Customer Reviews

Ghost Rider, Vol. 1: Vicious Cycle

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

 

 

Long time Reader of ghost rider comics. I was always intrested in a demon who despensed justice. After reading road to damnation I hoped that they would restart the ghost rider and they did in a big way. The return of Jhonny blaze as the host and a Spirit that seems to be Kale Noble (second ghost rider spirit). Is a great way to bring people back into old flame head. the story does a great job of summing up the basics of ghost riders history and were things will be going, a minor complant is I would like to know how much time had pasted in the marvel universe since the rider was last on the road. But if you are a fan of ghost rider I recommend this story or if you liked the movie enough to get intrested this is a great rebirth to one of marvels classics.

As Marvel tends to do anytime a new movie that has anything to do with their characters hits the multiplex, we have here a relaunch book starring an already established character.

With story from Daniel Way and art from the Ghost Rider veteran team of Mark Texeira and Javier Saltares we get a fairly good start to Ghost Rider's newest ongoing series.

I must admit that this is my first experience with Daniel Way. I hadn't heard many great things about his Deadpool or Wolverine work, but he's okay here. His writing certainly isn't fantastic, but he gets done what he needs to.

The plot is simple enough. Lucifer uses Johnny Blaze/Ghost Rider to escape from hell. Lucifer's escape plan, however, hits a snag and he ends up scattering his own essence over the mortal plane. Blaze/Ghost Rider then vows to stop Lucifer from reunifying himself into one complete essence/being on Earth. Wackiness and much punching ensues.

Way does a good job of reintroducing the Johnny Blaze version of Ghost Rider to an audience that may have more of a familiarity with the Danny Ketch incarnation of the character. Way's Blaze does however get a bit irritating fairly quickly as he has a tendency to try to solve all his problems by, you know, punching and kicking things a lot. A LOT. So, while Way's pacing is quick and gets the book to hit the ground running, his complexity and depth of character isn't too strong. But, really, this is a book about a motorcycle riding, flame-skulled skeleton fighting the devil, so I suppose in the beginning complexity and depth can take a pass. It does, however, make a reader a bit apprehensive for the rest of Way's run on the book. All action, no character development works to a degree for three issues or so, but for ten or fifteen issues? I think not.

The art is fantastic throughout. Texeira's heavily inked, dark, smokey, and smudged style have always appealed to me and it has always worked really well on darker, grittier books such as this one or as on his run on Punisher War Journal in the early 90's. The book looks good, like, REALLY good. Tex and Saltares have worked on Ghost Rider a fair amount at this point in their careers. They know what they are doing with the character and it shows.

So, it's an entertaining start. Way's writing is a little silly, sure, but snappy enough, and the art is very solid. Overall, it has its charms. If you're a Ghost Rider fan, pick it up.

I never really got into the Ghost Rider comics until I recently saw the movie. The movie had this good old Americana style (the wild west, motorcycles, etc.) to it that I went ahead and picked up the new graphic novel called Vicious Cycle. It's a good read and it keeps you wanting to see more and more. I'm pretty sure it will affend some Christian and Jewish readers because it deals with Satanic themes including the character Johnny Blaze (aka the Ghost Rider) escaping from Hell and he brings the devil out with him. I am a Christian myself and I was troubled at times when the devil goes to the extreme to send people to Hell. The devil is portrayed as a sneaky evil liar, which is exactly how he is portrayed in the Bible. The creators even went to an extreme end to bring up the origins of how Johnny Blaze became the Ghost Rider in this issue. Ghost Rider is definately the darkest out of all the heroes in the Marvel Comics universe and is recommended for mature audiences. Vicious Cycle is a great graphic novel to pick up if you enjoyed the Ghost Rider movie.

"Ghost Rider vol.1: Vicious Cycle" was my first introduction to "Ghost Rider" comics. And I am happy to say that I have become a fan.

Daniel Way's storytelling is very good. The story is a fun read with a nice lead-in to volume 2. For a volume 1, I really appreciated the points of Johnny's origin that are put into play here. And it sounds like volume 2 expands on this; which will be a welcomed aspect to what is for many people, such as myself, an introduction to the character. The story is appropriately dark and has that horror comics feel to it that I had hoped it would. It also has the anti-superhero elements that make for a nice balance of what this blended genre of comics should be. There are also a few humorous moments that gives the reader a brief break from the ominous tone of the book. I love the idea of the devil hitching a ride with Johnny Blaze to our earthly plane. And the dividing into 666 bodies (that only strengthen the Devil with each 'death' of one of the bodies) puts Ghost Rider in a precarious spot that lends itself to a really fun storyline. The pace is torrid and never pauses to give you a breath. This story appears to be heading in a direction that I want to follow. Nice.

The artwork is beautifully macabre. Texeira and Saltares pencils and inks, along with Dan Brown's soft and rich colors, show how a 'house style' can still have an edge to it, while keeping to a highly detailed and realistic approach to the look of the characters and their environments. This book contains some of the smoothest art I've ever seen. And I don't say that lightly. These guys really know how to produce some strongly atomospheric visuals that are gorgeous to look at. The only minor blemish to the art is the look of Ghost Rider's bike itself. The cover(by Marc Silvestri) shows a pretty sick bike with a menacing look to it. And Texeira's cover to issue #1 also has a really sweet, demonic-looking appearance to it as well. But the bike that is drawn in the actual story is far from intimidating. And that(aside from looking cool) is kinda the whole point of the thing. The only really cooly-drawn aspect of the bike is the fire-wheels. But the bike otherwise, aside from a little skull above the headlight, is pretty vanilla. I'm not sure why he did this, but it is disapponting, and I hope that this changes as the series progresses. The look of Ghost Rider himself, however, is fantastic! He looks every bit the badass he is. From the look of his skull on fire to the spiked leather jacket, he is one hellish-looking dude that would have you screaming with terror if you happened to cross his path. On the whole, the artwork here is impressive.

I guess the reason that I didn't give it 5 stars is that I am just so disappointed with the motorcycle. Maybe that shouldn't be enough to drop a book by a star, but for me it is. Because part of the reason I was interested in trying out the series is the massively cool and visceral experience that is the look of Ghost Rider. And this includes his bike. It's not that I wasn't interested in his story. I really liked the Nicolas Cage "Ghost Rider" film. I loved the concept of the character. And although I knew the comic book Ghost Rider differed some from the movie version, I still thought that he was visually the same in both mediums. And when you compare the kick-ass bike Cage rides in the movie to the rather bland bike in this book, you can't help but feel let-down. Still, this is a really cool graphic novel that I would recommend to anyone interested in getting into the character of Ghost Rider. 4 solid stars.

I really like Daniel Way's run on Ghost Rider. He does stay true to the Blaze character and creates an entertaining story that deals with Blaze vs Lucifer on earth. It's a well told story but what really makes this is the art of Javier Salteres and Mark Texeira. This is the quintessential flamehead art team. They're work on the early 90's Ghost Rider was top notch and this series art is just as good, if not better. The simple design of the Ghost Rider and the bike was a great way to reintroduce the character and make people focus on the essence of the character and not so much of the bike, as was the case in the 90's Ghost Rider series with Dan Ketch. I highly recommend Daniel Way's Ghost Rider run over that of Jason Aaron's. This is great for long time fans of Ghosty and a great place for newer ones to start.

THIS BOOK COLLECTS ISSUES 1 TO 5 FROM THE GR. SERIES LAUNCHED ON 2006. IT STARS JHONNY BLAZE -THE ORIGINAL GHOST RIDER- AND THE STORY IS FAST PACED, WELL WRITTEN AND VERY ENTERTAINING, IF NOT ALL THAT ORIGINAL. THE ART IS SUPERB AND GOES PERFECTLY WITH THE STORY! I RECOMMEND THIS TPB TO GR. RIDER FANS OLD AND NEW, AND TO THE CASUAL READER. AND IF YOU ENJOY IT (LIKE I DID) JUST WAIT TILL AUGUST '07 TO BUY VOL.2: THE LIFE AND DEATH OF JHONNY BLAZE, THAT COLLECTS ISSUES 6 TO 11 (ACCORDING TO [..]).

How's that old saying go again? Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. Fool me multiple times for the sake of starting a new series? Shame on Marvel and all of us readers who will check it out regardless. Either way, Ghost Rider: Vicious Cycle marks the beginning of a new ongoing Ghost Rider series, premiering just in time for the big budget movie starring Nicolas Cage and coming hot off the heels of Garth Ennis' Ghost Rider: Road to Damnation TPB. Vicious Cycle features Daniel Way (Venom, Wolverine, Punisher VS Bullseye) using a similar plot device that Ennis used in Road to Damnation: Johnny Blaze is trapped in Hell and offered a way out in return for his services. Naturally, Johnny is once again tricked to be someone's pawn, which you'd figure that he would smarten up and be leary of any offers to come his way. Then again, if I was trapped in Hell with no way out, I'd probably be an easy sucker too, but I disgress. Way's script isn't anything we haven't seen before with Ghost Rider, and there's no new or relatively good ideas here either. Not to mention that the storyline itself is quite boring compared to what's come from Ennis with Road to Damnation, and even older Ghost Rider stories before it (except Hammer Lane). The saving grace of Vicious Cycle is the art by veterans Mark Texeira and Javier Saltares, who worked with writer Howard Mackie in creating the Danny Ketch Ghost Rider of the early 90's. All in all, Vicious Cycle is worth a look, and maybe the series will get better the longer it goes, but for now this volume is best left on the shelf.

It was a decent Ghostrider graphic novel. Johnny Blaze is the main rider and he gets tricked by Lucifer to help him crossover to our reality. The plot is not that original and having the rider to chase all the pieces of the devil and eventually create one body for the Prince of Lies makes it seem like a rip-off from Jet Li's "The One". The appearance of Doctor Strange was interesting, but it didn't flow with the story very well. At least the Sorcerer Supreme got his clock cleaned by Ol' Flame Head. Can't wait for the story to pick up in the later issues.

With the GHOST RIDER movie coming out, Marvel's decided to give the character a new ongoing series. This collection, VICIOUS CYCLE, collects the first five issues of the series, written by Daniel Way with art by Javier Saltares and Mark Texeira.

Ghost Rider's a problematic character to write because, while he looks cool, he's stupid, gullible, and (given my admittedly limited familiarity with the character) doesn't seem to fit in all that well with the rest of the Marvel Universe. In this book, the lack of any foreseeable growth for the character is made up for by giving him a quest that it will probably take him a good many issues of the series to complete. (Though his decision to embark on that quest seems at odds with his character in the recently released series GHOST RIDER: THE ROAD TO DAMNATION, in which his key motivation was not altruism but an overriding desire to get out of Hell.) It doesn't help that the primary villain for this book comes off as more annoying than unnerving. (I'd have been very interested to see Mike Carey's take on this story.)

This series is written by Daniel Way. Marvel has, for four or five years now, been touting Mr. Way as one of their up-and-coming greats, keep giving him relatively high-level assignments, and . . . well, I don't see it. He managed to make Venom so boring the title was cancelled, he's managed to make Wolvering boring, and now he fails to inject GHOST RIDER with the energy that such an insubstantial character needs to survive.

The art here is good but nothing to write home about.

This book manages to be silly when it needs gravitas, characters behave nonsensically too often, and the threat propelling the plot seems either inconsequential or contrived enough that I just don't care all that much. As other reviewers have noted, Ghost Rider is far more about style than substance, and, unfortunately, this book lacks the style to make up for its other deficiencies. The reason is book gets two stars instead of one is that I recently read a comic by Chuck Austen.

Came in sooner and looked very new. It is very cool.