On Sale Date: August 2019
Writers: Paul Scheer & Nick Giovannetti
Artist: Todd Nauck
Letterer: Travis Lanham
Colorist: Antonio Fabela & Rachelle Rosenberg
Editor: Darren Shaw
Assistant Editor: Danny Khazem
Senior Editor: Jordan D. White
Editor-in-Chief: C.B. Cebulski
Cover Artist: Gerardo Zaffino
Writers: Paul Scheer & Nick Giovannetti
Artist: Todd Nauck
Letterer: Travis Lanham
Colorist: Antonio Fabela & Rachelle Rosenberg
Editor: Darren Shaw
Assistant Editor: Danny Khazem
Senior Editor: Jordan D. White
Editor-in-Chief: C.B. Cebulski
Cover Artist: Gerardo Zaffino
Matt Murdock and Foggy Nelson are visiting the Raft under the request of Reed Richards to meet a prisoner, but while there the villain Electro institutes a jailbreak of the inmates. While various heroes attempt to quell the breakout, Nelson and Murdock find the prisoner they've come to see: Frank Castle, the Cosmic Ghost Rider. Castle is convinced to help the heroes by Nelson and proceeds to drag Carnage into space, ripping him in half.
The next day, during a meeting of the Illuminati, Iron Man asks Reed Richards about Cosmic Ghost Rider. Though their memories have all been tampered with to make them forget Castle, Richards' computer banks reveals his history. The heroes track Castle down to a cave in Nevada, where he explains his backstory and that the Watcher used the Infinity Gauntlet to keep him from saving his family in the past so that history would not be altered. The Watcher then removed Castle's memory and placed him in the Raft, tampering with the memories of all the heroes he'd encountered throughout history to make them forget Castle's existence. Iron Man offers Castle a spot on the New Avengers but he declines, saying he's just going to sit and wait.
Years later, during a confrontation on the moon between Nick Fury and the Watcher, Castle arrives to get his revenge. Though he tells the Watcher that he understood why he did what he did, Castle still shoots him in the head and leaves him for Fury. In the present day, Castle is on board the starship Sanctuary II, awaiting the reading of Thanos' will. He's drinking at a bar with Beta Ray Bill and Corsair, with them being the audience he's been telling his story to. They doubt that the events happened, and Castle doubles down saying that nothing was exaggerated.
THE ROADMAP
The events in this story are referenced from New Avengers (2005) # 1-9 and Original Sin (2014) # 8.
Cosmic Ghost Rider's appearance at the end is taken directly before the events in Guardians of the Galaxy (2019) # 1. He joined with Eros to discover the body of Thanos in Thanos Legacy # 1.
Cosmic Ghost Rider's appearance at the end is taken directly before the events in Guardians of the Galaxy (2019) # 1. He joined with Eros to discover the body of Thanos in Thanos Legacy # 1.
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| Absolute Carnage's alternate ending! |
CHAIN REACTION
The mini-series mercifully comes to an end, raising even more questions than it answers along the way.
I just don't get this series, I really don't. I've gone on at length about the clash in tone that happens from page to page in this series, sometimes even from panel to panel. It seemed content with rehashing old Marvel stories with some truly terrible attempts at comedy thrown in liberally, which made those moments of pathos stick out as blindingly out of place. This issue, though, throws any semblance of comedy out the window in favor of soul crushing sadness and raging against fate. Honestly, had the whole series been more like this issue, I don't think I would have minded it half as much.
Don't get me wrong, there's still the use of Marvel stories from the past that's central to the series' premise, and here it's even more blatant than it's ever been. I mean, most of the dialogue from this comic comes from Brian Michael Bendis' first year of New Avengers, so much so that he really should have had a co-writer credit at the start of the issue. As grating an idea as that is, though, it allows Scheer and Giovannetti to do a pretty clever bit of meta deep diving, because they actually just stick Cosmic Ghost Rider into those stories in place of the Sentry. For those who may not remember, the Sentry was a character implanted into classic Marvel history and then "forgotten" by the heroes, exactly like Cosmic Ghost Rider in this series (just minus the comedy, it was all dreadfully serious). Taking one continuity implant character and replacing him with another continuity implant character is a fascinating idea that works a lot better than I thought it would.
At the end of the day, though, this is a comic where the Watcher essentially murders Frank Castle's wife and children, erases the memories of the entire Marvel Universe, and sticks Castle in a prison for decades. That is so fucking dark no light can escape from its mass and it makes the attempts at humor from the previous issues come off as even more tone deaf than before. Had the scene with the Watcher and Frank's family happened in the first issue and the rest of the series been about his revenge against the Watcher this series could have been dramatic gold. Instead its shock misery bolted onto an unfunny premise.
The artwork is at least pretty decent, because Todd Nauck is back to finish things up. There was an ebb and flow to the series with the high points not surprisingly being the issues illustrated by Nauck, he brings just enough dramatic weight to the story while still allowing those rare moments of comedy to come through. He does a good homage to the New Avengers story this onerips off pays tribute to and I always enjoy his rendition of Cosmic Ghost Rider. Nauck has easily been the best thing about this series.
I really can't believe that this series made it past the pitch stage, let alone editors giving it the approval for publication. There were definitely some kernels of potential there, some good ideas that were squandered, and maybe that's due to the writers being relatively new to comics. Unfortunately, it's a misfire on just about every level.
I just don't get this series, I really don't. I've gone on at length about the clash in tone that happens from page to page in this series, sometimes even from panel to panel. It seemed content with rehashing old Marvel stories with some truly terrible attempts at comedy thrown in liberally, which made those moments of pathos stick out as blindingly out of place. This issue, though, throws any semblance of comedy out the window in favor of soul crushing sadness and raging against fate. Honestly, had the whole series been more like this issue, I don't think I would have minded it half as much.
Don't get me wrong, there's still the use of Marvel stories from the past that's central to the series' premise, and here it's even more blatant than it's ever been. I mean, most of the dialogue from this comic comes from Brian Michael Bendis' first year of New Avengers, so much so that he really should have had a co-writer credit at the start of the issue. As grating an idea as that is, though, it allows Scheer and Giovannetti to do a pretty clever bit of meta deep diving, because they actually just stick Cosmic Ghost Rider into those stories in place of the Sentry. For those who may not remember, the Sentry was a character implanted into classic Marvel history and then "forgotten" by the heroes, exactly like Cosmic Ghost Rider in this series (just minus the comedy, it was all dreadfully serious). Taking one continuity implant character and replacing him with another continuity implant character is a fascinating idea that works a lot better than I thought it would.
At the end of the day, though, this is a comic where the Watcher essentially murders Frank Castle's wife and children, erases the memories of the entire Marvel Universe, and sticks Castle in a prison for decades. That is so fucking dark no light can escape from its mass and it makes the attempts at humor from the previous issues come off as even more tone deaf than before. Had the scene with the Watcher and Frank's family happened in the first issue and the rest of the series been about his revenge against the Watcher this series could have been dramatic gold. Instead its shock misery bolted onto an unfunny premise.
The artwork is at least pretty decent, because Todd Nauck is back to finish things up. There was an ebb and flow to the series with the high points not surprisingly being the issues illustrated by Nauck, he brings just enough dramatic weight to the story while still allowing those rare moments of comedy to come through. He does a good homage to the New Avengers story this one
I really can't believe that this series made it past the pitch stage, let alone editors giving it the approval for publication. There were definitely some kernels of potential there, some good ideas that were squandered, and maybe that's due to the writers being relatively new to comics. Unfortunately, it's a misfire on just about every level.
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| A scene this series didn't earn. |
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