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 NOVEMBER 21, 2018

Immortal Hulk #9 (Marvel Comics)

Jump from the Read Pile. The last issue of this very, very well done series was messed up in a way that might haunt your nightmares. This issue looked at all that happened and said, "hold my beer." Carl "Crusher" Creel is down and out after his lengthy and innovative run in Black Bolt, a victim of his own pride. This leads him into the arms of the military, working on Hulk-busting contingencies, and ... well, it gets super weird from there on.

Al Ewing's script combines violence and action with terror and horror in a way that looks effortless, while the artwork from Martin Simmonds, Joe Bennett, Ruy Jose, Paul Mounts and Cory Petit will definitely have your jaw dropping by the last page. This weird, wonderful work will mess with your head ... and you'll like it. RATING: BUY.

Shuri #2 isn't bad, but its title character lacks agency and drifts from the wishes and plans of one group of women to the influence of another. Her own methods and intellect are given short shrift in this series of misadventures, which is a shame because the underlying atmosphere and production values are sterling. We're waiting for you to shine, Shuri. Come through. RATING: HONORABLE MENTION.

Last Space Race #2 has some interesting moments as an intentionally insufferable genius manipulates the United States Senate and the military to reveal a secret nobody wants to tell. Fantastic snark, worthy of Warren Ellis, but a lot more talk than plot, a lot more ambiance than character. Let's see where it goes. RATING: HONORABLE MENTION.

Smooth Criminals #1 had great action sequences, fun art and some decent characterzation but didn't do enough to establish itself as a plot. Not bad, but not ready just yet. RATING: HONORABLE MENTION.

NEXT PAGE: Things get metal (in a bad way) with Optimus Prime, Go-Bots and Tony Stark: Iron Man

Optimus Prime #25 is a sloppy, emotional post script to the Hasbro IDW continuity, painting its title character less as a hero and more as a complex, problematic, polarizing figure that (as much as Megatron in Lost Light) lived long enough to embody Harvey Dent's warning from The Dark Knight. It's less a story and more an overwrought Dear John letter, which is ... something to see. RATING: MEH.

Tony Stark Iron Man #6 shows just how dumb its lead can be as he naively believes that a hyped up Second Life won't bring out the worst possible experience due to "safety protocols" that'd have Commander Data chuckling. For someone so smart, you'd think he'd know better ... RATING: NO. JUST ... NO.

Much like the source materials, Go-Bots #1 doesn't bother with explaining how giant transforming robots came to Earth, how they got integrated into daily life and military service and even underground gladiator fights (Cy-Kill is really a poor man's Megatron in that regard). It just takes these as a given and proceeds to tell a very plain Jane story of "some robots are bad, and some are good," without even bothering to name many of the players involved. Much like the source material, this disappoints. RATING: NO. JUST ... NO.

Justice League #12 is messy and incoherent as it reveals again that the forces of "good" are the worst possible enemy of the world. Luthor has some good moments but the plot stalls at multiple points, moving far too inconsistently to work properly. RATING: NO. JUST ... NO.

WHAT'S THE PROGNOSIS?

Holy crap, it was rough out there. At least we can be thankful it wasn't as many books happening ...

THE BUSINESS

Hot off the presses! New science fiction from the writer of this column? Get sample text and buy yourself a copy of Dark Universe: The Bright Empire for just sixteen bucks (paperback version) or five bucks (for the electronic version)!

The writer of this column just completed the latest season of the weekly web superhero comic Project Wildfire: Street Justice -- you can read it all for free for just a little while longer. 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!