Ludicrous Speed Reviews 6/4/25 | Predator Killer of Killers, Ghost Rider Vs. Galactus & Radiant Black!
Heckatron Vs. Ghost Rider Vs. Galactus!
When the Listenerd known as Heckatron (AKA Mike, one of our oldest customers turned pals) started posting written reviews on the THN Discord, there was only one thing to do: conscript him into our army of Love Slaves and work him for content! And since we had a perfectly good title laying around, that means the Ludicrous Speed Reviews have been reborn!!! This week, Mike shares his thoughts on the latest issues of Radiant Black and Ghost Rider Vs. Galactus, plus a special review of the new Hulu animated feature Predator: Killer of Killers. Prepare yourselves, ladies and gentlemen, because Heckatron is a loose cannon that plays by his own rules and, more importantly, his own rating system. LUDICROUS SPEED… GO!!!!!
Be sure to check out our other written reviews for more!
*HECKATRON’S PICK OF THE WEEK!*
Ghost Rider vs. Galactus #1
Marvel Comics
Written by J. Michael Straczynski
Art by Juan Ferreyra
Solicit: The Devourer of Worlds battles the Spirit of Vengeance! Galactus roams the cosmos in search of sustenance he extracts from thriving planets, leaving them as dying husks. Ghost Rider, Johnny Blaze, punishes souls who are deemed worthy of vengeance. What happens when these two powers collide? Find out when superstar artist Juan Ferreyra joins J. Michael Straczynski for the penultimate pairing across the mighty Marvel landscape.
Review: Coming into this week, this book was barely on my radar. I enjoyed the Doom vs Rocket Raccoon issue in this series of wacky mashup books, but skipped the rest. However, anytime The Rider shows up in a book I have to at least give it a skim because I’m still the same sixteen-year-old metal-head at heart, and y’all, this book is a delight. Ferreyra’s art is unbelievable here. It’s Pekar-esque characters and soft colors meet Straczynski’s breezy, unserious script at the beginning, and when the script gets all metaphysically trippy, it keeps the wild tale grounded. This book goes places. It sometimes sounds like listening in on a blunt rotation in a college dorm room filled with philosophy majors, but it’s balanced out by some mad-cap Spirit of Vengeance-ing that, honestly, I’m surprised hasn’t been tried before. Roll one up and check it out.
Rating: 8 COSMIC EGGS OUT OF 10
Radiant Black #34
Image Comics
Written by Kyle Higgins & Joe Clark
Art by Eduardo Ferigato, Marcelo Costa & Rod Fernandes
Solicit: They know the truth. They’ve read the signs. Only they know what is really happening in donut shops across America. It’s time for the world to see.
Review: In the most Deep Impact/Armageddon moment I’ve seen in comics this year, I didn’t expect to see two comics in the same month wrestling with the difficulties and eventual bigotry when the populations of the same city from different multiversal worlds have to live amongst each other. Higgins and Clark handle it with less political and moral allegory that Deniz Camp’s Assorted Crisis Events #3, but this is a very fun wrinkle in the ever-changing world of Radiant Black. Marshall’s still broke, but now he’s broke AND everyone who saw the very very bad other-Marshall during the Catalyst War hate him, half of the other Radiants are in-the-wind, and now there’s a group of other-world terrorists searching for a door, which is something totally not ominous and going to lead to something nuts…
Let me tell you folk, if you miss the feeling of early-90s Spider-Man comics, don’t sleep on Radiant Black. I truly feel like this series has yet to reach its full power, but with every issue, Higgins and Co. inch closer.
Rating: 8 OUT OF 10
———
Look, this was a pretty light week for Uncle Heckatron’s pull list, and I don’t have much to say about the big books of the week that our resident nerds, Joe and Matt, aren’t gonna talk about extensively, I’m sure, so I’m breaking format and you’re getting a movie review this week. Deal with it, Joe. [EDITOR’S NOTE: Hey! Matt’s the one that gets all pissy about format, not me!]
*HECKATRON’S NON-COMIC PICK OF THE WEEK!*
Predator: Killer of Killers
Directed by Dan Trachtenberg & Joshua Wassung
Written by Micho Robert Rutare, Dan Trachtenberg & Jim Thomas
Solicit: Three of the fiercest warriors in human history become prey to the ultimate killer of killers.
Review: I’m old enough to remember when Dark Horse Comics first started releasing comics based on the Aliens and Predator franchise. I was in awe of reading weird and wild stories throughout time and space exploring all the different ways humans could be brutally murdered by the titular monsters. It’s all I ever wanted from the franchise, and the fan-fictioning has run rampant for decades with “wouldn’t it be cool if we got a Predator in [insert conflict throughout time here]?” conversations, but the films were more interested in trying to build on the human actors in hopes of franchising opportunities. Well, folks, the nerds are running the franchise, and Dan Trachtenberg fucking gets it. I was hopeful after watching Prey (easily the second-best film of the franchise), but Predator: Killer of Killers? As the kids say, Predator fans are EATING.
Anthology format showing Predators fighting warriors throughout human history? Fucking awesome; a no-brainer. Animated instead of live action? Perfect. Allows them to do things that would be impossible with live-action film budgets. AND we get a sick wraparound story that kicks us into an infinite number of sequels? Oh my stars and garters, I am that Vince McMahon meme personified. (note: Heckatron does not endorse or support Vince McMahon)
Disney, just let Trachtenberg be the Predator guy from here on out. He gets the franchise. He knows what we, fans, want. And so far, he’s batting 1000 on delivering it in a way that doesn’t feel like lame fan-fiction. This is fan-service how it should be done. Next stop: Predator: Badlands..
Rating: 10 NERDS BEGGING FOR A DOZEN MORE OF THESE FILMS OUT OF 10
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