Recently in Ghost Rider Category

Jason Aaron is quickly shaping up to be one of my favorite new writers at Marvel.  He's done great work on Wolverine and now he's taken the reigns on Ghost Rider--right after Daniel Way exploded the series main premise.  In Ghost Rider #18, Way revealed the real reason that Roxanne Simpson could save his soul from Satan, a mystery that persisted ever since Marvel Spotlight #5 in the 1970s.  When Roxanne prayed to God to save Johnny's cursed soul, she was answered--not by God--but by his lieutenant, Zadkiel.  Johnny Blaze became "The Fire That Rains Down From Heaven", the Wrath of God, the Punisher of all sinners.  This is also the reason why Satan could never kill or trap Johnny permanently in Hell.

Satan and his lost souls were expunged in Ghost Rider #19, paving a clean road for Aaron's first arc, which began in Ghost Rider #20.  Johnny's out for revenge, against Zadkiel and his minions.  But how do you fight a war against heaven?  Johnny just happens to find a boy who ran into Zadkiel while in a coma...but the boy is guarded by an army of Tarentino-kinky naughty Cycle Nurses.  Who wear lingerie and carry firearms that can take out the Ghost Rider.   The nurses pursue Johnny and nirvana-boy through the backwoods of Montana, where Ghost Rider has to fight a road full of demonic creatures on Cannibal Highway.  I think the Cycle Nurses deserve their own MAX limited series!

I think Ghost Rider is the sleeper hit of 2008.  It has humor, horror, action, and mystery.  Zadkiel is trying to take over Heaven and apparently Johnny Blaze is a pawn in this game.  There's a mysterious figure in issue #22 who looks like Danny Ketch to me.  If it is Danny, then Blaze has a big problem--because Ketch is wearing Zadkiel's emblem on his wrist.  Great stuff...check it out!  Nuff said.

We hope you've enjoyed our look back at Ghost Rider. Visually speaking, you just can't go wrong with a skull surrounded by flames. Whether Roy Thomas or Gary Friedrich or Mike Ploog came up with the idea, it's genius, and it's inspired many comic book covers, paintings, and tattoos. Our favorite Ghost Rider cover of all time was Ghost Rider V2 #15 by Texeira (scanned here from a beat-up copy). This cover was great because it actually glowed in the dark! It was so popular that Marvel actually did two printings with different backgrounds. Now if only they would make a glow in the dark t-shirt with that image. Nuff said.

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Marvel has tried several times to revive Ghost Rider during the past five years. There were two mini-series, one written by Devin Grayson (Hammer Lane) and the other by Garth Ennis (Road to Damnation). Both mini-series used Johnny Blaze as the Ghost Rider. Grayson tried to portray Johnny as a family man getting overtaken by the Ghost Rider curse once again, while Ennis simply put Blaze in Hell, with no explanation to past continuity. Ennis' mini-series had fantastic painted artwork by Clayton Crain, but the story was utterly incomprehensible to me.

In the new Ghost Rider series, written by Daniel Way, Johnny Blaze escapes from Hell and into a whole new series of adventures. Comic Book Resources just put out this nifty interview with Way which summarizes Ghost Rider #1-4 and gives you an idea of what will happen in Ghost Rider #5-8. How Johnny Blaze made it into Hell in the first place will be explained later, and Way will put his own spin on why Blaze is the Ghost Rider. Blaze's new raison d'etre is to capture the 666 pieces of Lucifer that have shattered over the Earth and destroy them. The problem is that everytime Blaze kills one of them (hosted in a human body), the other remaining pieces get stronger. Is it just me or does this sound a lot like Highlander? And like the 70s series, there will be a dual nature aspect to the Ghost Rider--Johnny Blaze will once again fight for control over the Spirit of Vengeance.

Way's dialogue is actually very funny in many scenes dealing with Satan. Dr. Strange makes an attempt to stop Ghost Rider, just like he did in the 80s comic, but this time he should be "cursed for a novice" because he acts like a buffoon. Having the 80s Ghost Rider art team (Javier Saltares and Mark Texeira) return to the character was a very good idea, as they are better than ever. While this series is about Johnny Blaze, Ghost Rider is visually styled after the Ketch version, with the spiked jacket and chain. Blaze can also utilize Ketch's powers, like the Penance Stare. There's a lot to quibble about, but it's still a fun book to read for mindless entertainment. I suspect I'll stay with it for a while. One of my favorite horror artists from Warren magazines, Richard Corben, is slated for a two-parter in issues 6-7. Nuff said.

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Marvel has always sought ways to bolster their line of comics with new properties. The 1970s horror line, the 1980s New Universe line, and the 1990s lineup of futuristic heroes in the 2099 universe were all attempts to gain new marketshare. For a while, it looked like the 2099 universe was a goldmine: Spider-Man 2099 was a huge seller for the first couple of years. After the initial 2099 lineup, Marvel turned to other well known characters that could be fast-forwarded into the future, and the smokin' hot Ghost Rider was an obvious choice. While the very notion is gimmicky, Ghost Rider 2099 (at least in the first 8 or so issues) was my favorite 2099 title next to Spider-Man.

Written by Len Kaminski and drawn by Chris Bachalo and Mark Buckingham, Ghost Rider 2099 didn't have anything to do with horror. It was all about youthful rebellion against a culture dominated by mega-corporations. I'll always remember Ghost Rider 2099 as a symbol for the Gen-X movement, as I sped down Seattle's 520 bridge, listening to Beck's Loser ("I'm a loser baby, so why don't you kill me?") on the stereo, with the first issue of GR 2099 waiting to be read in the seat next to me. Although I've never found any interviews with Kaminski on the subject, I'm sure he was into the popular culture of that time period.

When Ghost Rider rode back into comic book stores in 1990, fans welcomed the character back as they never had before. Written by Howard Mackie and drawn the art team of Javier Saltares and Mark Texeira, this all-new Ghost Rider became one of Marvel's highest selling series. Whereas previous writers made an intricate story between the Ghost Rider and Satan, Mackie abandoned that approach to portray a character stripped down to his minimalist roots, encapsulated by the slogan: Spirit of Vengeance!

In the first few pages of Ghost Rider Volume 2 #1, we meet the host for the vengeful demon: Daniel Ketch. (Readers of the Busiek-Ross MARVELS book may remember that Ketch shows up on the last page of the story.) We know nothing of this fellow other than he's walking through a graveyard at night with sister, Barb. They run into a gang of criminals fighting each other (one group belongs to the Kingpin) and Barb gets critically wounded. Daniel backs into a junkyard, where he discovers a mysteriously abandoned motorcycle with a glowing gas cap. After touching the gas cap, Daniel gets imbued with a powerful energy.

The Ghost Rider emerges a few panels later, having possessed Daniel's body. It was clear from the start that Daniel and the Ghost Rider were separate entities, given that Daniel remembered little of Ghost Rider's nocturnal activities. All of these elements made Daniel Ketch less interesting as a person for me. I couldn't believe the way that he accidentally stumbled into these powers, which was so unlike a typical Marvel hero! Worse, I could never get a grip on Daniel Ketch's personality, his aspirations, fears, love interest, his family or friends. All the supporting characters belonging to the Daniel Ketch character all seemed too bland, too indistinct. I could never tell his girlfriend from his sister!

Marvel's horror-craze only lasted a few years, beginning in late 1970 (with Marvel Spotlight #2 featuring Werewolf by Night) and ending during the first half of 1975 (the last issue of the black and white monster magazines). The longest lasting characters to survive the horror boom were Werewolf by Night (43 issues), Tomb of Dracula (70 issues), but Ghost Rider beat them all with 81 issues and numerous comebacks. Part of his survival is due to writer Tony Isabella (taking over when Gary Friedrich left the series) deciding to usher Johnny Blaze into the superhero population. The dramatic event occurred in Ghost Rider #9. The cover proclaimed: This is it! The final fearful Showdown with Satan!

As Tony Isabella said in his interview with Alex Ness at Pop Thought: "When I was assigned to write GHOST RIDER, two things were obvious to me. Without artist Mike Ploog, the supernatural-based stories weren't working as well as they had during his stint on the book, leading me to consider whether or not that book might sell better if I emphasized the super-hero aspects of the title. The second thing was that there were plenty of Satan avatars active in the Marvel Universe, but precious little evidence of the loyal opposition. I hit a point in the extended storyline where it made wonderful sense to have Jesus Christ prevent Satan from claiming Johnny Blaze's soul."

In the beginning, Johnny Blaze rode an ordinary motorcycle on his nightly excursions. But when your skeletal body is shooting fire Every Which A Way But Loose*, how practical is that really? Your bike could explode at any given moment! Not to mention that Johnny Blaze was getting sucked into Hell regularly and when he came back to Earth, his bike couldn't be found! Well, after Johnny Blaze shook hands with Satan in issue #2, issue #3 had the answer.

In "Wheels of Fire", Gary Friedrich concluded his epic tale that introduced the Son of Satan to the Marvel Universe. Daimon Hellstrom had rescued both Johnny Blaze and Linda Littletree from Hell. Linda had been possessed by the Devil and had become "Witch Woman", givin' Johnny Blaze nothin' but red hot pants trouble for three issues. When the Son of Satan dumps Johnny miles away from the nearest city, he realizes he's in a mess of trouble.

1972 was a banner year for Marvel Comics horror characters. With Monster of Frankenstein and Werewolf by Night successfully launched in their own titles, editor Roy Thomas decided it was time to "horrify" an old western character called Ghost Rider. I had already fallen in love with Ploog's artwork, but his work on the first three Ghost Rider tales made me his eternal worshipper. I had anticipated the debut issue ever since I had seen that flaming skull in the Marvel Bullpen Bulletins.

Like the previous monster series, Marvel once again turned to writer Gary Friedrich and artist Mike Ploog, who said in this interview: "When I first heard of Ghost Rider, I thought it was a Western, going back to the Frazetta-drawn Ghost Rider riding around on the white horse."

Ghost Rider was different from most of the Marvel horror series. Whereas Dracula, Frankenstein, and the Werewolf were Marvel-ized version of popular horror characters, Ghost Rider was completely original. Not even Man-Thing could claim to be totally unique, having had a famous predecessor in the Heap.