Comics Review: "SPACE GHOST ANNUAL 2025" Brings Down the House

SPACE GHOST ANNUAL 2025 VOLUME ONE

DYNAMITE ENTERTAINMENT

STORY: David Pepose

ART: Jonathan Lau

COLORS: Andrew Dalhouse

LETTERS: Taylor Esposito

EDITOR: Joseph Rybandt

COVER: Francesco Mattina

VARIANT COVER ARTISTS: Jae Lee with June Chung; Bjorn Barends; Anthony Marques with Nick Caponi; Jae Lee; Francesco Mattina

40pp, Color, $4.99 U.S. (July 2025)

Rated “Teen”

“The Ultima Supremacy!”

Space Ghost is a superhero character created by the American animation studio and production company, Hanna-Barbera Productions.  The character first appeared in the Saturday morning cartoon series, “Space Ghost,” which was originally broadcast on CBS from September 1966 to September 1967 for 20 episodes.

In his original incarnation, Space Ghost was a superhero whose base of operations was a small world known as “Ghost Planet.”  He fought super-villains in outer space with his teen sidekicks, Jan and Jace, and their monkey, Blip.  His main weapons were power bands he wore around his wrists and lower arms; the bands fired off multiple energy beam-based attacks, including heat, cold, and force, to name a few.  Space Ghost could also fly, survive in space, and turn invisible (his “Inviso Power”).  He also had a space ship known as “the Phantom Cruiser.”

Space Ghost sporadically appeared in various comic book publications over a fifty year period.  Dynamite Entertainment has just launched a new Space Ghost comic book as part of its licensing agreement with Warner Bros.  Entitled Space Ghost Volume 1, it has yielded its first annual, Space Ghost Annual 2025 Volume One.  It is written by David Pepose; drawn by Jonathan Lau; colored by Andrew Dalhouse; and lettered by Taylor Esposito.  In this series, twins Jan and Jace Keplar and their pet monkey, Blip, face their first universal threat in their new lives as the partners of the cosmic vigilante known as “the Space Ghost.”

Space Ghost Annual 2025 Vol. 1 (“The Ultima Supremacy!”) opens in Robo Corp Tower.  Doctor Xander Ibal, the CEO OF Robo Corp, finally obtained Blip because he is the “Binary Language Integrated Prototype.”  Then, Ibal used Blip to initiate the “Ultima Protocols.”  What is that, and how will it affect the galaxy... and even the universe?

Now, our heroes must survive Ultima as it nears the total takeover of every mind in the universe, and suddenly, Space Ghost seems like the final lynch pin in Ultima's plan.  It's up to Jan and Jace to fight against this evil, and maybe Jan has a way to save this day and all the days to come.

THE LOWDOWN:  Since July 2021, Dynamite Entertainment's marketing department has been providing me with PDF review copies of some of their titles.  Space Ghost Annual 2025 Volume One is a recent issue that I have received.

So, Space Ghost #12 did not bring the 2024-launched Space Ghost comic book series to a close.  There is a new relaunch scheduled for this year, but in the meantime, Space Ghost Annual 2025 brings the current series to an end.

Now, I can give this series a review send-off by simply saying that writer David Pepose and artist Jonathan Lau have ended it the way they began it – on fire with a bang, but not a whimper.  On the other hand, there are whispers of the darkness to come.  I can say again that Pepose and Lau have liberated their Space Ghost from every previous iteration, especially the previous comic book iterations.  It is as if Pepose and Lau have gone back to the beginning of Space Ghost and forged their own path.

Andrew Dalhouse's lovely colors are still a raging inferno, matching Lau flame for flame.  He deserves some award notice for his work here.  Letterer Taylor Esposito brings the sounds of battle to life with more of his strong lettering.  As he closes this series, I'm sure Esposito is ready to bring the noise again for the next series.

I had a blast reading Space Ghost Volume One, both the series and this annual, dear readers.  I want you to enjoy this, too, and you can via current and future trade paperback editions.

I READS YOU RECOMMENDS:  Fans of Dynamite Entertainment's Warner Bros. comic book series will want to read Space Ghost Annual 2025.

A

Reviewed by Leroy Douresseaux a.k.a. "I Reads You"

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