Summary
Cosmic Ghost Rider #2 continues from where the stellar first issue left off, proving to be one of Marvel’s funniest and most engaging new books.
The Cosmic Ghost Rider seems like the kind of character concept I might have dreamed up when I was a kid or a drug addict. Frank Castle, aka “The Punisher”, is now a deeply insane interstellar Ghost Rider aiming to right the wrongs he committed as the Black Right Hand of Thanos. And do so, as seen in Cosmic Ghost Rider #2, he has kidnapped Thanos as an infant and intends to raise the child as his own. It’s properly mental.
Everything you might want from such a story is in this issue. There’s heavy drinking, as Frank and baby Thanos, chained together, visit a local watering hole on a soon-to-be-devoured planet and get in trouble with the management. There are gags about the difficulties of parenting, with Frank inadvertently exposing Thanos to violence and destruction despite making every attempt not to. And there are all the galactic politics paradoxes you might require from a cosmic comic.
Cosmic Ghost Rider #2 is, you ask me, the funniest comic on the shelves today, at the very least from Marvel. Donny Cates’s writing is littered with jokes – Cates is killing it recently, with his excellent Death of the Inhumans #2 also out today – that are genuinely laugh-out-loud funny, and Dylan Burnett’s art is consistently pulling its weight with impeccable reactions from baby Thanos and bustling, truly alien environment and character designs. The colours, courtesy of Antonio Fabela, continue to pop, giving that feeling of a true spacefaring adventure.
I was sold after the first issue, but Cosmic Ghost Rider #2 proves this book is my favourite thing that Marvel are doing at the moment. It’s hysterical, outlandish, and a riotous read; an amalgam of all the stuff Marvel does best, full of interesting character turns and intriguing concepts. Don’t miss this series.
So you’re saying you were a drug addict?