Monday, June 13, 2011

Ghost Rider #0.1 & Iron Age Alpha #1

We have two Marvel books here, both of which I picked up on a whim last Wednesday. I know next to nothing about both series going in, so we'll see if either one impresses me. Both are written by Rob Williams, who Marvel seems really high on nowadays, so this should give me a good feel for his work. Or maybe not...

Ghost Rider #0.1:

Summary: We kick this one off with a retelling of Johnny Blaze's origin, but with all that “Ghost Rider is an angel now!” stuff thankfully omitted. Johnny whines about the Ghost Rider curse, as well as the fact that every woman he meets usually turns out to be some sort of monster(literally). While sitting in a bar moping, some guy named Adam approaches Johnny and offers to take away the Ghost Rider curse. Johnny figures there's a catch and blows the guy off, but after catching a beating from a drunk, Johnny decides to take Adam up on his offer. Adam tells Johnny that the only catch is that the Ghost Rider curse would randomly attach itself to somebody else, and Johnny, class act that he is, says that's fine by him. With that, Johnny follows Adam's words and is stripped of the Ghost Rider curse, ending this issue.

Thoughts: Huh, I really hated Johnny Blaze in this issue... What the hell happened to him?! I mean, I'm not the biggest fan of his, I've always favored the Danny Ketch version of Ghost Rider, but I don't remember Johnny ever being portrayed as an annoying, slack-jawed hick... I mean he literally screamed, “Yee-Haw!” at one point in this comic! The hell?!? After reading this issue, and seeing what's in store for this series, I don't see myself sticking around for very long. I'll pick up the first few issues since they tie into Fear Itself, but that'll probably be it, unless the new female Ghost Rider really wows me, which I don't expect. I don't get why Danny isn't getting to be GR again if they're done with Johnny... Again. While I'm on the subject of things I don't get, why the HELL is Marvel making the new GR female? What is with their obsession with taking established characters(Mr. Sinister, Bullseye, Loki, Wolverine, Ghost Rider) and changing their sex? Why not, oh, I don't know, CREATE a NEW character! I know, crazy...

Score: 5 1/2 out of 10.It's a random scan of Ghost Rider!


The Iron Age Alpha #1:

Summary: While attending the opening of a library in Harlem, Tony Stark is attacked, knocked out and kidnapped by a bunch of Iron Man looking robots. Upon waking up, Tony finds himself in an underwater laboratory and is soon confronted by an older man named Donald Birch. It seems that Birch used to be a villain named the Phantom, but wound up discarding that nickname and heading underground since he realized he just wanted to be alone. Birch's feelings changed after he learned he had terminal cancer, and he decided that he wanted to end the world... And he wanted Tony Stark to be there, since Tony was his reason for becoming a villain. To this end, Birch leads Tony into a room with one of Dr. Doom's time platforms and has his robots bring Jean Grey, back when she was Dark Phoenix(!), to the present. Birch has his robots blast at Dark Phoenix, which does nothing but anger her. Realizing what was going to happen, Tony runs to the time platform and is shunted back in time just as Dark Phoenix sends out a massive wave of fire which ultimately destroys the Earth. Now trapped in the past, Tony wanders the streets of New York, ultimately heading back to his old apartment, where he finds a passed-out drunk younger Tony Stark.

Thoughts: Now this was more like it! This was a nice set-up issue for the forthcoming Iron Age mini-series. With a name like X-Man, you KNOW I'm a big Jean Grey fan, so it was awesome to see her return and destroy the Earth, even if it was only a past version of Jean, and only for this mini. I can see loads of potential here, with the older, more mature Tony having to contend with his younger, drunken self. Yeah, there are things I see that I don't necessarily like(Captain Britain...), but for the most part, I'm looking forward to this one.

Score: 7 1/2 out of 10.So long, earthlings!!!

3 comments:

  1. as far as i know blaze has aways been that redneckish
    oh and danny is still a ghost rider its just blaze's GR thats choosing a new host
    in a past issue of wolverine
    both johnny and dan showed up as ghost riders along with daimen hellstorm to help exsorsize the demons possessing wolverine
    also blaze might change a bit in upcoming issues as he is supose to see some kinda vison of a possible hell on earth future brought about by the new GR and he steps up to actualy be a man and take on the chalenge of trying to ether take back the ghost rider or stop the new one permenatlty
    and the writer in an interview said they will eventuly have dan be brought in to the new series as a oponennt of the new female GR
    whats u thank of this

    ReplyDelete
  2. Yeah, I recall that Dan is still a GR, because like you said, it was back when Wolvie was still possessed. I was just hoping that with Blaze stepping down(for now), that would be the perfect opportunity to put Danny back in the main GR role. But I'm a huge fan of that character and have most of the 90's GR series, so that explains my feelings there!

    As or Blaze, like I said, I haven't read THAT much about him, mainly the most recent GR series and the old Champions series, and I never really got the uber-redneck feel I was getting here. I mean "Yee-Haw"?! I was like, "Seriously?!" After how bad Johnny looked in this issue, I seriously hope he does step up and try to get the GR curse back, because he was like, "Well, as long as I don't have to deal with it, I don't care who gets saddled with it!" because that made him look like a real jerk.

    And if Dan does show up to face off against the new GR, I may have to stick around... You've done a better job of selling me on this series than anything I've read from Marvel so far, Movieartman! :D

    ReplyDelete
  3. glad i could
    hope the series turns out better than we fear

    ReplyDelete