On Sale Date: December 2017
Writer: Victor Gischler
Artist: David Baldeon
Letterer: Cory Petit
Colorist: Andres Mossa
Editor: Chris Robinson
Editor-in-Chief: Axel Alonso
Cover Artist: Dan Mora
The sorcerer Necrodamus explains to Hell's emissary how he located the silver coins of Judas, which are possessed by the traitor's malevolent spirit and thus have great power inside them. Having been locked up by humans for centuries, one of the guardians gave the coins to Necrodamus in exchange for a book, and using them he is going to forge a weapon to kill the archangel Michael during the Covenant. The demon tells Necrodamus that he'll only have one shot to kill Michael. Later, in a Mexican volcano, the dark dwarf Ragnar tells Necrodamus that he needs to retrieve the 30th piece of silver before the weapon can be completed.
On a rooftop garden in Manhattan, Daimon Hellstrom's friend Edwin has hidden himself after several of their acquaintances were murdered. He tells Hellstrom that he's being hunted by Razan the Night Jackal, a goddess bound to serve the sorcerer who freed her from imprisonment. Edwin suggests they try to get information at Port Brimstone, and Hellstrom dispatches his sister Satana and Blade to investigate the Port. Razan is watching from a nearby rooftop, communicating to Necrodamus that she used Edwin as bait. She and her demons attack the garden, managing to get the silver bullet from Hellstrom before fleeing on her flying demon. Johnny Blaze transforms into the Ghost Rider and chases her on his motorcycle through the city, but she is able to escape him. Meanwhile, at Port Brimstone, Satana and Blade question a demonic bartender about the silver. Blade kills some vampires and the bartender directs them to someone in a back room wishing to speak with them: the human who bartered away the Judas coins to Necrodamus. Back at the volcano, Ragnar uses the last piece of silver to forge a gun, which Necrodamus calls "the archangel killer".
The sorcerer Necrodamus explains to Hell's emissary how he located the silver coins of Judas, which are possessed by the traitor's malevolent spirit and thus have great power inside them. Having been locked up by humans for centuries, one of the guardians gave the coins to Necrodamus in exchange for a book, and using them he is going to forge a weapon to kill the archangel Michael during the Covenant. The demon tells Necrodamus that he'll only have one shot to kill Michael. Later, in a Mexican volcano, the dark dwarf Ragnar tells Necrodamus that he needs to retrieve the 30th piece of silver before the weapon can be completed.
On a rooftop garden in Manhattan, Daimon Hellstrom's friend Edwin has hidden himself after several of their acquaintances were murdered. He tells Hellstrom that he's being hunted by Razan the Night Jackal, a goddess bound to serve the sorcerer who freed her from imprisonment. Edwin suggests they try to get information at Port Brimstone, and Hellstrom dispatches his sister Satana and Blade to investigate the Port. Razan is watching from a nearby rooftop, communicating to Necrodamus that she used Edwin as bait. She and her demons attack the garden, managing to get the silver bullet from Hellstrom before fleeing on her flying demon. Johnny Blaze transforms into the Ghost Rider and chases her on his motorcycle through the city, but she is able to escape him. Meanwhile, at Port Brimstone, Satana and Blade question a demonic bartender about the silver. Blade kills some vampires and the bartender directs them to someone in a back room wishing to speak with them: the human who bartered away the Judas coins to Necrodamus. Back at the volcano, Ragnar uses the last piece of silver to forge a gun, which Necrodamus calls "the archangel killer".
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| Andres Mossa layers on the colors in this series. |
CHAIN REACTION
Enjoy the beautiful scenery of a rooftop garden in Manhattan while the creative team drums you over the head with flashbacks and so much fucking exposition, my god people!
Much like last issue, the saving grace of this comic is the artwork by David Baldeon, who may not be to every fan's taste (especially with that questionable Ghost Rider design) but damn if he doesn't draw action scenes well. I wish he had more opportunities to strut his stuff in this series, because the pages where Razan attacks and gets chased by Ghost Rider look incredible, his sense of motion and energy is amazingly kinetic. The eye gets drawn along nicely in his panels, the characters react with an overly exaggerated style, but it adds to the chaos and energy of the scenes. Baldeon gets saddled with way too many talking head panels, and though he does his best to make them interesting there's only so much you can do with the umpteenth smarmy Hellstorm or befuddled Blaze headshot. When he does get to stretch his legs the work looks amazing. I do think the linework gets buried at times by the colorist, though, particularly when it involves anything with fire such as the volcano scenes or Ghost Rider's motorcycle. It's hard to tell what's going on with all of the Photoshop effects layered on top of the art.
The storyline is still crawling by, parsing out information bit by bit while drowning the issue with flashback montages. I don't get the pace of this series, it's a whole lot of waiting around for shit to happen, but there's also a deadline involved that should naturally make the pace quicken instead of slow down to a creeping meander. The characters move like sloths from conversation piece to conversation piece; Necrodamus has cordial talks with two different co-conspirators, there's the rooftop garden talk, then even MORE talking at the bar with Satana and Blade. All of this is adding up to an incredibly frustrating experience, but at the same time I have to admit that when the book does get around to doing something exciting it explodes off the page.
Another thing that frustrates me is the decision to include all of these characters when they're serving no point to the story. Had this just been a Ghost Rider mini-series with Hellstrom serving in a mentor/guide capacity, I could almost forgive all of this, they're at least the two that seem to serve some kind of function to the story. Blade and Satana are afterthoughts, farmed out to a fetch quest while Daimon and Johnny get the action bits. Why bring those two into the plot at all when they're given nothing to do?
So far, Spirits of Vengeance has been nothing but a slow disappointment peppered with some occasionally brilliant bits of artwork.
Much like last issue, the saving grace of this comic is the artwork by David Baldeon, who may not be to every fan's taste (especially with that questionable Ghost Rider design) but damn if he doesn't draw action scenes well. I wish he had more opportunities to strut his stuff in this series, because the pages where Razan attacks and gets chased by Ghost Rider look incredible, his sense of motion and energy is amazingly kinetic. The eye gets drawn along nicely in his panels, the characters react with an overly exaggerated style, but it adds to the chaos and energy of the scenes. Baldeon gets saddled with way too many talking head panels, and though he does his best to make them interesting there's only so much you can do with the umpteenth smarmy Hellstorm or befuddled Blaze headshot. When he does get to stretch his legs the work looks amazing. I do think the linework gets buried at times by the colorist, though, particularly when it involves anything with fire such as the volcano scenes or Ghost Rider's motorcycle. It's hard to tell what's going on with all of the Photoshop effects layered on top of the art.
The storyline is still crawling by, parsing out information bit by bit while drowning the issue with flashback montages. I don't get the pace of this series, it's a whole lot of waiting around for shit to happen, but there's also a deadline involved that should naturally make the pace quicken instead of slow down to a creeping meander. The characters move like sloths from conversation piece to conversation piece; Necrodamus has cordial talks with two different co-conspirators, there's the rooftop garden talk, then even MORE talking at the bar with Satana and Blade. All of this is adding up to an incredibly frustrating experience, but at the same time I have to admit that when the book does get around to doing something exciting it explodes off the page.
Another thing that frustrates me is the decision to include all of these characters when they're serving no point to the story. Had this just been a Ghost Rider mini-series with Hellstrom serving in a mentor/guide capacity, I could almost forgive all of this, they're at least the two that seem to serve some kind of function to the story. Blade and Satana are afterthoughts, farmed out to a fetch quest while Daimon and Johnny get the action bits. Why bring those two into the plot at all when they're given nothing to do?
So far, Spirits of Vengeance has been nothing but a slow disappointment peppered with some occasionally brilliant bits of artwork.
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| It's nice to see Ghost Rider treated as the heavy again. |
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