Broken Frontier

Johnny Blaze is running from the law and battling the devil in this Civil War tie-in issue of Ghost Rider.

Daniel Way has put everyone’s favorite motorcycle hero through the paces. With the creepy aspect of Lucifer out there inhabiting 666 corpses, things are only escalating for poor Johnny. And now, for the first time since his return, we see that Ghost Rider is truly a part of the Marvel Universe because Jack-O-Lantern, who the Punisher brutally murdered in the pages of Civil War, has been inhabited. Since he was dead, for Lucifer, this super-villain was fair game.

As mentioned above, Way has been torturing Ghost Rider, which everybody likes to see. Now Way is taking his maliciousness one step further by using clever storytelling to pull Blaze into the madness that is the current Marvel Universe. By incorporating a character who was slain in Civil War as a new host body for the Devil and having other characters watching the news about the recent string of events in New York, Way brings the Civil War to the Ghost Rider without it seeming forced. His is clearly a strong talent. To be able to bring together two storylines so diverse, so unlike one another, and make this amalgamation interesting and constant, Way has shown he is doing the job he was born to do.

With the skillful hands of Javier Saltares and Mark Texeira illustrating Way’s words there is no way this book can go wrong. Though Richard Corben’s quirky, stylized art in issues #6-7 was simultaneously fun and creepy, Saltares and Texeira work so well together to illustrate a dark, scary feeling that when their names are attached to any Ghost Rider project, said project will at least be worth a look. The heavy, thick lines, rough edges, gray and blue tones, and abundance of shadows these two use to draw Ghost Rider and his world are enough to make you want to read the comic on a bright sunny day in the middle of a crowded park, just so you won’t be alone in the dark when you turn the pages.

Now that Ghost Rider has been firmly planted into the Marvel Universe again and he has approximately 666 reanimated corpses possessed by the Devil to battle, this reader only has one question. When can we expect to see Goliath again?