GHOST RIDER: Trail of Tears #6
© Marvel
Mania Grade: B
Issue: 6
Authors: Garth Ennis, Clayton Crain
Publisher: Marvel
Price: $2.99
Issue: 6
Authors: Garth Ennis, Clayton Crain
Publisher: Marvel
Price: $2.99
GHOST RIDER: Trail of Tears #6
By: Kurt AmackerReview Date: Friday, July 27, 2007
In this sixth and final issue of Ghost Rider: Trail of Tears, Garth Ennis returns to his usual bag of tricks for a parable about the follies of revenge set in the American South, post-Civil-War (the real one). After Travis Parham nearly dies in a battle lost to the Union army, freed slave Caleb and his family nurse him back to health, despite his status in the Confederate army. Travis works alongside Caleb to repay him for his kindness. He discovers that Caleb knows of an ancient force with no name that traffics in unholy vengeance. Eventually, Travis leaves Caleb’s home. When he returns, he discovers that a group of ex-Confederate soldiers have killed his friend and his family. As you’ve probably surmised, Caleb didn’t really die, but made a deal with the dark spirits lurking in the cave near his home. The Spirit of Vengeance emerges to make the wrong things right. But, Travis sets out to avenge his friend at the same time. By this issue, the ex-Confederates that don’t want slavery to die have been reborn as something unholy and are prepared to kill Caleb-as-Ghost-Rider, Travis, and an entire town that stands around them.
In Ghost Rider: Trail of Tears, Ennis writes with his usual blend of Americana mixed with ire over particular grievances. He sets a story in the Old West, but makes his villains a bunch of pissed-off ex-Confederates that can’t stand the idea of freed slaves. They come across as largely one-dimensional and the writing equivalent of a shortcut – villains that everyone in their right mind will reflexively despise, absent any real character development. Fortunately, Ennis curbs his tendency to beat dead horses of stereotype villains by showing the devastating effects of Caleb’s decision to become the Ghost Rider. After the destruction subsides and evil has perished, Travis and Caleb talk again for the first time since his departure from the farm. The two realize that they’ve both traveled a dark path from which they will not emerge. The consequences are more spiritual for Travis than Caleb, who has willingly damned himself to avenge his family. But, when we see Travis at the end, we realize that his own quest for vengeance has left him in a similar state. Ennis shows us that revenge often redeems nothing and leaves not justice, but broken lives and destruction.
Clayton Crain’s digital art looks indistinguishable from a painted comic, showing marked improvement over his work in Ghost Rider: Road to Damnation. That miniseries looked like a cut scene from a video game. This one looks like Crain painted it by hand. I had to look around online to see that wasn’t the case. But, it shows real progress on his part and adds to the moody Old West setting of the story.
This issue really stands as a sobering conclusion a good miniseries that could’ve been great. Ghost Rider fans will probably enjoy it when it comes out in collected form this September.
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