Marvel Unlimited Reading Club

[I Don't Mind]

MARVEL ZOMBIES
Issues: #1-5
Writer: Robert Kirkman
Artist: Sean Phillips
Release Date: 2005-2006
Collected In: Marvel Zombies

 

Robert Kirkman of Walking Dead fame gets to turn the Marvel Universe into his own Zombie hellscape! Hell yes!

From Issue #1 we're thrown right into it. Catch-up page informs us there was a zombie outbreak. The zombies are sentient. Zombie Reed Richards tried to expand into the other universe but this universe's Magneto put a stop to that. Now Magneto's on the run. And that lasts all of half an issue. Because this isn't a story about survivors, it's a story from the point-of-view of the living dead. With Superpowers. Before Silver Surfer arrives on the last page (a great hook to get me to start issue #2) I think the most important thing in this issue is the concept-breaking reveal that damaging the brain isn't enough to kill a zombie in this universe. Oh and Captain America is Colonel America for some reason. I've read the wiki and he seems like an interesting character but I think the name change was totally unnecessary as he's the only one who gets one to distinguish his character from any other universe's Steve Rogers.

 

 

Issue #2 gets into some real Kirkman macabre. Hank Pym has secretly been keeping the living Black Panther sedated as a source of food, and supposedly been using the clarity of mind he gets from feeding to work on a cure. That's a plot point that never goes anywhere, but it's a great plot point. Then Pym bitch-slaps his wife and eats her. Maybe a hilarious in-joke in 2005 but by now kind of a tired cliche that Pym's a wifebeater. At least it serves the purpose of informing us zombies don't cannibalize because they taste awful. Some more characterization amongst the horrorshow - Tony Stark in this universe is still a prick, and Peter Parker is emotionally fragile.

 

 

Issue #3 sees all the zombies try to bumrush Silver Surfer and get torn to shreds by his cosmic badassery. And then they beat him and eat him. But Black Panther escapes in the chaos, and takes the still conscience severed head of The Wasp with him! Then the foreshadowing for how the series will end. It's the mother-f'ing Galactus!

 

 

So Galactus starts wrecking everything because only he knows true hunger. All the Zombies run away including The Hulk who says he doesn't want to die. K. Meanwhile Black Panther, missing half his limbs still lays waste to a group of... space-soldier scientist people until they decide they need to work together and get him back to their safe space pad. Issue ends with all the top zombie minds (minus Spider-Man who apparently in this universe isn't the intelligentsia he's always been portrayed as) using their vague scientific knowledge and stolen cosmic powers from eating Silver Surfer to build a cosmic ray gun to shoot Galactus. That's not good.

 

 

Galactus got toppled and the "heroes" of the Zombie universe fight the rogue's gallery of the zombies universe over who gets to eat him. Red Skull successfully kills Colonel America because why not, but Rogers is the only casualty of his side. It's pretty much a slaughter by those with the cosmic powers against those without. So everyone gets to eat Galactus and five years later Black Panther and his squadron of scientist-soldier people come back to scope the place out. Panther has mechanical limbs and has had a baby with one of the white women which is all secondary to the fact they're poor enough parents to bring said-baby to zombie-world. But head-in-a-jar Wasp assured everyone that her scans indicate there's no life (or living-dead) on this planet. They've all either died or... left. Cut to an alien world where in two freaking pages, I care far more about the non-humanoid characters than ANYONE in this entire run. And the Zombies come soaring in from space having adopted Galactus' thermal pajama-armor. The end.

 

 

Well that was certainly a one-note joke that went on too long. Definitely should have been more about the living and less about the living-dead. I haven't read a lot of crossover events but I know the usual complaint is how a million characters are brought in and then act out of character. At least this had the excuse "well they're all zombified" but still, the characterization of any of them were so scant. You're either a self-serving jerk, or a sarcastic, whiny Spider-Man. Maybe the follow-up books/prequels did this concept better justice but I wasn't feeling this overall. It was an easy read but not a satisfactory one in terms of storytelling.

 

NEXT TIME TRUE BELIEVERS

Captain America: Man Out of Time

Edited December 27, 2015 by I Diem

[I Don't Mind]

CAPTAIN AMERICA: MAN OUT OF TIME

Issues: #1-5

Writer: Mark Waid

Penciller: Jorge Molina / Inker: Karl Kesel / Colorist: Frank D'Armata

Release Date: 2010 - 2011

Collected In: Captain America: Man out of Time

 

Captain America's been one of my favorites since I was a kid watching Spider-Man: The Animated Series and have long since been looking for a reason to keep that love alive. After watching Captain America: The First Avenger in theaters with a friend, I found myself struggling to explain to him why Cap was so great. In my opinion the best part of that movie was the bonus scene of him waking up in modern times. Watching Captain America: The Winter Soldier rekindled that love, and Captain America: Man out of Time came recommended on reddit's /r/comicbooks FAQ Captain America Reading List.

 

The first few pages place us in the midst of WWII and in a very short amount of time, Bucky Barnes proves himself to be a hilarious sidekick and Steve Rogers a sensitive romantic. A little detail like being a talented sketch artist was something I'd never seen portrayed by Rogers but it spoke volumes to me about who he was. Same of course as his existential question of what he does after the government no longer has any use for their super soldier when the war's done. Although I've seen Cap's origin story dozens of time through different comics, TV shows and films, the exploding drone seemed the least exciting, but apparently this is a modernized retelling of the original story from Avengers (1963) #4. When Rogers wakes up with The Avengers crowding around him it's told so awesome, particularly with his temporary deafness. The first issue ends with Cap saving what I presumed to be a hooker from a trio of thugs and is flabbergasted that "kids" in this time tote guns. The young lady he saves freaks out when he tries to help her up and shoots him in the ribs, also making it evident she's involved in some sort of drug ring.
 

 

Issue #2 is full of badass artwork and a lot of humor around how different society is. The artwork, particularly on the suit really made me appreciate that they didn't go with the scaled kevlar armor in the films. This issue is heavy on Rick Jones trying to enlist Cap into finding what happened to The Avengers and at no point do I give two shits about Rick Jones. Every time he's on my page I'm wondering "where the hell is Banner/Hulk?" That's a sentiment I repeat a lot in this run as neither side of that character ever make an appearance but get alluded to as being there. Apparently in the original Avengers issue Hulk ran off after a battle so he doesn't play a part in Cap's origin but still, that's annoying. Opposite of annoying were the cameos of Peter Parker, J. Jonah Jameson and Mr. Fantastic which I thought were fitting given how big a deal the return of Captain America should be. The end reveal of the alien who immediately surrenders when caught and offers to turn The Avengers back from stone is SO rushed through and comes off silly. It was silly when they did it in the original Avengers story too, but at least when he looks like a broccoli man in the issue from the 60's I can run with it. They even gave that particular alien more lines of dialogue and almost a reason for his meddling. This one is just a plot device who you never learn anything more about. The lightbulb moment for Captain that made him realize this isn't all a dream and he really is in a different time being Roosevelt dying before America won WWII was pretty good, mostly for how Waid wrote it being personally horrible to Rogers.

 

Issue 3 is the most blatant "where the hell is The Hulk?" as Cap mentions the green guy basically forced him into the laboratory to be tested on. Regardless, this issue is like that scene from Austin Powers where he catches up on all the history he's missed, but heavy on the feels. Every time they show Jorge Molina draws Steve Rogers looking proud or astonished or encapsulated with eyes wide as a child's it's just something to behold. Maybe because I knew this run was only five issues so I wouldn't hear more about it, but I was slighted by the entire "Captain America II" thing. I need to know more, A LOT more, about the government's cover-up and successors to the real McCoy. But because Cap finds out America can continue on without him, he marches up to the president (who is kept mostly in silhouette, sometimes looking like Obama, sometimes looking like a generic white guy) to resign. Head cheese says no can do, time-space continuum national security blah blah blah, but the country is his oyster. Seeing Cap's reaction when he gets ordered by the brass himself to stay put in modern times is such a powerful statement to who Steve Rogers is, that the last splash page of him (I interpret) weeping in front of the Lincoln memorial is a cathartic release.

 

 

Issue 4 takes a little time to get me involved after the first interaction with Thor where he waxes poetically about Bucky being in Valhalla. The miscellaneous adventures of The Avengers as Steve Rogers tries desperately to find any information on people he knew in the forties was another Captain America II kind of moment where I really wanted to hear more about this evident coverup. I'm glad Rogers finally found a crotchety old man he could relate to and spurred his zeal for justice again. It added a lot to the story for a few pages that General Jacob Simon could convince Rogers that the country's all gone to hell, only for his illegal immigrant private nurse to express how she'd do anything to stay in this country, even scrub toilets. And then the last couple of pages are devoted to Kang, who I don't care about and feels like any slapdash villain could have been in place of. But Cap's the only one to lay in a good shot on him so Kang, being seemingly all powerful, teleports Cap back to his time (well, missed by a few years and he instead landed at the end of the war, but close enough.)

 

 

Last issue is heavy on Rogers figuring out that the 40's sucked hard for social equality and with The Invaders in the newspaper rubbing it in his face he's not needed he's determined to go back through any kind of crazy Back to the Future sorcery he can muster. Thankfully because he spent, I don't know, a couple of weeks? Months? In modern times, he can figure out how to program his Avengers ID card to signal Rick Jones and leave the card in a place for him to find or something, so he can contact Reed Richards. ANYWAYS, Cap returns, breaks The Avengers out of Kang's prison, and the holy trinity (Cap/Thor/Iron Man) use their triple-team fatality finisher to defeat Kang. And then Giant Man shoots him with a laser gun while Wasp buzzes around in the background until Kang retreats. Which makes me wonder, what's to stop this guy from coming back? This doesn't feel like a win so much as a postponement for round 2. Such is comics I guess. But the "win" earns Captain America the role as leader of The Avengers and he celebrates by going camping and listening to shitty modern music that I can only hope he's experimenting with at Tony Stark's suggestion.

So this is the by-God best damn Captain America story I've ever read. I like that it was light on fisticuffs and heavy on the emotional journey of a soldier who doesn't know how to be a civilian. And the emotional journey of a traveler experiencing a culture shock. And all the other emotional journeys tied in. I know this was being kept close to his original origin story so a lot of things were just done as homage but I think the only thing that could have made it better was improving on things to meet modern standards of storytelling. I didn't care about the statue-making alien or Kang, they were just obstacles and plot devices. That's my only complaint though, if I had to rank the stories I've read for this project in terms of enjoyment it'd be something like:

 

1. Captain America: Man out of Time
2. Superior Foes of Spider-Man
3. Spider-Man: Noir
4. Daredevil: Yellow
5. Ant-Man
6. Death of Wolverine
7. Marvel Zombies

 

 

NEXT TIME TRUE BELIEVERS

 

Captain Marvel [2012] - Kelly Sue DeConnick, #1-6

 

CAST YOUR VOTE FOR NEXT READING ASSIGNMENT

• Dr. Strange: The Oath (Brian K. Vaughan) #1-5

• Guardians Team-Up (Brian Michael Bendis) #1-5

• Moon Knight (Brian Wood) #7-12

• Young Avengers (Kieron Gillen) #1-5

[I Don't Mind]

Stumbled upon this for anyone who is on the fence about trying Marvel Unlimited. Good for this week only (Sunday - Sunday) 1 free month with promo code

http://marvel.com/comics16

[Monkey D. Lars]

I love your little comic reviews! I'm just reading Ultimate Spider-man now and I just can't stop reading that one. Will dive into this later!

[I Don't Mind]

CAPTAIN MARVEL

Issues: #1-6

Writer: Kelly Sue DeConnick

Artists: Dexter Soy and Emma Rios

Release Date: 2012

Collected In: Captain Marvel, Vol. 1: In Pursuit of Flight

 

My knowledge of Captain Marvel is pretty shaky, and if she's important enough to have her own feature film in the MCU coming out in a few years, shaky isn't going to cut it for the nerd in me. I need to get caught up quick so I can school some filthy MCU casuals. What I've learned before reading this is that it's going to be driven with a feminist message, which is probably necessary to get a female lead character over (it's doing wonders for CBS' Supergirl), and that Carol Danvers is like the umpteenth Captain Marvel. She used to be Ms. Marvel, but now we've got a terrific, plucky middle-eastern girl as Ms. Marvel. Regardless, a lot of people associate the moniker Captain Marvel with Carol Danvers. I don't know if that's because of how long she's been associated with the title/similar title of Ms. Marvel, or because of the success of this book, but it seems a strange concept to me. Imagining a world where Sam Wilson is who most people associate the title of Captain America with over Steve Rogers is strange to me. Although maybe most people don't associate Danvers with Captain Marvel, it's just a pocket that I stumbled on and am taking as accepted gospel.

Either way, I hate the name. It's cute and quirky for the 60's when Stan Lee and Gene Colan created it, and it's hilarious in a comic book way they had to fight DC over who could use the name, but it's just dated and cornball to have Captain (Company Name Here). Captain New Japan can get away with it under parody grace. With my pre-read biases voiced, onto the book!

Opening credits splash page puts over Captain Marvel's new look, which I dig. I like the practicality of a full body jumpsuit, it's got a simple but identifiable insignia and color scheme, and the butch cut makes her bold and identifiable. I'd be okay with her not having the butch cut but it's pretty cool. We're thrown into action with The Captains (Marvel and America) fighting The Absorbing Man, and Marvel's got some one-liners when she's not making her co-captain her subservient bitch. The art is fan-freaking-tastic. It separates the book from anything else I've read with it's style of... I don't know, oil painting aesthetic? Either way, Dexter Soy kills it. And he apparently likes to draw really well defined butts on heroes. But he seems to have immediately dropped the heavy-gel/product hairdo from the cover/credit page, which is strange, but I'm fine with. By the end of the issue I was left a little confused on the structure of the story told. I have a pretty good feel for who Carol Danvers is as a person, and I like her, but the A-plot of the first half of the story and the B-plot of the second half really feel shoehorned together. Each could have been their own issue. At least they both had the recurring theme of girls rule and boys drool.

Second issue takes a pretty big leap away from the personality crisis and everyday rampaging villain stories. Now we're time traveling because Carol took her idol's old plane up too high and I guess it was rigged with a flux capacitor. Plane nose-dived, presumably surpassing 88 mph and Danvers finds herself somewhere in Asia-territory getting held hostage by what looks like the Japanese. Some new friends come along which contextually seem pretty W.T.F. for the time period, but I'll roll with it as they're all seemingly expendable despite being given individual names. This issue lightens up on the emasculation of my favorite male heroes but still promotes a feminist outlook as Carol tries to resolve issues through peace and cooperation rather than with fists. And then when there's no options left, it's fists. And with that ending, I am sure excited for fists.

AND HERE'S BECKY LYNCH TO SAVE THE DAY

Issue 3 showcases the paradox of womanhood with Captain Marvel being take no-names ass-kicker, and then sparing her enemy's life. Even uses the survivor of her battle to send a message to all the Japanese using alien ships to "come at us, bro" [paraphrasing]. But uh... she meant it. Her whole plan was to fight alongside with a ragtag group of ladies, some of which who are Independence Daying the oncoming ships with the first ship. That seems like an awful, awful plan. How are you in charge? I get you can take on army of soldiers and warriors but there is next to no tact here, and it didn't seem like the first ship was Easy Street! The rest of your troop seem sure to die. Women, am I right, fellas? But at least they bonded over Carol telling her origin story, which seem like they could make up some worthwhile issues to track down and read. And somehow, presumably through the superpower of a strongly formed friendship between them, they win the day. Until the hook that all the ships turn into the Kree Megazord.

Even the great and powerful Captain Marvel sustains something of a concussion from the Voltron of Kree ships, leading to an amazing few panels of blurred vision. She describes her finishing maneuver as being incredibly difficult and painful for her, but given the lack of complexity and how other than taking one big blow she never really struggled in the fight, I really felt like she was burying all obstacles and challenges throughout this run so far. It's like nothing's ever really difficult and she never struggles with any real challenges other than this oft-referred to male-dominated world that at no point really holds her back. Even at the end with more time travel shenanigans, I'm wishing to see her struggle more, and dare I say maybe even fail to learn from a mistake. All she learned from taking that one big blast was "I'm a really poor planner" which at least she acknowledges.

My complaint continues through issue 5 as we witness Carol Danvers' hero, Helen have to bare real difficulties that draw out sincere emotions in her, and then have to react dramatically to those difficulties. Carol flirts with the possibility she may have to make difficult choices but they're so obviously biased that she never comes off believable that they're real choices. She's impulsive on a good day and a short-sighted trainwreck on her bad is what I've learned but there's no consequences for her. After Carol and Helen steal the MacGuffin from NASA that somehow ties into the time travel, she barely tries to retrieve it from Helen before it's too late and even now, the consequences don't feel dire. They've both been transported forward in time to the incident that turned Carol into Ms. Marvel. I'm fine with learning her origin story more in the next issue but could Helen not just be horrified or something of Carol, putting a bump in their relationship instead of Helen having to be another bravado-boasting one-upper like Carol? This issue also changed artists from David Soy to Emma Rios, and the styles are drastically different. I prefer Soy's style but if I had started the series with Rios' work I'd think it was perfectly acceptable.

It took six issues but seeing the cancer-ridden Tracy Burke cowering in fear of facing her surgery without the support of Carol is the FIRST consequence of... well I guess Carol's actions, although it's not like chose to get sucked through the time stream. Either way, I did feel a lot of sympathy for Tracy, and I want to see more Carol/Jessica Drew moments as that seems like a fun combo. The issue is heavy on the timey-wimey mishmash so I won't try and wrap my head around it all. I got the satisfying ending I wanted with Tracy fully prepared to go into surgery just so she can punch Carol in the face for scaring her.

 

I think the character has plenty to make interesting stories from but I was a little disappointed by this read. Maybe Kelly Sue DeConnick finds her groove better in the next six issues, or maybe when the series gets rebooted in 2014 but I was full of gripes reading this. Further Captain Marvel may show up on polls but for now, I need a break from DeConnick.

THE NEW RANKING

1. Captain America: Man out of Time
2. Superior Foes of Spider-Man
3. Spider-Man: Noir
4. Daredevil: Yellow
5. Ant-Man
6. Captain Marvel
7. Death of Wolverine
8. Marvel Zombies

NEXT TIME TRUE BELIEVERS
Dr. Strange: The Oath by Brian K. Vaughan, #1-5

 

CAST YOUR VOTE ON WHAT TO READ AFTER THAT!

• Ghost Rider [2005] (Garth Ennis) #1-6

• Invincible Iron Man (Matt Fraction) #1-6

• Astonishing X-Men (Joss Whedon) #1-6

• Black Panther (Christopher Priest) #9-15

Edited January 10, 2016 by I Diem

[I Don't Mind]

DOCTOR STRANGE: THE OATH

Author: Brian K. Vaughan

Artist: Marcos Martin

Colorist: Javier Rodriguez

Collected In: Dr. Strange: The Oath

Release Date: 2006-2007

 

Like many Marvel characters, I know the foundation of Doctor Strange through the 90's TV series, Spider-Man: The Animated Series. He's magic, got mystical artifacts like nobody's business, he's got an Asian servant named Wong, and they fight Baron Mordo and Dormammu. That's enough to hook my surface-level interest but casting Benedict Cumberbatch as the titular character for the 2016 MCU release has earned my money. I'll be damned if I'm not going to be the resident geek on the subject around that release date, and this run came highly recommended by Reddit.

Issue 1 was entertaining but Brian K. Vaughan's voice as a writer has such a heavy influence that it's not really anything I expected. Having read a fair share of Ex Machina, Runaways, Y: The Last Man, and the first issue of Saga, this just had his signature stink on it all over for better or worse. It really left me struggling to hold onto the tone of the issue when the first mystical artifact used is Hitler's gun, which is given description without any subtlety. It's used well by the thief Brigand, being the only weapon able to harm Strange but it's a thin silver lining. The combination of Night Nurse joking Doctor Strange has a "slave boy fetish", and the Chinese street gang accusing Strange and Wong of being boyfriends left me scratching my head. I wasn't sure if the writing was homophobic, or just acknowledging the prevalence of homophobia, or prevalence of homosexuality without prejudice, but Vaughan definitely seemed to be speaking on something here, or at the very least working something out. It's a theme that continues throughout the run too (and in a lot of his work I find). Weird sexuality jokes aside, all of the key characters have strong moments that win me over. Strange has some brevity to his personality, Wong is a badass, Night Nurse is far more qualified than her name would appear (and has her own yearning), and even Strange's cape had me busting out in laughter as it creeped into the room to comfort the Doctor as he wails about Wong's brain tumor. That little plot nugget also felt tonally in line with Hitler's gun. While the ending to the issue was enjoyable and left me wanting to read issue 2, I was disappointed that "the most fierce battle of [Strange's] career" happens off panel. I think perhaps Marcos Martin drew an awesome monster for him to fight and then had no idea how to depict that battle looking, which is fair given it's appearance, but still a tease.

The second issue tickled my funny bone early on with Doctor Strange recovering from his gunshot wound from Hitler's pistol and tells Night Nurse to charge the Defenders group insurance. But he says it in a way that alludes to that being a real thing and not a joke. I also got a kick out of Night Nurse screaming bloody murder only for Wong to bring her right back down to earth with "volume, please." It's in this issue that the seeds are planted for the casting agents for the MCU release obviously, as the Doctor starts getting called Sherlock, making Night Nurse his Watson. I'm onto your illuminati conspiracy, Marvel! Didn't like Strange's attire being referred to as "fruity gloves", or that the sophisticated and articulate Strange drops an apparent (censored) F-Bomb when he walks into a trap. After everything Stephen Goddamn Strange has seen as a Sorcerer Supreme, this was the trap he freaks out falling into? But when he gets teleported to an alternate dimension to face a giant mutated cat-God, that's just Tuesday?

Issue 3 was Marcos Martin's best work in this run so far as Brigand conjures up every rouge in Doctor Strange's gallery. The shaky dialogue made it pretty apparent it was a ruse which was a relief, but also captured my interest in seeing how these villains should be written. Strange's reaction to the big reveal of Brigand's accomplice felt about as tonally off as him dropping the F-bomb in the previous issue. I get what they were going for, but it was done better when Lex Luthor learned The Flash's secret identity. The issue really earned my appreciation with the villain's motives. Top level conspiracy stuff to keep the pace of human discovery uninterfered with, perhaps also influenced by profit margins is far better than any revenge plot of rehash of a Baron Mordo scheme I had assumed.

Of all the issues in this run I took issue with, 4 may have been the worst. At this point I realize Strange has been calling Night Nurse by her title, which he stated at the start he would not call her because it sounds like "the title of an adult film." Occasionally it's "Watson" but mostly, it's "Night Nurse". Strange's attempt at a cool one-liner to the monster-of-the-week is a poor man's "Welcome to Earf!" from Independence Day. The nerve-damaged shaky hands is brought back as a at the most ridiculous time, as the monster is gigantic and Strange could seemingly shoot it anywhere with Hitler's gun. It would have been more of a challenge for Vaughan to explain how he could have possibly missed. Wong, with his brain tumor, is the real damsel in distress in this whole run but when the monster is defeated and everyone's saved, Strange's level of relief places Wong's safety below Night Nurse and his cape. Wong doesn't even get so much as a "hello." Then we get Nic's absurd backstory that if anything in my mind makes Strange's own origin much less special. Nic dropped out of medicine, gave up all his worldly possessions in a deep depression and found The Ancient One across the world. I guess as long as you were once a surgeon, it's just pretty much an open door policy. The only thing more hilarious that the "stay in school" message of the dropout, Nic, blowing up his own cancer patient on accident, is when Strange escapes with ease and lays the Smackdown on him. Strange is a straight gangster. "Fuck yo magic bands, and yo mirror, son!"

Final stretch and Doctor Strange has reached I'm The Juggernaught levels of arrogant and dominant. As I'm reading him foil anything Nic can attempt, I'm literally yelling "You can't run from me, don't you know who I am?! He must not know who I am. I'm Stephen Goddamn Strange!" Vaughan thankfully takes the time to make God-Strange a human bro, having him talk about how Wong's been teaching him martial arts. Even though Strange admits he's probably only like brown belt level, (and has some ridiculous fighting style of taking an ass whooping when he's clearly got the superior skills) he can whoop Nic with ease, and does. But the best part about this finale is that this comically ineffective villain wins in the end. Strange can't save the whole world because the MacGuffin elixer he's been chasing spills down the drain with Nic's death. Strange can only save Wong's life, which honestly both Strange and Wong should probably feel shitty about. But the running theme of gay-jokes concludes with Night Nurse's line "You boys can continue your romantic reunion after..." and gets tongued by the suave doctor.

 

I've heard Doctor Strange stories are weird, but all the mysticism and paranormal settings and plot points were nothing compared to the tone that was all over the place, or the gay jokes that stuck out like a sore thumb. It was telling that unlike a Spider-Man or Deadpool character, Strange was the butt of jokes not the one zinging his enemies, but it was a real lazy lowest common denominator attacking his flamboyance in a world full of spandex and bros teaming up. Overall, I enjoyed the run but it didn't quite live up to my expectations. It mostly served to make me want to read more Strange to see another writer's take.

 

THE NEW RANKING

 

1. Captain America: Man out of Time    
2. Superior Foes of Spider-Man    
3. Spider-Man: Noir    
4. Dr. Strange: The Oath
5. Daredevil: Yellow    
6. Ant-Man    
7. Captain Marvel    
8. Death of Wolverine    
9. Marvel Zombies    

 

NEXT TIME TRUE BELIEVERS

Ghost Rider [2005] (Garth Ennis) #1-6

 

VOTE FOR THE FOLLOWING READ:

• Fantastic Four (Hickman) #605-611

• Spider-Man & The X-Men (Kalan) #1-6

• Hawkeye (Fraction) #1-5

• Moon Knight (Wood) #7-12

[I Don't Mind]

GHOST RIDER [2005]

Issues: #1-6

Author: Garth Ennis

Artist: Clayton Crain

Release Date: 2005-2006

Collected In: Ghost Rider: Road To Damnation

 

I don't know how I came to fall in love with Ghost Rider as a kid other than maybe my own research in some sort of Marvel encyclopedia. I definitely have no memory of him in any animated series. Even more perplexing than how I came to know him is how I came to love him. I've been disappointed by everything I've ever seen/read of him other than his wikipedia biography. I continue to hold out hope through 2 awful Nicolas Cage movies and my comics introduction where Jason Aaron wrote him fighting a gang of satanic nurses. I think I have this unrealistic expectation of what a Ghost Rider story should contain, and that may affect my opinion of what is widely regarded as one of the best story arcs of the character. I'll keep this review short though as my notes get less and less throughout the issues.

From issue 1 of this run, I'm glued to the page. The art is everything I want it to be and I wish Clayton Crain did more work. I was surprised throughout my read that he kept the same attention to detail as it must have been strenuous on him. I'd put him up there with Alex Ross in terms of quality. I've actually saved one of his panels of Ghost Rider as my desktop because it's just too badass.

In a big picture sense, the outline of this run is a great story. Right from the start we, as the reader, know Johnny Blaze (permanently in Ghost Rider form throughout this series for some reason) is to be played by both sides of Heaven and Hell. Kazaan the demon has broke loose from Hell, so "the pit" has sent another demon, Hoss, to wrangle him back in. Kazaan breaking loose is somehow the fault of a corrupt and immoral angel named Malachi, who doesn't want the top brass finding out about his slip-up. Malachai breaks the tortured Johnny Blaze out of Hell so he can defeat Malachi, but Blaze has got to do it before an equally vicious archangel named Ruth finishes the job on behalf of Heaven, because that'll screw Malachai over. Obviously, the promise of permanent freedom for Johnny Blaze is a lie, but Blaze is too consumed with the shred of hope to see that. So now it's a three-way race to defeat the ultimate evil, while Kazaan is assisted by  a quadriplegic petroleum mogul, Gustav, and the Marcie to his Peppermint Patty, his secretary, Miss Catmint. So in outline, that's a great scenario. That sells a book.

In execution, I've never used this word before, but the writing is absolute dreck. I liked Preacher, but I also read it feeling "this is a product of it's time," and it was original characters in an original setting, so there was nothing to soil or tarnish. My first issue came with Hoss immediately making himself a "comedic" sidekick by twisting the leader of a biker gang into "Buttview". Having a man's head crammed up his own cavity is then taken a step further in a later issue when his excrement seeps out his torn pants into our protagonist's face. That makes our hero look even lamer than when Hoss is fighting him with a tentacle-dick. As in in he unzips and fights Ghost Rider with a giant tentacle where his dick should be. Most frustrating is Hoss is probably the best character in the run. Malachai and Gustav are more clear-cut, evil for the sake of evil, no shades of grey to the point of uninterest than Kazaan. In their introduction issues, Malachai causes a woman to miscarry because she saw him, and Gustav went on an info-dump monologue to show he's a stereotypical "I'm rich, and everyone else is sucking at my teat" cliche. And then maybe because Ennis is Ennis, or maybe because he didn't know how to flesh out a full six issues, the KKK make a brief appearance.

The second half of the run are pretty by-the-numbers. Ennis evidently said "I've poured everything creative I have into the first half, and the second half writes itself." And it does, but I kept hoping for more. Ruth became a pretty badass figure, albeit like a leading-female-satire, she has 0 dialogue. She's just a terminator who gets made to be an imposing threat until Kazaan subjects her to what I can only imagine was tentacle-porn fanfiction. It becomes alluded to that she was possessed ala Cheryl from The Evil Dead, but never followed up on.

When the final showdown takes place between Kazaan and Ghost Rider, it's basically over before it starts. Johnny Blaze defeats him with ease, Miss Catmint forces Gustav to send everything evil back to Hell before accidentally killing him, and Ghost Rider gets sniped by a Rider-barbecued preacher who had sold his soul to the devil. Everything pretty much gets wrapped up in a neat little bow, bringing the universe back to status quo, except Malachi is now stuck in Hell with Ghost Rider for trading secrets with Kazaan over the past millennia. Small victories, I suppose.

This run came highly recommended by the internet but as is a theme I mentioned earlier, I was disappointed. The outline was great, but the delivery was hot garbage. My biggest compliment to this book is that it introduced me to Clayton Crain. I was given a glimmer of hope however that for every comment I found on the internet recommending this run, it was always followed by higher compliments for its prequel released 2 years later, Ghost Rider: Trail of Tears. So that's been added to my Must Reads and the hope stays alive.

 

THE NEW RANKING

1. Captain America: Man out of Time        
2. Superior Foes of Spider-Man        
3. Spider-Man: Noir        
4. Dr. Strange: The Oath    
5. Daredevil: Yellow        
6. Ant-Man
7. Ghost Rider [2005 AKA Road to Damnation]       
8. Captain Marvel        
9. Death of Wolverine        
10. Marvel Zombies        

 

NEXT TIME TRUE BELIEVERS

Fantastic Four (Jonathan Hickman) #605-611

 

THE NEXT READING ASSIGNMENT CHOICES

• Uncanny X-Force (Rick Remender) #1-7

• Thor (Jason Aaron) #1-5

• Immortal Iron Fist (Ed Brubaker/Matt Fraction) #1-6

• Ms. Marvel (G. Willow Wilson) #6-11

[Hutch2004]

More of these please! Or does anyone know where I can find anything similar?

This thread has been superb for finding runs that I wouldn't usually have heard about. Whenever I try to research what to read next, I just get sent down the most obvious paths or directed to stuff that I've already read. 

[Benji]

Where the heck is the search function on the web version of Marvel Unlimited?

[I Don't Mind]

Apparently they got rid of it. It was useless to begin with, so hopefully they'll fix it and put it back on the website. Just have to use the filters after clicking series or creators or characters for what you're trying to find.

@Hutch2004 I'll consider it. I've gotten pretty lackadaisical utilizing my MU, so it would give me a reason to get my money's worth

Edited June 11, 2016 by I Diem

[Hutch2004]

Well, as someone who frequently feels a bit overwhelmed by the depth of content, your reviews really helped me out deciding what to go for next. 

[I Don't Mind]

In an attempt to open things up to a larger audience, I'm going to try this again on Reddit. https://www.reddit.com/r/MUBookClub/

Anyone with an account feel free to join. If reddit falls flat, maybe I'll come back to just do reviews on the board again

[Benji]

Subbed!