That establishment of the book’s emotional core gives Cates a foundation on which to go wild with time travel, Baby Thanos and flaming skulls. My turn to be punished.” Frank Castle and the Bifrost. was by tellin’ myself that my turn would come. “When I’s doing what I did back on Earth. Cates’ writing keeps the core pathos of Frank Castle, when he explains to Odin exactly why he is restless in Valhalla, the hall of heroes: He knows he doesn’t deserve a reward. While the art pushes the already exaggerated subject matter just that much further. Which results in the best single comic book panel I’ve seen this week, at right.īurnett’s weathered art and expressive character designs make everything pop with slightly exaggerated style, while Antonio Fabela’s colors explode off the page and delight in details, like the starfield within the midnight black of Cosmic Ghost Rider’s armor. So Frank decides that he’s going to do the one thing he’s been thinking about ever since he died: He’s going to go back in time and murder Thanos when the Mad God was an infant in his cradle, and prevent him from becoming his timeline’s galactic armageddon. What matters is that Cosmic Ghost Rider #1 begins with Odin kicking Frank Castle out of Valhalla because the man just can’t stop beating everyone up, and then gets even better from there.īaby Thanos and the Cosmic Ghost Rider. Writer Donny Cates and artist Dylan Burnett lay the backstory out in a narratively efficient and visually arresting way in the first three pages of the issue, and none of it matters. This is a Frank Castle from an alternate timeline in which Thanos took over the entire universe, a tidbit I discovered only after devouring the entire issue. “Wow, Susana,” you’re saying, “that sounds really complicated.
Cosmic Ghost Rider #1 has a continuity behind it - a completely ludicrous confluence of fictional events in which Frank Castle (the Punisher) obtained the powers of Ghost Rider (the flaming skull motorcycle guy) and the Silver Surfer (who wields the Power Cosmic) at the same time. Today I’m going in the opposite direction. Comics advocates usually try to get around this is by recommending stories that don’t come with a lot of continuity baggage. The looming presence of continuity can be daunting for anyone looking to get into comics for the first time.
#GHOST RIDER VS THANOS SERIES#
He then spent the rest of his own COSMIC GHOST RIDER limited series trying to raise the kid better than he had been, but that didn't exactly work out the way he wanted.Welcome to #1 Comic of the Week, a series where our comics editor, Susana Polo, tips you off to a neat new story or series that kicked off in comics this week - just in time for some weekend reading. Castle intended to kill baby Thanos, but found no sin in the child yet. Noting this, Odin returned his CGR powers to him and sent him to the time and place of his choosing. That wasn't the end for Cosmic Ghost Rider though! Odin gave him a place in Valhalla as a reward, but Frank bristled at the idea. Though he assumed he'd be evenly matched with his fellow former herald, Frank got smashed to pieces by Thor's hammer. More importantly, he fought alongside both the young and old Thanos when the Fallen One–a Mjonir-wielding Silver Surfer–and his Annihilation Horde appeared for a final battle. In these later days, with almost everyone dead, Castle ran errands through time for his master, used his Penance Stare on Thanos every morning (the Mad Titan's favorite way of reliving his greatest hits), and fed the dog, known to modern scholars as the Hulk!
Though he still tried to defeat the killer, Cosmic Ghost Rider accepted Thanos' offer to work with him instead.
They fought together for untold time until Thanos blasted Galactus' head clean off his body! After hearing about Thanos' rampage through space, Castle offered Galactus his services as a herald, which the Devourer accepted. However, he gained the power after Thanos had already left!ĭriven mad by his loneliness, near-immortality, and lack of purpose, he found himself the only one around when a dying Galactus appeared on Earth. Just before dying himself, Castle called out for vengeance and got it from Mephisto by becoming the new Ghost Rider. Eons before, the man formerly known as the Punisher had survived until the older Thanos made his last attack on Earth, killing almost everyone in the process. Readers may have been shocked when CGR introduced himself as Frank Castle, but the name didn't ring a bell for Thanos the Younger. In this future, Thanos the Elder succeeded in his mission to wipe out nearly all life in existence for Death, but still needed to ice the Fallen One, hence bringing his younger self back to the future.