It's time I did another comic review and pulling from my most often read binder-o-comics, what do I come across? Spirits of Vengeance #2 from 1992. I came across this particular issue before the tender age of 10 and, due to the local librarian being a friend of the family, she would give me a bunch of comics when they cycled their stock (yes, my Lodi library branch used to carry semi-current issues of comics back in the 90's...). I have a bad feeling most of their 'stock' was recycled back then, but at the time, I was just stoked to get free comics. My copy even still has the check-out date stickers still attached (if anyone cares...). Enough pointless nostalgia; on to the issue...
A little backstory for this one; during the 90's, Ghost Rider was revamped and rebooted with a new human host (Dan Ketch...) and a trendy, 90's look (read: bulkier and spikey...). This new Ghost Rider proved so popular that a whole line of comics dedicated to the darker characters of the Marvel Universe sprung up (at least for a couple years...). We had the Nightstalkers (Blade, Frank Drake and Hannibal King...), a revamped, edgier and hipper Morbius, the Living Vampire (who you have seen as an on-again, off-again Spiderman villain...), the aforementioned Spirits of Vengeance (Ghost Rider, Johnny Blaze, and [ugh...] Vengeance...), and some fairly obscure or non-characters known as the Darkhold Redeemers (look 'em up if you are honestly interested...). Their biggest thing was an event that put them head to head (with Dr. Strange backing them up...) with the demon queen Lilith who wished to plunge the world into darkness. In the end, these 'Midnight Sons' saved the day with little losses, but none of these individual series (save Ghost Rider...) never attained the awesomeness that was attained at this time in Marvel history. The art was all solid (we're talking pre-Chapter 11 Marvel here...), most of the characters were dynamic, gritty, and very cool, the storylines and dialogue weren't forced compared to most other comics, and the whole of them (especially Spirits of Vengeance...) felt very natural on the whole. I still have this feeling even today; nearly 20 years after the issues debuted...
Anyways, onto the issue itself. We begin with a hitchhiker getting nabbed by our villain of the issue, Steel Vengeance (have we picked up on the theme of 90's comics yet?), and killed so she could paint with his blood (why else?). She is the sister of another Ghost Rider villain, Steel Wind, who had been rendered comatose due to GR's penance stare (a little dab'll do ya...). After the killing, we skip to Ghost Rider and Johnny Blaze (the 'first' Ghost Rider [don't ask...]...) racing towards Blaze's carnival where his family is atop of fiery motorcycles (it was the 90's...). After getting there, Ghost Rider falls into a coma-esque state where his flames went out but he remained in skeletal form (read: a skeleton in biker gear...). While Blaze was checking in with his carnival family, Steel Vengeance showed up and started blasting the carnival with her assault motorcycle (they never say that, but it's the only thing I can call it...). Blaze is knocked out, so she proceeds to beat up on the non-responsive GR and getting increasingly frustrated doing so. Eventually, Blaze awakens and demands of his family to locate his gun (did I mention it spews Hellfire rounds? Cause it does...) and, while he searches, the carneys distract her with a small TANK(!) and the acrobat midget nearly gets killed fighting her. Blaze shows up at that point (gun...blazing...) and takes Steel Vengeance down and is about to kill her, but Ghost Rider awakens and wants to give her his Penance Stare (tm...). This attack fails, as she has sold her soul for power and is unaffected by GR's stare. She breaks away with the Rider and Blaze in hot pursuit and ends up driving off a cliff, swearing to return (go with it...). We end with a panel of Lilith and a clairvoyant servant watching the action from a city with a dark and pithy remark...
Bottom line, this is by far one of my favorite comic book issues to own. I actually own two copies; my beat up one from when I was a kid and a better condition one that I keep with the rest of the Spirits line. The art is fantastic and comes from a time in comic art that was nearly the last of its era before the Chapter 11 bit. The interior art is penciled by Adam Kubert, while the cover was done by his brother, Andy. These guys' father is the well-known comic artist Joe Kubert (another day, another time...), so good comic art is in their blood. I have a lot of the Kubert's issues (as well as their contemporaries...) and this one doesn't disappoint. The story itself made me want to hunt down other issues as a kid to see who Steel Wind was, who this Lilith character was at the end, why Dan Ketch was missing INSIDE of Ghost Rider, and why was Johnny Blaze a carney? The ending is silly (just keep driving but away from the ravine OR use some of those spikes to hang on to the wall...), but whatever; it doesn't detract for me. Also, I have to mention the layout of the issue as I draw a great deal of inspiration from, not only this issue, but others of this era of Marvel as it's very well done. The pacing is very well done and I aspire to that in my own work...
I recommend this particular (and several others of this time...) for their artistic quality if not the story. The art itself is very well proportioned (give or take...) and lends itself to believability of the characters. Ghost Rider, Blaze, even Steel Wind to a point, while products of the time period they were released, they have a high level of sophistication in their design and realism in their quality. If you want to know what the Witte would aspire to be like (at least in the realm of comic creation...), look no further than Spirits of Vengeance vol. 1 #2. It's definitely worth your time to pick it up...
(Disclaimer: The third image is not from Spirits of Vengeance #2. I just liked the picture and the quote...)
No comments:
Post a Comment