The Grimoire #3:
You know by now that I sort of work for Speakeasy Comics, makers of this title (and The Hunger below as well), and yes, I'm buying these books in part because of that. The story here takes something of a mis-step, as the heroine Amandine is supposed to go cross-country to New York, for a meeting with the title character of the Beowulf comic. However, she climbs on a train, which (I know from experience) means at least a week of travel. Which, of course, makes no sense -- why dawdle? Also, the rival parties (one high tech, one magical) who are on Amandine's trail have yet to be explained in any way, or have any real reaction to their unusual presence. At least from the perspective of someone who is just reading the book -- I'm frustrated because I know more of the backstory, and it's not being translated here. Writer Sebastien Caisse (who is a swell guy, we chatted in French over free Marvel booze, two years ago in San Diego) is rushing the story along without any explanations, and that's a detriment to the overall impact. However, Djief's evocative artwork, alongside Kness' brilliant coloring, help out a great deal. Not bad by any means, but not as good as I think it needs to be.

Sleeper Season Two #12:
Wow. I often quote, "all things end badly, or else they wouldn't end," and that's never been more true than this grim, hopeless finale to Brubaker's look at the underbelly of the Wildstorm Universe. Even on the cover, protagonmist Holden Carver looks desperate and doomed. It all fits, it's all about right ... but wow, "poor buy" is right. A perfect tragic ending to a story that could never have ended well.

Runaways #4:
Victor Mancha's dad shows up on the last page (throwing all kinds of continuity questions into the mix, but that's another discussion) as Excelsior licks their wounds and gets laughed at, Victor himself asks all the logical questions about the illogical points of the title, with just the right mix of teen baggage (he's a fan of Lost) and knowing how to work black market universal remote controls from Wakanda (a smart use of Marvel continuity right there). Fascinating stuff, even as the cliffhanger renders it less a complete story and more a chapter, but still worth it.

Legion of Super-Heroes #6:
So much good here -- the galactic war looms closer as a major hub of galactic commerce (and the Legion's money) gets wiped out of existence (and gives the Legion their own Princess Leia). I love the growing chemistry between Dream Girl and Brainy, liked yet another show of why Karate Kid is so cool, and a backup story explains just how much trouble the Legion is in, as a kind of Bizarro R.J. Brande is revealed to be the thirty first century's biggest threat (I'm sorely tempted to use "It's honestly staggering how much a smart man can get accomplished if he never has to take responsibility for his actions" in my email signature). The larger strings of a grander story are made clear here, and Waid is doing some really fine work, fueled by Kitson (and in the backup, Scott Iwahashi) drawing like a mad bastard. Fantastic stuff.

Secret War Files:
The retail troll Samantha just started laughing at me when I walked in the store. "They discovered your Kryptonite, Hannibal!" he mocked. I ignored him until I saw this -- reference material makes me go all weak in the knees. To look inside what's arguably Nick Fury's own files on these characters ... totally worth four bucks. Secret War makes a lot more sense now (they should have released this earlier), and I have an even better idea how many of these characters fit into an (arguably) integreated continuity.

The Hunger #1:
Well drawn, and interesting enough for a zombie comic. I just don't like zombie comics. But Speakeasy published it, so here it is.

The Ultimates #6:
Jump from the Read Pile, solely for the ludicrous nature of the Ultimate Defenders, who make the Great Lakes Avengers look like The Authority by comparison. One really bad time to be Hank Pym,in a changing Ultimate world, while hanging around with a team way too short on clothing and way too long on overconfidence (their first "mission" ends up with one of them being seriously hospitalized). I'm intrigued by the last two pages, with the "traitor" talking to Hank, but I don't know what's up yet. I'm very interested, though, and can see this TPB heading for my bookshelf even now ...

Buy Pile Breakdown: All around good, if somewhat mean-spirited (not like that's a problem)

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

OMAC Project #2:
When I'm actively embarrassed for Batman, that's no good. The world's favorite rodent-themed billionaire reveals his little "contingency plan" to his friends, explains why (the Identity Crisis mindwipe bombshell), and says, "oh, and by the way, I've lost control of it to somebody who's whacked Blue Beetle." I know he's torn up by the events of "War Games" and regaining his memories and all that, but he's a listless shell of the "Bat-God" many blamed Grant Morrison for creating. Booster Gold turned in one of his first decent non-comedic turns when he heard the Bat's revelation, fingers are pointed and the wildly unlikely criminal mastermind Max Lord has more blood on his hands. In attempting to go all "how deep does the rabbit hole go?" the only actual result is making everybody involved look really, really stupid. The sound, the fury, and the folly.

Armor X #3:
Speaking of trying too hard -- this story tried to jam a lot into a little amount of space, and any attempts at characterization have been devoured by the needs of rushing the story along ("story is what happens, plot is how it happens"). "Somebody" (and who is not either clear nor really important, to me as a reader anyway) is coming after the armor, which has a kind of mean-spirited intelligence of its own. Normally I'm a fan of doing a lot, but the information here could have used another ten pages to do properly, especially the stuff with the girl.

Outsiders #24:
The real traitor in their midst is revealed, and it ties in with Villains United in a way I found delicious (and a little confusing, given that the traitor's forebear was completely destroyed, I thought). Interesting, but only really as a chapter of that larger story, and it kind of embarrasses this entire team.

Captain America #6:
There is something so horribly wrong here ... there is a revelation so awe-inspiringly ill conceived, so bogglingly stupid that it simply defies any form of credibility or logic. To see this embarrassing Red Hood-styled gambit played ... I really thought better of Brubaker as a writer (then again, Brian Vaughan did write The Hood, which was loathesome). As well, this issue makes Nick Fury look less-than-competent, makes Cap look less-than-smart, and all around insults every possible reason people could be reading this comic in some way by the end of its twenty-two unbelievably disturbing pages. Remarkably bad ideas here.

Day of Vengeance #2:
Speaking of bad ideas ... Eclipso has "seduced" the Spectre into thinking magic is at the root of all evil, and must be destroyed. Now, this is stupid on a variety of levels, starting with the fact that the Spectre is allegedly the "wrath of God." Unless Garth Ennis or Mike Carey are right and the supreme power of the universe has simply buggered off, why would an omnipresent, omniscient and allegedly benevolent entity let a loose cannon like the Spectre run around loose? Then, when the smartest, best prepared character in the whole thing is Detective Chimp, for the love of pie ... irrevocably off the rails.

Fantastic Four #527:
JMS' debut on Marvel's first family is a mixed bag -- building on things left from Waid's run, he's got the family dynamic down pat, from distracted Reed to silly Johnny and Ben stuff to Sue's worried frown. However, when the feds ask Reed Richards to become their own personal Dr. Kriegstein ... well, that's kind of sad on one end and kind of weird on the other. With all the work they've done on making superheroes, wouldn't Reed have been asked in before? That notwithstanding, I gotta say I'm enjoying Kirkman's FF book more than I did this issue.

Return of Donna Troy #1:
Crux and The First called -- they'd like their ambiance back. With a very CrossGen-scented pantheon of "Titans" and a possibly ill-conceived divine war, this made the same mistake those now-defunct comics made, trying to do too much with shorthand and not enough with the basics of storytelling, like characterization. Why should anybody care about this huge, sprawling cast, and knowing that Donna Troy is set to return (which can only mean to the DCU proper), how can anything that happens here have any relevance? A sad statement on many, many levels.

G.I. Joe #43:
The Joes take on their new foe, an army of relative "super soldiers" (one laughs off a lethal attack from Snake-Eyes), and in the words of District Attorney Branch, "this isn't going to end the way you want it to." The Joes (and the battered and almost extinct Cobra by extenstion) are overmatched at every step, and that's mostly setting up the new series. Worth passing by.

Flash #222:
Bad things happen as the Top almost singlehandedly fights most of the Rogue War. "Liberating" the minds of several "reformed" Rogues, the Top (who could probably be a more menacing figure if he didn't look so outlandishly gay) causes massive problems for our beleaguered hero (who seems to be moving very slowly) leading to the return of one of the Flash's deadliest foes. Tons of trouble, just dogpiling on, with no light visible at the end of the tunnel.

Ultimate Iron Man #2:
The specialness of Ultimate Tony Stark is further muddied by prequel-esque spycraft and corporate manuevering. It reads like a bad spy novel mixed with an encyclopedia entry. Let's move on.

Green Lantern #1:
It's almost as if traditional storytelling is out the window -- Hal Jordan is heroic because he's heroic. He flies around and defies the odds because, well, that's what the very superficial writing is done. Uninteresting.

Machine Teen #1:
Smallville called, it ... oh, god it just doesn't matter. Let's move on.

JLA #114:
Kind of fun with a decent switcheroo ending, using a nice logic problem as the core of the solution and setting up another trans-dimensional crossover. The art could have been a tad sharper for my taste.

Thor: Stormbreaker #5:
Really good looking space opera, with demolished Asgard, Korbinites smashing and Bill still not really knowing what's happening. is it just me, or were super heroes and their ilk always this doofy?

Adventures of Superman #640:
A sappy, overwrought reveal of Ruin's identity, and a clue that the electoral college in the DCU may be even more screwed up than our own.

Read Pile Roundup: Sucky from almost every angle.

So, How Was It This Week? A tie, based on horrible reads (DC hates me so much, they are making these comics to punish me) and good buys.

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