Comics / Comic Reviews / DC Comics

Space Ghost #2 (Of 6)

By Leroy Douresseau
March 20, 2005 - 13:27

SPACE GHOST #2 is my first chance at reading DC’s re-imagining of the classic Hanna-Barbera cartoon character. Writer Joe Kelly has reworked the 1960’s era space cop into a 70’s vigilante in the vein of Dirty Harry or Mack Bolan, but dressed in “golden age” sci-fi pulp nonsense.

Kelly’s story is something we’ve seen so many times before – a man is betrayed by his friends or colleagues (it’s the latter here). His family is murdered, and he is left for dead. He’s saved by a mentor, who shows him the light of peace, but in the end, a man has to avenge the death of his family. This is so old-hat that one could imagine moths hanging around Kelly’s keyboard, but there’s something a bit different here. There’s a dark and bloody edge to Kelly’s script, and it’s just nasty enough to make the rest of this worth reading… at least in trade form.

What really sells this series is Ariel Olivetti’s painted art. Olivetti’s painted comics so remind me of Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez’s painted work for his 80’s DC sci-fi graphic novel, Star Raiders, that I hope he gets to do more comics. It’s his work that gives Kelly’s script the life it wouldn’t have otherwise. B-

Last Updated: August 31, 2023 - 08:12