Friday, November 30, 2018

REVIEW: What if? Marvel Comics Went Metal With Ghost Rider


Writer: Sebastian Girner
Pencils, inks, and colors: Caspar Wijngaard
Review: Madman

I haven’t read a single comic since the middle of July due to the fact my wife and I welcomed our first child and, well, life got real busy, real fast.
I suppose that goes without saying but, unless you’ve lived it, I doubt you can fully understand just how exhausting parenting can be. That being said, our little bundle of joy is a little over four months old now and is by no means any less exhausting.

So due to the aforementioned mini-human I had to take a step back from the wonderful world of comics, both reading and reviewing, for a few months and my, “to read”, pile is near the toppling over stage.

 So, I figure I’d pop in to say hello and help the HCB guys out with a review. I’m not sure how often I’ll be able to contribute here for a bit yet; I guess that depends on the cooperation of my wife and the mini-human.

We shall see.


I remember seeing this book on the shelf of the LCS and being super excited because, well, everyone knows how much I love me some “What If..?” comics, plus this bitchin’ cover with Ghost Rider sporting a flaming “axe” all while surfing on the hood of his Camaro.

Is it a Camaro? I honestly don’t know…I don’t read the Ghost Rider book or know if that’s actually still a thing, and I certainly don’t know much about cars. Plus, I figured Ghost Rider isn’t the worst character to read about and I do love some metal so I figured this would be a win/win situation.

As soon as I opened the cover and saw the title page I knew this was going to be a train wreck of epic proportions, and Marvel had suckered me in again.
Before I even started reading I felt the wind sucked out of my sails, the contempt filling my soul, and the flood of ‘mehs’ overtaking me.

Right off the bat I had to spend fifteen minutes trying to figure out what in the Hell the freaking logo said…I’m not even exaggerating in the least…

This is clearly not a parent-friendly logo. I’ve diapers to change, spit up to wipe up, and stupid noises to make for crying out loud. Next thing I notice is a lame-ass table of contents that doesn’t actually provide any useful information except that Sebastian Giner thinks he’s cool…but he’s not.

On the very next page there is a bunch of advertisements for various Marvel wares including a list of other What If? books that are coming out soon or may already be out. I’m not sure. I’m seriously out of the loop here and will tell you what, if it’s the same creative team doing those books that worked on this one, I’ll not be buying any of them, even the Spider-Man ones, and that’s saying something.

I’m so disappointed with this book; I’m not even going to rehash the story at this point...It’s just really, really dumb and pointless.

I get that one could argue that most of the “What If?” books are pointless, but unlike this lame incarnation, the previous volumes of “What If?” at least had frivolous entertainment value. Let me tell you, zero entertainment was found within these pages.

The art wasn’t even that spectacular in my opinion, it was just been more of the same, and between me and you I’m not too fond of the new ghost rider look. Maybe I’m just old school and like my Rider sporting a skullier skull and riding a chopper.

I suppose until Marvel unrevamps this character I’ll just stick to my back issues. Now Get off my lawn!!

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