Ghost Cage

The Ohm Corporation controls all the power in the future and they’ve just come under attack.  It’s holo-A.I. CEO Mr. Karloff has unleashed Sam, a superpowered combat robot, into Ohm Tower to fight his way through the possessed threats representing various forms of energy at each level.  He won’t be doing this alone, however, as he has Doyle on his side.  She’s a low-level tech who has been hand-picked by Karloff to serve as Sam’s tech support.  Together they’re going to fight their way to the top to stop these threats, and any other terrorists looking to do harm to Ohm.  All because Mr. Karloff said so and there’s no reason not to trust the A.I. representation of an old, white CEO who controls the world’s power supply, right?

“Ghost Cage” is a real showcase for the artistic skills of Nick Dragotta.  Best known for his work illustrating the entirety of “East of West,” he gets to really cut loose here in this three-issue miniseries that’s a fast-paced romp from start to finish.  The fights against each kind of energy are impressively kinetic and appreciably diverse in how Sam deals with them.  Dragotta also brings an impressive amount of detail to the story as well, while also displaying some memorable character designs throughout the series as well.  The artist and co-writer also manages to make the conversation scenes feel like they’re part of the action as well as there’s still real momentum to how they’re displayed.

All of this is good enough to make me wish that the story was more interesting.  “Ghost Cage” is basically “Robocop” meets “The Raid” (or “Dredd” if you prefer).  While that sounds like a fun match-up, Dragotta and co-writer Caleb Goellner only pay lip service to the satire that drove Verhoven’s masterpiece and don’t quite capture the life-or-death stakes that characterized Evans’ action classic.  What I’m saying is that it’s a good thing the visuals really sell the action here as the storytelling here is just alright.  Fans of Dragotta will get the most out of this as it’s a good showcase for the creators evolving artistic skills.