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| Cover Artist: Karl Kerschl |
Original Price: $1.99
Title: "Wallow"
Writer: Ivan Velez Jr.
Artist: Karl Kerschl
Inker: Al Milgrom
Letterers: Richard Starkings & Comicraft
Colorist: Brian Buccellato
Editor: Tom Brevoort
Editor In Chief: Bob Harras
SYNOPSIS
A young woman named Melissa stands on the edge of a rooftop and is compelled to jump off the building by a sinister ghost with a doll's face. In the alley below, Ghost Rider chases down two muggers and gives them the Penance Stare. He finds Melissa, barely alive from her fall, and rushes her to the nearest hospital where he demands she receive medical attention. The ghost, Wallow, has followed Melissa to the hospital and his presence begins to make everyone in the building start to feel hopeless and suicidal. Ghost Rider rides across the rooftops and thinks that he should relinquish control back to Danny Ketch, but changes his mind and decides to wait one more day.
A young homeless man named Michael has a nightmare about when his father shot and killed his mother, then tried to jump off a building with Michael and his sister Melissa before he was shot by the police. Michael is attacked by Wallow, who claims to be the boy's father there to save him from the cruelties of life. Michael runs to a church but is pulled back by Wallow, only to be rescued by the Ghost Rider. Wallow flees and Ghost Rider demands answers from Michael, who tells the Rider about his father and sister. At the hospital, Wallow goes to Melissa in her hospital room and hands her a pair of scissors to kill herself with. Ghost Rider and Michael arrive at the hospital just as Melissa stabs Wallow with the scissors, telling him that she hates him for what he did to her mother. Ghost Rider grabs Wallow by the doll mask on his face and gives him the Penance Stare, which turns him into ash. Later, in Hell, Wallow is brought before Blackheart, who claims to have a deal for him.
ANNOTATIONS
A young homeless man named Michael has a nightmare about when his father shot and killed his mother, then tried to jump off a building with Michael and his sister Melissa before he was shot by the police. Michael is attacked by Wallow, who claims to be the boy's father there to save him from the cruelties of life. Michael runs to a church but is pulled back by Wallow, only to be rescued by the Ghost Rider. Wallow flees and Ghost Rider demands answers from Michael, who tells the Rider about his father and sister. At the hospital, Wallow goes to Melissa in her hospital room and hands her a pair of scissors to kill herself with. Ghost Rider and Michael arrive at the hospital just as Melissa stabs Wallow with the scissors, telling him that she hates him for what he did to her mother. Ghost Rider grabs Wallow by the doll mask on his face and gives him the Penance Stare, which turns him into ash. Later, in Hell, Wallow is brought before Blackheart, who claims to have a deal for him.
ANNOTATIONS
Wallow returns as one of Blackheart's Spirits of Vengeance in Ghost Rider (1990) # 90.
A character named "Wallow" appeared in the 2007 Ghost Rider film as one of Blackheart's minions, the Hidden. Other than the name, the film character is totally unrelated from the Wallow that was introduced in this issue.
This issue's "Ghost Rider" logo reverts back to the original one that was first used on the cover of Ghost Rider (1990) # 1. The logo was last seen on the cover of Ghost Rider (1990) # 76.
REVIEW
A character named "Wallow" appeared in the 2007 Ghost Rider film as one of Blackheart's minions, the Hidden. Other than the name, the film character is totally unrelated from the Wallow that was introduced in this issue.
This issue's "Ghost Rider" logo reverts back to the original one that was first used on the cover of Ghost Rider (1990) # 1. The logo was last seen on the cover of Ghost Rider (1990) # 76.
REVIEW
After the events of last month's Flashback issue, Ivan Velez starts the build-up to his next major story-arc with this first in a series of seemingly unconnected oneshots.
If there's one thing I really appreciate about this era of the series under Ivan Velez, its that he wasn't afraid to create and introduce new villains for Ghost Rider to fight. Granted, it meant that a lot of the classic villains like Blackout and Deathwatch were dropped completely, but getting some new blood in the series by way of interesting new villains was appreciated, at least by me. This issue introduces Wallow, the first in the set of four new villains that Velez will use to create Blackheart's "Spirits of Vengeance" during "The Last Temptation" mega-arc later in the year. Out of all those new villains, which also included Pao Fu, Verminous Rex, and Doghead, Wallow is probably the most interesting as a concept. Having a villain that revolves around suicide is always a tricky proposition that come across as insensitive and callous, sort of like when Howard Mackie introduced a villain whose literal name was Suicide, but Velez was able to side step that problem with Wallow. Making him a villain that's an actual ghost, one that doesn't rely on physical means to harm its victims, may not make him much of a threat to Ghost Rider, sure. But Wallow's power comes from his ability to instill despair just by being in his general vicinity, and it adds to the character's creepy vibe.
All told, though, this is a pretty simple done-in-one story that we've not seen much in the pages of Ghost Rider for quite a long time. It's really refreshing, honestly, after the long stretch of continuous issue-to-issue storytelling that's dominated Velez's run up to this point. I think the Flashback issue, and the change in editorial hands to Tom Brevoort, have given Velez some much-needed focus on where he wanted to take the series. This issue, which on the surface is a pretty breezy story that doesn't seem very consequential to the overall plot of the series, is actually a fairly depressing affair and the start of a really dark trend in the subject matter of Velez's issues (with the next couple of stories dealing with human slave trafficking and immigrant discrimination, all cheery topics).
The artwork is by a fill-in artist this month, the always welcome Karl Kerschl. The artist was still at the start of his career, but had in fact drawn some of the Toy Biz action figure tie-in comics a few years before, so he has at least a small prior involvement with Ghost Rider. While its true that he's saddled with the terrible red and yellow racing outfit and blocky red motorcycle, he is able to get a lot of mileage out of the truly wonderful design he gave to Wallow. The character is downright creepy, yet so simple: just a dark brown, featureless form that's accented with a small doll's mask on his face. The doll mask does all of the emoting, and it works so well visually. My only problem with the artwork is with the colors, if I'm being honest, because I think Brian Buccellato makes his series way too bright when it should be bathing in blacks and dark blues. Of course, there's that red and yellow costume monstrosity squatting in the heart of the comic, so I guess he's just playing his color palate off of that.
Overall, "Wallow" is the most successful issue that Velez has turned out in quite a while, and it's a very welcome change of pace.
Grade: B-
If there's one thing I really appreciate about this era of the series under Ivan Velez, its that he wasn't afraid to create and introduce new villains for Ghost Rider to fight. Granted, it meant that a lot of the classic villains like Blackout and Deathwatch were dropped completely, but getting some new blood in the series by way of interesting new villains was appreciated, at least by me. This issue introduces Wallow, the first in the set of four new villains that Velez will use to create Blackheart's "Spirits of Vengeance" during "The Last Temptation" mega-arc later in the year. Out of all those new villains, which also included Pao Fu, Verminous Rex, and Doghead, Wallow is probably the most interesting as a concept. Having a villain that revolves around suicide is always a tricky proposition that come across as insensitive and callous, sort of like when Howard Mackie introduced a villain whose literal name was Suicide, but Velez was able to side step that problem with Wallow. Making him a villain that's an actual ghost, one that doesn't rely on physical means to harm its victims, may not make him much of a threat to Ghost Rider, sure. But Wallow's power comes from his ability to instill despair just by being in his general vicinity, and it adds to the character's creepy vibe.
All told, though, this is a pretty simple done-in-one story that we've not seen much in the pages of Ghost Rider for quite a long time. It's really refreshing, honestly, after the long stretch of continuous issue-to-issue storytelling that's dominated Velez's run up to this point. I think the Flashback issue, and the change in editorial hands to Tom Brevoort, have given Velez some much-needed focus on where he wanted to take the series. This issue, which on the surface is a pretty breezy story that doesn't seem very consequential to the overall plot of the series, is actually a fairly depressing affair and the start of a really dark trend in the subject matter of Velez's issues (with the next couple of stories dealing with human slave trafficking and immigrant discrimination, all cheery topics).
The artwork is by a fill-in artist this month, the always welcome Karl Kerschl. The artist was still at the start of his career, but had in fact drawn some of the Toy Biz action figure tie-in comics a few years before, so he has at least a small prior involvement with Ghost Rider. While its true that he's saddled with the terrible red and yellow racing outfit and blocky red motorcycle, he is able to get a lot of mileage out of the truly wonderful design he gave to Wallow. The character is downright creepy, yet so simple: just a dark brown, featureless form that's accented with a small doll's mask on his face. The doll mask does all of the emoting, and it works so well visually. My only problem with the artwork is with the colors, if I'm being honest, because I think Brian Buccellato makes his series way too bright when it should be bathing in blacks and dark blues. Of course, there's that red and yellow costume monstrosity squatting in the heart of the comic, so I guess he's just playing his color palate off of that.
Overall, "Wallow" is the most successful issue that Velez has turned out in quite a while, and it's a very welcome change of pace.
Grade: B-
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