SHADOWLANDS: GHOST RIDER

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SHADOWLANDS: GHOST RIDER

December 9th 2010 05:27

Category: Graphic Novels/Comics

“He’s riding through your town with his head on fire...”

Ghost Rider, Henry Rollins Band, Crow Soundtrack

Publisher: Marvel
Production Team: Rob Williams – writer, Clayton Crain – artist, VC’s Joe Caramanga - letterer
Cost: AU$7.95/US$3.99

Picked this magazine up at the local newsagents, it’s a Marvel one-shot in one of their ongoing mega crossover sagas aptly called Shadowlands. Daredevil, Spiderman, Elektra, Moon Knight, Power Man and the Thunderbolts are some of the other Marvel universe luminaries involved in this saga along with the Daughters of the Shadow, whoever they are. This one-shot though as the title suggests solely focuses on the antics of that most infamous of motorcyclists and spirit of vengeance; Ghost Rider. For those of you who have never heard of Ghost Rider, never seen the movie starring Nicholas Cage or have been living in a beat up hermitage on a planet that is the farthest point from the bright centre of the galaxy let me fill you in then...

Johnny Blaze, former motorcycle virtuoso, made a deal with the devil, or to be more specific the devil known as Mephisto. In the film he was attempting to save the life of his old man, but like all such deals the whole thing backfired and though nothing happened immediately there was always the feeling that one day Mephisto was going to come calling and claim his due. This happens when Mephisto’s delightful young offspring; Blackthorn decides to engage in a restructuring of the Infernal realms and claim the contract of San Venganza, a prize that will give him considerable power. Mephisto rather than throwing a temper tantrum elects to call in his marker with Johnny Blaze and hey presto the motorcycle virtuoso becomes the hellish Ghost Rider, the spirit of vengeance clad in black leather, riding his hell cycle, wielding chains and inflicting his penance stare on the unrighteous.

So that’s Ghost Rider in a nutshell as a character, back in the day when I was a young whippersnapper he was one of my favourite characters alongside Dr Strange and Maverick. This was back in the halcyon days when heroes where usually going mano e mano against various sinister characters, foiling plots by said characters to cause carnage in their locale (often though not always New York) and just being badass. Before the dark times; before the influx of weekly universal, multiversal and omniversal crises. Reading the intro to this particular one-shot which gives you a précis on the overall back story it would seem as if there has been something of a return to that period, when heroes fought villains and foiled their schemes or attempted to save their fellows, or a loved one or friend from some kind of terrible fate.
It seems that Matt Murdock has become the leader of the ninja clan; the Hand. An organisation that is easily the size of a major nations army the Hand for centuries has been a major player in the various underworld machinations of various cities and nations. Murdock hoped to turn the vast resources of the Hand towards noble ends, his acceptance of leadership was done to prevent the organisation falling into the hands (band pun intended) of his ages old enemy, Wilson Fisk aka the Kingpin. Unfortunately for Murdock he didn’t anticipate that age old maxim of power corrupts, absolute power corrupts absolutely. Also there is the fact that behind the shadows a more sinister group, the Snakeroot clan are the ones really pulling the strings of the Hand...
Naturally Fisk isn’t too keen on the current situation in regards to the hierarchy of the Hand. He doesn’t want Murdock in charge nor does he want some shadowy cabal in Japan really pulling the strings to go unpunished. So what does he do...he summons forth an age old enemy of the Snakeroot Clan using the very magic that they themselves employ, he calls forth...Ghost Rider. Like you do, after all the old lets have the villain manipulate a hero into doing his dirty work is a mainstay of such stories...so summoned forth into the presence of the Kingpin is our protagonist and without much ado he’s given his marching orders.
From this point on the story effectively becomes one whereby Ghost Rider goes forth to Japan and lays some serious smack down on his foes, with a few angsty moments thrown in for good measure, to no doubt ‘round’ things out a bit. After all once GR has been given his marching orders you can pretty much determine what’s going to happen from that point onwards...it’s telegraphed with about as much subtlety as a train wreck. And Blaze’s moments of complaining about the unfairness of his faith ring rather hollow, they’re as unconvincing as a political parties promises. About the only thing going for this particular comic is the artwork – it is in a nutshell superb, GR has always been a hero with a decidedly dark overtone and Clayton Crain has conveyed this image beautifully, his version of GR is just superb.
It’s a real shame that the story doesn’t match up to the calibre of the artwork, still I suppose it could be down to this being just a one-shot in a larger story. Still I think it’s even lack lustre in that regard, it’s patently obvious what is going to happen and it’s patently obvious how it’s going to end. Still there is one bright spot in it all...there was the sense in the final moments that what has happened in this little sideline might have bigger implications in the Ghost Rider franchise but even so I could be drawing a long bow there. Shadowlands: Ghost Rider isn’t worth paying eight dollars for; borrow it from a friend, or the local library, save your money.

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