Sledge Hammer #2

Background

This book is based on the eponymous ABC TV show that ran from 1986 to 1988. The show chronicled the adventures of a gung ho police detective who tended to shoot first and then asked questions six months later. (In fact, he very often forgot to actually yell, "Freeze" before firing.)

Story Details

The story starts off with a woman in her apartment in her nightie yelling at the reader to stop watching her, and it just gets dumber from there. Spidey climbs through a neighbor's window and throws that woman off the balcony to her death. The woman lands on Sledge Hammer's car, crushing it. On his way into the building he sees "Spidey" leaving and lets him go (because Spidey as one of the good guys).

Back at the police station Sledge kicks in a door, gets into a fight with his superior officer and has his badge and gun taken away as he is wrestled to the ground by a dozen of his fellow detectives. Next he is talking a jumper off a ledge and jumps off pulling the jumper with him. As they appear to be on the first floor no one is hurt.

Wherever he winds up next so too does the fake Spidey, who is now carrying a gun, and some dynamite. The room blows up as Spidey swings away and Sledge and his partner escape. The fake Spidey is revealed to be a bald hit man. Sledge and his partner wind up in the desert with some kidnappers and the fake Spidey. They all get captured by the thugs, but manage to get away capturing all of the criminals including the fake Spidey.

The kidnap victims are released and Sledge's captain winds up in handcuffs.

General Comments

I really tried to do the best that I could with this review. I seriously attempted to read it on several occasions but kept putting it down, as it was so utterly moronic in its storyline that I quite literally found it unreadable. And I say this as someone who is a huge fan of writer Jim Salicrup (Hell, he gave me my first break at Marvel, by assigning me a number of articles for Marvel Age).

Overall Rating

Seriously this is one of the worst pieces of crap I've ever read in a Marvel Comic. I honestly couldn't make heads or tails of the story, and I never was able to actually care about what was going on, as it was fairly clear that none of the creators involved with producing this train wreck seemed to care. If I could give this a negative number I would.

Footnote

Avoid this comic at all costs. I never saw the TV show, and now I'm glad I never did.