Ghost Rider (2022) # 2

"Dark Places"

Cover Date: May 2022; On Sale Date: March 2022

Writer: Benjamin Percy; Artist: Cory Smith & Brent Peeples; Inkers: Roberto Poggi, Oren Junior, & Brent Peeples; Letterer: VC's Travis Lanham; Colorist: Bryan Valenza; Editor: Darren Shan; Editor in Chief: C.B. Cebulski; Cover Artist: Kael Ngu

After waking up with no memory of his time as the Ghost Rider, Johnny Blaze continues to question his imprisonment in Hayden's Falls and the constant ache in his head. Learning he is in Idaho, Blaze stops off at a roadside motel called The Cave Inn to rest and collect his thoughts. Meanwhile, in Utah, FBI Agents Whilmer and Talia Warroad are tracking the source of the supernatural atrocities happening across the country.

After checking in to the motel, unaware that the owner is watching each of the guests through mirrors in their rooms, Johnny takes a job as a handyman. Finding strange things in each of the rooms, Johnny accidentally stumbles across a tunnel connecting each room through the mirrors. Discovering a room covered in blood that had previously held a family with a small child, Johnny begins to lose control of the Spirit of Vengeance inside him. In the cave beneath the motel, the owner presents the kidnapped family to a massive creature, who begins feasting on them. The Ghost Rider arrives, prompting the motel owner to take his own life. The creature says that the Ghost Rider is suppose to be gone, and as the Rider kills it he tells the creature that he rides again. On the highway, Agents Whilmer and Warroad follow a fire engine to the motel, which is on fire and burning to the ground. They hear a witness describe a flaming skull and Talia vows to find the Ghost Rider.

THE ROADMAP

This is Legacy # 245 of the ongoing Ghost Rider series.

CHAIN REACTION

Percy and Smith roar into their second issue, continuing the momentum and ratcheting up the horror.

I'm still heavily reminded of Immortal Hulk, which similarly started out as done-in-one horror stories building toward a larger storyline.  Surrounded by the mystery of Johnny's time in Hayden's Falls and the creature seemingly living inside his head, the creative team deliver a truly terrifying stop at a roadside motel that makes the Bates Motel from Psycho look like a fun holiday destination. While there's nothing inherently unique about the mirror tunnel or the monster in the cave being worshipped with sacrifices, it's the ambiance and tone that serves to make it so unsettling. Johnny's string of discoveries inside the motel serve as smaller reminders of the horrific chaos going on across the country, which is lovingly detailed during Talia's vision earlier in the issue, and it's a good juxtaposition of the stakes involved.

Truthfully, though, it's the narration by Percy and the slow burn of the driving mysteries that really make this comic stand out. Percy's Johnny Blaze has a solemnness that I appreciate, an inner dialogue that serves the style of the series well. Truthfully the narration doesn't really reveal anything vital to the story and is there as window dressing, but it certainly adds to the tone appropriately.  I'm still not overly enthusiastic about Talia Warroad and her FBI partner's role in the series, which is like the X-Files taken to the extreme, but it's early days yet and maybe Percy has some surprises in store regarding them.

Cory Smith is joined briefly by artist Brent Peeples, who I assume handles the last few pages and maybe some of the FBI pages as well. Smith's Ghost Rider continues to be a juggernaut of flames and chains, and the extended sequence between the Rider and the cave creature shows that Smith can not just deliver on mood but on action as well. The details, as with the first issue, are what really sell the artwork though, such as the depiction of Talia's vision of America and the truly grotesque transformation sequence when Johnny turns into the Ghost Rider.

After such a stellar first issue, it's comforting to see Percy and Smith continue to produce such quality stuff an issue later. If this series continues to impress like this we could be looking at a classic in the making.