Sam Christopher's Quick Hits

First, the team of Christopher Yost (Secret Invasion: Young Avengers/Runaways, X-Men: Evolution teleseries) and Pasqual Ferry (Heroes for Hire, Adam Strange) continue their adaptation of Orson Scott Card’s Ender’s Game with a second ish in which Ender arrives at Battle School. He makes a roomful of enemies with the help of the faculty—Battle School is run with a Machiavellian bent—and a friend with no help whatsoever, and discovers the Battle Room. I really like the way these two are adapting this story. The pacing just feels right. (When Steve Niles adapted the original Dawn of the Dead to comics it seemed like over two thirds of the story was in the last issue.) Why, oh, why has this novel never been made into a film or cable mini? I read—or listened to—a monologue by Card himself once where he said it was too cost-prohibitive due to his inflexibility story-wise and child actor union rules and labor laws. I’m sure he knows this subject far better than I but I still enjoy complaining about that which I cannot have. As Bones McCoy once said, “It’s the human thing to do.”

Next we have The Brave and the Bold #19, part one of Green Lantern-Phantom Stranger pairing. Arcadia Hospital is a “house of secrets”. Not only does it house the birth-defect scarred children of failed drug company experiments but one of these children, a little girl who’s never spoken, has apparently started having apocalyptic visions—only these visions are of other worlds, and she describes these worlds in their own languages. The visions lead GL and PS to a planet at the edge of the Guardians’ influence, but a world with its own GL. “Without Sin” is written by David Hine(X-Men: The 198, Silent War) and penciled by David Braithwaite (The Punisher Kills the Marvel Universe, Secret Invasion: Thor).

IDW brings us another Star Trek mini—the Mirror Universe and Assignment:Earth have been outstanding—this time a “Myriad Universe” 5 issue story called The Last Generation. “Myriad” stories unfold from an alternate outcome to an established ST canon plot point, a riff on Marvel’s “ What if…” concept. This story is set in the Next Generation timeframe and based on what would have happened had the Federation President been assassinated at Khittomer in ST VI: The Undiscovered Country. Andrew Steven Harris (Fallen Angel, Star Trek: New Frontier) and Gordon Purcell (Silver Sable and the Wild Pack, Justice League Unlimited) have fashioned a good first issue. Comes in three covers, one a photo of Brent Spiner as Data, another an homage to the X-Men “Days of Future Past” cover.

Other comics:
Dynamite brings us the apparent end of the Rebirth of Red Sonja in RS #39, and Savage Tales #10 has the first installments of two new stories, one starring The She-Devil with a Sword and the other Hercules.

Ambush Bug #4- Dan Didio R. I. P., and “When Socks Attack!”

Kingdom Come Special: Magog- Peter Tomasi (Nightwing, Aquaman) and Fernando Pasarin (Ion: Guardian of the Universe, Countdown to Final Crisis) story centering on David Reid, the dead Marine resurrected by Gog to become Earth-One’s Magog. Also has a backup story with the origin of the 31st Century Starman by Geoff Johns (The Flash, Avengers) and Scott Kolins (The New Invaders, Marvel Team Up).

Fantastic Four #561- The death of… well, you really should be reading it. I promise someone big really does die. Sort of.

Supergirl #35- A New Krypton chap. Kara’s mother hates Linda Lang, Cat Grant continues to be a vindictive hack, and we learn the truth about Kara’s past. Again. Let’s just hope they stick with this one.