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MARVEL MANGAVERSE: GHOST RIDERS #1
Mildly Recommended (6/10)
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Marvel Comics
Writer/Artist: Chuck Austen
Editor: Brian Smith
Price: $2.25 US/$3.50 CAN |
Um... that was odd. Ghost Riders is a book filled with a lot of sheer lunacy, and a lot of it feels a bit forced. However, some of it is a lot of fun, and it's certainly not the dark and gloomy style I've come to associate with the Ghost Rider or Son of Satan characters. Austen also does some interesting artwork here, more reminiscent of animation than the stiff work that he has done lately on Elektra and on the tail end of U.S. War Machine. Unfortunately, the work is often too crowded or garishly colored and that makes it hard to follow. Ghost Riders is a lot of fun, but it has significant
problems as well.
When you think of Ghost Rider, you don't think of a young punk who is shocked and terrified (in a funny way) by his head being on fire. When you think of Son of Satan, you definitely don't think of a roguish and funny guy who just wants a brother to pal around with. But that's exactly what we get with Ghost Riders, which re-envisions these really dark characters as part of some
hellish family sitcom. Even Satana gets in on the act, as a giant bad girl who
seems to parody the Chaos! girls.
Austen's writing is sometimes
a little clumsy, with the relationship between Johnny and Damon being hammered a
little too hard, losing what little claim the book has to subtlety. However, if
you don't mind completely over-the-top humor, painful puns or a general mockery
of super-hero concepts, there's some fun to be had in here. There's a lot of
amusement to be found in Damon gleefully skewering cute looking demons on his
pitchfork, or Satana hurling a hellfire-powered loogie at her brother on the
street, for example.
The artwork on this issue is
an interesting look, with black outlines reserved for the characters, while the
backgrounds are left more colorful and photo-based. The result is that the art
looks something like an animation cel, with the characters really standing out,
and the goofy tone comes through especially in the characters' faces or in the
designs for the demons. The use of color is sometimes a bit heavy, losing out on
detail jokes in the background, but in general the art looks pretty nice.
Overall, the tone of the book
is goofy, even borderline stupid, and it sometimes crosses that border. However,
that doesn't mean that there isn't a lot of fun to be had, and Austen seems to
have captured the tone of the Marvel Mangaverse event pretty well in this
issue.
Email Randy Lander comments about this review, or discuss it on the Fourth Rail message board. |
