Sam Christopher's Quick Hits

By Sam Christopher

A rather abbreviated QH this time, as Santa brought me the flu for Christmas (a lump of coal would have sufficed, I hate it when they get creative). This kept me from seeing The Spirit this weekend, but at least I got to have a nice visit with my family on Christmas Day, something I almost never do due to work schedules. Anyway…

Army of Darkness: Ash’s Christmas Horror- Ash finds out he has a Wonderful Life—so long as he gets a promotion out of the deal. Much better than the Halloween Special.

Brave and the Bold #20- Green Lantern and The Phantom Stranger are apparently powerless against The Purge… so next ish they’ll send for Green Arrow to save the day? Green… Arrow?!?

Hulk #9- Both stories in the split-book format end here—sort of. The first, Hulk vs. Ms. Marvel, The Sentry, and Moon Knight in Las Vegas, ends like a tv show. The second, Rulk vs. “The Mighty Marvel Man-Haters”, ends like a soap opera. Next ish, though, looks very, very good.

New Avengers #48- Writer Brian Michael Bendis and artist Billy Tan craft an excellent story of desperate parents and caring friends, individuals innocent and not, caught in the middle of the passions to which war can give rise… only to completely ruin it with a stupid and pointless final four pages. I ripped the comic in half and threw it across the room; it was that lame.

Skaar: Son of the Hulk #6- Old Sam reveals the mystery of the old legends—and it’s not something anyone wants to hear. Skaar proves to be his father’s son—which is good and bad, but mostly good. The Red King reappears—and it’s just weird. And a chrome-looking guy with a surfboard shows up at the end.

Spirit Special #1- I didn’t get to see the film but I did get to read these four classic tales from the Golden Age. Highly recommended.

Thor #12- Loki goes back in time to make his life the way it is. Hela figures out the mystery of Loki’s new feminine form (and you will, too, if you just think about it a little). Only thing that would have been better is if Loki had been shown to make what appeared to be a rather insignificant mistake, only to find that in the present it made his life intolerable.

Ultimatum #2- I don’t generally read the Ultimate line, other than FF and a few of the minis here and there (Card’s Ult. Iron Man being one of my absolute favorites). I thought this looked interesting, so… this 2nd ish is full of shocks and wildness, several deaths and a Death Goddess (two appearances by Hela in the same week may just be a portent). Jeph Loeb and David Finch tell the tale.

Vigilante #1- I loved the original Vig series, have every issue and most other appearances of the character. Not sure yet what I think about this new character who bears the name, but I’ll give original character creator Marv Wolfman the benefit of any doubt for now—the man’s earned that much at least. This first ish was a good setup.

Wonder Woman #27- Part two of “Rise of the Olympian” brings us the apparent death of Athena—turns out Star Trek had it fairly close—and the unveiling of Zeus’ master plan for the reward of all Amazon sacrifices through the centuries. Genocide has Wonder Woman’s lasso integrated into “her” body, and WW herself is far too battered to do anything about it.