Exclusive Marvel preview: Secret Wars gets fast and furious with Ghost Racers

By Oliver Sava | June 4, 2015 | 5:30pm

Aux Features Books

The best moments in Felipe Smith’s All-New Ghost Rider run were all about speed, delivering exhilarating vehicular combat and chase sequences full of intense energy. Smith’s new Ghost Rider-centric Secret Wars miniseries Ghost Racers has a concept that plays to those strengths, putting all of Marvel’s demonic drivers behind the wheel in the Killiseum, an arena where the villainous Arcade treats residents to “Battleworld’s most dangerously thrilling event.” Joined by artist Juan Gedeon and colorist Tamra Bonvillain, Smith is using this concept to come up with bold new takes on the fiery hero, and the art team makes these characters instantly intriguing by throwing them into dynamic action sequences that move with outstanding velocity.

If this preview of next week’s Ghost Racers #1 is any indicator, this book is going to be jam-packed with high-octane action, and the art team does spectacular work getting the races off to an exciting start in these pages. This book is Gedeon’s first superhero work, and he makes a big impression with his panel composition and action layouts. Vehicles in motion are difficult to capture on the page, but Gedeon is more than up to the task, drawing influence from manga to make these Ghost Racers and their machines as fast as possible. The speed is accentuated by Bonvillain’s color palette, which uses bold, forceful oranges and yellows to super-charge the racers against the deep purple background. If the entire miniseries is able to maintain the momentum of these early pages, Ghost Racers has the potential to be one of the most invigorating tie-ins of this summer’s big event.