J-Max was challenged to review 30 issues of Ghost Rider in (roughly) 30
days. Should J-Max succeed he shall earn his freedom (probably not). However
should he fail in this task then he shall be subjected to an attack by
Bees...DEADLY BEES.So let's join him for his review of Ghost Rider #24
Credits: Howard Mackie (writer), Mark Texeira (artist/inker), Gregory Wright (colourist).
Overview: Ghost Rider faces Deathwatch.
1 DAY UNTIL Beemageddon!
There seems to be a strange form of politics over at
Marvel which I can’t fully say I appreciate or understand. The rules go like
this: the villains can do anything they want in our comics, kill anyone, rape
anyone, break anyone but the heroes may never kill back. Unless, of course, it
turns out they are fighting a daemon or a robot.
The reason I say “Marvel lawyers” is because, of
course, we have seen Ghost Rider kill before Way back in the first three issues…you
know, when Stan Lee didn’t present the comic. Nobody at the company expected
Ghost Rider as a series to become such a runaway success. It was practically
laughed at as B grade material and given over to the writers and artists to
practically do what they wanted with it. By the time it was published, Ghost
Rider #1 had stormed the top ten comics lists of the 90s and flew off the shelves, and, to prove
this was no cult of comic book collectors wanting to be millionaires, continued
to stay in the top ten even with the publication of the next two issues.
Something Mackie, Ward and Texeira had done was resonating with the times and
they had brought attention that way. By issue four, Stan Lee was presenting the
comic just as he would X-men and Spider-man and would have his soapbox page
placed in the back along with the fan mail.
Suddenly, Ghost Rider is on his best behaviour and
telling the Punisher not to shoot unarmed men. Of course, I can’t prove any of
this, but it was pretty jarring given how in issue three he had rammed a Sai
through a ninja’s spleen and breaking had squeezed the life from another by
chocking him with his chains. Even Ghost Rider himself seemed to be complaining
about this in many of the issues particularly with the last one where he
finally went "sod the vow, where is he?" only to be told Deathwatch was a doom
teddy or crab person, or whatever he is.
The reason I say “whatever he is” is because we are
never told. The comic attitude is we don’t need to be told. All we need to know
is that Deathwatch can die. And boy, does he: as Ghost Rider rams his chain
into his torso so hard that he explodes. And he explodes so hard that it takes
the entire top section of the hospital with him.
Maybe it’s anticlimactic to divulge this halfway
through a review, but this really was an
anticlimactic issue. Given how well paced the last issue was which ended in
Ghost Rider being vindicated after an incredible media build up or how fun and
exciting issue twenty two was with a ninja attack and smaller characters being
involved, this one is a little underwhelming.
To be fair to it, it does tie up the villain story
quite well, but I really wanted more information on the villain and not just a
battle. I had expected some sort of explanation. The last quote on the matter
is “he’s not human.” The opportune questions seems to be, so, what is he? We
never get that answer because when this issue has opened, Ghost Rider has
already left the hospital and Deathwatch is now there. What is this comic’s
phobia of the origin story?
When Ghost Rider arrives back at the hospital because
he senses death it is to find everybody dead – of course – and to make
Deathwatch explode. Maybe Deathwatch was a bomb? It’s not ever fully described
in the imagery or text, but, from what I guess, he is channelling his hellfire
through his chain which is turning the villain into a living explosive like in
that movie Live Wire. But even this doesn’t make sense, because we’ve been told
before that Ghost Rider’s fire is magical which is why he doesn’t set fire to every
building he enters.
The fight is befitting a final showdown. Ghost Rider
pulls what I like to call a Joss Whedon move by anti-climactically knocking out
Hag and Troll with one punch before walking over them to get to Deathwatch. The
battle rages inside and outside the hospital and Deathwatch beats the Rider
with his own hellfire imbued rib whilst jeering at him. ”What a cruel, yet
fair, joke has been played on you.” He gloats, “you have been given the visage
of death itself and yet you won’t take a life. Whereas I have taken on that
form which humans consider attractive and I revel in death.”
Year two ends with everyone dead and Ghost Rider is
left wondering what he’s going to do now. I can’t help but wonder the same
thing.
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