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 OCTOBER 17, 2018

Unstoppable Wasp #1 (Marvel Comics)

Jump from the Read Pile. If you take the bright, fun animated-style artwork from Gwenpool and apply it to the quirky antics of a girl genius, you'd get this slightly goofy but very endearing romp. The beekeepers of A.I.M. are back at it and Nadia Pym has a team of STEM-minded teenaged gal pals to (safely) help her fight the forces of what we'll call, for shorthand's sake, evil. The script from Jeremy Whitley manages a fairly big cast with deftness, even giving a new antagonist a reason to shine (especially if you know what her father Hank Pym has been up to), and the visuals from Gurihiru and Joe Caramagna are practically perfect.

Shuri #1 is a flawless exploration of the character that accepts all we've seen before while infusing the flavor and wonder Letitia Wright gave the character. The introduction of The Elephant's Trunk was both intriguing and worrisome like Stark's old Illuminati meetings. The artwork is very engaging and Wakanda looks vibrant and fantastic. Why not buy? Well, it wasn't the elder crossing their arms wrong for the Wakanda Forever salute, but for all the things that could have happened, very little actually did, all while making T'challa again takes a mis-step. A problematic fave at best, but it definitely has room to improve. RATING: HONORABLE MENTION.

Star Wars Darth Vader #22 had some interesting perspectives on art and a lot of info on a previously unknown Sith (who followed almost none of the rules) but it was less of a story and more of a murder-minded wiki entry. RATING: HONORABLE MENTION.

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So many comics deal in old business, and Justice League #10 and Aquaman #41 both look at threats from the days of Arion (renowned again, not taking a heel turn) that's a threat because they say they are that are utterly without distinction or relatable motivations and go full redshirt army in a way that's too quick to be effective. Double up: RATING: MEH SQUARED.

Daredevil #609 had a couple of great motivational quotes and its normal high production values, but it didn't go very far as a story with a vague threat and hubristic ambition. RATING: MEH.

Cover #2 has a Scarecrow and Mrs. King vibe to it steeped in comics ... culture? You could call it that. It's talky without telling you anything worth knowing, visually inconsistent and despite its platitudes, advocating doing the wrong thing. RATING: MEH.

Infinity Wars Weapon Hex #1 likes to play pun-ny little games with musical cues but has threadbare characters and a paint by numbers plot. Great looking book but not much meat on it's story bones. RATING: MEH.

Green Lanterns #57 had two Kryptonian-class combatants, each with power rings, plus Hal Jordan ... and a fight scene that took almost half the page count but lacked a single unforgettable moment. Add to that a strange character decision at the end and this book has some explaining to do. RATING: MEH.

WHAT'S THE PROGNOSIS?

Welp ... nothing was really bad, but it was kind of like wading through pudding.

THE BUSINESS

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!