Buy Pile Report

After how horrible Teen Titans #49 was (See post below!) I knew this Buy Pile could only get better. Surprisingly, it got better with Countdown #40.

Yes, I'll repeat that, Countdown was - gulp - Good this week. Not great, but good. And, on page 14, after waiting for so long after his initial scene in issue #51, we get to see DARKSEID! And, ole' Stoneface is shown with a Concubine! Can you imagine it? Darkseid with a concubine?!? Of course he vaporized her as soon as she spoke out of turn, but still, who pictures Darkseid gettin' it on?

We get a good deal of Jason Todd and Donna Troy's group in this one, which is one of the few storylines I'm enjoying in this series. Jason gets all badass on us, threatening to slice an enemy's face open during a fight, somehow resolving itself with everyone becoming friends. Still, it all works, and for the first time in a long time, Countdown was GOOD.

What else was good? Green Lantern Corps #14! It's the Sinestro Corps War, Man, of course it's good! Sinestro and Natu face off (With the big "S" kicking the newcomer around) but he also is laying down some Sinister plan by putting her in charge of Korugar, just to keep her out of the war. Not too many major developments other than this, but some great infantry action made this issue work great.

X-Men First Class #2 was fantastic as well (but then, you all know how I love this series). Great action, good jokes, and an intriguing story that, for the first time, did NOT wrap up in one issue! We have our first multi-part story. Still, the story has not felt decompressed, it still has the same old pacing, the story is just bigger.

That was the Good... now what is the bad?

Surprisingly, Incredible Hulk #108 was nothing to write home about. Combining with the fact that World War Hulk #2 was nothing special last week, and all of a sudden, this event has lost all of its considerable steam.

IH #108 had a decent story device going for it, comparing Rick Jones' history with the Hulk with Miek's history, with the intention of showing the parallel -- what kind of man Hulk was on Earth and what kind he was in space -- but the story just takes too damn long to be considered much more than a filler episode. I mean, Hulk didn't speak one word or advance at the least from where he was at the end of #107.

What else was bad? Wonder Woman #11. And this really disappointed me, because for 18 pages or so, I was finally feeling like Amazons Attack was starting to fulfill its promise. The JLA and JSA was teaming up to kick some ass, and Wonder Woman was flying full speed right at a Nuclear Missile aimed at her Amazons' Paradise. So what happens? Does Wonder Woman detonate the missile high above the air herself, taking the full impact onto her heroic self?

NO! The Giant visage of Athena appears and tells Diana how angry she is that Diana is trying to stop the war. Athena! Why can't we settle this war without ridiculous giant magical ghosts?!? Just as I thought "Amazons" was finally on track, it goes off the rails faster and farther than ever before.

I'm so upset I'm just ending this here. Well, that and the fact that I had run out of things to write about.