WHAT IS THE BUY PILE?

Every week Hannibal Tabu (winner of the 2012 Top Cow Talent Hunt/blogger/novelist/poet/jackass on Twitter/head honcho of Komplicated) grabs a whole lotta comics. These periodicals are quickly sorted (how) into two piles -- the "buy" pile (a small pile most weeks, comprised of planned purchases) and the "read" pile (often huge, often including comics that are really crappy but have some value to stay abreast of). Thursday afternoons you'll be able to get his thoughts (and they're just the opinions of one guy, so calm down, and here's some common definitions used in the column) about all of that ... which goes something like this ...

THE BUY PILE FOR JANUARY 31, 2018

Star Wars Doctor Aphra #16 (Marvel Comics)

Jump from the Read Pile. There is a lot to love about the latest adventure of the not-so-good doctor. She is at the head of a team of largely random space weirdos trying to steal old data files from before the Republic. Unfortunately, the Empire -- in the form of an austere commander who has the hots for our title character -- is hot on their heels. Toss in some random mishaps, a simply elegant bit of pre-fratbro Amadeus Cho-styled plot misdirection (or Uriel if you like the new Lucifer show) and you have a book with laughs, shocks and fascination. This work from Kieron Gillen, Si Spurrier, Emilio Laiso, Rachelle Rosenberg and Joe Caramagna may skimp on some of the cannon fodder, but they've got it where it counts. This was quite a fun read.

Astro City #50 (Vertigo/DC Comics)

Jump from the Read Pile. From taken-too-soon television shows to cinematic takes on Dwayne McDuffie's genius, there has been an interesting amount of discussion in comics of the immediate aftermath of superhero battles, but this issue digs deeper, looking at the effects years down the road. A man named Mike lost the love of his life as collateral damage from conflicts between super powered people and turned his loss into a support group called Miranda's Friends. With meetings all day throughout weekdays, Mike offers an ear to people in similar situations and this issue shows the varying degrees of how people struggle with that from the whimsical to the tragic. Writer Kurt Busiek wonderfully depicts even the most peripheral of characters, imbuing them with humanity and depth. This work by Busiek and the visual team of Brent Anderson, John Roshell, Sarah Jacobs and Peter Pantazis is a sequel to the Eisner-nominated "The Nearness of You," and goes after those heartstrings like they owe it money.

WHAT'S THE PROGNOSIS?

Thrilling and poignant in turns, those are a couple of fine, fine purchases. There was one amazing book that couldn't be reviewed, but you know how that is ...

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THIS WEEK'S READ PILE

Honorable Mentions: Stuff worth noting, even if it's not good enough to buy

Deathstroke Annual #1 is a mess by design as a cascading downward spiral of bad decisions that came close to getting home but stumbled due to its embarrassment of riches. The individual character struggles -- the challenges of Power Girl, the confusion of (Black) Wally West (especially over superhero butts, which so sounded like Greg Cipes should have been saying it) and the actual mission at hand -- are good, but none of them have enough room to shine. The Wally and Tonya scene alone could have expanded two more pages to give their characters time to develop. It's an ambitious but flawed attempt that swings for the fences but bunts.

Invincible Iron Man #596 felt like three different comic books each fighting the others to try and be this issue, but all of them ending up lessened on the ground. No, not this. Deathstroke Annual was closer than this by delivering better (if as badly integrated) individual subplots.

Silencer #1 was extremely close to making the mark with the legacy of Talia Al Ghul's Leviathan criminal organization coming back with a murderous vengeance. Honor Guest is an assumed name, living an assumed life and trying not to be a killer. The game wasn't done with her and old business rears its head. There are great scenes showing her home life and her powers and skills in action. The opening scene, however, rang so false that it threw the rest of the work into question. Perhaps later works will make that more logical, but it flies in the face of the rest of the characterization here.

Despite gorgeous artwork and some intriguing ideas, Doctor Who The Tenth Doctor Year Three #13 didn't have enough story meat on its narrative bones, and likely would fare better as quarterly graphic novels instead of monthly comics.

Star Wars The Last Jedi DJ #1 could be subtitled "everybody's awful" as the titular scoundrel stumbles from short sighted scam to half-baked caper with as much foresight as FEMA in 2004. Sure, he's less horrible than literally every other character, but that's surely being damned by faint praise. Not bad, but stories like this make the idea of a superweapon to blow up planets full of people starts sounding logical, which isn't exactly enjoyable.

No, just ... no ... These comics? Not so much ...

Dark Nights Metal #5 is truly, remarkably terrible in so many ways that it's hard to keep up. First, its plot. On multiple ... levels of reality or something, the Big Seven (plus J'onn J'onnz) fight against an army of evil multidimensional super powered Batmen, mashed up with either villains or heroes. Sure, that's dumb, but that's been dumb for a while. Then there's character elements -- Wonder Woman spends half the issue shouting at somebody when a specifically delivered punch got what she wanted. Batman sounds he's puking Hallmark cards. Mister Terrific is suddenly Plastic Man's BFF. Shenanigans, all of it. Then, Deathstroke is telling bad dad jokes and Starro has five buttholes. Please, for the love of Julius Schwartz, make it stop.

In Flash Annual #1, Wally West (the white one) makes a selfish decision based on his own desperation and poor planning that ruins lives and businesses without a second thought. After all these years, there has to be a better way to make speedster stories than making the Flash a dummy. Guh.

Imagine taking the standardized cliches and tropes of super hero team ups and strained them through shredded pages of Nextwave, JLA Doom Patrol Special #1 is pretty much what you'd get. A gorgeously drawn LSD-scented mess, this is less story and more "ideas forced together and held hostage." Awful.

SO, HOW BAD WAS IT?

It was a fight, given that a lot of "meh" could have easily been rated lower, this was a bit of a grind to make it through. Five buttholes. Ew.

WINNERS AND LOSERS

Three bad books beat even two jumps for a week that goes down like a sack of wet hair.

THE BUSINESS

This week saw the release of Menthu: The Anger of Angels available online, at The Comic Bug Manhattan Beach, CA and Hi De Ho Comics in Santa Monica, CA. 72 pages of superhero goodness for ten bucks? Can't get that from the big boys ...

This columnist also saw his poetry published in Voices from Leimert Park Redux, available wherever you are.

The writer of this column writes a weekly web superhero comic -- Project Wildfire: Street Justice -- free every week. Can't beat "free."

The writer of this column isn't just a jerk who spews his opinions -- he writes stuff too. A lot. Like what? You can get Scoundrel (historical fiction set in 1981 east Los Angeles), Irrational Numbers: Addition (a supernatural historical fiction saga with vampires), Project Wildfire: Enter Project Torrent (a collected superhero web comic), The Crown: Ascension and Faraway, five bucks a piece, or spend a few more dollars and get New Money #1 from Canon Comics, the rambunctious tale of four multimillionaires running wild in Los Angeles, a story in Watson and Holmes Volume 2 co-plotted by 2 Guns creator Steven Grant, two books from Stranger Comics -- Waso: Will To Power and the sequel Waso: Gathering Wind (the tale of a young man who had leadership thrust upon him after a tragedy), or Fathom Sourcebook #1, Soulfire Sourcebook #1, Executive Assistant Iris Sourcebook #1 and Aspen Universe Sourcebook, the official guides to those Aspen Comics franchises. Love these reviews? It'd be great if you picked up a copy. Hate these reviews? Find out what this guy thinks is so freakin' great. There's free sample chapters too, and all proceeds to towards the care and maintenance of his kids ... oh, and to buy comic books, of course. There’s also a bunch of great stuff -- fantasy, superhero stuff, magical realism and more -- available from this writer on Amazon. What are you waiting for? Go buy a freakin' book already!

Got a comic you think should be reviewed in The Buy Pile? If we get a PDF of a fairly normal length comic (i.e. "less than 64 pages") by no later than 24 hours before the actual issue arrives in stores (and sorry, we can only review comics people can go to stores and buy), we guarantee the work will get reviewed, if remembered. Physical comics? Geddouttahere. Too much drama to store with diminishing resources. If you send it in more than two days before comics come out, the possibility of it being forgotten increases exponentially. Oh, you should use the contact form as the CBR email address hasn't been regularly checked since George W. Bush was in office. Sorry!