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| Cover Artist: Tradd Moore |
Original Price: $3.99
Title: "Engines of Vengeance", Part 5
Writer: Felipe Smith
Artist: Tradd Moore
Letterer: VC's Joe Caramagna
Colorist: Val Staples
Editor: Mark Paniccia
Editor In Chief: Axel Alonso
SYNOPSIS
After taking his brother Gabe out for ice cream, Robbie Reyes is driving home and talking in his head with the spirit of Eli Morrow, who is attempting to convince Robbie to burn down all of the criminals and gangsters in his neighborhood. Robbie gets a phone call from the auto shop where he works and is asked to come in and work the next night. Robbie agrees and calls a friend to babysit Gabe, then when witnessing a fist-fight outside starts to agree with Eli's message of vengeance. Elsewhere in Hillrock Heights, the mutated gang leader Grumpy is murdered by Mr. Hyde, who tells his men that they will be executing the rest of Grumpy's gang at their other hideout the next day as a message to all other gangs in the area.
The next day, Guermo Valdez and his friends are being watched by the remnants of Grumpy's gang, who know that it was Guermo who sold them out to Zabo/Hyde. When the gangsters confront Guermo in the street, they are interrupted by Zabo's mercenary army, and a gunfight breaks out in the middle of the neighborhood. At Canelo's Auto and Body Shop, Robbie hears the news that a gang shootout is happening near his house, and realizes that Gabe's babysitter lives near there as well. The school bus from the development center, in which Gabe is riding, unknowingly drives straight into the massive firefight, causing the bus to crash onto its side. While Robbie races to the scene, Guermo's friends work to help the injured handicapped children off the bus. Guermo reluctantly helps rescue Gabe, but is attacked by the leader of Zabo's mercenaries. Gabe moves in front of Guermo to save him, but before the soldier can open fire Robbie arrives as the Ghost Rider and kills the merc with his chains. Robbie places Gabe in the trunk of his car, which transports him back to the Auto Shop for safe keeping.
Robbie watches the violence and destruction going on around him and hears both the voice of his teacher telling him to be a positive force and the voice of Eli telling him to burn everything down. The mercenaries attack Robbie, who manages to take them out easily. Then, from a helicopter overhead, Mr. Hyde jumps down and enters the fight. He thinks he recognizes Robbie, wondering why he's driving a car now, but after he quickly gets the upper hand Hyde comments that whoever he is, Robbie is “not the Ghost Rider”. Neither Robbie nor Eli know what Hyde is talking about, and before Hyde can kill him Robbie uses his car as a weapon to knock the villain off balance. Afraid of losing, Hyde takes a handful of the pink pills and shoves them in his mouth, mutating further into a monster. Zabo and Hyde fight for dominance as the mutation transforms them, with Zabo stating that Hyde has caused them to overdose. Hyde turns back into a helpless Zabo, and Robbie leaves as the police arrive at the scene.
At their hideout later, Guermo and his gang talk about how awesome the Ghost Rider was during the fight, and suddenly the Rider is standing in the room with them. Robbie sees Gabe's stolen wheelchair in the corner, beats up the gang, and takes the wheelchair back before driving away.
ANNOTATIONS
The story behind Eli Morrow is revealed in All-New Ghost Rider (2014) # 8.
While traditionally a foe of Captain America and the Avengers, Mr. Hyde has had three previous encounters with a Ghost Rider (Danny Ketch) in Ghost Rider (1990) # 4, Ghost Rider (1990) # 36, and Ghost Rider (1990) # 55.
REVIEW
“Engines of Vengeance” comes to a conclusion, which also signals the departure of artist Tradd Moore from the series.
Had this series been launched as a 5-issue mini-series from the start, I think we would have had one very tight series. Felipe Smith introduced a LOT of stuff in this initial arc, just look at everything given to us over the last five issues: a new Ghost Rider, an entirely new set of characters both main and supporting, character conflicts on both personal and superheroic levels, a possible new twist on the Spirit of Vengeance concept separate from what's come before, and even an unfamiliar setting/location for traditional Ghost Rider stories. The fact that both Robbie Reyes and the world he inhabits comes out as fleshed-out and fully-formed as it does is a testament to how much work Smith put into the creation of this series. Reyes feels like a real person, much more so than Danny Ketch did in the opening arc of the 1990s series, and his struggles seem both genuine and dramatic.
Even the familiar parts of the story take a on a new life, specifically the mystery surrounding Eli Morrow as the “spirit of vengeance” attached to Robbie and his new car. We've seen Spirits with personalities before (hi, Zarathos, hey Noble Kale!), but even here before we know any of the details Eli just seems OFF somehow. He's a little too eager to push Robbie to extremes, and his breezy tone is far more frightening than a demon screaming for souls. Eli is the personification of the little devil sitting on Robbie's shoulder, contrasted interestingly with the portrayal of Robbie's teacher as the angel of conscience. Smith knows that comics fans are suckers for continuity, though, and he uses the one piece of Marvel canon – Mr. Hyde – to bring things back around to Ghost Rider history. Having Hyde be the one to name Robbie as a “Ghost Rider” is a nice touch, almost as nice as having him be the ultimate drug pusher overdosing on his own inability to control his darker impulses.
The story works, it works very, very well, but Smith could not have achieved this without the work of Tradd Moore on art. Moore bows out after this issue, and the series immediately loses the strongest gun in its arsenal, namely the sense of movement and fluid energy that Moore brought to every panel. These panels aren't depicting static posed images, everything is in motion in some way, and it's beautiful to look at. Replacing Moore had to have been a thankless job, because there only a handful of artists that I think could come close to replicating the kinetic life of this first arc (early Tan Eng Huat, maybe?).
“Engines of Vengeance” was almost perfect from start to finish, and honestly the series suffered badly afterward. Smith and Moore succeeded in introducing a new Ghost Rider that I wanted to read about, and for once I didn't miss Johnny Blaze.
Grade: A+
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