Cosmic Ghost Rider Destroys Marvel History #3 // Review
Everyone loves a good story, especially when the storyteller has a knack for embellishment. The Cosmic Ghost Rider has also, unrelated until now, become a reasonably popular character in Marvel’s pantheon of odd spinoff characters. An elderly Frank Castle who has become bonded with the Spirit of Vengeance with a bit less sanity, the C. Ghost Rider has shown up in multiple mini-series and main books as a guest-character. However, is his novelty beginning to wear thin?
The third issue of Cosmic Ghost Rider Destroys Marvel History was written by Paul Scheer and Nick Giovannetti, with Nathan Stockman working on the art. Antonio Fabela and Rachelle Rosenberg provide the colors, while Travis Lanham letters all the pages.
Having told stories involving the Fantastic Four and Spider-Man to his family while stuck in the past, Old Man Frank tries to relate to this version of his daughter now. After realizing she has anger issues and is in danger of becoming an adorable little ball of anger, Old Man Frank tries to relate to her with another story. This time, an altered version of the Dark Phoenix Saga, in which the Cosmic Ghost Rider bonds with the Phoenix Force instead of Jean. When that doesn’t work, a story from Grant Morrison’s New X-Men, featuring the Cosmic Ghost Rider. But what does the past’s version of Frank think of “Uncle Fredo” when he gets home?
It’s remarkably easy to see what Sheer and Giovannetti are going for with Cosmic Ghost Rider Destroys Marvel History. Old Man Frank is merely wasting time while trying to meet with his past self to try and change his past (or the future, if you look at it from the family’s point of view). As such, it gives Sheer and Giovannetti an excellent chance to expand on the characters of Frank’s family, making them infinitely more than a vague plot device tossed in a fridge to make Frank Castle the Punishing angsty machine he becomes. On that, the book does deserve some recognition, since they might actually be the first writers to consider doing that without tugging at the pathos of Frank Castle. Unfortunately, the stories themselves have some serious problems.
The novelty of another character shoving themselves in where they don’t belong is often significant when it’s Deadpool, perhaps because of the fourth wall breakage involved in those tales. When Old Man Frank does it for his family, it really feels like a cheap cop-out affecting bragging rights for how awesome he really is. The title of the book promises that it would Destroy Marvel History. Instead, it feels like getting a guaranteed Game of Thrones, but getting a high school production of The Princess Bride. There’s a real charm here, but it’s not what was promised, the execution can be lacking, and it can be really grating at times.
The art works well for the book’s tone, straddling a line between cartoonishly exaggerated and Marvel’s current realistic style. Any flashback sequence, such as the Claremont and Cockrum and Byrne era of X-Men, has this delightful older art style with coloring that feels like the dotted color method of the day. Nathan Stockman has an excellent eye for re-creating classic continuity with the Cosmic Ghost Rider as a major character, with some reasonably inventive twists on the canon. As mentioned above, Fabela and Rosenberg do a great job fitting in with the era depicted in the flashbacks, and it makes the art look remarkably crisp.
As mentioned above, the book isn’t overly bad but feels like the wrong project for the title. Cosmic Ghost Rider Destroys Marvel History should, by all logic, be a much better book than this. There’s something here for the fans who want some silly stories with Cosmic Ghost Rider, but it really feels like Marvel may already be running low on ideas for Old Man Frank.
