Avengers by Jason Aaron vol. 5: Challenge of the Ghost Riders

Things haven’t been going well for Robbie Reyes, the Ghost Rider.  After losing control of his car, the Hell Charger, he wants to be done with this whole Spirit of Vengeance business.  Good thing that he’s a member of the Avengers, who can not only pool their talents to get him out of this mess, but call in an exorcism specialist like Daimon Hellstrom to help.  Except none of it winds up working and Robbie winds up in Hell face-to-face with its current ruler: Fellow Ghost Rider Johnny Blaze. He’s been doing his best to keep the realm infernal in order, but he needs more power in order to do so.  Robbie’s power, specifically. Blaze wants to race the youngster for it, except he’s so over this Spirit of Vengeance business. It isn’t until the current King of Hell threatens Robbie’s brother, Gabe, that the “Challenge of the Ghost Riders” begins.

After writing that summary, I realize that you have to buy into the idea that the power of a Ghost Rider can only be transferred through some kind of contest like this.  This comes in addition to the fact that the story is just another version of the “Hero doesn’t want to be a hero anymore, but then comes to realize his importance,” tale that’s been done to death for me.  While the Hell-based scenes only have nostalgia for Jason Aaron’s great run on “Ghost Rider” to offer, the Earthbound ones manage to be amusingly over-the-top more often than not. That’s because Blaze has sent a certain insanely powerful Spirit of Vengeance to keep the Avengers busy.  I won’t spoil it here, but it’s a character that Aaron was destined to write at some point and the results here are good enough to make me hope he gets that chance again.

Stefano Caselli provides the art and he does a decent enough job.  I like his style, the level of detail he provides, and his fight scenes, but the visuals don’t get as crazy as you’d expect a story about two supernatural racers storming their way through Hell would.  That leads to this volume being just an okay one overall, though the cliffhanger involving Tony Stark as the smartest caveman in the world does have promise.