Writer: Victor Gischler; Artist: Will Conrad; Letterer: VC's Joe Caramagna; Colorist: Brian Reber; Assistant Editor: Jordan D. White; Associate Editor: Daniel Ketchum; Editor: Nick Lowe; Editor-In-Chief: Axel Alonso; Cover Artist: Jason Pearson
At a Native American reservation, X-Man Danielle Moonstar says goodbye to an old woman named Awanata who is laying catatonic and is slowly dying. She exits the small room and tells the other X-Men (Cyclops, Storm, Gambit, and Pixie) that they need to seal the entrance to the room. The woman's husband, Arnold Blackfeather, tells the X-Men that they have to seal Awanata up due to events that happened decades ago. The town was attacked by demons, and though he was a young training shaman Blackfeather was unable to stop them. Awanata, a powerful shaman as well, absorbed the demons into herself and trapped them inside her own soul. But now she's old and dying, and she knows that once she dies the demons will be released. Blackfeather hands Pixie a magical book that contains a spell to seal the demons inside the brick crypt they're building around Awanata.
Before the spell can be cast, the Ghost Rider arrives declaring the sin in the town must be cleansed in fire. Cyclops, noticing that the Rider has changed (shorter, now a female), tries to talk but is cut off by the Spirit of Vengeance, who senses that Awanata has just died. The tomb explodes and a host of demons in human form emerge from the old woman, calling themselves the Atahsaia. The X-Men stand against them, and when the demons transform into their true forms they create a deep pit in the street. The X-Men attack, but quickly discover that they cannot kill the demons. Ghost Rider pulls up beside Moonstar and orders her to get on the bike while Pixie takes the spell book from Blackfeather. The X-Men herd the demons toward the pit, where Ghost Rider and Moonstone use the Rider's mystical chains to drag them down. When the two women emerge from the chasm, the X-Men seal it with rubble and Pixie uses the spell book to mystically seal the demons in. Blackfeather emerges to thank the heroes, but he's caught by the Ghost Rider's chain and forced to confess his sin. It was Blackfeather who originally summoned the demons to use against a rival tribe, and his wife saved him. Ghost Rider commands Blackfeather to pay penance by repairing the town and regaining his family's honor, then she rides away. The X-Men depart as well, leaving the town to put itself back together.
 |
| Cyclops is cool as a cucumber. |
THE ROADMAP
This issue takes place between Ghost Rider (2011) # 5 and Ghost Rider (2011) # 6.
The Ghost Rider who appears in this story is not Johnny Blaze but Alejandra Jones, who became the host for the Spirit of Vengeance in Ghost Rider (2011) # 1.
Two of the X-Men in this story, Cyclops and Gambit, met the Daniel Ketch Ghost Rider way back in Ghost Rider (1990) # 26.
CHAIN REACTION
The new female Ghost Rider guest-stars in this special Point One issue of the adjectiveless X-Men series.
Victor Gischler's X-Men series was, for all intents and purposes, "X-Men Team-Up". Each story-arc featured a different guest-star, and though the book launched with a huge push from Marvel for the "Curse of the Vampires" arc, the book never really took hold with fans. With all of the important events for the mutants happening in other titles, poor X-Men was looked upon as a second-stringer that was so inconsequential it didn't even get to participate in the X-Men crossovers of the time. But, the book was still heavily promoted in its infancy, so it's curious that the special "new reader friendly" Point One issue was given over to push readers toward the newest Ghost Rider series.
When this issue was released, the new Ghost Rider title had only released three issues (counting its "# 0.1" issue) and was only halfway through the first arc that introduced the new Spirit of Vengeance. So, I can only imagine that Gischler was asked to write this to help promote the new book without really knowing much about what the new character was going to be like. In practice, that means we get a standard stock Ghost Rider story, only this time the Rider is drawn with breasts under the leather jacket. There's nothing here that would be different if it were Johnny Blaze or Danny Ketch behind the flaming skull. So, this comic isn't really pushing the NEW Ghost Rider series, instead its just giving the readers a look at what a traditional Ghost Rider story would be like, only this time it's a girl?
It's a one-shot story, and because of the space limits there's a bit of hand-waving when it comes to the X-Men's involvement. Dani Moonstar has an old friend with a demon problem, so the X-Men come out to help despite not being so well-versed in demonic happenings (and they left their most potent member, Magik, back home in favor of Pixie?). This series didn't have a traditional cast of X-Men, so we get whichever characters Gischler wanted to write about at the time. Cyclops, Gambit, Storm, Pixie, and Moonstar are all decent-to-great characters (though poor Colossus, gets to hang out on the cover but not in the story itself), and the limited cast allows space for the guest-star. Ghost Rider doesn't get to do a whole lot other than look menacing, but I did like the bit at the climax where the heroes all think the problem is solved...until the Rider wraps her chain around Moonstar's family friend and gets him to confess his secret sin.
Will Conrad is one of those Marvel house style artists that pops up on fill-in issues a lot but hasn't really sunk his teeth into any permanent gigs (I think I last saw him on a few issues of DC's Stormwatch series in 2013). His style is highly reminiscent of Mike Deodato, and it works fine on a superhero comic such as this. His action is dynamic and he does a decent job on Ghost Rider herself. There's nothing too flashy or exciting about this comic's artwork, but it certainly gets the job done nicely.
This comic was the only appearance Alejandra made outside of her own series and the "Circle of Four" crossover in Venom. It's a decent, if inconsequential, story for both Ghost Rider and the X-Men.
 |
| Not so fast, old man! |
No comments:
Post a Comment