Mega Morphs # 1 (2005)

Cover Artist: Lou Kang

Published: October 2005
Original Price: $2.99

Title: "Mechanized & Manipulated"
Writer: Sean McKeever
Artist: Lou Kang
Inker: Pat Davidson
Letterer: Dave Sharpe
Colorist: Hi-Fi
Editor: John Barner
Consulting Editor: Ralph Macchio
Editor-in-Chief: Joe Quesada

SYNOPSIS
At a cafe Bruce Banner is stung by a robotic insect that causes him to transform into the Hulk, who under mind control leaps off to find Doctor Octopus.  While Iron Man and Spider-Man test the capabilities of Spider-Man's Mega Morph, they receive the news that the Hulk stole both his own Mega Morph and the one created by Doctor Octopus.  Hulk breaks Doctor Octopus out of prison, but their escape is halted by Spider-Man.  Realizing he's outnumbered, he asks Tony Stark to call for back-up to help him.  Ghost Rider arrives in his Mega Morph and joins the fight, but the two heroes are soon confronted by an army of giant robots modeled after Doctor Doom.

ANNOTATIONS
The Mega Morphs first appeared in the series of mini-comics that came packaged with each Mega Morph toy, including one for Ghost Rider.

This series is not considered part of Ghost Rider continuity and should be considered an "alternate universe" appearance for the character.

REVIEW

Ghost Rider has been involved in some seemingly inexplicable appearances throughout the decades.  He taught bike safety to kids in Canada, held a stunt race with a "real life" biker named the Human Fly, and was even briefly a manga character.  Ghost Rider's seen some shit, y'all.

Then there's Mega Morphs, a comic series based around a line of toys that made no goddamn sense.  It was the popular Marvel heroes smashed with Transformers, but they couldn't actually call them "Transformers" because the toys were made by Toy Biz and not Hasbro, who had the Transformers license.  It's like Toy Biz executives looked at the sales figures and said "we gotta get some of that sweet, sweet transforming robot action", then shat out the Mega Morphs.  They should also be differentiated from the Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers, which this series ALSO steals from in the idea of heroes piloting giant robots.

The toys were crap, I'm ashamed to say I bought the Ghost Rider one when it was released and instantly regretted it.  Toy Biz did great with the Marvel Legends series, but their robots were fragile and nearly impossible to transform, which kinda defeats the point of making a transforming robot line of toys.  Marvel Comics, naturally, thought they better jump on this wave of transformin' morphin' robots and then produced their own tie-in comics.  Some of them were released with the toys themselves as mini-comics (something Ghost Rider is also familiar with, mini-comics included with toys), and for reasons unfathomable this mini-series was unleashed on an unsuspecting comic readership.

Look, trying to review this comic is like staring at the sun, eventually you're going to go blind and it's ultimately not worth it.  This is a series predicated on the high concept of the Hulk piloting a Transformer, which is almost as ridiculous as seeing GHOST RIDER piloting a Transformer.  Sean McKeever, bless his heart, tries his best to make this into something coherent, but it's all for naught.  Ghost Rider, who rides a mystical motorcycle for a living, is inside a robot that turns into a fucking motorcycle.  It's like a snake eating its own tail and I just can't reconcile the thought process behind it.  Putting Captain America and Wolverine in big robot suits, okay, I can almost justify that.  But Ghost Rider and the Hulk?

The artwork isn't much to speak of in this comic either, though it seems that Lou Kang would be right at home drawing the actual Transformers comics.  The designs for the Mega Morphs are so blocky and cluttered, though, and it's hard to convey them moving in any kind of natural way.  So everything looks very stiff and posed, like (hey hey!) someone just took photos of the toys in stock poses and ran them through a Photoshop filter to flatten out the images.  That is kind of a nice cover, though, so there's one point in the comic's favor.

If you haven't read this comic, you can either stay away and remain in blissful ignorance, or you can read it for the sheet "what the fuck?" idea behind it.  I warn you, though, that second path leads only to disappointment.

Grade: F