Grendel: Devil's Reign #7 (Dark Horse Comics):
The last page of this book made it all the more wonderful to me, with a hint along the way, early in the issue. The entire seven-issue mini has been one purposefully documentary-styled story told by ... ah, I won't say, but if you know the Grendel cosmology like I do, it's a nice treat. The entire story of Orion Assante's rise to power and worldwide dominion is concluded here, and it's ... well, it's not necessarily a happy ending, but it's a fitting one. As a completist for the property, this is like hitting gold for me, so I'm as pleased as punch, but if this was somebody's first comic, or even their first time with Grendel, I can't see them having any way in to the very insular material.

Justice League Elite #6 (DC Comics):
When you've got a woman cheating on her insanely powerful husband on the first page ... well, yeah, it's gonna be kind of like that, a little bit "oh my!" In this issue, Vera's confrontation with the extrahuman assassin Wolfwood goes very differently than anyone could have expected (fun note: Wolfwood killed the family of the team's "handler," a regular human of Indian descent), the Aftermath reveals itself to be a lot more complicated than a new drug on the streets of the Windy City, and Green Arrow blows some stuff up. Kelly manages the tension with such a fine touch, it's like a symphony. The almost claustropobic art of Doug Mankhe and Tom Nguyen works perfectly, and whereas colors can make everything kind of meld together, David Baron manages the palette masterfully, keeping the focus apropos at every moment> Great comics with a real murky edge to it, I'm very pleased.

Noble Causes #6 (Image Comics):
Liz's melodramatic pronouncement from last issue gets cleaned up in a really saccharine, boring way (perhaps its a soap opera convention I'm not aware of, or happy with) as some other confusing bits suddenly make a lot more sense and Rusty's off-world adventure drags on interminably, like Luke, Laura and Robert Scorpio on that Cassadine island, back when I had chicken pox as a child (yeah, I watched some General Hospital, what of it?). The good parts: Doc, Gaia, Frost, the detective -- got little panel time and the less interesting stuff -- Liz, Race whining about Liz, and Rae finding freaking space unicorns -- was just plain dull due to creative failures. Not the best issue, but not bad enough to drive me away. Yet.

The Incredible Hulk #77 (Marvel Comics):
When I saw "Peter David" and "Incredible Hulk" on the cover, I said, "close enough" and just tossed it on the Buy Pile. Mistake. In a boring, unexplained and decompressed mess, Hulk ends up on an island of monsters with two "normal" people for reasons I can't begin to fathom. Maybe it'd make sense if I'd have been reading whatever happened before. Still. No recap page, no clues, just dumped in the deep end and hoping you can swim. Argh. I hate writing "argh" about stuff I spent money on.

The Intimates #3 (Wildstorm/DC Comics):
Teenaged love goes horribly awry, and it's really entertaining. I don't know why I like this series so much -- the combination of the wacky characters (I actually find the most "normal" one -- Duke -- the most interesting) and the high school hijinks just gets me. Destra is a mean spirited treasure, Punchy is an accident waiting to happen, and Empty Vee is pure adolescent tragedy (that, of course, will grow up to be a knockout a la Romy and Michelle's High School Reunion). Another fun issue in a line of 'em, but I'd be hard pressed to find any Jim Lee in here, so don't come looking for that.

Buy Pile Breakdown: Having Peter David slip me a mickey (argh) and then letting Jay Faerber take advantage of me ... well, three out of five ain't bad ...

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

Alpha Flight #11 (Marvel Comics):
The pacing problem -- taking too long to go around the mulberry bush -- keeps up here as somebody else gets shot into the past to yell at Guardian and try and avert certain doom. With equally bad results. I like laughing at people with poor pattern recognition as much as the next sadist, but I normally like it to be, I dunno, kind of peppy. This is practically lethargic. Oh, and even more fun, it says the next issue is the last one. I can't say that's a bad thing.

Deadshot #2 (DC Comics):
If you liked Garth Ennis' "Welcome Back Frank" storyline on Punisher then this will probably be up your street as well. With a considerably better sense of humor (and slightly worse art), the only mis-steps are the tender moments chatting with Deadpool's baby's momma. Still close, for a mini, but DC minis have led me wrong so many times, I'm still gunshy here.

Avengers #2 (Marvel Comics):
This comic inspired the most conversation at the shop. The retail troll Adam (there are two guys who work the counter, Jason, who I like a lot, a cool kind of beefy Black guy, and Adam, who looks almost exactly like Doctor Psycho and often offends children and female customers with his brash and sometimes offensive statements about women and with profanity, and who I also exclusively call little girls' names) argued that every single one of the 82 escaped prisoners here is a shmuck, at best a third-rate, second string villain who couldn't beat Captain America by himself if old Flag-head were sleeping, let alone be a problem for Spider-Man or Iron Man. I agreed with his theory, but I then remarked that eighty two of anybody, en masse, ain't nothing to sneeze at. Adam conceded that he probably couldn't beat eighty-two midgets, and that pretty much sums up the intellectual conversation level when he's there.

Anyway, as for this comic it's one long fight scene. Drawn well, and showing the real reason why the Avengers (who didn't always have the most powerful lineups) were so successful --team work. The "heroes" here are uncoordinated and get their behinds kicked pretty hard (including the old broken arm in a web sling shtick for Spidey). What I really can't figure is Daredevil -- Murdock is here, ducking fists and pretending not to be the Man Without Fear, but comments something like, "Spider-Man, you dropped your mask!" while there's a big fight going on. How the freak does he know? Don't give me that "Oh, well, when Spidey talks his voice isn't constricted, and Matt hears the wind going through his hair, so he guessed it" drama either. There's a rainstorm, 82 yelling escaped super convicts and all brands of madness going on. If, indeed, Matt is that focused on Peter's head, he's not in the game. Again, felled by dumb details, this ain't it.

Firestorm #9 (DC Comics):
The last page was a surprise, and in a classic "rookie mistake," Jason Rusch has accidentally given one of Firestorm's most lethal enemies a massive power-up. Interesting enough, but as a whole issue it's not very balanced, Firehawk comes off pretty shaken up (I guess Identity Crisis did a number on her too) and I'm not really interested in what happens to any of the characters, despite really liking Killer Frost (especially from Suicide Squad).

Youngblood: Imperial #1 (Awesome Entertainment):
Something weird happened with the art here, which was so bad on the first ten or so pages, it actually made my eyes water. Then it just got kind of bad, like it was drawn with more care and scanned at a higher resolution. Then it got almost good, then it settled into a kind of "eh" groove. One other customer (dunno his name) suggested that there were probably a ton of ghost artists involved. No idea. Anyway, there's some moments of interest -- the US and China annexing other countries with super-powered manifest destiny, for example -- but they're very few and very far in between. Then it got super weird and had a possibly British super team at the end ... which looked like it was comprised of UK-based comic book writers. I clearly identified two drawn to look like Grant Morrison and Alan Moore, and I think I saw Garth Ennis and Mark Millar as well, if my memory of their photos is right (it's been a while since I've open a copy of Wizard). Yeah, WTH? Let's just move on.

Flash #217 (DC Comics):
This issue worked hard to get across the difference with the Rogues of Keystone -- they're not really "organized" criminals, but they're tight knit, like a family. That somehow appeals to me a lot. They hold a hidden funeral in an interdimensional pocket, which they've settled as a graveyard for them (another nifty idea). They also engaged in committing a lot of crimes with boomerangs to commemorate their fallen friend, a kind of tradition for them, which I also liked. The parts I didn't like, honestly, had the Flash in 'em. He's twenty times more intetesting in Justice League Elite than he is in his own title. His "reunion" with Linda was amazingly treacly and rushed, and the other areas of his involvement were just boring. Mmm.

Ultimate X-Men #54 (Marvel Comics):
Ultimate Mojo makes his appearance, as a corpulent albino reality TV producer, a Genoshan Mark Burnett who (in the words of Dazzler) rips off The Running Man so much Stephen King and Richard Bachman should sue (and oh, how I enjoyed that gag, since I read The Bachman Books years before the Governator starred in the action movie). Some great gags are sprinkled in -- apparently Ultimate Doug Ramsey was their Ken Jennings, holding reign on Jeopardy for more than 80 games, and Ultimate Mojo makes a great inadvertent joke, cheering on decompression as a tool to drive revenues. The "high road" of the Professor's methods conflict with the "low road" of Dazzler's rebellious streak and Piotr's "Mafiya" (sic) history, a cute intra-squad tension. A cute patch on the scenic route.

Question #3 (DC Comics):
Howard Chaykin called, he wants his confusing layouts and plotting back. With this Jack Hawksmoor-meets Rohrshach approach and artwork that looks largely unfinished, I'm sure somebody must be buying this. I just can't figure out why.

Fantastic Four: Foes #1 (Marvel Comics):
Reed's inattentive, Sue's long-suffering and Johnny and Ben play tricks on one another. Right. Kirkman signs in with a book that -- if glanced at quickly -- could be Invincible in tone, pacing and somewhat in visuals (the inking seemed almost ethereal). Plus, like many of the issues of Kirkman's super-opus, the last page has all the oomph. I find that unbalanced, but it was cute, and the "reveal" has me wondering what's next.

Superman: Strength #1 (DC Comics):
My notes have two words: "deathly dull."

Fantastic Four/X-Men #2 (Marvel Comics):
Three members of each team head up into space to take on a Brood infestation (another one?) while somewhere, Sigourney Weaver looks up and feels someone borrowing from her old playbook. Yeah, I don't care about this either.

Breach #1 (DC Comics):
I started reading this and saying, "wow, this guy completely bit off of Captain Atom's origin." Then I remembered the stories online from Harras, that his Captain Atom pitch was retooled into something original. But the thin "prequel" section of the guy with his family was so milquetoast that it didn't give me any grounding in the character. I'm underwhelmed.

Read Pile Roundup: I feel like I just got punched in the face.

So, How Was It This Week? Given one clunker purchase, one underachiever purchase, and a veritable phalanx of crappy reads, this was not a good week for this reviewer.

The Buy Pile is a weekly collection of comic reviews done by Hannibal Tabu (www.operative.net)