Ghost Rider 2099 (1994) # 13

"Fables of the Reconstruction"

Cover Date: May 1995; On Sale Date: March 1995

Writer: Len Kaminski; Artist: Graham Higgins; Letterer: Richard Starkings and Comicraft; Colorist: Christie Scheele; Editor: Matt Morra; Group Editor: Joey Cavalieri; Editor in Chief: Bobbie Chase; Cover Artist: Charlie Adlard

Doctor Doom has successfully taken control of the United States of America and instituted himself as the new President of the county. While two trash collectors in Transverse City clean up wreckage and debate the new political turn of events, the destroyed body of the Ghost Rider begins to rebuild itself via nanotechnology. Other residents of Transverse City voice their own opinions at the Bar Code, including Kylie Gagarin and Doctor Neon. Doom arrives at D/Monix headquarters and uses a microchip to enslave the polymerized brain of CEO Dyson Kellerman.

Ghost Rider’s body nears completion, “rebooting” the mind of Zero Cochrane. Meanwhile, Anesthesia Jones calls together a meeting of the anarchist Undernet to begin sowing the seeds of rebellion against Doom, unaware that they are being watched by the Ghostworks. Zero wakes up and realizes not only that his operating system repaired the damage inflicted on him by Coda but that things in Transverse City have changed in his absence.

THE ROADMAP

The "One Nation Under Doom" storyline was a loose crossover event between all of the 2099 titles of the time, focused on Doom's takeover of the United States as its new president.

A small figure is shown escaping from the Ghostworks and they will appear next in Ghost Rider 2099 (1994) # 15; the identity of this figure will be revealed in Ghost Rider 2099 (1994) # 24.

CHAIN REACTION

Doctor Doom takes over America! Transverse City residents react! Garbage collectors wax philosophical! Ghost Rider is a destroyed heap of debris!

This issue vexes me on multiple levels. It has a huge, status quo altering event at its core (though not as huge as the next issue’s, admittedly), but it’s also an issue where nothing really happens, and the main character isn’t an active presence until the last two pages. In past issues one of the strengths of the series has been writer Len Kaminski’s superb world-building with Transverse City, and this issue the city and its residents are the focus. So, this should be immediately engaging, but there’s a huge problem squatting at its heart.

The surprise takeover of the United States by Doctor Door upends everything that the series has been building up over the previous year and really feels like a forced act of course correction that was frankly unnecessary. At best, it forces Kaminski to think on his feet as he tries his best to accommodate the 2099 line’s new status quo, and at worst it derails the plot of a series that had been working extremely well on its own without worrying about the bigger picture of the other 2099 titles. This issue and the next feel like a scramble to make sense of what’s going on around them, and it robs the series of its momentum.

Don’t get me wrong, Kaminski is still able to turn the issue into an interesting treatise on political coups and democracy. The opening discussion between the two garbagemen brings this fantastical plot of “hacking the White House” down to a baser reality while also making it clear where the writer stands on the concept. Having Ghost Rider effectively be a non-entity while the changes happen is also an interesting way to go about the transition.

This issue and the next also feature guest-art by Graham Higgins, which I can’t say I enjoyed here. The characters all lack dimension, like they’re nothing but flat, paper cut-outs on the page (which, yes, that’s exactly what comic art is, but the artwork should at least give the perception of three dimensions). Higgins’ depiction of the trashed Ghost Rider repairing itself is the highlight of the artwork, but when the finished robot finally appears it looks flat. There’s nothing dynamic to the artwork here, which is a big change from what the series had been enjoying prior to this.

For a series that had been firing on all cylinders this is the first real speed bump its encountered. The second year of the title is not as strong or as engaging as the first, and this is the first example as to why.