Cover Date: July 1994
On Sale Date: May 1994
Confronted by a squad of robots piloted by securi-cops, Zero Cochrane launches into an attack with his electro-saw only to find it won't cut the robots' armor. One of the robots slams Zero to the ground and tells him that nothing short of a monomolecular edge can cut through the suit. Just so happens, Zero comments, he has one hand – his fingers sharpen into blades that cut right through the windshield of the suit, severely wounding the pilot. In response, a massive police "street sweeper" barrels down the street while Zero's on board computer alerts him that his reserve power is down to 50%. With no other choice, Zero turns down an alley and runs.
Watching from the police cameras in D/Monix headquarters are two executives, Harrison and Womack. The two check in with the doctors examining the bodies of Zero and the other Hotwire Martyrs. While they can't retrieve any information from Cochrane's fried brain, his friend Warewolf is more or less intact. They induce a memory recall on Warewolf, showing the doctors just how Zero was able to download the secure Singapore Date File from the D/Monix network and the subsequent attack on the Martyrs by the mercenary Artificial Kidz. Womack comments that they still know nothing: the Martyr that's alive doesn't know where the file went while the one that does know is dead. Womack's security system informs him of an online inquiry into one of D/Monix's encryption algorithms, and that the perpetrators are in the process of being apprehended. Womack tells Harrison that he believes there to be a connection between the Ghost Rider and the Singapore File theft; and that they're going to use Warewolf to trace that connection.
Back on the street, Zero takes a wrong turn and comes to a dead-end alley. The cops close in on him, and with his power almost gone Zero barely manages to escape into the sewers. For the brief minute that the police lose their line-of-sight on Zero he implements his solidogram camouflage system that maps a hologram of his human body over his new robot shell. The police pass him up, thinking he's just a homeless man sleeping in the sewer. After they pass Zero goes back up to the street, and a convoy for police cruisers pass him by in route to apprehend his ex-girlfriend Kylie and the amateur hacker Dr. Neon.
At the Bar Code, Zero enters and asks to speak to the bar's owner, Anesthesia Jones. Jones meets with Zero, who asks her for a couple of hours of straight voltage in private. Jones thinks its weird and expensive, but doable. In return for the word on what's happening since the Martyrs were attacked, Jones agrees to Zero's request. The next day, Zero finishes his recharge and decides its time to settle things by first retrieving his bike from police custody. When he exits the back of the bar he immediately sees his friend Warewolf. Both are shocked, as they each thought the other to be dead. Warewolf has no memory of what happened to him after the attack on the Martyrs. Zero takes Warewolf out back and turns off his camouflage, revealing himself to be the Ghost Rider. However, this triggers a transformation in Warewolf, turning him into a monstrous creature programmed to terminate the Ghost Rider.
On Sale Date: May 1994
Writer: Len Kaminski; Artist: Chris Bachalo & Peter Gross; Inker: Mark Buckingham & Kev Sutherland; 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: Mark Buckingham
Confronted by a squad of robots piloted by securi-cops, Zero Cochrane launches into an attack with his electro-saw only to find it won't cut the robots' armor. One of the robots slams Zero to the ground and tells him that nothing short of a monomolecular edge can cut through the suit. Just so happens, Zero comments, he has one hand – his fingers sharpen into blades that cut right through the windshield of the suit, severely wounding the pilot. In response, a massive police "street sweeper" barrels down the street while Zero's on board computer alerts him that his reserve power is down to 50%. With no other choice, Zero turns down an alley and runs.
Watching from the police cameras in D/Monix headquarters are two executives, Harrison and Womack. The two check in with the doctors examining the bodies of Zero and the other Hotwire Martyrs. While they can't retrieve any information from Cochrane's fried brain, his friend Warewolf is more or less intact. They induce a memory recall on Warewolf, showing the doctors just how Zero was able to download the secure Singapore Date File from the D/Monix network and the subsequent attack on the Martyrs by the mercenary Artificial Kidz. Womack comments that they still know nothing: the Martyr that's alive doesn't know where the file went while the one that does know is dead. Womack's security system informs him of an online inquiry into one of D/Monix's encryption algorithms, and that the perpetrators are in the process of being apprehended. Womack tells Harrison that he believes there to be a connection between the Ghost Rider and the Singapore File theft; and that they're going to use Warewolf to trace that connection.
Back on the street, Zero takes a wrong turn and comes to a dead-end alley. The cops close in on him, and with his power almost gone Zero barely manages to escape into the sewers. For the brief minute that the police lose their line-of-sight on Zero he implements his solidogram camouflage system that maps a hologram of his human body over his new robot shell. The police pass him up, thinking he's just a homeless man sleeping in the sewer. After they pass Zero goes back up to the street, and a convoy for police cruisers pass him by in route to apprehend his ex-girlfriend Kylie and the amateur hacker Dr. Neon.
At the Bar Code, Zero enters and asks to speak to the bar's owner, Anesthesia Jones. Jones meets with Zero, who asks her for a couple of hours of straight voltage in private. Jones thinks its weird and expensive, but doable. In return for the word on what's happening since the Martyrs were attacked, Jones agrees to Zero's request. The next day, Zero finishes his recharge and decides its time to settle things by first retrieving his bike from police custody. When he exits the back of the bar he immediately sees his friend Warewolf. Both are shocked, as they each thought the other to be dead. Warewolf has no memory of what happened to him after the attack on the Martyrs. Zero takes Warewolf out back and turns off his camouflage, revealing himself to be the Ghost Rider. However, this triggers a transformation in Warewolf, turning him into a monstrous creature programmed to terminate the Ghost Rider.
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| I want one of those jackets! |
THE ROADMAP
The cop slashed by the Ghost Rider's monomolecular finger blades is cryogenically frozen after his death and is revived as the 2099 incarnation of Vengeance in Ghost Rider 2099 (1994) # 20.
CHAIN REACTION
Ghost Rider 2099 rolls on with its opening story-arc and the series is still hitting all the right buttons even with a mid-stream change in artists that could have potentially upset the apple cart in a big way.
One of the main contributing factors to this book's initial quality was the artwork by Chris Bachalo and Mark Buckingham. This art team gave the book its distinct look with their unique style setting the tone for Kaminski's engaging scripts. But it was at this point that Bachalo was preparing to move on in favor of illustrating Marvel's new Generation X series for the X-Men branch of titles. This decision struck a major blow against Ghost Rider 2099, as losing Bachalo so early could easily have derailed the series completely. But in a surprising move, Marvel brought in fill-in artists to finish the opening 5-issue story-arc in a style similar to Bachalo's. Mark Buckingham is a great penciller in his own right, and both he and fellow artist Peter Gross fell very much in line with the same visual style as Bachalo, all three cutting their teeth on books for DC Comics' mature readers Vertigo imprint. This decision on the editor's part, getting Buckingham and Gross to finish the opening arc, allowed the book to keep its visual congruity without missing a step. In all honesty, I couldn't tell what pages of this issue were drawn by Bachalo and which were drawn by Gross, their styles are that harmonious.
Kaminski continues to up the ante with each new issue, providing more and more targets for his Ghost Rider to destroy. But there-in lies a potential problem of its own as Kaminski runs the risk of making Zero a bit too powerful. He tears through the police like a hot knife through butter, with the giant mech-suits at the start of this issue just barely posing a threat. Thankfully, Kaminski installed a back-door for this problem with the recharge mandate. The threat that Zero could potentially run out of power without a recharge effectively "short-circuits" the feeling that this Ghost Rider was more or less unstoppable. One thing I do want to note, however, is how each issue so far introduces a new weapon or feature for the Ghost Rider. This issue alone gives us the "morphable alloy monomolecular blades" and the "solidogram camouflage system", and he's given even more offensive capabilities as this story moves forward next issue.
The cliffhanger ending of this issue sets up the book's first "super-villain" of a sort – in other words, something for Zero to fight that's not the police – and it promises even more brutality.
CHAIN REACTION
Ghost Rider 2099 rolls on with its opening story-arc and the series is still hitting all the right buttons even with a mid-stream change in artists that could have potentially upset the apple cart in a big way.
One of the main contributing factors to this book's initial quality was the artwork by Chris Bachalo and Mark Buckingham. This art team gave the book its distinct look with their unique style setting the tone for Kaminski's engaging scripts. But it was at this point that Bachalo was preparing to move on in favor of illustrating Marvel's new Generation X series for the X-Men branch of titles. This decision struck a major blow against Ghost Rider 2099, as losing Bachalo so early could easily have derailed the series completely. But in a surprising move, Marvel brought in fill-in artists to finish the opening 5-issue story-arc in a style similar to Bachalo's. Mark Buckingham is a great penciller in his own right, and both he and fellow artist Peter Gross fell very much in line with the same visual style as Bachalo, all three cutting their teeth on books for DC Comics' mature readers Vertigo imprint. This decision on the editor's part, getting Buckingham and Gross to finish the opening arc, allowed the book to keep its visual congruity without missing a step. In all honesty, I couldn't tell what pages of this issue were drawn by Bachalo and which were drawn by Gross, their styles are that harmonious.
Kaminski continues to up the ante with each new issue, providing more and more targets for his Ghost Rider to destroy. But there-in lies a potential problem of its own as Kaminski runs the risk of making Zero a bit too powerful. He tears through the police like a hot knife through butter, with the giant mech-suits at the start of this issue just barely posing a threat. Thankfully, Kaminski installed a back-door for this problem with the recharge mandate. The threat that Zero could potentially run out of power without a recharge effectively "short-circuits" the feeling that this Ghost Rider was more or less unstoppable. One thing I do want to note, however, is how each issue so far introduces a new weapon or feature for the Ghost Rider. This issue alone gives us the "morphable alloy monomolecular blades" and the "solidogram camouflage system", and he's given even more offensive capabilities as this story moves forward next issue.
The cliffhanger ending of this issue sets up the book's first "super-villain" of a sort – in other words, something for Zero to fight that's not the police – and it promises even more brutality.
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| "I can beat that, easy!" |
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