By Zack Quaintance — A new Ghost Rider series is launching today, bringing with it the return of Johnny Blaze in the lead role. What we get with this new Ghost Rider #1 — from writer Benjamin Percy, artist Cory Smith, colorist Bryan Valenza, and letterer Travis Lanham — starts out feeling like a smart and grounded horror comic, a mystery story centered on a main character who is lost and unsure of what’s going on. And I was impressed by this comic basically right from page one.

The artwork on that first page is outstanding, conveying the mood and the story expertly before you even read the conversation, with Smith and Valenza giving Johnny a brooding look on his face, cast in ominous light with bloodshot eyes beneath a painting of a pig, fat for slaughter. Now, I’m all for the bombastic superhero openings (probably wouldn’t be running this site if I wasn’t), but an opening like this one for the first new issue of a superhero book speaks to something different, something more grounded and, quite frankly, refreshing. It’s an assured lead-in, for an assured comic that knows exactly the type of story it’s trying to guide the reader through.

Within the space of the second page, we’ve sort of been built into a mystery box, where Johnny is trying to make sense of nightmares and headaches, possibly caused by the gruesome scar on the side of his head, strongly implied to be the result of a terrible road accident. This comic is also Percy at his best as a writer, spare and forceful with the voiceover prose, with the way Johnny describes what he’s going through to the psychiatrist, interspersed with scenes of him waking up screaming (the shadow of the Ghost Rider behind the bed) before trudging off for a belt of whiskey to knock him out again.

It’s a far more grounded and chilling opening than I expected, and it extends through to the length of the full first issue, which spans more than 40 pages. One thing I’ve sort of bristled at in the recent past with Ghost Rider comics has been the way it has felt like the stories sort of worked against themselves to draw direct connections to the rest of the Marvel Universe, to ongoing events, the Avengers, or to more recognizable and broader villains. It’s a problem that some superhero characters frequently have, wherein their very concepts start to seem odd or impossible when juxtaposed with other concepts, like the Punisher hanging out with the X-Men.

I’ve also been thinking a lot lately about the Marvel Knights imprint, probably because our ongoing Daredevil Reading Project has now reached that era, and it strikes me that those comics (most of them 20 years old at this point) dealt with that in an effective way by silo-ing some characters or story arcs off into smarter, prestige superhero takes that still felt true to their central concepts. It was a nice catch-all for characters or concepts to operate in rewarding ways separate from usual and expected superhero hijinks. That’s exactly what we get here in Ghost Rider #1, or that’s what it felt like to me anyway — a really well-done horror comic that slowly builds into the titular character in recognizable and intriguing ways.

That’s the other quality this book excels with: it’s an absolute exercise in strong pacing, a perfect and patient build to flaming skulls and exploding chains and all the usual Ghost Rider trademarks. And throughout, the creative team revels in bringing different elements of strong horror storytelling into these pages, from hallucinations (or are they?) of horrific creatures to symbolism that slowly devolves into its bloody actual meanings (remember that pig I mentioned at the start). This is also the best sort of #1 comic, in that it feels grandiose and leading toward new stories, yet satisfying on its own merits.

Overall: One of the best Ghost Rider comics I’ve read in a long while, this book plays to strengths of its creative team while delivering a smart take on superhero horror comics. 9/10

REVIEW: Ghost Rider #1

Ghost Rider #1
Writer: Benjamin Percy
Artist: Cory Smith
Colorist: Bryan Valenza
Letterer: Travis Lanham
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Johnny Blaze has the perfect life: a wife and two kids, a job at an auto repair shop and a small-town community that supports him... But Johnny isn't doing well. He has nightmares of monsters when he sleeps. And he sees bloody visions when he's awake. This life is beginning to feel like a prison. And there's a spirit in him that's begging to break out! Benjamin Percy (WOLVERINE, X-FORCE) and Cory Smith (CONAN THE BARBARIAN, CAPTAIN MARVEL) are going back to basics with the Spirit of Vengeance in this extra-sized first issue!
Price: $5.99
Buy It Here: Ghost Rider #1

Read more great Comics Bookcase reviews!

Zack Quaintance is a tech reporter by day and freelance writer by night/weekend. He Tweets compulsively about storytelling and comics as Comics Bookcase.