Cover Date: May 2017; Publication Date: March 2017
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: Felipe Smith
Robbie Reyes, as Ghost Rider, fights a gang of thugs outside of his ex-con co-worker Ramon's house. Ramon gets a phone call telling him about a situation, and he hops on motorcycle to leave. Robbie, goaded by Eli in his head, follows Ramon to Canelo's Auto Body, where he finds the purple alien monster, the Agents of SHIELD, and the three assembled superheroes (Totally Awesome Hulk, Silk, and All-New Wolverine). They tell Robbie that the alien absorbs DNA by biting, so he needs to be careful; if the alien were to acquire his powers it would be unstoppable. The creature mutates as it fights the heroes, having taken on the attributes of SHIELD agents Coulson and May, and Ramon decides to take matters into his own hands. He grabs a drum of gasoline and stuffs a rag into the top, which he lights on fire and drives toward the monster. Robbie grabs Ramon and drives the drum into the alien himself, causing it to explode. But when Ghost Rider walks out of the fire, the alien jumps him and bites him on the shoulder. Instead of the alien mutating, though, it's Robbie who changes into a more bestial, powerful form of the Ghost Rider. With Eli's guidance, Robbie blasts the alien with hellfire, which it cannot adapt against. The alien reverts back into a small hunk of rock, leaving the heroes stunned by Ghost Rider's transformation.
The next day, Amadeus Cho explains that the alien reverted to his dormant state when it couldn't adapt to Ghost Rider's power. Agent Coulson remarks that it was lucky that Ghost Rider's power wasn't intrinsic to his biology, and all the alien got was Robbie's DNA.
The cover of this issue is an homage to Fantastic Four (1961) # 348, which featured the "New Fantastic Four" team of Spider-Man, Wolverine, the Hulk, and the Dan Ketch Ghost Rider.
CHAIN REACTION
The second Robbie Reyes series limps across the finish line with its final issue, cancelled only 5 months into its run. I can't say that surprises me.
Speaking of reviews I was putting off writing, this issue wraps up what was perhaps the most disappointing Ghost Rider series ever published. It's not the worst, don't get me wrong, there's always the Alejandra and Hammer Lane comics, but it IS the one with the most squandered opportunity. Robbie Reyes was riding high as the break out star of Agents of SHIELD when this series debuted, and instead of doubling down on what made the character so appealing on that show Marvel and the creative team saw fit to give us 5 issues of "Teen Hero Team-Up" that barely guest-starred the titular Ghost Rider. I've ranted about this in the reviews for the last four issues, and went on about it at length on the podcast to boot, but it still just stuns me that this was considered a good idea by the writer or editor.
Felipe Smith created a wonderful character with Robbie Reyes, and his work with Ghost Rider over the last few years has been generally pretty damn good. That doesn't change here, when he's actually focusing on Ghost Rider instead of the myriad amount of heroes cluttering up the pages. The stuff with Robbie "leveling up" to a more powerful and more obviously demonic form is really intriguing, and it's a shame we'll likely never get to read a follow-up story. Smith had a rare opportunity to really surprise Ghost Rider fans with where he could take the concept after he put in the work to separate Robbie from the past Spirits of Vengeance. Sure, he's a Ghost Rider In Name Only, but he still works as a version of the character that we haven't seen before. While the character in Agents of SHIELD was naturally based heavily on the Robbie that Smith created, I do wish we could have seen that version of the character show up more in the characterization. The adapted version of Robbie had a sadness and darkness that the comic version doesn't have, and it helped tie him back more to the standard Ghost Rider concept. Still, with Robbie's characterization, Smith still does well with him in this issue.
The plot, unfortunately, is where things fall apart. I get that Smith wanted to do his "New Fantastic Four" homage, and I get that he likely wanted to maintain the coincidental nature of the first time those characters interacted. However, the pieces are too jumbled and coincidental to the point of improbability. No one in this comic has a reason to be here other than happenstance, other than Ghost Rider himself, and it's not explained why he's even involved. Ghost Rider had been operating on the periphery of the alien storyline for the entire arc, and it had been hinted at throughout that the alien was in fact seeking Robbie out and was driven away whenever he got close. That was never addressed in this issue, so maybe the alien just sensed Robbie's power and wanted to take a bite? But that seems like a cop out, so much so that I almost hope it was a mistake in plotting that left that answer on the cutting room floor instead of just "more coincidence!". A lot of this comic feels like a rush to a finish line that the creators should have had in sight four issues ago, because the story doesn't so much end as it just STOPS. Ghost Rider defeats the alien, one page epilogue to explain how he defeated him, and then "Robbie Reyes and the Spirit of Eli will return". It's disappointing, to say the least.
At least Danilo Beyruth gets to really strut his stuff with this issue, because he turns in yet another delightfully disgusting sequence of mutations with the alien monster. It's rare that a creature in a comic actually has me saying "ewww" as I read, but Beyruth definitely succeeded here. Similarly, his take on the Ghost Rider's "evolved" form was appropriately grotesque. My Inner Demons co-host, Brian Biggie, dubbed the mutated form "Beast Rider", and it's an appropriate name. Beyruth draws him with a gaping maw, down on all fours like an animal, and it looks both decidedly evil and decidedly awesome.
This was a series that SHOULD have been a hit, there was nothing but positive buzz when it launched. Hopefully, both Marvel and the creative team have learned a lesson from the book's failure, and it's too bad we'll never get to see that sixth and final issue (until 10 years from now, of course).
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