I may not be much of a Ghost Rider expert, but this run is definitely making me want to read more of his books, because it's been really interesting so far. I thought the contents of the first volume, while a bit poorly explained, were very well-done, and I liked the subtle horror influences. I would probably give it a 9/10. I haven't seen Percy tackle a pseudo-horror comic before, but he's making it work. And Cory Smith's art is a little too heavily lined, it ultimately fits with the gritty aesthetic of the story. Now, to get into the contents of this volume.
I feel like in some ways it was better and in some ways it was worse. While the story felt more focused this time, there was one big thing near the end that I'll get to in a moment that was a little frustrating. But I'll get to that after I cover other stuff that happens earlier.
We start this arc by removing Johnny's parasite, (for lack of a better word to describe the supernatural equivalent) and while it was a strange narrative decision to involve Wolverine so heavily in that, I really like the way Percy writes Wolverine, so it doesn't bother me that much. Unfortunately, the parasite didn't stay dead...
Exhaust is a goofy villain. I'm not sorry. I just can't take him seriously. I'm not sure what the idea was behind him, but I feel like they should have gone back to the drawing board with it. I'm interested to see how things go with Blackheart, don't get me wrong, but I feel like Exhaust was so weirdly executed that I struggle to see how he fits into the larger story.
On the subject of negatives, I feel like Talia Warroad has potential as a co-protagonist, but right now she feels a little too much like a ride-along character and sometimes I wonder why she's here. But then she'll do something that totally justifies her role in the story and I don't know how to feel about her character anymore. I'll have to see how that goes. Similarly, I feel like some of the other supernatural forces in this run have felt a little underdeveloped, but I'm not very familiar with Ghost Rider comics, so maybe some of them are pre-existing things that I just need to do more backtracking to understand.
This is a random little positive that I just think is neat, but I like that this book says that Blackheart has been using the United States Interstate system as a series of conduits for his plans, because they have so much supernatural power in them from the people who died in car accidents haunting the roads. I just think this is an interesting concept and I like the way that the narration describes it.
Another positive is correcting a small issue with the last volume, which is that we get to see some more "cool" scenes with Ghost Rider, which is a fun boost. I liked the amount of Johnny Blaze we got in the first volume, (partly because I like the way Percy writes antiheroes like I mentioned with Wolverine earlier) but it did feel like we didn't get as much Ghost Rider as we could have, and this volume kind of improves that. Also there's a panel where he makes a subway train his vehicle, and I just think that's kind of fun. I don't know. Some characters' powers are just inexplicably cool to me, and Ghost Rider is one of them.
But now that I've kind of covered what I liked and what I didn't, I need to talk about my biggest issue with this arc, and the reason that I put this at an 8.5/10 instead of a 9.
SPOILERS AHEAD!!!
Exhaust, one of the main villains this arc and the preceding one were building up, is resolved off-panel. I may have thought he was a goofy villain, but I still would have wanted to see an actual resolution to that. It almost feels like they expected they would have one more issue for this arc than they did, and they had to cram the fight with Exhaust and the fight with Blackheart into one issue. And it feels very rushed. And that unsatisfying ending does kind of sour the rest of the arc, but i think I ultimately enjoyed the rest enough that it didn't bother me that much, and I'm interested to see what they do with Danny Ketch in the next arc. So I would still give it an 8.5/10.
Have you read this book? If so, what did you think of it?