I don’t think they quite hit the highs of the Big Ball of People, but they still brought their all to each issue, and it makes each issue feel like an entire meal. When you have artists designing amazing horror creatures, it’s easy to lean into that and let them go wild with each issue. The imagery and focus on creating strong visuals is in general just a good idea in the visual medium that is comics, but it also helps force the series into being more episodic in focus. Yeah, you could make the big ball monster made of people evocative using only words-horror novels are wonderful, awful works in their own right-but the skill shown here is apparent. Overall: One of the best Ghost Rider comics I’ve read in a long while, this book plays to strengths of its creative team while delivering a smart take on superhero horror comics.It’s a really truly horrible looking thing that perfectly captures the importance of imagery in comics. This is also the best sort of #1 comic, in that it feels grandiose and leading toward new stories, yet satisfying on its own merits. And throughout, the creative team revels in bringing different elements of strong horror storytelling into these pages, from hallucinations (or are they?) of horrific creatures to symbolism that slowly devolves into its bloody actual meanings (remember that pig I mentioned at the start). That’s the other quality this book excels with: it’s an absolute exercise in strong pacing, a perfect and patient build to flaming skulls and exploding chains and all the usual Ghost Rider trademarks. That’s exactly what we get here in Ghost Rider #1, or that’s what it felt like to me anyway - a really well-done horror comic that slowly builds into the titular character in recognizable and intriguing ways. It was a nice catch-all for characters or concepts to operate in rewarding ways separate from usual and expected superhero hijinks. I’ve also been thinking a lot lately about the Marvel Knights imprint, probably because our ongoing Daredevil Reading Project has now reached that era, and it strikes me that those comics (most of them 20 years old at this point) dealt with that in an effective way by silo-ing some characters or story arcs off into smarter, prestige superhero takes that still felt true to their central concepts. It’s a problem that some superhero characters frequently have, wherein their very concepts start to seem odd or impossible when juxtaposed with other concepts, like the Punisher hanging out with the X-Men. One thing I’ve sort of bristled at in the recent past with Ghost Rider comics has been the way it has felt like the stories sort of worked against themselves to draw direct connections to the rest of the Marvel Universe, to ongoing events, the Avengers, or to more recognizable and broader villains. It’s a far more grounded and chilling opening than I expected, and it extends through to the length of the full first issue, which spans more than 40 pages. This comic is also Percy at his best as a writer, spare and forceful with the voiceover prose, with the way Johnny describes what he’s going through to the psychiatrist, interspersed with scenes of him waking up screaming (the shadow of the Ghost Rider behind the bed) before trudging off for a belt of whiskey to knock him out again. Within the space of the second page, we’ve sort of been built into a mystery box, where Johnny is trying to make sense of nightmares and headaches, possibly caused by the gruesome scar on the side of his head, strongly implied to be the result of a terrible road accident. It’s an assured lead-in, for an assured comic that knows exactly the type of story it’s trying to guide the reader through. Now, I’m all for the bombastic superhero openings (probably wouldn’t be running this site if I wasn’t), but an opening like this one for the first new issue of a superhero book speaks to something different, something more grounded and, quite frankly, refreshing. The artwork on that first page is outstanding, conveying the mood and the story expertly before you even read the conversation, with Smith and Valenza giving Johnny a brooding look on his face, cast in ominous light with bloodshot eyes beneath a painting of a pig, fat for slaughter. And I was impressed by this comic basically right from page one. What we get with this new Ghost Rider #1 - from writer Benjamin Percy, artist Cory Smith, colorist Bryan Valenza, and letterer Travis Lanham - starts out feeling like a smart and grounded horror comic, a mystery story centered on a main character who is lost and unsure of what’s going on. By Zack Quaintance - A new Ghost Rider series is launching today, bringing with it the return of Johnny Blaze in the lead role.
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