Short Subjects - Yea: Ultimate Adventures, Lost Treasure of the Grand Canyon Nay: Grimrose Path, Patriot Witch

This past week I've come down with a dreadful and terminal case of unfunny. Everything has come out perfectly uncontroversial, utterly harmless and deadly boring. Rather than subject you to that, I've 86ed the lot and decided to review my targets all over again.

So now, for your amusement, a palette of short subjects, arranged by thumbs up or thumbs down, yea or nay.

Yea

Ultimate Adventures: One Tin Soldier by Ron Zimmerman and Duncan Fegredo (comic)

Now this is a comic that deserves more press, if there ever was one. Well, more good press. Generally reviled, personally, I think Ultimate Adventures is brilliant.

Basically, it's a gleeful swipe at the ever popular "orphaned rich man dresses funny and fights crime" genre, with every possible cliche of the type thrown into one plot. Jack Danner aka Hawk Owl has a more-than-he-seems butler (Batman), a deadly Asian-American chauffer (Green Hornet), an aunt who raised him and still lives with him (Spider-Man, who isn't rich, but fits the rest), an animal sidekick (every Silver Age hero ever, hello Streaky) and Hank Kipple, his unimpressed smart-mouthed adopted son who he assumed would be interested in the sidekick business.

Meanwhile, Jack Danner's clueless well-meaning front isn't a front at all. He's genuinely clueless, well-meaning and, frankly, a bit of a doofus. His would-be sidekick is almost certainly smarter than he is. His dead parents weren't murdered, he doesn't have deep personal trauma, and he's a superhero vigilante because it seems cool. It's amazing how the serious tropes become enjoyably ridiculous once drained of every ounce of angst.

It isn't without some issues*, but still, Ultimate Adventures is a fun, wild ride as long as you don't think about it too hard. Personally, I enjoy it best when I specifically don't want to think about anything too hard.

Lost Treasure of the Grand Canyon (movie)

Yea! Double Yea! This is an absolutely, undeniablely ridiculous television Z-movie. It's also amazingly good fun. Does it explain what the alien and/or magical thing mistaken for an Aztec god is? No. Does it explain how a bunch of Aztecs managed to support themselves undetected in the Grand Canyon? No.

Actually fairly well acted (for what it is), actually surprising and suspenseful, and occasionally surprisingly clever.  The contrast of utterly ludicrous premise and good execution makes this a Z-movie that can be enjoyed as an actual story instead of a running tally of hilarious directing choices. Conveniently available on Netflix Instant-View.

Nay

The Grimrose Path by Rob Thurman (novel)

Trixa is, she tells us, a Trickster (yes, she uses the capitalization) who runs a bar named Trixsta and has Loki as a sidekick (yes, that Loki) who she considers to be an "amateur" at the Trickster business compared to her. Subtle. And yet, when you look at what she actually does, the average three year old whose babysitter has fallen asleep has more creativity and trickster spirit than this imposter. Her repetoire appears to consist of precisely two things - A) setting people up to be killed and B) plain old lying to people in a way that isn't even poetic justice. For example, feeding an animal abuser to a mountain lion is not the work of a Trickster. Tricking him into feeding himself to the mountain lion would have been, but apparently that was too much to hope for.

There is no funny in this book. Rob Thurman appears to have no funny in her soul. If you want a trickster - and why not? Who doesn't? - don't read this book. Read some Catwoman or Deadpool or Anansi Boys, pick up just about any volume of folklore, or watch the Amanda episodes of Highlander or the Trickster episodes of Supernatural. But don't read this book

Decent serious-business sex-free Urban Fantasy, though, in its way.

Traitor to the Crown: The Patriot Witch by Charles Coleman Finlay (novel)

Charles Colman Finlay's short stories are AWESOME. His science fiction? Lovely. But judging by this book he should never, never venture near historical fiction of any kind, even historical fantasy. He has a tin ear for non-modern dialogue. This would be fine for Ancient Greece or anywhere we don't speak the language, but when you have Revolutionary War-era characters speaking like modern kids, it just sits wrong. Couldn't finish it. Pick up one of his non-Patriot Witch books instead.

*The things that bothered me about this comic were why would such highly trained, highly dangerous people as Daniel (the butler) and Lee (the chauffer) would delegate the day-saving to untrained 12 year old Hank? Why bother being a ninja chauffer when you refuse to ninj? And for that matter, why does Lee, who was raised in the US since the age of nine speak You No Take Candle broken English?

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