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Title: "Circle of Four, Part 2"
Writer: Rob Williams
Artist: Lee Garbett
Letterer: VC's Clayton Clowes
Colorist: Rob Schwager
Editor: Sebastian Girner
Senior Editor: Stephen Wacker
Editor In Chief: Axel Alonso
SYNOPSIS
At the city limits of Las Vegas, the mystical amulet placed on the city's welcome sign has placed a barrier around the city, preventing the police from entering and Hell from escaping. Dr. Strange and Daimon Hellstrom arrive to investigate, and Strange recognizes the amulet as one he gave to Hawkeye to use against the Ghost Rider.
Inside the city limits, Johnny Blaze continues to power Hell's Centrifuge, keeping open the portal to Hell. Unsure of how long he can keep it up, he hopes that Alejandra hurries up and saves the day. In Blackheart's tower, the Ghost Rider has been joined by Venom, X-23, and Red Hulk to stop Blackheart. They're immediately confronted by their Antitheses: Ichor, The Evangelist, X-666, and Encephalon. Blackheart sends his consort, Gari Oyle, to fly out to the city's border and find out what's stopping Hell from spreading across the world. Blackheart then orders the Antitheses to attack the heroes, sending all of them crashing out of the tower to the ground below. Ghost Rider leaves to stop Gari Oyle, followed by her Antithesis Ichor, leaving the other three heroes to fight. X-23 leaves to kill Blackheart alone, leaving Venom and Red Hulk to be defeated by the Evangelist and Encephalon.
Ghost Rider is outracing Gari Oyle to the amulet, but Blackheart speaks to her telepathically, offering to free the souls she damned in Nicaragua if she joins him. Ichor attacks, claiming to be "pure retribution" without her human frailties, that his vengeance is holy instead of selfish revenge. Before Ichor can kill her, Alejandra summons her motorcycle, and when it reaches her she jumps on it and crashes into Ichor, transforming him back into a human. She speeds off toward the amulet, with Blackheart still whispering in her head about his offer to join him. At the city's border, Dr. Strange and Hellstrom sense that Hell is coming toward them, and they may not be able to stop it from spreading.
ANNOTATIONS
Inside the city limits, Johnny Blaze continues to power Hell's Centrifuge, keeping open the portal to Hell. Unsure of how long he can keep it up, he hopes that Alejandra hurries up and saves the day. In Blackheart's tower, the Ghost Rider has been joined by Venom, X-23, and Red Hulk to stop Blackheart. They're immediately confronted by their Antitheses: Ichor, The Evangelist, X-666, and Encephalon. Blackheart sends his consort, Gari Oyle, to fly out to the city's border and find out what's stopping Hell from spreading across the world. Blackheart then orders the Antitheses to attack the heroes, sending all of them crashing out of the tower to the ground below. Ghost Rider leaves to stop Gari Oyle, followed by her Antithesis Ichor, leaving the other three heroes to fight. X-23 leaves to kill Blackheart alone, leaving Venom and Red Hulk to be defeated by the Evangelist and Encephalon.
Ghost Rider is outracing Gari Oyle to the amulet, but Blackheart speaks to her telepathically, offering to free the souls she damned in Nicaragua if she joins him. Ichor attacks, claiming to be "pure retribution" without her human frailties, that his vengeance is holy instead of selfish revenge. Before Ichor can kill her, Alejandra summons her motorcycle, and when it reaches her she jumps on it and crashes into Ichor, transforming him back into a human. She speeds off toward the amulet, with Blackheart still whispering in her head about his offer to join him. At the city's border, Dr. Strange and Hellstrom sense that Hell is coming toward them, and they may not be able to stop it from spreading.
ANNOTATIONS
"Circle of Four" was originally conceived as a crossover event between the Venom, Hulk, X-23, and Ghost Rider titles, and it was first teased at the end of Ghost Rider (2011) # 0.1. Due to the low sales of three of the titles, which would result in the cancellations of both Ghost Rider and X-23 immediately after the crossover, it was decided that the story would be published as "Point 1" issues of the Venom ongoing series.
The original publication plan for this story would have had the chapters released in the following order:
- Chapter 1: Circle of Four # 1
- Chapter 2: Ghost Rider (2011) # 9
- Chapter 3: X-23 (2010) # 21
- Chapter 4: Hulk (2008) # 48
- Chapter 5: Venom (2011) # 13
- Chapter 6: Circle of Four # 2
This story is an updated homage to the "New Fantastic Four" storyline from Fantastic Four (1961) # 347-349, which brought Spider-Man, Wolverine, Ghost Rider (Ketch), and the Hulk together as a substitute Fantastic Four team.
Hawkeye used the amulet given to him by Dr. Strange against the Ghost Rider in Ghost Rider (2011) # 7, and it was taken by Johnny Blaze in Ghost Rider (2011) # 8.
Alejandra, under the control of Adam, destroyed the souls of a village in Nicaragua in Ghost Rider (2011) # 3.
The original publication plan for this story would have had the chapters released in the following order:
- Chapter 1: Circle of Four # 1
- Chapter 2: Ghost Rider (2011) # 9
- Chapter 3: X-23 (2010) # 21
- Chapter 4: Hulk (2008) # 48
- Chapter 5: Venom (2011) # 13
- Chapter 6: Circle of Four # 2
This story is an updated homage to the "New Fantastic Four" storyline from Fantastic Four (1961) # 347-349, which brought Spider-Man, Wolverine, Ghost Rider (Ketch), and the Hulk together as a substitute Fantastic Four team.
Hawkeye used the amulet given to him by Dr. Strange against the Ghost Rider in Ghost Rider (2011) # 7, and it was taken by Johnny Blaze in Ghost Rider (2011) # 8.
Alejandra, under the control of Adam, destroyed the souls of a village in Nicaragua in Ghost Rider (2011) # 3.
REVIEW
"Circle of Four" moves into its second chapter, which is focused heavily on Ghost Rider's role in the crossover.
Look guys, for all intents and purposes this is Ghost Rider # 8.1. It's written by Rob Williams and drawn by Lee Garbett, the creative team on the Ghost Rider series, and the issue's contents are heavily weighed in favor of Alejandra over the other three heroes. There is no way this wasn't intended as an issue of Ghost Rider, and I still can't get over the marketing decisions for this event. I only imagine readers of Ghost Rider who either didn't follow or just plain didn't know about all of this going on in Venom were massively confused when a) Ghost Rider didn't have an issue that month and b) there's a huge chunk of continuity missing between issues 8 and 9 of the series.
Anyway, this second part of "Circle of Four" fleshes out the Antitheses, the twisted doubles of the heroes created by Blackheart's mirror, and they're all pretty interesting concepts. The doubles for X-23 and Red Hulk are spot on, and Ghost Rider's makes sense once the two start fighting, but I don't get how the Evangelist is any kind of distortion of Venom, like at all. I can only imagine that Rick Remender was probably the creator of these characters, because he's a pro at introducing neat villain teams (like the new Horsemen of Apocalypse in Uncanny X-Force). Ichor is the Antithesis I'm most interested in, given that he's Ghost Rider's mirror double, and for as little screen time as he gets he strikes me as a really interesting concept. Rob Williams didn't delve much into the "weapon of Heaven" backstory that Jason Aaron introduced to the Ghost Rider mythos, he was more interested in dealing with Hell and Zarathos as a demonic entity. So, having Ichor show up as this angelic creature claiming to be "vengeance without the humanity" is pretty brilliant. He's what the Ghost Riders could have been if God hadn't placed them within hosts, and it plays up the angelic connection pretty heavily. Naturally, he turns out to be a fraud, as Alejandra discovers that he does too have a human host, thank you very much.
Alejandra herself goes through a pretty intense metamorphosis during this event, becoming essentially one of the villains by the end, but here she's at least trying to hold herself to the side of good. She has a really great speech during her fight with Ichor, where she says that he may have power over Alejandra, but she's dead and now all that's left is the Ghost Rider. It's almost like Alejandra is giving in and letting Zarathos take control once and for all, which Johnny Blaze can attest isn't the best idea. Still, Alejandra's corruption and fall from grace gets its beginning here, as she seriously considers the offer to join Blackheart. She's not driven by anything heroic, she just wants to fix her mistake in Nicaragua, and by doing so makes a much bigger one later in the crossover. Naturally, she doesn't realize that the events in Nicaragua were the fault of Adam, not her, but she damns herself over it anyway. Alejandra is such a broken character by this point, in spirit and as a Ghost Rider, and she's turning into someone pretty interesting to read about. Williams has turned things around again and made me root for this title to succeed (which, yes, was too little, too late given that the very next issue was the last).
Lee Garbett returns as the de facto lead artist on Ghost Rider, and he turns in another decent job. I really liked his work on Batgirl several years ago, and he at least is able to draw Ghost Rider as feminine without going either too sexy or too masculine with the design. I do miss his earlier approach to Ghost Rider's flame, where he made it resemble flowing hair, but he still has a solid handle on Alejandra as the Rider. He similarly handles all of the action scenes well, particularly the sequence with the Evangelist using the pages of his bible to flay the symbiote off of Venom's body. I do think this series is colored a bit too garishly, but that's actually an interesting through-line of this entire event: it's not dark and moody, all of the chapters of "Circle of Four" are colored in bright yellows and reds. It does make the story stand out as something distinct, I'll give it that, it's just not the approach I would have taken for it.
"Circle of Four" continues to be a really well-planned and executed event, with this Ghost Rider chapter being no exception. This is the quality that I wish this entire series could have maintained.
"Circle of Four" moves into its second chapter, which is focused heavily on Ghost Rider's role in the crossover.
Look guys, for all intents and purposes this is Ghost Rider # 8.1. It's written by Rob Williams and drawn by Lee Garbett, the creative team on the Ghost Rider series, and the issue's contents are heavily weighed in favor of Alejandra over the other three heroes. There is no way this wasn't intended as an issue of Ghost Rider, and I still can't get over the marketing decisions for this event. I only imagine readers of Ghost Rider who either didn't follow or just plain didn't know about all of this going on in Venom were massively confused when a) Ghost Rider didn't have an issue that month and b) there's a huge chunk of continuity missing between issues 8 and 9 of the series.
Anyway, this second part of "Circle of Four" fleshes out the Antitheses, the twisted doubles of the heroes created by Blackheart's mirror, and they're all pretty interesting concepts. The doubles for X-23 and Red Hulk are spot on, and Ghost Rider's makes sense once the two start fighting, but I don't get how the Evangelist is any kind of distortion of Venom, like at all. I can only imagine that Rick Remender was probably the creator of these characters, because he's a pro at introducing neat villain teams (like the new Horsemen of Apocalypse in Uncanny X-Force). Ichor is the Antithesis I'm most interested in, given that he's Ghost Rider's mirror double, and for as little screen time as he gets he strikes me as a really interesting concept. Rob Williams didn't delve much into the "weapon of Heaven" backstory that Jason Aaron introduced to the Ghost Rider mythos, he was more interested in dealing with Hell and Zarathos as a demonic entity. So, having Ichor show up as this angelic creature claiming to be "vengeance without the humanity" is pretty brilliant. He's what the Ghost Riders could have been if God hadn't placed them within hosts, and it plays up the angelic connection pretty heavily. Naturally, he turns out to be a fraud, as Alejandra discovers that he does too have a human host, thank you very much.
Alejandra herself goes through a pretty intense metamorphosis during this event, becoming essentially one of the villains by the end, but here she's at least trying to hold herself to the side of good. She has a really great speech during her fight with Ichor, where she says that he may have power over Alejandra, but she's dead and now all that's left is the Ghost Rider. It's almost like Alejandra is giving in and letting Zarathos take control once and for all, which Johnny Blaze can attest isn't the best idea. Still, Alejandra's corruption and fall from grace gets its beginning here, as she seriously considers the offer to join Blackheart. She's not driven by anything heroic, she just wants to fix her mistake in Nicaragua, and by doing so makes a much bigger one later in the crossover. Naturally, she doesn't realize that the events in Nicaragua were the fault of Adam, not her, but she damns herself over it anyway. Alejandra is such a broken character by this point, in spirit and as a Ghost Rider, and she's turning into someone pretty interesting to read about. Williams has turned things around again and made me root for this title to succeed (which, yes, was too little, too late given that the very next issue was the last).
Lee Garbett returns as the de facto lead artist on Ghost Rider, and he turns in another decent job. I really liked his work on Batgirl several years ago, and he at least is able to draw Ghost Rider as feminine without going either too sexy or too masculine with the design. I do miss his earlier approach to Ghost Rider's flame, where he made it resemble flowing hair, but he still has a solid handle on Alejandra as the Rider. He similarly handles all of the action scenes well, particularly the sequence with the Evangelist using the pages of his bible to flay the symbiote off of Venom's body. I do think this series is colored a bit too garishly, but that's actually an interesting through-line of this entire event: it's not dark and moody, all of the chapters of "Circle of Four" are colored in bright yellows and reds. It does make the story stand out as something distinct, I'll give it that, it's just not the approach I would have taken for it.
"Circle of Four" continues to be a really well-planned and executed event, with this Ghost Rider chapter being no exception. This is the quality that I wish this entire series could have maintained.
Grade: A+
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