Ghost Rider: Trail of Tears #1
April 2007
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Writer: Garth Ennis
Artist: Clayton Crain
Letters: Joe Caramagna
Assistant Editor: Daniel Ketchum
Editors: Warren Simons & Axel Alonso

22 pages

Rating: 4 out of 5

##

Premise: Injured on the battlefield, Confederate soldier Travis Parham is saved and nursed back to health by Caleb, a former slave who bought his and his wife’s freedom. In the course of his recuperation, he encounters the Spirit of Vengeance.

Synopsis:

Travis Parham is a battle-hungry Confederate soldier - at least until people start getting blown up and his saber is shattered by a Union bullet. As his determination wavers, he sees his compatriot John Appleby on the ground with a hole through his chest. Parham begins to drag Appleby to the hospital tent, only for him to beg to be put out of his misery through a well-placed pistol shot.

Parham can’t bring himself to do the job. Appleby’s last words are “DAMN YOU TO HELL!” and they are hit by a mortar shot.

That night, Caleb, a free black man, finds Travis slowly dying on the ground as he scavenges the battlefield. He brings him back to his house and nurses him back to health. To repay him, Travis stays and works for Caleb, having no where else to go.

One day, as he’s plowing a field, Travis sees a type of shrine that contains human skulls. He touches one and has a horrifying vision of a tall skinny man-like creature with a flaming skull for a head and wielding a whip. Caleb pulls him out of this vision, and tells him of the traditions and beliefs that the slaves kept alive - including their belief in a Spirit of Vengeance.

After two years, Parham finally decides to leave and head west with the whole “Manifest Destiny” thing. Caleb tells him to take care in the wilderness, and the book ends with a page that shows us that Caleb and his family may have far more trouble at home.

##

Review:

Ennis and Crain are back together on a Ghost Rider mini-series. I enjoyed their previous effort, and apparently added this to my pull list months ago, because I was pleasantly surprised to find it in my box this week.

This could be one of the most serious things that Ennis has ever written. Gone is the black humor, and what we are left with is simply a great story. Caleb as a character is a great voice of reason and serves as a stabilizing force in this part of the story. The book ends on a cliffhanger that makes me want to have the second issue in my grubby paws RIGHT NOW.

Crain’s art is amazing. It’s incredibly lifelike without being an Alex Ross rip-off. I loved his work in the previous mini-series, and I love it here as well. His use of color to set the mood is phenomenal. The first part of the book with its battle scenes is done as though it were photographs of the actual battle laid out sequentially - grayscale with ragged panel edges, odd stains, and high contrast. The rest of the book is in color - heavy blue tints at night and in the early morning - golden hues of firelight and the brutal noon sun, and the low light, but otherwise realistic color of scenes in the shade. This is a guy who’s studied the properties of light and uses them to full effect in his art.

Crain also uses Travis’s vision of the Spirit of Vengeance to go into a looser, more dreamlike style that enhances the psychedelic feel of the experience.

All in all, this is a great book. My only complaint is the title - Trail of Tears. There doesn’t seem to be any malice on the part of whomever chose the title, but as a reference to a particularly tragic and embarrassing moment of nineteenth century American history, I don’t see anything to redeem the choice - yet. It could be that future issues will explain its use in the book, especially if the Spirit of Vengeance chooses to act out against those who would propagate such events. But even then, perhaps another title could have been chosen that would have worked just as well without evoking such a tragedy.

I’d have given it five stars, but it feels incomplete - and it’s not just that our flame-headed friend hasn’t taken to the saddle to kick ass yet. I’ll give you the lowdown on the whole series in a few months.