The Marvel Rundown: Marvel’s Voices gives us the ROBBIE REYES SPECIAL #1!

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Welcome back to the Marvel Rundown! This week, we celebrate National Hispanic Heritage Month with Ghost Rider: Robbie Reyes Special #1! For our Rapid Rundown, we’ve got quick hits on Star Wars: The Battle of Jakku – Insurgency Rising #1, Ultraman X The Avengers #2, and X-Men #5!

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Ghost Rider: Robbie Reyes Special #1

Writer: Carlos Hernandez, Felipe Smith, Melissa Flores
Artist: Moisés Hidalgo, Daniel Bayliss, Jan Bazaldua
Color Artist: Jorge Cortes, Luis Wences, Luis Zavala
Letterer: VC’s Ariana Maher
Cover Artist: Humberto Ramos & Edgar Delgado

Reviewed by Beau Q.

In celebration of National Hispanic Heritage Month, Marvel returns to centering Hispanic and Latino creators under their Marvel’s Voices imprint by celebrating Robbie Reyes! This one-shot also serves as the official introduction to Fantasma who first appeared as a hypothetical sidekick on last year’s Ghost Rider #19 during their New Champions variant cover spree. With three creative teams at the wheel, let’s kick it into high gear, and see what makes Robbie Reyes tick!

“Ofrenda” by writer Carlos Hernandez, artist Moisés Hidalgo, and colorist Jorge Cortes might be a page shorter than the other two stories, but it’s my favorite of the three. Centered around Robbie’s younger brother, Gabe, Ofrenda sees Captain America and Captain Marvel making a house call to comedic effect. For a story that gets immediately poignant in six pages, that’s masterful storytelling by Hernandez– even if there’s some high school level jokes written in. Some of the runtime plays with fun details like the Captains’ weekly check-ins, Ghost Rider crying, and the deeper Ninja Wolf/Sheep-nobi metaphors, but all in all it tells the unrequited tale of wanting to overcome being a burden. As Gabe is a wheelchair user, his perception to his superhero brother is as such, but the reality is very different!

Offering such a bevy of complicated emotions in such a short amount of time could be sullen, but Hidalgo’s visual pace looks faster and more impactful than it needs to be for as lighthearted and comedic as Ofrenda gets. Cortes’ colors reinforce some end of the world post-apoc palette that hyper-dramatizes [derogatory] the situation, but the tone sits elsewhere. I wouldn’t mind seeing the pairing of Hernandez and Hidalgo again, but I’m of the belief that Cortes read the vibe differently.

“Of Wolves and Sheep” by writer Felipe Smith, artist Daniel Bayliss, and colorist Luis Wences is a quick story about Robbie’s emotional core tied to his brother Gabe, but also tied into a nonsense car/demon lady for that shoed-in car chase! Very cool to see the Ninja Wolf/Sheep-nobi metaphor reused for this second story. It’s like two sides of the same brotherly love coin adding depth to an one-shot rather than scattershotting shorts. Though, I’ve been critical in the past of Smith’s female characters who only appear as romantic interests [often floosies at that], victims, or duplicitous vixens, so surprise surprise when the only female character in Smith’s pages is brutally murdered after being bound in chains; some things just never change.

Unfortunate though it is, Bayliss’ art works against Smith’s monologue, so moments like “…nothing’s more terrifying than the thought of not making it back home for dinner” fall flat when a super rad muscle car drives angrily through a demon’s head– just a mixup of narration and visual intent that drives an immersive wedge in the reader’s experience. Bayliss’ car and fire effects move nicely and are reminiscent of the Smith run with Tradd Moore, which is a callback, but in a book about owning your creative voice, doing someone else’s style defeats the purpose, even and/or especially if this was by editorial edict! Of note however is Wences’ sweet palette differential that denotes real world/memory and supernatural world innately without having to explain the two at all!

“A Fantasmic Roller Derby Adventure” by writer Melissa Flores, artist Jan Bazaldua, and colorist Luis Zavala is our Fantasma introduction where she enters and exits with some insight into who she is, where she might pop up, and what her deal might be. There’s less Ghost Rider and more Fantasma, but also less Fantasma, because we don’t get to meet her as much as her hero persona arrives on the scene in the middle of a nothing conflict involving hellhounds. I could’ve done with a more personal framing for Fantasma here given the anachronistic origin here [where Robbie is here and not in the God Quarry]. Otherwise, only one signature superpower event happens in this short when Fantasma jumps into a Phantom Zone-like portal, which adds some interest to her powers beyond bearing a visual resemblance to Robbie Reyes’ Ghost Rider [skull mask, flaming mask, chain whip, etc].

For Bazaldua, movement isn’t the issue in these layouts as much as cohesion. There’s a lot of real estate given to major panels that lack narrative impact, so it’s like a camera randomly zooming in and out. Zavala’s color goes far too into glows to sell Fantasma’s visual, but it tends to create millions of other colors as the glow interacts with other non-native colors, which can overload a page’s palette, and muddy the visual. When Fantasma arriving is all about visual, it can fall flat for readers when narrative, art, and color aren’t exactly humming.

Lettering all these stories is industry heavyweight, VC’s Ariana Maher! While the original Robbie Reyes font looks great for the words, ‘Ghost Rider,’ it makes the Ys look like Vs which significantly hurts a main character whose name is Reyes. That’s not on Maher, but a fault of decisions made long ago! Here Maher is able to pack graphically comforting chapter title/credit sections that really set the tone for each story, but overall nothing too complicated as the gap between Maher’s Marvel lettering and DC lettering grows. But there are some flashes of Maher’s full power lettering when she blends sfx in and sometimes wholly steals the show. Though, as the first letterer to design Fantasma’s word balloons, I’m not a particular fan of how inaccessible white font on a baby blue word balloon is for visually-impaired readers.

Look, I read this for y’all, so feel free to BROWSE this Voices special at your own leisure. I genuinely dig these specials and love to see how they spotlight newer creators, underdeveloped characters, or even get away with some anachronistic experimentation away from 616 continuity!

Rapid Rundown!

The Battle of Jakku - Insurgency Rising #1

Star Wars: The Battle of Jakku – Insurgency Rising #1
- After years of slogging through the post-Empire Strikes Back status quo–years without Han Solo and with a concrete ending point already well-established–the Marvel Star Wars titles are finally moving into more fertile ground. Picking up after the events of Return of the Jedi, writer Alex Segura ushers us into a new, more fertile era. It’s a compelling first issue, and Segura immediately captures the voices of these familiar characters and mines new, emotional moments out of these old icons. The backup story outlining the generic villain’s backstory is a bit of a dud, but the main tale here is a strong one. It’s a shame that the art, which has been such a hallmark for these titles that elevated them beyond the old licensed comics, is not up to the script’s standard. Leonard Kirk’s linework is fine but looks rushed, with awkward facial details and inconsistent line weight and pages crowded with panels. Rachelle Rosenberg’s colors are a bit too flat and cartoony for Kirk’s style, which adds another disconnect to the book. Stefano Raffaelle draws the backup with Alex Sinclair on colors, and the final result is similarly unremarkable. It’s a shame it doesn’t look better, but it’s hardly the worst looking book on the stands. VC’s Joe Caramagna does a fine job lettering the whole book. The core of the story and my excitement for where the Star Wars line might go from here outweigh my minor misgivings about the visuals. – TR

Ultraman X The Avengers #2
- The Avengers have crossed universes after sending Galactus, on purpose, and Spider-Man/Miles Morales, by accident, over to Ultraman’s to correct this. Along with the tight fast-paced plot, writers Kyle Higgins and Mat Groom have a great sense of dialog with the Avengers, from Captain Marvel to Captain America to Iron Man and both Spider-Men, each character’s voice rings out as distinct and purposeful as they work with Shin Hayata/Ultraman and their Ultra Guard team. On top of that, they’re able to bring the funny: Cap and Spidey have a dynamite conversation on what it means to be an Avenger. Backing them up is the amazing work of artist Francesco Manna and color artist Matt Milla. Together they craft vivid lines that are lush and fluid, making a fusion of Western and manga comic aesthetics that is beautiful. This issue is a fun read full of intense action and genuine warmth. – GC3

X-Men #5
- How do you wake up a mutant from a coma? You perform a psychic rescue. If that premise sounds familiar, it’s because issue 5 of X-Men by Jed McKay and Ryan Stegman is a deliberate call back to New X-Men #121, the famous “silent issue”. Like that issue two psychics, Psylocke and Quentin Quire, go inside new mutant Ben Lui to try to wake him up. Their secondary mission is to find out who is activating mutant powers in adults. It should be said that this issue isn’t silent. Psylocke and Quire constantly argue with each other inside someone’s subconcious. Since it’s not really talking though, letterer Clayton Cowles’ choice to have any dialogue between the characters outside word balloons feels inspired. If you’re “talking” inside someone’s head, surely dialogue takes on a different shape. It’s a reminder that creative lettering can add to a story as much as any other tool in a comics maker’s toolbox. That said the real stars of this issue are Stegman and colorist Marte Garcia. Stegman’s art has gone up a notch on this series. For this adventure, he plays with page layouts. Quire and Psylocke’s descent into the subconscious looks incredible and his storytelling nails the way memories and time bleed into each other in dreams. Garcia’s paints this all in queasy greens and pinks, building up the unease for the internal fights at the end of the issue. However, McKay’s script means to evoke that famous Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely comic so much, it reads like a really good cover version or a remix even down to the final page. “From The Ashes” might be an attempt to go back to basics but is playing greatest hits really the best way forward? – D. Morris