Today Image Comics is releasing the first issue of a very promising new title by Joshua Williamson and Goran Sudzuka called Ghosted #1. Is it worth your hard earned money? Do you need to add another new title to your pull list? Let’s find out.
Ghosted introduces us to Jackson T. Winters and he immediately becomes a character that I think I’m going to like. When we first meet him he is in prison and we quickly find out, through a series of explosive events, that he is a master criminal that was put there thanks to botching his last job. Things went so bad that he has decided to exit the business. It seems he would rather die than pull another job. Of course, master criminals can never retire. There is always some rich old man with an odd collection that needs you to pull one last job. And what a job it is. Jackson is tasked with capturing…a ghost.
It is near impossible to not compare this comic to Ocean’s Eleven. I actually could picture George Clooney playing Jackson as I was reading this. I don’t know if that is good or bad, but it certainly made the character feel familar, especially when he starts putting together his team. The formula for this is well known. You have the cocky, confident leader and he puts his team together from a rag tag group of misfits that all have their own special skills. We’ve seen it in everything from the aformentioned Ocean’s Eleven to The Fast and Furious to Mission Impossible. Hey, when it works it works.
Even with all the similarities to other stories, this book manages to feel very unique. The idea of using a master criminal, used to pulling off complicated heists, to capture a ghost is very cool. The book is dripping wityh style and there is an underlying vien of humor that you can see pop up from time to time. Williamson does a great job of structuring the story so that you know everything you need to know by the time we see the masterful last page. It is very hard to have a successful first issue that feels complete, but Williamson nails it. The story is set-up perfectly and we get a good feel for each character in a short amount of time. The art by Sudzuka is a great match for the feel of the book and is complemented by the mood setting colors used by Miroslav Mrva.
This is one more strong entry by Image Comics and Skybound that is absolutely worth picking up.
