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 MAY 1, 2019

War Of The Realms Strikeforce The Dark Elf Realm #1 (Marvel Comics)

Jump from the Read Pile. This is a distinctive surprise. By focusing on what makes the characters engaging, this issue even fought its way through a holodeck episode midway through the story to create a tale that works in spite of the tedious and uninspired crossover that birthed it.

RELATED: War of the Realms Gives Venom an Asgardian Upgrade

At Steve Rogers' request, the Punisher has come to help Asgardian queen Freyja find ill-tempered "heroes" to do something messy. This Bryan Hill script is littered with delightful quotes ("mankind's one enduring achievement") really gets the voices of Frank Castle, Freyja, Blade and Robbie Reyes in particular (be nice to see him take on any of them outside of this current situation), and in doing so makes a great callback at the end, skipping some plot elements covered in the main title and substituting super engaging character interplay, especially between Castle and Freyja. RATING: BUY.

Deathstroke #43 (DC Comics)

<i>Deathstroke</i> #43
Will Damian Wayne break bad in Deathstroke #43?

Jump from the Read Pile. This issue made the jump for its combination of interesting action scenes and some very interesting character development for the Son of the Bat. Deathstroke is a malicious catalyst, manipulating people and deadly weapons and super powers with the ease of setting a timer on a microwave. This story from Christopher J. Priest and Adam Glass is a wicked, kinetic delight with clever, creative and even shocking artwork from Carlo Pagulayan, Sergio Davila, Pop Mhan, Jason Paz, Norm Rapmund, Andy Owens, Jeromy Cox and Willie Schubert runs the gamut in the best possible way. RATING: BUY.

RELATED: Teen Titans' Adam Glass Teases a New Love Triangle and the Debut of Lobo

If you pick up Spencer And Locke 2 #1 immediately after you finish the brilliant previous volume, you'll be fine, already immersed in most of these characters and the struggles they've seen. If not, this issue's in a bit too much of a hurry to show how one of the titular leads is different, rushing the new antagonist's introduction too. This is great, gritty material but not doing as deep a dive as the previous volume. RATING: HONORABLE MENTION.

Star Wars #65 creeps by at this petty pace, barely advancing the plot from last issue aside from its ending. Great looking work, the Queen of Sho-Torun finally gets a second to do something, and the characters are a ton of fun, but the lack of narrative urgency made this fall short. That might matter less in a collected edition. RATING: HONORABLE MENTION.

DC's Year Of The Villain #1 has some suitably villainous soundbites but lacks the oomph of consequence, prancing around as just another end-of-the-universe scenario. Lex Luthor's big idea is almost fresh, but it seems like too little, far too late. Milquetoast threats toasted lightly. RATING: MEH.

RELATED: Scott Snyder Explains How Lex Luthor Creates DC's Year of the Villains

Transformers #4 is deathly slow, plodding towards a farewell for a ... well, "friend" might be too strong, but the shockwaves of a murder on a planet full of immortals reverberate ... slowly. The art's fantastic, but the actual reason for the bubbling tension which we all know leads to the Cybertron Civil War remains frustratingly vague and elusive. RATING: MEH.

WHAT'S THE PROGNOSIS?

Two very clever jumps and nothing truly bad makes this week a big winner.

THE BUSINESS

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!