Ghost Cage

by Nick Dragotta, Caleb Goellner

When his megacorp power plant falls under attack by terrorists, the super-scientist who revolutionized and controls all energy on Earth sends his ultimate creation (and an adequate employee) in to destroy his most monstrous secrets.

Bestselling artist NICK DRAGOTTA (EAST OF WEST) and Eisner Award-winning writer CALEB GOELLNER (Teenage Mutant Ninja New Animated Adventures) combine their energies for a visceral thrill ride of pure comics power!

Collects GHOST CAGE #1-3

Genres: Comics, Graphic Novels, Science Fiction, Graphic Novels Comics

138 pages, Kindle Edition

First published August 2, 2022

Reviews

[Juho Pohjalainen · Rating 2 out of 5]

Very rushed.

The story has too much plot happening in such a small page count to have any time left for exposition or plot stuff, and what little it can get across, it definitely won't have the time to let the reader chew on it in peace. We're already rushing onward to the next big thing, and the stakes are always high and the moments of relaxation all too few and far between. And what there is to be pieced together is not, in the end, all that interesting or compelling: social commentary, energy crisis, mad science. Bio-robots punching the shit out of each other. Prose isn't too good.

The art is fine, at times even good, but the main character's design hampers things: it doesn't speak, and doesn't have any face to give expressions by, making it harder to get in its mind and figure out what it's thinking of all this. This changes a bit towards the very end, but that moment is quickly passed as well and we never get to see what really came from it. Could have used a few words at least, when the chance came, or a smile. The other characters had a bit of growth, but even then, not by too much.

It had its moments, a couple interesting setpieces and a moment or two of tense fight-battling, but it would have needed to be at least twice its length to figure everything out properly, to give itself time to breathe and get it all across to the reader.

[Brandon · Rating 2 out of 5]

In its best moments, Ghost Cage feels like a classic sci-fi manga adventure about the merging of technology and the supernatural with both shaping humanity's future. That's in its best moments, though. The rest of the time it has words and those words are a waste of time. This is an art book for fans who love Dragotta, with the caveat that sometimes it sounds like a boomer newspaper strip complaining about kids these days with their cell phones and the tablets and their computers and beep boops. All the different powers look cool and there's some good action but any time a character begins speaking my eyes glaze over and I wonder why I bothered attempting to read this in the first place.

[Corey Allen · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5: If you don't feel like reading this whole review this is how I would summarize it:
Ghost Cage feels like a manga series condensed into one volume
It has a great concept and for the first issue, I thought it was a lot of fun. But as the book went on my desire to read this book went from exited to none at all. You know what let's talk about the plot first, shall we?

Ghost Cage tells the story, of a huge corporation, that is now being attacked by terroists. The head of this company, creates this weird A.I. thing named Sam to go in and stop the chaos going on in the big OHM factory.

But Sam needs help, so a employee just trying to "climb the latter" is tasked to go with Sam and make sure he gets all of his needs. They go up the huge factory fighting monsters on each floor. Of course there's plot twists along the way, but that's the gist.

I think this book is supposed to be this fast-paced adventure, that your supposed to read in one sitting. I didn't do that. So to me it just felt like a mess. You had zero time to breathe. It quickly went from one plot point to the next. To the point where I had trouble figuring out what was going on.

Probably the only reason for reading this is the art. I loved how all the action and monsters were portrayed. It really made it feel like a manga. I wish it was in color, but for what it is, the art is pretty great.

Not recommended

[Brian Garthoff · Rating 2 out of 5]

Ghost Cage is a weird book. It reads like a much longer anime crammed into 3 issues, huge moments are often unclear and only explained through dialogue. A cleaner execution still wouldn’t save the story which basically boils down to a tower series of boss fights in an energy themed dystopia. Dragotta’s art is really the main draw here, and I probably would’ve liked this book twice as much if it weren’t black and white. Some of the details of what is actually happening in the panels are just lost, so I found myself doubling back after a few scenes to try and see if I could make out what the characters had just said happened in the previous panels. Ghost Cage is still worth a read, but it is very clunky, ends with a thud, and is somewhat of a bummer for fans of Dragotta’s work.

[Thea Jacobsen · Rating 2 out of 5]

The pacing is rushed and the reader has no incentive to care about the world or character. The art is stunning, but you can’t build an epic boss fight in nine panels. There is no time for the plot to breathe or build organically therefore the dialogue has to tell us why we should care about these character, which comes across as cheap and unnatural to read.

[kaitlphere · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fast-paced climb of a story! I love the ending.

[RatGrrrl · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a ridiculous and fun conceptualising of vague anticapitalism and renewable energy with weird robots, lots of explosions, and found family.

I'll maybe have more thoughts when I have more brain, but I had a really good time with this.

[Håvard · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is a 40 books long manga in 120 pages. It's an idea, a pitch, a first draft. It doesn't work as is, sadly.

[Adam Fisher · Rating 4 out of 5]

Review submitted to Diamond Bookshelf for potential professional publication.
Really amazing story though.
Wish it had been in color.

Strong recommend.

[Sanpaku · Rating 4 out of 5]

7/10.
Not really well characterized villains, only toward the end they get better.
Nice fight scenes.

[Andrew Krause · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some interesting ideas, but reads like the narrative behind a boss rush.

[Drew Woodworth · Rating 3 out of 5]

Bit of a let down. The art and design is amazing, but the story is fairly simple and trite. There was a little bit of an emotional connection in the third act, but it was a too little, too late for me.

[Matty Dub · Rating 4 out of 5]

This crazy fucking comic was a lot of fun! The art’s the main draw obviously but the story is actually very well put together. A dystopian and cynical caricature of where we’re going as a species makes for a bleak backdrop but with endearing and cheerful characters dancing in it and lots of fun action, it’s not dark at all. Dragotta’s line art is the best it’s ever been, if you enjoyed him on East of West, you need to read this as it is similar in many ways. It misses a perfect score because it can get a little too verbose and while it’s a fun time, it’s one I doubt I’ll revisit.

[Paul Allard · Rating 3 out of 5]

Quite interesting sci-fi comic series.

In the digital version that i read, the illustrations were all in black and white. The story is about energy and trying to dominate the industry in the future. There are a few characters, all quite interesting and well-developed, including avatars of each type of energy. There's too much dialogue in my opinion but otherwise it's reasonably entertaining. with detailed artwork. I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

[Alex · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked this, but maybe not as much as I could.
A story that wears it's message on its sleeve about rampant business, self interest, and the environment, it throws all this together into a blender of black and white manga-esqe battle shonen. Dragotta's art does have more grit to it without colors, it's a interesting thing to see. It's also a relatively quick read, as a lot of manga seems to be. Plot is pretty simple but that doesn't detract, I had a good time with it

[Garrett Roney · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ghost cage was way to condensed, which is disappointing since it had the potential to be an interesting story. The characters needed more time to develop, the plot was thin but had high concept ideas like—a robot powered by what I think must be energy of dead souls? But I say that with a question because I’m still not sure. If this were expanded into a sci fi action manga series, it would be a lot of fun. But 3 issues made for a rushed and superficial experience.

[Brennen C · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really like this 3 issue run even if it is short. The premise and art are really great, with good humor as well. It does have a lot going on for a short run but nothing feels left out, and the story is pretty concise. The exposition can seem like a lot but I didn't really have a problem with it. At times it felt structured like a game which I think is an interesting approach to plotting a comic. It very clearly is paying homage to multiple things (manga and video games) which I enjoyed.

[Rick Ray · Rating 3 out of 5]

Dragotta looked like he had a lot of fun with this one, and as a solo venture this definitely solid stuff. The readers are dropped into a dystopian world where all energy is monopolized by a company seated in a towering monolith. The book oozes with style and humor, but not much in the plot department. Not much to connect with other than the ridiculously great artwork.

[M.i. · Rating 3 out of 5]

One of the more unique story premises I’ve read in a minute. Without getting into the details, corporate greed, exploitation and what it means to remain human through hardship take a center stage in this.

I love Dragotta’s art style, as evidenced by his work on east of west, but I do wish there was a color version of this to see how the titans he created in this, looked in said color.

[Jake Kilroy · Rating 4 out of 5]

A rollicking, rambunctious tale of the fight-your-way-to-the-top variety, with only a few characters and a mission from the get-go, I dug this, especially for its take on energy themes. They aren't explored, really, but it's a fun way to tie it all together in a screwball dystopia. It could've been longer or deeper, sure, but the pacing was pretty hard to beat.

[Daniel · Rating 3 out of 5]

I like Dragotta's art work and this had some interesting characters on the cover, hence I invested in a copy. Unfortunately the characters weren't as interesting as they look, perhaps a little two dimensional? The energy based plot wasn't as deep or engaging as I was hoping.

The art is nice though.

[Jim · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really fantastically good from top to bottom. Unique and perfectly executed. Cynical, raw, and intense yet balanced by being genuine in all the right places. Best new comic I’ve read in ages! I loved it!

[The_J · Rating 1 out of 5]

Convoluted story about a mad capitalist controlling all of the electrical power in the world, and this trio of females who made the world safe from coal, hydro and nuclear power by the end? Nothing redeeming here: from the poor fake feeling Manga art to the dreary dialog. Next.

[Metabull · Rating 3 out of 5]

A quick, fun read. Very much a shonen manga series condensed into a single volume. Reminded me of Shaman King and I Kill Giants in terms of artwork. Plot is a bit thin, yet enough to fill out the volume.

[Luke John · Rating 5 out of 5]

Bizarre and hard to define, Ghost Cage is a book that feels more about the art and less about actually having a clearly defined story and world. That doesn't necessarily mean that the work is bad though, it just took me a while to get my head around what I was reading and once I did I was all in.

[RJ · Rating 5 out of 5]

This comic kicks ass. One of the best to come out in recent years. Heavily anime/manga-inspired cyberpunk fight comic a la Bruce Lee's Game of Death except the fighters are personifications of energy sources? This is art.

[Brandon Levasseur · Rating 5 out of 5]

5 stars for the Art alone

[Mark · Rating 4 out of 5]

Didn't really 'get' this until halfway through the collection, but the whole package really reminded me of manga that I read back in the 90s like '2001 Nights' in a very good way 👍

[Jess · Rating 3 out of 5]

this waw good. some really great moments. some just ok ones

[Drew · Rating 4 out of 5]

I live for Dragotta's art. Story is solid with some twists and turns.