Cosmic Ghost Rider Omnibus, Vol. 1

Cosmic Ghost Rider #1-3

by Donny Cates, Paul Scheer, Nick Giovannetti

Millennia ago you knew him as the Punisher. Then, Frank Castle made a deal with the devil to become the Ghost Rider. An alliance with Galactus made him cosmic. And a dark bargain with Thanos made him…dead?! Now, Cosmic Ghost Rider has a time-travel plan for vengeance on his former master. But can even Frank kill…baby Thanos?! Cosmic Ghost Rider wreaks havoc in Marvel’s past, allies with the Guardians of the Galaxy — and takes on the Avengers alongside Johnny Blaze! But when Frank’s only friend is endangered, it’s time to take revenge!

COLLECTING: Thanos (2016) 13-18, Thanos Annual (2018) 1, Cosmic Ghost Rider (2018) 1-5, Cosmic Ghost Rider Destroys Marvel History (2019) 1-6, Guardians of the Galaxy (2019) 1-6, Avengers (2018) 22-25, Revenge of the Cosmic Ghost Rider (2019) 1-5; material from Thanos Legacy (2018) 1, Wolverine: Black, White & Blood (2020) 3

Genres: Comics, Marvel, Comic Book, Graphic Novels, Fiction

848 pages, Hardcover

First published July 21, 2021

Reviews

[Philips_comics · Rating 4 out of 5]

Honestly, I had such a blast with this! The Thanos Wins and The Cosmic Ghost Rider mini series' are easily the two best stories contained within this book and if I was to score them individually they'd both get a 9 out of 10. The remaining stories are great in their own right but dont reach the same levels as TW and TCGR. I see the comparisons to Deadpool with this character but I'm so glad they've stopped where they have and not rammed him down our throats so much. Cosmic Frank is hilarious but don't be fooled that this is some slapstick fun of a book. There are serious and action packed scenes and stories as well as pulling at the heart strings when it come to Frank castles family. Can I also give a special mention to the thanos annual which added more layers to just how evil thanos can be. Trust me if you pick this up and read, I can't see you being disappointed. Unless you read it wrong. In that case, go back and read again. Thanks

[Neon · Rating 3 out of 5]

The first half of the book is absolutely incredible but then in the middle it takes such a dive that I struggled to continue. However once I forced myself to push past the lul in the middle it did pick up again but it never again managed to reach the incredible highs that the start had. So disappointing.

[Matthew Gilliland · Rating 4 out of 5]

This Omnibus is a lot of fun, but not what I expected.

Cosmic Ghost Rider is dramatically different than The Punisher and more like Deadpool. It is humorous and tragic.

The first part is how Thanos wins on Earth. As Frank is dying he makes a deal with Mephisto to trade his soul for revenge. Well that means Ghost Rider time, but he is trapped on Earth and Thanos has moved on. Fast forward 100s of years and Galactus is in full retreat from Thanos and comes to Earth. He makes him a Herald of Galctus and they spend hundreds of years fighting Thanos and trying to stop him. Thanos wins yet again and they realize they can't kill each other so he unexpectedly becomes the Black Hand of Thanos. That was all in a few pages.

Each section has different stories due to time travel and what not.

Part 1: Is CGR working for Thanos to stop the final push against Thanos thousands of years in the future. I'm kinda indifferent about this section.

Part 2: Is Thanos Torturing some unfortunate guy on his Birthday every year (not realated to the rest of the story). Fun but like a said kind of pointless.

Part 3: GCR is given the Baby Hitler Dilemma with Thanos, but instead he tries to raise him to not be a Mass Murdering Maniac. Turns out insane CGR Punisher is not a good father figure and time paradox is possibly worse.

Part 4: Death of Thanos by Gamorrah. Sets up later stories, only 1 issue.

Part 5: CGR visits his family the day before they are killed and tells them crazy stories where he was in marvels past trying to help out his family. Most of these are a lot of fun such as him being a Howling Commando. It ends with him trying to save his family from the Mob. This was by far my favorite section. Its not completely clear what is true or not and there is an appendix in the back that explains the sections of Marvel history they chose to have him be in and why.

Part 6: Is 2 teams against each other trying to kill or save Gamorrah believing that she is going to be the next Host of Thanos. A good Moral Dilemma, but I want to know what is going on with Rocket.

Part 7: GR Johnny Blaze is challenging GR Reyes to a race for each others power and CGR Frank is kicking the crap out of the Avengers. Mostly about Reyes and accepting that he can be a good person and a GR. Fun and has CGR, but not really about him.

Part 8: CGR is back in space and saves an innocent and they stop a dude that is trying to fill Thanos's power vacuum. This is once again CGR failing to show someone what good is, because he is obsessed with punishing the guilty and not saving the innocent. He's not really a good dude.

Part 9: A super short story in Black, White and Red where CGR goes to watch a bar fight between Wolverine and Juggernaught, but gets drawn into it. It is probably in the book only because CGR is in it. This doesn't really bring anything in the story and probably should have been placed much earlier.

[Craig W · Rating 3 out of 5]

Would have been more of a 3.5, but Destroys Marvel History was atrocious (love Paul Scheer’s podcast work, but this was a chore to read when it should’ve been fun), and the Wolverine story has some of the worst art I have ever seen. The Donny Cates material (and the Jason Aaron Avengers issues) were all very good and have some really fun, over-the-top moments.

[Troy · Rating 4 out of 5]

First half of this was cool as, About half way through the story went down and was vastly less interesting. First half would be a 5 star with the second half being a 2 star even 1 star on some sections, giving a overall 4 star.

[Dalton Ham · Rating 4 out of 5]

Each series in this omnibus has diminishing returns but overall I think it’s a very entertaining read. Donny Cates somehow wrote one of the best Punisher stories and *the* best Ghost Rider story at the same time.

[Jirka Navrátil · Rating 4 out of 5]

Horší 4/5 díky debilnímu CGR kills marvel univers nebo jak se to jmenovalo a Revenger of the CGR, který nebyl až tak dobrý jako od Donnyho.

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