Fables #39: (Vertigo/DC Comics)
Mowgli comes back, and he's somebody special. In a very brief amount of space, Willingham fleshes out the character from the very thin strokes we all know from the likes of the Disney rendition, and Prince Charming actually shows some signs of depth beyond his self-serving impression. A very solid issue which handles business.

Seven Soldiers; The Manhattan Guardian #3 of 4: (DC Comics)
Jump from the Read Pile. The play on the "100 people in the world" analogy wasn't enough to get me to buy this. Caneron Stewart's great art? Enticing, but no. No, it was the character interplay between Jake and Carla, at dinner and in the rain. That's real stuff -- Carla's unable to reconcile guilt over being saved when her father was left to die. The madness surrounding Jake just makes it all the sweeter, and of course, there's shooting and beating. So that's all good.

New Warriors #2 of 6: (Marvel Comics)
Jump from the Read PIle, but just barely. A Marvel staple (the cover somewhat tells the tale, but I won't spoil it) makes a twisted appearance that was too funny for me to pass up. Toss in a persnickety ASPCA, er, "Society for the Protection of Television Animals" type and there's a good dry wit here that works better than the ham-fisted attempts at humor in, say, GLA (and yes, it hurts to speak ill of Dan Slott, whose She-Hulk made me so happy). It's no WIldguard, but it's pretty good.

Small Gods Special #1: (Image Comics)
Jump from the Read Pile. The two existing storylines -- a precognitive cop who can secretly read minds and a precognitive hustler with a badass hottie for a girlfriend -- cross over in a taut thriller of a tale told from multiple perspectives. I was less interested in the latter, in recent issues, but here the back-and-forth worked well. Nice work from Rand, Ferreyra and Simon.

Buy Pile Breakdown: Three jumps? All good? Hell yeah!

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

All Star Batman & Robin #1: (DC Comics)
My retailer Steve was carrying a box of these issues past me and said, "Excuse me, crate fulla money coming through." The reasons are clear -- Vicki Vale is very entertaining, Batman is reserved but clearly ascending towards his peak, and Robin is all wonder and glory and possibility, which seems so sweet it almost makes your heart ache at its anachronistic qualities. The final words -- "You've just been drafted. Into a war." -- really flew off the page, as did Dick Grayson's repeated assertations and Bruce's sad realization that Dick has entered Bruce's world. A really solid issue all around, but I didn't buy it for the same reason I don't but Ultimate books or really good karaoke covers of songs -- I liked it fine the first time I saw it, seeing it with new flourishes doesn't do much for me.

Avengers #7: (Marvel Comics)
When "comic book writer Paul Jenkins" walked on panel, I checked the credits to see if Eddie Berganza edited this. The Sentry's whole story has been thrown for a loop, and I don't understand it at all. In a bad way. The art was great, and I liked the "street level" action against The Wrecker (who's still pretty lame, despite punching Cage, Spider Woman and Spider-Man around) was well done, even if it felt like it was happening in another comic entirely. Not bad, but at the level this title is supposed to operate, that's not good enough.

Mnemovore #4: (Vertigo/DC Comics)
I don't know if the pages were inserted in the wrong order or what, but I have no idea what happened in this issue. Which is a bad thing.

Rann/Thanagar War #3: (DC Comics)
Lots of people died, but no one you'd know. Lots happened, but it's nothing that really resonated. Somebody's winning, but I'd be hard pressed to tell you who. Eh.

Ultimate Fantastic Four #21: (Marvel Comics)
A line from Marvel Team-Up comes to mind, from an evil alternate universe Tony Stark: "My Reed Richards would have never fallen for that!" Ultimate Reed is smitten with celebrity, finally cool and in the limelight, and he makes a point of violating Rule of Acquisition #99. Go ahead, guess how well that went. Greg Land's art, however, makes every image leap from the page, and I enjoyed that a lot. Even though it made me miss CrossGen. *sigh*

Freshmen #1: (Wildstorm/Image Comics)
"Co-Created By Seth Green!" Yeah, whatever. This issue, created otherwise by largely unknown talents (and talent they do have) does a decent job of capturing the zeitgeist of collegiate life (at least as I remember it, from the early 90s), but has a cast that's just a bit too big and relies too much on stereotype (the Amish Guy marveling at light switches and soda machines, the arguing couple could have leapt from Jerry Springer and so on). Not bad, and worth watching, but not quite there.

Mutopia X #1: (Marvel Comics)
In a shimmer of Elseworlds, er, What If?, I mean, "House of M" magic, the crappy beat of Mutant Town becomes the crappy beat of Sapien Town, Bishop and Izzy switch roles (Bishop goes all the way down to being a beat cop) and ... yeah, I just don't care. It focuses on mutant celebrity, and ... I dunno, I liked that better in Ultimate X-Men.

Nightwing #110: (DC Comics)
When Tim Drake and Dick Grayson had their heart to heart, I found myself singing Eve 6's "Inside Out" -- "find nothing but faith in nothing ..." Dick is still undercover in the mob and getting sent up the food chain ... which is no good, since he'll have to face a really deadly villain who knows everything about him. His stress is almost tangible, and it's kind of like watching an old friend get over a death in the family. Engrossing, but perhaps not so entertaining.

Gravity #2: (Marvel Comics)
When "The Grenwich Guardian" stepped out, I was laughing so hard I had to sit down. Memories of the New Universe title Justice with "Captain Manhattan" and "Captain Brooklyn" getting thier faces punched in leapt to mind, and I was just tickled. Anyhoo, Gravity's logo confuses the media into thinking he's a mutant as his first public fight goes pretty well, and New York clearly has too many masks for its own good. Still "okay," but nowhere near interesting enough to pick up.

Green Arrow #52: (DC Comics)
Green Arrow lost his house at the end of the last issue, and the sins of Identity Crisis weigh heavily on his mind. Another grim, troubled issue which even brings Zatanna in for some Never Been Kissed backup for "Speedy" (still too funny). Eh.

Hercules #4: (Marvel Comics)
Labors? Even with Hera dreaming 'em up, Hercules just kind of breezes through virtually everything, until the ending tries to use a little-known point of myth to tug heartstrings, but with Frank Tieri's leaden pacing and stilted dialogue, it just falls flat. I should know better, even with the amazing (but somehow boring, on the Olympians at least) Mark Texiera on art chores.

Invincible #23: (Image Comics)
Guess who gets beat up again? Even Invincible himself starts to question the wisdom of his moniker. The "multiple dimensions" subplot finally pays off, but I found its finale kind of goofy. Eh.

Ultimate X-Men #61: (Marvel Comics)
Mmm, soapy. Ultimate Bobby and Ultimate Kitty have lover's chatter (who cares), we look in at Emma's school (boring), Polaris has a personal problem (kind of interesting) and Ultimate Chuck confonts Ultimate Logan on a continuity point (kinda okay). Yeah, let's move on.

JLA #116: (DC Comics)
Heroes are up against the wall as the Bat knows all (from Identity Crisis), and so do scores of villains. Which is no good for your favorite spandex types. Which, again, is engrossing (like a multi-car pile up) but not so much entertaining.

Thunderbolts #10: (Marvel Comics)
Speaking of "engrossing not entertaining," the Purple Man has made himself into a major threat, turning an entire town against the Swordsman and the woman formerly known as Songbird, with the 'Bolts stumbling in and catching a bad one. I'm not saying heroes always have to win -- on the contrary, Tony Stark's struggle with alcoholism was one of the most gripping stories of my childhood -- but nobody's having a good week. I'm still not sure why somebody hasn't put a cap in Purple Man's melon with a sniper rifle, but oh well. It's a nail biter until the House of M comes along and makes it all shiny and happy, tra-lee-lah ...

Majestic #7: (Wildstorm/Image Comics)
The title character builds a better beat down as the Daemonite-Hadrian struggles with the nature of things. A solid issue, but I just want more from a character with such a high ceiling.

Punisher #23: (Marvel Comics)
There's a really good sex scene (like Jackie Brown good, as the rest of the movie blew) and a creepy disturbing one (no comment). Other than that, this mean episode shows the strength of the title character's reputation as grown mobsters cringe at the sight of him, flat on hiis back after catching a shotgun blast to the chest. Another great mean Ennis issue, but that one scene ... eww.

Action Comics #829: (DC Comics)
Superman was mind controlled to beat the hell out of ... well, I won't tell, but it's not a happy ending. The whole League is ready to take him down, but Canary brings a non-violent resolution. Supes really needs some Xanax or something ...

Read Pile Roundup: Craptacular.

So, How Was It This Week? Despite the horror of the Read Pile, three jumps is three jumps, and that makes this Comicon Week a winner.

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