War of the Realms: Ghost Rider Ultimate Comic

Cover Art: Szymon Kudranski

Published: May 2019
Original Price: N/A

Title: untitled
Writer: Sean Ryan
Layouts: Angelo Scalise
Artist: Szymon Kudranski
Colorist: Rochelle Rosenberg
Music: Zach Heyde

Narrator – Brian Drummond
Ghost Rider – Edwin Perez
New Yorker – Deven Mack
Passenger #1 – Jewel Staite
Passenger #2 – Brian Drummond

SYNOPSIS
During Malekith's invasion of New York City, Ghost Rider Robbie Reyes attempts to rescue a traincar of passengers in danger of falling off the Manhattan Bridge.  During the rescue Ghost Rider is attacked by two winged females, warriors of the Heven realm of Asgard.  While the Hellcharger pulls the traincar to safety, Robbie takes out the angel warriors.  He then responds to news of another crisis and drives off into the city.

ANNOTATIONS 
"War of the Realms" is the 2019 event from Marvel Comics that featured the Asgardian Dark Elf Malekith invading Earth with his army.  This issue takes place between War of the Realms # 1 and War of the Realms # 2, both of which featured cameos by Robbie Reyes.

This was actually an online-exclusive "motion comic" released on 5/1/19.  It included traditional comic book artwork by Szymon Kudranski that was animated to replicate motion and a cast of voice actors.  The video's run-time was 3 minutes and 45 seconds.

Click here to watch the  War of the Realms: Ghost Rider Ultimate Comic

REVIEW
Huh, this was somewhat bizarre.  It's a motion comic years after I thought Marvel stopped producing them, released as a tie-in to the War of the Realms event while simultaneously buried on Marvel's website.  I didn't see any official announcements online that Marvel was producing these and happened upon it purely by chance while browsing Marvel.com's news on the Hulu Ghost Rider show.  Maybe it was some house project that they're quietly releasing out of obligation but not too keen to hype up?

It's honestly not much to write home about.  It's a fairly basic story involving Robbie Reyes fighting some angel women while trying to save a subway train.  The artwork is fair, though I've never been much of a fan of Szymon Kudranski's artwork.  He does a nice Ghost Rider, but his faces for people always leave me feeling uneasy in a way I don't think is initial.  The real detriment to the project is the voice acting, which features an intensely annoying Asgardian narrator and a Robbie Reyes that spouts off dialogue and inflection like a watered-down Spider-Man.  In Marvel's recent attempts to homogenize Robbie into the wider Marvel Universe they're also taking away some of his more unique characteristics, and while it's only slightly noticeable in Avengers it's blatantly obvious in this.

All in all, this is something you can watch for free and it clocks in at under four minutes.  I say give it a watch simply for the curiosity factor, just don't expect too much out of it.

Grade: C