Grimlock ♥ Ultra Magnus

The All-New Ghost Rider isn't the one you've come to expect: no deals with the devil, no motorcycles, nothing like that at all.   It's more of a crow situation.   Robbie Reyes steals a car from the auto and body shop where he works to race for money that he needs badly, not for him, not really, but for his brother, who is disabled.   (And is also called retarded by a couple other characters.   While, yes, he is written as mentally disabled, as well as physically disabled, Gabe Reyes is one of the reasons to read this book: he's always cheerful, optimistic, and all around adorable.   He's basically a normal kid.   He likes ice-cream, comic books, and cool looking cars.)

I feel like Gabe was given, well, slightly less attention than Robbie, but that makes sense.   Robbie was given more attention than anyone else as he is the titular character.   He's moody, not very social, and but a good student on top of his two other jobs, that of mechanic and the most important job to him: taking care of his brother.   Why are they living alone?   Are their parents dead?   I read in another article that they were abandoned by their parents, but I can't remember.   The parents are simply absent.   There is no mention of them, no real longing for them in either Robbie or Gabe.   The two brothers need each other, and no one else.   They're family is broken, but complete at the same time.   Watching them maneuver the world with very little help from anyone else is touching.   I wouldn't expect a Ghost Rider to have this much mushy, heartwarming storylines, but it did.   And I was glad. 

This helps to ground the story in reality.  No Johnny Blaze, daredevil heroics.   No deals with Satan.   No demons.   No, Eli, no last name given, was another unjustly killed man, who revives Robbie and promises him so much: power to change his community, power to give Robbie and Gabe a better life.   A new life.  The conflict between Eli and Robbie is fairly constant, although there are moments that they get along.   One of the most touching is the scene where Eli decides he likes Gabe, mostly because Gabe likes the car Eli seems to somewhat inhabit.   (He talks to Robbie even when the car has been stolen.   Yes, he seems to possess both Robbie, and the car, but he is not tied to them so much that he can't move around elsewhere.)

This is a retelling of the Crow set in the Marvel universe, adding to the Ghost Rider titles in a rich, promising manner.   It also uses a Latino-American protagonist who lives in downtrodden East LA community called Hillrock Heights.   It's a step toward more diversity.   It's well written, sleekly illustrated, and well worth picking up for a read.   I understand why Marvel Unlimited doesn't include all their comics, and these are fairly new.   They give us the issues that make up the first volume, and no more.   No matter.  I'll look into getting the rest, possibly in paper format.