Ghost Rider: The Last Stand TPB

Jason Aaron has been hard at work making the Ghost Rider into a legacy character, and that approach pays off in the TPB Ghost Rider: The Last Stand. The story covers the origin of a new Caretaker, this one an ex-nun who never knew of her family's role in protecting the Ghost Rider legacy. She's a handy character, because as she reveals back-story about the spirits of vengeance to Johnny Blaze, it illuminates things for the reader too. There are Ghost Riders all over the world, tied to every religion. These spirits of vengeance are tied into different religions and mythologies. We get extended looks at Muslim, Chinese, and Voodoo Riders, and glimpses of other, the neatest being a Ghost Rider riding a freaking shark. The sad part is that Johnny's brother Danny Ketch, in service to the evil angel Zadkiel, has killed most of the Ghost Riders on the planet. After enlisting some old villains like the Orb and Blackout to kill the previous Caretaker, the race is on for Johnny Blaze and the new Caretaker to stop Danny from finishing his task.

The battle eventually takes the surviving spirits and Caretaker to the City of Bones in the Congo, where there is a terrific battle of the forces of good/vengeance against Danny and the Black Host, Zadkiel's evil angels. Through some manipulation using the great hellfire shotgun (from Spirits of Vengeance!) Danny wins, and the combined power of the Ghost Riders is beamed along to Zadkiel to assist him in tearing down the walls of heaven. After a couple pages, Danny pops back, collapsing on the ground in front of Blaze and Caretaker. Danny realizes he was on the wrong side, but he's devastated that it is too late, Zadkiel has already conquered heaven. Aaron is weaving an epic story about heaven while giving us a great personal conflict too. The sibling "rivalry" of the Ghost Riders is fascinating to see, I can't see how these two get along in the future, since I assume they will be going against Zadkiel soon. Zadkiel himself is a tad reminiscent of Asmodel, the Bull-Angel from Zauriel's JLA origin, but he's pretty darn scary on his own. I actually own a lot of Ghost Rider comics, since I loved Danny back in the 90s, only now with Aaron's take on the title do I find myself switching my allegiance and becoming a Johnny Blaze fan.

I like the recurrence of the Deputy from Aaron's first arc too. He's a bad guy now, which surprised me a bit, but I'm liking the idea that he may be the new Vengeance (another Spirits of Vengeance relic). Aaron is building up a nice little rogues gallery for ol flame-head.

Tan Eng Huat's artwork is so stylized that I think it actually hurts the story in places. He can handle the oddball stuff like flaming skulls, eye-ball heads, and speeding bikes, but his faces for normal folk look a bit odd. I'm looking forward to seeing Walking Dead's Tony Moore handle some art in the next trade.

Good