On Sale Date: October 2018
Writer: Sebastian Girner
Artist: Caspar Wijngaard
Letterer: Joe Sabino
Colorist: Caspar Wijngaard
Editor: Nick Lowe
Assistant Editor: Kathleen Wisneski
Editor-in-Chief: C.B. Cebulski
Cover Artist: Alexis Briclot
Robbie Reyes, intern at Marvel Comics, is told by his boss that the death metal band Hassenwald have paid for a custom Marvel comic to be produced and Robbie is going to take them on a tour of Marvel. The band introduce themselves as relatively normal people that are also comic fans, but when they reach the printing press reveal themselves to have a sinister plan. Using their blood to infect the press the produce a tainted comic book that when read can transform the reader into a demonic creature. Ghost Rider attempts to stop the comics from being delivered but fails, allowing Hassenwald to use the demonic power to become godlike beings. Using their new power Hassenwald transforms the world into one of their liking, leaving only Ghost Rider to fight back.
CHAIN REACTION
A fictional death metal band invades Marvel Comics and Robbie Reyes is there to do, well, nothing really?
I don't even know where to start with this comic. Seriously, what the hell did I just read? I guess I can start with What If as a concept, which normally takes a moment in Marvel history and changes the outcome. Phoenix not dying on the moon, Spider-Man marrying the Black Cat, stuff like that. This doesn't follow that format at all, which leads me to believe it may have been an unrelated project that didn't fit in with any other publishing initiatives and got folded under the What If umbrella for whatever reason.
I really fail to see the point of this comic, given that it doesn't fit the conceit of what its supposedly tying in with. That's not to say there aren't interesting ideas here, they're just buried under a moshpit of stuff that ties together in only the thinnest of ways. It starts with a fairly blatant copy of Metalocalypse's Dethklok and a bizarrely meta tour of the Marvel bullpen. Its okay for a book to invoke creator representations but this reads like it was intended only for Marvel editors to chuckle over. Unfortunately it is an extremely alienating read since I don't work for Marvel and hence have no idea who is being referenced. It's a tenuous link between the Marvel office tour and the mystical mind-bending that happens in the second half of the comic.
That second half offers some genuinely novel ideas, with the nature of overcoming death on a celestial scale utilized through the revolving door of comic book character resurrection. The plot jumps through a ton of hoops to get to reach that point, all the stuff with Hassenwald at Marvel is a huge waste of time, but once it gets there the surrealistic elements give the comic a nice aesthetic. The biggest problem, though, is that this isn't actually a Ghost Rider story. Robbie Reyes is in it but he doesn't affect the plot one damn bit. He is, in fact, completely ineffectual as a protagonist. Its yet another example of this comic being a weird hodgepodge of elements that don't really fit together all that well. The ending of the comic is refreshingly bleak, its one of the best parts of the comic, and I think its actually novel to end a one shot on such a hopeless moment. However, it makes me wonder again about the original plan for this and if it was meant as the first part of a longer story that we will never see.
The artwork by Caspar Wijngaard is the most surprising part of the comic, he's an artist I'm utterly unfamiliar with but whose work snuck up on me as the issue progressed. Its a little hard to get into through the tedious Marvel office bit, as it seems to be filled with representations of staffers I'm not familiar with. Once the comic moves into the fantastical parts of the plot are when his artwork truly shines. His depictions of the demonic world is astounding, especially the last page of the transformed Times Square.
This was genuinely a hard comic to review because of how disjointed it is, and I'm no less mystified by it now as when I first read it. It's not terrible, it's just weird as hell.
Robbie Reyes, intern at Marvel Comics, is told by his boss that the death metal band Hassenwald have paid for a custom Marvel comic to be produced and Robbie is going to take them on a tour of Marvel. The band introduce themselves as relatively normal people that are also comic fans, but when they reach the printing press reveal themselves to have a sinister plan. Using their blood to infect the press the produce a tainted comic book that when read can transform the reader into a demonic creature. Ghost Rider attempts to stop the comics from being delivered but fails, allowing Hassenwald to use the demonic power to become godlike beings. Using their new power Hassenwald transforms the world into one of their liking, leaving only Ghost Rider to fight back.
CHAIN REACTION
A fictional death metal band invades Marvel Comics and Robbie Reyes is there to do, well, nothing really?
I don't even know where to start with this comic. Seriously, what the hell did I just read? I guess I can start with What If as a concept, which normally takes a moment in Marvel history and changes the outcome. Phoenix not dying on the moon, Spider-Man marrying the Black Cat, stuff like that. This doesn't follow that format at all, which leads me to believe it may have been an unrelated project that didn't fit in with any other publishing initiatives and got folded under the What If umbrella for whatever reason.
I really fail to see the point of this comic, given that it doesn't fit the conceit of what its supposedly tying in with. That's not to say there aren't interesting ideas here, they're just buried under a moshpit of stuff that ties together in only the thinnest of ways. It starts with a fairly blatant copy of Metalocalypse's Dethklok and a bizarrely meta tour of the Marvel bullpen. Its okay for a book to invoke creator representations but this reads like it was intended only for Marvel editors to chuckle over. Unfortunately it is an extremely alienating read since I don't work for Marvel and hence have no idea who is being referenced. It's a tenuous link between the Marvel office tour and the mystical mind-bending that happens in the second half of the comic.
That second half offers some genuinely novel ideas, with the nature of overcoming death on a celestial scale utilized through the revolving door of comic book character resurrection. The plot jumps through a ton of hoops to get to reach that point, all the stuff with Hassenwald at Marvel is a huge waste of time, but once it gets there the surrealistic elements give the comic a nice aesthetic. The biggest problem, though, is that this isn't actually a Ghost Rider story. Robbie Reyes is in it but he doesn't affect the plot one damn bit. He is, in fact, completely ineffectual as a protagonist. Its yet another example of this comic being a weird hodgepodge of elements that don't really fit together all that well. The ending of the comic is refreshingly bleak, its one of the best parts of the comic, and I think its actually novel to end a one shot on such a hopeless moment. However, it makes me wonder again about the original plan for this and if it was meant as the first part of a longer story that we will never see.
The artwork by Caspar Wijngaard is the most surprising part of the comic, he's an artist I'm utterly unfamiliar with but whose work snuck up on me as the issue progressed. Its a little hard to get into through the tedious Marvel office bit, as it seems to be filled with representations of staffers I'm not familiar with. Once the comic moves into the fantastical parts of the plot are when his artwork truly shines. His depictions of the demonic world is astounding, especially the last page of the transformed Times Square.
This was genuinely a hard comic to review because of how disjointed it is, and I'm no less mystified by it now as when I first read it. It's not terrible, it's just weird as hell.
 |
| The only logical response to this comic! |
No comments:
Post a Comment