Cover Date: January 2017; Publication Date: November 2016
Writer: Felipe Smith; Artist: Danilo S. Beyruth; Letterer: VC's Joe Caramagna; Colorist: Val Staples & Jesus Aburtov; Editor: Mark Paniccia; Editor In Chief: Axel Alonso; Cover Artist: Marco Chechetto
At Canelo's Auto Shop, Robbie Reyes is spending time with his younger, disabled brother, Gabe, bonding with him over cars. Elsewhere, on the Santa Monica Coastline, a group of archaeologists have made an interesting discovery of an unknown chemical element, which has attracted the attention of Amadeus Cho. Inside their trailer, the scientists see the chemical goo attack and absorb a lab rat, which causes them to flee. Cho transforms into the Totally Awesome Hulk and goes into the trailer. Meanwhile, on their way home, Robbie's route is blocked by a moving truck on their street. When he asks them to move, the driver of the van shows a gun in his belt and tells them to keep moving before he shoots them. Back on the coastline, Cho discovers that whatever the creature bites causes it to transform into a mutated copy. It attempts to bite him, but as the Hulk he has impenetrable skin.
After arriving home, Robbie drops Gabe off and says he needs to run an errand. Robbie transforms into Ghost Rider and tracks down the moving van on the road. He attacks the driver and stops the van, cutting it open to free a family that had been taken captive before driving away in the Hell Charger. Cho, meanwhile, catches the small creature in his hands and sticks his tongue out at it, which the monster promptly bites. The monster grows to the Hulk's size and immediately starts attacking, but when Cho gets the upper hand the creature burrows into the sand and disappears. The next day, Robbie and Gabe enjoy a taco from a sidewalk stand and then leave. Also at the stand is Laura Kinney, the All-New Wolverine, and her companion Gabby. Wolverine senses the creature in the sewer grate behind them and pops her claws, saying "things are about to get messy".
"Pyston Nitro Strikes!"
Writer: Felipe Smith; Artist: Tradd Moore; Letterer: VC's Joe Sabino; Colorist: Val Staples; Editor: Mark Paniccia; Editor In Chief: Axel Alonso
Canelo's Auto Shop is visited by Rhonda Reubens, a fitness guru famous for her work with celebrities. While the other employees fawn over her, Rhonda is immediately attracted to Robbie's Dodge Charger. As she leaves the shop, she removes her wig to reveal the words "Pyston Nitro" tattooed on her forehead, swearing that Robbie's car will soon be hers.
That night, Reubens arrives at Robbie's house on a skateboard, strapped with Uzis and a crowbar. When she attempts to break into the car, Robbie wakes up and transforms into the Ghost Rider, teleporting from his bed to the interior of the car. When he attacks the car thief, who introduces herself as Pyston Nitro, she steps on her skateboard and zips away at super speed. Robbie jumps in the car and attempts to follow her, unable to believe that he's being outrun by a skateboard. Eli chimes in and teleports the car right to her, which results in them being trapped in a field of "slow time". Nitro attempts to gun Robbie down, but realizes he's bullet proof. She rides away, and once gone the car returns to its normal speed. Eli explains to Robbie that she wasn't faster than them, she's able to slow time down in her immediate vicinity while she moves normally. Later that night, Robbie lies awake in bed staring at Rhonda's business card, while Rhonda lays in bed looking at pictures of Robbie on social media.
Robbie Reyes last appeared in Ghost Rider X-Mas Special # 1.
CHAIN REACTION
Robbie Reyes makes his long-awaited return as Ghost Rider, but the comic itself is disappointing.
This series, in a lot of ways, was inevitable, despite what fans of Johnny Blaze may want or believe. Reyes was a new character launched during the first "Marvel NOW!" initiative, he's a part of their push toward diversity, and was recently added to the Marvel television universe with a major role on the Agents of SHIELD show. There was no way Robbie Reyes wasn't making a come back, I'm just surprised it took Marvel this long after Secret Wars to make it happen. From what I understand, they waited for writer Felipe Smith, the character's creator, to free up time in his schedule to return to the series, and that makes sense. Robbie's a character very much defined by Smith's authorial voice, and I really wonder if handing him over to a new writer would have done the book justice. Sticking with Smith was a good move, even if it meant having to wait a year since the end of the "Ghost Racers" mini-series.
I was a fan of both "All-New Ghost Rider" and "Ghost Racers", so I was highly anticipating Smith's return to the series. However, this first issue is not what I was expecting nor was it an appropriate introduction to the character following the huge surge in interest from the television appearances. In a nutshell, this was a subpar issue of "Totally Awesome Hulk, guest starring Ghost Rider". I get that Smith wants to integrate Robbie into the larger Marvel Universe outside of the established Ghost Rider canon (such as Mr. Hyde and Johnny Blaze during the "All-New" series), there's nothing wrong with that plan. Unfortunately, choosing to do so in the first issue was a mistake. Smith leans way too heavily into the idea and it forces Robbie into a supporting role in his own comic. In the 22-page main story, Robbie appears on 7 pages while Amadeus Cho's "subplot" takes up 9 pages. I didn't buy the first issue of a new Ghost Rider series to read about the Hulk fighting a goo monster, and it was aggravating at best.
The lack of screen time for the title character wasn't the only problem with the comic. The first is the story's timeline, the continuity of events as they're presented on the page make no sense whatsoever. While the Ghost Rider and Hulk pages are split up amongst the other, the Cho/monster fight takes place within what appears to be a very brief period of time with the sun still shining brightly at the end, while the Reyes segment transitions from day to evening to night. It's really sloppy, and I wonder if the pages were originally supposed to be more linear, with the Cho pages all falling before Robbie goes out that night as Ghost Rider.
Another huge problem, which wouldn't be apparent to a new reader but sure stands out to those who have followed Robbie from "All-New Ghost Rider" is the relationship with his brother, Gabe. As the previous series went on, the development of Gabe as a character and his relationship with Robbie became the book's emotional core and was frequently the best and most important part of the series. Gabe aged and his physical and mental disabilities improved, moving from a wheelchair to crutches and maturing up to a level away from "little kid". In this issue, though, it looks like all of that development has been reset to where it was when the last series began, with Gabe back in a wheelchair and having seemingly lost a lot of the maturity and mental improvement from the last few issues of "All-New". I'm really at a loss as to why Smith regressed the character, but I found it really disappointing.
Danilo Beyruth comes on board as the new series artist, and I'm not familiar at all with his past work. His style, though, seems to fit nicely with what Smith (as artist as well as writer) and "Ghost Racers" artist Juan Gedeon had brought to the character. There's a smoothness to his work that makes the characters look younger and more simplified than I'm used to seeing, but he does a nice Ghost Rider. I'm interested in where seeing him develop as an artist on this series, here's hoping he sticks around.
The brightest aspect of this comic, naturally, comes from the 10-page back-up story by Smith and returning artist Tradd Moore, which introduces a new villain named Pyston Nitro. I'm not really in love with the villain, and there's really not much in the way of story, but god damn does Tradd Moore sell the shit out of the artwork. He, more than even Smith, defined Robbie Reyes visually during the first "All-New" story-arc, and his return is like a breath of fresh air. The energy and motion, paired with the colors by Val Staples, make every panel pop off the page. It's a good thing the creators decided to include this back-up, since Ghost Rider barely appears in the main story, and getting Moore back to do the artwork was a definite win.
Overall, this was a poor introduction to Robbie for new readers who may be interested. If you're a fan of the "Totally Awesome Hulk" though (and I am not), you'll probably love it!
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