Adventureman’s sisters become her team! Can they harness their new powers and old memories to find and rescue their sister in time? Find out in Adventureman: Ghost Lights #2 from Image Comics!

ADVENTUREMAN: GHOST LIGHTS

Writer: Matt Fraction
Artist: Terry Dodson and Rachel Dodson
Colorist: Terry Dodson
Letterer: Clayton Cowles
Publisher: Image Comics
Cover Price: $3.99
Release Date: March 13, 2024

Previously in Adventureman: Ghost Lights: Johnny Caspar, leader of the Ghost Gang, has captured Claire and she is chained to a sinister device that could drop her into the Underworld! To Caspar, the Underworld is symbolic of life in the city where lives are divided into those who follow the rules, and those who are considered criminals. He has always had grand plans for a criminal empire with its own rules. Tommy reads about Adventureman to his aunts to convince them to drink the serum and become her teammates. Charles arrives to tell them that Chris and Claire are in danger and Adventureman needs her family. Caspar tells Claire he has a grand plan for changing the world, and Adventureman was the only person who ever appreciated his brilliance.

ALL FOR ONE AND ONE FOR ALL

Adventureman: Ghost Lights #2 opens with Claire’s sisters drinking the serum. The serum does not just give them special powers. It also fills them with the memories of past team members. Every past adventure of Adventureman’s team becomes theirs, adventures they recall vividly. It is a bit disorienting. Tommy understands this and urges them to remember that the most important story right now is the one where they save Claire.

The Crossdraw Kid awakens to find himself surrounded by ghosts and bound in enormous ghostly chains being loaded onto the ghost train along with Tommy, Charles, and Claire’s dad. Chris struggles against his bonds and swears he will get them, but in a burst of haunting laughter, the ghosts leave them.

Claire’s sisters arrive in the train station. They do not have a complicated plan. Four of them will punch ghosts and the other two will rescue Claire. They don’t know how to punch ghosts, but their new memories kick in. They always knew how to do this. This is how the story always goes. They even have time for some verbal banter. Claire’s bonds suddenly break and her sisters team up to grab the ghost chain and dive after her to catch her. They succeed and for a moment, collapse in the endorphins of winning a supernatural fight.

That’s when they notice that the bad guys are no longer there. Caspar makes a last visit to the train to put a device on board and power it up. Caspar does not want to give them the advantage of a full villain monologue, but before he leaves, he says that they will die in order to bring his world back to life. Then the train moves on down the track. Tommy soon wiggles loose from his bonds and works to free the others. The Crossdraw Kid whistles for his horse.

Claire and her team see the train vanishing down the tunnel and run after it. The horse dashes past them. It catches up to the train, and Chris tosses the two older men out onto the horse so they can get to safety. Tommy examines the bomb. The horse dashes back down the track, passing Adventureman and her team again. They only faintly hear the word “Bomb!” in passing.

Meanwhile, in the train station, Caspar welcomes ghosts to his party with a speech about the remaking of New York City. He pulls out a bottle of champagne and dramatically counts down.

CHANGING THE WORLD

One of the things I particularly like in the art of Adventureman: Ghost Lights #2 is the expressiveness of the characters. Right from the start we can see that Claire’s sisters all have different amounts of trepidation about taking the serum, but they are equally united in wanting to help Claire. This is followed by a quick montage showing them reliving old memories. We see three examples of this, but what is interesting is they each use different ways to show us. In one, we see memories from the sister’s viewpoint. Another memory is completely within her mind. The third is echoed in body language in the real world. I think it makes the story stronger when the artist can play with a variety of ideas.

The sequence with the ghost train gives off a great sense of speed as the train rumbles underground. The horse racing alongside adds some terrific Western flair. But another thing that makes it cool is that we keep going back to Caspar’s party which, in stark contrast, feels elegant and stationary. The crowd of ghosts mills around a little, but mainly they pay attention to their host. It feels as though Caspar has all the time in the world while time is running out for Claire and the Crossdraw Kid.

BOTTOM LINE: A THRILLING RIDE FROM BEGINNING TO END

Adventureman: Ghost Lights #2 is a big story that takes some attention to follow, but at its heart are characters who truly love each other and are willing to take on anything to help a sister out.

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