REVIEW: Ghost Rider : Blood Circus

It’s been close to three decades since Brian Bolland inked and drew some of the most horrifying big top scenes in a panel under the direction of the great wordsmith Alan Moore. Five decades into Ghost Rider’s legacy and two hundred forty-seven issues deep, Cory Smith has met that same amount of terror in the realm of the mystic equated to Bolland’s realistic. Whether easier to actualize or not, both forms of horror, psychological and supernatural serve the same purpose and seer the insane imagery within the readers brain.

Percy’s “Ghost Rider” since issue one has already proved to be a memorable ride down hell’s highway after years of the Zarathos possessing one rider to the next from one-shot to one-shot.
Four issues in, and Percy’s decision to take the supernatural elements of the Marvel Knight and meld it with the maturity and hyper-realistic violence that could be found without looking in an indie title is a bold manuever for a company that has been more renowned in recent years for pushing left-leaning agendas and toning down some of their most human characters all in the name of increasing their monetary shares as they lay in bed with a certain Mouse, but Percy’s run here is decidedly the antithesis to any forced family friendly entertainment molded in an attempt to gain new customers.

Percy’s “Ghost Rider” is for the True Believer who remembers digging into the dollar bins and exclaiming “Excelsior” when happening upon a title of “Spirits of Vengeance” – the only thing between the enthusiast and the fresh story being a bag of mylar and a few quarters. Cory Smith’s renditions of the big top here in “Blood Circus” is fuel for any kid to never want to step foot inside the most extravagant of tents and that fuel is so potent in its flammability that it can ignite memories in adults of past phobias of things like talking poppets that make the living for a ventriloquist and just another memory of terror from the years of pre-pubescence from a certain journalist.

The duo of Percy and Smith is one that cannot be denied. From the sigils that the alternative girl hot behind Blaze’s exhaust fumes draws to summon the demon that seems to have planted survelliance on the titular hero to the suit that the ringmaster wears complete with a hypnotic swirl on the top hat that extends to cover the panel drawing the reader into the horror, “Ghost Rider” Blood Circus is a torturous entry into a run for The Spirit of Vengeance that may not be one of the most memorable because of just how on code to it’s Milton-esque brutality it is.
Percy’s Ghost Rider in that regard is a true paradise that may come up lost for those overlooking the more darker corners of the Marvel Universe, but for those who enjoy the seedy underbelly of mysticism that lays in orrery of worlds that claims the 616, then Percy’s “Ghost Rider” is as exhilarating as a tour through a living necropolis – like South Dakota or Minnesota, which Blaze visits in this very issue. Got to show the Midi love.

Score : 5/5

(W) Ben Percy (A) Cory Smith (CA) Kael Ngu