I picked up the three issues of ‘Dark Horse Presents’ though (#13, #14 and #15 in case you were wondering); there was no way that I wouldn’t. You know, big fan of the original and all that. With the promise of more stories to come in the future, I wanted to be in right at the start and see what ‘Resurrection Mary’ had to offer. Quite a bit as it happens…
Vaughn is one half of a spook hunting team trying to make it big by investigating the legend of ‘Resurrection Mary’; thereby proving that ghosts exist. A ghost does appear in the graveyard but now she’s in Vaughn’s house and has just killed a man by pulling his heart out of his chest. Who is this ghostly lady and what are Vaughn and Tommy going to do with the dead body…?
This new incarnation of ‘Ghost’ is nothing like the original yet really similar at the same time, seriously. What you have then is the perfect blend of the familiar and the new, enough to attract old readers and new alike. I will definitely be checking out any more ‘Ghost’ comics that turn up on the shelves.
The same mystery is there, who is the ghost and why is she here? What is it that she’s meant to be doing? You don’t get the answer and considering the nature of this three-parter (setting the scene) you shouldn’t really expect one either. What ‘Resurrection Mary’ is all about is someone who has found herself back in the world of the living; struggling to deal with half remembered feelings of pain. This is covered superbly in #14 where Vaughn has to get to know a ghost who cannot (will not?) talk and reacts violently to being touched. Check out Noto’s work on the facial expressions at these moments, nothing short of brilliant. The ghost’s face doesn’t change but the eyes do and there’s a whole world of expression here that hints at what’s going on underneath the surface. The quality of Noto’s work drops off when it moves away from the ghost, and Vaughn, and onto the other things going on in the background. I’m trying to work out if this is a deliberate move designed to keep the focus where it should be…
The big difference for me wasn’t so much the change in setting; the switch from Arcadia to Chicago is an obvious one but both story lines appear to place more importance on plot rather than setting. No, the difference for me lies in the switch of perspective; it’s the ghost’s story but Vaughn is telling it. This is a clever move that not only highlights the ghost’s sense of being lost (how can she tell a story that she doesn’t know?) but gives us a little insight into Vaughn at the same time, a washed up man who suddenly has a chance to redeem himself.
There isn’t a lot of plot to write about (being more about questions than anything else) but the questions that ‘Resurrection Mary’ raises have more than piqued my interest. I’m looking forward to finding out the answers in future volumes, especially if Noto stays on board for art duty. I might be wrong but I think 'Resurrection Mary' might be reprinted when 'Ghost' goes monthly, check it out then if you've missed it here.
4 comments:
It's not that it's a bad relaunch (the move from a fictional city to a real one was pretty interesting), I just have a problem with ghost being used as nothing more than plot device and at best a side character in a when it should be about her.
I'd say that the story is very much about Ghost, she's just stuck in the background as it's a story that she cannot tell herself. As more of her tale comes to light I'm fully expecting Ghost to be the one telling her story.
What was also interesting is that the series seems to want to move ghost away from the more superhero-ish aspects of the original series. Here it's a lot more like a straight horror story but with Ghost as (again) a supporting charactor. Which is fine, but I personally miss that aspect of the series. How do you think this giant shift not only from ghost's perspective but also genre and tone will effect the it in the long run.
I think it's a little early to be asking that question when Ghost needs to find out her past and then decide what to do with that knowledge. Give it ten issues and she might be that superhero, I don't know. There was enough of a horror element to the original comic though that I think more focus, on that, could work here.
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