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| Cover Artist: Chris Sprouse |
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Title: "Screaming For Vengeance"
Writer: Len Kaminski
Artist: Ashley Wood
Inker: Jim Daly
Letterer: Richard Starkings
Colorist: Christie Scheele
Editor: Joey Cavalieri
Editor In Chief: Bobbie Chase
SYNOPSIS
After viewing a playback of his death at the hands of the Ghost Rider, the newly-awakened Vengeance - formerly a CSS officer named Cole Wagner - is greeted by the mysterious Kabal. Kabal informs him that in Wagner's absence crime has run rampant in Transverse City, and he has learned the location of the city's criminal mastermind. This person is being protected by the Ghost Rider, who Vengeance eagerly agrees to kill.
Elsewhere, the Ghost Rider watches a video transmission that relates the news of Doom's removal from the office of the United States President. After seeing this, Zero suffers a system crash that allows him to remember the hidden code that Doom and the Ghostworks had placed inside him. He sees the Ghostworks talking about editing his personality template to give the illusion of free will, proving that they did things to change him before releasing him. Unable to remove the Ghostworks' codes from his system, Zero heads to the Bar Code to beg Anesthesia for help. She tells him to get out, blaming him of selling out for a badge. Kabal picks this time to enter, accusing Anesthesia for being the informant that crippled the Undernet based on her association with the Ghost Rider. Despite her claims of innocence, Kabal opens fire on her. Before Zero can step in, he is confronted by Vengeance.
Meanwhile, in a secret vault that had recently been breached by a group of mercenaries, a number of cryonically suspended human heads begin to awaken due to damage to the chamber. As they awaken, a century of sensory deprivation has caused them to go mad. A hundred years of pent-up psionic energy is released, and the minds within the heads combine into a grotesque entity formed from pure psychosis. The entity passes through the chamber's walls into the unsuspecting world.
Back at the Bar Code, Vengeance continues to tear into the Ghost Rider, who mocks the more massive cyborg. Vengeance's hands begin to pulse with anti-matter, and he grabs Zero, burning him and causing him to cry out in agonizing pain.
ANNOTATIONS
CSS Officer Cole Wagner was killed by the Ghost Rider in Ghost Rider 2099 (1994) # 3.
Ghost Rider was made the Marshall of Transverse City by President Doom, who also entered in a piece of hidden code into his system, in Ghost Rider 2099 (1994) # 14.
The Undernet infiltrated the Transnational Vault in Ghost Rider 2099 (1994) # 18.
This issue also contained the first of a 2-part Heartbreaker back-up story by Kaminski and Wood.
REVIEW
While the storyline for Ghost Rider 2099 continues to build toward an incredible climax, this issue introducing the future version of Vengeance, the artwork continues its downward slide into awfulness.
One thing the 2099 incarnation of Ghost Rider pulled off well was its complete disconnection from the original Ghost Rider mythos, making it a book about technology instead of the more standard supernatural. The book went out of its way to keep itself separate from the modern-day version, but this storyline marks a first for the series: introducing a future version of an established Ghost Rider villain. Not surprisingly, that character is Vengeance, who in both incarnations is portrayed as Ghost Rider's antithesis and distorted mirror double. Like the modern Vengeance, this one is a man whose life had been destroyed by the Ghost Rider - in this instance, a CSS officer who had been slain by Zero back in the book's first year - and has traded in his humanity for revenge.
While most "upgrades" of established Marvel villains in the 2099 universe were laughable at best (looking at you, Venom 2099), Kaminski gives us just enough of a twist mixed with familiarity when introducing Vengeance. Bigger and badder than his counterpart, Vengeance is a former police officer who believes himself to be in the right during his battle with the Ghost Rider, unaware that Zero is now in fact the law himself. Vengeance isn't presented with much in the way of brains or self-awareness here, but that's to be expected considering he's just a tool for Kabal to use against Cochrane.
Unfortunately, the artwork continues to disappoint. Despite such a strong start on the series, Ashley Wood's work has degenerated into a near-incomprehensible mess. I theorize that this is due to two factors: the ever-increasing pressure of the monthly deadline and the addition of inker John Daly. Wood felt much more at home when he was inking his own work, and if anything Daly's inks seem to oversimplify Wood's scratchy, sketchy art. The work simply looks unfinished and highly amateurish. Compare the first image of Vengeance on the cover of # 20, by Wood solo, to his appearance here with Daly's inks.
Overall, while Len Kaminski continues to just rock out with the stories on this title, the artwork is quickly sucking the life out of it. Which is a damn shame.
Grade: C-
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