Spirits of Vengeance: Spirit Rider #1

Spirits of Vengeance: Spirit Rider #1

Marvel Comics 2021

Written by Taboo & B. Earl

Illustrated by Paul Davidson

Coloured by Dan Brown

Lettered by Jeffrey Veregge

SHE’S LIKE NO GHOST RIDER YOU’VE EVER SEEN! SHE IS KUSHALA — A SORCERER SUPREME, A SPIRIT OF VENGEANCE…AND THE SAVIOR OF JOHNNY BLAZE’S SOUL!

Blaze has been through a lot lately, from ascending the throne of Hell to nearly murdering his former allies on the Avengers. But his nightmare is far from over. Something — or someone — is haunting him, and only a Ghost Rider with the powers of a Sorcerer Supreme can find out why.

I saw this at my local store and being a Ghost Rider fan I had to check this out and to see that there’s a new character making her debut that has ties to both Johnny and the Ghost Rider as well as being a Sorcerer Supreme like Stephen puts her in one of the most unique places I’ve come across. Just the premise behind her is phenomenal and that she’s from a Native American tribe really seems to make her connection to both that much stronger and more believable to me. So yeah this not only makes me happy it has two characters whom I enjoy immensely but introduces us to a new character whom I cannot wait to see more of.

I am a huge fan of the way that this is being told. The story & plot development that we see through how the sequence of events unfold as well as how the reader learns information is presented exceedingly well. The character development we see through the dialogue, the character interaction as well as how they act and react to the situations and circumstances which they encounter fleshes them out beautifully. The pacing is superb and as it takes us through pages introducing the characters, the story and the world they live in is spectacularly rendered here.

I am completely crazy for the way we see this being structured and how the layers within the story emerge and grow. From the way we meet new characters to the characterisation and through the plot twists everything we see adds so much depth, dimension and complexity to the storytelling. Doesn’t matter if it works with the main arc or simply swirls around it. How we see everything working together to create the story’s ebb & flow as well as how it moves the story forward is beautifully achieved.

There is something truly special about the interiors here. A part of me thinks they remind me of Steranko as it has this throwback trippy atmosphere to them. The linework is strong and clean with the varying weights and techniques being utilised to create the detail work we see throughout the book is really quite extraordinary to see. I’m good with how we see backgrounds here and even more happy with how we see the composition within the panels bringing out the depth perception, sense of scale and the overall sense of size and scope to the story. The utilisation of the page layouts and how we see the angles and perspective in the panels show a remarkably talented eye for storytelling. The colour work is brilliantly rendered. I love how the light sources cast tinted shading and how that effect really stands out. The various hues and tones within the colours being utilised to create the shading, highlights and shadow work we see is so amazingly well rendered and shows such a stellar understanding of how colour works.

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I think this is a one-shot and what I hope it does is generate enough interest that we start seeing some limited series with Kushala. She's a great character who has so much potential based on what we see here and I think she adds something that the Marvel Universe doesn’t have enough of. This has some intelligent writing with smart characterisation and some really fantastic interiors that leaves me wanting to see and know more about her.