In November 1992, Marvel Comics launched a new line of comics series, set at the end of the next century. The first to appear was Spider-man 2099, closely followed by Ravage, Punisher, and Doom 2099. Although Ravage was an original character, most of the 2099 series were revisions of existing Marvel characters (later these books would be joined by futuristic versions of the Hulk, the X-Men, and others). But the best of these series, though not the longest lasting, was (IMHO) Ghost Rider 2099. For the first year of it's run, from May '94 to April '95; Ghost Rider 2099 was one of the best comic books around.

Its story is set in Transverse City, a place which "sprawls between what used to be Detroit and what Chicago became." Intended as the centerpiece of a transcontinental mega-highway system, Transverse City- ten stories high, twenty lanes wide- has become an example of social darwinism run amok. Abandoned by its original investors, the massive structure was parceled out to a variety of corporations for development.

The upper levels have come to signify status, while squatters and other members of the permanent underclass occupy the lower reaches. Law enforcement duties have been contracted out to Central Security Systems, or CSS, a private agency that falls just short of that other famous SS in its tactics. Despite their "best" efforts however, lawlessness reigns. It is a world that desperately needs a hero, or at least an anti-hero, and the new Ghost Rider fits the bill.

Unlike previous incarnations of the Spirit of Vengeance, this GR owes his creation not to any supernatural occurrence, but to the spirits of the information age. A young punk cyber-hacker, Kenishiro "Zero" Cochrane, is pursued by a gang of murderous thugs, intent on "harvesting" information encrypted into a chip implanted in his head. Unable to escape, Zero commits virtual suicide by launching his persona onto the Net, burning out his net-hacking implant in the process.

In his next aware moment he stands on a virtual landscape surrounded by strange beings who exist in cyberspace. These artificial intelligences, called the Ghostworks, are dependent on human technology for their existence, and they have resurrected Zero in binary form in an attempt to preserve the human race. The Ghostworks consider human greed, ignorance and corruption to be analogous to computer viruses, threatening to "crash the program" of humanity. They have selected Zero Cochrane to be their "anti-viral agent". Uploading him into an advanced, robotic body of their own design, they unleash him on an unsuspecting world, and the Ghost Rider of the 21st century is born.

This newest incarnation of GR is equipped with an arsenal of onboard weaponry: a futuristic electrosaw which springs from his right forearm, a left hand made of a "morphable nanomer alloy" which is capable of changing shape and cutting through most any material, and built in lasers usable for targeting and attacking. He also has sophisticated defenses, including a cloaking device and a system that produces "solidograms." These tangible illusions allow GR to camouflage himself, appearing as almost anyone. He puts these abilities to good use, fighting a one man war against the forces of corruption poisoning Transverse City, and especially against the mega-corp controlling it: Data Manipulation and Organization Networks, a.k.a. D/MONIX.

I have to be honest. The very first thing that attracted me to the book was the strong resemblance this GR bears to a Terminator cyborg. But when I picked it up I was struck by the dark colors and stylish artwork, accented by the simple technique of coloring the "gutters" between the panels. This coloring, usually done in blue or black, seemed to lend a new continuity to the action, blending smoothly from one panel to the next (I don't know if this is an original idea, but it ought to be used more often). Then I read the story. Fantastic! Serious high concept! The mind of Johnny Mnemonic in the body of The Terminator doing the job of Judge Dredd (to invoke three of my favorite 80's sci-fi action movies). Reading this title is an almost cinematic experience. In fact Len Kaminski, the series' writer, has observed that he always envisioned the first five issues as "Ghost Rider 2099-The Movie." Read them yourself and see if you don't agree.

These first issues deal with GR's struggle against D/MONIX to recover the mysterious "Singapore archive." This is the data file Zero was carrying when he died, which he managed to copy during the chase. I won't spoil the climax of issue #5 by revealing the contents of the archive here; suffice to say that it ties in with GR's origin and becomes a major plot point by the end of the cycle. Also revealed in #5 is the apparent duplicity of the Ghostworks. Did they really have humanity's best interests at heart when they created GR? Are they the benevolent beings they appear? Read on and learn.

Unlike some of the other 2099 titles, I found this series to have a high "believability" factor. For all its futuristic trappings, Transverse City is a world I recognize. Unlike Spider-man's New York or the X-Men's Halo City, this looks like a real city, not like something out of Fritz Lang's Metropolis (or a traditional superhero comic). It's got dirty brick walls, garbage and street people. It was easy for me to forget that I was reading a comic and lose myself in the story. And that's the whole point, after all.

Part of the difficulty that afflicts any comic book series attempting to portray superheroes in a futuristic setting is that a "superworld" already looks pretty futuristic. Elite units of agents ride on flying sleds, shooting at each other with ray guns and communicating with holographic videophones. And that doesn't even count the technology available to the superheroes. Teleporters, faster-than-light travel, fusion power, blaster sidearms, human cloning and all manner of genetic manipulation already exist in the superworld of today. This makes it hard to depict the future, except that the future-tech would in theory be available to almost everyone.

The way in which GR2099 overcame this difficulty was that it didn't feel like a superhero comic. The adventures of Zero Cochrane in the body of a cybernetic warbot felt like an edgy sci-fi story. It was only when Marvel tried to integrate Transverse City into the same world containing Spider-man, the Hulk, and the X-men that the book started to feel ordinary.

The Spider-man crossover in issue #7 wasn't bad. At least they fought each other (over a container of a rare and dangerous chemical that GR was intent on stealing). If they had teamed up to fight some costumed baddie, the series might as well have been over right there. But Spidey was strictly a secondary character, and the fight lasted for only 6 pages. It was an important element in the story, rather than being the story itself.

The following issue involved an introspective journey into the mind of one of Zero's few friends. This allowed us to see him from a new perspective, as well as allowing us to see how far he's progressed in eight short issues, from the self-involved young man of his earlier life.

Issue #9 seemed to me to be a major stumble in the quality of storytelling. The main plot thread involves a minor foe from the early issues returning in a highly unbelievable fashion. The combat that follows seems arbitrary, as in "we've got to have at least one fight scene per issue, so here it is." But at least GR finishes the guy off this time around. He should have done it the first time.

The next two issues were much better. Ghost Rider squares off against a group of upper-class sickos who get their kicks by murdering "downrampers"(the lower-level inhabitants). The weapons in these crimes are a group of genetically engineered monsters operated by V-R remote control. Its interesting to see GR battle someone close to his own power level, and a nice change from watching him toss securicops around.

The book began to lose its appeal to me after the first year, mainly for two reasons. First, the revolving door on the artist's slot was finally filled by Ashley Wood, beginning with issue#15. He would stay with the series through the final issue ten months later. While Mr. Wood has an interesting visual style, I felt that he was the wrong choice for this particular book. His pencils have a very emotional sense to them, telling you how to feel about the pictures, rather than the more detail-oriented, representational style I felt was appropriate.

The other reason had to do with the "integration" of Transverse City into the Marvel Universe. Beginning with issue #12 and the ascension of Dr. Doom (yes, that Doom) to the presidency of the U.S., GR2099 began to feel like an ordinary comic book. The "One Nation Under Doom" story arc, which affected all the 2099 titles, had the effect of pulling the various series into tighter continuity. But it also infected GR 2099 with those "super-future comic" problems I mentioned earlier.

I stuck with the series 'till the end, but I don't think it ever quite recovered. I remember those first dozen issues fondly, though and I re-read them frequently. If you get the chance, you should too.

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