The new Ghost Rider series should be a slam dunk. This is one of Marvel’s most interesting and often most undervalued characters, and the hook of Johnny Blaze as king of hell gives the series a great engine (no pun intended) for compelling stories. Unfortunately, the second issue is hit or miss, with more misses than hits.

This issue continues Johnny Blaze’s quest to find escaped demons and return them to hell where they belong. Danny Ketch gets in the way, as it appears Blaze is going too far and attacking ordinary people. Or are they normal? It is unclear why Ketch thinks that or why we shouldn’t root for Blaze.

Writer Ed Brisson handles Danny Ketch and his supporting cast well, making them feel well-rounded, with motivations that make sense. Unfortunately, he doesn’t have nearly as good a handle on Johnny Blaze. Everyone reacts to Blaze as though he is doing something terribly wrong, but the storytelling is so vague that he seems to be acting entirely rationally and doing the right thing. If these characters aren’t demons, or if they’re sinners who have paid their debt to the world in the afterlife and deserve freedom, it’s not at all made clear in the text. 

The art is a mixed bag, as well. The book is credited to Aaron Kuder, with Craig Yeung, John Lucas, & Luciano Vecchio. It’s not clear if Yeung, Lucas, and Vecchio are all different inkers, or if there’s a second penciler splitting storytelling duties with Kuder. Still, specific pages have a radically different style, and it’s a bit jarring. The pages that are definitely penciled by Kuder are ornate but drawn with clean lines; some pages are muddier and sketchier instead. One suspects that multiple artists--be they a second penciler or second and third inkers--were brought in to handle a backlog of pages, which is alarming for a book only on its second issue. The coloring by Jason Keith and the lettering by VC’s Clayton Cowles are competent, but they don’t mitigate the jarring art issues.

All that said, the design of the demons is very cool, and when the team is firing on all cylinders (another engine pun!), the book really works. Here’s hoping that the creators involved work out the kinks for issue 3.

Grade: B