Scotch McTiernan vs. The Forces of Evil

This collects three separate one-shots:  “The Secret History of the War on Weed,” “Scotch McTiernan’s Halloween Party” and “Scotch McTiernan’s Holiday Party” from the creative team of co-writers Gerry Duggan and Brian Posehn, and artist Scott Koblish.  You might recall that they’ve all worked together before on “Deadpool,” with Koblish illustrating the “flashback” issues from the time that Duggan and Posehn were co-writing that series together.  Now that they’re free from any oversight at Marvel, you’d think that they’d be able to really cut loose and show us how funny they can all be when not reined in by the standards of a major comic book publisher.

Except that the results of this collection are decidedly mixed with only “War on Weed” delivering on the hilarity in its premise.  It involves Scotch McTiernan, you archetypal roided-up 80’s action hero type, enlisted by president (Nancy) Reagan to fight the war on weed.  He does this for a few pages until he gets high and realizes what an awful idea this is.  Ridiculous action-movie shenanigans follow for the rest of the one-shot, and the results are entertaining enough that you’ll be inclined to forgive the awkward turn into moralizing that the story takes at the end.

“Halloween” and “Holiday Party” are disappointing because they’re just not on the same level either in execution or hilarity.  The former starts off by seeming like it’s going to be an incisive look at how real-world terrors have supplanted Hollywood-based ones, only to become a rambling scattershot parody of “E.T.” and a half-assed take on “The Most Dangerous Game.”  Scotch’s lunkheadedness is still good for a laugh or two here, but not in “Holiday Party” as that sees him acting as both victim and Ghost of Christmas Future to an unlikable Elon Musk-type billionaire.  This guy spent his life getting richer as he worked to strip away human rights and while he does get his comeuppance at the end, it comes after Scotch commits the worst sin any parody can:  Taking itself seriously.

There’s no denying that Koblish illustrates the hell out of all three of these one-shots, as his over-the-top sensibilities are perfectly in sync with what the writers are intent on showing off.  His heart’s in the right place too as his afterword lays out the issues that these one-shots wanted to tackle in the clearest terms.  Yet it’s only “War on Weed” which makes any kind  of lasting impression here.  If the creators are committed to having Scotch tackle more issues in the future, they could learn a thing or two from their leading man and have some quality marijuana brownies before taking care of business.

Unless that’s what they did before writing the other two one-shots.  In which case, save the brownies for celebration after the hard work is done next time.