Ghost Rider #17: Hellfire in a Handbasket

Ghost Rider #17 is a badass comic, rich with tasteful edge, gritty action, and stoic character work that’s used to showcase how our characters have grown over the years. It continues the Weapons of Vengeance storyline with building tension and carefully consolidated pacing that truly showcases just how on top of their game both Ben Percy and Geoff Shaw are.

This issue begins without our title characters and instead tails our antagonist as they go about committing their next murder. This sequence serves a couple of key narrative beats, and the way in which it does is exactly why both this issue and crossover are working. We’re introduced to our antagonist’s motives, which are rooted in some sort of anti-mutant rhetoric that, as the issue’s finale hints, is equal parts scientific and demonic. This ties the book into the Fall of X while rooting it deeply in the world of both Ghost Rider and Wolverine. Reading it alongside the Fall elevates the story, but with the wider universe context, the book’s quality remains unchanged. It’s an evergreen tale that’s almost equally a snapshot of the times.

In a lot of ways, this comes down to how Blaze and Logan are both characterized within the confines of this story, both at a written and a visual level. Shaw draws the two as highly expressive, and depending on whether or not they’re in a flashback, their demeanor and designs shift in tandem. Their personalities show growth between the two eras as well, crafting an atmosphere of authenticity that circumvents any potential complaints of soulless nostalgia. This genuine air of characterization carries quite heavily into the book’s atmosphere and engagement as well, which just completely sucks readers in. It’s a heavy and dark comic that still leaves room for entertainment and superhero satisfaction. While it’s not a masterpiece of sequential art, it shares the same core DNA as a story like Old Man Logan.

As for the issue’s plotting and narrative pace, there’s a very comfortable ebb and flow to the story that’s driven completely by character. The book never rests but makes sure to leave breathing room in the form of its secondary B plot set completely in the past, which shows the origin of the threat Logan and Blaze are facing in the present. There are a ton of eye-popping sequences of action, scenes of intrigue that build up the book’s ongoing mystery with tension and ease. There are some surprisingly grotesque sequences that help to hammer home the book’s horror side just a bit more. Everything builds upon the Alpha issue’s prologue-like beginning in a fluid and effortless way.