Runner Up: Ghost Rider #1 (Legacy #237) – Ed Brisson, Aaron Kuder, Jason Keith and Joe Caramagna
The Riders roar again!
After months of teasing and anticipation, we finally have a new series centered around Danny Ketch, Johnny Blaze and their constant conflict with the forces that stand against them in Hell.
With Mephisto locked away in his Las Vegas prison (which also makes his appearances in other recent stories very confusing), Johnny Blaze has been crowned the new King of Hell and has inherited all that comes with the position. He’s required to torture souls, oversee the operations in Hell and ensure that demons never escape which seems to be the most common occurrence as some do NOT respect Blaze.
One such breakout results in Blaze having to leave Hell for a bit to hunt down the escaped demons and to do that, he tries to enlist the help of his brother, Danny Ketch. Ketch, having gone through the ringer while watching another Rider get murdered by Carnage, has decided to do his best to stay away from the horrid life of being a Rider unless the urge for Vengeance becomes too powerful for him to take. One such evening brings him back to help his brother defeat a wandering demon, but declining his offer to hunt them down.
Danny laments becoming the Rider at his mother’s funeral, the lack of stable relationships he’s been able to maintain and the life of death and destruction he’ll never escape. He visits his mother’s grave and, of course, his mother’s spirit comes with a warning about Johnny Blaze. As it turns out, the once semi-noble Blaze has let hell corrupt his soul and only Danny (and to a lesser extent Robbie Reyes in the Avengers) can stop him.
Aaron Kuder has been a hit or miss artist to me in the past, so I’m glad to say that his art was a stellar hit on this first awesome issue. While a lot of backgrounds lacked the gory details that other depictions of hell have had this far, that’s more than made up for by the detail on characters like Johnny Blaze and Danny Ketch as well as the various demons they encounter through the issue.
Johnny and Danny look very similar as Riders, but they do have some things that differentiate themselves from the other. Johnny is shown to have fiery horns above his head, symbolizing his crown as King of Hell, silver gauntlets and a grey outline for a chest plate(?), similar to the rectangle that used to adorn his leather jacket. Danny, of course, still maintains a spiked leather jacket and spiked gauntlets in Rider form.
The fight visuals are something else entirely, consisting of stylish motorcycle combat with flames shooting out of the back of Danny’s bike as well as his chain waving through the air as if it had a life of its own. Jason Keith on the colors was an amazing choice as the entire story feels like it came out of the mid 90s grunge era. There are badass dark reds, bright oranges and yellows as well as very dark inks to show just how dark the Ghost Rider story is. Kuder does his best to bring the cool back to Ghost Rider, though did it ever really leave?
There’s also this slight feeling of dread as a new villain emerges and with Mephisto musing of change on the horizon and the final page stinger, there’s this feeling that something big is coming for the Ghost Riders. In much the same way we had a revival for Venom post Space Knight, this series is likely to be that amazing set up for bigger and badder things.
Ty Talks Comics 