Originally Posted by
Chain and Pain
Frankly, I'm one of those long term GR fans who never felt any deep connection with either Blaze, Ketch, or Reyes at any point in prior volumes. Reyes was as banal as they come, and Blaze and Ketch throughout their respective runs spent way too many times whining and complaining about being GR to the point I just never cared for them as heroes and Zarathos was too much of a one-note villain hero-in-name only. Only the dynamic between the mysterious 90s GR (later named Noble Kale) and the hardened and wised up Blaze from the 90s felt worth getting invested in, but even then, 90s Blaze often leered a little too close to "edgy 90s tryhard" while Kale and his bizarre way of talking and lack of anything going for him beyond "mysterious badass" both got too grating and boring after a while. The 90s series had its charm back in the day, but I don't hold it on a pedestal unlike many vocal GR fans seem to. It ultimately hasn't aged well for me, just like the 70s run didn't. In the back of my mind... I always felt a truly good and awesome GR character, and an evergreen book run, are yet to be established. Can't say for sure if Percy's current run might finally convince me to say "This is it! Finally!" But I enjoy how he portrays Johnny Blaze so far as an introspective, flawed but heroic man, especially in the Vengeance Forever oneshot where he almost feels like what 90s Blaze could've been if he had undergone further character development in the hypothetical event that Noble Kale ultimately transferred to him over Danny. No more whining and self-pitying, but a truly hardened badass who has resigned fully into his role as a GR and vows to make the best of what he's got till the end of time. That's what got me hooked.
And those who keep saying Blaze can "never be a good character when he's GR" seem to miss the point that it's rooted on the fact that Marvel, up until the Shadow Lands event, kept saddling him with poorly-suited writers who never knew how to give him a likable and admirable characterization, instead constantly regressing into that same, "Wah, wah, my life sucks! I hate being GR! Save meeeeee!!!" cringefest. Y'know... just like Ketch in his worst days. It's just the way it is. Even if they had gotten Danny back in Hammerlane, Road to Damnation, the Alejandra series, and such while still handing the writing duties to Devin Grayson, Garth Ennis, Daniel Way, Jason Aaron, and Rob Williams, I highly doubt Ketch would've fared any better.