"Ghost Rider: Robbie Reyes - The Complete Collection" A Great Design for a Run Too Short


     I was never a big fan of the original Ghost Rider. No disrespect to Johnny Blaze but I never quite felt any particular connection to him or his design. You know who I enjoyed reading about as a kid, and whose design I love even more now? Robbie Reyes as the Ghost Rider. Whether it's the car, or the cool metallic skull, respectfully it sort of feels like an update that Ghost Rider as a character could have used. I remember reading about this character when he first came out, and so I decided to revisit it finally. Let's talk about it.

    What can I say, this dude looks cool. I just prefer his design and the car so much more than the original Ghost Rider design. Though, I don't quite like that during this original run Robbie keeps on shaving his head or doing dumb things with his hair. The hair he has on this cover, with the white streak through it was just perfect as is, and I'm glad it's become the look he's been most remembered for. Funnily enough, I only started thinking about Robbie again because I started (and then sort of left on the table) Marvel's Midnight Suns.

    I am glad to report that the character I thought was cool as a child is still cool. This was around the same time they were doing a lot of different updates/spins on old characters, like Kamala Khan as Ms. Marvel, I think Jane Foster as Thor was around this time as well, and Iron Heart as well. My timeline might be wrong but I do remember that this push did exist. Regardless, Robbie is more than just "hispanic ghost rider," at least to me. 

    Like I saw people on Twitter complain about Jackie Welles in Cyberpunk 2077 being almost obnoxiously hispanic and it rubbing some people the wrong way, but I wouldn't say that's the case for Robbie. I do quite enjoy that for his first run all Robbie really cares about is his little brother Gabe who he's somehow raising as a high schooler. Even after gaining his powers he mostly uses it just for street racing to try and have them find a better neighborhood. What I really enjoyed was his sort of relationship with Eli, who is his "satanic spirit."

    I know apparently in later runs Robbie supposedly becomes really boring or gets ruined, but the reveal that his spirit is in fact not benevolent but that of a hitman, and that he was actually his family member. Frankly, my only complaint is that this run is so short, I really do wish they did more solo Robbie Reyes work, I would have definitely read it. It just felt so fresh and fun to see a character start to find his footing as a hero. It didn't need a bunch of crossovers, or some crazy big bads, it felt just right.

Final Score: 75/100

    I know I didn't talk too much about the comics themselves, but it's really only twelve issues, and then this collection collects some random other things Robbie was in, including a weird crossover with X-23 and Amadeus Cho as the Hulk which just feels like them once again throwing in all of these new-age verisons of classic characters together. I didn't even quite enjoy that part involving the purple rat which was clearly just a DC parasite ripoff. I'll be reading more Robbie stuff tomorrow, just to see quite how bad this All-Rider stuff supposedly gets.

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