In a way, it's kind of funny (to me, anyway).
I THOUGHT when I decided to blow the dust off of some of these old reviews of mine that it would be easy-squeezy. Throw in a few pics. . .type in some story titles and creator credits. . .puff up the introductions and conclusions. Other than that, just copy/paste and there you go. Not that I'm lazy, but. . .okay. . .sometimes I'm kinda lazy.
I've discovered that there's a little more to it than that, and trying to get these reviews to fit the Blogger format is just about as much work as it was writing them in the first place! The archive I'm copying from isn't compatible with Blogger, so a simple copy/paste turns into every word and every paragraph having a massive amount of space between them. . .to the point that it completely blows out the Blogger framework. So I have to go in and spend just as much time editing the spaces out as it probably would take me to just do a full re-write!
But enough of MY awful First World Problems.
Let's get into the back half of Ghost Rider 2099!
GHOST RIDER 2099
MARVEL (1994 - 1996)
PART 2: ISSUES 13 - 25
ISSUE 13
FABLES OF THE RECONSTRUCTION
FABLES OF THE RECONSTRUCTION
PENCILS: Graham Higgins
COVER: Graham Higgins
I don't have a LOT of Marvel's 2099 titles. Ghost Rider 2099 is the only one I have a full run of. I have a few of the other issues (Mostly the first issues. . .SUCH. . .SHINY. . .COVERS!) but I guess at some point, Doctor Doom 2099 took over America as President.
This issue ties in with what was probably a big crossover, as the title changes from "Ghost Rider 2099" to "Ghost Rider 2099 A.D.", which I guess means After Doom. Along with the title change comes a very nice upgrade to higher-quality paper, so there's that.
The issue itself? Mostly pretty average, except for some scenery chewing excellence as Doom takes over D/Monix Corporation by implanting a control chip in the brain of director Dyson Kellerman and an interesting meeting of some sort of resistance movement in Cyberspace where online avatars meet in a virtual bar or lounge. The rest of it? Ghost Rider's shattered body slowly repairs itself through the issue. The art is no bueno. . .especially when it comes to Ghost Rider himself. It's pretty blah, but GR is just bad.
ISSUE 14
UNDER NEW MANAGEMENT
SCRIPTS: Len Kaminski
PENCILS: Graham Higgins
COVER: Jan Anton Harps
*Facepalm*
Using secret codes in Ghost Rider's programming provided by Doom's deal with The Ghostworks, Ghost Rider is made into Transverse City's Federal Marshal. Ooooooookay. To make it worse, the art is just bad. It's all so bad.
The only saving grace here is the outstanding cover. Definitely frame-worthy!
ISSUE 15
THE LAW OF THE JUNGLE
SCRIPTS: Len Kaminski
PENCILS: Ashley Wood
COVER: Ashley Wood
Soooooo. . .now Ghost Rider is "The Law".
In this issue he's trying to find the source of a powerful drug that is fueling a gang war. I can't believe the pretty interesting vision of a dystopian future ruled by Corporations and controlled by media addiction has turned into a sci-fi cop show. Oh. . .and a new villain is introduced. Heartbreaker. Seems to be some sort of techno-ninja woman. Might turn out to be interesting. At least more interesting than Detective Ghost Rider.
ANYWAY. . .
There's a new artist on the book, and it looks a lot better, except for Ghost Rider himself. I hate this version of GR 2099. The rest of it looks nice, in a dark, scratchy, 90's "Edgy" style, though. And the cover is very, very nice!
ISSUE 16
DANGEROUS CURVES
SCRIPTS: Len Kaminski
PENCILS: Ashley Wood
COVER: Ashley Wood
God help me, but Ghost Rider is still doing his Judge Dredd imitation.
He encounters Heartbreaker and during the battle, discovers that she is a cyborg, but she escapes before he can learn more. He finds out that Max Synergy is trying to create superhumans with a powerful drug, and he hauls him into jail. . .complete with an imitation Robocop "He'll never be one of us." moment. So bad. . .so damn bad. The art is decent, but the way GR himself is portrayed is the worst. And that cover. . .why?
ISSUE 17
PRODIGAL SON
SCRIPTS: Len Kaminsky
PENCILS: Ashley Wood
COVER: Ashley Wood
This issue is full of "What?" moments. Ghost Rider returns home to have a discussion with his father about how he managed to turn out to be such an A-hole. His dad tells him how proud he is that he DID turn out to be an A-hole. Reporter Willis Adams surfs cyberspace and somehow not only knows of Ghostworks existence, but manages to unlock an archive to release some sort of Cyberspace monster called L-Cypher (and this after Doctor Doom had to use some kind of complicated cyber/magic to access Ghost Works). And then there's a virtual amusement park's holographic programs being take over by. . .SATAN?
All that and Ghost Rider still looks terrible, even though everything else looks pretty good.
ISSUE 18
CHTONIC PARK
SCRIPTS: Len Kaminski
PENCILS: Ashley Wood
COVER: Ashley Wood
This series has gone past a downward slide and has plummeted off the cliff. Ghost RIder (Still in faux Judge Dredd mode) is called in to Thrillsville, a virtual amusement park that has been reprogrammed to imitate the circles of hell in Dante's Inferno by some sort of cyber demon called. . .L-Cypher, because why the hell not. *facepalm*
I don't even want to read the rest of this series.
But I will. Because I ain't a quitter, son. . .
SCRIPTS: Len Kaminski
PENCILS: Ashley Wood
COVER: Ashley Wood
God. . .when will this storyline end?
Ghost Rider fights his way through the demonic underlings of L-Cypher toward the inevitable confrontation. . .plus Heartbreaker breaks into prison to kill Max Synergy. Why? Nobody knows? Nobody Cares? What seemed to be a decent villain is wasted in favor of snarling cyber-demons. Then there's something something something about the undernet resistance breaking into a vault for reasons.
I wonder if Len Kaminski had discovered the wonderful world of meth in 1995 or if he just stopped caring. No other ways I can think of to explain the REALLY steep drop of writing quality on this title.
SCRIPTS: Len Kaminski
PENCILS: Ashley Wood
COVER: Ashley Wood
In the home stretch. . .only 5 more issues, thank God!
In this issue, Ghost RIder's final confrontation with cyber-demon L-Cypher ends with GR turning L-Cypher's programming against him for what seems like an easy win. But we see L-Cypher downloading himself into a human body and talking about continuing his "experiment", so we probably haven't seen the last of what I count as Ghost Riders second-lamest villain (First being Warewolf). Plus Kabal hires someone to build him a robot and download the mind of a slain securicorps agent into it, presumably to destroy Ghost Rider. . .or at least try.
One villain down, and another one introduced. This series has fallen into a predictable "set 'em up. . .knock 'em down" rut of monster of the month tedium. I'm starting to hate what I once loved. Sort of like my second wife. I really liked the cover on this one, though. . .so there's that.
SCRIPTS: Len Kaminski
PENCILS: Ashley Wood
COVER: Mark Farmer
Ghost rider confronts and is seemingly defeated by Vengeance. We're introduced to the next villain. . .a collection of frozen human heads that have joined minds after being roused from their cryogenic sleep, giving them powerful psionic abilities. . .Ooooooooookay.
After Doom's fall from power, Ghost Rider remembers how he had been manipulated by Doom and Ghostworks and gets angry. PLUS, this is the first issue with a backup story. Former reporter Willis Adams meets up with Heartbreaker in a strip club. Cheesecake ensues with the promise of VIOLENT cheesecake next issue.
Nobody is making me read this. Why am I still doing it? WHY?
SCRIPTS: Len Kaminski
PENCILS: Ashley Wood
COVER: Ashley Wood
Ghost Rider defeats yet ANOTHER sentient robot by turning it's own programming against it. Doctor Neon gets ready to partner up with some unknown guy he met on the internet (Yep, that always ends well) to take down Ghost Rider. All that AND pointless violent cheesecake that's not even drawn that great in the backup! I have to say that I did like the cover on this one, though. Nicely done!
SCRIPTS: Len Kaminski
PENCILS: Ashley Wood
COVER: Ashley Wood
Ghost Rider (having quit doing his Judge Dredd impersonation now, thank God) is once again a criminal and is quickly finding out that he doesn't have any friends left after his time as a Lawman. In the meantime, the next villain is being set up as a wave of psychic energy from Psiclone (The frozen severed head monster I mentioned a couple issues back) starts driving everyone in Transverse City insane with hallucinations. Doctor Neon continues to plot with his unknown internet friend. Awkwardness is sure to ensue as Ghost Rider shows up at his door looking for help.
To tell the truth, I liked this issue a bit better than the past half dozen. The letters page is full of woe about the upcoming cancellation of the series, so hopefully it will go out strong. Please, God. . .let it go out strong.
SCRIPTS: Len Kaminski
PENCILS: Ashley Wood
COVER: Ashley Wood
In the setup to the final issue, Psiclone is defeated by D/Monix head Kellerman using Doom's control chip. . .and ending up in seeming control over the whole city. Also, a broken-down Ghost Rider is rebooted by Doctor Neon, and we discover that Neon's internet hookup is actually the real Zero Cochrane. . .or claims to be anyway.
Not a bad issue. Not really that great, but at least it wasn't awful, which is a good thing given the state of most of the back half of this series.
SCRIPTS: Len Kaminski
PENCILS: Ashley Wood
COVER: Ashley Wood
I won't say it ended strong, but at least it ended well. It seems that Kaminski pulled enough care out of his. . .hat. . .to at least give us a decent ending to a series that started really strong and went way off the rails.
The Undernet Resistance destroys D/Monix headquarters and their control over the city. The source code Zero Cochrane flushed the corrupted code that we've known as Ghost Rider out of his body and took it over, riding off into the sunset after helping save Transit City. The Zero Cochrane code that was being controlled by Ghostworks was cleansed and freed as pure data and now exists to roam Cyberspace. Ghost works finds themselves being the ones controlled for once as the "Beta" Zero makes them his first order of business.
And most other loose ends are tied up. . .except for whatever happened to Heartbreaker or the human body L-Cypher downloaded himself into. But at this point, do I even care? Not really. I'm just happy that the series wrapped up on a decent note. Not a high note, but decent. And really, after wading through the crap this series turned into, that's definitely a good thing.
I really liked the IDEAS contained in this series, and a unique take on a fairly overplayed character. But although the concept was brilliant, the execution was fatally flawed by being a mainstream comic sold by a mainstream company. It was supposed to be about going AGAINST the status quo, but ended up being forced to MAINTAIN the status quo.
I loved it at first, then hated it and had to force myself to stick with it, but at least the ending wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. Sort of like with my third wife.
And there you have it. . .one man's opinion of Ghost Rider 2099. A noble experiment gone wrong when it could have been OH so right. It's a damn shame it had to turn out this way.
As I went back through this series to scan covers and interior art for posting this on Longbox Junk, I THINK I might have been a little too harsh on Ghost Rider 2099. I didn't want to re-write the whole thing, because it's what I was thinking at the time I wrote it, but on a second read-through, it's not really as bad as what I thought at the time (roughly 10 years ago).
The back half is still very weak, compared to the front half. But taken as a whole, Ghost Rider 2099 was TRYING to do something new, and really deserves some credit for that. They didn't stick the landing, and you can see where Marvel was trying to appeal to readers who wanted less Cyberpunk world-building and speculation on where we as a technological society are heading, and more superhero battles against monsters. . .which pretty much justifies my ORIGINAL conclusion of Ghost Rider 2099's fatal flaw being that it was a mainstream comic sold by a mainstream company to a mainstream audience.
Overall, I have the strong feeling that, with the current success of Spider-Man 2099, I really think that Ghost Rider 2099 could benefit from a reboot into the current, somewhat "darker" and more adult comics scene that exists today. Done right, this is a title and a character that could thrive with today's comic audience. It's just a shame that in the time it was on the stands (1994 - 1996), the mainstream comic audience wasn't really ready for this kind of comic, and it shows in the way Marvel handled it.
ISSUE 19
HELL ON EARTH
SCRIPTS: Len Kaminski
PENCILS: Ashley Wood
COVER: Ashley Wood
God. . .when will this storyline end?
Ghost Rider fights his way through the demonic underlings of L-Cypher toward the inevitable confrontation. . .plus Heartbreaker breaks into prison to kill Max Synergy. Why? Nobody knows? Nobody Cares? What seemed to be a decent villain is wasted in favor of snarling cyber-demons. Then there's something something something about the undernet resistance breaking into a vault for reasons.
I wonder if Len Kaminski had discovered the wonderful world of meth in 1995 or if he just stopped caring. No other ways I can think of to explain the REALLY steep drop of writing quality on this title.
ISSUE 20
BEAT THE DEVIL
SCRIPTS: Len Kaminski
PENCILS: Ashley Wood
COVER: Ashley Wood
In the home stretch. . .only 5 more issues, thank God!
In this issue, Ghost RIder's final confrontation with cyber-demon L-Cypher ends with GR turning L-Cypher's programming against him for what seems like an easy win. But we see L-Cypher downloading himself into a human body and talking about continuing his "experiment", so we probably haven't seen the last of what I count as Ghost Riders second-lamest villain (First being Warewolf). Plus Kabal hires someone to build him a robot and download the mind of a slain securicorps agent into it, presumably to destroy Ghost Rider. . .or at least try.
One villain down, and another one introduced. This series has fallen into a predictable "set 'em up. . .knock 'em down" rut of monster of the month tedium. I'm starting to hate what I once loved. Sort of like my second wife. I really liked the cover on this one, though. . .so there's that.
ISSUE 21
SCREAMING FOR VENGEANCE
SCRIPTS: Len Kaminski
PENCILS: Ashley Wood
COVER: Mark Farmer
Ghost rider confronts and is seemingly defeated by Vengeance. We're introduced to the next villain. . .a collection of frozen human heads that have joined minds after being roused from their cryogenic sleep, giving them powerful psionic abilities. . .Ooooooooookay.
After Doom's fall from power, Ghost Rider remembers how he had been manipulated by Doom and Ghostworks and gets angry. PLUS, this is the first issue with a backup story. Former reporter Willis Adams meets up with Heartbreaker in a strip club. Cheesecake ensues with the promise of VIOLENT cheesecake next issue.
Nobody is making me read this. Why am I still doing it? WHY?
ISSUE 22
DISTURBING THE PEACE
SCRIPTS: Len Kaminski
PENCILS: Ashley Wood
COVER: Ashley Wood
Ghost Rider defeats yet ANOTHER sentient robot by turning it's own programming against it. Doctor Neon gets ready to partner up with some unknown guy he met on the internet (Yep, that always ends well) to take down Ghost Rider. All that AND pointless violent cheesecake that's not even drawn that great in the backup! I have to say that I did like the cover on this one, though. Nicely done!
ISSUE 23
BAD CRAZINESS
SCRIPTS: Len Kaminski
PENCILS: Ashley Wood
COVER: Ashley Wood
Ghost Rider (having quit doing his Judge Dredd impersonation now, thank God) is once again a criminal and is quickly finding out that he doesn't have any friends left after his time as a Lawman. In the meantime, the next villain is being set up as a wave of psychic energy from Psiclone (The frozen severed head monster I mentioned a couple issues back) starts driving everyone in Transverse City insane with hallucinations. Doctor Neon continues to plot with his unknown internet friend. Awkwardness is sure to ensue as Ghost Rider shows up at his door looking for help.
To tell the truth, I liked this issue a bit better than the past half dozen. The letters page is full of woe about the upcoming cancellation of the series, so hopefully it will go out strong. Please, God. . .let it go out strong.
ISSUE 24
ROAD TO RUIN
SCRIPTS: Len Kaminski
PENCILS: Ashley Wood
COVER: Ashley Wood
In the setup to the final issue, Psiclone is defeated by D/Monix head Kellerman using Doom's control chip. . .and ending up in seeming control over the whole city. Also, a broken-down Ghost Rider is rebooted by Doctor Neon, and we discover that Neon's internet hookup is actually the real Zero Cochrane. . .or claims to be anyway.
Not a bad issue. Not really that great, but at least it wasn't awful, which is a good thing given the state of most of the back half of this series.
ISSUE 25
FAST, DENSE, AND OUT OF CONTROL
SCRIPTS: Len Kaminski
PENCILS: Ashley Wood
COVER: Ashley Wood
I won't say it ended strong, but at least it ended well. It seems that Kaminski pulled enough care out of his. . .hat. . .to at least give us a decent ending to a series that started really strong and went way off the rails.
The Undernet Resistance destroys D/Monix headquarters and their control over the city. The source code Zero Cochrane flushed the corrupted code that we've known as Ghost Rider out of his body and took it over, riding off into the sunset after helping save Transit City. The Zero Cochrane code that was being controlled by Ghostworks was cleansed and freed as pure data and now exists to roam Cyberspace. Ghost works finds themselves being the ones controlled for once as the "Beta" Zero makes them his first order of business.
And most other loose ends are tied up. . .except for whatever happened to Heartbreaker or the human body L-Cypher downloaded himself into. But at this point, do I even care? Not really. I'm just happy that the series wrapped up on a decent note. Not a high note, but decent. And really, after wading through the crap this series turned into, that's definitely a good thing.
CONCLUSION
I really liked the IDEAS contained in this series, and a unique take on a fairly overplayed character. But although the concept was brilliant, the execution was fatally flawed by being a mainstream comic sold by a mainstream company. It was supposed to be about going AGAINST the status quo, but ended up being forced to MAINTAIN the status quo.
I loved it at first, then hated it and had to force myself to stick with it, but at least the ending wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. Sort of like with my third wife.
And there you have it. . .one man's opinion of Ghost Rider 2099. A noble experiment gone wrong when it could have been OH so right. It's a damn shame it had to turn out this way.
2019 CONCLUSION UPDATE
As I went back through this series to scan covers and interior art for posting this on Longbox Junk, I THINK I might have been a little too harsh on Ghost Rider 2099. I didn't want to re-write the whole thing, because it's what I was thinking at the time I wrote it, but on a second read-through, it's not really as bad as what I thought at the time (roughly 10 years ago).
The back half is still very weak, compared to the front half. But taken as a whole, Ghost Rider 2099 was TRYING to do something new, and really deserves some credit for that. They didn't stick the landing, and you can see where Marvel was trying to appeal to readers who wanted less Cyberpunk world-building and speculation on where we as a technological society are heading, and more superhero battles against monsters. . .which pretty much justifies my ORIGINAL conclusion of Ghost Rider 2099's fatal flaw being that it was a mainstream comic sold by a mainstream company to a mainstream audience.
Overall, I have the strong feeling that, with the current success of Spider-Man 2099, I really think that Ghost Rider 2099 could benefit from a reboot into the current, somewhat "darker" and more adult comics scene that exists today. Done right, this is a title and a character that could thrive with today's comic audience. It's just a shame that in the time it was on the stands (1994 - 1996), the mainstream comic audience wasn't really ready for this kind of comic, and it shows in the way Marvel handled it.
So (despite some of what's written above) I'm going to go ahead and give Ghost Rider 2099 a recommendation. It isn't great. Parts of it are actually pretty poor. But if you read it thinking about what MIGHT have been, and sort of read between the mainstream Marvel lines, it's not bad. I think maybe my disappointment over the PROMISE of Ghost Rider 2099 being wasted fueled a lot of the venom in the original review.
Next up. . .
I continue to do my part to save the Earth by recycling old reviews that are just sitting there gathering dust in the archives of a comic site that doesn't really care about comics any more.
Travel with me back to 1987 for a look at Eclipse's 3 issue Winter World mini.
Be there or be square!
Next up. . .
I continue to do my part to save the Earth by recycling old reviews that are just sitting there gathering dust in the archives of a comic site that doesn't really care about comics any more.
Travel with me back to 1987 for a look at Eclipse's 3 issue Winter World mini.
Be there or be square!
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