Customer Reviews

Ghost Rider Vol. 1: Hell Bent and Heaven Bound (v. 5)

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Jason Aaron single-handedly turned Ghost Rider into one of the most fun and exciting supernatural action comics ever. What was a super-hero clogged, pretentiously hokey, gimmicky mission story (G.R. must capture 666 demons) became a credible tale of heavenly insurgency and violent struggle. Aaron GETS IT. Ghost Rider is rooted in 1970s occult and biker kitsch: Eval Knieval in a Hammer Horror pic. Denim and leather, whiskey and pentagrams; this is Satanic vengeance on the highway. He cleans up the messy mythology of G.R.'s past with new ideas, but remains sensitive to long-time devotees. Check it out.

This is fantastic. It takes the spirit of previous Ghost Rider concepts and strips out the turgid bits, replacing them with sheer fun.

There's a war going on in Heaven, and Johnny Blaze wants to take vengeance on the angel Zadkiel who's been screwing up his life. He goes from place to place, lead to lead, trying to find out how to get to Heaven. Wherever he goes, chaos and structural damage ensues -- whether because he himself causes it, or Zadkiel's zealots do, or some local weirdness gets in his way.

The humor is sharp and the action is good. Nothing lags. One can't help but draw comparisons to "Preacher" plot-wise, but it lacks the melancholy and raw shock factor that sometimes made "Preacher" a chore to read. There is more of a supernatural air to this volume, and a small amount of horror used to very good effect.

I was introduced to the Ghost Rider character back when it was featuring its first renaissance (the original Danny Ketch story) and this is the first time I've liked the Johnny Blaze character. Much of this is owed to the writer (Jason Aaron). The art is also dynamic and full of movement. Much is expressed by show rather than tell.

If you're a fan of Ol' Flaming-Head, you owe it to yourself to check out this fresh interpretation.

Just as Jason Aaron did earlier with Wolverine, he never fails to get any certain character absolutely right. Whether it be the tone and feel of a particular comic book series he is writing or the characters a book is based on, he always nails down exactly what the character is in his head and goes ahead to put together new twists and other cool details into his stories to push it over the top. Ghost Rider is a horror book, or at least the best Ghost Rider books are always horror books with a supernatural slant to them, and Jason, as his blog posts suggests, knows that like it's on the back of his palm.

Just as Jason got Wolverine going in Manifest Destiny with a strong sense of mythos along with a fun, twisted take, he got Ghost rider going and, as it turns out in the final pages, going hard. It is a surprising and uncannily effective fit for Jason's style, as he conjures some of the most charming (and wickedly fun) characters out of thin air, without prior reference or foreshadowing. But it works terribly well here within the Ghost Rider monthly. In fact, didn't the early runs, featuring either Johnny Blaze or Danny Ketch, feature the Ghost Rider in random bike races? Through these five issues, it is obvious Jason wants to bring back the excitement into the Ghost Rider book and what could be more exciting than a quest to find the angel who done him in right in the beginning, when Mephisto first made the ghastly deal that stripped Johnny of his life?

Yes, an angel, not a devil orchestrated the whole episode, and Johnny knows that in his guts, in his whole being, a fury so great even the flames in his skull can't contain it. The search for Zadkiel, the arch angel who wants to rule all of Heaven, begins with such a bang, even just the art for the flame trail of the Ghost Rider speaks volumes about the tone and mood of the book, a ass-kicking, name-taking rollicking good time, matched with crisp and terse dialogue. The Ghost Rider's quest starts with a mid-southern local kid with Zadkiel's cursed symbol tattooed onto his chest, and indeed he finds him in a hospital run by murderous (and yet unassuming on the outside) nurses submitted under the rule of Zadkiel himself. The Gothic aspect of the Ghost Rider is in full effect.

Almost in unison, the battles and physicality of the conflicts do follow down that Ghost Rider path as well, not withholding any of the conventional ways that Ghost Rider uses his powers in every single fight, a perfect example being a three panel sequence of him staring across an apparition-laden desert plain and unleashing a vicious salvo of Hellfire on the hungry spirits that happened upon the boy so crucial to Johnny's search. If anything, never expect anything more sophisticated than the portrayals of mere human instinct in a Ghost Rider book, much less here, where everyone seems hellbent on destroying the Ghost Rider and bringing their allegiances to Zadkiel to their graves. Even when Johnny ends up in solitary confinement later on in these five issues, his fellow inmates want a piece of him. The quality never wanes but grows stronger with every page, riding (pun intended) the raucous and destructive motif to the end.

This could very well be the most excitement-inducing first arc Comics has seen in a very long time, and for a horror-themed book, nothing brings in readers more than sheer, blood-filled energy...

Jason Aaron is one of the best comic writers in the industry, and he shows off that he just understands how to write almost any Marvel character flawlessly with every additional title he takes on. Ghost Rider is no exception.

This book has the kind of madness you'd expect from a book about a dude who drives a flaming motorcycle and has a flaming skull for a head. I haven't read any previous Ghost Rider comics, and this is the perfect place to start for anyone who is in the same boat. It's got enough exposition to get started, plenty of action, weirdness, and plot to make for a worthy read. Roland Boschi's art is sketchy and weird, which is perfect for the tone of the book. The last two issues in the volume are drawn by Tan Eng Huat, who draws in a strange and exaggerated style, and it while it seems off-putting at first, it grows on you after a couple of pages.

Does a flaming skull-headed dude riding a motorcycle of hellfire taking on roadside ghosts, hillbilly cannibals, and heavily armed naughty nurses sound awesome to you? If so, GET THIS BOOK. You won't regret it.

After Daniel Way's seriously mediocre take on the character, new writer Jason Aaron takes the helm of the latest ongoing Ghost Rider title and things get...well...funky.

Heaven-powered, gun-toting, small-town nurses? Check. Pioneer ghosts that haunt a road and murder those that travel it? Check. Hand-eating human cannibals? Check.

Yes, if you haven't guessed by now, Aaron takes things in a more 'horrorcore' type of direction. While it's amusing, it's also over-the-top to the level of silliness. It's fun, but it's hard to take as more than that. Aaron almost just brings the book to the point of satire at points. He's cranked the character up to 20. Under Aaron's direction this is the damn Ghost Rider and he's gonna run around and kill evil medical professionals and call people maggots just because...well, because that's what he does. Aaron's Ghost Rider is just seemingly maniacally unhinged in an almost comedic way. At times the only thing he's missing is an old-timey mustache to twirl. You really just roll with it or you don't. If you do then you'll have some empty-minded fun, if not, well, you'd be better off not picking it up. This volume certainly isn't for everyone.

The plot of this volume mainly concerns Blaze's attempts to locate renegade angel Zadkiel and to, well, beat the crap out of him for his manipulation of Blaze during Daniel Way's Ghost Rider run. Along the way he runs into some small town Heaven-powered hijinks and later detours to a Texas prison on an info-hunt.

Art is supplied for the most part by Roland Boschi. It's servicable if forgettable. It's clear enough if more than a little bland. The last third of the story is penciled by Tan Eng Huat. His style is more realistic than Boschi's, but, still, nothing to write home about.

While Aaron's take on the character is more fun and certainly more creative than Way he runs into some of the same problems with the title that his predecessor did, namely, Johnny Blaze isn't the most interesting character. He's a guy that is hell-bent on revenge and always a step behind. It's gets old fairly quickly. This is one book that needs a supporting cast ASAP. If Blaze is at his core a rather boring character then at least surround him with characters to take some of the spotlight off of that fact.

Anyway, this is certainly an interesting u-turn in the title. Aaron's take on Ghost Rider is creative if ultimately a bit silly. We'll see how it goes.

I picked this up after hearing about how good it was and reading the reviews here at Amazon. After just finishing the trade, I'd have to say they are spot on. Jason Aaron is a solid writer and the stories are violent, gruesome, and just awesome. My only complaint was the artist change in the story arcs; it changed the pace of the read a bit but you quickly get back on track with the quality of the stories. Highly recommended and I look forward to where the story goes in future volumes.

Jason Aaron writes comics for toughguys. His versions of Ghost Rider and Wolverine would make great flicks repeated at 2 in the mornin' on TNT, resembling men who've been through the thick of it. The humor is dark, over-the-top, savage and shocking. Thankfully, the art captures the Tarantino-esque plot and dialogue, keeping the reader entangled within the burning coal mountains of Montana. It's not all supposed to make sense, or be "safe," and Wizard Magazine's writer of the year tends to keep it this way: inventive, brutal and fun. Aaron's run of Ghost Rider may be the best one yet. Hopefully much of Hell Bent & Heaven Bound influences the sequel to the film.

I just finished reading Daniel Way's Ghost Rider run and wanted to keep going so I picked up this. I didn't really think that Jason Aaron is doing justice to the series. My first gripe is that he's writing Johnny Blaze as though he's a southern boy which has never been the Blaze character type. A little rough, maybe, but never a feel blown hick feeling. It comes across in his speech patterns and these are extremely out of character for Blaze. Secondly, I felt like I was reading a campy b-horror movie comic rather than a Ghost Rider book. I mean, cannibalistic ghosts and god-serving-gun-toting nurses just reek of such campy non-seriousness that this book suffers for it. The ghost rider has always been a fairly serious series dealing with issues of punishing the wicked, battles with the inner devil in us, and seeking retribution. I feel like Aaron's take on the mythos chucks all of that aside and tries to make it humorous and it doesn't work.
Also, the artwork of Roland Boschi, while I do enjoy, I don't like it for the Ghost Rider character. I felt like I was reading a King of the Hill book rather than a Ghost Rider book. There is not a lot of depth to the art and I feel like there is not enough darkness in the art. Detail seems to be lacking from the art as well. Again, this would be great for a more light-hearted character, but not something that begs for some darkness.
As someone who has read ghost rider for the better part of the last twenty years, this take on the character is sadly disappointing. I'm hoping things get better but if the next story arc doesn't turn around, I'm afraid I may be forced to give up on this series.

I was told this was great, a real change of pace for Ghost Rider. But it's still a goofy comic with a nonsense plot starring a guy whose head is a flaming skull. And he still rides a motorcycle around and fights with a big chain. Only now he's at war with a renegade angel who is trying to steal the throne of Heaven. And there are a bunch of hot nurses with guns. And ghouls who live in the road. And really, really terrible art by Boschi, followed by only regular terrible art by Huat. The parts are bad or silly at best, and somehow the sum is less than the parts. This is not an incompetent comic, but it is most definitely a mediocre one.