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) takes on an between seven to thirteen reviews (or so) to share his opinions with you. Thursday afternoons you'll be able to get those thoughts (and they're just the opinions of one guy, so calm down) about all of that ... which goes something like this ...
THE BUY PILE FOR MARCH 28, 2018
Abbott #3 (Boom! Studios)
Jump from the Read Pile. This issue got the series' groove back, mixing the supernatural with the challenges of 1970s Detroit. There was good character work here as we delved deeper into the protagonist's divorce, her role as a community advocate and her relationship with her gruff editor. Likewise the plot kept moving from an unusual murder attempt to newspaper business to the magical challenges facing the city.
Finally, the big action pieces stood up and forced you to take notice, Writer Saladin Ahmed is gracefully walking a tight rope with this script and Sami Kivela, Jason Wordie and Jim Campbell deliver on every visual aspect of the tale, down to the newspaper article excerpts as a framing device. RATING: BUY.
Star Wars Doctor Aphra #18 (Marvel Comics)
Jump from the Read Pile. If you're a horrible person, you're really gonna love this issue. The titular doctor is still on mission, manipulated into finding the lost memories of the murderous droid crime lord Triple-Zero. Her scheme has more layers than grandma's holiday cake, one involving the kidnap (and fairly regular berating) of General Hera Syndulla of Star Wars: Rebels fame.
This Kieron Gillen/Si Spurrier script is full of blind alleys and misdirections that will delight and amuse, and the dialogue is very engaging even amidst the betrayals and murder and what not. The visuals from Emilio Laiso, Rachelle Rosenberg and Joe Caramagna aptly handle moments grandiose (a big space battle) and intimate (a bashful admission). RATING: BUY.
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Where the first issue was a well balanced mix of hormones and high adventure, Buffy The Vampire Slayer Season 11 Giles #2 is a collection of witty bon mots looking for a plot. The threat, such as it is, was barely worth the title and even though every bit of dialogue is magic (sometimes literally), the plot and character development lagged a bit. Let's see if this series can find its way back to greatness next month. RATING: HONORABLE MENTION.
Cyber Force #1 had a rock solid emotional core about people terrified of losing what matters. Unfortunately, the antagonist is a wisp of smoke thus far and the plot doesn't have time to do much. Nothing went wrong, but there was room for much more to go right. Let's see if that happens. RATING: HONORABLE MENTION.
In Avengers #686, there are two interesting stories that could be told. Simon Williams, in essence, cannot die -- he will always reform as nearly invulnerable, super strong ionic energy behind the face of a Hollywood superstar now committed to paficism. The Hulk, likewise, cannot die, a now wholly intelligent expression of bottomless rage and strength. There was almost a moment between them where something real happened, when we got to understand something, but it got shattered by the flight of Mjolnir and Hercules' battle bravado. Then, the relationship between the Grandmaster and the Challenger, friends turned bitter foes over tens of millions of years, had some interesting twists that likewise got lost in the sturm und drang. There were two smart comic books in here, but they got buried underneath, as philosopher Keith Matthew Thornton said, "the simple back and forth, the same." Shame. RATING: HONORABLE MENTION.
Saga #50 is an issue that is similar to many others in this series since it hit the late twenties. There are some entertaining quotes. There's likely some weird space nudity. There's an immediate threat of violence. There's one or two actual moments of emotional honesty. There's amazing art. What isn't there is a connecting thread past the long-running meta theme of the character Hazel vaguebooking moments in her past from some unknown point in the future. A sequence of events is not a story, and while this is in fact beautiful and poignant at points, it doesn't really move forward clearly and that's a deficit. RATING: HONORABLE MENTION.
Daredevil #600 is unfortunately pretty predictable through most of its story as Wilson Fisk does a lot less than he should need to do to make almost everyone else look dumb. There's a lengthy side quest with Blindspot and Muse that doesn't seem connected to anything important. The last page, however, has a really funny reveal that's super entertaining. One good idea, however, doesn't make the cut. RATING: MEH.
Champions #18 really stuck the landing on some emotional moments (especially with Slim Summers and Viv Vision) and squeezed much more action and drama from its meager plot than one might expect. Unfortunately, that's not quite enough to rise above the clamor. RATING: MEH.
If you know all the characters, Battlestar Galactica Vs Battlestar Galactica #3 is a roller coaster ride of tense moments (Saul Tigh meets an alien who knows too much) and fanservice (Starbuck vs. Starbuck) that has a good number of entertaining moments but doesn't exactly connect into a plot. If this is all news to you, literally none of this will make sense as there are way too many toys pulled out of the box, including "classic" Admiral Cain. RATING: MEH.
Doomsday Clock #4 offers up the origin of Rorschach 2.0 as a collection of hamfisted cliches and threadbare similes, literally confirming every fan theory. Like watching a gifted mimic ape the works of a master, this shows someone clearly pored over the original panels of the Moore and Gibbons with exhausting detail but, in simulating the gait of the cadences or the visual stylings of the original, this issue fails mightily in what was done so effectively by the source material -- making it vibrant with new takes on things. There's a scene where a climactic event almost happens and literally devolves into a sobbing mess that would be thrown out of the writers' room of even the schmaltziest soap opera. This is bad, really bad, like a kid spilling milk on Joe Jackson's shirt (not the singer, Michael's dad). To call this karaoke would be too high as praise, to imply it's fan fiction would deny the work that goes into reworking the source material. No, this is an echo, diminishing as it recedes into nothingness. RATING: NO. JUST ... NO.
If you had all the money you could want to make a comic book but a shaky antagonist and a story concept that wavered between ridiculous and unimpressive, it'd probably flop limply to the ground like Dark Nights Metal #6. A messy, incoherent, tedious after school special of a crossover finale, the Justice League takes cues from Captain Planet as Barbatos is revealed ... and is less impressive than Sentinel Prime in one of those bad Bayformers movies. Even more egregious is the further undoing of crossovers past, reintroducing arguments and challenges long laid to rest from a continuity standpoint. Exhausting, needless work here. RATING: NO. JUST ... NO.
WHAT'S THE PROGNOSIS?
More good than (arguably) bad means that this week gets the thumbs up as a winner.
THE BUSINESS
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 to try and review the work, 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!