Superhero Times: a service of Action Online
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Ghost Rider has been in a state of flux for several years. Most recently, Daniel Way decided to drop a bombshell that Ghost Rider was actually a tool of Heaven, bonded to Johnny Blaze by a renegade angel named Zadkiel. While most readers let out of groan of disappointment (or a scream of furious anger), Jason Aaron stepped into the writing duties and decided to pull a Geoff Johns; He took everything that would’ve been retconned, mixed it with his own ideas, and made it all work. His current storyline, The Former Things, makes the Ghost Rider universe fun and exciting for the first time in ages.
Johnny Blaze was the most well-known Ghost Rider, but Daniel Ketch became the new Flamehead in the 90’s. Blaze took back the focus of the series when it re-launched in 2006, still retaining some of the character traits that Ketch had acquired to show that the characters are connected. Now Ketch returns, but on the side of Zadkiel, hunting Blaze’s friend, The Caretaker, with the help of some villains from both Blaze’s and Ketch’s own history. Blaze makes it clear that he has his own agenda even though he is working with Zadkiel, and wants some answers from The Caretaker before Blaze kills him.
While the issue is mostly these characters running through The Caretaker’s shack attacking each other, Aaron takes the time to throw in enough story information that you feel like you’ve actually learned some secrets about the Ghost Rider characters. The final pages have The Caretaker laying a bombshell on Ketch, but it’s unknown if this is the ultimate truth or another red herring. Regardless, it’s enough to make you want to stick around and see what the next issue holds.
Besides reworking the history into something palatable, Aaron has also changed the tone of the book. Ketch’s hit crew is comprised of characters who not only seem out of place together, but seem out of place in most versions of reality, even comic book ones. Blackout, Ketch’s old nemesis and killer of his sister, joins him as another in the employ of rogue angel Zadkiel. As if these two working together wasn’t strange enough, Aaron tosses in Orb, a stunt cycle rider with a Dixie-themed jumpsuit and a giant eyeball head (which technically used to just be a helmet that looked like an eyeball, but apparently is an eyeball now), Doghead, who is a big guy with a… dog’s head, and Death Ninja, who is apparently some sort of zombie ninja. It may sound like the silliest crew, and you may think that there’s no way it can be any good, but Aaron takes it to a B-Movie masterpiece level. If you’ve ever been a fan of Troma or Full Moon Productions, you’ll probably get a kick out of how it’s handled.
The only real weak point is the art from Tan Eng Huat. It really doesn’t fit the book and his anatomy is all over the place. His faces seem to melt when talking and go from oval shaped to circle shaped from frame to frame. He also manages to draw almost every frame in some super stylized perspective that hurts the eyes after a while.
Art aside, this a book a can wholly recommend. The story is so much fun and so brilliantly worked to smooth over the problems that Daniel Way introduced, I can easily recommend this to those who left the title in frustration just a few months ago.