Writer: Jason Aaron
Artist: Javier Garrón
Color Artist: David Curiel
Cover Artists: Javier Garrón & David Curiel
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Reviewer: StoryBabbler
The Avengers are engaging the demonic Mephisto across the span of Earth’s history. But this time, their goal is to save their very own legacy as they visit heroes of many shapes and origins with familiar powers and titles. Now in Avengers #58, they head to Japan’s past where they meet the new Ghost Ronin.
Review:
So, Jason Aaron is going full Scott Snyder with his big Mephisto storyline as the Avengers face his demonic allies targeting “Avengers” throughout history. With all of the ideas that were briefly presented a lil over a dozen issues ago, Jason Aaron has quite the supply of “new characters” to show everyone, and there is no shortage in sight.
The last issue had the Avengers help out a World War II soldier called Sgt. Szardos, who was the Sorcerer Supreme at the time. Which doesn’t add up since the Ancient One is alive during that time, but that doesn’t matter to Aaron’s storyline. This time the story takes us to the Edo Period of Japan’s past to meet Japan’s Ghost Rider: the Ghost Ronin, the Samurai of Vengeance. Not gonna lie, he’s a cool looking character and Javier Garrón and David Curiel do an excellent job with his design, color scheme of white and blue, and showing him in action.
However, Jason Aaron screws up the concept of this character with one simple line from Namor, “How exactly is he a Ghost Rider if he doesn’t ride anything?” Naturally, the comic delivers an over-the-top and campy response that doesn’t really make sense, but that’s sadly to be expected in this series. A good counterpoint is that not all spirits of vengeance ride things, but all Ghost Riders certainly ride something, even Wooly Mammoths as Jason Aaron showed us in past issues. Thankfully, the Ghost Ronin is still a cool enough character and his dialogue is fine ranging from stoic commands to vague words of wisdom.
That aside, the biggest problem in this comic is that the Avengers are once again back-seat drivers to their own series. This wouldn’t bee too much of a problem if it wasn’t the third time in a row and aside from Captain American and Nighthawk, the others don’t really do anything of substance. Other than several pages of two different pairs of Avengers having awkward conversations among themselves, the Avengers do nothing and the Ghost Ronin isn’t in any real danger and is just hear to be cool and badass.
The end of the comic delivers a very clear hint that the storyline’s end goal is to bring the modern-day Avengers team to face-to-face with the Avengers B.C. team that Jason Aaron created. For fans who don’t really like the Avengers B.C. team, they might want to sit out the rest of this storyline, let alone Jason Aaron’s run on Avengers. For everyone else, just buckle up and keep reading to see the next new heroes Aaron has to show you.
Final Thoughts:
Avengers #58 shows readers the Ghost Ronin, a new Japanese Ghost Rider from the past who steals the show mainly due to his design. However, as with the previous issue, the Avengers are backup characters and they don’t really do much except talk and stand in awe of the Ghost Ronin. Hopefully the next few issues actually have the Avengers doing something.