Ghosted (Vol 4): Ghost Town by Joshua WilliamsonGhosted (Vol. 4): Ghost Town by Joshua Williamson (writer), Vladmir Krstic (artist), Juan Jose Ryp (artist), and Miroslav Mrva (colorist)

Ghosted (Vol. 4): Ghost Town by Joshua Williamson is another adventure into the occult (though if you haven’t read volume 1, you should start there and first read my review of Ghosted (Vol. 1): Haunted House). It opens with the evil Markus showing up in Germany at a wedding that is just about to go bad — supernaturally bad. And he isn’t alone: He’s forced Rusnak, the psychic from the first story arc, to accompany him to witness the unholy union that’s about to take place unbeknownst to the two families gathered together to celebrate what should be a festive occasion. As they sit and wait for the wedding to start, Markus tells Rusnak about his past and about how he survived the “ghost bomb” that Jackson dropped on him at the end of Volume 1. His stories ended, they return their attention to the wedding turned occult sacrifice. Rusnak, shocked at the horror around her, is ominously reminded by Markus that he hasn’t forgotten that she betrayed him or that he was betrayed most profoundly by Jackson Winters. And so our anti-hero steps back into the story.

Jackson, at the end of the previous volume, was given his freedom by Creed, his overseer at the F.B.I., but as Jackson is about to walk out of the room, Creed mentions that he knows that Markus is still alive, something that gets Jackson to pause. Creed says if only Jackson will keep working for the F.B.I., he’ll help Jackson locate Markus. And so when we return to Jackson in this fourth and final volume of Ghosted, he is busy tracking down ghosts for the F.B.I., with Creed seemingly promising Jackson that if he just does one more job, he’ll get the information that he seeks on Markus. Jackson also is still being haunted by Anderson, as well as by some strange presence that we know nothing about.

I like this story arc more than the last two — there’s more depth to Jackson’s character added to this one as he has to learn to think more closely about himself given that Markus is his mirror image. What one detests, the other seeks and vice versa. We also get some stories of Jackson as a young man. In the present, Jackson is accompanied in this story by King, Nina, his ever-present ghost Anderson, and the F.B.I.’s mysterious resident expert in the occult. And at one point, Rusnak will rejoin the crew. They finally make use of the supernatural white rooms they’ve been discovering, and the level of occult happenings increase tenfold in this last volume. At its heart, this story is just as much a heist comic as it is a horror comic, so get ready for betrayals as each person jockeys for the big prize, the haul of a lifetime: Death himself. This final arc is grand in scope. I highly recommend Ghost Town as a fitting close to the series Ghosted.

Author

  • Brad Hawley

    BRAD HAWLEY, who's been with us since April 2012, earned his PhD in English from the University of Oregon with areas of specialty in the ethics of literature and rhetoric. Since 1993, he has taught courses on The Beat Generation, 20th-Century Poetry, 20th-Century British Novel, Introduction to Literature, Shakespeare, and Public Speaking, as well as various survey courses in British, American, and World Literature. He currently teaches Crime Fiction, Comics, and academic writing at Oxford College of Emory University where his wife, Dr. Adriane Ivey, also teaches English. They live with their two young children outside of Atlanta, Georgia.

    View all posts