I don’t know about you guys, but I totally forgot that Ghost even existed. I think it’s unfortunate when a series has delays for whatever reason, and this one has been delayed about two months. It definitely killed the momentum of the series considering only one issue has come out so far. So many great new books have come out between December and now that I’m curious to see if people even realize this book is still going. Unfortunately, this second issue doesn’t help it solidify a place on the map of great ongoing series and it fails to fight for a spot on your pull list. The last few sentences of this comic really sum up about how I felt about this issue. To quote Elisa, “You convince yourself you understand these things. While the world laughs at how little you actually know.” Story-wise there’s a lot going on, but nothing extremely memorable or worth noting. My favorite part of this issue was the parts focusing on the White City Butcher-which isn’t a compliment considering he’s just a supporting character.
Like I said in the first issue, the minor characters in the story seem trivially unimportant and at some points are downright annoying. Some of them find themselves in trouble during this issue and I couldn’t care less what happens to them to be honest. I have established no connection to them whatsoever.
Again, the dialogue at some points is cringeworthy - Beleth, the demon that makes a deal with Elisa to tell her information regarding James Barrow, the mayor, and Doctor October in exchange for a new body to replace his aging host says something that nobody his age would ever say. People my age (19) say this to sound like a total douche as a joke, and that term is “B T Dubs” (by the way). I don’t understand if that’s a ploy to try to appeal to younger people, but I thought it was quite unfunny.
I also didn’t like how there’s so many rules to this whole demon vs. human thing and what Ghost’s mission is. I feel like the writer is just making stuff in their own head but it doesn’t really translate on the page. I had to re-read some of the dialogue in regards to what Beleth tries to explain to Elisa. It wasn’t enjoyable like in a book like Coffin Hill or Revival where you to try to extract any extra information and possibly hints you could, it’s just becomes tedious and takes away from the flow of the book.
Also, there are two different artists on this book. I love Ryan Sook’s art even more than the story in this one, and Drew Johnson did a great job as well… but they’re two different artists. I’d personally rather wait another month to have all of Sook’s art and a solid story rather than what we got. I have no way of knowing what happened behind the scenes, but I definitely didn’t like the outcome.
The only positive I can take from reading this book is the fact that we get to see Ghost and Beleth waste some demons. That said, the cover features Doctor October, and Ghost’s encounter her is just like the rest of this book, and that’s underwhelming. If you read this book, all you really have to do is look at the last two pages and that’s about the only relatively exciting thing that happens. I felt like I was reading a book that was PG-13 when it needs to be amped up to R or beyond. On top of the other problems I’ve had with Ghost it’s just not gritty enough or enticing enough for me to enjoy. Perhaps they should take some cues from Ghost’s old pal X…
Score: 2/5
Writer: Kelly Sue DeConnick & Chris Sebela Artist: Ryan Sook (Pages 1-11) & Drew Johnson (Pages 12-22) Publisher: Dark Horse Comics Price: $2.99 Release Date: 3/12/14