Monday, April 19, 2010

Ghost Riders: Heaven's on Fire TPB


Jason Aaron brings it home. He's been the perfect writer for Ghost Rider for this whole storyline and the way he handles this conclusion is top notch.

I knew I would love this trade when I saw the evil group that the rogue angel Zadkiel was forming to take out the Ghost Rider brothers. His team was Blackout, the Orb, the Deacon, Big Wheel, Trull the Mighty, Scarecrow, and Madcap. The panel where the Orb sees the assembled team is pure genius, with Blackout throwing up his hand like he's unveiling an awesome team. Aaron doesn't stop there, Daimon Hellstrom has a large part and Master Pandemonium (from West Coast Avengers!) has an important, if sad, part. This thing is too packed with great B-listers for me not to love it.

I do wish that Danny Ketch still had the blue flame head, it makes him hard to tell apart from his brother Johnny Blaze. Maybe that's the point though, the two are barely distinguishable at this point. They dress alike, they talk alike, and when we see their thought captions, they even think alike. Aaron manages to tell a great story that actually celebrates BOTH Ghost Riders.

The same crazy action and villainy that has been through this run is on display here. The GRs take on Big Wheel and Trull the mighty in a quarry. The Gun Nuns take on the Deacon. Vengeance tries to take on Danny and Johnny. The anti-christ gropes and cheats his way through the story. And the Ghost Riders get to take on Zadkiel in a way that makes sense, but doesn't waste much time either. I loved this whole storyline, this is going to hold up well for a long time.

Roland Boschi has a tendency to smudge figures, making it hard to tell the Ghost Riders apart. But he does a masterful job with the villains. And even though he has one of the worst-designed Daimon Hellstrom's I've ever seen, it can't lower my rating.

Excellent

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