Well, that’s certainly one way to do it. There’s a particular art to a good #1 issue, and “Ghost Rider” #1 certainly has a take. This is the back-to-basics approach that hopes to have the original dude as the original superhero, doing the types of things he would originally do. It succeeds in what it sets out to do, and it’s some of the strongest comic book work by these creators, but even a strong execution leaves me with questions about its creative agenda.
Written by Ben PercyCover by Kael Ngo
Illustrated by Cory Smith
Colored by Bryan Valenza
Lettered by VC’S Travis LanhamJOHNNY BLAZE!! Johnny Blaze has the perfect life: a wife and two kids, a job at an auto repair shop and a small-town community that supports him… But Johnny isn’t doing well. He has nightmares of monsters when he sleeps. And he sees bloody visions when he’s awake. This life is beginning to feel like a prison. And there’s a spirit in him that’s begging to break out! Benjamin Percy (Wolverine, X-FORCE) and Cory Smith (Conan THE BARBARIAN, CAPTAIN Marvel) are going back to basics with the Spirit of Vengeance in this extra-sized first issue!
I get why novelist and Wolverine enthusiast Ben Percy would seem like a good fit for Ghost Rider. Percy has a vibe- go look up a clip where you can hear his speaking voice and you will understand. His voice sounds like a GI Joe general in a porn parody. I say this with awe. It is so deep and masculine. And Percy is from the rural pacific northwest; when he writes about small towns he does with familiarity and specificity. My point is, brooding vagrant loners seems right in Percy’s wheelhouse.
All in all, he delivers the goods on that front. Not only that, “Ghost Rider” #1 may very well be one of the best comics Percy has ever scripted. I have read every word of every page the guy has written for “X-Men,” and his scripts are often messy. Pacing feels all over the place, and exposition slogs or comes in way too late. Not so in “Ghost Rider #1” where the mystery gradually grows until the tension is unbearable and the flames and chains come out. It’s the kind of structure you see done successfully in a lot of #1 issues.
Percy’s words are brought to life by artist Cory Smith, along with colorist Bryan Valenza and prolific letterer Travis Lanham. The art team does a more than adequate job. A very good job: panels are well paced, page turn reveals hit exactly as intended. Every so often, you hit a panel that’s supposed to shock and horrify, and the colors start to bleed a roil. That’s great stuff! The artwork takes inspiration from a lot of good sources- the commitment to realistic characters is right out of the early 00s, and the melodramatic existential horror is right out of 90s Vertigo. I like to think if Vertigo was still putting out horror comics, they’d be drawn by Cory Smith. This is a guy who really gets the genre, and who has first rate monster design.
There’s also a lot of promise with the new characters. We meet an intriguing and definitely evil magician, who helps rescue Johnny Blaze from the demon cage he’s been put in. And there’s a former SHIELD agent, now hunting creepy crawlies for the FBI. When all of these characters meet, that ought to be good and dramatic. It’s a decent take on the dark spooky underside of Marvel 616, and if I had any confidence that other comics were going to commit to this tone, I’d be over the moon.
But- and I know you sensed this coming- I question the creative goals of this new series. It’s actually been a while since there’s been a big successful ongoing starring the original Ghost Rider, Johnny Blaze. In the 2010s, we followed his scyth wielding daughter Alejandra. More recently, Ghost Rider was Robbie Reyes, who is the first Spirit of Vengeance to serve on a proper Avengers team. Those comics were excellent, had a fun place for Johnny as a world-weary mentor, and performed the miraculous feat of advancing an ongoing superhero story.
Continued belowThis issue feels like a big step back. There’s no mention of those two ghost riders, or of Johnny’s brother, Danny Ketch, who was Ghost Rider for a run of 90s comics. This issue feels a bit like an old comic book movie adaptation. It totally functions as a story, but is what you would come up with if the only “Ghost Rider” you’ve read is the very first issue. There’s a lot about Johnny, his beloved mentor Crash, his fridged girlfriend Roxanne, characters that were really important to “Ghost Rider” comics in the 70s.
So I want to celebrate the work of the artists, and commend Percy for improving his craft, but with a caveat. Percy’s “Wolverine” feels tragically generic, taking little advantage of the new Krakoa setting. His “Ghost Rider” suffers similarly. While this may turn out to be a perfectly fine story that you can point someone to, it doesn’t fit great with the overall story. More than that, by regressing to the 70s, the comic also boosts some old fashioned sensibilities, putting the feelings of a white guy at the center and pushing Latino and North Irish characters to the margins in favor of studying a character we’ve studied pretty extensively. For me to truly celebrate this “Ghost Rider” series, it will need to step beyond its very limited perspective.
Final Verdict: 6.8 – A formally good first issue that manages to clear the low bar it sets for itself.
