Ghost Rider (1990) # 1

"Life's Blood"

Cover Date: May 1990

On Sale Date: March 1990

Writer: Howard Mackie

Artist: Javier Saltares
Inker: Mark Texeira
Letterer: Michael Heisler
Colorist: Gregory Wright
Editor: Bobbie Chase
Editor In Chief: Tom DeFalco

Cover Artist: Javier Saltares

Late at night, Dan and Barbara Ketch are taking a walk through Brooklyn's Cypress Hills Cemetery. The two hear gunshots nearby, and go to investigate. They witness a man named Deathwatch, dressed in a ninja's outfit, kill another man over a briefcase. Barbara screams when Deathwatch snaps a man's neck, which gives away their position. An arrow is shot, piercing Barbara in the heart. Deathwatch orders his men to track the two down and kill them. During the confusion, Pauline, a member of a gang called the Cypress Pool Jokers, steals the case. Dan manages to drag his sister into a nearby auto-yard, where he stumbles across a strange looking motorcycle. As the ninjas close in, the bike's gascap begins to glow. Dan touches it and is engulfed in hellfire. Moments later, the Ghost Rider explodes from Dan's hiding spot, holding the wounded Barbara. He makes short work of the ninjas, but is then attacked by the police, who believe him responsible for what's happened. After a lengthy chase, the Rider loses his pursuers and transforms into Danny, who runs away from the motorcycle in a panic.

Later that night, the ninjas return to Deathwatch, who is actually a wealthy businessman. Using his psychic powers, he learns of the Ghost Rider. He then kills one of the ninjas for their failure. Elsewhere, the Kingpin is informed that his briefcase has been stolen. He tells his aide that the contents are dangerous and it must not fall into the wrong hands. Back at the cemetery, Pauline and the rest of the Jokers open the briefcase, only to find three locked canisters inside. They decide to hide them, so whoever wants them can't find them. Danny, meanwhile, staggers into the nearest hospital, where he collapses in front of his mother, his girlfriend Stacy, and her father, police captain Dolan. The next day, Dan awakens and is told that the police brought Barbara to the hospital, and that she's in a coma.

A few hours later, Dan returns to where he left the motorcycle, hoping that the magic within it will somehow help him heal his sister. Half a mile away, the Jokers are caught by the Kingpin's men, who demand to be taken to the briefcase. During the conversation, one of the kids is stabbed in the chest by a throwing knife. Deathwatch's ninjas descend onto the street, and a firefight immediately begins between the two groups. Danny hears the gunfire, and then sees the bike's gascap begin to glow. He places his hand upon it, and is transformed into the Ghost Rider. The demon attacks the assassins, defeating them easily, until one hits him with a rocket launcher. He then tells Pauline to take him to the canisters, and she tells him that they're hidden in three different mausoleums in the cemetery, and that she doesn't remember which ones. Before she can say anything else, the Ghost Rider knocks the man out with his chain. He then takes the boy that was stabbed to the nearest hospital. The next day, Dan overhears Captain Dolan blaming the Ghost Rider for hurting Barbara. Dan visits his comatose sister, the only person that knows his secret.

"Up!  Suspect is heading...up!"

THE ROADMAP

The mystical motorcycle found in the junkyard by Dan Ketch passed through the hands of two others before being discovered in this issue:

--- In Ghost Rider # -1, the bike was originally owned by Naomi Kale. Upon her death, the motorcycle was fused with the essence of the Ghost Rider and dumped in the junkyard for Dan and Barbara to eventually discover.

--- In Before the 4: The Storms # 3, the Amulet of Zarathos (another name for the Medallion of Power) transformed Max Parrish into the Ghost Rider along with a car turned into a mystical motorcycle. Following the cycle's crash, the remains of the car were placed in the same junkyard along with the Medallion that then joined with Naomi's bike, becoming its gas cap.

CHAIN REACTION

In the closing months of 1989, Marvel introduced it's newest line of titles, held under the umbrella of "Heroes For the Nineties". Included in this initiative were relaunches of Guardians of the Galaxy by Jim Valentino and Namor the Sub-Mariner by John Byrne, the brand-new Spider-Man series by Todd McFarlane and an original team book called the New Warriors. In the middle of these launches was the return of a character believed forgotten by Marvel in the past decade: the Ghost Rider. The series was proclaimed a failure even before it debuted by people inside the company, but no one - not even the creative team - had an inkling of just how big a success this series was going to be.

Gone was Johnny Blaze and the wandering cowboy/carnival motif that had been a staple of the original series. The Eighties had brought the "grim and gritty" style of storytelling to the forefront of sales, and now the Ghost Rider was an urban vigilante acting as the Spirit of Vengeance (a moniker also loosely used by Zarathos, the first Ghost Rider). Gone was the blue jumpsuit, replaced by black leather, chains, and spikes; gone was the hellfire chopper, replaced by a sleek street-bike with flaming wheels. It was obvious that this was not the Ghost Rider that the previous generation of fans had grown up reading, and with the new approach writer Howard Mackie struck a creative zeitgeist. Presented as a 48 page event with no advertisements, the creative team were given the opportunity to go wild...and that's exactly what they did.

The most impressive thing about this issue is how effective it is at actually being a perfect example of what a debut issue of a new series should be like. Mackie delivers on a story that's effectively straight-forward with just enough hints of mystery for the future. There are no head-scratching moments that leave the reader confused, and that's important for a new series. What helps is the decision by Mackie to make the Ghost Rider have a new host, the unfortunately bland Dan Ketch, to distance the series from the continuity of a series that had ended eight years prior. While it was a move that could have potentially alienated the fans of the original Blaze series, it was also a smart move to grab the all-important wave of new readers coming on board at the start of the Nineties.

I mentioned above that Dan Ketch was bland, and it pains me to back that statement up...but the fact remains that, as the lead character in the series, he falls flat. He's not a character yet, merely a vessel for the book's star to channel through, and it hurts the scenes that focus only on him. Dan will grow into a great character through Mackie's writing, but nothing about him stands out in this first issue.

But honestly, what readers really care about isn't Dan but the Ghost Rider himself, who is both different and familiar to Zarathos, the previous Ghost Rider. The Ghost Rider really doesn't have much of a personality either in this issue, but that's okay - in fact, I believe that's the point right now. Ghost Rider is more akin to a force of nature, a symbol for the book's mystery, than a true character at this point, and it works. His famous lines are first spouted off in this issue, and through the repetition of them in the next 6 issues Mackie sets up a great moment of introspection when we're finally given a look into the Rider's thoughts. But for right now he's a cipher, a mystery that takes every character in the book by surprise, and that's damn cool.

Of course, the true stars of this issue are the artists. Javier Saltares and Mark Texeira were two artists that few had heard of, and this series is considered the first big break for both of them that wound up turning them into superstars in the comics field. Their work took fans completely by surprise with its grittiness and just plain darkness that hung over every aspect of the issue. Their Ghost Rider, redesigned by Saltares, is phenomenal and it's clear from just this issue alone that those two men were born to illustrate this series.

This is a great issue, an important issue, and most of all an appropriate issue for new readers looking to jump on board a new series. If you don't have this book in your collection, you can't call yourself a Ghost Rider fan.

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