive is a testament to how little seriousness there is in the criminals he's faced. He's one guy with a bow and some trick arrows. The old Spinnerrack site had a great column on how insanely suicidal this is. Brick appreciates this and attacks Ollie in, well, the way I would. This is entertaining.

The Hire #1:
Matt Wagner brings another "one night stand" comic -- a simple story laid out quickly that hits the marks and gets finished. It's like having a beautiful stranger get you drunk, take you back to your place, schnacker you thoroughly, and leave before you wake up without a sign they were ever there short of a used condom on the floor. Wagner takes the slickness of the BMW commercials that inspired this mini and funnels it effortlessly into a send up of Paris Hilton and celebrity culture in general, while inserting a healthy amount of action (well depicted) and laughs. Interesting work.

Identity Crisis #3:
Thus far, each issue of this series has posited one really huge kind of issue (this is no real spoiler by this point): murder in the first issue, rape in the second, and now multiple radical lobotomies with tacit consent by the biggest names in the DCU. I just don't know how Meltzer (am I spelling that right? Mmm ...) can keep upping the ante. What's next? Sodomizing the Greek gods, after hours at the UN? Yowza. Anyway, Deathstroke shows why he's so feared (he smacked down the Atom with a laser pointer, people), a lot of beatdown takes place in a fairly small space (space wise, not page wise) and Ollie tells Wally some things a lot of people would probably rather not hear. The Silver Age gets a nice coat of tarnish, and the whimsical stories of the past suddenly seem more icky and creepy. That's a good and bad thing. Your mileage, as always, may vary.

Identity Disc #3
The good part here is the sniping at one another the villains do. The boring part is the by-the-numbers robbery caper plot. The latter overwhelms the former. Crappy.

Iron Man #87:
Didn't I read the main plot of this issue in Quesada's run? Or earlier? Anyway, Tony's armor is going berserk. Again. Lots of people are catching the hammer in the process, while Tony sensory deps himself and tries to figure out why he loc'ed up at the UN. They replaced Jackson for this? Blah.

JLA #103:
In another "running in place" issue, Green Lantern almost cracks up and gets a dose of the advice he gave Superman two issues ago. Boring and crappy.

District X #4:
Finally picking up the pace, if Brubaker's Gotham Central is Law & Order: SVU then District X finally took on the load as the main series. I liked the character interplay, Bishop as a wizened cop felt really right, and it was a good step in the right direction, inches away from "getting there."

Legion #37:
Gail Simone writes some good Legion. In an issue with a lot of close up shots, Gail Simone puts the Legion through their paces in a struggle that stretches the team out and ... well, I won't spoil it, but there's some real pleasant surprises. I liked the bits with Karate Kid (who really shows some spunk) and the cast of all-new villains are shaping up to be fairly interesting characters. "Why not buy it?" Silly, it's the Legion -- there's a Mark Waid-powered reboot coming at the end of this storyline. I'll check in with my dollars then.

Masters of the Universe #3:
In an issue long origin story, the new villain (and father to Evil-Lyn) is introduced. He's boring. What's interesting is that he served on a council of powerful types who I've never heard of and who appear to be similar in level to the Sorceress of Grayskull. WTH? You can't just drop a tidbit like that and not, I dunno, update the website with supplementary data. The actual story -- fallen to protect his daughter, blah blah blah ... yeah, okay.

JSA #64:
Sand is back. Why? Nobody in the JSA can stay dead, they have a freakin' revolving door out of the great hereafter. Anyway, this was another "pacing in place" issue, and as a whole, any issue where the main action involves protagonists falling asleep is already off to a bad start. This series has so gone GP on us.

Small Gods #2:
Losing just a half step from last issue, there's some muddling in the plot here, where the flow of scenes is less than together. It's still good, but I was less pissed about not buying the first issue.

Action Comics #818:
Superman catches the beatdown. Forget story -- everything that actually caused any of this happened last issue, and doesn't matter. Superman is at less-than-peak performing capacity. This inspires a lot of third rate types to want to kill him. That happens. It's a good old school Superman issue with lots of senseless violence and not much of a plot. I kind of liked it, even though many will be displeased at it being written by Chuck Austen.

X-Force #1:
Rob Liefeld is back. That's a problem for some people, but I don't care. There's some realy funny dialogue near the end here, which we can thank your boy Fabian Nicieza for, which actually makes this thin and barely logical material kind of cool in a campy way. I have no beef with this issue when I read, say, Masters of the Universe or Authority or even Identity Disc.

Teen Titans #14:
The best bit in this issue was a scene between the erstwhile Robin and the current Superboy. It's a well-done moment of characterization between the two of 'em, and I liked it. The Beast Kids Gone Wild plot was merely okay (and I found the last page wildly predictable and dumb to boot). Blech.

Toyfare #86:
Twisted Toyfare Theatre should be a freakin' monthly periodical by itself and three times its current size. Ditto Slideshow. I just needed to say that.

Read Pile Roundup: It seemed like a slightly uphill climb reading issues this week, but it wasn't that bad, despite some real stinkers.

So, How Was It This Week? Eh.

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