On Sale Date: September 2007
Writer: Daniel Way
Artist: Javier Saltares
Inker: Mark Texeira
Letterer: Joe Caramagna
Colorist: Dan Brown
Editor: Aubrey Sitterson
Executive Editor: Axel Alonso
Editor In Chief: Joe Quesada
Cover Artist: Mark Texeira
Darlene, a teenager who had been approached by the angel Vraniel the night before, has awakened the next morning to find herself pregnant and close to full-term. Meanwhile, at a press conference held at the stadium for Buffalo's football team, the Geoducks, by the new owner of the team, Jack Daniels. At a motel, Johnny Blaze and his love interest Dixie watch the press conference on television, and Johnny recognizes Daniels as the Lucifer host that escaped him after a battle at an airport months ago. Johnny leaves, telling Dixie to stay at the motel until he calls her.
Back at the trailer she shares with her mother, Darlene gives birth to two angelic, winged baby boys. After the press conference, Daniels goes over his plan to hold a game with free admission to the public, with free beer being served, but does not share that he also plans to blow up the stadium with thousands of people inside. On the highway, Johnny pulls up beside a car, transforms into the Ghost Rider, and demand's the driver's cell phone. Darlene tells her mother that she has to go, that she and the angels have a mission, and her mother gives Darlene her car for transportation. At his office, Daniels is attacked by the Ghost Rider, but the Lucifer hosts tells the Rider that another of the hosts is holding a little league team hostage as a contingency plan.
 |
| Exactly what I'm looking for in a Ghost Rider comic! |
THE ROADMAP
Lucifer's host, "Jack Daniels", was last seen as a pilot who barely escaped from Blaze in Ghost Rider (2006) # 12. The explosion of an airplane is what caused Daniels to be badly burned.
The Ghost Rider escaped from Hell, unknowingly bringing Lucifer to Earth with him, in Ghost Rider (2006) # 1. Lucifer's plan to invade Earth by inhabiting the bodies of the recently deceased was revealed in Ghost Rider (2006) # 4.
Johnny Blaze met Dixie in Ghost Rider (2006) # 2 and they reconnected in Ghost Rider (2006) # 14.
Blaze's plan for stopping Lucifer, including Dixie's role, is revealed in Ghost Rider (2006) # 19.
CHAIN REACTION
After a decent first chapter, "Revelations" drives right off a cliff. It will take four more issues for it to hit bottom and explode in a fiery crash of stupidity.
Let's review the events of this issue and talk about how much sense they make (spoiler: NONE): Jack Daniels is the Lucifer host that escaped during the airport battle a few issues back, where he was obviously a reanimated pilot - don't get me started on how these are supposed to be "recently deceased" people that no one seems to realize used to be dead before resuming their jobs - trying to make his way to Buffalo. Now he shows up as a wealthy owner of a sports team with plans to host a free event at a stadium that he then plans to blow up, killing everyone inside. How did Lucifer become a millionaire, despite being a dead pilot a few weeks before, and how did he manage to purchase a sports team in that time? He didn't get the money from a rich Lucifer host, because there's only four remaining by this time, and they're working at cross purposes from each other, soon to be revealed. He has one other Lucifer host working with him, a little league coach that again, no one realized DIED and was then allowed to continue coaching. Daniels wants to blow up the stadium because...er, well, there is no reason, other than "Satan is bad". There's no end game to this plan, it doesn't further the goal of becoming the one true Lucifer with full power on Earth, it's just "random bad guy plot" bolted onto the story for no reason other than to get Johnny from point A to point B. This is the worst aspect of Daniel Way's Lucifer storyline, there's absolutely no internal consistency; if Daniels wants to be the last remaining host, then attracting Ghost Rider's attention is the last thing he should be doing.
As for the rest of our cast, Johnny and Dixie have apparently just been hanging out in a motel having sex for the last few weeks, despite this "great idea" he had to kill Lucifer. It's only through Lucifer's own actions that Blaze has any idea where to go or what to do, which again makes no sense for the devil given the stated goal as outlined numerous times in past issues. Then we have Darlene, one of Way's stock redneck characters (and as an aside, why is everyone in Way's stories a fucking asshole like Darlene's mom and the guy on the phone, why are there no decent people?) and her angel nativity by way of Teen Mom. I get the idea behind the virgin birth being how Vraniel and Emmael arrive on Earth, but why is that necessary when we've seen angels walking around in full glory before this? Again, it's random ideas paperclipped together without thought as to how they relate to the rest of the story's events.
We don't even get the saving grace of the artwork in this issue, either, because Javier Saltares and Mark Texeira are given absolutely nothing to do. Their Ghost Rider still looks fantastic, but the only "money shot" is the wasted splash page at the end of the issue of the Rider's skull, which serves no other point than to take up space. Instead, we get squatting Darlene and a Deadpool-look-alike in a suit, two things I could have gone the rest of my life without having to see.
I have four more issues of this arc to review? Shit.
 |
| "How many bars do you have?" |
No comments:
Post a Comment