Writer: Len Kaminski; Artist: Chris Bachalo; Inker: Mark Buckingham; Letterer: Richard Starkings w/ John Gaushell; Colorist: Christie Scheele w/ Heroic Age; Editor: Evan Skolnick; Group Editor: Bobbie Chase; Editor In Chief: Tom DeFalco; Cover Artist: Chris Bachalo
In the year 2099, three members of the Artificial Kidz, a local gang of mercenaries, ride their motorcycles through Transverse City, a sprawling 20 lane/10 story super-highway that stands between Chicago and Detroit. Surprising to them, a cybernetic warbot on a hoverbike attacks and quickly defeats them. Capturing one of the Kidz alive, the robot asks him for the name of the person that hired them to kill another gang of data pirates called the Hotwire Martyrs. The so-called "Ghost Rider", one Zero Cochrane, thinks back to a week before, when after a theft of some encrypted data files had marked the Martyrs for death. Zero ran, the only one of the four to escape, but was pursued by the Kidz.
Shot in the arm by a poisonous flechette, Zero manages to evade the mercs, though he trashes his bike in the process. Stopping at a payphone, he wires his brain into the data feed and calls his girlfriend, Kylie. Knowing that the mycotoxin in his blood was quickly killing him, he uploads the stolen files to the link and asks Kylie to save it to disc. A second later, Jeter (leader of the Artificial Kidz) approaches Zero, demanding he return the stolen files. Instead, Chochrane uploads his entire consciousness into cyberspace, intending to melt his own brain and leave Jeter with nothing but a fried brain to examine.
Zero then awakens in a small corner of cyberspace called the Ghostworks, where he is brought before several resident archetypes, beings of artificial intelligence that have come to thrive in the data streams. They have managed to rescue Zero's consciousness from oblivion, and in return they bring an offer before him. Concerned with the state of Earthly society, the Ghostworks wishes to erase the information viruses of greed and stupidity from civilization, and they want Zero to be their "antiviral agent". Zero will be their symbol of rebellion, their myth-like figure through which they will start a revolution. Zero accepts, and is sent back to reality. The warbot body, armed to the teeth with ordnance, houses Zero's consciousness. Then, he's turned loose.
Back in the present, Zero is told Jeter's whereabouts by the captured Kidz member. He runs as the cops arrive, seemingly disappearing into thin air. Not long after, at the Kidz camp, the Ghost Rider reappears and quickly takes down the mercenaries. He finds Jeter, who tells him that the hit on the Martyrs was contracted by D/MONIX. He releases Jeter, who asks the Rider what more he wants from him. As a laser-fueled chainsaw emerges from the robot's wrist, Zero replies with one word: "Vengeance."
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| "Neon Scream" is the name of my new band. |
THE ROADMAP
The Marvel 2099 line was an experimental branch of comics that attempted to translate the icons of the present-day Marvel into future incarnations. Other titles included Spider-Man 2099, Doom 2099, Punisher 2099, and X-Men 2099.
This issue was published in two versions: one with a standard format cover and one with a foil-enhanced cover.
The events that occurred just prior to Zero's flashback in this issue are revealed via memory recall in Ghost Rider 2099 (1994) # 3.
CHAIN REACTION
The early 1990s were an odd time for comics. With the speculator boom at its height, Marvel (and DC, to be fair) began pumping out an unprecedented amount of product, and for a change it was no longer "okay" for a new title to be a stand-alone series. Now, all of the books produced had to be part of a "family" of titles, something the regular Ghost Rider series would be sucked into - the Midnight Sons line of books. Another line of books created in a similar vein were the 2099 comics, which created a futuristic world over 100 years in the future - and where future counterparts to many Marvel characters would debut. The series started out strong with Spider-Man, Punisher, Doom, and Ravage 2099, and that success allowed for a second wave of titles to emerge. In that second wave was one of my all-time favorite comics: Ghost Rider 2099.
In a complete turnaround on what readers were expecting, the future Ghost Rider had absolutely nothing to do with demons or the supernatural. Instead, the book embraced technology and the burgeoning Internet subculture, creating a framework of cyberpunk chic and anarchist philosophy. Spearheading this unique look at the character was writer Len Kaminski and, at least initially, artist Chris Bachalo. The resulting five issue arc that kicked off the series was, in a word, incredible...but it still had its flaws.
As to be expected, a series about a teenage hacker inhabiting a skeletal warbot wasn't exactly what regular Ghost Rider readers were prepared for - something that was obvious on the book's letter column, which ran numerous letters asking if Zero Cochrane had any connection to the Spirit of Vengeance or the Medallion of Power (the answer, thankfully, being none whatsoever). The creative team was adamant about keep the book grounded in a possible reality, without the fantasy element of magic or the supernatural, and I always felt that to be both a wise and brave decision. I really didn't want to read about yet another Spirit of Vengeance, regardless of the setting, and I think the editors and writer made the smart move by taking away the redundancy. Because regardless of what you think of the series, it cannot be denied that Ghost Rider 2099 was a completely different animal than the series from which it took its name.
From the first page, Kaminski and Bachalo hit you with an onslaught of engaging characters and thought-provoking ideas. With narration provided by excerpts from future novels and travel brochures to the surrealistic 20th century throwback of the Ghostworks, the series submerges itself in a world of science-fiction and punk rock attitude. Hell, it even quotes Johnny Rotten and the Bhagavad-gita on the opening splash page. If anything can be found that detracts from the incredible work the creative team produced on the book, it's the argument that the first arc focused too much on a repetitive series of battles and chase scenes - though that's a problem that's not really evident in the first issue.
And really, when you've got artwork as sharp and unique as Chris Bachalo's, I can happily read through pages upon pages of fights and chases from now until the end of time. This falls right after Bachalo's work on Death: The High Cost of Living and before Generation X, and to me it's easily the guy's best work. It's such a shame that Bachalo's artwork has degenerated into the mess that it is today, because on this series he was absolutely phenomenal.
So, as you could probably tell from the gushing praise I just heaped on this issue, Ghost Rider 2099 is a series that I highly recommend any comic fan to track down. Just don't be surprised and disappointed by the disconnection from the standard Ghost Rider norm.
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| Son of a glitch! |
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