Tuesday, August 16, 2011

Ghost Rider #2 & New Avengers #15

And I've reached the bottom of this week's comic pile, meaning these were the two comics I was least looking forward to reading. Expect low scores... Very low scores...

Ghost Rider #2(Fear Itself tie-in):

Summary: This issue gets underway with Mephisto telling Johnny Blaze that by allowing the mysterious Adam to take the Ghost Rider curse off of him he had doomed humanity. Johnny is rather skeptical of anything that Mephisto says, since Mephisto IS the devil and all, so Mephisto reveals that if Adam's plans come to fruition(and with his own Ghost Rider, he's well on his way), Adam will save all of humanity from sin. Johnny figures Mephisto is only bitching because if there was no sin, there'd be no need for the devil, but Mephisto tells Johnny that without sin humanity becomes stagnant, uncreative and emotionless, basically a civilization of mindless zombies. Johnny asks exactly what Mephisto wants from him, and Mephisto tells Johnny that he had to rescue the new BAD-ASS Ghost Rider from Adam and get her as far away from Adam as possible. Speaking of BAD-ASS Ghost Rider and Adam, Adam demands that BAD-ASS Ghost Rider kill the people she had been living with in her secluded little temple, since they were full of sin or something. BAD-ASS Ghost Rider won't do it(because as I've established already, she's a BAD-ADD), so Adam attacks her with some weird magic. As for Johnny, Mephisto teleports him to Adam's temple and Johnny enters, shooting Adam in the arm with what looks to be his old hellfire-shooting shotgun(!). One of Adam's disgruntled henchmen, Seeker, decides to help Johnny, shielding him from Adam's more fanatical followers and their automatic rifles. The Seeker tells Johnny to get him near BAD-ASS Ghost Rider since he could power her down. Johnny approaches BAD-ASS Ghost Rider and offers to help her, but she goes all crazy on him and decides that she would wipe the earth clean of sin, starting with Johnny.

Thoughts: Okay, here's the thing. This comic wasn't that bad. Rob Williams did a good job of laying out the story, as well as giving us the motivations of the two major players(Mephisto and Adam). Johnny wasn't written as some sort of brain-dead hick this time around(thank god...), and the art was solid. However, I'm still not sold on the new Ghost Rider... Yes, it pisses me off that Marvel decided to change Ghost Rider's sex as opposed to simply crating a new female character. Yes, I am still pissed that my favorite Ghost Rider, Danny Ketch, hasn't even been mentioned yet. But more importantly, the lead character here, Ghost Rider, just doesn't do anything for me. Her background story isn't particularly interesting(she was raised by Adam in a cult for the express purpose of one of the cult members becoming Ghost Rider one day), and thus far, SHE isn't particularly interesting. And that right there is a pretty major problem... The story can be good, the co-starring characters can be great, the art can be solid, but if you can't connect with the main character, what's the point in reading? So this'll be the last issue of this series I pick up for the foreseeable future. If this series lasts past a dozen issues, and I hear some good things about it, I'll give it another shot. But with me picking up between 50-70 comics every month, I think I'll be able to get by minus this series.

Score: 6 out of 10.See, she IS a BAD-ASS! I told you!!


New Avengers #15(Fear Itself tie-in):

Summary: This comic was all about Squirrel Girl. Yes really. After she defeated Wolverine, probably the greatest fighter in ALL of Marvel Comics, in hand-to-hand combat, that was all I could stand.

Thoughts: Yeah, this comic sucked. It sucked to the point where I felt like stabbing myself in the brain repeatedly with an icepick to make the pain end. I don't know if Bendis is completely oblivious to the fact, but let me explain something about Squirrel Girl... She's a comedy character. She's always been a comedy character. Trying to write her as a serious character? In a serious comic book? With her fighting(and beating!!!) one of the most serious characters in ALL of comics? No. No, no, no. This was one of the most painful Marvel comic book reading experiences I've had since Secret Invasion. If you value your sanity, please, DO NOT read this comic book!!! I'd have given this comic the full 0 out of 10 imperfect score, but that wouldn't be fair to Mike Deodato, who did a good job on art. So instead, I'll give this one a...

Score: 1 out of 10.I have nothing non-profane to say here, so let's just move on...

7 comments:

  1. hey Nate, sorry to go off topic here but i was wondering if your planning to do a review of the final Red Robin issue (#26).
    also, i found X-Man 31 (Hybrid appearance)in a dollar bin a couple of days ago. i used to have the e-comic version of it but i lost it when i had to have my hard drive reformatted cause of some fucken virus i picked. it's a really good story so i'm glad i finally have the paper version. i like the Nate Grey character i may pick up some more back issues i find in the dollar bin.

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  2. off toppic, I THINK I AM LATE FOR THIS BUT
    HAVE YOU SEEN THE SOLICTS FOR SUPERBOY IN NOVEMBER?

    WHAT A SURPRISE ..

    http://dcu.blog.dccomics.com/2011/08/15/solicits-for-november-2011/#more-83181

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  3. No problem guys, go off topic all you want! It gives me something to talk about other than the awful comics I reviewed here! I actually did do a review for that issue of Red Robin, Dave, I'll post the link here... http://xmanscomicblog.blogspot.com/2011/08/red-robin-26-teen-titans-99.html

    As for that issue of X-Man, that is one of my favorite issues of the series, and I didn't know a damn thing about Hybrid going into that issue! One of the reasons I enjoyed it? Terry Kavanagh wasn't the writer(if memory serves me right), and almost EVERY issue of X-Man that Kavanagh wrote sucked BIG TIME! And the sad thing is that he wrote a majority of the X-Man series! You know Nate is my favorite character, but his series was really hit or miss, with a majority of the books being BIG misses. My best advice is to try to find the X-Man books that Kavanagh DIDN'T write!

    Wait, WHAT?! "Meanwhile, Superboy’s handler, Rose Wilson..." are you KIDDING me, DC?! Man, that company is REALLY trying my patience... So Ravager goes from kick-ass assassin/mercenary to Superboy's handler/probably a scientist? God do I hate Johns and Didio...

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  4. I think the only good story Kavanaugh ever wrote was "Rise of Apocalypse" which is severely underrated. Other than that, yep the guy was a hack & was assigned the book at the time, because Harras excoriated company quality and integrity for the sake of keeping his circle of sycophants fat, happy, employed and busily kissing his privates. Which sounds a LOT like the state of Marvel in the tight grip of the BFQ and his Hack Pack cronies or DC with Didiot & the silver age jerkoffs.

    & by god do I HATE, LOATHE, DESPISE Squirrel Girl. Why? SHE IS NOT FUNNY! yep a joke has to be funny & before anyone tells me I have no humor well I 'm a fan of Snow-Flame, so there it is. The only squirrel girl I'm interested in reading is her getting sliced & diced by Carnage while he sings Happy, Happy Joy Joy (this needs to be drawn someday...)

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  5. I'm glad I'm not the only one who thinks Kavanagh is a hack. I still get pissed off when I realize how many issues of X-Man that man was allowed to write... He just NEVER knew what to do with Nate! It was awful!! Ugh, I have to get my mind off of Kavanagh... You know what's funny, Saidi? Since Harras has been named the EiC of DC, and he's pulling the SAME shit by simply hiring his old cronies from Marvel. That's the ONLY way I can figure Scott Lobdell(who I think has gone insane lately) is writing THREE of the DCU reboot books.

    Agreed. I get that Squirrel Girl is supposed to be a comedy character(even though Bendis doesn't), but I've never found her remotely funny. I don't exactly get WHY she's supposed to be funny... Because she talks to squirrels? What the hell is funny about that? Meh, I just hate that character.

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  6. yeah your right Kavanagh wasn't the writer for that issue. thanks for the tip. the first page has a dedication to Bill Mantlo and Sal Buscema so i'm sure they wanted to make sure this issue was gonna be a good read.

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  7. It's funny the quirky little things that'll stick with you... I'm usually forgetting what happened in most comics from one month to the next, but I'll never forget that it wasn't Kavanagh who wrote that issue of X-Man.

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