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 AUGUST 22, 2018

Darth Vader #20 (Marvel Comics)

Jump from the Read Pile. An old saying claims that idle hands are the devil's workshop, and this issue showcases the high cost of success. Vader and his team of Inquisitors have essentially killed every visible Jedi in the galaxy ... leaving him bored. A bored Vader is a bloodthirsty Vader, so he turns his eyes internally and that leads to mayhem on Coruscant.

This issue is ruthless and fast moving and terrifying in all the ways that Darth Vader should be. This is great work from Charles Soule, Guiseppe Camuncoli, Daniele Orlandini, Dono Sanchez-Almara, Erick Arciniega and Travis Lanham. RATING: BUY.

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Teen Titans #21 has some interesting elements as the team tracks down a surreptitious arms dealer but their combination of inexperience as a team and unpredictability as individuals hamper their effectiveness in delivering justice. It wasn't bad, but their chemistry wasn't compelling and they spent more time fighting each other than a legitimate antagonist. RATING: HONORABLE MENTION.

Did you ever have that one friend who's a walking train wreck and brings ruin and disaster to everyone around them? The titular character is like that in Star Wars Doctor Aphra #23, as she has to escape a space station before it can crash into an inhabited world and kill millions (including her, her ex, and her current lover). The plot meandered a bit too much and while it's normally super entertaining to watch Aphra be horrible to everyone, this seemed more stick than carrot for the reader. RATING: HONORABLE MENTION

Punisher #1 treats its lead less like a character and more like a weather system, raining bullets and mayhem on everywhere he visits. The super villain nation Bagalia teeters on legitimacy with the joint forces of the terrorist organization Hydra and the evil minotaur-led company Roxxon as allies, while heroes like Tony Stark stand powerless on the sidelines. Frank Castle, however, has a particular set of skills and a less particular set of weaponry, so he does what he does. Thin on character and heavy on plot, this is a smarter Punisher than you may be used to, and it ain't bad, but it lacks resonance because of the unidimensional characterization herein. RATING: HONORABLE MENTION.

Black Panther #3 is -- again -- gorgeous. It does more to set this story in time, thoroughly establishing this as a future for the Marvel Universe we know. That helps. It still implies that a Wakanda in the stars became corrupt and imperialistic, crushing civil liberties and becoming everything that Wakanda isn't, like a colonized whiplash reaction, and that's tiresome. The central hero still has very little agency or even much to do. Problematic? Yeah, that's the word. RATING: MEH.

Detective Comics #987 was very anticlimactic with a paper tiger antagonist and most of the issue focused on heroes arguing with each other. There were some smart parts, some deeply humanizing parts (Fred!) and gorgeous art with high production values, but it didn't connect, especially for a storyline finale. RATING: MEH.

Avengers #6 had the same problem as Detective Comics, a big build up and a whiff of a conclusion. The Final Host of the Celestials had a plan and Loki knows all but (predictably) tells so little. As the heroes finally figure it out (with way more repetition than was warranted) the "hippie-ish and kumbaya" solution, it's not exactly satisfying (even with one great "assemble" shot. Not bad, but more like a bunt than a home run. RATING: MEH.

There are some seriously new and interesting ideas floating around Barbarella #9 as a conflict between two alien species gets very messy very fast. The art, the lead character, nor her supporting cast, carry the weight of the fascinating ideas presented here, but there are a few pages that are enthralling. RATING: MEH.

Another day, another swipe at the foundations of Bruce Wayne's psychologically disturbed "life." Batman Kings Of Fear #1 brings in an Arkham doctor to read the riot act to the Bat, who's all punches and elbows as he dispatches henchmen he could more easily dismantle with his checkbook. Even he seems to admit he doesn't know why. This issue didn't tell you anything you couldn't find in a Facebook group argument, but its arthouse stylings were interesting. RATING: MEH.

Thrilling Adventure Hour #2 has fun visuals and two leads that are almost dripping with charm. The mystery, itself, is a little ponderous and the other characters way too milquetoast to maintain the narrative weight they require. This might work better once collected, but as a single issue it stumbles. RATING: MEH.

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Damage Annual #1 centers on a character that's a bootleg Hulk. No, that's not right. The titular character here is a bootleg Red Hulk. Hang on, wait, that's not fair. Damage is a bootleg second Red Hulk, not even the original "mustache into muscle" Thunderbolt Ross version, a copy of a copy of a copy. If every second of this issue (and they literally count them down) wasn't so derivative, so bland, so devoid of innovation, it might have just been boring. As it is, for a cover price of five bucks, it's laughably bad. Shut it down. RATING: NO. JUST ... NO.

Shadowman #6 is an installment in a history trip down the background of the title character which has, by and large, been fairly innocuous. This time, however, the insults are added to injuries by going back 40,000 years to "Africa" (where in the eleven million square miles of the continent is this happening? Never says) and applying a poorly understood interpretation of the naming conventions of indigenous peoples from around the world to the stereotypically depicted people there. There are a plethora of things wrong with the conceptual underpinnings of this book, and the execution is only so-so (the coloring could take some notes from Mshindo here). Overall, this is a tepid karaoke rendering of historical elements, the First Order of Empires, all of the production values and none of the "oomph." RATING: NO. JUST ... NO.

Daredevil #607 centers on a story element that, at best, is stupid and at worst should have been dealt with in a previous miniseries where the exact same problem arose. Given how adventurous this series was a few months ago, this is disappointing. RATING: NO. JUST ... NO.

WHAT'S THE PROGNOSIS?

... one good versus three bad equals pretty stinky for the week. Guh.

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!