All-New Ghost Rider #12, the final issue in the initial run of the title with Ghost Rider Robby Reyes as the lead character, is a good example of what happens to most if not all comic books -- they run out of steam quickly. Though writer Felipe Smith shepherded the series from start to finish (in issues #11 and #12 he even supplies the art), once Tradd Moore left after issue #5, the comic book lost most of its creative pop.
What the reader is left with is a concatenation of lifeless conventions -- the Russian mobster (in a previous era, the ruthless Commie), the estranged little brother, high school bullies, a pining girlfriend -- stretching back to the beginning of the medium. Marvel wisely ended the series.
I'm sure we'll see Robby Reyes again in his own title -- Ghost Racers, the Battleworld tie-in, which succeeded All-New Ghost Rider, had a few nice moments -- the Reyes Ghost Rider is a high-school hot-rodding Latino; Marvel needs more of those characters in its bullpen.
Below are six scans from the All-New Ghost Rider #12. A Ghost Rider family squabble, noteworthy for the Xbox 360 controller that Robby Reyes takes in the face, morphs into little brother Gabe taking the form of a demonic wolf.
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