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 #12
Strange Tales
Credits: Howard Mackie (writer), Javier Saltares (artist), Gregory Wright (colourist), Mark Texeira (inker)
Overview: Free of the nightmare realm, Ghost Rider once again pursues Zodiak while the mysterious biker arrives at New York city.
"Stay lucky, kid." - Unknown Rider
Review: One year into the comic and we’ve certainly covered some
ground. Dan has advanced as a character from a weakling to an active individual
where Zarathos has regressed to a shouting, bellowing maniac who demands action and vengeance at all costs even at the expense of common sense. We’ve
had main characters killed, villains killed, retcons, expanded universe
characters used as foils, expanded universe characters doing nothing, and of
course hints at some massive amnesia induced underlining story about why Ghost
Rider seeks revenge in the first place.
I was never a big fan of "onoing mystery" narratives, I think
my aversion to them came from seeing so few turn out like Battlestar
Galactica and so many turn out like Lost or Fringe where all these questions
are simply thrown at an audience expected to care, instalment in; instalment
out, that eventually they will receive a massive, mind blowing, universe shocking pay off to make
all the investment seem worthwhile only for the writer to cop out and it turns out everyone was dead or dreaming or crab people or something. I can only hope that’s not where we are heading here, but I havemy preconceptions.
In the previous issue, we realised Zarathos wasn’t exactly a
major strategist when he found out a demon/creature/whatever was feeding off
his penance stare and his immediate reaction to this on arriving home from Oz was “I’m going to penance stare some villains” Luckily Dr Strange showed up. And, at the risk of sounding repetitive, I’ve
never really been much of a fan of Dr Strange either but Iwas curious what his
introduction would add to the story.
Well, it turns out Dr Strange needs Zarathos power to free
one of his sidekicks, the attractive woman named Topaz - not Rintrah the
minotaur – who needs his hellfire along with a list of other mystical items to
free a spirit inhabiting her body. A by the numbers scavanger hunt that is going
to force Dr Strange to hunt down Ghost Rider in this and the following comics. It seems everyone is after him at this point.
Of course, all Zarathos wants to do is punish Zodiak. He
approaches Zodiak’s car - I’m
guessing he had time to memorize the license plate - which is now parked at a halls of residence. The
driver craps himself when he sees Ghost Rider in the wing mirror - which reads “Warning
objects In mirror are closer than you think” for some reason, and dashes into the
building. Zarathos enters and gets down to the business of battering them all to a pulp. Since it was introduced in issue six, the no killing policy hasn't been brought up again but
here he violently runs over an armed gangster, crotch first, with his flaming
motorbike whilst travelling down a stairwell. I guess some policies die hard.
And if I thought that was over the top, I was in for a bigger surprise
because in the basement in a massive, mystical orb filled with screaming
children; being worshipped by a cult of basement dwelling warlocks. It turns out that Zodiak’s employer wants
him to do some sort of weird cult thing that’s going to summon a dragon which
will arrive just in time for Dr Strange to show up and beat it. All this talk
about the orb being operated by “some sort of magic” that came from “the other side”
to satisfy his “employer” who also apparently employs drug addicts is driving me insane. I
thought Zodiak was an assassin disguising himself as a mindless killer? Little
did I know he was a child sacrificing occultist disguising himself as a covert assassin
disguising himself as a serial killer who had a modus operandi as an occultist.
Who could have really thought this was a good idea? Wouldn't simpler have been better?
The dragon is defeated. The children are saved. Zodiak is
a robot; I’m glad at least that robot part was consistent. None one of his other star sign themed astro-gadgets even remotely make an appearance
here. I was hoping we'd really ramp up the volume of nuttery with Ghost
Rider’s bike being knocked over by hooves of Capricorn or him being made well-mannered
by the laser of Virgo, hell whip out that hose of Aquarius again. Instead,
we’ve overshot the stop at crazyville here with some sort of dragon, demon story
which only Dr Strange can close - which he does in one quick boring page. If all
of this doesn’t seem pandered enough toward Dr Strange for you don’t worry: the
conclusion of this arc appears in Dr Strange #28.
So none of this makes any sense. We’ve
made a simple idea like the Zodiak villain overly complicated, Ghost Rider’s
penance stare is still a big mystery and now we’re not even going to be concluding an
ongoing story arc in the main series.
As for the mystery biker subplot, he once again has the quote of the comic which he mutters after taking out two would be muggers. Now, he is in New York, and I hope his presence will help push this back on the right path. For now, it’s on to Dr Strange.
As for the mystery biker subplot, he once again has the quote of the comic which he mutters after taking out two would be muggers. Now, he is in New York, and I hope his presence will help push this back on the right path. For now, it’s on to Dr Strange.
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