Busy, busy issue. Very busy. So busy Williamson can kill people off without it resonating just because there’s so much other stuff going on. And a lot of it goes on at the end; this issue has two cliffhangers, one hard, one soft. Very busy.
But the rest of the issue is awesome as usual. And the busyness is just overkill, it’s not bad. Williamson does a whole lot of callbacks in the last few pages, even for the resolution to the story arc.
What remains to be seen–since Williamson hasn’t exactly established a cast outside Jackson and his ghost–is where Ghosted will go next. This arc certainly shows it can go unexpected places, but with the flashbacks shining light into Jackson’s unrevealed backstory, I hope Williamson doesn’t choose to dwell too much. Constantly looking backward is boring.
The series continues to be a lot of harsh fun.
CREDITS
Writer, Joshua Williamson; artist, Davide Gianfelice; colorist, Miroslav Mrva; letterer, Rus Wooton; editor, Sean Mackiewicz; publisher, Image Comics.
Williamson gets away with a lot of exposition. Jackson and the kidnapped, possessed girl are on the run through the jungle of ghost animals–which turns out to be somewhat cute, in an amusing turn–and the girl just talks and talks. But the way Williamson paces out the conversation, it works great. There’s danger and tension and the dialogue fits between. Very nicely done.
Gianfelice’s art stands out this issue. Maybe it’s because everything Williamson does–Jackson is being held hostage–needs to be a surprise. There’s the villains taunting him so their taunts need to be visually rendered, there’s the allies doing a surprise attack, the surprise needs to be rendered. Even though there aren’t any huge set piece fights (I think they average three or four panels), the art’s essential.
Trick is okay. I’m a little surprised, since he sort of ominously disappeared for a bit last issue. He’s in sidekick role, self-proclaimed dirty old man to Jackson’s more sympathetic narrator.
Oh, good, Davide Gianfelice is a new artist on Ghosted. I was a little confused as the style is so different from the first arc. I thought it could be the same guy, just because Williamson’s doing such different things right off with this issue.
Williamson does the heist movie thing where he reveals all the double crosses and hidden machinations to allow the good guys to beat the mark. Because he’s doing it in a comic, it doesn’t work. There’s no way for him to do a smooth montage. Instead he’s got a lot of forced, awkward exposition.
And now we get to the double-crosses; sort of. Williamson tries to make a big deal out of one character’s “out of character” actions, but she then proceeds to explain to the stunned cast why her actions make total sense.
Ghosted is back, which is nice, they only had a bad second issue. This one is a lot better.
What the heck is this thing? I suppose the original material is good, but there’s not very much of it. Most of the issue reads like a recap of the last one. Williamson goes over all his characters and their particular skills, which is beyond redundant.
Joshua Williamson is one of those odd writers who are better with summary than are with actual scenes. It really shows when he’s doing a montage of his protagonist getting together a team of ghost hunters and thieves. They’re these little scenes, with just the right amount of information and personality.