Last two comics of 2022! Decided to group the books from Scout Comics together. Works as well as any other sorting method according to my talking baseball cap.
The one-shot has two loosely connected stories. In the first, I.J. is planning to swipe the original puppets from a beloved Christmas special when Holly Daze takes over the airwaves and makes threats of a big bomb if she doesn't get a white Christmas. Jones is willing to ignore that, but one of the other heroes shows up, and when it turns out Holly's got some superpowered back-up, Imp can't stay out of it. I like Demolition's design. It's very simple, a t-shirt with a logo and some wrist bracers, but it works. He doesn't talk at all, and based on Imp's description of him, I wonder if he's a bit like Mad Stan from Batman Beyond. A more elaborate look might not make sense.
As it turns out, Holly really did just want a white Christmas, and to steal the puppets while everyone is freaking out over her bomb threat, but she left one for Imp. The other story picks up near the tail end of the first. Even Steven receives an anonymous Christmas gift, and is frustrated that he doesn't know who to give a gift as a thank you. That can't stand, as it's uneven! A gift must be matched with one in return!
Kesel sets it up that Even Steven's power about keeping things fair extends to his very nature. Not only that he won't join a fight that's an even match, but he seeks out Impossible Jones because he believes she can do impossible things. It's in her name, and heroes' names should accurately convey their abilities.
Imp does come up with a satisfactory solution, and Kesel adds in a little more about either her nature, or her powers, through what could be a throwaway comment by Even Steven. So both stories function as easily accessible standalones, but also work at building on the initial mini-series, which is nice.
Brenda freaks out over her lifelong nemesis being dead in the dressing room. Elsie alternates between amused and annoyed by the dramatics, but they manage to get Amber out of the mall by stealing her car. When they're ready to dump the body, Brenda has a soliloquy about how even if Amber was a terrible person, it's too bad she didn't get to marry an asshole, have some kids, get addicted to pills. You know, live. Hernandez focuses those panels on Brenda and Amber's corpse, with Elsie either off-panel or only part of her leg visible.
Probably because she's rolling her eyes, as that's when she reveals Amber's not dead (or going to become a vampire), and all this was to teach Brenda a lesson about the value of her own life. As approaches go, I would prefer a foul-mouthed undead child kill my enemy to an angel showing me the world if I never existed. Push that damn angel in a boiler.
After polishing off the evening watching Lion King - it gets two vampire thumbs up for surprising amounts of murder! - Brenda collects her pay and leaves. But maybe she's not ready to shuffle off just yet. I'm not sure which place on Elsie's list I want to see them visit most. The cockfight, Costco, a strip club? The possibilities for mayhem are endless, although Costco probably has an entire aisle devoted to monster killin', so that might be the way to go.
Amber also wakes up on a park bench, out for revenge, so maybe we'll get more of this some day. I doubt somehow Brenda's completely lost the impulse to end her existence, especially if Amber comes after her (or Elsie) in an ugly enough manner.
I'm curious if Elsie can sprout wings or turn to smoke or anything like that. Hernandez is good at shifting between her looking cruel or angry, with the occasional glimpses of something like childlike joy or happiness. But she never gets too monstrous looking, and I don't know if that's simply something she can't do, or there hasn't been a situation that required it yet. Given everything, I don't know if it would impact how Brenda sees her, but it might.
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