Review: Ghost Rider #14

The newest installment of Ghost Rider is a doozy for sure. I myself have never been much of a Ghost Rider fan, other than the handful of times I’ve seen him battle some demon or other alongside Doctor Strange or when Nick Cage decided to play him that one time. That being said, I’ve always been a sucker for the Ghost’s design. Whether it’s the chains or the biker jacket, the fire or the badass skull, he’s always looked really cool to me, and this makes me happy because in it we get to see not just one feral fiery fiend, but two!

This book has inside it two Ghost Rider stories, the first one revolves around Johnny and his brother Daniel who also happens to have a demon inside him that also looks like a fiery skull rockstar, however, Danny’s fire is blue, and I’ll be honest I’m having a really hard time deciding which of the two color choices I like better. The art in this comic is really something else, penciled, inked, and colored by 4 different people you can tell that they went all out on making this a special book. I am a huge fan of the colors they went with and how textured and semi-realistic it all looks. There is still a bit of exaggeration and cartoonishness to the whole thing which I enjoy but for the most part, this looks like it could be an anime or an awesome cartoon. The panels are filled to the brim with awesome action, crazy tech designs, and really wonderful costumes. Backgrounds and props are also on point and whilst most of the characters are just humans with not too many frills or fancy details that might make them stand out, everyone still has their own unique style and look which makes them very unique.

In the end, this is a magical fantasy story so you will have your handful of demons, vampires, and spirits, and of course, they look just as good as the ghost riders. Yet one thing I was not expecting was the use of a Mech. Whenever I think of fantasy fiction I don’t really think of mechs but this particular story does a really good job of alluding to a coming encounter (maybe on the next issue) with a gigantic mech powered by hell itself, and I can’t help but be excited about that.

My only criticism of this book is the lettering. Whilst it is very good and easy to read, I feel like the balloons pop out too much and are just too clean for the kind of art that is drawn behind them. I just wish that instead of having all the lettering be right on top of the art, making it feel like an afterthought, they had chosen an equally punk style of ballons, or maybe textured them a little bit more so that they blended with the art a bit better. Other than that this is a great story and the writing does a wonderful job portraying Ghost Rider in his usual punk, badass attitude. There is also a sex scene that was handled with taste, and fun and left it all to the imagination of the reader, which I personally appreciate because most times when creators add sex into their story they either fall upon cliche-land, or they go too graphic and it ends up being an erotica book. So just a little tiny bit of sex sprinkled on an otherwise action-packed narrative is very fun.

“Sibling Rivalry”

Writing- 5 Stars
Art – 4.5 Stars
Colors – 5 Stars

Overall – 4.5 Stars

Writing by; Benjamin Percy
Pencils by; Cory Smith w/ Brent Peeples
Inking by; Oren Junior w/ Brent Peeples
Coloring by; Bryan Valenza

The second story in this marvelous book unites the Ghost Rider with a hero by the name of Taegukgi, the national hero of South Korea. I myself had never heard of this guy but his suit has a really dope design and artist Tadam Gyadu does a wonderful job of portraying him in this short story. I like art a lot. Whilst the first story is filled to the brim with details and technological paraphernalia, this story is set on a beach in Santa Cruz, California, which allows for a cleaner more open ambiance and a more in-depth look at the characters. The coloring keeps being top quality and all in all both stories seem to have a very similar style despite being drawn by different people, which is wonderful because it means that both stories fit perfectly in one book.

The writing is fun and to the point, with a couple of jokes intermixed into the narrative, delivered by Johnny Blaze. Sadly my point with the lettering still stands, and whilst in this story the ballons have a much more fun shape and even a distinct look to them when Ghost Rider is talking. They are still a little too clean for my taste and look like they were added on top of the art instead of being part of the art. Personally, I think that ballons should feel like part of the art always, however, some people might disagree with me and this type of lettering works for them. One extra quirk I found in the story is that, despite Taegukgi’s awesome design and super powers. He actually doesn’t do anything in the story at all. Ghost Rider does the hard job and we only see Taegugki’s skill at the end panel when he is flying a little bit off the ground once the monster has been defeated by the Spirit of Vengeance. I feel like it’s a shame because it seems that Taegukgi was added to the story just to give the monster a reason to be there and that this possible team-up was perhaps wasted.

“Memories of the Tide”

Writing- 4 Stars
Art – 5 Stars
Colors – 5 Stars

Overall – 4.2 Stars

Writing by; Jon Tsuei
Pencils by; Tadam Gyadu
Coloring by; Brian Reber

Lettering by; Vc’s Travis Lanham

CoverArt by; Björn Barends

Variant CoverArts by; Inhyuk Lee; Rod Reis

Published by; Marvel

Reviewed by Antonio “Mabs”