Space Ghost #4 // Reviews
There’s a strange alarm going-off on Ghost Planet. Omegan protocols have been compromised. Jace doesn’t know what an Omega protocol is. Jan hasn’t even HEARD of them before. It’s serious: Zorak has escaped from Omegan Prison. Jan and Jace are ready to help their mentor defeat the criminal and return him to prison. It’s too dangerous, though. Their mentor going to have to go-in alone in Space Ghost #4. Writer David Pepose continues a serious re-examination of an old pulpy action space fantasy property with artist Jonathan Lau. Color comes to the page courtesy of Andrew Dalhousie.
Jace and Jan don’t like being left behind, but Space Ghost made it perfectly clear that there was no way that he was going to let them into the field with Zorak on the loose. He’s a religious zealot who is his own kind of crazy. There’s no question that Jace and Jan’s inexperience could be a serious liability for everyone involved. The thing is...there’s a distress signal arriving at Ghost Planet from the hadron collider on Grax-3. Jan can’t get ahold of Space Ghost. If Jan and Jace don’t do something, lives could be lost on Grax-3.
David Pepose takes a pulpy space action story and gives it the edge of more than a little bit of danger and menace. Grax is still a bit of a goofy meme of a character on social media thanks to his treatment on the offbeat comedy spoof Space Ghost Coast To Coast...but Pepose handles the villain in a way that makes him feel distinctly grim, alien and overwhelming. Pepose doesn’t need a whole lot of time to really develop the monstrousness of the villain before lowering-in the ancillary peril that Jan and Jace need to handle all on their own. It’s a well-constructed fourth chapter to the new series.
Lau frames the action with quite a bit of punch at just the right times. The intensity of the drama between Space Ghost and Jan and Jace feels cool and detached, yet still someone very, very intense. The power of Zorak feels like it’s hitting the page with intensity as Space Ghost handles a massive robotic power that is operating at the command of the villain. Space Ghost is clearly struggling against an overwhelming power. Lau does a pretty good job of bringing the massive discrepancy of power between hero and villain to the page. Dalhouse lends some much-needed depth to the page without compromising the overall clarity of the cel-animated series that inspired the series.
Everything seems to be moving in the right direction for the fourth issue with the series. It's very difficult to bring a truly sweeping adventure to the page with this sort of property. It wasn't even really taken all that seriously when it was originally presented on TV. So bring it to the page and wave that feels like it's actually taking the fantasy and the adventure and the menace of the villain seriously is quite an accomplishment.
