Mighty Marvel Holiday Special: Ghost Ridin' to Love # 1

Cover Date: February 2022
On Sale Date: February 2022

Writer: Jason Loo
Artist: Alba Glez

Inker: Le Beau Underwood & Walden Wong
Letterer: VC's Joe Sabino
Colorist: Carlos Lopez
Editor: Annalise Bissa

Editor In Chief: C.B. Cebulski

Cover Artist: Alba Glez

Robbie Reyes is asked by his younger brother, Gabe, to take him and his new girlfriend Charlene out on Valentine's Day, on which they have multiple date events planned. Robbie aggress to be chauffer for the Ultimate Multi-Valentine's Day Date and the kids count down until the day of the date.

Robbie first transports them to mini-golf in his Hell-Charger. While they play golf on their date, Robbie goes back to the parking lot and sees a high-speed police chase go by. Robbie transforms into the Ghost Rider and stops the criminals, making it back to mini-golf in time to pick up Gabe and Charlotte. Robbie takes them to an arcade for games and nachos; while there he notices some activity in the back. He investigates and finds the business is owned by the villain Arcade, who is using it to steal money from a gaming tournament. As Ghost Rider, Robbie fights off the hired thugs, but Arcade escapes. Robbie then takes the couple to the outdoor Cyber-Tronic Bike Club concert. While Gabe and Charlotte watch the show they see the Ghost Rider fighting Arcade in the sky above the arena, which looks like fireworks. Gabe and Charlotte declare it the best Ultimate Multi-Valentine's Day Date ever and wonder how they'll top it next year.

That's some serious game face on those kids.

THE ROADMAP

This special edition one-shot was available only on Marvel Unlimited as one of the new "Infinity Comics". The formatting is different from a normal comic, as the panels are meant to be read vertically as you scroll down the page.

This story most likely takes place between the pages of Avengers (2018) # 50; specifically after the She-Hulk's transformation in Avengers Mountain and before Robbie is transported to another dimension by a Deathlok.

CHAIN REACTION

Robbie Reyes stars in an inconsequential holiday tale available only through a digital comic service, which hey, it worked a few years ago at Christmas!

If there's one defining trait for Robbie Reyes that's been practically abandoned in recent comics, it's his relationship with his disabled younger brother, Gabe. Felipe Smith's stories that introduced Robbie were grounded in that relationship, providing stakes and some serious heart to Robbie as a Ghost Rider. Honestly, it's something I've missed since Robbie went over to the Avengers, and with what's happening with him in Avengers Forever it may be quite some time before we get a story like this again. 

I mean, there's really nothing to this other than being a sweet little piece of fluff. Ghost Rider is not the character one immediately thinks of in relation to Valentine's Day, but the creators take the material in such an earnest direction that you can't help but be charmed by this. While something this cute might seem antithetical to a Ghost Rider story it's actually a refreshing reminder of what a Robbie Reyes story can be when he's brought back to basics. 

I'm not familiar with Jason Loo or Alba Glez, but one could easily imagine them graduating from this to working on something like Gwenpool or Squirrel Girl. If anything, I think the biggest detriment to this comic is the Infinity Comics vertical scrolling format. I'm not much impressed with that digital format, which I think struggles at the worst of times with readability (such as with the Ghost Rider: Kushala series). Still, it's extremely doubtful that this would be successful as any type of print release, so getting it as a free Marvel Unlimited extra is certainly appropriate.

This isn't an important Ghost Rider story, it's not even really that great, but it's light and fun and worth a read through if you want to be cheered up by the power of love. 

Arcade's fallen on hard times, I guess.