Ghost Rider 2099 Omnibus

Ghost Rider 2099 #1-25

by Len Kaminski

Between Neuromancer and The Matrix, there was Ghost Rider 2099: a dark cyberpunk take on Marvel’s biker from beyond the grave! When the consciousness of Zero Cochrane, a murdered computer hacker, is downloaded into the body of an unstoppable cybernetic warbot, sparks fly – and Cochrane’s killers become his first targets for vengeance! But getting his revenge won’t be easy as Ghost Rider finds himself under the power of the mysterious inhabitants of the Ghostworks, a digital A.I. realm with its own set of rules ― and the Doctor Doom of 2099 wants Ghost Rider under his control, as well! Enter a futuristic world that may be too close for comfort, and witness the epic story of one of Marvel’s most deadly new heroes of the 1990s – one hundred years ahead of his time! Collecting GHOST RIDER 2099 (1994) #1-25.

Genres: Comics, Marvel, Science Fiction, Superheroes, Horror

632 pages, Hardcover

Published October 22, 2024

Reviews

[Jared Gomez · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not a great read. The artwork was nice at times but the majority of the time it was messy and made every page polluted and hard to follow. Lot of story lines that took 3-4 issues to build up just to be resolves in one page. The dialogue was cringey with a lot of tech based words replacing swear words to sound edgy. Overall wouldn't recommend.

[Jay · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ever since I started collecting Ghost Rider comics when I was in middle school, this was always a series I was most excited to eventually read all the way through. The omnibus itself is nice to own, but the story is kind of a letdown. Maybe times have simply just changed, but the overarching story of this run was just...boring. Ghost Rider 2099 is in no way related to any of the previous Ghost Riders. He's essentially a hacker that gets caught hacking. He gets programmed and comes back to life under the control of different entities. Then he turns into the Internet. Times have changed, and maybe this is a story better left in those times. Strangly enough, I do have some positives, though. The art is dirty and sickening. It fits the vibe of Tranverse City being the armpit of the future. The art speaks Ghost Rider. The only downside is that it's easy to read panels out of order and get all wacked up. But crazy art for a crazy story. The covers are cool. It was a fun read, but I'll likely never pick it up again to give another shot. Overall fun, yes, but overall, a letdown compared to what I had expected. It's not worth $100 omnibus price.

[Ανδρέας Μιχαηλίδης · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is one of the strangest Marvel comics I have ever read: part cyberpunk counterculture, part Robocop, part technoccultism - and a lot of hacker-babble. I can tell you right now this is not for everyone, but its is incredibly interesting to read as it evolves, in both tone and art style. Len Kaminski provides the whole story, but the art crosses the whole range from an early, less gritty Chris Bachalo, to clean-cut Mark Buckingham and Peter Gross, to an ink-and-shade-heavy Kyle Hotz and ends up with a young Ashley Wood.

Notably, Ashely Wood's art sets the tone for almost half the series, making it intensely weirder and more distorted, to the point where the line between occult cyberspace and reality blurs. Furthermore, this is the absolute limit of my tolerance for Wood's art style, but it is very fitting and I rather like it in this comic book.

Overall, a nice read and a great example of when Marvel used to be daring.

[Davide Pappalardo · Rating 3 out of 5]

What if Ghost Rider was a 2000AD character? We could summerize Ghost Rider 2099 with this premise, at least for the first half of the run. There are a lot of cyberpunk concepts, references to alternative music and counterculture, questioning power, drug control, the role of media. The art by Ashley Wood is great and very apt for the story and its almost psychedelic nature. Unfortunately, starting from Doom's appearance, things get less interesting and more confusing, until the comic ends with a messy and unsatisfactory cop-out underlined by not-so-good art. Still, I don't regret reading It and I think in its best moments this is superior to 616 Ghost Rider. Too bad it couldnt keep its momentum for the whole run.

[Jacob · Rating 2 out of 5]

It got slightly better towards the end but that's not saying much. The art was a mixture of very good and absolutely confusing, the writing was just bad, too many stories were built up over a few issues to have them be tied up in 4 pages so terrible pacing. This is the absolute id of the 90s but not in a particularly enjoyable way. This may be my least favorite omnibus, I don't think there was anything redeemable for me. Also I think it's hilarious they had Heartbreaker appear and begin to maybe take the stage as a main-ish character, even including her on the final cover for #25 just to absolutely drop her and give her no wrapup.

Read this on Marvel Unlimited if you're really interested in this, I couldn't justify dropping real money on it (like I unfortunately did).

[Nate Deprey · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.25 stars rounding way, way up. In a lot of ways this omnibus is a perfect example of what doesn't work with 90s superhero comics. The story and action are maximalist and the dialog reads like a cyberpunk fever dream making up future swear words as it rolls along. Early on, I felt like I was in for a slog but as I settled into the art I started to fall for its surrealist charms, especially the Heartbreaker backup stories towards the end of the series. Sometimes a comic doesn't have to be good to be great.

[Beelzefuzz · Rating 3 out of 5]

Let’s grab a seat and transfer files. If you rat biters can’t handle info dumps like this you’d probably glitch on this book, or maybe you’re just some read-only who don’t learn real well?
If that was annoying to you, then stay away from this book. If outdated future tech and silly jargon are your idea of fun, then you may have a good time. Though like a lot of these 2099 books, it get repetitive. If the art were not so experimental and interesting, I would probably have given this 2 stars.

[Wenerd · Rating 2 out of 5]

I read a lot of 2099 as a teenager and I didn’t remember much about GR99. It has some issues with huge sections of techno- babble that goes along with the 2099 universe and sometimes (while I love the style of the art in the later issues) it’s hard to read the action when it gets too abstracted. On the whole short enough to not wear out its welcome but just not that fun of a comic

[Karellen 5 · Rating 4 out of 5]

Punk at its most angsty. Fantastically drawn

[Andrew Oh? · Rating 2 out of 5]

First 9 issues are pretty fun and I was digging it then it falls off hard in my opinion especially in the art department.