Writer: Ed Brisson
Artist: Damian Couceiro
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Release Date: December 4, 2019

It’s the city that never stops! Welcome to Transverse City, where everything’s for sale-if you’re fast enough to take it!

Kenshiro “Zero” Cochrane was just your average keyboard cowboy until he shocked with the wrong people and got murdered-life’s a glitch, ain’t it?
Now, with a second chance from a higher power and an advanced weaponized automaton, Zero will punish those who have spilled innocent blood!

The issue starts with a brief introduction to Transverse City before a big explosion caused by the Hotwire Martyrs motorcycle gang. It feels like a cyberpunk Wild Bunch showing up on the set of Quadrophenia at first, but it takes a turn after they hack into the system and instead of fuel cells, find a “big, ugly droid”

We then head off to D/Monix Mobile HQ and if you are a little lost, don’t worry, I’m with you. The biggest problem I’ve had with these 2099 books is that you are thrown into the deep end of the 2099 pool and while you are trying to stay above water, the creative teams are struggling to tell a complete story with a very limited space. The couple of extra pages they are given just doesn’t feel like enough…I wish they were given an extra issue or two.

It seems the droid is the property of D/Monix and they have decided to hit the self-destruct button, even though one of the gang is the son of Kenshiro (from D/Monix). Yea, I kind of think I know who is going to become Ghost Rider!

After the explosion, we see Zero stuck in the Ghostworks where he meets Blaze and at least things are starting to feel a bit familiar. Blaze then shows Zero the who and what that sent him to this digital hell and then you get the inevitable deal with the devil proposition…live again, but be indebted to Ghostworks and Blaze.

Of course, living means his conscious going into that droid body with now appropriate flaming skull and a shitty attitude. It’s a monkey paw so straight out of the Twilight Zone that Zero even says so himself. He then heads off to his girlfriend’s and it’s back to the wilderness for me. That continues a bit more when the Artificial Kidz (the Z make is EXTREME!) show up, but at least by the end, I get what’s up a bit more.

Zero’s father is found guilty…pretty much of being Zero’s father, and just when you think that Zero and his father are going to start singing the theme from the Courtship of Eddie’s Father and skip into the sunset, the opposite happens and we’ve got ourselves a Ghost Rider 2099. Alright.

The issue ends with “Not the End…” and that’s cool for those involved, but this is the end of the road for me. It’s not that the issue was horrible, there just was nothing here to hook me in. That’s been happening a whole lot in the 2099 future for me. We usually get one or two pages of the actual character pushed on the cover and the twists each book seem to be made to serve up are neither shocking or inspiring. Top that off with a total lack of fun and I just don’t know why these books exist in this shape and form. I’ll leave it all on a positive note and say that the art was really good.

Final Thoughts:

I continue to be unimpressed with these 2099 books and am confused with who the target audience is. It’s certainly not me and while I had hopes for Ghost Rider 2099, that hope went unfulfilled.

5.0/10