Captain America & Falcon #7:
I'm not sure which parts of Cap's panels are hallucinations, and neither is he. Which is a bit jarring, but also kind of entertaining -- a Priest book has to have some kind of curve ball. Priest's Falcon, however, is really impressive (""Say we flip for it. I'll even give you my strap. If you can stop me from killing you, it's your house." Fantastic). I also love how the Falcon is now so confident around Cap, no longer the fawning sidekick but a man in his own right and forcing Cap to make hard decisions and walk the talk. With more realistic chatter than Bendis ("Wanda who? She got a sister -- wait -- Wanda? Wanda Wanda? Scarlet Witch Wanda? Vision's ex-wife Wanda? Magneto's daughter Wanda?" "That's the one." "You really have lost your mind" and the coup de grace "I just figured out something about you -- you stink at problems you can't solve with your fists.") Add a last-page reveal that could make fanboys squeal with delight, and you've got a really well done issue, with Joe Bennett doing all-star work on pencils, Jack Jadson carefully embellishing on inks and Transparency Digital swinging for the fences on colors.

Invincible #15:
The week was so light, I jumped this issue from the Read Pile just to raise my dollar total and not have the store's owner Steve look at me funny. I'm so glad I did -- easily the best issue I read all week (and possibly more). Tons of stuff happens, with action and comedy and teen drama all mixed together with flawless pacing and masterful confidence. Best of all, there's a continuity tie in with the first issue of Superpatriot that's so brilliant it made my heart sing. I've seen Kirkman do less-than-compelling work, and I'm glad this is the book he saves his "a" game for. Brilliant goofy superhero fun which I can enjoy as an adult but easily could be enjoyed by anybody, even if they've never read this series before. A real accomplishment, and funny to boot ("I ain't waiting around for this ..." man, that's good stuff).

Y: The Last Man #26:
In a series of quick cut edits that'd make an MTV producer proud, we find out how Yorick's sister shadowed him across the nation and ended up, haunted by her Amazon experience and cozying up with a Russian soldier and clone farmers in the middle of nowhere, two steps behind her brother. I appreciate the speed with which this was done, but given the series' normal pace, it felt a bit jarring on first read. Still, a good issue.

Buy Pile Breakdown: Despite being surprised that Vaughan switched into sixth gear on Y, a damned fine group of purchases, I must say.

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

Swamp Thing #7:
"The World's Most Dangerous Game" is remixed (Marvel's latest trend, not worth following, mixing existing ideas with comic properties), and Corben's art is not well suited for this (I don't think I even like his art, although his Hellblazer prison story seemed right for him).

Avengers #501:
Talk talk talk. After the wham-bang of last issue, maybe that's an attempt at balance, but I just can't tell. I especially liked it when the team failed to stand by one of their own, which was a total d*ck move (maybe Avengers/Thunderbolts wasn't so out of character after all) and the scene with Hank in the hospital room was almost moving.

Birds of Prey #73:
The two-fold storyline sputters, and I found Babs' final "victory" wholly unbelievable (and it made the overall antagonist seem even lamer than he normally does). I was pleasantly surprised to see Geo-Force (does he even still run Markovia?) and Agent Liberty, but I like pointless cameos. Plus, when's Ed Benes coming back? The art was highly lackluster, combined with less-than-inspired, drab coloring.

Alpha Flight #7:
Again, too slow by a factor of two, the jokes fall dead. I'm shocked to say that the interaction between Major Mapleleaf and his newfound love interest makes the most well done parts of the issue (well, okay, I like the art and coloring a lot). Talky, though, and still missing its comedic marks by considerable margins.

Batman/Catwoman: Trail of the Gun #2:
Gah. Catwoman is made a whiny wuss (literally devolved into a mewling child for one POV panel), robbing her of all the graceful cool of the Brubaker series, has a goofy ending (fat people, it appears, are able to absorb bullets in large numbers) and still comes off preachy (though 22 percent less so than the first issue). A real failure, almost on the level of Batman: City of Light.

Bullseye: Greatest Hits #1:
Taking visual clues from Colin Farrell, two feds take a walk down memory lane with Marvel's most accurate villain. Daniel Way and Steve Dillon provide a tense try at a thriller psychodrama-cum-origin story (what is it with origin stories this week? I rant on that later on ...), but it's pacing seems a little padded and its shocks a little muted. Honestly? I'd have preferred Dillon on an issue of Way's Gun Theory.

Detective #798:
Batman runs from fire to fire as the gang war heats up, and he has no idea why it's happening (even though it's really his plan in action, and Catwoman already knew, what, last week?). What I found even more funny is that contingency plans lying around on Batman's computer have almost killed the JLA (back in JLA: Tower of Babel) and now again in this crossover. For the love of god, Bruce, get a freakin' Mac with a firewall and a password less predictable than "boywonder!" Anyhoo, this issue was just busy work for the Bats, so I kind of wasted my time reading it as it has no life outside of the crossover.

Elektra: The Hand #1:
Continuing the spate of prequel madness, in order to learn how to drag people back from the dead (apparently something they do at staff meetings for the Hand's junior execs), Elektra is subjected to the story of the criminal organization's founder (and so are you ... okay, well, I am, you just get to read a review about it). Seems the hard luck son of a forgotten samurai and a dishonored wife-turned-prostitute ends up following the way of the sword, and blah blah blah. Of course he never gets over the system shafting his mom, of course he turns into a major badass. I don't have a problem with authoritative histories for key elements of the Marvel Universe, I just think they belong in Official Handbooks, not dry mini-series. Maybe that's just me.

Firestorm #5:
Meeting Superman gives our new Firestorm the willies, and we get some more good fleshing out of his father as a character. He doesn't handle his first real superhero bad guy take down very well, but he had the good sense to call for help, which was all right. I'm liking the general feel of this, but I don't see the real shine of the book coming through like I did when I bought issue #2. The texture is there, the action is there, but the balance isn't. It's awfully close, though.

Hulk & Thing #1:
A very cute male bonding story where Dr. Phil meets clobberin' time. Why the Thing would hunt down Banner for a sit-down with the new Bruce Jones smart Hulk, I dunno, but it makes for some good dialogue. I thought Jae Lee's art was wrong for this (I actually would have liked 'Ringo, or McGuinness, or someone with that kind of exaggerated style), but his camera angles and panel selections worked, even if his details didn't. Cute, but nothing I'd need. And, unless this goes on a while, I'm not sure why it's not just being done in the regular series.

Justice League Elite #3:
Continuing down the road intended for The Monarchy (and thats a good thing), the JLElite makes moves for real solutions (and yes, that gets messy) while doing Stormwatch Black proud (even though Vera blows her cover, but recovers pretty well). If this book had the sense of whimsy, realizing that these people wear pajamas and hit people, it would be a Buy Pile all star. As it is, it takes itself just a hair too seriously (especially with Ollie and Wally on the same team, and Coldcast seems to be getting some jokes in) and it's still knocking on heaven's door.

Gambit #1:
Boob flashing for beads, so you know the Cajun has come to the Big Easy on another busy work X-Universe spinoff (there seem to be a lot of these books ... Old Marvel is back, we've always been at war with Eurasia ...). There's the requisite beautiful woman. There's the requisite angry rival. There's the requisite goofy banter from the lead. Best of all, Remy all but admits he only does the hero thing to keep him from being bored with his criminal enterprises. That realization was the sole interesting part of the issue, as the art was merely okay.

Majestic #2:
I got a horrible vision, after a playground exchange early in this issue, of millions of innocent (or maybe not so innocent) borders and tenants all over the DCU having meddling kids poking at their carefully guarded lives. That said, Majestic plays normal and gets in touch with the little people, wholly abandoning his pet project of getting home to the Wildstorm Universe and, oh yeah, the dangerous and possibly psychotic Kryptonian android that's wanted him dead since it laid eyes on him (why is this thing runnning loose? Superman should get a criminal negligence charge, especially after Donna Troy got whacked by one of his leftover toys). In any case, very little happens here and given that this is a mini, that seems a waste of space, even with some nicely textured characterization on Majestic.

Thor #84:
Using wholly vague means, Thor regains the Odinpower and becomes more impressive than ever before, which of course gives him a goofy idea to buck fate and defy the role laid out before him. Apparently, his time as Don Blake (and theoretically Jake Olsen, but who wants to remember that?) has given him a unique ability to duck predestination, but I don't really understand why. The tone and dialogue all feel perfect again (well, save Loki kind of clowning Thor in terms very close to my own ... I half expected the Trickster to make like Cedric the Entertainer at the end of Barbershop 2 and be like, "whuuuuuuuuuut are ya gonna do about it?"), but I don't really get some of what happened, and I don't really care that I don't get it (which is probably worse).

Thundercats: Enemy's Pride #4:
There's a story element here so goofy that I'd have thrown the book away from me if it wasn't the Thundercats, who are pretty goofy in general. There's a cute visual reference to Tiananmen Square with a Thundertank and what looks like a Ro-Bear Berbil, and an obscure villainess gets a moment in the sun (and nobody would even suspect her if she didn't talk to herself so loudly). I can see the status quo bearing down on me like a runaway train, but Layman is making the trip there mildly entertaining. I'm gonna be honest -- I liked this better when I seriously thought Lion-O had gone Republican. At least that felt honest, like Ultimate Captain America.

Jubilee #1:
My notes say, "Sweet Valley Mutant," as Jubes moves back to Southern California (North Beach? The OC Marvel sure knows how to watch TV), befriends a girl who's only dorky because she wears glasses (she otherwise looks like everybody else in the school), and generally plays badass amongst people who haven't been fighting for their lives the last few years. There's an interesting bit with Jubilee's aunt, who graciously let the girl live with her, that I was immediately drawn to (read: there's a gun involved) but it got dangerously short shrift. Barely worth watching, but still, better than that "young Aunt May" crap or ... well, I said I was gonna stop kicking Identity Disc (like that'll last ...)

Phantom Jack #5:
Jack, Saddam Hussein and a gun have a meeting that's both too spoilerish and too funny to go into here, but it's a surprisingly anticlimactic finale to the Epic escapee which started out so strong. I really liked the page with the fadeaway kiss (very nicely conceived and executed), and found the jingoistic speech at the end a bit empty (there's an episode of The Practice which uses the very same conceit, also calling it "the speech" that leapt to mind). Going out with a whimper, for the most part.

Starjammers #4:
I don't think that the central conceit of this issue, the arguable protagonist switching sides, is much of a spoiler or a surprise. "What? The hegemonic empire I devoted my life to is secretly genocidal and secretly getting high on the embryos of a sentient species?" Any large, expansionist government without a staggeringly effective spiritual base is probably corrupt. Expansionism breeds that. Any cursory look at the history of ... well, anybody would show that, I'd guess. That said, I again am only finding this issue, and this title as a whole, vaguely entertaining (which is still better than, say, Identity Disc, possibly my biggest irritant this year).

Read Pile Roundup: The troll-like retail monkey Adam (who I still call exclusively by little girls' names) said it best: "Some weeks I can tell, you'e just turning the pages and sloughing through it. This was one of those weeks." Well said, Jennifer.

So, How Was It This Week? While being really happy at how I spent my money, I wish I'd have skipped the Read Pile and made my fantastic first date an hour earlier, as it was surely more entertaining.

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