WHAT IS THE BUY PILE?
Every week Hannibal Tabu (winner of the 2012 Top Cow Talent Hunt/2018-2019 City of Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs Cultural Trailblazer/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 APRIL 3, 2019
Die #5 (Image Comics)
Jump from the Read Pile. This issue's title is "Premise Rejection," but it could easily have been called "hard choices" as the group of childhood friends make all-too-grown up decisions, playing by the rules of this so twisted RPG turned real. There are great turns from the Dictator and the Fool, and there are fun surprises from both the Godbinder and the Grandmaster. Writer Kieron Gillen did a great job with this homebrew gaming system and getting the reader invested in the characters while Stephanie Hans and Clayton Cowles make every panel a natural 17 or higher (especially the "never unarmed" bit). RATING: BUY.
Deathstroke #42 is a real mixed bag with kinetic, vibrant imagery clashing with chaotic plotting. Razor sharp dialogue wrestles with pacing concerns. This could be great or could fall on its face, depending on how you read it. Ambitious but flawed, this didn't get it together. RATING: HONORABLE MENTION
Star Wars #64 is that part of the heist movie where everything is going according to plan to lull you into a false sense or security before everything goes wrong. The set up from previous issues was too cursory for this to connect -- there's no emotional impact from any supporting character aside from the actor, and even leads like Luke and Chewie get stuck with cliches to spout. Gorgeous looking book, and as a twenty minute segment of a movie, this would be great, but it's not doing it as a single issue. RATING: HONORABLE MENTION.
Green Lantern #6 had a couple of moments of wonderful dialogue but an antagonist who was all too simple and a predictable plot that had very little going on. RATING: MEH.
War Of The Realms #1 feels smaller than the Inferno crossover of yesteryear, even though it has much higher-powered characters. This ain't bad, with two legitimate shocks and a lot of great pinups, but the plot doesn't truly inspire a reaction given what's on the page here. Gorgeous looking work, though. RATING: MEH.
Bronze Age Boogie #1 took a big, ambitious swing at a cross time caper with ridiculously one-note characters (like Go-Go Golem) and characters feeling like they're out of place. Good art, but the plot rushes and then goes too slow and never connects where it needs to. If it can even out and hit its marks, this could be something. RATING: MEH.
Amber Blake #1 follows the track of making orphans into super soldiers, but without doing much to distinguish its lead characters except by the trail of innocent bodies around them. Good looking artwork can't make this dig deeper. RATING: MEH.
Justice League #21 goes further down the rabbit hole into a seemingly-utopic future, forcing even Batman to question everything. Unfortunately, half the lines here are riffs on things that have happened in universe-ending tales before, so this is all pretty repetitive. RATING: MEH
If you mix Buffy the Vampire Slayer with the show Reaper, you'll find something like Obey Me #1, a stylized pastiche of cliches with an foul tempered blank slate of a protagonist and rivalries that get explained by shorthand and hope. It's possible this could all be new to somebody, but it's not very probable. RATING: MEH
Amazing Spider-Man #18.HU was morose and tragic, but well told, giving you everything you never knew about the Gibbon. What's that? You don't give a crap about the Gibbon? Well, this story won't change that. RATING: MEH.
On top of having its central conceit be a person of color jailed for a romantic relationship with a white woman who faces zero consequences, Age Of X-Man Prisoner X #2 had a super odd closing sequence (stop hitting yourself!), a vague set of montage shots masquerading as narrative and so little characterization because it seems to expect cultural shorthand to fill in the gaps. Do we have to keep doing this? RATING: NO. JUST ... NO.
WHAT'S THE PROGNOSIS?
Despite a multitude of "meh," one jump versus one stinker makes the week a wash in the final analysis.
THE BUSINESS
If you would be so kind, please vote for Nerdist's The Impact of Black Panther in the Webby Awards as it heavily features this columnist (see?).
Look for WonderCon video next week!
Have you checked out season four of the free web comic Project Wildfire: The Once and Future King? Every week catch a page of the story for the best possible price: "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!