Ghost Rider #1 & Black Panther: The Man Without Fear #521

As promised, the last two Fear Itself tie-in issues I have left to read are on tap for today. Will I like either of them? If I were a betting man I'd say no, but who knows, I gave a Bendis written comic book a 10 earlier this week, stranger things have happened...

Ghost Rider #1(Fear Itself tie-in):

Summary: This issue begins with that slack-jawed yokel, Johnny Blaze, rejoicing in the fact that he no longer has the Ghost Rider curse. From there we head to Dayton, Ohio, where Sin and her Nazi forces are decimating the city... Why Dayton? That seems kind of random... Anyway, Deathwatch(!!!) and Blackout(!!!) are following behind Sin's forces(at a safe distance) and using her chaos to strengthen themselves. Okay, that just made this entire comic book worth the cover price right there... The new BAD-ASS female Ghost Rider(yawn) shows up and beats the hell out of Blackout and Deathwatch. She then tries to show that she's a BAD-ASS by scaring some kids. Sin walks over relatively pissed that BAD-ASS new Ghost Rider was here and the two fight with BAD-ASS Ghost Rider summoning her BAD-ASS new motorcycle, complete with BAD-ASS Gatling guns attached(because she's a BAD-ASS), which help BAD-ASS Ghost Rider put Sin down... Wait, what?! BAD-ASS Ghost Rider decides she was going to kill Sin with her own hammer, but gets knocked out and turned back into a regular human instead. Sin taunts her fallen foe, stating that since BAD-ASS new Ghost Rider was going to bring devastation to the world, she would leave her alive... Um, since Sin is already destroying the world why the hell would she allow BAD-ASS Ghost Rider to stay alive at all? Unless Sin knows she's gonna lose, which says a lot about Sin's self-esteem I guess... Anyway, the main story here ends with Johnny walking back into his secluded home to discover Mephisto standing there telling Johnny that by getting rid of the Ghost Rider spirit he had damned the human race. And since Mephisto was feeling like a helpful devil at the time, he wanted to help Johnny undo the damage. The back-up story tells us how the new BAD-ASS Ghost Rider got her powers. It all had something to do with corpses, human sacrifices and Nicaragua... Or at least that's what I got out of it...

Thoughts: What do you want me to say? I despise the idea of a female Ghost Rider. We already had TWO perfectly fine Ghost Riders in Johnny Blaze, or the WAY superior Danny Ketch. Was this a bad comic book? No, not at all. As a matter of fact, I enjoyed the main story a lot, although I didn't get the origin story in the least... But seriously, what is Marvel's obsession with taking established male characters and turning them female? I don't get it, and I don't like it. Mr. Sinister, Loki, Bullseye, and now Ghost Rider have all been replaced by a female impersonator... Is it THAT hard to come up with a new character? I mean why couldn't Marvel/Rob Williams create a new character(I don't know, an unknown sister of Johnny Blaze or something?), give her some original powers, a cool name, a tight leather outfit, and put THAT comic out? No, instead they're going to try to cash in on the Ghost Rider name(which isn't exactly THAT marketable as it is, considering how many times the GR series has been canceled), by making another Ghost Rider, this time an edgy, female version. I'll stick around for another issue or two, because this comic was better than I ever thought it would be, but after that my curiosity will probably have been sated and I'll almost certainly drop this series.

Score: 6 out of 10.Man does Deathwatch look awesome... AND he has a great name too!!


Black Panther: The Man Without Fear #521(Fear Itself tie-in):

Summary: We kick this issue off with some loony getting fired from his job because he's a racist idiot or something. We then waste four pages establishing that this guy was indeed a racist idiot. Eventually one of the Serpent's hammers falls from space towards Yancy Street and the essence of the Hate-Monger catches a ride back to Earth with the hammer. Once on Earth, the Hate-Monger's essence possesses the racist idiot from earlier. From there we see the Black Panther in his civilian guise of Mr. Okonkwo trying to help the people who have been injured due to the events of Fear Itself by turning his restaurant into something of a hospice. Eventually(and I'm skipping a bunch of stuff because I'm bored and tired), the Hate-Monger and some of his mind controlled goons walk into the restaurant and begin to complain about Okonkwo and other immigrants stealing property and um... steaks from real Americans. BP gets tired of listening to the Hate-Monger talk about steaks and decides to deck him, but is stopped by the American Panther, who is pretty much a guy dressed in a Black Panther outfit with some American colors adorning the outfit. Okonkwo punches the American Panther instead of the Hate-Monger, but the American Panther is TOO American to get hurt from the punch(what?), so Black Panther's assistant(whose name I don't believe was ever mentioned) grabs Okonkwo and walks him out of the restaurant so he could cool his jets. While outside BP realizes that the guy who was claiming to be the Hate-Monger was probably the real Hate-Monger, which would explain how he was able to hold the crowd under his thrall. Before BP can do anything about the situation though, some suit from Homeland Security walks over and tells BP he was under arrest for trying to infiltrate America(or something)...

Thoughts: Um, okay... I guess... This was a Fear Itself tie-in issue in the loosest possible sense. It was thanks to the Serpent the Hate-Monger made it back to Earth, and the people of New York were obviously acting differently thanks to the Serpent's influence, but that was about it. There was no Sin, no Serpent, no Worthy, nothing like that. Instead it was your regular Hate-Monger story where the Hate-Monger did his whole, “Make people angrily scream the word hate while shaking their fists!!” thing. The story was nothing special, and since it was hardly a Fear Itself tie-in, I definitely won't be picking up the next issue.

Score: 4 out of 10.USA, USA, USA!!!!