GHOST RIDER v.3 #5
"The Hammer Lane, Part 5 of 6: 20,000 Revs"
Neutral (4/10)
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Marvel Comics/Marvel Knights
Writer: Devin Grayson
Pencils: Trent Kaniuga
Inks: Danny Miki
Colors: Dan Kemp
Letters: Comicraft
Editors: Stuart Moore & Nanci Dakesian
Price: $2.99 US/$4.50 CAN |
Devin Grayson and Trent Kaniuga's take on the Spirit of Vengeance reaches its penultimate issue. Sadly, it's not the strongest one of the series... far from it. Mind you, it's not a bad issue, per se, just redundant. Grayson spends an entire issue telling the reader something s/he already knows, and the art isn't as focused as it was in previous issues.
Johnny Blaze has hired a biker/hitman named Gunmetal to take out the Ghost Rider. Unfortunately, he's figured out that Blaze and the Rider are one and the same, and he figures it'll just be easier to kill the far-more vulnerable Johnny. Blaze scrambles to get away from the hired killer, and in his search for someone in need of vengeance in order to trigger a supernatural transformation, he meets a young woman named Piston.
Kaniuga's interpretation of the Ghost Rider remains impressive; he exudes power and anger, and the artist's exaggerated approach widens the gap between the human and the demonic. This issue didn't seem as sharp as previous chapters, though. The art seemed a shade sketchier, almost rushed at times. The visuals lacks a crispness I saw in earlier issues.
It was nice to see a strong woman enter the world of bikers and road warriors in this issue, but given this is the next-to-concluding chapter of the story, it comes off as more of an afterthought than anything else. I fear any role she might play in the resolution of the tale will seem tacked on.
The big problem with this issue is that it focuses entirely on Johnny running from Gunmetal, over and over and over again. Even if this were a reader's first exposure to the series, the point is made early on. In other words, Grayson has already covered this ground, and it seems like she could have just skipped to the ending, wrapping things up in five issues as opposed to six. Still, the plot itself -- Johnny hiring someone to kill his alter ego -- is a great one, and I look forward to seeing how things play out in the end.
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