The Christmas Spirit

Will Eisner's The Spirit ran as part of a 16-page syndicated supplement in newspapers from June, 1940 to October, 1952. During this print run, a total of 9 annual holiday set tales were published. (Eisner was drafted into the Army during the height of World War II, resulting in the yule tide Spirit capers to be postponed from 1942-1944.) These stories were published as 'The Christmas Spirit.' In these festive adventures, The Spirit takes a backseat; in fact, he's not even in a couple of these stories. The anti-hero formerly known as Denny Colt refuses to work on Christmas, claiming that another Spirit works in his stead every December 25th. For many fans, these are some of the most beloved stories from Will Eisner's most famous creation and I might just have to agree.

This 1994 trade paperback from Kitchen Sink Press collects all 9 stories. There's also an introduction by Eisner that no fan of comic books should overlook. It explains how the very Jewish Will Eisner came to create a yearly story that became a Christian holiday tradition for millions of readers.

To pick a favorite would be like picking the child you like most. There's so many great stories here. But if I had to select the one that was my least favorite, it would be December 1946's 'A Fable'. In this story, a trio of characters are accosted separately by Central City lowlifes. It turns out that these 3 men are ambassadors attempting to solve the crisis of Post World War II European reconstruction. Should they fail, the region will fall back into an endless cycle of conflict. Each one's individual assaults threaten that peace process. Why was it the winner of my least favored read? For one, the story was confusing. For second, the plot of the story is unbalanced, focusing on 2 of the ambassadors while seemingly forgetting the third altogether by page 2 of the tale.

A product of the 1940s and 50s, there are some outdated elements. Elements such as the exaggerated look of Spirit's sidekick, Ebony, have been lamented over often as poor decisions by Eisner. If you are willing to overlook those dreadful parts of history and see this book as a time capsule of how people thought and acted during the time period, you can enjoy this book. While it has its sins, The Christmas Spirit collection is a heck of a lot more positive than just about anything currently being released by any form of multi-media. 2023 feels like a time where nothing can improve. 1940-51 Christmas Spirit stories felt like there was a promise of a new day on the horizon. 

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 9 out of 10 stars.

Darkhawk Annual #3 (2023 Comic Book & Graphic Novel Reading Challenge)

The character of Darkhawk is very similar to Captain Marvel, when he was bonded to Rick Jones. 

In Captain Marvel #17, Rick Jones finds the Nega-Bands, which are used by Mar-vell to increase his super strength and other heightened abilities. When activated, Jones would switch places with Mar-vell who was for a time trapped in the Negative Zone. Thankfully, a protective bubble would prevent Rick from getting annihilated from Annihilus and the scores of other fiends that occupy the Negative Zone during these switcheroos. Meanwhile, both Mar-vell and Rick Jones share a telepathic link during their interconnected period.

Jump ahead to March, 1991 for the first issue of Darkhawk. New York teen Chris Powell discovers a magical amulet. When used, the bauble allows Chris to switch places with the android Darkhawk, who normally resides in an advanced starship located in a dimension known as Null Space. When switching places, Chris could control Darkhawk, even summoning an arsenal of weapons and gadgets housed on Darkhawk vessel. 

When the third annual of Darkhawk hits stands in August, 1994, Chris Powell and Darkhawk have discovered a way for the two to operate as one as well as separately without either having to be stuck in the other dimension. Just like Rick Jones and Captain Marvel were able to do permanently after aiding the Avengers in a battle with the Super-Adaptoid.

In the title story ' Future Shock', Darkhawk is fighting with arch -enemy, Dreamkiller while Chris Powell is mending his strained relationships with family and friends. At one point, Chris is sent to the store for ice cream when a descendant of Dreamkiller known as Damek is sent from the future to avenge the humiliations both Powell and Darkhawk have imposed on his ancestor. Eventually Damek teams with his very distant relative, after freeing him from jail. But when Damek sees the sadistic way Dreamkiller treats innocents, the descendant learns the truth and teams with Darkhawk and Powell to bring the real evil one down.

Three other stories comprise this annual.

Story number 2 teams Chris operating as Darkhawk with the Sorcerer Supreme, Doctor Strange. This team up is a cyberpunk supernatural thriller in which Darkhawk must enter the internet to repair a breach computer researchers accidentally formed with the realm of the dread Dormammu! 

Chris Powell uses his Darkhawk abilities to solve the drive-by killing of a former high school classmate in the third tale.

The last story involves Savage Steel, an armored antihero who has had run ins with both Darkhawk and the Punisher. In his solo short story, Savage Steel tries to bust up the operations of a small time drug dealer by using the very teens that the thug tried to violently recruit as drug mules as Savage Steel's neighborhood watch.

Darkhawk and Chris Powell were created by Tom Defalco and Mike Manley. Neither of which contributed to this 64-page annual. 4 separate teams worked on the quartet of stories within, including Danny Fingeroth, Eric Fein and Jim Novak. Cover art by Andy Lanning.

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 7 out of 10 stars.

Completing this review completes Task #39 (An Annual) of the 2023 Comic Book and Graphic Novel Reading Challenge.

The Kindred

If you are not familiar with the earliest properties created by Image Comics, then you'll probably be like me when reading The Kindred- LOST! 

The loose cannon Grifter and no-nonsense Marc Slayton must join forces in order to save a pair of high-ranking government officials who have been kidnapped. Both have their own reasons. One is begrudgingly doing this mission in return for information. The other has motives of revenge, redemption and romance. 

Together Grifter and Slayton and a team of special operatives head down to an undisclosed South America island to a defunct research station. It's here that the sins of the US government have reared their ugly head. It seems that the whole facility is full of human-animal hybrids. It's like a hi-tech Island of Dr. Moreau and the head of this group of freaks, known as the Kindred, is someone thought long dead from Grifter and Slayton's days with Team 7.

I think that's a fairly decent recollection of the 4-issue miniseries from 1994. I don't really understand a lot of the backstory or insider jokes and Easter eggs that float around in this story. But I'm not really sure I want to either.

For the life of my, I don't remember where or how I got my hands on this book. It just ended up in my collection somehow. My collection has been known as the spot where other's old collections come to find new life. So, I probably got this as part of a donation from someone looking to unload their collection. Being a book that contained a whole story in just one volume, I probably decided to hold on to this until I felt like reading it. And recently, that day arrived.

With a slew of talent behind this miniseries, I'm really disappointed. Jim Lee (X-Men), Brandon Choi (Deathblow) and Sean Ruffner (Backlash) wrote the script. Pencils were by Brett Booth (Teen Titans) and Chris Eilopoulos (Cosmic Commandos) was the letterer. And yet this whole thing stunk!

I'm going to try really hard to be fair to this book as it's my first encounter with the vintage Image universe and almost all of these characters. But, my gracefulness can only go so far...

I think 3 writers was 2 too many. The dialogue was full of action movie cliches (and bad action movies at that!) and a lot of the plot didn't make sense. I still don't understand how nobody knew who kidnapped those government officials but managed to go to the correct island. Aren't there like there's hundreds or even thousands of islands off the Atlantic coast of South America?

The artwork was hideous. Brett Booth must have just graduated from the Rob Liefeld school of art before tackling this book. Body proportions are exaggerated. Everybody has the same face with a widow's peak and really scrunched up faces and those beady eyes. I hated it!

At least the lettering was decent. 

I don't think it needs saying but The Kindred will not stay a part of my comics collection. It's heading to a used book story for some trade credit. Hopefully, I can get something decent out of this stinker.

Not Worth Consuming!

Rating: 3 out of 10 stars.

Marvel Comics Presents #166

4 very thrilling chapters comprise this issue. 

First up, Ted Sallis is getting the chance to live the life he would have lived had he not been tragically transformed into the Man-Thing. Meanwhile, the Man-Thing, now completely devoid of any humanity, wanders aimlessly through a creepy Southern mansion, killing indiscriminately. 

The tag-team duo of Mike Jeffries and Mickey Musashi, who together make up one member of the New Warriors, Turbo, are back. This time, it's Mike's turn to wear the Torpedo costume. A band of alien warriors have come to earth to claim the costume. Too bad it's Mickey who's the brawn of the outfit and nowhere near this super-powered outfit...

In another opening segment, the Julia Carpenter Spider-Woman is the main star. On a brief respite from Force Works, Carpenter has obtained a stalker who promises to do something drastic if the heroine doesn't promise to become his lover.

Lastly, it's a showdown between Vengeance, Psiphon and Sam Buchanan in the closing segment of this Ghost Rider tale. There's an unexpected shift in allegiances here. One that promises to make Badilino's time on the Paranormal Law Enforcement Team hellish for issues to come. 

The Man-Thing story is extremely meta. It's the sort of thing I'd expect of Grant Morrison or Alan Moore. But this is Marvel and not Vertigo. The Turbo story is hilarious. But it could really use some Slapstick. I thought the Vengeance story was a thrill a minute. Those stories have gotten better now that they seem to focus a little bit more on Vengeance's alter-ego, Michael Badilino. 

As for the Spider-Woman tale, its source material of a deranged admirer willing to turn sniper at a local shopping center is just too realistic for 2022 audiences. In 1994, this was still fairly far-fetched stuff even though Mark David Chapman and John Hinckley Jr. were only 15 years prior. Sadly, nowadays, this sort of stuff seems like a daily occurrence. And as a school teacher, it just hits too close to home.

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 8 out of 10 stars.

Bruce Lee #1(2022 Comic Book and Graphic Novel Reading Challenge)

Despite a very short career, Bruce Lee is a martial arts icon. Born in San Francisco, Lee was the child of British Hong Kong parents. Thus with dual citizenship, Lee was able to simultaneously operate in both Asia's burgeoning kung-fu cinema industry and classic American Hollywood.

Dying suddenly of cerebral edema in 1973, Bruce Lee's filmography is relatively short. Lee appeared in about 2 dozen TV shows and films as a child in Hong Kong before having to flee the region due to his hot-headed temper and ability to run afoul of the police. While in the states, Lee started to privately practicing his techniques while in enrolled in a Seattle university studying philosophy. 

After meeting his wife Linda Emery, Lee dropped out of college to open his own martial arts school in Oakland, Ca. Bruce started to appear in competitions and developed a strong following. During an exhibition, Lee caught the eye of producer William Dozier. Originally, the Batman '66 exec wanted to cast Lee as one of master detective Charlie Chan's children in a weekly mystery series. While that project never materialized, Dozier eventually cast Bruce Lee in the Batman spin-off, The Green Hornet with Lee playing the role of faithful butler/sidekick Kato.

The Green Hornet only lasted one season. Out of work, Bruce opened The Jun Fan Gung Fu Institute. Lee believed that traditional martial arts were too restrictive. So he developed a system called Jeet Kune Do which incorporated weight training for strength, running for stamina as well as elements of boxing, fencing and other Western fighting styles. While the Chinese community wasn't exactly fond of Bruce's style nor his  willingness to teach Americans, the development of Jeet Kune Do opened Lee up to the next phase of his acting career- movies.

Because of his role on The Green Hornet, Lee attracted celebrities, athletes and tinsel town high rollers to his new school. Even though new film and TV roles were pouring in, Lee was not happy with being stereotyped in them. Also being robbed of a starring role and producer/creator credit on what would become the martial arts/Western hybrid Kung-Fu didn't help matters any. So Lee returned to Hong Kong where he learned that his role as Kato had shot him into super-stardom in his former home country. 

Bruce's first leading role was 1971's The Big Boss followed up by the immensely popular Fists of Fury (1972). Lee directed himself in his third venture, Way of the Dragon. American audiences really took notice of Lee's films and the growing popularity in kung-fu in general led to Lee returning to America. In 1973, Warner Bros.' Enter The Dragon sealed Bruce Lee's iconic status on celluloid. But it was his tragic and mysterious death while working on his final official film role, The Game of Death that cemented Bruce Lee's legend.

The death of Bruce Lee placed him up there with gone too soon movie icons such as James Dean and Marilyn Monroe. All three of these fallen stars have had numerous movies, documentaries, songs and more devoted to them. But neither Dean nor Monroe have ever had a comic book series created about them. 

In 1993, Universal Pictures released Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story in theaters. The bio-pic was extremely popular and it unleashed a wave of interest in Bruce Lee to a new generation of fans. Riding on that wave of nostalgia, Malibu Comics obtained the rights to craft a 6-issue miniseries about the adventures of Bruce Lee. 

Simply titled Bruce Lee, the comic book is quasi-autobiographical. It has Lee in a more modern set Long Beach California attempting to open his own dojo. Not able to afford his own place, Bruce works out a deal with a landlord where in exchange for free lessons, Bruce can use the site of an old bakery for free until he can get on his feet. Complicating matters is that Bruce's new business is right across the street from a a celebrity-run martial arts school whose training techniques are rather questionable; including use of steroids and the selling of cocaine.

In the first issue, one of the students of the rival school challenges Lee to a fight. Bruce mops the floor up with this guy. Disgraced and enraged, the rival master attempts to frame Bruce and his school by planting a dying man with a nearly empty syringe of some sort of drug on the floor inside Lee's academy. TO BE CONTINUED...

The story was written by Mike Baron. This wasn't Baron's first foray in writing a Bruce Lee related comic. While with Now Entertainment, Baron crafted the scripts for 1991's Kato of the Green Hornet mini and its 1992 sequel. 

While working on that sequel, Mike Baron teamed with Val Mayervik (Howard the Duck). A former assistant of Dan Adkins, Mayervik trained with P. Craig Russell. The embellished muscle mass of the characters and the shaded penciled effects of the artwork evoke the influences of both Adkins and Russell. Thanks to Mayervik's affiliation with the Bruce Lee project, Baron was able to achieve his dream of working on a series devoted not to a Lee character but Bruce the legend.

1994's Bruce Lee was not the only series based on the icon. In 2016, Darby Pop released a 4-issue mini titled Bruce Lee: The Dragon Rises. It was co-written by Indestructible's Jeff Kline and Shannon Lee, daughter of the late martial arts actor! In that story, Lee didn't die but was instead transported to the modern day 2010s. With thugs and government agents on his trail, Lee must team with an old friend to solve the mystery of his disappearance and mysterious return. 

This issue was an interesting opening chapter. The interior illustrations of Bruce Lee are much better representations than from that on the cover. Though both the cover Lee and the one in this story also have that over-the-top mullet. The main villain is styled to resemble an older Chuck Norris with a Van Damme build. The dialogue, especially of the bad guys is very 1990s action movie fodder. But the story itself reads like the kind of film Bruce might have gotten to make had he lived into his 40s or 50s. Consider this a lost movie adaptation from an alternate earth in which the career of Bruce Lee was not tragically shortened. 

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 7 out of 10 stars.

Completing this review completes Task #47 (Based on a Real Person) of the 2022 Comic Book and Graphic Novel Reading Challenge. 

Roger Corman's The Fantastic Four, Part 2: The Review

After decades of waiting and a chance posting on Facebook, this madman finally got to see one of the most elusive comic book motion picture holy grails- Roger Corman’s The Fantastic Four.

Yesterday, I explored the myth and history of the making of the film. Today, I share with you my review. While it’s clearly no Avengers Endgame, this low-budget take on the First Family of the Marvel Universe is surprisingly not bad!

The Fantastic Four (1994)
Starring: Alex Hyde-White, Jay Underwood, Rebecca Staub, Joseph Culp
Directed by Oley Sassone
Distributed by New Horizons Films
Run Time: 94 minutes

When Roger Corman was approached by German producer Bernd Eichinger to create a full-length live-action movie of the Fantastic Four, the legendary filmmaker was only given a budget of $1 million dollars. That meant Corman would be faced with cutting a number of corners in order to get that project done. It wasn’t something that Roger Corman was unfamiliar with. Corman is known to be the McGuvyer of filmmaking. But with such a small budget, that meant not having any established stars in the cast.

Faced with casting a quartet of relative unknowns, only Jay Underwood playing Johnny Storm/The Human Torch, had any real meaty acting credits prior. Underwood had  starred in a trio ABC/Disney TV movies based on the Not Quite Human young adult series by Seth McEvoy. A cameo by George Gaines (Punky Brewster, The Police Academy films) as Reed and Ben’s physics teachers is perhaps this film’s only real household name. 

The premise for the Fantastic Four film is pretty close to accurate for the comics created by Lee and Jack Kirby. Radiation during a botched space flight imbues 4 astronauts with special powers. After crash-landing, the quartet run afoul of the evil Doctor Doom who seeks to siphon the team’s powers to make himself the most powerful man in all the world!

Doctor Doom is played with maniacal aplomb by Joseph Culp (Mad Men.) His acting is perfectly over-the-top for a comic book villain. And his costume is 5000 times better than any of the modern Fantastic Four movie versions of the character. It’s just a shame that you can barely understand anything Doom is saying as the mask he wears really muffles the actor’s  voice. 

There’s another villain in this movie called the Jeweller. This subterranean leader of a band of homeless misfits is obviously based on the Fantastic Four issue #1 villain, Mole Man. But why this guy isn’t called by that name here is a mystery. Maybe the producers didn’t have the rights? 

The Jeweller is the comic relief of the movie. It’s his actions that cause the malfunction of Reed’s spaceship. But his goofiness just can’t hold a candle to the outlandishness of Doctor Doom!

The special effects are a mixed bag. The stretching scenes of Mister Fantastic are anything but. What do you expect for a million bucks? For most of the movie, only Johnny’s hand catches flame. But in the climactic battle with Doctor Doom’s cronies, Storm finally goes full flame-on. Though it’s clearly CGI done with 1990s era computers, it’s actually not bad animation for the time period. 

The make-up and suit made up for Ben Grimm’s transformation into The Thing was kinda hookey. You can tell it’s a foam rubber suit. But it actually looks tons way better than Michael Chiklis’ version of Ole Blue-eyed Benjamin!

Costuming for the movie was far more superior than some modern day superhero epics. Like I said, Doctor Doom’s armor and costume were the best I’ve ever witnessed in a motion picture. The FF’s uniforms are pretty comic book accurate. And when it comes to form fitting on Sue Storm actress Rebecca Staub- va-va-va-voom! 

There have been 4 live-action films starring the Fantastic Four. Roger Corman’s take on the team was by far, the best one! The 2005 origin story was good but it lacked heart. The Silver Surfer sequel was completely unfaithful to the source material with having Galactus be a huge cloud of destructive space gas. And 2015’s FF… That’s 2 hours of my life I want back.

At just over 90 minutes, this forgotten Marvel movie was a good distraction. I didn’t think once about the COVID-19 pandemic while watching it. That right there says a lot. This wasn’t the best movie. But it wasn’t Thor: The Dark World either. 

Roger Corman’s Fantastic Four was hampered by a tiny budget. In today’s dollars, that only comes to about $1.75 million. With such a small allotment, Corman’s team did some big stuff. Imagine how much better the CGI and make-up could’ve been with an extra million bucks or two. The Jeweller’s minions might actually have looked like Moloids. Doc Doom’s army might have actually been Doombots and not pasty white guys in green hoods!

Yes- you will get some unintended laughs if you ever get the chance to watch this film. But I don’t think you’ll be very disappointed either. For what Roger Corman pulled off with the number of barriers in his way, he made a B-movie classic out of one of our all-time favorite bands of superheroes! I don’t know if Stan Lee was proud of this movie. But as a life-long fan of the FF, I sure was!

Excelsior, Mr. Corman! Excelsior in deed!

Rating: 6 out of 10 stars.

This review was concurrently published on Outrightgeekery.com. 

The Power of Shazam

This beautiful 1994 graphic novel written and painted by Jerry Ordway helped usher the true Captain Marvel into the 1990s. 

When the parents of Bill Batson uncover a lost tomb in Egypt, they are betrayed by their expedition partner. Using a sacred scarab artifact, this man turns into Black Adam! But as the scarab is incomplete, Black Adam's power is only at 50 percent! 

Meanwhile back in the United States, Billy is forced to survive on the means streets of Fawcett City, living off what meager earnings he makes from selling newspapers. One night, a mysterious man takes Billy into the Fawcett City subways and introduces him to the wizard Shazam! Now blessed with a score of super powers, it is up to Billy's new alter-ego Captain Marvel to prevent Black Adam from finding the second piece of the scarab and bring his parent's killer to justice.

There was a couple of plot holes in this story. But overall it was a great adventure. Visually stunning, I haven't seen such masterful paintings in comics since Alex Ross' MARVELS. I loved how Ordway stylizes Black Adam to look like Universal Monsters icon Boris Karloff!

The funny thing about this book was I didn't know it even existed until one day I saw an ad for the book in the back of an old DC issue of something from the 1990s. Then a couple of days later I found this book at a thrift store for cheap and I knew that this was an omen of good tidings! I am glad I listen because I really enjoyed this book.

This graphic novel spun off a 47 issue series in which Ordway and later Dick Giordano continued the adventures of the Big Red Cheese! Having really hated that this book ended so quickly, I've now got The Power of Shazam on my wish list!

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 8 out of 10 stars.

(Note: The Power of Shazam had a 48th issue. However, it was a one issue continuation brought about a year after cancellation by the Blackest Night event in 2010. Ordway only did the cover, so I did not include it in my review as that issue should really have been a one shot special.)

The Trencher X-Mas Bites 1994 Holiday Blow-Out #1

  Gideon Trencher- Zombie repo-man. His mission, to kill those souls that were erroneously reincarnated. With the help of his dispatcher, Phoebe, it doesn't matter if you are a good soul or bad. If you are on Trencher's list, you're as good as dead.
    The creation of Justice League legend and Ambush Bug creator, Keith Giffen, I was excited when I found this holiday special in a bargain bin. You can tell that this is a Giffen project. The art is gritty, the humor is dark and somewhat absurd. But it's also kinda gross.
    In this 1994 holiday special, Trencher is on the hunt for a Proctologist whose also a serial killer. See, after the doctor performed a rectal surgery on a superhero, result in radioactive far-...
    I'm sorry, I can't go any further. It's really that disgusting.
    I tend to keep my holiday comics, even if it's just the biggest load of manure I've ever laid my eyes on. This holiday special might very well break that rule.
   Part one in which Trencher himself, while pretty crude, was enjoyable when he targets one of Santa's helper. The back-up features including pin-ups of Trencher characters, a short story starring Mr. Monster, and some other one-pager gags were pretty funny. But the potty humor of Part two includes quite a bit of beans jokes and noxious gases was beyond the pale for me.
    Really, a big disappointment for a book that I at first thought would be pretty dope. Instead, it's just dopey. At least I only spent 50 cents on it...

   Not Worth Consuming

   Rating: 2 out of 10 stars.

Frankenstein: Or the Modern Prometheus

   Tonight's Halloween themed comic is a from a grab bag. (I know, but I just love grab bags.) This 1994 one-shot by Caliber Press seeks to recount the terrifying events of Mary Shelley's original novel without any of the trappings of Hollywood. I had to read Frankenstein for a college course years ago. While I do not remember that book verbatim, I would have to say that the editors and writer, Eric Johnson, of this comic did a pretty good job at that goal. One thing I feel that they failed at was the art.
    First of all, the painted cover by Vincent Locke was fantastic. There's actually an ad in the back of the comic for an autograph lithograph of the cover image and if it wasn't 22 years old, I'd actually try to send away for one. But the interior art wasn't so great.
    I try really hard to be fair with artists. They do something amazing with their hands that I could only dream of. But I have carpal tunnel and they toil away for hours/days/weeks at a project doing something that would have me in tears if I tried for more than 5 minutes. But something with this artwork was off.
    The characters looked static. It reminded me of the artwork used in textbooks for 5th graders. There's not much depth and with such thin ink lines, not much of a 3-D quality either. Plus the Monster and all of the females in this story's hair is thick and tubular like it's made of those foam noodles you take to the pool. The scenery wasn't much better- except for the opening and closing scenes set in the frigid Arctic Circle. Those are actually pretty sweet.
     Not a terrible read, (plus it's a little creepy fun) especially for something that I got as a total surprise and probably for only about 50 cents or so.

    Worth Consuming

    Rating: 7 out of 10 stars.
   

Force Works #8

   I wouldn't have bought this book if I didn't find it in a bargain bin and if it wasn't a holiday themed comic. I've never heard of this comic until now, though a couple of the characters on the cover looked familiar to me- especially Iron Man. Since this is a team that I've never encountered before, I assumed that maybe the Iron Man on the cover was Rhodey and not Tony Stark. But that's not the case.

    The Iron Man on the cover is the real deal original model. So, why's he with this team and not say the Avengers? Well, this comic takes place right after the break-up of the West Coast Avengers (and subsequent cancellation of the series) in 1994. Something happened that caused Tony Stark to dissolve the Pacific branch of the Avengers. Along with Iron Man, the Scarlett Witch, U.S. Agent, and Spider-Woman II gave up their Avengers credentials and formed this team. Marvel Comics of the early to mid-90s is one of my weaker periods of comic book history knowledge and I really don't have a clue what went wrong and caused the end of the Avengers West Coast. But I know from this comic, what I read now has me very intrigued.

   In this issue, the Force Works team hosts a holiday party in hopes of patching things up with the Avengers and members of Stark Enterprises. When an uninvited visitor breaks into the team's headquarters, it's up to the reader to decide if the guest is friend or foe. The reveal was actually pretty cool and it just added to the fire of my interest in learning about this overlooked realm of the Marvel Universe.
 I'm so very glad I didn't pass this book up! You shouldn't either.

   Worth Consuming

   Rating: 9 out of 10 stars.

The Ren & Stimpy Show Holiday Special, 1994

    

Happy, Happy, Joy, Joy! That's what Christmas is all about to good little Stimpy J. Cat. And getting Toys! Well, at least that's what arguably lovable Ren Hoek thinks.
      This special from 1994 is a compilation of 2 holiday-themed comics from the Marvel series based on the classic kids cartoon plus some all new material. The first half of the special involves Mr. Yak flipping channels and being inundated with dozens of horrible Christmas specials. Then Ren must earn money in order to buy Stimpy a legendary Log (It's big, it's heavy, it's wood.) after he discovers that Stimpy used his life savings to buy his chihuahua friend a Christmas gift.
   Then it's back to some more of those weird holiday specials. I say they're weird because most of them involve characters dressed up as walruses. This is some sort of secret shame to dress as such and to my honest recollection, I have no memory of this running gag. But I can tell you it gets old real quick.
  Lastly, Ren seeks revenge on Ol St. Nick after Stimpy gets a ton of presents for being good and the puppy has wound up on the naughty list. Kris Kringle will learn his lesson though as Ren's found enough incriminating evidence to put him permanently back on the good list while being able to earn some dough blackmailing characters such as Powdered Toast Man.
    I rather liked this holiday special. I've read the second story involving Ren blackmailing Santa before. Thankfully, it was the only thing I had read before. Plus, there was more stuff in the issue I had read previously, like an 'Ask Dr. Stupid' segment and some fake commercials. I'm assuming that there is some unused material in the other issue from which in this book was culled. So, that issue is still on my wish list. Plus as I mentioned before, there is some all-new material in this book along with the reprints.
   I love Ren & Stimpy. It was a treat to watch growing up in the 90s with my kid sister and getting to revisit this world once again through this holiday special has me wanting to do two things really bad- 1) get all of the books in the Marvel regular series and 2) watch some Ren & Stimpy!
   It's a little gross, a little corny, and totally weird, but I love it and it's worth consuming.

Rating: 8 out of 10 stars.