Post by Meriades Rai on Jun 5, 2016 12:01:22 GMT -5
GHOST RIDER #1 by Travis Hiltz
It took me a couple of hundred words to get into this issue - I think because the pacing was rather quick and all the characters were just suddenly 'there' without much in the way of scene-setting - but once it became apparent who the four mysterious guys were, everything clicked into place. By the end of the issue I was enjoying it tremendously and immediately wanted to read another, which is always a good sign.
The feel of the story has a real retro vibe, to me; there's some A-Team in there, and a little Scooby Doo (neither of these things is bad, by the way), but there's also a lot of the original 70s/80s Ghost Rider as well, where Johnny Blaze would ride into town and right wrongs wherever things had got weird and screwed up. I loved the core concept, of collecting four different Riders of different eras (comics wise) into one team, and thought Travis did excellently in keeping each of the four distinct from one another. Robbie was probably the least explored - it's only issue one, after all - but Dan and Johnny were completely on point, and Hamilton was my favourite character, I think - something about the way he spoke and the way he was described was just authentic and interesting. Very much looking forward to seeing more of him, especially if his stories veer into the modern western territory of shows like Justified and Banshee.
There were some nice touches of humour to Kelsey, but I couldn't shake the notion of her as a gateway character and I think, going forward, she'll benefit from more depth and back-story. It was important that issue #1 was about the Riders, but if Kelsey is going to be as integral as the mysterious final scene suggests then I can't wait to see her character get fleshed out.
Oh, and always nice to see the Lava Men get some play!