Noble Causes #15:
My main man Frost gets blackmailed (by Blackthornes, no less), in turn blackmailing Cosmic Rae (what a tangled web we weave) into pulling a heist. Seems his extracurricular activities are not strictly legal, and this leads to some mess that's tied up in the whole "evil plot" thing the Blackthornes are hatching. Meanwhile, the Nobles are distracted by their normal shticks, including a new body for Rusty after his misadventures on his grandfather's planet a few issues ago. Really fun, involving story, and Fran Bueno's art becomes more polished and enjoyable with each panel. The Freddie Williams flashbacks were almost seamless. Great, confectionary work.

Fables #44:
Can we get some love for Frau Totenkinder? By being smarter, she comes up with a plan and a half to handle the treacherous Yusuf as the Arabian Fables almost come to full war with the European ones we're so familiar with. The djinn leads to an interesting development in their populace, and there's some great stuff with Boy Blue, who catches the hammer for being a spy. I also liked the Beast's confidence as sheriff, and Willingham turns in another fantastic little story with his regular cohorts of Buckingham and Leialoha handling theirs on the art.

New Avengers: Most Wanted Files:
Damn you, Marvel -- you know I can't walk away from Handbook-style releases. This one outlines the characters that got away from The Raft (with a fun introductory SHIELD interoffice email that goes a long way to look at the machinations behind the stories, always a nice touch). i do miss the concrete power ratings, but the "Avengers commentary" on the files -- especially Wolverine and Spider-Man -- make up for it. A great read of some super obscure characters and some real powerhouses as well, which will make reading some future 616 stories a bit easier, as it's like a roadmap of what villains to quash and/or upgrade for, what, a year or two? Delightful.

GLX-Mas Special:
Jump from the Read Pile. After that painful mini, I am very pleased to say that this is very funny and quite entertaining -- and in that I'm so not a Christmas person, that makes it all the more of an accomplishment for this collection of shorts to have made the Buy Pile. Squirrel Girl makes a star turn, instantly becoming the most important member of the team (her fights with Modok and Giganto? Priceless!). There's a really sweet and kind of sad story with Mr. Immortal and the late, not-so-great Dinah Soar (with great usage of "flock"), and so much funny stuff ... I was surprised by the amount of real emotional depth in the stories of the Doorman and Mister Immortal, and found the madcap antics in everything else a nice balance. A really surprisingly good read -- I wish Slott could have skipped that mean spirited mini and just written this first.

DMZ #2:
Jump from the Read Pile, and now an official Buy Pile title. The title's status quo is now established, with some very nice touches (I loved the "date" between gunners), and the "perception versus reality" argument played out between gunshots and gaping wounds. in this story, Wood is able to look at the horrors of war -- any war, be it in Baghdad or Mosul or Inglewood or Columbine -- without pointing fingers by keeping the focus on the people who have to live through it. Powerful storytelling with none of the baggage of the brilliant but challenging TV show Over There. Could Vertigo be making a comeback? I'm feeling a renaissance here ...

Marvel Team-Up #15:
Complete story switch! With Titannus dispatched, an army from the future comes back to whack the heroes of today, taking out 90% of Marvel's costumed do-gooders in two hours. Leading the resistance? Darkhawk, as a rag-tag set of wanna bes and unknowns are left to face the legions of the boringly named (but interestingly characterized) Lord Chronok. The first six pages are simply amazing in their sheer gall and spectacle (Chronok could be me when he said: "You have no idea how excited I am right now. This is two childhood dreams out of the way in less than ten minutes. I've wanted to hold Captain America's shield since I was six. And I've wanted to kill Captain America since I was eleven. This is a good day."). The agile and the goofy seemed to have some kind of survival advantage, since Chronok's armies went for heavy hitters first. I'm watching this with great interest, and Kirkman is freaking on fire here (not to slight the fun, bombastic artwork of Paci Medina and Juan Vlasco).

X-Factor #1:
Bought on faith, and not disappointed. After his brilliant Madrox mini, Peter David has brought most of the '90s X-Factor crew back with some interesting twists. The last two pages are a very fun, but very major shock. The modification to Siryn is quite smart (and differentiates her from her father). Rictor makes an interesting appearance, telling more about himself than I think I've ever seen in a comic (in an interesting way), and Madrox is a freaking genius with how he scored a million bucks to upgrade his life (although it does provide ammo for the anti-mutant crowd, with such a thorough cheat). I can't say much more without spoiling story elements, but a great debut and I'm certainly gonna be buying this every month.

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

Honorable Mentions: Secret War #5 almost made the cut, as there was so much story in this one issue that it made all four previous ones (and the crossovers) not actually seem necessary. It all could have been done in one 48 page painted one shot, and I'd have bought it (especially with a new Rictor-esque character looking like Angelina Jolie -- way to make the eyes work for you). Oh well -- as it is, an ambitious and tardy near-miss. I kind of liked the moxie of Nightwing #115 but just can't see Slade outsmarted that easily. Books of Doom #2 has a Doomstadt-cum-Smallville feel as it expanded on the good Doctor's OHOTMU entry. I likewise almost liked Ultimate Iron Man #5 as it put all the pieces together. Majestic #12 raised the stakes, brought in a whole Halo Corporation (yay), and kept moving, only really failing to give any of the flash and pomp any substance or resonance.

Pass These Issues By: Gail Simone must be suffering from third degree Byrnes in Action Comics #834, because this tiresome issue with the Queen of Fables (who once practically stomped the entire JLA) is ... I can't even say it, it's so stupid. Firestorm #20 is whiny, with Jason Rusch barely even involved in some Infinite Crisis mess alongside Animal Man, or all people. Son of M # is just pathetic, with Rictor's power loss speech in X-Factor working better than this whole issue (although I loved the panel with Spidey crying). Captain Atom #3 was a bore, still treading water. The zombies in Teen Titans #30 did nothing for me, nor did JLA #123 -- is it just me, or does DC kind of suck these days, and Marvel is kind of hauling ass?

FINAL ANALYSIS: A big win week, with two jumps and some intriguing ideas in the misses.

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