Cover Date: December 2019 through February 2020; On Sale Date: October through December 2019
Writer: Jason Aaron; Artist: Ed McGuiness, Paco Medina, & Francesco Manna; Letterer: VC's Cory Petit; Colorist: Justin Ponsor; Editor: Tom Brevoort; Associate Editor: Alanna Smith; Editor-in-Chief: C.B. Cebulski; Cover Artist: Ed McGuiness & Mico Suayan
The Avengers travel to the Ravenstarr Prison Galaxy after Gladiator of the Shi'ar sends them a distress signal related to the emergence of a new Starbrand. The team is split up after entering the prison galaxy, with Thor being infected by the Brood. Split off from the rest of the team, Ghost Rider races through space with Black Widow and the dying Blade (affected by the proximity of numerous red suns) against the Silver Surfer.
The Silver Surfer, along with his fellow former Heralds of Galactus Firelord and Terrax the Tamer, have come to kill the Starbrand host before it can destroy the galaxy. Ghost Rider confronts the Silver Surfer in space and blasts him with hellfire before stealing his surfboard. The Surfer recovers and retrieves his board, sending Ghost Rider back into his car in defeat before they crashland on a nearby planet. With Ghost Rider and Blade out of commission, Black Widow unpacks a suit of advanced War Machine armor to fight a gathering of inmates looking for a way out of the prison.
The War Widow takes out the inmates but is attacked by the Silver Surfer, who tells her that the Avengers will not claim the Starbrand. While Ghost Rider is wired into his car to facilitate his healing, Blade is covered in his own suit of organic armor by the Boy-Thing, saving Blade's life and allowing him to join in the fight against the Surfer. While the other Avengers do battle with Firelord and Terrax, Gladiator discovers the Starbrand's host on a nearby planet: a pregnant woman who will destroy the galaxy to save her unborn child.
The Avengers fight the Heralds and Gladiator to save the life of Suzanne Selby and her unborn baby, with Selby dying during childbirth and the infant gaining the power of the Starbrand. The Silver Surfer had a change of heart and helps the Avengers fight off his fellow Heralds, and the Avengers bring the baby back to Earth to raise themselves.
Robbie Reyes fought and killed the previous Starbrand in Marvel Legacy (2017) # 1.
Robbie Reyes makes his next appearance in Incoming! (2019) # 1.
CHAIN REACTION
Ghost Rider heads to space with his fellow Avengers for a storyline involving the next host of the cosmic Starbrand.
If there's any type of story that Ghost Rider doesn't seem like he'd be a natural fit for it's a cosmic one set in the depths of space. Of course there's an actual Cosmic Ghost Rider that fits in that milieu but taking Robbie Reyes, previously a very grounded character introduced as a reader surrogate for East Los Angeles youths, into that environment is a bit of a stretch. Jason Aaron has been all about the "big ideas" for his run on Avengers and after the previous Ghost Rider heavy arc I'm sure readers are happy to see him move on to something else. The problem here, though, is that those "big ideas" are tossed out and then nothing is done with them in the context of the story.
Don't get me wrong, stuff like the War Widow and Brood Thor are killer ideas, but they ultimately lead to nothing substantial outside of a few action sequences. What was the point of taking Blade, a vampire hunter, out into space and giving him plant armor? What was up with the attempt to make the other Avengers into a weird version of the Starjammers? It doesn't hang together the way the writer seems to think, and while it certainly does allow each character a time in the spotlight it does so in meaningless ways to the overall plot. The best part, with my bias obviously in play, is the interaction between Ghost Rider and the Silver Surfer. I don't believe those two characters have ever encountered one another, in any incarnation of either, so seeing them play off one another is fascinating.
The artwork for this arc is mainly by Ed McGuiness, though as with previous periods on the series he needs assistance from fill-in artists like Medina and Manna. His designs for those big ideas like the War Widow and the Ghost Rider riding on the Silver Surfer's board are all top notch and his work, as always, fits Aaron's stories perfectly. His work has a larger than life quality that always plays to Aaron's strengths, so seeing him back on board for a space storyline is a good fit.
This was the period where I finally checked out on Aaron's Avengers run, as Robbie faded into the background for the next year or two of stories. I think this series is a place where the ideas are given more importance than the characters and it shows, especially going forward from here.
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| Space fire versus hellfire! |
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