Sunday 1 June 2014

‘Ghost #4’ – DeConnick, Borges (Dark Horse Comics)

One story arc comes to an end and so another begins. This is the way of comic books everywhere and no less so with ‘Ghost #4’, a book that doesn’t have a lot to say for itself (which is going to result in a very short and to the point post today…) but is laying the foundations for something to play out over the next few issues. I don’t know quite what but it looks interesting.

Elisa Cameron has defeated the threats of Dr. October, the White City Butcher and also the demon Beleth. Ghost can now start to protect the city of Chicago from itself while her friends start to piece together Elisa’s past life from the effects of a dead friend…

‘Ghost #4’ is essentially a chance to take a break from the frenetic events of previous issues and start to see what Elisa herself is really all about, both in her past and the path she is choosing to take right now. There isn’t a lot of difference between the two to be honest; you could say that as Ghost, Elisa is just continuing to be the person she always was, only with added power and purpose. The parallels are cleverly drawn and aren’t too obvious; I like a bit of subtlety so appreciate the approach taken here.

What does this mean for the future? It’s clear that Elisa’s past isn’t ready to let her go just yet and that there are questions still to be answered. Nothing major at the moment, these are the kind of questions that lead to even bigger questions I think. We’ll see how that goes.


One final word on the art though. I’d love to see a little more consistency with the artists; Noto, Sook and now Borges are all good but I would love to see this title pick an artist and then stick with them for an extended run; give them time to really make the character and setting their own and complement DeConnick’s excellent writing. Just a thought guys. ‘Ghost’ is starting to look really good in terms of moving away from the original and becoming its own tale; a little consistency with the art could really make all the difference as far as I’m concerned.

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