Wildguard: Fool's Gold #2:
Ah, sweet confectionary comics. Todd Nauck once again jams a whole lotta story into a very small space. The Cops style storytelling technique allows for a very crisp style of shorthand, and with Nauck almost performing an one-man show (writing, pencils, inks, lettering) as a virtuoso in every way. In a real universe building turn, there's a huge fight scene which basically creates a whole community of heroes in scant brush strokes. The "tragedy" that happens is not very stirring, but the rest of the book -- Laserwolf's mercenary turn, Lily Hammer's tactical prowess, "The Dopplegangsta" -- all fires on every cyllinder. Very happy.

Ex Machina #13:
On the more serious side, the Mayor gets picked for jury duty (like a sucker) and The Automaton vexes New York's Finest. Each plot, running concurrently with no confusion nor shorting of the other, zips along and throws twists that are fun and unexpected. Toss in some Law & Order styled courtroom wrangling (well, maybe Boston Legal) and the cops show a surprising amount of wiliness. Another fantastic issue in an uninterrupted stream of them.

Defenders #1:
it may not be Formerly Known As The Justice League but a sassy Namor and a savvy Bruce Banner are almost as good, with Dr. Strange playing the put upon straight man and Norrin Radd taking a turn for the Zonker (props to Trudeau fans out there). The densely plotted panels (ten and twelve to a page sometimes, but always looking swell thanks to Mssr. Maguire) keep the story zipping along, and Dormammu hasn't looked this good in a looooong time. and Umar would fit in well on the set of Charmed with her goth styled smoothness. It's almost "bwa-ha-ha" and that's damned fine, I'll say.

Lucifer #64:
It all comes down to Christopher Rudd, the new lord of hell. The Son of the Morning makes a comeback tour in his old stomping grounds, intent on saving all realities from a quick spin down the celestial toilet, the archangel Uriel makes a fine showing of himself, Mazikeen finds her way home, and Lilith stands poised to raise hell 'til the heavens fall. All this, and the Wolf is once again at the door. Lots going on here, and not terribly clear unless you're already on the ride, but I liked it a great deal.

Buy Pile Breakdown: Four fantastic purchases, with the weakest book (Lucifer) still kicking ass and taking names. Nice.

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

Authority: Revolution #10:
I had to check my cell phone to make sure I was still in the 21st century. I liked this story the first time I saw it, back when Warren Ellis wrote it, and changing the sides of one character doesn't make it that much more interesting. I gotta say, even with a new doctor and a teenaged Jenny run amok, the whole team kind of looked amateurish. Given that they've fought a Doctor and a killer cyborg hillbilly, you'd think they'd be better prepared for this kind of thing.

Astonishing X-Men #11:
Speaking of "what the?" -- all of a sudden, the technology-free zone in Genosha lets one surprising exception through (well, two if you count the primary antagonist) and I think I liked this all better when it was a "holodeck gone mad" on one of the latter-day Star Trek series. There was a nice scene with Peter and Kitty, which showed some of Whedon's talent for dialogue, but the core story itself was less-than-compelling.

Robin #140:
The Teen Wonder is courted by a seductive, dangerous new player on the field and the Bat doesn't like it one bit. There's a thin line between who's playing whom, and I'm never quite sure where anybody stands. In a good way. Willingham seems freed from the constraints of the endless crossovers, and the story soars with that freedom. I liked this issue, edging closer to the promised land of pulling dollars from my wallet.

Wolverine #30:
Where did he get those wonderful toys? Dum Dum Dugan gave them to him -- Logan and Elektra are loaded for bear, headed for the new and improved Hydra to kill the Gorgon (yesterday's washout is today's major threat) and there's a page filled with great cameos (what was with that outfit Tombstone was wearing?). Millar makes this issue fly along with confectionary madness, and Romita depicts it all with his delightful style. If I wasn't so oversaturated by this character, this issue would have been fun enough to buy.

Birds of Prey #84:
There's a whole lotta stuff going on with Oracle that is messed up and spoiler-ish, but she tries to make amends with Helena (who has a lot going on as well) and the Singapore subplot comes home to roost in a messy way. There's a build up for a big fight scene, a guest appearance from Dr. Mid-Nite pushes the plot along in a dark direction. All around closer to the way this title was when Simone was firing on all cyllinders, but not quite there yet by a margin that could be considered infinitessimal.

Daredevil #75:
Matt Murdock uses fear and intimidation to accomplish what his fists or his legal abilities cannot, and the results are pretty good. Well, except for one really kind of goofy plot development that made me giggle at how just plain stupid it was, especially in the gritty and hyper-realistic world of Daredevil. I found some of the page sequences less than clear, when the talking heads bits just kept going on, and I can't emphasize how stupid one part of it is, but it's passable if you're really into this title. Otherwise ... well, let's just move on, shall we?

Day of Vengeance #4:
Captain Marvel! Spectre! Punching! Fate of magic in the balance! It all sounds pretty good, but it's not. A central character (if you could call these losers "central" to anything) goes off the rails, Billy Batson again has next to no idea what's happening, and Detective Chimp fails to save the day in any meaningful way (while working in a fart joke, so mature). Can this please be over sooner? Please?

GLA #4:
Speaking of things I'm glad that they're over, in a simply un-funny and un-entertaining sequence this story -- such as it is -- comes to a pitiable end with a hail of squirrels (seriously), a bad impersonation and just some of the worst gags I've seen since that last incarnation of Alpha Flight caught the hammer. The only shining light is the trick Mister Immortal pulls on Maelstrom. Considering that I found Dan Slott's work on She-Hulk so brilliant, this is really a kick in the crotch.

JSA Classified #1:
Perhaps she found the twists and turns for Wolverine as distasteful as I did, but Power Girl apparently has no interest in knowing what her "true" origin is, since anything less than "Superman's cousin" is a step farther down than she wants to go. So she puts her confidence in her fists and her cleavage and washes the bad thoughts away in rough pugilism. Kind of interesting, unless the last page reveal means that some stupid time travel hoo hah is gonna be brought in, in which case I'll scream bloody murder.

House of M #4:
The truth starts to come out, and people start looking around for the M'kraan Crystal, or whatever it'll take to turn the switch back to "normal." Which is bad for the Homo Superior gliterrati of this world, but hey, thems the breaks. A super-powerful oppressed minority will sooner or later get its act together, no matter how fancy your magic is.

Manhunter #12:
A lot of nothing happened. The art was only so-so. That's all I got here, aside from a note saying "Shaw went nuts." Great.

Ultimates Season 2 #7:
It's just a bad freaking year to be Hawkeye, Ultimate or otherwise. That notwithstanding, I found Jan's behavior just plain disturbing (she really seems like a shallow twit) who should have better tools for managing her relationship, and just a host of not-so-smart behavior from the cast (including a possibly ill-conceived invasion). But imperialism marches on, even in the Ultimate universe, and this house of cards (which, coincidentally, is "M" shaped) cannot stand forever (as Ultimate Thor warns ... and no, I still don't know if he's real or crazy, but I love it nonetheless).

Teen Titans #26:
I'm pretty sure twenty two pages of delusions and whining is not a new record -- Captain America did it back when he was dating that Atlantean and crying into the flag -- but it's still not entertaining. Man up, Conner. You shoulda stayed in the 31st Century.

Cable/Deadpool #17:
Deadpool talks a lot through this very strange issue, and as much as Robin seemed to improve as it ran from crossovers, this storyline suffers as it dives into one. Blah.

Read Pile Roundup: Some shimmerings of light and a light week, due to me running super late with San Diego and promoting my new novel and all, so we'll give it a marginal thumbs up.

So, How Was It This Week? A lean win, fueled by how much I love Ex Machina, Wildguard and the Giffen/DeMatteis/Maguire team.

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