She-Hulk #8:
First of all, I am deeply entertained by this issue. Which is made even more great by the fact I've been deeply entertaihned by every issue of this series so far, which is mind boggling and almost certainly means this title is doomed. But we're getting ahead of ourselves -- in this issue, the She-Hulk, freshly minted cosmic jurist, has been brought in to "argue" for the people of the brutal planet Skardon. This means going up against the beyond-cosmically-powered Tryco Slatterus, better known as the Champion of the Universe. Now, he isn't the title character, and She-Hulk is, so that should give you a clue as to how things will play out. I'll admit that I wasn't too thrilled about Juan Bobillo's cartoony art on the likes of Beta Ray Bill, Drax the Destroyer, The Thing or even the Champion himself, but every other moment he handled excellently. Dan Slott really has a great grasp on the characters here and balances the earthbound action with the character development and plotting perfectly. An excellent issue for an excellent series.

Justice League Elite #4:
Jump from the Read Pile. I've been a fan of Joe Kelly ever since he time-teleported Wade Wilson back to the sixties to stand in for Peter Parker, but his challenging material on this title has been succeeding on so many levels that it finally won me over. Here's how: when I originally read about The Monarchy (stop laughing), promising a surgical approach to the widescreen theatrics of the Authority, this is what they meant. In-the-trenches, down-and-dirty, insert-cliche-here action between dangerously powerful extrahumans (note: I want more Coldcast, and I want more Coldcast now) dealing with the dirty business of saving lives and fixing things that can't be handled by heroes running around fighting interstellar starfish. In this issue, the tension over how a corrupt head of state ended up whacked brings pressure to a boil, as Wally West has a hard time walking the line (he pulls double duty on both the "A" team and this "Stormwatch Black"-esque squad). Marital woes, unresolved family business, and the beer fairy all play a role as the team members deal with the crisis in their own ways, before the biggest heroes around come down from Olympus to demand some hard answers. A fascinating issue, even though the only thing that got punched was a brick chimney. I'm on board.

Grendel: Devil's Reign #7:
The docu-drama continues chronicling the rise of Orion Assante to emperor of the world. Knowing how it all ends gives this prequel an almost whimsical feel, enhanced by the sarcastic tone of the narration. Orion's global empire starts to veer out of control with a charismatic and headstrong field marshal chomping for conflict and emotional turmoil at home. Meanwhile, his vampiric nemesis Pellon Cross plots in a jagged backup story that fills in the holes between panels of the main story. Masterfully plotted, brilliantly depicted and written and another solid brick in the edifice that is Matt Wagner's genius.

Bullseye Greatest Hits #2:
Jump from the Read Pile. I like Daniel Way's writing, I love Steve Dillon's art (despite the similarity of many of the characters' faces, he is capable of conveying an intimacy that's just remarkable), and I enjoyed the first issue, but I let this one make the jump partially on the recommendation of my retailer Steve and partially because of the gleeful mean-spiritedness of this look inside Bullseye's mind (half way through, I wondered if it was all a Keyser Soze-styled scam, to keep the Feds busy while some plan developed behind the scenes). With loose nuke parts in an Idaho park and missing fissionable materials, it's a tense potboiler depicted with loving care and grim humor. Nobody can make a close-up resonate like Dillon, and the quiet moments in this issue make the loud ones (the shooting range, the baseball game) all the more horrific. Fascinating work.

Astro City Visitor's Guide:
It's no secret that I adore the Secret Files & Origins format that brought back the Official Handbook to the Marvel Universe, and having this fairly authoritative look into the history and facts of Astro City is just a godsend for me, a latter-day adopter of the property. The lead story, using a letter as a framing device, is both informative and entertaining, while the guest-artist laden pin-up/profile section (featuring excellent work by Darwyn Cooke, Michael Golden, Howard Chaykin, Gene Ha and Jackson Guice) is short on hard facts (no power levels, no comparative scales, no numbers) but a good introduction to the characters, many of whom were completely new to me (yeah, I'm late, sue me). A very good purchase, even for $5.95

Fables #30:
Snow White and Bigby Wolf are proud parents ... but when you see their progeny, it could be something of a surprise. The election goes through (with Willingham avoiding making any overt comparisons to "real life"), and there did seem to be an error on page 15 where Snow White is cut off in mid sentence without any indication of what she was saying. Could be an error in my copy, no telling. Anyway, Willingham manages to balance a ton of subplots, jockeying for panel time, with great deftness (although I'm not so sure I'd be able to keep up if I hadn't read every single issue, especially recent ones) and Buckingham and Leialoha slid back into action like they'd never missed a page. A fun read, breezy but substantial.

Rex Mundi #12:
As long as Rex Mundi is around, footnotes will never die in comics. All kinds of disparate threads come together in a wildly revelatory issue, with the introduction of fan favorite Brother Matthew from the web-serial, who comes bearing answers and connecting facts that previously were obscured, including the name of the series itself. Riveting, fascinating historical fiction, and for existing fans, this is a must-have issue for the deluge of answers it delivers.

Buy Pile Breakdown: A bit pricey, but worth every cent.

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

Gotham Central #24:
A pat, almost trite ending to a very procedural story. I enjoy the character interplay, like a less-than-compelling case on Law & Order I was able to enjoy it without really being fully engaged. Not bad, but not stellar.

X-Men: The End #4:
There's a big fight scene at the center of this issue which serves as its narrative core ... and it's not very clear. Assailants appear from virtually nowhere, motivations are paper thin ... blah. Some fairly big characters bit the dust (it is supposed to be the "last" X-Men story), but the plot is so all-over-the-map that it's hard to care. This deep in, I think a bigger body count would make this a better read (since we're getting there anyway).

Nightwing #98:
This issue continues the central flaw in the whole "War Games" crossover -- that Batman is either so distracted or so stupid that he simply hasn't noticed some very important things ... like Blockbuster's "suspicious" death a few issues ago. Then, to have Nightwing -- one of the finest hand-to-hand combatants in the DC Universe -- need several minutes to fistfight with a guy carrying a bulky flamethrower and wearing huge stiff non-flying wings. Add in GCPD's largely corrupt police force shooting at everybody in a mask ... it's embarrasing for the whole Bat-family. Devin Grayson didn't drive this issue off the rails by herself, but she was surely at the wheel.

X-Force #3:
When a Rob Liefeld-fueled issue of X-Force (god, I used "-fueled" as an adjective, my CBR Column is starting to get to me ...) is qualitatively better than a Geoff Johns issue of JSA, there's trouble in River City. The classical internecine hero fight can't distract from a first-page panel which looked like it was created at 72 dots-per-inch and hastily brought in for printing. Poor production values aside, this issue was wholly innocuous, and could have taken place in 1994 with none of us being any the wiser. Too unimportant to be bad, too lame to be interesting, it's in the dead zone and appealing only to people who miss the halcyon days of the early to mid '90s. For a better Fabian Nicieza book, check for Cable/Deadpool or the resurgent Thunderbolts.

Challengers of the Unknown #5:
No, I didn't like this issue, but I liked it better than any of the previous ones and I figured out something cool. Flying in the face of trends, this mini has been an experiment in "re-compression," rejecting the padded TPB-minded plotting of modern comics by shoving as much raw data into every square inch of panel space as possible, regardless of coherency. So that's cool. But I think I've read one too many Bendis-speak issues to be mentally ready for it -- perhaps it will read better in a collected version.

Ultimate X-Men #32:
Well, somebody was reading Joe Casey's WildCATs 3.0 because the Fenris Corporation smacks of Halo, down to the bosses ability to get down and dirty. I liked the idea of such a wild-card party loose in the Ultimate-verse, but when Rogue and Gambit made boobs of Andrea and Andreas, they returned to being the also-rans they always were. Amazingly pretty work, though, with the inner halls of Fenris stark and undistinguished against the sharpness of the characters.

Fallen Angel #16:
Eding closer to a jump, this issue balanced a long-ago backstory with modern action and developments quite well. There's a surprise near the end which took me a couple of reads to understand, but the confrontation between Doctor Juris and Lee at the end of this issue was really a winner. Developing ...

Starjammers #5:
The story is sl-ooo-wwly building momentum as a garden-variety atrocity (and it's sad that an atrocity can be commonplace in its scope and execution, but that's western entertainment for you) inspiring the idealistic, cookie-cutter protagonist to ... something. It's nothing special.

G.I. Joe/Transformers #2:
Speaking of nothing special, this largely pointless exercise in drawing Transformers in historical modes. There was a cute character moment of grudging respect between the Baroness and Roadblock, but in that this is an expanded Elseworlds experiment, it's pretty pointless. Cute art, with bright flashy coloring, but for a fan of both properties it felt like sound and fury signifying nothing.

District X #6:
The opening storyline ended with a rush (that seems de rigueur for too many comics recently, I feel). Cops act emotionally instead of doing their job, a kind of "deus ex machina" force comes in at the eleventh hour and moves the plot along, and this complicated look at a subculture in the Marvel universe oversimplifies this issue.

Green Arrow #43:
Danny Brickwell appears to be the single smartest supervillain in the entire DC universe. By using wholly conventional means (the title character is reluctant to ask for help and has no real super powers or enhanced durability) Brick punks the entire populace of Star City and has virtual carte blanche to do whatever he wants. The father-and-son Green Arrows are left dumbfounded as a "thug" out-thinks and outmanuevers them in every possible way. I loved it. However, that'll all get overshadowed by the (now) nationally-reported revelation about "sidekick" Mia, which has a little bit of an emotional pull on me but kind of goes in my "life's tough" file.

Iron Man #89:
The closing pages of this issue constituted the stupidest insult to the collective intelligence of comics fans that I have seen in years. It's so stupid, I won't spoil it, but it really offended me with its immensity. It's like erasing Superman's identity from Lex Luthor's mind ... oh, wait, that happened. Okay, it's like Captain America being surprised when people attack him at home, like he didn't reveal his identity ... damn, that happened too. Well, look, it's dumb, and it irked me, so let's move on.

JSA #66:
I vaguely remember when I would put this title on the Buy Pile sight unseen. Alas ... in a whiny, "no, let me sacrifice myself to save the universe/ no let me sacrifice myself to save the universe" back-and-forth ending up closing down shop on a wildly unmanageable character ... I almost would have preferred to be told about what happened here in a caption. Blah.

Marvel Knights Spider-Man #7:
Guilting Spidey was a fun bit, uncomfortable for him and delicious for me as a reader. There's another "oh no, my secret identity" bit, and Mary Jane acts as though she doesn't know mountains of things about Peter's past (she talks him into going to his high school reunion, how could that be a good idea?) and overall this makes Peter look a lot stupider than I'm used to him being ... and I don't even like the character. Ah well.

Savage Dragon 118:
The Dragon gets dragged on the campaign trail, but not after some senseless violence and worrying his wife senseless. The Mighty Man backup was really lackluster, but the front feature was pure Silver Age fun, as most issues are. If that's your thing, you'll love it.

Secret War #3:
First of all, the art on this issue is really remarkable. Coloring is super dark, which was a less-than-inspired choice, but the art itself is great. The Bobby Ewing-style plot confused me (why do some know and some not know?) but I liked the backup data. It still didn't feel like enough story for the price nor the wait, but it's something.

Street Fighter #10:
I am surprised to report that this title is really hitting a stride, and could become a Buy Pile book if it keeps this up another month or so. The huge cast of characters is managed smartly, the art is reminiscent of the game while allowing more detail (the Andy Seto-drawn backup was really great), and fun in the confectionary-kind of way I used to enjoy Birds of Prey when Gail Simone took over. Great stuff.

Action Comics #820:
An empty, predictable issue with a cookie-cutter super villainess that Supes should be able to take in five seconds if he thinks it through. But he doesn't. Which makes the whole issue a kind of dud.

Uncanny X-Men #450:
Speaking of duds, Claremont slowly introduces X-23 (who most people will know from the Evolution cartoon) from hearsay and second-hand stories, giving Wolvie a fun little surprise on the last page (a poster-worthy image, I'd say). Boring.

Tom Strong #29:
Ed Brubaker breaks down Tom Strong, and I dunno what I think about that. It's not a bad read, but it's not a really compelling one for the larger-than-life character.

Ultimate Nightmare #3:
My favorite bit is how much of a bad-ass Ultimate Falcon is. My least favorite bit is how badly prepared both teams are (the Ultimate X-Men didn't even bring a flashlight) as they dive into Cold War leftovers and what appeared to be Ultimate Crimson Dynamo and Ultimate Unicorn's lair (Ultimate Darkstar coming soon?). Slow, but still made interesting by Ellis' command of the craft and serviceable artwork.

Ultra #3:
A very intimate story with no shows of power of punching. The problem is that I am enjoying the dialogue without understanding the characters -- plug in any powerless male and any powered female and it reads about the same. I am not seeing these two as individuals yet, and for such an up-close-and-personal approach, that's a death knell.

Warlock #2:
The Power of Shazam called, it wants its redesign back. That said, I have no idea where this is going, in the bad "modern Silver Surfer" way, not the good "Peter David Captain Marvel Volume 2" way. Imagine the Weapon X program in the Wildstorm universe, and it'd look something like this. But probably more fun, if that were the case. A confused utopian fascist superhero, okay.

Read Pile Roundup: Barely peeking over the rim of adequacy.

So, How Was It This Week? A middling thumbs up overall.

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