Madrox #4:
Wow. First of all, the person in this comic book most in need of help is Jamie Madrox himself. Because his powers have now begun to create wildly idiosyncratic duplicates of himself -- as noted at the end of last issue -- he now has no idea what will happen with them, and is so distracted by trying to rein the random dupes in, he misses several really important clues about what's happening. Fascinating character work in this issue, with suitably noirish artwork from Pablo Raimondi. I loved the "new lessons" Jamie has learned about his power, I was suitably surprised by the last page reveal (nice work) and I find the inter-dupe bickering (always a factor, but now really wacky) refreshing. One of the best regular series on the stands, no question.

Justice League Elite #6:
Speaking of reveals, one of the members of the JL Elite has a secret that's so juicy, so smart, so fitting for what we've seen in the last few months ... it just made me gasp when I saw it. Like the sort of really brilliant idea a fan comes up with and wishes they'd have written, but it's really in the book (credit to Kelly for this brainstorm and very unannounced guest appearance). The very unusual drug cartel called Aftermath (no, Dr. Dre is not involved) sets up the undercover Elite to confront the JSA, and all brands of wackiness ensues. The tension between characters leaps off the page, and Manhke's sometimes exaggerated artwork is settling into a really nice rhythm. Every month, I see where the Monarchy failed, as it should have been like this. Great stuff.

Cable/Deadpool #10:
While I liked this issue (the recap page is one of the best things I see every month, so funny and so brilliant), thgere are a number of logic-based issues that just have not been properly explained by Mssr. Nicieza in the script, and they make me sad. First of all, the problem of the Silver Surfer himself. Now, unless we decide that entire kidnapping series that just got cancelled is not in continuity at all (which may be best), Surfer should not be here, and certainly not available for assignment. Who called him? How? Why would he pick this fight, in contrast to any of the other big toss ups we see every month or so? It makes me crazy, despite a great quote from Norrin ("I see your passion. Passion begets hunger. Hunger devours worlds. I will never allow another world to fall." Really, where was this guy when Galactus showed up again in Waid's FF? Sorry, I digress ...). Then there's the ending ... an anticlimax of the first order. I won't spoil what happens (I never thought that was my place), but it just seems really foolhardy and uncharacteristically optimistic for Cable. On the good side, I love Zircher's art (which is nothing new) and the usage of Shen Kuei was very cool. Deadpool's back-and-forth between being emotional core (Irene is a walking caption, don't bring her up to me) and whimsical plot device is a real accomplishment, and the reason why this book is still a marginal "thumbs up." But for all this build up, we just gotta do better, guys.

Human Target #17:
Murky. Like an episode of The Practice. Christopher Chance agrees to help a mob informant create a new life, and ends up getting more involved than he should (a common theme, his inability to stick to one life, actually like Madrox in a sense). It's an ugly, mean-spirited story that doesn't really end well for anyone, and that's the real beauty of it. Milligan crafts a story that entertains while approaching an inevitable end. A great done-in-one that shows why this book is so darned good.

Official Handbook to the Marvel Universe: Golden Age 2004:
I swear I'm gonna walk into Comics Ink one day, and find Official Handbook to the Marvel Universe: Des Moines Phone Book I-R, 2004. And god help me, I'll buy it. I freakin' love this stuff. Despite some really weak art (by today's standards -- some of the Kirby stuff made me blanche, which I know some consider sacrilege, but it's true) there's a lot of really riveting historical information here. The 3-D Man entry was way, way more interesting than anything from the actual comics it describes. I was a bit surprised that, even given what we know now, the Namor and Captain America entries managed to stay so short. You've got Fin Fang Foom, which makes my freakin' day. This is just great, wildly entertaining nostalgia at its best, without having to wade through the actual pedestrian storylines and artwork that spawned it. I've already read this issue six times, and I plan to read it more.

Lucifer #57:
I was once asked why I'm so drawn to characters like Mike Carey's Lucifer. Schemers. Scoundrels. In every case -- this issue being a great illustration of that -- their effortless guile and seeming arrogance cause them to be underestimated time and time again, allowing them to create dramatic upheavals of great artistic merit. I read along and understood Lilith's need for vengeance and the details of the conspiracy against Yahweh himself, down to sacrificing her own favorite children. But when I saw a battered Morningstar reach his hand across to his niece across a white panel (a story point I won't reveal), it was inspiring, and part of what I strive for in my own life. The success of strength of will over even the most amazing adversity, for no one's benefit but itself. This is my kind of comics.

Buy Pile Breakdown: 5-for-6 shooting from beyond the arc, with surprises galore and smart writing even in the sole mis-step, I'm pretty pleased.

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

Ultra #5:
Of the Ferengi Rules of Acquisition, the 99th could be considered the most likely to leave a character in the same space as this title's protagonist. The rule? "Trust is the biggest liability of all." After throwing caution to the wind at the behest of a fortune teller, Ultra is in a Kobe Bryant-like position where endorsements and financial opportunities could dry up due to one bad news story (yeah, I'm a basketball fan, what of it?). More than that, she's shaken by the loss of her innocence and heartbreak. The Luna Brothers sell this story very convincingly and I felt very bad for the trusting fool that Ultra is (her "real" name never sticks in my mind for some reason). When the final page's "surprise" popped up, something I'm almost always in favor of, I was almost too wrapped up in the rest of the issue to cheer for it. Very close to coming home, really interesting work.

Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes #3:
The whole is not greater than the sum of its parts -- in individual moments, this issue shined where it could not as a cohesive story. Captain America, visiting war memorials until he read every name of every soldier in every war "he missed" was powerful, and in ways showed me why this character can be so important to so many people. Then to see the conflicted business man Tony Stark, living his double life with almost nobody knowing the truth, was also a pleasant surprise. Knowing what would eventually occur between Hank Pym and Janet Van Dyne, watching the seeds of their eventual discontent is bittersweet. Finally seeing Thor in all his Asgarian glory, the confidence and surety in every step like the serenity of a Tibetan monk ... really nice. But as stolen moments between Stan's greatest hits, the story falters. Still worth watching ...

Birds of Prey #77:
It was easy to tell Ed Benes is back by the easy curves on the pages, and Simone's "undercover" mission for her three agents was smartly told and portrayed. The deep Kansas creepiness, however, made my own personal logic sensors overload like Cable/Deadpool did. There's a murderous, possibly metahuman presence in Kansas, where a certain Daily Planet reporter grew up, his parents still live, and oh yeah, so does his super-powered teen clone. But a Captain Americ-ized Lady Blackhawk was able to fly Babs, Helena and Dinah into town and confront it first? A bit hard to swallow. And a large part of why the book is still at the store.

Fantastic Four #521:
In the movie Taxi, Queen Latifah says to Jimmy Fallon, "we gotta play to your strengths ... and thinking ain't one of 'em." That came to mind, watching Johnny Storm wrestle with being tasked to find Galactus a nice inhabited snack (as smart as Galactus is supposed to be, you'd think he'd have thought of a way to do this and avoid drama already, and yes, I know he doesn't care, but serial ass-whuppins from Reed has to do something to his self-image). Waid gets some fun details about breaking down how aspects of the Power Cosmic really works (which is cool), and Johnny comes up with a way to make Galactus talk to him, and maybe even deal. If he can become a successful CFO, I suppose this isn't too far from the realm of possibility. I guess.

Ocean #3:
What I was enjoying about this mini was its expansive sense of scale. That all came crashing in, where the huge and deeply interesting alien presence is overshadowed by a lone madman of the garden variety. That he will eventually be swallowed by the very wonder that he seeks to hide is basic SF writing canon, and I can only hope Warren Ellis has something considerably more unusual up his sleeve for his slumbering extraterrestrials.

Shadowhawk #1:
Forget licensed properties -- this is a nostalgia book. With what can only be considered crude artwork (again, by today's standards), the Jim Valentino property comes back with mysterious portents and a threadbare origin story. The action scenes are good (duh) but the dialogue is ham-fisted and overwrought. Feh.

Catwoman #38:
When I saw Catwoman being attacked by a guy who's body looks like a ride at Knott's Berry Farm, I realized this series has gone Gary Payton on me and Scott Morse was phoning it in. When I discovered his name was "Wooden Nickel" (complete with an over sized wooden nickel in front of his right eye socket), it made me tired. I could go into my bathroom, get my Axe bodyspray, grab a lighter from the shrine in my bedroom, and defeat this guy. He's wooden. Snoop Dogg and Afro Man scare this guy. He probably wets himself when people mention "Firestorm." The mid-section of this issue was very talky (plus, uh, didn't Slam Bradley say he was backing off of Catwoman at the end of Brubaker's run? Oh I give up ...). This makes me tired.

Daredevil #68:
In another fun case of Marvel insular editing (it's like nobody reads anything else) the mantle of the White Tiger is passed along (screw you Kasper Cole) and flashbacks galore (which I'm sure would have worked better on TV) bracket a tense scene between Daredevil, Gladiator and the Kingpin's predecessor. But so? For all that, very little actually happened, and most of it in the aforementioned flashbacks. Which I don't care about. Mmm.

Identity Crisis #7:
The downbeat denouement of what's arguably DC's biggest title this year also made me tired. The murderer (who was really revealed last issue) acts surprised at the predictable turn of events, which then forces a hero to (apparently) go into seclusion, maybe retiring. Looking over it, yes, all the clues were there in the first issue if you were savvy enough to see them. But you'd have to be damned near prescient. The story was over last issue, this is all just epilogue, and not really interesting epilogue in my mind. None of the tension of the crime scene investigations, none of the shock of the murders. A whimper of an ending.

Invaders #5:
Nazi vampires. Still. With the premise of an extradimensional battleship and a certain moral flexibility, you'd think this could be better than it is, especially with The Authority drifting. Let's just move on.

Star Wars: Empire #27:
I'm always ragging on this title because it's so rarely, you know, about the Empire. But seeing Luke Skywalker and a clone trooper on the cover made me just stop, so I read it. The clone trooper, somehow, was a lot more loyal to the Jedi (Luke flashes a lightsaber and the guy is ready to drop trou) than his Republic/eventually Imperial masters. Add some creative storytelling and he's ready to blast some stormtroopers. Quick, painless and glossing over the eventual events of Episode III, but kind of entertaining.

Marvel Team-Up #3:
It looks like an extradimensional Dr. Doom comes to play, fought off by Dr. Strange and Reed (who's gonna keep popping up a lot until next summer) ... but there's a somewhat tie-in (if I remember my Exiles solicitations) that makes it a wacky surprise. Cute, but not cute enough. Plus, is it just me, or is the inking super unusual?

Adventures of Superman #635:
Fight fight fight fight fight. Yeah, okay. Nothing to see here, as the villains are barely straw men and the issue was just to say, "now on the last page, the real villain!" Blah.

Spider-Man: Doctor Octopus Year One #5:
When I picked up the cover, I turned around to the people in the store and said, "We are now taking collections to get the good Doctor here a shirt. Nobody wants to see his man-gut jiggling as he battles Spidey." Once I got past that (thanks Alfred Molina), the issue inside was a really riveting look into Doc Ock's radiation-fueled madness. It was a really great read, but its obscure art (excellent for suspense moments in earlier issues) falls down when it has to make with the "biff" and the "pow." I'd have bough it, but I just couldn't have Octo-gut staring at me in my own house. Creepy! I'll look for a trade.

Robin #133:
The Boy Wonder and Batgirl get smacked down by the Penguin, who gets the idea to unmask them, tape it, then kill 'em. However, he gets greedy, and starts auctioning off the rights to do so. Yeah, I know. So he's got a couple of hours to kill until the winning bidder shows, so he (this isn't much of a spoiler, I assure you) unties them so they can fight each other "to the death" while Penguin and his men stand around betting on it. Now, these two, earlier in the same issue, same set up (room, Penguin's men) almost beat the hell out of everybody. What would make Penguin think they'd fight one another? Seriously? Willingham falls off the wagon with this one.

Read Pile Roundup: Ambitious. But flawed.

So, How Was It This Week? With the strength of the purchases and even the reads really trying, I'm gonna call it a good week overall, despite being better at starting and middling than ending some things.

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