He's a Spirit of Vengeance, he's gonna get it.

That is the beauty of Jason Aaron. The man knows how to kick ass and take names. And he is all out of bubble gum from the looks of it. This is Johnny Blaze for the fans of Grindhouse. This is Johnny Blaze for all those kids who wait up until 2 in the morning to catch some soft-core nudity on Skinemax and some  horrendous C-Movie with more gore than anything you'll ever see in a movie theater.

This is the Johnny Blaze I wish that I had grown up with. The one less devoted to joining up with the Champions of LA and more interested in burning the hearts of sinners and saints alike and taking everyone down with him.

Jason Aaron kicks it out of the park again. The book moves so quickly you have to read it again. It is all there on the page. There isn't a need for some skullduggery nonsense where we try to see inside the soul of the man doing the killing. He doesn't treat us readers like idiots. He starts the story smack dab in the middle. Johnny is in the jail, got there somehow, and he's looking for somebody.

He's the drifter. The man with no name and a flaming skull. And he is pissed.

Tan Eng Huat has always been on my radar since Doom Patrol days (him and John Arcudi made that book enjoyable and DC did all they could to kill it so some jackass like John Byrne could come in and bore the crap right out of us again) and his art has gotten ridiculously strange since those days. The tight lines are almost gone and there is a sketchy feel that falls right in line with the way Roland Boschi was drawing the book. The colors are all perfectly muted to feel out the taste of the grime and dirtiness you'd feel and see on the screen at a Grindhouse. And it works for the character. Yes, I miss Roland, but Tan is a good fit for this book. His art has a definite Angel Medina/Todd McFarlane feel to it which can be seen in the way his human characters look. Just take a gander.

Perfect example: Aaron throws the character a curveball this ish as Johnny decides to stay partially human and partially G-Rider so his face is on fire as opposed to just a full-blown skull, but there is so much right there. Johnny is thinking smart, he doesn't want to lose control to the Rider, he wants to retain a part of himself. And both Aaron and Huat knock it out of the park on this.

The ongoing subplot of Zadkiel and how many people are actually followers is felt here with the strange-ness of Bob, the security officer, and the Deacon at the end. And that guy is one MASSIVE God-loving criminal.

As always, I cannot recommend this book enough. God-fearing and God-loving aside, Aaron should be writing Punisher, Moon Knight, and any and all of the lower-tier B characters in the Marvel Universe. Anyone associated with the Marvel Knights in any way, shape or form (besides maybe Daredevil) deserves to
be blessed by his amazing talent. It would turn Moon Knight into a worthwhile book and get me to read it. The man can do no wrong. As long as the art teams keep hitting their arcs, I'll be happy as a Spirit of Vengeance in the middle of the Republican National Convention.

ZING!