Claire’s investigation lands her in Johnny Caspar’s lair! Can Adventureman and the Crossdraw Kid handle the Ghost Gang on their own? Find out in Adventureman: Ghost Lights #1 from Image Comics!

ADVENTUREMAN: GHOST LIGHTS #1

Writer: Matt Fraction
Artist: Terry Dodson and Rachel Dodson
Colorist: Terry Dodson
Letterer: Clayton Cowles
Publisher: Image Comics
Cover Price: $3.99
Release Date: January 10, 2024

Previously in Adventureman: Ghosts are getting restless in the city. Claire teams up with the Crossdraw Kid to investigate. Johnny Caspar, an elderly gangster, elopes from his nursing home. Three ghosts hook him up to a machine, and his body dies, leaving only his ghost behind – a ghost with plans for a new Ghost Gang! Claire’s sister continues to research the serum while another sister researches Johnny Caspar. In the subway tunnels, Claire follows a ghost train back to a ghostly station – the station where Caspar now is!

TWO WORLDS COLLIDE

Adventureman: Ghost Lights #1 opens as Claire regains consciousness to see the upside-down ghost of Johnny Caspar. But no, it is Claire who is upside-down, hung up by her ankles from the ghostly chains of a sinister device. Caspar warns her not to get too wiggly so he doesn’t get nervous and pull the lever that will drop her into the Underworld.

Caspar’s Underworld is not just a place where the dead reside. To him, it is also symbolic of life in the city where there are two worlds – the one where everyone believes in and follows laws and societal norms, and the one where anyone who is different is automatically considered to be a criminal.

He muses on his past, which helps us understand what his current machinations are in the world. Back in his heyday, he was part of the network of criminal gangs in the city. Even though they were the underworld, they had their own laws and codes. He saw this as a framework that connected the Sette Signori. If they took full advantage of this, they could build a criminal empire. That is not how the others saw it.

Tommy reads about Adventureman to his aunts. He has found a book that talks about how Adventureman always has an alliance of people who also drink the serum so they can work together. In short, his mother is in trouble and needs her team, and her sisters will admirably fill this role. All they need to do is drink the serum. This meets with a little skepticism. The doorbell rings, and Charles arrives to warn them that Chris (the Crossdraw Kid) and Claire are in danger and Adventureman needs her family.

Out on the snowy streets of Manhattan, the Crossdraw Kid rides in search of ghosts. He can fend off the smaller ghosts, but the ghost train catches him by surprise.

Caspar reveals now that if Claire falls, her drop into the Underworld is the equivalent to falling the entire height of a skyscraper, though in reverse. He goes on to talk about his memories of Adventureman. He remembers his past as not being in it for the money so much as enjoying the rivalry of Adventureman, the only person who understood him, the only person who appreciated his brilliance. But Adventureman took his fights out of the city, and everyone grew old, and the world changed. He spent the remainder of his life researching and planning, and it has all led to this moment and his grand plan for changing the world again.

PAST AND PRESENT

The art of Adventureman: Ghost Lights #1 is breathtaking. I loved that one of the verbal themes of Caspar’s speech, perspective, is rendered in the art as well. I don’t just mean flipping up and down between Claire’s point of view and Caspar’s. This issue takes as many opportunities as it can to go the extra mile showing the dizzying height of buildings or the streamlined speed of trains. When he introduces the Underworld, there is a marvelous two-page spread of two panels separated diagonally. The Underworld is upside-down. The two worlds are not mirror images, but we understand the contrasts. The whole issue has quite the dramatic flair.

The 1930’s scenes are a treat. Their streamlined style fits the theme of the book beautifully. Caspar’s criminal past gets the benefit of strongly inked shadows which gives his memories the flavor of film noir. Car chases, a motorcycle chase, the flare of firearms all show us a past that was violent, no matter how fond Caspar is of it. The art has just enough grit that it creates a fascinating juxtaposition between what happened and Caspar’s nostalgia.

BOTTOM LINE: RISE OF THE GHOST GANG

The thrill is back with Adventureman: Ghost Lights #1! If you have not been following the book previously, there is enough background so a new reader will not be completely lost while familiar readers can enjoy nuggets of new information along the way.

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