The Black Ghost #1 - New Wave Comics

THE BLACK GHOST No. 1, September 2019

Published as “part of the Comixology Originals line of exclusive digital content”, as well as enthusiastically described by Mark Waid, the “best-selling author of Kingdom Come, Daredevil, Archie and more”, as being “seriously compelling, with a lead you can’t help but root for”, this opening instalment to Monica Gallagher and Alex Segura’s “Hard Revolution” storyline certainly contains a fair few elements with which to entice its audience back for a second reading. Indeed, the twenty-two page periodical’s mix of dogged newspaper journalism, naively-brave vigilantism and a mysteriously masked, well-dressed gentlemen righting the wrongs of a criminal organisation, will probably alone have drawn in a substantial audience eager to relive the Golden Age of Comics, or return to the more innocent days of Peter Parker at the Daily Bugle and Clark Kent at the Daily Planet.

Moreover, this five-part mini-series’ writing partnership even manages to somewhat replicate the palpable sense of personal injustice once generated by the heroes of yesterday, by quickly cramming in a condensed back story as to Lara’s “mad crusade to unmask the Ghost” being motivated by the murder of her beloved brother, after he took a stand against the corruption of Creighton city. Reminiscent of both an adolescent Bruce Wayne clutching the corpses of his slain parents and then Matt Murdock developing an ability to out-punch a knife-wielding thug, Dominguez’s ‘road to condoning summary justice’ resultantly is as entertaining as her fortuitous cyber-connection, LONE, is disconcertingly well-informed.

Sadly however, any such sense of nostalgia is quickly dispelled courtesy of this comic’s creative team deciding to populate some of its early character’s speech bubbles with all manner of colourful metaphors and expletives. Admittedly, this jarring jaunt with profanities does seem to dwindle as the book’s narrative progresses and moves away from our heroine’s brush with some low level enforcers in a seedy alleyway, but it still raises its unnecessary head from time to time, most noticeably when the “burnt out cops reporter” is confronted by her agitated editor over an imminent article deadline; “Mags… I’m onto something real here, I promise you. Big things are happening, okay?”

George Kambadais’ layouts for Issue One of “The Black Ghost” also possibly prove something of a disappointment, despite the former freelance colourist’s ability to populate the publication with plenty of prodigiously pencilled panels, such as Lara’s aforementioned flashback sequence. There should be little doubt that the Greek artist’s attractively clean line-work makes reading this comic’s script a joy, yet there is a distinctly wooden, two-dimensional flatness to his figures, especially the cape-wearing titular lead when he finally flies into action, which genuinely detracts from any sense of pulse-pounding pugilism.

Written by: Monica Gallagher & Alex Segura, and Art by: George Kambadais