Adventureman: Ghost Lights #1: Let the Past Die

Time is a ruthless element that plagues creators of all kinds but usually periodic storytelling more than anyone else. For every golden story of creators growing into a story, there are ten about the wear and tear that time’s erosion brings to work. Long-delayed or forgotten comics are no different, and the horrors of time passed are never more evident than in the new installment of the Image series Adventureman. 

Adventureman: Ghost Lights #1 – written by Matt Fraction and drawn/colored by Terry Dodson, with inks from Rachel Dodson and letters by Clayton Cowles – is a direct continuation of the original Adventureman series, picking up the mid cliffhanger. Claire, the deaf bookstore owner turned pulp hero Adventureman has been captured by Caspar, another relic from the bygone fantastical era. He plans to use Claire and her role as Adventureman to bring the spectral world of the pulp back into phase with the modern. While Claire is left hanging in wait (literally), her family debates whether or not to take the synthesized Adventureman formula for Claire’s rescue. 

Elsewhere, the Crossdraw Kid, another pulp hero introduced in the previous arc, is searching the streets of New York for Claire battling ghosts as they get in his way. The previous Crossdraw Kid is an elderly man who’s sought out Claire’s family, aligning the two pulp legends just like in his and the previous Adventure Man’s golden age. Caspar finally reveals his full plan just as the family arrives to help rescue Claire, ready to stand against the entire world Caspar brings back to reality. 

Fraction’s writing for this issue is commendable in theory, but the realities of this issue make it difficult for it to connect. The previous issue of the series was released back in May of 2022. The long delay between installments does not feel like a creative choice or narrative gap, but just a byproduct of the comic-making realities of the times. The stopping point was unnaturally jarring, and there is little done in this issue to catch readers up or make it accessible to a new audience. Instead, it plays out like issue #10 of the series, and that is a rough experience that can’t be forgotten. 

That reality of the issue is only hampered by the overreliance on exposition and narration throughout the issue. The scripting goes to long lengths to contextualize Caspar’s plan couched only in a few fleeting moments of character interaction or action, which have generally been the strongest element of this story. Here, the momentum is drained and replaced with a restrictive atmosphere that doesn’t evoke anything behind a longing for what had come before. 

Not even the combined work of the Dodsons can restore the vibrancy of the series, instead settling for echoes of the previous work as well. The heavy inks and cool colors add to the mystical atmosphere Fractions narration tries to evoke, but only achieves to undercut. The only memorable elements of this issue are the symmetrical double splashes that channel the thematic approach to dueling societies/realities. Channeling the spirit of a reversed playing card. These splashes are an excellent showcase of composition and coloring. Each half employs its aesthetic style to illustrate the two worlds that Claire, and by extension New York, find themselves trapped between.