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
Zero Cochrane, the Ghost Rider, has found the man that killed him a week before: Jeter, leader of the mercenary Artificial Kidz. With his laser chainsaw, Zero hacks off Jeter's limbs, severing his bionic implants from his body, but leaves him alive. Before he can do anything more, the police arrive in a flying convoy. Zero destroys one of the ships before hopping on his cycle, and then disappears into the night via his stealth mode.
Later, the executives of the D/Monix Corporation watch the news footage of Zero, dubbed by the media as the "Ghost Rider" due to his likeness of the 20th century vigilante. The head of the company, Mr. Kellerman, appears at the head of the table as a hologram. He tells one aide, Harrison, that he should see the resemblance of this Ghost Rider to the gang emblem of the Hotwire Martyrs, the group Harrison himself fingered as the thieves of the Singapore Archive disk. Kellerman then gives the order to rectify the situation with unlimited collateral damages.
Elsewhere in Transverse City , Zero's ex-girlfriend Kylie Gagarin sits in the Bar Code, dwelling on Zero and the video file he sent to her before his disappearance. She needs a hacker to find out what's on the file, and is immediately approached by a young amateur hacker named Dr. Neon, who promises he can decrypt the file. As they leave the bar, Zero rides past in stealth mode. His power levels drop to the point where he can no longer use the stealth field, something the Ghostworks warned him about. He needs daily recharges of energy to maintain full capacity; otherwise he'll crash his system. Zero figures out where he needs to go to recharge, but is spotted by the police. Meanwhile, Kylie and Neon arrive at his apartment and begin decrypting the information on the video file.
Zero leads the police onto "Detonation Boulevard", a street held as a constant war zone between two rival gangs. While Zero rides through the onslaught of artillery without a scratch, the police suffer heavy damages. At the end of the street, however, Zero comes to a roadblock, forcing him to turn around. He races back down the street and jumps off his bike to fight the cops. He rips one cop from his car, asking where they were when he was getting murdered. The police call for backup, which arrives as several pod-like war machines.
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| Spooooooooky! |
THE ROADMAP
Harrison's connection to Zero and the Hotwire Martyrs is revealed in Ghost Rider 2099 (1994) # 5.
Jeter returns to seek revenge on Zero in Ghost Rider 2099 (1994) # 9.
CHAIN REACTION
Ghost Rider 2099 continues its opening arc, and really cuts loose now that the lengthy origin sequence has been dealt with in the previous issue.
The most impressive thing about this series, which really hit me when I was re-reading this issue for the purposes of writing this review, is that writer Len Kaminski does more than just place the setting in the future. He literally creates an entirely new world for his characters, from the settings to the differences in lifestyles to the language they use. That, in particular, goes a long way to sell this new future; each character uses technical jargon and "geek speak" in such a way that it's as much a part of the dialect than any words we use today, while at the same time I was never once confused at what the characters were saying. Instead of just techno-babble that sounds cool yet means nothing, the dialogue sucks you even deeper into the story. My favorite bit from this issue, for example, is from when the Ghostworks is introducing Zero to his motorcycle. "The vehicle is a customized Ford Velociraptor Nine-Hundred with A-Grav Propulsion, super-charged turbo-thrusters, and a genuine pseudo-leather upholstery." All said with Elwood Blues as its avatar. That's just freaking awesome.
But the main selling point of this issue is getting to see this new Ghost Rider really cut loose, something that we only got a glimpse of in the first issue. Zero has no mercy toward Jeter, or the police for that matter. In fact, the police get it worse because of Zero's dominant anti-establishment personality. "Where were you when I was getting murdered?" he asks as he rips a cop from his destroyed vehicle. He's justifiably enraged from living in a society where a fascist and corrupt police force stepped on his neck throughout his whole life, and now he finally gets to dish out some payback. Despite the differences between this and the modern supernatural Ghost Rider, Zero IS a “spirit of vengeance” in all the ways that matter.
Just seeing the work that Chris Bachalo and Mark Buckingham produce for this issue makes me regret even more that they depart after only a handful of issues. In recent years Bachalo's artwork has degenerated into a cluttered mess, but here he's cleaner, more reigned-in, and I credit that to Buckingham's finishes. Buckingham was Bachalo's creative partner in the 90s, from Shade to Death to Generation X, and it was the break of this duo that I believe caused Bachalo's art to degenerate as much as it did. Still, they produce some awesome work here, particularly during the Detonation Boulevard sequence.
While this book wasn't the star of the 2099 line like Spider-Man or X-Men, or even Doom, it was by far my favorite. This opening arc is what caused me to fall in love with the series.
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