Hitchhiker's Guide

The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy: Douglas Adams

Douglas Adams’ “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy” was first published in the United States back in 1980.

I was 16 years old. “The Hitchhiker’s Guide” seems like the type of book I would have bought then and, really, any time between then and now.

I read Conan books at that age, comic books, “The Lord of the Rings,” etc. Nothing ever really changed. So, I’m not sure why I never read “The Hitchhiker’s Guide” until now, at the age of pushing 60.

The book is a comical take of riding through space after Earth is destroyed, filled with plenty of interesting insights – the answer is 42, don’t ask if you don’t know but it involves the calculation of a big question, funny bits and a sci-fi framework. It’s a fairly thin paperback, a quick read and relatively self-contained, if that’s what you want, or the kick-off of a five-part series, if you want more.

Basically, Ford Prefect has been waylaid for several years on Earth while researching the revised edition of “The Hitchiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.” Prefect is a cosmic traveler who spent his Earth time acting like an unemployed actor.

Lucky for earthling Arthur Dent.

Seconds before Earth’s destruction, Arthur is saved by his friend, Ford, and they are off to the races … or the spaces in this case.

Ford explains the rules of the guide as they bounce across the galaxy meeting aliens, an expatriated Earth girlfriend, a gloomy robot and the president of the galaxy.

Again, I’m not sure why I didn’t read it then but decided to read it now. Sixteen-year-old me would have loved this book. Nearly 60-year-old me found it amusing. Had I read it as a 16-year-old, I would likely still find it wonderful as I did way back when. But just picking it up now, I have no fond memories of it so there’s no real connection.

But I give the book its due.

Reading it, one can see the massive influence “The Hitchhiker’s Guide” has had and still has on numerous other science-fiction stories in the past four decades. Numerous other books, television series and movies have ripped off ideas from Douglas Adams’ classic. But I encountered the ripped-off stuff before encountering the source material.

Too bad. Almost 60-year-old me would have really loved returning to this book if I’d first read it as a 16-year-old, or maybe even as a 30-year-old, but reading “Guide” now, well, it seems as flat as day-old cola.

Thor: Blood of the Fathers

Having “Thor” comic books written by a writer named Torunn Gronbekk is something like a dream come true.

She’s great, a talented writer. She’s Norwegian. She brings a sense of history and culture to Thor.

But she also transitioned into writer Donny Cates’ exceptional run on Thor. Cates pushed Thor into new territory – no easy feat for a comic book character with 60 years of history, not to mention centuries of tales in Norse mythology.

Cates nudged Thor into becoming the herald of world-devourer Galactus. He reintroduced Dr. Donald Blake, the alter ego of Marvel’s Thor, a character who disappeared back in the 1980s … who had been in a purgatory limbo ever since. Cates created what could be the ultimate Thor-Hulk battle … where Thor is irradiated with Hulk’s gamma rays and Hulk is deemed worthy to wield the hammer Mjolnir and granted the powers of Thor.

Throughout these storylines, Cates hinted at a coming doom – a nightmare where Thor faces a future Thanos empowered by a Mjolnir studded with Infinity Stones.

With Cates’ unexpected departure from “Thor,” Bronbekk was left with the unenviable task of wrapping up the Thanos storyline. With “Thor: Blood of the Fathers,” collecting issues 31-35, she concludes the Cates story arc. It’s uncertain if she is working from Cates’ notes or if “Blood” is her own take on how to conclude the latest Thor run.

Thor teams with Doctor Doom to chase Thanos through time. Bor, Thor’s warrior-god grandfather, is at war with Thanos. and of course, Doom seeks to take control of the situation.

Even with all of that, the story feels a bit underwhelming, given the lead up of the past few years of Thor, but one can’t help wonder what Bronbekk may have done with a full Thor run of her own.

That will have to wait.

Creative team Al Ewing and Martin Coccolo have taken the reins of a new run titled “The Immortal Thor,” which looks like it’s reviving a Thor unburdened of Asgard’s throne but not from ancient enemies of Asgard.