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| Cover Art: Sam Keith |
Original Price: $1.50
Title: "Return of the Braineaters, Part 5: Roadkill"
Writer: Chris Cooper
Artist: John Stanisci
Inker: Jimmy Palmiotti & Ken Branch
Letterer: Steve Dutro
Colorist: Fred Mendez
Editor: Terry Kavanagh
Editor in Chief: Tom DeFalco
SYNOPSIS
Danny Ketch wakes up in the sewer with Jack Russell, remembering nothing since he was beaten nearly to death outside the Black Moon Bar & Grill, the headquarters of the Braineaters. At the bar, the leader of the Braineaters named Scuzz tells the gang's human concubine Lupe that the kid they were holding hostage has outlived his usefulness. Remembering what Dan said to her before he was savagely beaten, Lupe manipulates the Braineaters into fighting one another while she escapes with Billy. The bikers quickly realize what's happened and give chase after them. Lupe tells Billy to keep running and stands defiant, but the Braineaters all just ride past her on their bikes. Only Scuzz stops, wanting the pleasure of killing Lupe himself. Dan and Jack arrive at the bar and find the dying Lupe in the alley, and with her dying words she asks Dan if she "did good". Dan transforms into an enraged Ghost Rider, who chases down Scuzz and punches him against a wall. Scuzz, however, says that in the time it takes to kill him the rest of the Braineaters will have found and killed Billy, so what will Ghost Rider chose to do: kill Scuzz or save Billy?
ANNOTATIONS
ANNOTATIONS
This issue of Marvel Comics Presents also contained stories featuring Wolverine/Typhoid Mary, Thanos, and Iron Fist.
REVIEW
"Return of the Braineaters" reaches its climax and continues being a surprisingly engaging story.
It had been quite a long time since I'd read this serial and I didn't have the fondest of memories of it, just that it was one of a long string of middling Ghost Rider team-up stories in Marvel Comics Presents. However, this one is far better than my memory had led me to believe, with Cooper and Stanisci taking advantage of the pulpy plot elements to turn each chapter into a grindhouse era style treat. Chris Cooper was usually a reliable writer, his Darkhold series was an excellent example of horror in the Marvel Universe done right, and he shows here a knack for taking what should be an unremarkable character into some truly touching pathos. Lupe had already stood out in the previous chapter as the most interesting part of the story, a contradiction that gets her resolution here in a satisfyingly tragic way.
Stanisci also continues to make this series feel like the grimiest 1970s horror film the comic medium could have mustered in the early 1990s. He starts out with a great splash image of Danny's dream of the Ghost Rider being pulled apart by the werewolves and only strengthens his work with Lupe's last stand against the oncoming motorcycle gang. His anatomy for the werewolves is still strangely off, they look like starved dogs instead of hulking beasts, but it fits with the story's aesthetic.
This has probably been the strongest Marvel Comics Presents serial for Ghost Rider so far. I really wasn't expecting that, it's far better than it had any right to be.
It had been quite a long time since I'd read this serial and I didn't have the fondest of memories of it, just that it was one of a long string of middling Ghost Rider team-up stories in Marvel Comics Presents. However, this one is far better than my memory had led me to believe, with Cooper and Stanisci taking advantage of the pulpy plot elements to turn each chapter into a grindhouse era style treat. Chris Cooper was usually a reliable writer, his Darkhold series was an excellent example of horror in the Marvel Universe done right, and he shows here a knack for taking what should be an unremarkable character into some truly touching pathos. Lupe had already stood out in the previous chapter as the most interesting part of the story, a contradiction that gets her resolution here in a satisfyingly tragic way.
Stanisci also continues to make this series feel like the grimiest 1970s horror film the comic medium could have mustered in the early 1990s. He starts out with a great splash image of Danny's dream of the Ghost Rider being pulled apart by the werewolves and only strengthens his work with Lupe's last stand against the oncoming motorcycle gang. His anatomy for the werewolves is still strangely off, they look like starved dogs instead of hulking beasts, but it fits with the story's aesthetic.
This has probably been the strongest Marvel Comics Presents serial for Ghost Rider so far. I really wasn't expecting that, it's far better than it had any right to be.
Grade: A
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