Ghost Rider: Trail of Tears (2007) # 6

"Trail of Tears, Part 6"

Cover Date: September 2007

On Sale Date: July 2007

Writer: Garth Ennis
Artist: Clayton Crain
Letterer: Joe Caramagna
Colorist: Clayton Crain
Editors: Warren Simons & Axel Alonso
Editor In Chief: Joe Quesada

Cover Artist: Clayton Crain

The Ghost Rider begins to destroy the members of Regan's band of outlaws, their threat of killing all of the townspeople seeming to not matter to the Spirit of Vengeance.  They start their slaughter of the people, but the Ghost Rider continues killing the demonically-powered villains until only Reagan and Nightshade remain.  Nightshade kills Jenny and threatens the now armless Travis Parham, which finally gives the Ghost Rider pause.  The Rider transforms back into his human form of Caleb, the former slave that had been murdered five years past by Reagan's gang.  As they shackle Caleb to take him to hell, he tells Parham to run; when Parham challenges Caleb's humanity, Caleb answers "I's the last scrap here IS human, else you'd be dead right now".  He again tells Parham to run as he transforms back into the Ghost Rider and engulfs the whole town in an explosion of hellfire. 

Parham, Reagan, and Nightshade find themselves transported to the dark dimension that Travis visited once years before, when he touched the skull of Caleb's ancestor, and the creatures in the realm tear Nightshade apart.  Reagan is confronted by the Ghost Rider, who kills him as revenge for Caleb's murder.  Travis is approached by the now-human Caleb, who tells him that while Parham isn't dead, he is damned and has now seen things no man should see.  Caleb tells Travis that both of them have been on the vengeance trail for years, starting for Caleb when he went to his ancestor's burial site and made a deal with the god of vengeance.  The god isn't from Africa like he first believed and isn't much for protecting people, offering only to right wrongs through vengeance.  Caleb gives Travis a glimpse of all the Ghost Riders, from the beginning of time through to the future, telling him that there will be more Riders bringing vengeance even though it means damnation.

Later, in a bar in another town, the locals talk about how the town of Snyder was now completely gone and all that was found still alive was a single man.  Travis Parham sits at the bar, aged like an old man, and while he drinks he asks the Lord why he gives them "so many ways to damn ourselves".

Should've listened, Travis.

THE ROADMAP

This series is a prequel to the Ghost Rider: Road to Damnation series by Garth Ennis and Clayton Crain.

 

Past incarnations of the Ghost Rider throughout history, including Caleb, were shown in detail in Ghost Rider (2006) # 33. 

 

Despite Reagan's statement that the Spirit of Vengeance "is no agent of Heaven above", the power of the Ghost Rider does in fact come from Heaven, as revealed in Ghost Rider (2006) # 18 and Ghost Rider (2006) # 33.  The Spirit's angelic origin was kept hidden by the angel Zadkiel, who fed misinformation about the Ghost Riders throughout history, which explains how not even the denizens of Hell (excluding Lucifer) knew the truth.

During the glimpse of Ghost Riders throughout time, both Johnny Blaze and a Rider who looks visually like 2099's Zero Cochrane are shown.  The original plan was for Ennis and Crain to produce a new Ghost Rider mini-series every year, focusing on Riders at different points in history, but for whatever reason this was the last series they produced.

 

CHAIN REACTION

"Trail of Tears" comes to an extremely satisfying ending that reunites Travis Parham with his murdered friend Caleb, who has become the Ghost Rider.

As much as I enjoyed "Road to Damnation", this mini-series by the same team of Ennis and Crain is superior in just about every respect.  While the former was more concerned with action and black comedy, "Trail of Tears" is all about drama and philosophy, particularly about the nature of vengeance as a force of evil.  Ennis has clearly been weaving along the parallels between Travis and Caleb as the story progressed (and we get the reveal here that Caleb is the Ghost Rider, but I think we all figured that one out in issue # 2), and it all comes to the fore during the fantastic final meeting between the two characters.  The climax of the action seems perfunctory, with Caleb easily destroying Reagan and his gang, even in their new demonic forms, and we don't even get to see what Reagan's final fate looks like due to a cut-away to a black panel at that moment.

No, the real dramatic conclusion lies in that final talk between Travis and Caleb about the meaning of vengeance and how it can drag a man down into darkness that he might never climb back out.  Ennis wisely allows both men to make their points equal, with both the self-righteousness of Travis and the justified anger of Caleb.  Both men are coming from the same place, both have been seeking vengeance for the wrongs committed to Caleb, and regardless of their points of view both men wind up damned as a consequence.  The final page, which shows the broken and aged Parham drinking and musing about God and vengeance is a sad, bitter end for the story's protagonist.

While I loved his artwork on the previous mini-series, this was where Clayton Crain jumped up to be one of my all-time favorite Ghost Rider artists.  He drowns this issue with darkness and shadow, which makes the few panels of bright light stand out even more, as with the Ghost Rider's destruction of the town of Snyder.  The most fantastic image, though, is the two-page spread of the Ghost Riders throughout time, which features some really interesting concepts (and even sneaks in Johnny Blaze).

That same spread was, I assume, Ennis and Crain's way to tease the subsequent mini-series that were suppose to come on the heels of "Trail of Tears".  Joe Quesada spoke about it at length on the special features of the first Ghost Rider DVD, that each year would see a new historical Ghost Rider series by Ennis and Crain that would detail the background of the Spirit of Vengeance.  I'm not sure why or how those plans changed, but it's a damn shame that we didn't get to see more of this team working together on Ghost Rider.  Perhaps it was decided the series wouldn't work with Jason Aaron's work on the regular Ghost Rider series, which was also dealing with the origin of the Spirits of Vengeance?  If I ever get to interview either Ennis or Crain, bet this will be one of the first questions I ask.

So, while "Trail of Tears" remains kind of an oddity in the Ghost Rider mythos, it's still a fantastic series told by a superb creative team.  I absolutely recommend reading it.
 

Catharsis!

Ghost Rider: Trail of Tears (2007) # 5

"Trail of Tears," Part 5

Cover Date: August 2007

On Sale Date: June 2007

Writer: Garth Ennis
Artist: Clayton Crain
Letterer: Joe Caramagna
Colorist: Clayton Crain
Editors: Warren Simons & Axel Alonso
Editor In Chief: Joe Quesada

Cover Artist: Clayton Crain

During a massive snowfall, Travis Parham arrives at the small town of Pike's Reach, where he finds all but one of the townspeople slaughtered.  The survivor tells Parham that five riders came out of a red mist and nothing could kill them.  Parham puts the survivor out of his misery and starts the two day ride to the next settlement, unaware that he's being watched by the demonic riders from a nearby hill.

 

When Parham reaches the town of Snyder he finds that the sheriff refuses to believe what he's seen in Pike's Reach, dismissing him as a crazy drunk.  Parham goes to the local bar and pays for the company of a prostitute named Jenny Sunderland.  After they have sex, Travis wonders aloud if his friend Caleb sold his soul to the Devil for vengeance, and wonders if revenge is so attractive it has a god of its own.  Jenny asks Travis to take her with him to California, both of them unaware that the red mist has descended upon the town.  The dark riders, revealed as George Reagan and his recently deceased men, attack the townspeople, while Nightshade goes to round up Parham.  He finds Parham and Jenny in their room, and Travis finds that Nightshade is indeed immune to his bullets.  Nightshade rips off Parham's arm at the shoulder and drags him and Jenny outside to face Reagan. 

Outside, Reagan explains to Travis that when they died they arrived in Hell, but due to what he learned from the Indian witch Reagan knew what to tell the creatures there.  Hell has a hatred for the Ghost Rider and all they had to do to be set free was to agree to deliver the Rider to the demons.  Their plan is to use Travis himself as bait for the Rider, who as expected arrives at the town border.  When Reagan threatens to kill the rounded up townspeople, starting with Parham, the Ghost Rider screams "do I look like the spirit of mercy to you" as he rips off his hood, revealing his flaming skull.  He says that if the people die they will be avenged, but if any do die "so be it".

That's some deep thought there, Travis.

THE ROADMAP

This series is a prequel to the Ghost Rider: Road to Damnation series by Garth Ennis and Clayton Crain.

 

Past incarnations of the Ghost Rider throughout history, including Caleb, were shown in detail in Ghost Rider (2006) # 33. 

 

Despite Reagan's statement that the Spirit of Vengeance "is no agent of Heaven above", the power of the Ghost Rider does in fact come from Heaven, as revealed in Ghost Rider (2006) # 18 and Ghost Rider (2006) # 33.  The Spirit's angelic origin was kept hidden by the angel Zadkiel, who fed misinformation about the Ghost Riders throughout history, which explains how not even the denizens of Hell (excluding Lucifer) knew the truth.

CHAIN REACTION

The Ghost Rider takes a back seat while Reagan and his gang show off their new demonic power in the penultimate chapter of "Trail of Tears".

Usually, when an issue of Ghost Rider doesn't feature Ghost Rider himself, I look down on it with a frown and sad heart.  That's not a problem here, though, mainly because throughout this series the Ghost Rider hasn't really been the protagonist.  Travis Parham is the lens through which the readers are viewing all of these events, while the Ghost Rider is just sort of this scary shadow that comes in to darken things up before vanishing again.  So allowing Travis to have the spotlight as someone trying to make sense of a world he can't understand is a welcome turn, because honestly this is Travis' story.  Ennis, who is always a writer who layers deeper meanings into his stories when he's not going for gross-out comedy, uses Travis' unique point-of-view to flag up some interesting notions regarding the Spirit of Vengeance.  Travis is obviously more intellectual than most, just look at his formal speech patterns in comparison to everyone around him, and even he has trouble coming to terms with the things he's seen.  His musings on vengeance and how it must come from Hell, despite being something which receives God's blessing is a great exploration of "the right thing done the wrong way", for lack of a better phrase. 

The real show-stopper for this issue, however, continues to be the artwork by Clayton Crain, who makes this one of the scariest Ghost Rider comics I think I've ever seen.  This is due to his fantastically grotesque depiction of Reagan and his gang, who have taken on the characteristics of their mortal deaths (such as Holly and his Boy becoming two men in one after being smashed together by the Ghost Rider's chains).  Not sure why Sargent Billy can now shoot hot oil or whatever that's supposed to be out of his mouth, but it's an amazingly disgusting visual.  Likewise, Crain's choice of color and shading remains impeccable, going from the frozen town of Pike's Reach to the warm colors of the bar in Snyder, not to mention the striking contrast of the red mist descending upon the town.  This continues to just be a beautifully illustrated series, and the muddiness in Crain's art that cropped up in issue # 2 has smoothed out nicely.

This was a great set-up for the final confrontation next issue, which promises to be something truly special. 

 

No sir, you do not.

Ghost Rider: Trail of Tears (2007) # 4

"Trail of Tears, Part 4"

Cover Date: July 2007

On Sale Date: May 2007

Writer: Garth Ennis
Artist: Clayton Crain
Letterer: Joe Caramagna
Colorist: Clayton Crain
Editors: Warren Simons & Axel Alonso
Editor In Chief: Joe Quesada

Cover Artist: Clayton Crain

Riding through rain and mist, Reagan and his surviving men (Nightshade, Holly, and Boy) realize that they've circled back to where their friends died the night before, despite them having traveled in a straight line. They find Banjo still alive, his guts having been eaten by vultures, and Nightshade puts the man out of his misery. Then, they see the Ghost Rider sitting astride his horse down field, the crows having flocked to him as his servants. While Nightshade wants to stand and fight, Reagan advises them to flee, and so they do. Travis Parham sits a distance behind the Rider, realizing that his friend Caleb must have made a deal with the vengeance god from the place of skulls.

 

After nightfall, Reagan decides to stop and make a stand against the Rider after all, which Nightshade calls into question, wondering why his friend is acting so strange. Holly, who's Boy has taken ill from the cold rain, begs the men to help his son. Later, the men have made camp and fallen asleep, all but Reagan who wakes the others after he hears something moving in the darkness. Suddenly, the Ghost Rider and his steed have appeared directly behind the men, and with his chains he drags Boy off into the night. Holly starts running after them, but the Rider turns and catches him with the chains as well. Reagan and Nightshade can only stand and watch as the Ghost Rider slams Holly and Boy together with his chains, fusing them into a broken and twisted mass of flesh and limbs. Nightshade suddenly finds his arm blown off by a rifle shot fired by Parham, leaving only Reagan standing. The Rider, angered by Parham's interference, circles the outlaws in a ring of fire. Nightshade finds Reagan hunched over Holly's body, eating his heart. Reagan tells his friend that eating a man's heart before death will give him an audience with who he needs to talk to on the other side, that was what the Native American medicine man told him. Parham shoots Nightshade dead, then kills himself before the Rider can reach them. Travis confronts the Ghost Rider, who tells him that his friend Caleb is gone. He tells Parham to go, live his life, and forget the things he's seen there.

 

The next evening, at a settlement called Pike's Reach, a red fog comes down from the hills to envelop the town. Inside the fog are five demonic men on horseback, descending on the unsuspecting citizens.

They might be a tad bit sore in the morning.

THE ROADMAP

This series is a prequel to the Ghost Rider: Road to Damnation series by Garth Ennis and Clayton Crain.

 

Past incarnations of the Ghost Rider throughout history, including Caleb, were shown in detail in Ghost Rider (2006) # 33. 

CHAIN REACTION

The plot thickens as the Ghost Rider seemingly gets his revenge, Reagan turns on his friends, and Travis Parham struggles to understand what's happening around him.

 

As with a lot of Ghost Rider stories, the main theme of this series is the cost and effect of seeking revenge and what it can do to a man. The four main characters - Parham, Caleb, the Ghost Rider, and even Reagan - are all out for revenge of some kind. Caleb/Ghost Rider wants revenge for the death of his family, Parham for the death of his friend, and Reagan for the injustice that he feels society has perpetrated on him by deeming an "inferior" race any kind of status akin to his own. This path of vengeance leads all of the characters into horrible situations, from physical death to mental scarring and eventual damnation of the soul. Parham balks at the idea of him having any kind of kinship with the demonic Ghost Rider, but it's obvious to everyone (even Parham himself, though he won't admit it) that though Travis says he's after justice he's really just wanting to get his own back for the death of Caleb, a man who saved his life.

 

While Travis is the most interesting character in the series by far, Reagan steps up his game in this issue to show just how ruthless and smart a bastard he truly is. He knew from the first encounter with the Rider that there was no surviving what was coming for them, so he bartered not only his own soul but those of his men as well, simply for an opportunity to seek revenge for their inevitable deaths. The Ghost Rider, who has never been one for tact nor subtlety, becomes enraged when he is cheated out of his rightful retribution against Reagan. It's not enough that Reagan and Nightshade are dead, they needed to die by HIS hands. Were this simply about justice, as Parham states, then the Ghost Rider would be satisfied with the fact that they're dead. Instead, the demon takes great effort to make the murders of each man as gruesome and horrific as possible. He can't even stand the idea of Parham assisting him; yes, part of the Rider wants Travis to stay away for the good of his own soul, but it's mostly because he doesn't want to share the vengeance.

 

Clayton Crain really steps up his game yet again with this issue, particularly in the book's colors. The opening splash page, which shows Reagan's gang riding through mist and rain, is absolutely beautiful to look at, like something that would be found hanging in a fine art gallery. He likewise does an incredible job illustrating the red mist that signals the return of Reagan and company as demonic riders, it just looks so damn ominous! Crain may do a great job with the carnage and stylized violence, but I don't think he gets enough credit as a character artist. These characters don't have stock faces or bodies, each of them are distinct from one another and each show genuine emotion in their expressions.

 

While the theme of this series is one that's been explored countless times in Ghost Rider stories over the years, Ennis and Crain are doing a great job making each issue better than the one before it.

 

Parham's figuring out the plot.

Ghost Rider: Trail of Tears (2007) # 3

"Trail of Tears, Part 3"

Cover Date: June 2007

On Sale Date: April 2007

Writer: Garth Ennis
Artist: Clayton Crain
Letterer: Joe Caramagna
Colorist: Clayton Crain
Editors: Warren Simons & Axel Alonso
Editor In Chief: Joe Quesada

Cover Artist: Clayton Crain

George Reagan and his crew of outlaws (Nightshade, Banjo, Holly, Boy, and Sergeant Billy) have paused in their flight from US Marshals to massacre a tribe of Native American women and children. One of the dead women comes back to life, naming each of the men in turn to deliver a message: "I's comin' soon. For the lives you took, for the evil you done." The outlaws shoot the woman until she is once again dead. Elsewhere, Travis Parham has stopped in a town in search of Reagan, and after getting information he purchases a buffalo rifle.

 

That night, Reagan and his band have stopped to make camp, their nerves on edge by the message delivered to them by the dead woman. When Sergeant Billy goes to check on their horses, the other men hear him screaming. He has been taken by a rider in a black cloak, who tramples through their camp as he drags Billy behind him in chains. Nightshade fires a bullet, which passes through the rider's head with no effect; in return, the rider shoots bolts of fire from his eyes that set aflame the tree that their horses are tied to. While the men free their horses, the Ghost Rider disappears with Billy.

 

That morning, Reagan leads his group to a nearby Native American tribe and requests to speak with their shaman. The holy man tells Reagan that he and his men are soon to die, and using whiskey to barter with Reagan asks the shaman for assistance. Later, the five men have again made camp at sunset, when a bullet fired from a nearby ridge blows a hole through Banjo. While they attempt to find cover from the shooter, Parham, they hear Sergeant Billy screaming from across the field. Billy has had each of his four limbs tied to horses; when the Ghost Rider appears, he shoots a blast of fire into the sky, scaring the horses into running. Sergeant Billy is drawn and quartered, literally pulled apart by the horses. Realizing that they're standing in a killing ground, the other four men get on their horses and ride away while both Parham and the Ghost Rider watch.

Merely a flesh wound!

THE ROADMAP

This series is a prequel to the Ghost Rider: Road to Damnation series by Garth Ennis and Clayton Crain.

 

Past incarnations of the Ghost Rider throughout history, including Caleb, were shown in detail in Ghost Rider (2006) # 33.

 

CHAIN REACTION

The third chapter of "Trail of Tears" finally introduces not only the villainous Reagan and his gang of killers but also the story's version of Ghost Rider.

 

With the first two issues being pure set-up for the plot, chapter three finally allows Ennis and Crain to get to some righteous Ghost Rider action against the story's bad guys. One thing (of many) that this series does well is that it gives each of the villains with just enough personality to make them distinct. These are some evil sons of bitches, but none of them are like one another (save for Holly and his Boy, which is just cringe-worthy by nature). Reagan and Nightshade are the natural leaders, and it would have been easy to just label the rest of the outlaws as "canon fodder" and leave it at that. Ennis is a much better writer than that, though, and he's always been solid when it comes to giving believable motivations and personalities to his characters, both good and bad.

 

Likewise, I've really taken to Travis Parham as the book's true protagonist. The Ghost Rider is more of a plot device at this point instead of a genuine character, so Travis is the stand-in for the reader. This puts Reagan and his crew in a crossfire of vengeance, with both Travis and the Rider out to get them, though they're actually working at cross purposes. The Rider wants to interference, while Travis can only stare dumb-founded at what he's seeing. I enjoy reading about Parham, I love the voice that Ennis has given to him, that of an educated man returned from a life of killing to avenge his friend. Ennis always excels when it comes to western stories, and this one is by far superior to his previous Ghost Rider mini-series, "The Road to Damnation".

 

Clayton Crain continues to produce some impressive artwork for the series as well, and a lot of the problems I had with his work in the second issue have gone away. His work no longer looks blurry in places, and he's stopped with the absent panel borders. The book looks sharper, crisper, and way more readable. The big selling point of this issue, though, is the full reveal of the era's Ghost Rider; we never see the flaming skull, of course, but all of the elements are there. The horse, with its skin flayed away to reveal flame seeping from the breaks in muscle, is grotesquely awesome, and the Rider's look is perfectly appropriate for the story that's being told. Crain pulls off a really strange fisheye perspective shot with the panel showing Billy tied to the horses, and it doesn't quite look right; but honestly, I can't think of a more dynamic way to draw such a panel, it had to have been tricky to get right.

 

I admit, I'm a sucker for a well-told Garth Ennis story, and this one has so far not been a disappointment.

Say it!  Say "vengeance"!

Ghost Rider: Trail of Tears (2007) # 2

"Trail of Tears, Part 2"

Cover Date: May 2007

On Sale Date: March 2007

Writer: Garth Ennis
Artist: Clayton Crain
Letterer: Joe Caramagna
Colorist: Clayton Crain
Editors: Warren Simons & Axel Alonso
Editor In Chief: Joe Quesada

Cover Artist: Clayton Crain

Travis Parham, having returned to the land owned by his friend Caleb, instead encounters two brothers, Lem and Rufus Coulter. When the brothers insinuate that they claimed Caleb's property by less than legal means, Parham shoots Rufus dead. He then tells the surviving brother that he will know what has become of Caleb before the hour is out. Travis drags Coulter behind his horse to a place in the nearby woods, a small cave where Parham discovered a nest of skulls. He throws Coulter into the cave, and upon making contact both Travis and Lem relive the events that ended Caleb's life. A man named Reagan led a group of southerners to "take back what was theirs" after the conclusion of the Civil War - the Dragwell brothers, Holly and his Boy, Banjo, Nightshade, and Sergeant Billy. These men, dressed as Klansmen, overtook Caleb's farm and held the former slave and his family captive. Caleb was forced to watch while the men raped and murdered his wife then executed his two children. Reagan himself took a knife to Caleb, and as he died the last thing he saw was Reagan giving the Coulter brothers the land their grandfather once owned. After they've recovered from the flashback, Parham shoots Lem in the head and leaves him for dead.

 

Parham rides into the nearby town and asks the sheriff details of any arrests made in the murders of Caleb and his family. When the sheriff makes a racist comment about Caleb, Travis throws him through a window and demands to know the location of George Reagan. The sheriff's deputy, also his young nephew, tells Travis that Reagan was gone - he'd owned several slaves that he refused to set free after the war, and when a union patrol came through the area he shot all of the slaves out of spite before killing the lieutenant of the patrol. The boy explains that all of Reagan's band headed out that night except for the Dragwells, who weren't involved that day. The deputy then agrees to lead Parham to the Dragwells' home.

 

During the trip to the Dragwells' farm, the deputy tells Parham about George Reagan. Killing slaves was one thing, the boy explains, but killing a union officer was something different. They arrive soon after at the Dragwells' farm, but find it to be occupied by horribly mutilated corpses. The boy tells Parham that there were four Dragwells - two sons, the father, and an uncle. Parham had only counted three bodies, but the fourth Dragwell appears behind them, his neck broken and his body terribly disfigured. As he shambles towards them, his body bursts into flame, finally killing him. Shaken by what they've seen, Parham decides to head out to Wyoming, where Reagan owns land. As they leave the farm, they fail to notice a cloaked man in chains on a demonic horse watching them.

Yeah, I'm going to enjoy watching you die, Reagan.

THE ROADMAP

This series is a prequel to the Ghost Rider: Road to Damnation series by Garth Ennis and Clayton Crain.

 

Past incarnations of the Ghost Rider throughout history, including Caleb, were shown in detail in Ghost Rider (2006) # 33.

 

CHAIN REACTION

Okay, in my review for the previous issue of "Trail of Tears", I conveyed my opinion that Travis Parham was being set-up as the host for the Ghost Rider.

 

And, well, looks like I was wrong. Heh, let's move along now, shall we?

 

Garth Ennis and Clayton Crain continue their prequel (of sorts) to 2005's "Road to Damnation", and their slow-burn approach to telling the story is still in full effect in an almost infuriating way. Don't get me wrong, this is an incredibly well-written issue that further develops the building mystery now that the main chunk of set-up has been established. Travis Parham is an intriguing lead character - even if I was totally wrong about him being the Ghost Rider's host - and he's developed enough to logically anchor the story.

 

But c'mon guys, the Ghost Rider doesn't actually show up until the last page of the second issue? That's a bit like cheating, I think, considering "Ghost Rider" is right there in the book's title. I get it, I really do - this is not adhering to the normal comic rules where the title protagonist has to be up front and center at all times. This is a separate mini-series that is able to take more liberties, and that's all fine and good. But we're coming across with the same problem that marked the opening chapters of "Road to Damnation" where the book's selling point is mysteriously absent for most of the narrative. Naturally, it's looking like this will all change with the next issue, and it's lucky that Ennis is talented enough to make me overlook this considering how well he's writing this book (and story wise, so far, it's vastly superior to his last Ghost Rider story), because this could easily get pretty damn frustrating.

 

This issue does go so far as to set up the story's villains, namely Reagan and his murderous band, without actually introducing them other than via flashback. It works in this instance since it builds up their threat plausibly, especially during their flashback scenes detailing Caleb's murder, and I really felt the desire to see these villains get a nice heaping dose of vengeance in the coming issues.

 

A disappointment did come, I hate to say, in the work of Clayton Crain with this issue. His digitally painted artwork is normally breathtaking in its beauty and style, but this issue seemed, well, rushed is the only word coming to mind. It looks sloppy in places, with an almost blurry effect taking place in the issue's second half. He also confuses the narrative during the second half by combining two panels into one during several sequences without a panel border. I actually had to look back over the page a few times to get the flow right, because the split panels actually looked like one panel with the characters appearing in multiple places. Still, though, Crain gave his standard when it came to the issue's "shock" moments - the slaughter of the Dragwells and the spectacular last-page-reveal of the Ghost Rider.

 

So far, "Trail of Tears" is setting up to be a classic-in-the-making that could easily surpass "Road to Damnation" but isn't quite there yet. But things should only get better now that the Ghost Rider himself is actually being brought out to play.

 

He could maybe benefit from yoga?

Ghost Rider: Trail of Tears (2007) # 1

"Trail of Tears, Part 1"

Cover Date: April 2007

On Sale Date: February 2007

Writer: Garth Ennis
Artist: Clayton Crain
Letterer: Joe Caramagna
Colorist: Clayton Crain
Editors: Warren Simons & Axel Alonso
Editor In Chief: Joe Quesada

Cover Artist: Clayton Crain

During the American Civil War, Lieutenant Travis Parham of the Confederate Army leads his battalion in a charge, rallying them around him with his impassioned cries of victory. Unfortunately, the Confederates are quickly beaten back by the guns and canons of the Union Army. As his fellows fall around him, Parham's confidence is shaken, his words of rally now unsure. He sees a friend, John Appleby, laying wounded on the battlefield and, as even more of his soldiers die, attempts to pull him to safety. Appleby comes to and realizes that his wounds are too severe - he then asks Parham to pull his revolver and end his life. Parham pulls out his pistol and aims it, but finds himself unable to pull the trigger. While the Northern Army continue to blast the battlefield with cannon-fire, Appleby curses Parham right before an explosion hits near them - killing Appleby and sending Parham into unconsciousness.

 

That night, Parham - still on the deserted battlefield - wakes up to find a cloaked man with a lantern standing over him. The stranger introduces himself as Caleb, a black man that is raiding the battlefield for salvage. He picks Travis up and puts him on his horse, taking him to safety. Parham wakes up in Caleb's home four days later, still wounded from the battle. Travis asks Caleb why he's helping his enemy, a soldier in the Confederate Army; Caleb answers that he's a free man, bought out of service with his wife ten years past. He saved Parham because he was a human being that needed help - and he tells Travis to hurry with the healing so he can start working off his debt.

 

Months later, Travis and Caleb are clearing a field of tree stumps. Caleb asks why Travis is still there even though his debt is long paid, why he hasn't gone back to his war yet. Parham tells Caleb that his father and brothers died in battle, with his mother dying upon hearing the news. "War is a trap for men like me," Travis says, "we enter it willingly and the jaws slam shut, and the result is a thing to shame Almighty God." When asked why he didn't just walk away when his debt was paid, Travis tells Caleb that he has absolutely nothing to go home to. Later, while tilling the field, Travis sees a light in the neighboring woods. He investigates and finds a glowing skull sitting on a table. He places a finger tip on the skull and is transported to a hellish place filled with demons. One demon, larger than the others and with a flaming skull for a head, towers over him with a whip - and then Parham wakes up, discovered screaming by Caleb. Caleb tells him that the skulls were of his father and his fathers, brought with them along with their "old ways". The dead watch over the living, staying with their families - and they also brought their own Gods, and the one Travis encountered doesn't have a name. He speaks to the living through the dead, avenging evil deeds. Caleb asks Travis what he saw, other than "a big ol' skinny fella with his noggin on fire, that is."

 

Two years after being rescued, Travis is given word from Caleb that the war is officially over. Parham tells his friend that he plans on moving west to make his fortune and claim his land. Caleb warns him that another war is on the horizon with the Indians and how the people that run the country will be the ones profiting from it. Caleb then offers Travis back his pistol, saved from the battlefield and kept over the years. That night, Travis packs up his horse to leave and says his goodbyes to Caleb, who he plans to return and retrieve once he's established a home out west. Travis says goodbye to his friend and rides away, unaware that three men wearing white hoods are watching them from a nearby hill.

He seems relatively calm for having such a huge hole in him.

THE ROADMAP

This series is a prequel to the Ghost Rider: Road to Damnation series by Garth Ennis and Clayton Crain.

 

Past incarnations of the Ghost Rider throughout history, including Caleb, were shown in detail in Ghost Rider (2006) # 33.

CHAIN REACTION

Garth Ennis and Clayton Crain are back for round 2 with the Spirit of Vengeance, but this time things are very different. It's a historical piece with a brand-new character as the Ghost Rider's host, and the creative team are using their storytelling freedom to their advantage.

 

It's perhaps wise that Ennis seems to be staying away from the established - and oft-times confusing and cluttered - origins for the Ghost Rider that have been told over the years. While some fans may balk at a story that, at least so far, pays no heed to the canon legacy of the character, I think it's a smart move. Ennis has made it clear in various interviews that he's not a fan of the characters but of the concept, and while you could almost feel his contempt for Johnny Blaze during the "Road to Damnation" story this one is a very different animal. Ennis is getting to build his own Ghost Rider from the ground up, and this is merely the first stepping stone for the story of Travis Parham.

 

What's unfortunate is the sheer obviousness of this series being written for its eventual trade paperback collection...in other words, it's slow as molasses and a lot of time is spent on the characters' philosophical musings on war and manifest destiny, among other subjects. While this does allow the readers to really get to know Travis and Caleb, it also brings up a problem that was also displayed in the first issue of "Road to Damnation": there's no Ghost Rider to be found, other than a vague one-panel appearance. But whereas "Road" was disappointing in that it was the first Ghost Rider issue to be published in five years, "Trail of Tears" gets the benefit of the doubt due to the sheer volume of Ghost Rider material that was being produced at the time of its publication. There was already an ongoing Ghost Rider series, so Ennis was allowed more patience and leeway for setting up his story. It also must be said that Ennis isn't just picking up with established characters - he's creating a whole new status quo for new characters, and though I feel he veers the wheel a little off the road with some of the philosophy mentioned above I still appreciate the time given to fleshing out Travis before he becomes a Spirit of Vengeance.

 

As for Travis Parham himself, I find myself liking him quite a bit. He's a broken soldier who's seen that war is not what he thought it was, something shown in visual brutality during the opening battle sequence. Parham's crisis of confidence on the battle field and later rejection of the war mentality throughout the issue goes far in showing that the character is growing and changing even in the span of one issue. He's a likeable antagonist who starts out as honorable but misguided before coming round to a more worldly sense of self.

 

Clayton Crain's return to the art chores is a mixed bag as well. I enjoy his work immensely, and I like that he's gone for a brighter choice of colors than what was used in "Road to Damnation". But there's still a problem with some of his sequences being frankly hard to decipher without long minutes of careful study. This is most evident during the opening battle sequence, colored only in black, white, and brown tones, where things are difficult to discern in some panels. What I did really like, on the design front, is the choice to make the background panel borders look aged, like an old photograph or parchment. It really lends a lot to the atmosphere that the creative team is trying to convey, and it's just a small touch that enhances the whole package.

 

So far, "Trail of Tears" is hovering on a "wait and see" pattern. There's no sign of the Ghost Rider yet, but we can see that bad things are coming in the next issue that will most likely call for a Spirit of Vengeance to rise up in Travis Parham. This issue, though, spends just a little too much time preaching at the expense of possibly boring readers. It's not bad by any means, but the next issue is really going to need to kick things up a notch to hold my interest.

 

Yes, because touching the skull is the rational thing to do.