X-Men: To Serve and Protect # 2

Cover Artist: Giuseppe Camuncoli

Published: Feb. 2011

Original Price: $3.99

Title: "Judgment"

Writer: Simon Spurrier
Artist: David LaFuente
Letterers: Dave Sharpe & VC's Joe Sabino
Colorist: Marte Gracia
Assistant Editor: Jake Thomas
Editor: Nick Lowe
Editor-In-Chief: Joe Quesada

SYNOPSIS
At a small diner out in the desert, a group of anti-mutant bikers called "The Brotherhood of the Pure Propeller" arrive to confront X-23, the young clone of Wolverine, who they accuse killed some of their brothers. X-23 walks out of the diner to confront the gang, but the bikers are startled by a new arrival: the Ghost Rider. X-23 and Ghost Rider begin to make short work of the Brotherhood while Blaze explains to the young girl how the Penance Stare can burn one's soul. She asks Blaze to turn it on her, so she can learn if she has a soul - because she is a clone and has been bred to be a killing machine, people have told her that all of the murders she has committed were not her fault. She needs to know if she is indeed guilty and if she should be punished. Though surprised by her request, Ghost Rider continues fighting the gang, but he is stopped by X-23 just as he's about to strike one of them. X-23 saved the biker, in reality just a scared boy, from the Rider's wrath; in return, Blaze agrees to give her the Penance Stare. At the last moment, X-23 changes her mind and turns away, realizing that it was her decision and judgment that saved that boy's life. Therefore, she is accountable for her actions, soul or not. Ghost Rider transforms into Johnny Blaze, and before riding away he tells her that it's not up to him whether she has a soul or not, only she can decide that.

ANNOTATIONS
"To Serve and Protect" was an X-Men anthology mini-series that featured four stories per issue, with each story showcasing an X-Man teaming up with another hero. The X-23/Ghost Rider team-up was the fourth story in this issue.

Ghost Rider last appeared in Wolverine (2010) # 6 and makes his next appearance in Heroes For Hire (2011) # 2.

Though Blaze has met Wolverine on multiple occasions, most recently in Wolverine (2010) # 2-6, this is first encounter with X-23.

X-23 will encounter both Blaze and the Ghost Rider again during the "Circle of Four" storyline that begins in Venom (2011) # 13, though at this time the Spirit of Vengeance will have a young woman named Alejandra as its host. X-23 learns that she does indeed possess a soul during that same storyline, in Venom (2011) # 13.2.

REVIEW
X-23 gets to team up with Ghost Rider in a short little vignette that's more about character than carnage, but is saddled with some highly inappropriate artwork.

I've always really liked X-23 from her days as a cast member in New X-Men and X-Force. Due to the control of her creators, Chris Yost and Craig Kyle, she became more than just "Wolverine as a school girl" and developed into an intriguing character away from the hero from which she was derived. So when I picked up this comic I had fairly high expectations for what an X-23/Ghost Rider story should be, and on strictly a story-based analysis it certainly holds up. Blaze is a perfect choice for a team-up, given the "do clones have soul" plotline that X-23 had been moving through around this time, and it made a great way to connect the two. The reasons for the team-up are inconsequential, and that's exactly what the "Brotherhood of the Pure Propeller" are; they're not in the story to provide a challenge to the heroes, they're there to set-up the more important interactions between them. This isn't the first time a character has requested the Penance Stare to judge their guilt (notable examples: Hannibal King and the Punisher), and I was surprised to see X-23 change her mind at the last moment. But it honestly makes for a better ending. Instead of being judged and punished by a higher power, X-23 decides to do it herself. I like that, its a damn fine ending.

Simon Spurrier was an obvious choice as writer, considering he had only recently written a Ghost Rider Annual and the Ghost Rider: Danny Ketch mini-series. However, like in the awful awful Annual, Spurrier goes way overboard with Blaze's speech patterns and accent. Much like the way Rob Williams writes Johnny, the poor guy sounds like an idiot. I did get a chuckle out of the "didn't you use to be a hairy Canuck fella?" bit, though. Overall, Spurrier handles the character beats well, and as I said I thought it had a nice ending.

Now, for a story such as this, the last thing I would request would be an artist with an obvious manga influence. So, of course, they put David LaFuente on the story to make everyone look ridiculous. Actually, now that I think about it, LaFuente's goofy rendition of Ghost Rider kind of matches the terrible dialogue written by Spurrier, so maybe there was a synchronicity that I'm only now picking up on. LaFuente's interpretation of the motorcycle just plain doesn't work, though I commend him for attempting to use Roland Boschi's cycle design. But as I suspected when I first saw that version of the bike, it only really works when Boschi is the one drawing it.

This certainly isn't a story that I'd recommend anyone hunt down. It's decent enough, I suppose, and if you catch it on sale one day through Comixology maybe give it a read and see what you think.

Grade: C+

Shadowland # 5

Cover Artist: John Cassaday

Published: January 2011

Original Price: $3.99

Title: Untitled

Writer: Andy Diggle
Artist: Billy Tan
Inker: Victor Olazaba w/ Billy Tan
Letterer: VC's Joe Caramagna
Colorist: Guru EFX
Assistant Editor: Tom Brennan
Editor: Stephen Wacker
Editor-In-Chief: Joe Quesada 

SYNOPSIS
Hell's Kitchen is consumed by a riot with the police unable to calm things down. Outside the Shadowland fortress, Matt Murdock's friend Foggy Nelson attempts to scale the castle's wall. He loses his grip and falls, but is caught by the Ghost Rider, who tells him next time take the stairs. Inside the fortress, the demonically possessed Daredevil stands victorious over the heroes he has defeated. He senses the Ghost Rider and leaps toward the wall, which the Rider breaks through on his motorcycle. Daredevil surprises him by kicking him off his bike and back out through the hole in the wall. The Beast, who has taken total control of Daredevil's body, explains that he has caused the people to riot in order to feed him with the destruction he craves. Ghost Rider replies with a blast of hellfire from his mouth, which the Beast easily absorbs. He grabs Blaze and absorbs all of the hellfire from his body, leaving the Ghost Rider an immobile skeleton.

Inside, White Tiger brings Foggy Nelson to Daredevil's throne, ready to kill the man. Daredevil stops her so he can do the kill himself, but Foggy is able to reach Murdock outside of the Beast's control. Using this opportunity, Iron Fist uses his chi to strike Daredevil - but it wasn't meant to harm him, it was meant to heal Matt's spirit. Daredevil begins an internal struggle with the Beast and is losing his fight until Elektra enters the dream world tells him that the only way to defeat the Beast is to kill himself. He takes a sword and stabs it through his chest, which frees him from the Beast's possession but nearly kills him as well. Foggy tries to save his friend, but Elektra tells him to let Murdock go. Meanwhile, outside, the rioters awaken, confused by what's been happening.

Back inside Shadowland, the heroes take stock of everything that's happened, feeling lucky that Bullseye wasn't resurrected. But Daredevil's body has mysteriously vanished, and Elektra finds his discarded mask at the end of a tunnel. Later, the Kingpin arrives at Shadowland and finds Typhoid Mary in charge of the Hand. Fisk reveals a trigger phrase that gives him control over Mary, and in turn control over the Hand as well. Elsewhere, a living Matt Murdock wanders into a church and asks the priest for forgiveness.

ANNOTATIONS
Ghost Rider's next appearance is in Wolverine (2010) # 2. 

This issue was released with a variant cover by Billy Tan.

Cover Artist: Billy Tan

REVIEW
Despite my disappointment in the previous issues of Shadowland, I was really looking forward to this final chapter. The solicitation and covers promised a major confrontation between Ghost Rider and the demonically possessed Daredevil as the climax of the story. Consider my disappointment when I finally got to read the issue...

When the covers (both the regular AND the variant!) promise an epic battle between Ghost Rider and Daredevil, by god that's what I bloody well expect! What I didn't expect was for Ghost Rider to be defeated within two pages, which is just plain sad. Diggle spent a lot of time in previous issues building up Ghost Rider as this unstoppable force, and having him so easily defeated by Daredevil is another instance of the heroes getting owned way too quickly (see Daredevil trouncing Iron Fist and Shang Chi in the third issue). Ghost Rider really gets no respect in this issue - not only is he defeated so easily, but the heroes leave Shadowland with Ghost Rider still hanging paralyzed on the wall! I guess Johnny Blaze just wasn't important enough to save when they're all crying over Matt Murdock.

Diggle also gives us an incredibly cliched ending with Daredevil taking back control of his body via a battle in his subconscious. Yet again, the struggle is over far too quickly with the Beast being defeated without even a goodbye rant. Diggle tries to sell us on the emotional journey at the end, but it just seems lifeless. This was a mislabeled "event" that took two issues worth of story and stretched it out to five (not to mention the numerous number of superfluous tie-in books). I understand that something was necessary to clear the decks for Daredevil before his book relaunches, but this just wasn't a good series. It was formulaic with no surprises at all - Diggle is a great writer, but this is like he phoned his work in. We also get another terrible piece of dialogue, this time from Ghost Rider: "What in the name of Hades' Mercedes?". Ouch, that's bloody awful.

Billy Tan's artwork does pick up some in this issue, though, with a few nice touches that I appreciated. I really liked how Daredevil's body transformed and elongated as the Beast took more and more control, and I also liked the page with Iron Fist striking the Beast in the chest. The perspective is handled nicely in that panel, with Daredevil looming like a giant over Iron Fist. I knew Tan was capable of better work than he showed in previous issues, and it's glad to be reminded of that.

I have no choice but to deem Shadowland a complete and utter failure as an event story. The creative team is capable of doing so much better than what they produced here, which makes the awfulness even more disappointing. I'd recommend picking up the Shadowland: Ghost Rider tie-in, which was quite good, but avoid the main series.

Grade: D+

Shadowland (2010) # 3

Cover Artist: John Cassaday

Published: Nov. 2010

Original Price: $3.99

Title: Untitled

Writer: Andy Diggle
Artist: Billy Tan
Inker: Victor Olazaba w/ Billy Tan
Letterer: VC's Joe Caramagna
Colorist: Christina Strain & Guru EFX w/ Hannin & Dalhouse
Assistant Editor: Tom Brennan
Editor: Stephen Wacker
Editor-In-Chief: Joe Quesada

SYNOPSIS
In the Shadowland dungeon, Jake Lockley - actually the vigilante hero Moon Knight - is fighting the Hand's ninjas. Fighting with him is the Spirit of Vengeance, Ghost Rider, who has been sent by the Kingpin to free Shadowland's prisoners. The ninjas are defeated and the prisoners freed, giving Moon Knight the opportunity to ask Ghost Rider what he's doing there. When Blaze replies that he's been played, Lockley asks the obvious question: "How the hell could someone else make the Spirit of Vengeance dance to his tune?" That's exactly what Blaze aims to find out for himself. Ghost Rider drives back into the underground tunnels, leaving Moon Knight to investigate the Shadowland operation.

Inside the Shadowland throne room, Daredevil, his ninja followers, and his lieutenants (White Tiger and Black Tarantula) are fighting a group of heroes that had come to talk sense into Murdock: Luke Cage, Iron Fist, Colleen Wing, Misty Knight, Shang Chi, and Spider-Man. Daredevil is confronted by both Iron Fist and Shang Chi, and with a surprising increase in strength and skill Daredevil is able to defeat them both. Spider-Man attempts to stop Daredevil, but is set on fire by another of Daredevil's aides, Typhoid Mary. The fight is stopped by the Punisher, who blows through a wall and gives the heroes the opportunity to escape. When they get outside, they see the citizens of Hell's Kitchen rioting in the streets.

Meanwhile, at Fisk Tower, Lady Bullseye tries to tell the Kingpin that he is playing with fire by summoning the Ghost Rider to do his bidding. There is a reason the Hand has not summoned the Zugaikotsu warrior for centuries and the Ghost Rider will be coming for Fisk. The Kingpin tells her that he's planned on Blaze returning; the scroll that summoned him also protects Fisk from the Ghost Rider. If he wants to be free of the spell, he will have to destroy the source of the Hand's magic. He will send the Ghost Rider to destroy the Hand, and when they are gone he will step in to pick up the pieces. At that moment, the Ghost Rider arrives at Fisk Tower and rides his bike up the side of the building.

Back at Shadowland, Daredevil is told that it was the Ghost Rider who freed their prisoners. Murdock knows that the heroes will return, and decides that the Hand needs better fighters. He then has an idea and tells Mary to bring a shovel to find their new champion - unaware that Moon Knight is watching from the rafters. In a nearby cemetery, Daredevil and Mary exhume the grave of Bullseye, who Daredevil killed days before. Using the magic of the Hand, he will resurrect Bullseye to be his greatest warrior. Their grave-robbing is interrupted by Elektra, who has come to join Daredevil's crusade.

The next day, in Harlem, the heroes are recuperating from their fight with the Hand. They now realize that Daredevil should never have been able to defeat either him or Shang Chi in combat. They are then joined by Master Izo, the monk who steered Daredevil toward taking over the Hand. Realizing his mistake, he tells the heroes that Daredevil has now become the vessel of an ancient demon, the Beast of the Hand, who hungers for the complete end of humanity.

ANNOTATIONS
Ghost Rider's part in the crossover is continued in Shadowland: Ghost Rider # 1. He returns to the main series in Shadowland (2010) # 5, which was the final issue of the event.

REVIEW
Shadowland continues into its third chapter, wherein heroes fight ninjas and...well, that's pretty much it.

I hate to say it, but this series is boring me to tears. There's just no life to these characters, they're all just cardboard cut-outs there to advance the plot from point A to point B. I don't understand it, because Andy Diggle is a much better writer than this - his runs on Thunderbolts, Hellblazer, and the Losers were fantastic. The writing fails to make me care about what's happening to the characters, especially Daredevil. Murdock should be the heart and soul of this series, but his characterization is just as bad as the others.

The scripting is really poor, too. Daredevil does nothing but scream ridiculous declarations, while the heroes have some unbelievably stupid lines. For example, Shang Chi sitting with his head hung down and saying "I am no longer the master of kung fu..." Really, that's just awful. Or when the Punisher breaks through the wall and says "Kung Fu this." It's like they're starring in a 1980s Sylvester Stallone movie.

Even more problematic is the artwork by Billy Tan, who draws one of the worst fight sequences I've seen in recent years. Daredevil's fight against Iron Fist and Shang Chi has terrible choreography with actions failing to lead into one another. When you're illustrating a fight sequence, especially one involving martial artists, its absolutely imperative that there is a fluid transition between panels. The worst example in this issue again involves Shang Chi, when Daredevil grabs his arm and spins him around...or something, it's hard to tell just what's going on in that panel.

The only part of this issue that I think is actually successful is the subplot with Ghost Rider and Kingpin. I love how Diggle makes the Spirit of Vengeance the powerful force of nature he should be in every appearance. The Kingpin's explanation of how he's manipulating Ghost Rider is well done and leads in perfectly to the Ghost Rider tie-in comic. It's rare that a tie-in is actually important to the main event series, but that's exactly what the Ghost Rider one-shot is, essential to the story. But this part of the plot only gets six pages, and no matter how good they are they can't make up for the absolutely dire pages surrounding them.

Shadowland fails not just as a big event but as story as well. Ghost Rider doesn't show back up until the last issue, which means I won't have to suffer through reviewing the next issue.

Grade: D

Shadowland (2010) # 2

Cover Artist: John Cassaday

Published: Oct. 2010

Original Price: $3.99

Title: Untitled

Writer: Andy Diggle
Artist: Billy Tan
Inker: Victor Olazaba
Letterer: VC's Joe Caramagna
Colorist: Christina Strain
Assistant Editor: Tom Brennan
Editor: Stephen Wacker
Editor-In-Chief: Joe Quesada

 

SYNOPSIS
Outside the temple in Hell's Kitchen, now renamed Shadowland, cabbie Jack Lockley is beginning his investigation into the disappearance of all criminals and cops now that the Hand has taken control. Lockley is secretly the vigilante Moon Knight, and his plan is to be taken captive by the ninjas.

Elsewhere, Iron Fist and Luke Cage are in Fist's soup kitchen discussing Daredevil's murder of Bullseye and whether they should step in and stop their friend from making any more mistakes. Surprisingly, the Kingpin and his bodyguard Lady Bullseye come through the door and suggests an alliance between them to drive the Hand out of Hell's Kitchen. The Kingpin tells them that eventually, they're going to have to take down Daredevil themselves. Meanwhile, inside his Hand temple, Daredevil tells his aide Black Tarantula that they need reinforcements - all costumed heroes are invited to join the Hand.

In the penthouse of Fisk Tower, the Kingpin prepares a magical ritual using an ancient scroll stolen from the Hand. He plans to summon the Zugaikotsu warrior, one of the Hand's most ancient of enemies, and use him as a weapon against Daredevil. Fisk completes the spell, and a moment later the windows of his office are blown out by the demon warrior, who wants to know why he has been summoned. The Kingpin answers "what else...vengeance."

Back in Shadowland, Daredevil gives an audience to his former friends: Cage, Iron Fist, Shang-Chi, Misty Knight, and Colleen Wing. The heroes attempt to talk Daredevil out of what he's doing in Hell's Kitchen, but he refuses to listen even when Spider-Man arrives to join the discussion. Down in the Shadowland dungeon, Moon Knight is in a cell next to several captive SWAT officers. Using a regurgitated lock pick, Lockley escapes his cell - but before he can free the others, he hears a motorcycle engine. The Zugaikotsu has arrived, and it is actually the Ghost Rider. Daredevil is informed that the dungeon is under attack, which causes him to believe that the heroes have plotted against them. He orders his ninjas to take them, dead or alive!

ANNOTATIONS
Ghost Rider last appeared in Deadpool (2008) # 26.

The ramifications of Kingpin's spell are revealed in Shadowland: Ghost Rider # 1.

REVIEW
Ghost Rider makes his grand entrance in the Shadowland crossover, and while his arrival is handled well the crossover itself just isn't clicking with me.

I think my biggest problem with Shadowland is that it just doesn't feel important; no matter how hard Marvel tries to sell it as a major event, it doesn't have the epic feel that such an event should have. It seems to me that this was a normal Daredevil story that Marvel inflated into a crossover event just to publish an army of tie-ins. So, what should have been a deeply personal story for Daredevil is turned into a cash grab for characters who really have no business in the story. And, as much as I hate to say it, Ghost Rider is one of those characters. I'm not sure where the idea that Ghost Rider is a "street level" hero came from, when he's spent the last few years fighting against Satan and angels.

But at least Diggle gives Ghost Rider an appropriate internal reason for showing up in Shadowland. Normally, Johnny Blaze wouldn't care about what Daredevil's doing (and why should he, he has bigger concerns), so having the Kingpin force him to take action was a good move. It also plays into a larger theme for Ghost Rider, with him being manipulated by an evil force once again, though that's more a concern of the Ghost Rider tie-in issue.

Another problem I have with this series is the artwork by Billy Tan. I'm not sure what happened to Tan, I loved his work on Ed Brubaker's Uncanny X-Men run but his work here is...well, it's just boring. The characters have no life to them, the fight scenes are badly choreographed, and there's just no pizzazz. A story like this, for these characters, would be aided greatly by an artist who could establish mood (which is why Alex Maleev and Michael Lark were so great in their Daredevil runs). Tan draws it like any other superhero story and it just sucks the life right out of Diggle's story. I also hate how artists these days can't decide on a uniform look for Ghost Rider's hell-cycle; Tan's bike looks nothing like Clayton Crain's in the tie-in. Where are the editors at moments like this?

Shadowland has really disappointed me so far, and if Ghost Rider wasn't part of the cast I wouldn't bother to pick up the remaining issues.

Grade: C-

All-New Ghost Rider (2014) # 7

Cover Artist: Damion Scott

Published: Nov. 2014
Original Price: $3.99

Title: "Legend", Part 2
Writer: Felipe Smith
Artist: Damion Scott
Inker: Robert Campanella
Letterer: VC's Joe Caramagna
Colorist: Val Staples
Editor: Mark Paniccia
Editor In Chief: Axel Alonso 

SYNOPSIS
A group of teenagers changing a flat tire are attacked and killed by the animals that have been mutated by Zabo’s pink pills.  The next morning, Robbie drops off Gabe and spends the day paying off bills with the money he’s earned from street racing.  He tells Eli that they will have to step up the amount of races they win in order to save more money, which Eli does not agree with at all.  Robbie receives a call about a race worth $5,000 in Phoenix, but Eli tells him that he is misusing their power and that he has his own “bullies” to deal with.  5 hours later at an Arizona gas station, a man on a motorcycle watches Robbie as he’s accosted by two large bikers.  Robbie gets into a fight with the bikers, and his rage allows Eli to momentarily take control of his body.  Robbie regains control and drives away, telling Eli never to do that again, while the man watching follows them.

Back at Lincoln High School, Robbie’s teacher asks Guero if he’s seen Robbie, then comments that Guero and his gang have recovered from their injuries very quickly.  He sees the gang stocking up with cans of spray paint from their lockers, then later sees on the news that someone has been spray-painting the name “Blue Krue” around the neighborhood.  In downtown Los Angeles, Dr. Zabo sees the same news report and comments that it’s a great way for the gang to spread the word about his new blue pills.

That night in Phoenix, Robbie has won yet another street race, and the loser invites him to another race tomorrow night, with a pay out of double or nothing.  The next day, Robbie is told about a new, expensive medication for Gabe, and wonders how he will pay for it.  He talks with Eli about it, who suggests that they win the next race, even though he hates the time that it wastes to do so.  He asks for full control behind the wheel of the car, but Robbie says he’s a good enough racer on his own to win.

The next night, the race gets underway but Robbie is blocked by the mutant animals, who attack the car.  When Robbie begs for Eli’s help, the spirit tells him that they’re a team.  Robbie agrees and gives up control to Eli, who transforms them into the Ghost Rider to fight off the animals.  They destroy the mutants, but Robbie loses the race and the winner comes to collect the money.  Robbie gives him the money, but Eli convinces Robbie that they need that money for Gabe and they need to follow the racers and take the money back.  Robbie gives in and transforms, easily catches up to the winner, and runs his car off the road and over a cliff.  Robbie runs down the hill to help the man, but Eli talks him into taking the money instead.  When Robbie does so, he’s interrupted by Johnny Blaze, the Ghost Rider, who asks him “who are you and what the hell do you think you’re doing?”

ANNOTATIONS 
The story behind Eli Morrow is revealed in All-New Ghost Rider (2014) # 8.

Johnny Blaze has been tracking Robbie down since All-New Ghost Rider (2014) # 6, and made his last appearance before that issue in Thunderbolts (2013) # 32.

REVIEW
The “Legend” storyarc continues with Johnny Blaze, the “official” Ghost Rider, finally making an appearance to start tying the series into the character’s larger continuity.

Felipe Smith, and Marvel editorial as a whole, played things very smart when it came to the introduction of Robbie Reyes and the launch of this series.  Johnny Blaze has a very large, very vocal fanbase that easily could have been hesitant about him being replaced by a yet another new character.  A similar tactic was attempted only a few years earlier, with disastrous results, when Alejandra was introduced at the start of Rob Williams’ Ghost Rider series, so it’s nice to see that Marvel learned its lesson.  It’s a tricky balance, though, because part of what made the Williams series so grating was that Blaze remained the central character of the series, which did nothing but keep Alejandra from being anything more than a plot device.   Launching All-New Ghost Rider with an introductory arc completely divorced from Blaze and the Spirit of Vengeance canon was the logical move, echoing what had been done back at the start of the 1990s Danny Ketch series.  Unlike back in 1990, however, Blaze is still THE Ghost Rider in current continuity, so having him nowhere to be seen while launching a NEW Ghost Rider could have been problematic.  Marvel sidestepped this by putting Blaze front and center in a concurrent series, Thunderbolts, which regardless of the book’s quality still sent the message that Johnny hadn’t been forgotten.

With that introductory arc out of the way, though, Smith is able to bring Blaze and the associated plot points (or problems, even) into the series in a natural and organic fashion.  Like when Ketch first appeared, Blaze has a reason to enter the series as his own agent, wanting to learn how and why there’s another person riding around elsewhere in the country calling himself “Ghost Rider”.  I’ll get into the dynamics between Blaze and Reyes in the review for the next issue, since Johnny is only around for a few panels here.

The bulk of this issue hinges around the Robbie/Eli relationship and the slow-build toward Eli’s heel turn, which makes the story much more interesting than it honestly has any right to be.  Eli is the stand-in for Zarathos here, slowly corrupting and manipulating his host while also being the one in control of the power shared between them.  While Blaze always struggled against the demon’s darker influence, Robbie seems doomed to give in Eli’s negative influence.  Here is where Eli’s true purpose starts to show as something more than “exact vengeance on the guilty”, he has his own agenda that marks him even more as something different than the traditional Spirit of Vengeance set-up from previous takes on the concept.  I like the juxtaposition of Eli becoming more and more frustrated with Robbie’s lackadaisical approach to their supposed “mission”, and it shows that though Eli may be manipulative as all hell, Robbie also has little problem using the spirit for his own needs with little thought to the consequences. 

Outside of the fascinating relationship between those two, however, the series is still driving around in metaphorical circles.  We’re still dealing with Zabo and his pills, the monster animals are little more than window dressing dispatched within a single page, and Guero and his goon squad are little more than stand-ins for Grumpy and the gang-bangers from the last arc.  It’s like Smith really loves the dueling nature of Robbie and Eli, but has run out of plot ideas to hang the relationship on.  Here’s hoping Blaze will inject some much-needed story diversity into the equation for the rest of the arc.

Damion Scott is still on art, and I found myself not as perturbed by his work here as I was with his first issue.  He handles the quiet scenes well, with Robbie interacting with Eli (which can’t be easy, showing in artwork how someone has an internal discussion with an invisible entity), but the action sequences are still totally incomprehensible.  The characters just float in empty space during the action scenes, with no grounding in the environment to let you know just what the hell is going on.  He does draw a pretty great splash of Blaze on the last page, though!

I’m cautiously optimistic about where things are going now that Johnny Blaze has arrived, let’s see if things improve as the arc continues.

Grade: B-

Creator Interview: Tony Isabella

Tony Isabella

The very first creator interview I ever did for Vengeance Unbound was this one with writer Tony Isabella back in 2003, who was such an absolute delight to talk to.  I got to meet Mr. Isabella a few years later at the Mid-Ohio Con, where we talked more about his time on Ghost Rider (and even signed my copy of Ghost Rider # 11, which I used as the cover image for that issue's review yesterday), and it was very cool to hear him talk about the character and his time at Marvel.
Being the super-cool guy that he is, former Ghost Rider writer Tony Isabella sat down for a quick question-and-answer interview for Vengeance Unbound!

1) Your first issue of Ghost Rider was published in 1974, right after the series creator, Gary Friedrich, left the book. Was Ghost Rider a book that you were wanting to write at the time, or was it more of a case of the book desperately needing a writer to keep it going?

The book needed a writer desperately and, after I'd written an issue, I thought I could some entertaining and interesting things with it. However, in retrospect, I regret that Gary Friedrich was taken off a title he created. If I were offered a book under the same circumstances, I wouldn't take it without the creator giving me his blessing.

2) Your run on the book seemed to take the series in a direction completely different then what had come before, what with Johnny Blaze moving to Los Angeles and the addition of Karen Page to the cast. Any thoughts on what prompted the change in status quo for such a young book?

I started thinking of Johnny Blaze as a motorized cowboy and that naturally led to my emphasizing the "lonely hero" themes which I'd found compelling in Marvel western titles like KID COLT OUTLAW and RAWHIDE KID. I did that for a few issues. The horror stuff worked well with an atmospheric artist like Mike Ploog, but not nearly as well with equally terrific but more traditional artists like Jim Mooney and Sal Buscema.

The Kids were the super-heroes of their times, so Johnny went in a similar direction. At the time, he was sharing the West with the Hulk and virtually no one else...so I moved him all the way to Los Angeles. I figured the Hollywood backdrop would make for exciting stories. I used Karen Page and the Stuntmaster in my stories for no other reason that those characters were already in show business in the Marvel Universe.

3) What were your thoughts on writing a book with the supernatural and satanic overtones that made the early Ghost Rider stories so distinct? Was it a very big concern for you, or did it not matter at all?

I looked it as mining mythology for stories, not terribly different from what Stan Lee and Jack Kirby had done with THOR. Okay, yeah, the odds of my receiving complaints from religious-minded readers were considerably higher than their receiving complaints from Odin-worshipers, but this was how I looked at it then.

When I added an element of Christianity to oppose Satan, the favorable response was such than I began to expand on my original plans. From that point on, as I'll discuss a question or two down, I became to consider my stories from a fairness standpoint as well. If we were going to represent "Hell" in our comics, shouldn't we also represent "Heaven?"

4) In the early years, the book seemed unable to make up its mind about whether it was a supernatural/horror comic or a super-hero comic. Which did you envision the book being?

Definitely a super-hero comic, albeit one with heavy supernatural overtones. The motorcycle translated into fast-paced action which, in turn, translated into super-hero action. Had Mike Ploog been on the book when I got the assignment, I probably would've emphasized the horror aspects more. Since he wasn't, I went with what I felt were my strengths and the strengths of the artists who worked with me on the series.

5) One of the more memorable plotlines in your run, at least to me, was the inclusion of the "mysterious friend" that helped Johnny face down Satan and various other evildoers. Obviously, this "friend" seemed to be the comic interpretation of Jesus Christ, helping Blaze through his time of need. What made you decide to write this story?

As Gary Friedrich had laid down the rules, it was only the pureness of Roxanne Simpson that kept Satan from claiming the soul of Johnny Blaze. So, when I started writing the book, that was the forbidden fruit I couldn't resist. What happens when Roxanne can no longer protect Johnny? So I set up the scenario...and probably discovered I'd written myself into a corner.

I was discussing the book with a group of writers, confident that, one way or another, I get Johnny out of this jam. That's when the legendary Steve Gerber quipped "Why don't you have God save him?" I laughed and then went...wait a minute...that's just crazy enough to work. I pitched it to editor Roy Thomas, laying out where I'd be going with the character after that, and he approved what would end up being a two-year-long story arc.

Len Wein and Marv Wolfman, who succeeded Roy as editor, were also very supportive of my plans. Unfortunately, when it came time for the conclusion of the story arc to go to press, the ever-arrogant, ever-overrated, and just-plain-nasty Jim Shooter decided to change the ending and, by doing so, the entire thrust of the story I had so painstakingly constructed. I've been explaining and apologizing for my last issue ever since. Shooter truly turned a silk purse into a sow's ear.

6) What did you find appealing to the Ghost Rider's character? Did you see him lasting as a Marvel character, or were his chances of success viewed as slim?

If I had to narrow down the appeal of the character for me, it was the motorized cowboy bit. I really did love those Marvel westerns of the 1960s.

I was in my early 20s when I wrote GHOST RIDER. At that age, you think everything will last forever.

7) What were some fond memories (if any) of working on Ghost Rider?

There were many. The incredibly positive response I got from the readers was a first for me. I got to know and work with the great Frank Robbins. I added Marvel Universe versions of my dear friends Richard and Wendy Pini to the supporting cast, which, thinking back on it, was one of the most bizarre things I ever did. The joy of working on a title no one in the office much cared about, which can be and was a very liberating thing for me.

8) When you left the series, was it because you were ready to move on, or were there more stories you'd have liked to have told about GR?

I left GHOST RIDER because I was leaving Marvel. No disrespect is intended to my friends Len Wein and Marv Wolfman, but the company was never as much fun for me after Roy Thomas stepped down from his gig as editor-in-chief. When Roy decided not to return to the job, I moved over to DC Comics. The move was a little more complicated than described here. But it doesn't have anything to do with GHOST RIDER per se, so you get the short version.

Had I continued to write GHOST RIDER, you would have seen virtually no supernatural elements in the book. Johnny and Roxanne would've continued to work in Hollywood, moving to other projects when the Stuntmaster show was canceled. They would have gotten married and started a family. I sometimes joke that, if I were still writing the book today, it would be the super-hero equivalent of BONANZA. Johnny would be Ben Cartwright and working with his sons Adam and "Hoss" and his daughter Jo.

9) Finally, moving away from the past, what are some of the projects you're involved with now? 

Bob Ingersoll and I have written our second novel, STAR TREK: THE CASE OF THE COLONIST'S CORPSE. It's a "Sam Cogley" mystery which will be hitting bookstores around the end of the year. If the book is successful, we could end up doing a continuing series of Cogley novels.

In the meantime, I'll continue writing my weekly "Tony's Tips" for COMICS BUYER'S GUIDE, my thrice-weekly "Tony's Online Tips" for the PERPETUAL COMICS website, and whatever other interesting gigs come my way. I'll also be working on a solo novel and various proposals for comics projects.

10) Thank you for your time, do you have any closing remarks?

I appreciate the interest in my GHOST RIDER stories. I was and am fond of Johnny Blaze and I like to think I did right by him during our time together.

Marvel Spotlight: Ghost Rider

Cover Artist: Marc Silvestri

Published: Jan. 2007

Original Price: $2.99

Head Writer: John Rhett Thomas

Spotlight Bullpen Writers: Dugan Trodglen & Matt Adler
Editor: Jeff Youngquist
Editor In Chief: Joe Quesada

SYNOPSIS
This is a special behind-the-scenes book featuring interviews with creators from both the comics and movie versions of Ghost Rider, including unreleased artwork from projects past and present. From the Contents Page:

I: Spotlight Front Page -- Get up to speed on current Ghost Rider comics and trades!

II: Ghost Rider Movie Coverage -- Interviews with director Mark Steven Johnson and actor Nicolas Cage of the upcoming Ghost Rider film, debuting in February 2007!

III: The Road to Damnation, The Trail of Tears -- Inside the mini-series that brought Johnny Blaze back to life, with series creators Garth Ennis and Clayton Crain. Plus, a special preview of their upcoming mini-series Ghost Rider: Trail of Tears!

IV: Ghost Rider Returns: The New Series -- Spotlight catches up with Daniel Way, the writer tasked with picking up the action after the events of Road to Damnation in GR's new hit series! With preview art of the upcoming two-parter with guest pencils by the legendary Richard Corben!

V: The Art of Ghost Rider with Javier Saltares -- Few are as intimately involved with the world of the Ghost Rider and its many different visual looks as artist Javier Saltares. Spotlight catches up with the artist, discussing both his past work on Danny Ketch-era GR tales and his current work with Daniel Way! Plus, a special gallery of rare and never-before-seen GR pencil art!

VI: The Origins of Ghost Rider -- Spotlight had incredible honor of talking with two of the co-creators of Ghost Rider, editor Roy Thomas and artist Mike Ploog, where we looked back thirty-five years ago to the debut of our favorite hell cyclist!

VII: Ghost Rider...With a Ketch! -- Writer Howard Mackie is on hand to reminisce about the '90s version of Ghost Rider!

ANNOTATIONS
This issue was reprinted in the Ghost Rider: Apocalypse Soon trade paperback.

REVIEW
With the Ghost Rider movie only a month away, Marvel Comics are starting their onslaught of GR-related material - with this issue of Marvel Spotlight being the first out the gate to get people ready. Spotlight is a series that's a little over a year old, a "behind the scenes" style magazine in the vein of the original Marvel Age series from the 1980s where Marvel can hype up their own material outside of the various comic trade publications (such as Wizard or Comics Buyers Guide), and this issue falls on the Spirit of Vengeance.

There's a ton of great interviews contained within this issue: Mark Steven Johnson, Nicolas Cage, Garth Ennis, Clayton Crain, Daniel Way, Javier Saltares, Mike Ploog, Roy Thomas, and Howard Mackie all stop by the muse on the Ghost Rider past and present. While most of the information presented has been covered in other various places over the years, and won't be unfamiliar to long-time Ghost Rider fans, there are a few bright shining points. Naturally, the material presented about the upcoming movie is highly interesting, while the interview with Daniel Way was successful in presenting his own ideas and concept for the character. I've been harsh on Way in my reviews of his first few issues, but I get the feeling here that he at least does "get" the character despite some of the missteps I feel he's made along the way.

We're also treated to some great art teases from various titles. Clayton Crain gives us a 2-page preview of Trail of Tears, while Javier Saltares shares a few previously unreleased sketches and pages he'd done over the years (including some work from the upcoming Ghost Rider Finale). On the design and art front, the only thing that bothered me was the interview with original series artist Mike Ploog and the choice to use artwork that, well, wasn't done by him (instead by one of his successors on the book, Jim Mooney). It's a bit of a disappointing slight toward such a legendary artist.

But there's a problem that comes with this being a Marvel-produced magazine: there's quite a bit of ass-kissing involved on the part of the interviewers, especially during the interviews with Johnson and Way. But, I was at least pleasantly surprised to see an interview with Howard Mackie alongside the current crop of creators. Marvel seems to be going to lengths to make us try and forget the 90s version of the character, and seeing Mackie represented here (even if it is in the very back of the book) is hopefully a sign that Marvel's come to its sense regarding the character's most successful era. In fact, it's perhaps a telling sign that the only era of Ghost Rider's history that wasn't represented was the 2001 attempt at revitalizing the character with the Grayson/Kaniuga Hammer Lane mini-series, widely regarded as a failure.

So while Marvel Spotlight: Ghost Rider is a fun book, and certainly informative, I'd take the information presented here with a grain of salt. After all, a company would hardly present any hard-hitting questions that could make their own creators look bad...would they?

Grade: N/A

Superior Spider-Man Annual # 1

Cover Artist: J.G. Jones

Published: Jan. 2014

Original Price: $4.99

Title: "Hostage Crisis"

Writer: Christos Gage
Artist: Javier Rodriguez
Inker: Alvaro Lopez
Letterer: Chris Eliopoulos
Colorist: Javier Rodriguez
Editor: Stephen Wacker
Editor-In-Chief: Axel Alonso 

SYNOPSIS
A former employee of the Kingpin sells information about Peter Parker being connected to Spider-Man to the vampire assassin Blackout, who kills the informant in return. Later, Parker (whose body is now inhabited by the mind of former villain Otto "Dr. Octopus" Octavius) visits with his Aunt May and her husband Jay Jameson, who expresses concern about Peter's work with Spider-Man. Peter leaves and goes down into the subway, unaware he's been followed by Blackout. On a train, Peter uses his Spider-Bot camera systems to check up on the city and sees May and Jay being attacked by Blackout. The vampire easily disables Jameson kidnaps May before Parker can make it back to their apartment. Blackout left a cellphone for Peter, which means he won't kill May until he gets what he wants.

Not long after, the cellphone rings inside Spider-Man's headquarters. Blackout proves that May is still alive, then gives his demands that Parker is to sabotage Spider-Man's equipment so the villain will have an advantage against him. Parker uses his Spider-Bots to triangulate Blackout's location, but decides he needs to do some research on his enemy before taking action. He contacts Danny Ketch, former host to the Ghost Rider, whose sister was murdered by Blackout. Ketch tells Spider-Man that Blackout will target everyone he loves if he doesn't kill him, and offers up a few suggestions about his weaknesses, including sunlight. Spider-Man briefly considers asking Dr. Strange for help, but decides against it when he realizes that Strange could possibly discern that he is actually Otto Octavius.

Spider-Man tracks Blackout to an abandoned slaughterhouse, where he catches the villain exiting the building with May. Using his Spider-Bots to form a forcefield around May, Spider-Man deprives Blackout of his hostage. The fight turns vicious, with Blackout submerging the hero in darkness and stabbing him in the back with his claws. Blackout attempts to rip out Spider-Man's throat, but an electrical plate in his neck shocks the vampire into unconsciousness, which Otto/Peter had planned. He tells May to leave, breaks Blackout's legs and arms, and hangs him from meat-hooks. Octavius then brutally removes Blackout's fangs and claws, leaving the vampire to beg for his life. Spider-Man tells Blackout that he is going to spread the word to all criminals that Parker and his family are off limits from now on, and he then uses a generator to fry Blackout with artificial sunlight. The next day, a pickpocket steals Parker's wallet, but gives it back and begs for mercy when he realizes who he has stolen from. Meanwhile, the Green Goblin has returned and is plotting against Spider-Man.

ANNOTATIONS
Blackout last appeared in Ghost Rider (2011) # 1.

Danny Ketch last appeared in Wolverine (2010) # 6. How he lost his powers has yet to be revealed.  He will make his next appearances, fully re-powered as the Ghost Rider, years later in Fantastic Four (2018) # 3-4.

Blackout killed Danny's sister Barbara in Ghost Rider (1990) # 7 and nearly killed Dan by ripping out his throat in Ghost Rider (1990) # 25. Blackout became "half demon" when he was reborn as one of the Lilin in Ghost Rider (1990) # 41.

REVIEW
Blackout attempts to make a comeback by killing Spider-Man, not realizing he's dealing a newly "superior" foe.

I don't normally review comics that only feature a Ghost Rider cameo (see last year's issue of Wolverine and the X-Men that had GR on the cover, only to feature him in one measly panel), but I thought this one was appropriate to make an exception about. Not only was Blackout a major Ghost Rider villain during the 1990s, but this issue also gives us an update on the whereabouts of Dan Ketch. Plus, it's a pretty great comic in its own right!

I've only read a few sporadic issues of the Superior Spider-Man series, most of them from the "Team-Up" spin-off series. It's a pretty great concept, Dr. Octopus's mind in Peter Parker's body trying to prove himself a better hero than the original Spider-Man, and it's a premise that allows for some truly new takes on the traditional "Spidey fights random bad guy" story. Blackout, when handled correctly, can be a truly terrifying villain, and it's sad that he's never really lived up to the potential he had in his original appearances from the 1990s Ghost Rider series. Since then he's been treated either as a joke (see Jason Aaron's run, where he's called "the Clapper with fangs") or as disposable canon fodder (as in Rob Williams' run, where he's taken out by Alejandra in the span of two pages).

Christos Gage seems to have a lot of affection for those early Howard Mackie stories, though, because he not only gets Blackout's character he also understands how the villain operates. Blackout isn't scary because he's a vampire, he's scary because his standard modus operandi isn't to attack the hero but to kill the hero's family (and friends and acquaintances and so on...). Just like with Dan Ketch years ago, Blackout comes at Peter/Otto through his loved ones by kidnapping Aunt May, a tactic that usually works for him. It blows up in his face in a spectacularly horrific fashion here, though. Blackout, for all his ferocity, is a coward that is afraid to take on an opponent face-to-face, so his fate at the comic's end is appropriately vicious.

We also get a look at what Danny Ketch has been up to since his last appearance, and again it shows that Gage knows the early stories well. Of all the villains he faced during his time as the Ghost Rider, Blackout is the most personal for Danny, and even though he's powerless I liked that offered to come help Spider-Man. Despite being just a normal human, Danny's still a hero, which shows he's handling his "disability" much better than he did the LAST time he lost the Spirit of Vengeance.

The artwork by Javier Rodriguez is also a big win for this comic. I'm not familiar with Rodriguez's work, but his style fits the Spider-Man aesthetic perfectly. In particular, he does well with the Superior set-up, making Peter/Otto much more insect-like and creepy in his movements and presence. His Blackout looks scary, and I love the way he interprets his light-dampening ability, with only certain colors standing out in each panel to represent where the characters are in relation to the darkness.

While this comic certainly isn't essential for Ghost Rider collectors to pick up, I'd still highly recommend it for anyone that was a fan of the 90s series and wants to see a few of the characters from that time handled with care and respect.

Grade: A+

Creator Interview: Trent Kaniuga

Artwork: Trent Kaniuga

Since I just re-posted all of the reviews of "The Hammer Lane" mini-series, I figured now was a good time to re-post the interview I did with Trent Kaniuga back in 2009.  I felt really bad after doing this interview, because Trent was a helluva nice guy and he was convinced I hated his artwork after he read my reviews for his first three issues of Ghost Rider.  "Why did you want to interview me if you didn't like my work?" he asked, and I really felt like a gigantic asshole.  So I assured him that yes, I was critical of parts of his work, but I also liked quite a bit of what he'd done on the character, which I pointed out to him in those reviews.  You'll notice I was a little kinder to him in the reviews for issues 4-6.
Oh, and I totally cop to the fact that I was wrong about him missing deadlines on the series, another thing that made me feel like a first class heel.

As part of our anniversary extravaganza, Vengeance Unbound proudly presents a chat with the artist on Ghost Rider: The Hammer Lane, Trent Kaniuga!

1) Before we start talking about Ghost Rider, I'd like to touch on your older work and the comic that you're most associated with: namely, Creed. If I remember correctly, that was your first project as a comic artist? Even if it wasn't, it was still fairly impressive to have a successful creator-owned series at the start of your career. How did Creed get its start at Image?

Wow, that was a long time ago.  My very first comic was actually a book called "Deadbolt", and he was a really generic kind of a super hero, but with a strange religious twist.  I was 15 years old when it was published, and it didnt sell very well.  We used to go to malls in Elkhart Indiana and set up a table on weekends to sell our own comics. We'd get a free table  because Allen Stewart, the publisher would dress up as spiderman and run through the mall jumping at kids, singing and dancing to the spiderman theme song. I realized that I wanted to create characters that nobody would ever have to dress up as at a mall, so I made CreeD.  CreeD was first published when I was 17 years old, on cheap newsprint, and it got a lot of support from various distributors (back then there were 4), and it earned a lot of press.  Every publisher that I worked with on CreeD wanted multiple covers and new issue #1s, so the series is quite confusing. But Im putting all 20 or so issues together into an omnibus finally for everyone that ever got lost trying to collect the series.  The Image thing happened only after I did my run on Ghost Rider, which was my best selling book, thanks to the talented people that I worked with on that.
 

2) Ghost Rider was your first assignment at Marvel, correct? How did you get the job illustrating Devin Grayson's Ghost Rider series?

I was doing work in fashion in Los Angeles for a company called JNCO which was known for a very graffiti style culture, and they wanted to branch into entertainment.  So I made a couple of stories for them, and sold them into animation and merchandising before being fired for creating a show about homeless martial artists or something. Actually about 10 people a week were fired from JNCO, so I took it as a good thing.  I was just passing my portfolio around to people that I knew, and my old friend Joe Quesada called me immediately and said " I got a project for you!, what do you think of Ghost Rider?"

To which I responded "besides that he's a badass?"

Just because I was enthusiastic about the possibility, I stayed up all night and did that cover for the first issue of the Hammer Lane, and sent it out to the Marvel Editors and they loved it!  After that, he pretty much assembled the team.  It was really fantastic getting paired up with Devin and Danny.  I think we all worked well together, throwing ideas back and forth.  Devin was very open to including things that I just thought would be a lot of fun to draw into the series, and Danny made my pencils look incredible every issue.

3) When you came into the project, did you have any input on the plot or was that something already finalized by that point?

Devin had a really solid idea for what she wanted to do. The place where I had the most influence was in choreographing some of the action.  For instance, I asked her if we could have him get blown to peaces "terminator style", and we just... made it happen.  My tendency is to push things as far as I can go, until someone stops me.  Marvel never said "no" to this sort of thing so... it got into the final.

4) Was Ghost Rider a character you were a fan of? If so, what are some of your fond memories of the character? If not, did your opinion change once you got the job illustrating his book?

I always loved the Johnny Blaze character, but not so much Danny Ketch.  Something about "touching a magical demonic gas cap that turns him into the spirit of vengeance" didnt seem cool to me.    

The concept of the Ghost Rider character is very iconic, and creates great situational dilemmas. I think that Ghost Rider can either be REALLY badass, or really cheesy, depending on how its handled. When I was a kid, there was a comic book shop down the road, run out of a guys garage called "poor boys comics".  They had piles of old Man-thing comics and world war 2 propaganda books as well as piles of old $0.25 Ghost Rider books... and that was my first introduction to Ghost Rider.

5) Now, I'm going to try and ask this question as gracefully as possible, so please bear with me. While I remember the reception being fairly positive when “The Hammer Lane” was first released, history does not seem to have been kind to it. A lot of Ghost Rider fans, particularly those who frequent internet message boards, hold a very low opinion of the work you and Grayson did on the character. Why do you think that is? Do you see those fans' opinions on “The Hammer Lane”as being unfair to the work?

Nietzsche said "All great things must first wear terrifying and monstrous masks in order to inscribe themselves on the hearts of humanity".  Maybe this book needs time to really grow on people, to see that we were doing things that had never been done with the character before.  Of course, I can only speak for the pencils.  And also, I feel that I could do a better book now, as Ive grown exponentially as an artist.  From that perspective, you could look at any artists early work and tear it to pieces (excluding Picasso).  I see this as an interesting look into the history of the development of my work.

To be honest, Im a bit suprised... this is the first time that Ive heard anything negative about the series. (Although I dont google my own work all the time).  The book was in the top 10 selling books for every issue of its release.  Wizard Magazine posted me in the top 10 artists during its release.  I could quote countless positive reviews you know, but I dont want to keep you up all night. 

 I think that when a character has been around as long as Ghost Rider, its always going to be difficult to satiate every member of your audience.

6) I do remember clearly that the series encountered a lot of missed deadline problems while it was being released. Did you have trouble keeping with the book's monthly deadline, or was the book's lateness due to some other factor unrelated to you at all?

This is also news to me.  From my perspective on the pencils, I never once got a phone call about the deadlines.  Im a professional, and Ive never once missed a deadline on any project.

7) Not long after your mini-series wrapped up, I remember reading about a sequel being in the works by you and Devin Grayson called Ghost Rider: Redux (in fact, I think I even remember a cover you drew for it, an image of GR holding a scythe?). What happened to this project, why was it never realized?

The internets like to skew the truth with these kind of things.  Its an interesting place to experiment.  That image was drawn over at a friends house just for fun.  I wanted to put together a 1970s funkadelic stylized  version of Johnny Blaze as a stunt motorcyclist, living like a rockstar, and pitch it as a story, but I only ended up posting the picture on my own website.  In the vastness of interspace, truths and unrealities began to form around the image, when in reality is was simply an homage.  I really enjoyed drawing Ghost Rider, and would have loved to do more.

8) I ask this in every interview: what did you think of the Ghost Rider movie?

I'm just pleased that they didn't give Ghost Rider that orange afro that they showed before its release.

9) What are you up to these days, any new projects on the horizon?

I'm currently a Sr. Concept Artist at Blizzard Entertainment.  I worked on World of Warcraft and am currently creating character and environment designs for Diablo 3.  In comic books, I am collecting every issue of CreeD into an Omnibus, currently titled CreeD: Omnichronos, and I am developing a new comic book series that I dont know how I will be humanly capable of drawing on top of everything else.  Unless of course I cut a deal with the devil.

10) Trent , thank you for taking the time to do this interview with me. Any last words for all the Ghost Rider fans out there?

When I was a boy, my step father used to tell me the worst jokes, and terrible terrible limericks. He'd get a little drunk and spout them out almost at random.  He'd say, with such a serious, thoughtfull tone...

"Trent...
There once was a man from new grass-
Whose balls were made out of brass-
in stormy weather, he clung them together-
and lightning shot out of his ass."

To this day, Im still not really sure what the hell he was talking about.

 Thanks again to Trent for taking part in this interview!

Creator Interview: Howard Mackie

Howard Mackie

The following interview was conducted way back in November, 2003 for the original Vengeance Unbound website.  I'll be re-posting the interviews from the site at appropriate intervals, such as now since I just finished posting the reviews for the first six issues of Mackie's Ghost Rider series from 1990.

Coming forward for the next exclusive Vengeance Unbound interview, former long-time Ghost Rider scribe Howard Mackie talks about just why the book was successful, why he loved the character, and why the series ultimately failed!

1) I suppose we'll start these questions at the beginning of the Ghost Rider timeline...the series had been cancelled for a decade by the time 1990 rolled around, and it seemed that Marvel had given GR nary a thought throughout the 80s. What made you decide that Ghost Rider was a character a 90s audience would enjoy? For that matter, what made you decide to resurrect the character?

I didn't really DECIDE that the audience would enjoy Ghost Rider, but I KNEW that I loved the character from the early series. I particularly enjoyed Marc DeMatteis' work toward the end of the first Ghost Rider series, and made sure that everyone working at Marvel knew I loved the character. I was working at Marvel (as part of the editorial staff) in the late 80's and Mark Gruenwald (then Executive Editor of Marvel) suggested I stop talking about the character and write up a series proposal.

Ghost Rider was one of the most visually interesting characters out that there—still is. How can you go wrong with a flaming skull, a leather jacket and a motorcycle? The look really gets your attention right from the start.

I believe that my passion for the character had a lot to do with the success of the second series. If I had sat around and tried to figure out what the audience would like it wouldn't have worked.

I can tell you that very few people were behind a new Ghost Rider series at that time. The sales department tried to kill the series on a number of occasions before it started. They put every roadblock in the way of the series that they could possibly create. It was only because of the work of Bobbie Chase (editor) and Tom DeFalco (editor in chief) that the series ever saw the light of day. Of course, once the initial issues sold out and went back to multiple printings the sales department hailed themselves as geniuses.

2) Right at the start, your new version of Ghost Rider seemed to skyrocket to massive popularity amongst the readers. What did it feel like to be doing a book that was challenging X-Men and Spider-Man as one of Marvel's top sellers, and what do you think were the crucial factors to this success?

It felt pretty cool. Especially since no one believed it would happen. I was in Bobbie Chase's office one day and one of Marvel's top writers came in for a visit. He saw the mock up for the cover to GHOST RIDER #1 and said, "They're bringing THAT back again?" He then looked me in the eye and told me straight out that the book would be cancelled after four issues. I took a great deal of pleasure in watching the first few issues outsell everything Marvel published at the time—including the books being written by that writer.

I think the success had lots to do with the Ghost Rider book being different from everything that was being published at the time. There was a supernatural element to the book, but it wasn't a horror title. If you think about it, Ghost Rider's look should pretty much guarantee his being a villain. So, it was really hard to categorize him.

3) Probably the biggest surprise for fans of the original Ghost Rider was the fact that Johnny Blaze had been cast aside in favor of Dan Ketch, a completely new character. What were your reasons in choosing to write Dan instead of the already established Blaze as the host for your new Ghost Rider?

I was trying to create something entirely new, while remaining faithful to the original concept. In truth, I was such a big fan of the original series, and the way it ended that, so I didn't want to jump right into the new series by undoing big chunks what Marc DeMatteis had done. Besides, from day one I had started formulating a way to bring Blaze back into the book.

4) At the height of the book's popularity, Marvel introduced readers to the Midnight Sons "family" of titles, all of which spun out of Ghost Rider. Did this idea originate out of a new direction for GR, editor mandates, or something else entirely? Also, though the Midnight Sons books started off quite strong, all the titles except for Ghost Rider were cancelled within just a few years...why do you think the line eventually failed?

At Marvel, at the time, almost everything at that time (and maybe still) was editorially driven. The Midnight Sons was born out of the success of the GHOST RIDER relaunch, but it completely ignored why GHOST RIDER was a success.

Anytime Ghost Rider appeared as a guest star in any book—sales went up! So, the "powers that be" decided we needed MORE Ghost Rider material. They looked at the Ghost Rider book and tried to figure out what was making it successful—"He's a pretty scary looking character," one of them said. "Pretty horrific!" said another. "Must be HORROR that sells!" a third said.

So editorial was given the edict to create a horror line of comics. I'm guessing that no one bothered to read the book that I was writing. If they had they would have noticed that I was making a real effort for Ghost Rider to be the only truly supernatural character in the book. For instance, Blackout was created as a low powered mutant that was a vampire wannabe. It wasn't until the whole Midnight Sons thing that that he became a "real" vampire. That was a mistake on my part.

Unfortunately, I allowed myself to go along with this thought process. Despite my better judgment, with the creation of the Midnight Sons, Ghost Rider became one of many horror titles. It really was a case of the cart following the horse.

Don't get me wrong, I think some of the titles in the Midnight Sons line were quite good. I just think horror titles can be difficult to sell. From what I understand, they still are. The bigger problem was that once it was created, the Midnight Sons line dictated the direction of the Ghost Rider titles.

This was occurring at a time when Marvel was being very driven by the marketing department. Titles could no longer stand by themselves. It was all about groups of books. Ghost Rider, a unique book when it was launched, was no longer allowed to stand on it's own. We had to have group meetings, decide things by committee and have all the stories tie in. It was the beginning of the end for me.

5) Forty-some issues into the book, readers were finally given your origin of the Ghost Rider with the story of the Medallion of Power, the Blood, Zarathos, etc... an origin that seemed at times to be somewhat convoluted and contradictory to what had been said in previous issues at the title's beginning. How did you come up with this story idea...in other words, what's the origin of GR's origin?

See the above answer. Some of the elements were of my creation. Others were ideas born out of group discussions in effort to make the entire line tie together.

Personally, I would have left Ghost Rider's origin a mystery. It's always, always, always better to have fans begging to know about a character's origin than to ever give it to them. You will always disappoint someone and you are left with nothing. Unless… you allow yourself to fall into the old, "Er, no… that origin we told you a few years ago… that's not the REAL origin… THIS is the real origin!" It's been done to death in comic books. It's a sales ploy. It's a gimmick and it's born out of desperation. The only thing worse is the killing of characters only to bring them back later on. Been there and done that.

6) It can be said without a doubt that during your tenure on Ghost Rider you worked with some of the best artists in the comic business...from Javier Saltares and Mark Texeira to Ron Garney, Adam Kubert, and Salvador Larroca. In your opinion, which of these artists gave you "the definitive Ghost Rider"?

That is way too tough of a question to answer. First of all, I'd wind up insulting too many people. Secondly, I really did get to work with the best guys in the business at the time. You left out a few others… John Romita Jr., Andy Kubert, Joe Kubert, Lee Weeks… are just a few who spring to mind.

Realistically, Javier and Tex set the tone for everything that followed, but every artist contributed something.

7) After six years on Ghost Rider (and nearly every spin-off title), you decided to leave the book. Was this decided simply because you had become tired of the book, or were there other reasons for your departure?

See the answer to question number 5. Also, the book had been handed off to another editor. I had worked with Bobbie Chase from the very beginning. She and I had a great working relationship. It's tough when a new editor comes on to a book you've been writing for a few years and says, "This is where I want the book to go." Tough, but the way it is. Editors are the final word when it comes to a monthly comic book under their domain. As long as you know the rules when you sign on—and I did—there's no room for hurt feelings. Also, I had too much other work and had written a lot of GHOST RIDER stories. All those things said, it was just time for a change.

Almost immediately I missed writing the adventures of Ghost Rider, Dan Ketch and Blaze.

8) When you were writing Peter Parker: Spider-Man in the late 90's, you wrote a reaction issue to the then-recent cancellation of Ghost Rider under Ivan Velez Jr.'s pen. In this issue, it seemed as if you were trying to rework what Velez had done on the book up until it's end...what were your thoughts on the direction GR took after you left, and what prompted that issue of Spider-Man?

Honestly, I didn't read too much of Ivan's work. No reflection on his writing, but it would have been too hard to do. Once I've worked on a title, I try not to look on them after I'm gone. I created the character of Dan Ketch and could see every place it deviated from what I had done, or planned to do.

That PETER PARKER issue was written at the prompting of Ralph Macchio. He wanted me to give Marvel back the Ghost Rider I had created. He was my editor, so I did it to the best of abilities. There was no offense meant toward Ivan at all.

9) Now that we've beat your past work to death, let's move forward to the present. Do you have any upcoming projects that you'd like to tell our readers about?

I have drifted away from comics—and vice versa. I have a number of kid's books in development with a few publishing houses. I have pitched a couple of projects to Marvel, but haven't heard anything. I won't be holding my breath—I'm part of the "old guard." That's okay—times change. I've even toyed with the concept of pitching another relaunch of Ghost Rider to Marvel, but I'm not sure if they would be receptive to the idea.

10) Mr. Mackie, thank you for taking the time out of your busy schedule to do this interview...are there any comments you'd like to leave with the readers before we end?

I was surprised and pleased to see that there is still interest in GHOST RIDER even though Marvel is not currently publishing a monthly title. Thanks for the chance to chat. It's been fun.

Special thanks to Mr. Mackie for being cool enough to do this interview, and I know that speaking strictly for myself...I'd buy a Ghost Rider relaunch by him in a heartbeat!

Happy Halloween from Vengeance Unbound!

For a character that looks the way he does, it's a little surprising that most Ghost Rider stories are not very scary.  A skeleton on fire jumping around on a motorbike seems to naturally sway toward the direction of superheroes, or even at its darkest just street-level crime with the occasional dollop of weird thrown on top.  However, since Halloween is upon us, I thought I'd offer up some thoughts on a few Ghost Rider comics that ARE genuinely scary, if not downright disturbing.

"TRAIL OF TEARS"

Cover Artist: Clayton Crain

The image above us there is a somewhat recent example, the 2006 mini-series "Trail of Tears" by Garth Ennis and Clayton Crain that re-imagined the western Spirit of Vengeance as a murdered former slave killed by bigots.  Ennis isn't a stranger to writing horror comics, as evidenced by his classic series Preacher and (my personal favorite) his run on John Constantine, Hellblazer.  His first go-round with Ghost Rider, 2005's "Road to Damnation" mini-series, was less scary and more tongue-in-cheek in its approach, but Ennis got deadly series with the follow-up.

I was tempted to disqualify this series as "horror", given the obvious influence of the Spaghetti Western on the material.  This is a western story, with a lot of tropes from that genre, but the tone of the book is so goddamned dismal and oppressive that the horror elements tend to overshadow the cowboy motif.  Clayton Crain is a lot of the reason for this, the man's digitally-painted artwork is beautiful and monstrous at the same time.  "Trail of Tears" is a Ghost Rider series that doesn't show the titular character's flaming skull until the last issue, which is pretty brave...but also effective, because Crain's design of the hooded Rider is extremely memorable.

And he has vultures and crows as pets-slash-weapons.  Why haven't we seen Johnny Blaze with the power of weaponized devil-birds?  Missed opportunity, methinks.

"STAINED GLASS AND SHADOWS"

Cover Artist: Bob Budiansky

If Ghost Rider Classic is what you fancy, I have a suggestion for you: find a copy of either the Essential Ghost Rider volume 4 or the Original Ghost Rider Rides Again 7-issue mini-series and prepare yourself for the best Ghost Rider stories you'll ever read.  At the end of a fantastic run of comics are issues 80 and 81, the final 2-part story of the 1970s Ghost Rider series, which actually (and kind of surprisingly), gave a satisfying conclusion to Johnny Blaze's struggle against the demon Zarathos.  Writer J.M. DeMatteis and artist/co-plotter Bob Budiansky started the story with the chilling fate of a small town fallen prey to a pastor capable of stealing away a person's soul and ended it with a Ghost Rider withering away to nothing while still fighting against his other half.

The old "fire 'n' brimstone" country preacher archetype is an easy one to fall into cliche and caricature, but the Sin-Eater of this story is charismatic and unassuming, which makes it even more terrifying when his true face is revealed at the climax to issue # 80. Nothing's scarier to me than religion taken to extreme, and green soul-eating tentacles are about as bible-thumping as it gets.  I'm from Kentucky, I know all about the Tentacle Soul-Sucker of Latter Day Saints, trust me.

"THE LEGEND OF SLEEPY HOLLOW, ILLINOIS"

Cover Artist: Arthur Suydam

If you're looking for something scary that was published within the last decade, pickings are a little slim.  Jason Aaron's run was absolutely batshit amazing, but I wouldn't really call it scary.  Weird as hell, sure, but it wasn't really horror.  So, how about a story that's actually set during Halloween and features a villain that is simultaneously the Devil and a guy with a flaming fucking pumpkin for a head?

"The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, Illinois" is one of the highlights of the mid-2000s run by Daniel Way, Javier Saltares, and Mark Texeira.  Despite being a peripheral tie-in to the Civil War crossover, the 4-part story arc uses the Halloween imagery of villain Jack-O'-Lantern as an effectively frightening comparison to Johnny Blaze, flaming head and all.  The artwork is what really sells this story, elevating the otherwise bloated/padded story into something worth reading.  Saltares and Texeira are legendary Ghost Rider artists, and seeing how they illustrate Blaze dragging Jack-O'-Lantern through a cornfield by his chain is pretty sweet.

"OBSESSION"

Cover Artist: Mark Texeira

My vote for the most pants-shittingly terrifying Ghost Rider story goes to this one from the first year of the 1990s relaunch.  Ghost Rider # 7 by Howard Mackie and Mark Texeira revamped a somewhat ridiculous Silver Age Iron Man and Captain America villain, the Scarecrow, into an absolute nightmare.  Replacing the cheesy version of the villain with a horrific portrait of a childhood abuse victim turned serial killer, Mackie and Texeira turned the Scarecrow into a lasting protagonist for Danny Ketch all through the 1990s.

As if that wasn't enough, this issue also cemented Blackout as one of the most chilling villains in Ghost Rider history.  Using his ability to extinguish light around him, Blackout stepped up and changed the game for this series with his actions here.  The scene is horrifying without being gruesome, with Blackout sitting in a darkened hospital room to monologue before placing his fangs to the victim's throat.

HONORABLE MENTIONS

Cover Artist: Steve Lightle

There are a few other stories worth mentioning, and when I have time I may give them a longer look.  For fans of the scary stuff, I recommend "The Walking Wounded" from Marvel Comics Presents, which placed Ghost Rider opposite Typhoid Mary in a story by Ann Nocenti and Steve Lightle (and was recently reprinted in the Daredevil: Typhoid's Kiss trade paperback, to boot!).  Ghost Rider # 34 from the tail end of Jason Aaron's run is also a pretty nice terror-tale, with both artwork by Tony Moore and the return of the Highwayman from early 1980s obscurity U.S. 1.

I'd love to hear other suggestions for scariest Ghost Rider story, so feel free to leave a comment below if you'd like to chime in.  Happy Halloween, Flameheads!