Each Monday this year I'll be taking a look back at a random comic, prestige format issue, graphic novel or collection of reprints from amongst my 3,000 or so comics that date from 1962 to 2003 - I figured anything in the last ten years would be too recent to hark back to.
The comics are chosen completely at random and apart from a four week lead-in period, even I don't know what I'll be looking at in the weeks to come!
GHOST #13 - April 1996
The second year of Ghost's first series starts with her reeling from the revelations she's discovered, things about her family, her sister, the reason she was killed in the first place and it's sent her over the edge a little. She gives into her rage, seeking out the bad guys and going on a killing spree:
which leads to a lovely splash page early on in the issue:
Lord knows where the spotlights are coming from but the parrots are part of the consignment Ghost breaks up. Best not to ask.
Of course, the killing of a bunch of mobsters (all of whom have obviously seen Reservoir Dogs by this point) leads to a contract being put out on our spectral avenger and the bad guys' chief calls in Miasma, a female assassin who quickly tracks Ghost down and attacks her by threatening her sometime friend, Peter.
Miasma's powers come from her ability to access someone's memories once they've inhaled her . . . scent? Aura? Astral form? It makes no difference as Ghost uses her own ability to shunt Miasma into Ghost's own internal hell, thus ending the immediate threat and leading into the next story.
Ghost was interesting at this point, a mix of bloody violence and cheesecake art (and there's quite a bit of both in this issue) that perhaps earned it a bad girl reputation. It seemed to want to break out of that in later issues, if memory serves, with the introduction of sub-plots, government manipulation, secret agencies and (literally) undergound communities so was never boring, at least.
I was definitely into Ghost as well during this period. Glad Dark Horse has brought her back recently because Phil Noto's art looks absolutely gorgeous.
ReplyDeleteI agree the art looks good but as I think I mentioned in my write up of the last issue, most of the male characters were pretty indistinguishable from one another.
DeleteStill, will definitely be picking up the ongoing that due to start in September or thereabouts.