Monday, February 9, 2009

Ghost Rider: Hell Bent and Heaven Bound TPB

Jason Aaron's take on Ghost Rider is awesome. In this opening trade we have the following high concepts: a haunted stretch of highway, hot nurses that kill for an evil angel, a family of cannibals, and a imprisoned behemoth who kills for that same angel. I'm not sure how I feel about having Ghost Rider be empowered by a corrupt angel, that kind of fundamentally alters the character, but I can't complain about this story. John Blaze is MAD. He's searching for a way to get into heaven to get to Zadkiel, the evil angel, but the only way is to die and be deserving. Since Blaze sold his soul to the devil, that normal path just isn't going to work. So we've got an enraged spirit of vengeance tearing around ripping sinners apart and trying to get a little vengeance of his own. The locales and supporting characters are so richly developed they could support a movie or TV show just on their own merits, but as a backdrop to a dude with a flaming skull-head, they are just about perfect. I'm really happy this is the type of book GR is featured in. Screeching tires, thrashing chains, and hot asphalt. This book is about living hard and meting out vengeance!

Roland Boschi draws the first issues pretty darn well, with his hot nurses and the actual cycle being his high points. Tan Eng Huat takes over for the Deacon storyline, and his Deacon is one impressive and scary dude. (As for how GR takes out the Deacon, yowza. That might be sacrilegious!) Read this trade while listening to Rob Zombie, folks.

Excellent

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