Cover Date: November 1994; On Sale Date: September 1994
Writer: Len Kaminski; Artist: Kyle Hotz; 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
20 minutes after arriving in New York City, Zero is harassed by an officer of the Public Eye for driving a wheeled vehicle. After disabling the officer, Zero stashes his bike and walks on foot to the Alchemax building. He breaks in easily using his stealth field and accesses their mainframe to locate their supply of 2-4-5 Trioxidiclorizide, which he needs to save the life of his ex-girlfriend Kylie back in Transverse City. He goes to the lab to steal the chemical, knocking scientist Miguel O'Hara unconscious in the process. Zero rips open the vault door and grabs a container of the chemical, then jumps out the window of the skyscraper. He manages to steal a sky-cycle from the pursuing Public Eye, but is quickly shot down, crashing in a fiery explosion in Downtown New York. Back at Alchemax, a recovering O'Hara decides to take the rest of the day off. O'Hara changes into his costume and goes out looking for Zero as Spider-Man, noting that Triclorizide is toxic even in small quantities.
In Downtown, Zero is found in a cratered building, his computer system forced to reboot, resuming the application "Zero Cochrane" before he wakes up. He recovers and locates the canister, but it is snagged by the passing Spider-Man, who recognizes Zero and is surprised to see him alive. Zero drops his hologram and reconfigures into the Ghost Rider, thinking Spider-Man is an Alchemax assassin. Ghost Rider attacks, refusing to listen to Spider-Man's attempts to talk, and during the fight a building is damaged and threatens to crush some squatters. While Spider-Man saves them, Ghost Rider leaves with the canister.
Ghost Rider makes it back to St. Vitus's Danceteria in Transverse City and gives the canister to Max Synergy, who agrees to use the chemical to synthesize a batch of Nootropine to assist Kylie. Synergy then tells Ghost Rider that he now owes him a favor, which Zero agrees to. At the Medi-Kwik clinic, Dr. Sandoz administers the Nootropine, but gets no response from Kylie, noting that perhaps she is psychologically refusing to face a deep trauma that is keeping her from waking up. He says that a neural interface would fry the brain of anyone who tries to go into her mind, but Zero doesn't have "wetware" to fry. He tells Sandoz to set it all up, he's going in.
The deal with Max Synergy will come back to haunt Zero in Ghost Rider 2099 (1994) # 16.
CHAIN REACTION
Ghost Rider 2099 connects with the greater Marvel 2099 universe for the first time, and his "team-up" with Spider-Man does not go so well.
Up to this point, Ghost Rider has sort of been in its own little bubble, far removed from the other 2099 titles (which, at the time, included Spider-Man, Doom, Ravage, Punisher, and X-Men). This is mainly due to the book's location, giving the character its own unique setting instead of sharing New York City with several other heroes. This issue, however, necessitates a visit to the aforementioned NYC and an inevitable encounter with Spider-Man. In most typical cases, when two heroes meet for the first time, they have a big misunderstanding which results in a fight and later mutual cooperation against a larger threat. Our Zero, though, won't stand for those shitty conventions and instead rolls into town like a bulldozer with no intentions of teaming up with anyone. It's that anti-social, anarchist personality that Kaminski has built up in Zero so well in the previous six issues that makes his unwillingness to let anything stand in his way so believable even when faced with someone simply trying to have a conversation with him. Spider-Man can't really do anything but play defense as he attempts to explain that, no, he's not an Alchemax "super-ninja", but Zero doesn't care what he has to say. He's just an obstacle that he has to plow through, because in Zero's experience no one is altruistic enough to be a "super-hero".
Another highlight of the issue comes from Zero's reaction to the conventions of 2099 New York that had been established in the other titles. We get his opinions on the Public Eye and their forced politeness while being fascist, the security at Alchemax, and even Thorites, who have embraced Thor as their religious messiah. Zero rolls his eyes and mutters "Shockin' Thorites, unbelievable", and that gave me a nice, winning smirk. Ultimately, though, this issue is a waste of time, detailing a fetch quest that doesn't resolve anything in the end. Yes, Ghost Rider gets the chemical he needs for Kylie, but it doesn't work so he has to move on to the next solution just in time for the cliffhanger. It's a highly entertaining waste of time, but in terms of plot nothing really moves forward.
Kyle Hotz continues as the book's new regular artist, and while last issue he proved he provide an appropriate mood of darkness and techno-futurism, this shows he also has the chops for action. His figures tend to have kind of a blobby, round look to them, with exaggerated musculature and elongated limbs, and I would wonder how well his work would translate to a more mainstream superhero title. Here, though, it adds to the book's strangeness, allowing even a character like Spider-Man to fit in rather well. His Ghost Rider impresses, too, emphasizing a lot on the wires and components on his body to really make him stand out.
This arc doesn't grab you by the throat like the first 5 issues, but it's still an absolutely rock-solid read. The first year of this series continues to fire on all cylinders, with this one stepping back into the action that the last issue lacked.
No comments:
Post a Comment