Cover Date: January 2002
On Sale Date: November 2001
Writer: Devin Grayson
Artist: Trent Kaniuga
Inker: Danny Miki
Letterer: Jason Levine
Colorist: Dan Kemp
Editor: Stuart Moore
Editor In Chief: Joe Quesada
Cover Artist: Trent Kaniuga
Ghost Rider is fighting Gunmetal Gray, the hitman who now blames Ghost Rider and Johnny Blaze for the death of his partner Magnus. Gunmetal throws down the money that Blaze paid him to kill the demon, saying that now he's going to kill him for Magnus. But they're not going to fight there; as Gray picks up his friend's body he threatens to hurt the Ghost Rider's reputation. He challenges the demon to meet him tomorrow at Sturgis or forever be known as a coward. Gunmetal rides away, throwing a grenade as he leaves that blows up Ghost Rider along with the gas station he was standing inside.
The next morning, Johnny wakes up outside the destroyed gas station. He goes to a nearby payphone and calls his girlfriend, Chloe, to tell her goodbye and that he's not coming home to her. That evening, Juneau and his father's cycle group arrive at the bike rally in Sturgis, where they find Ghost Rider and Gunmetal Gray having a fight to the death in front of the assembled biker crowd. Gray warns the demon that he's fighting to avenge his friend, and though he may not be from Hell he can heal up real fast; even if he dies, he won't stop until everyone there is surprised at how long he lasted in the fight. Gunmetal starts hitting the Ghost Rider, who Juneau notices isn't fighting back. His father, Merril, places a bet with another biker on "the Spirit of Forgiveness".
Back at the fight, Gunmetal gets fed up with Ghost Rider refusing to fight back, and to motivate his foe he pulls out a pistol and kills one of the onlookers. The bikers get over their shock quickly and jump Gunmetal, beating him into submission. When they finish, the crowd disperses to leave the Ghost Rider standing over the defeated Gunmetal. The biker admits defeat, and that it was really his own fault that Magnus died. Ghost Rider transforms back into Johnny Blaze, and Gray tells him that he hasn't forgiven him for what's happened. But, Johnny answers, he's forgiven himself by accepting that having the Spirit of Vengeance inside him is pretty cool. Gray throws a punch, but Blaze easily beats the man to unconsciousness. Blaze then reunites with Juneau and bumps into Piston, the girl who befriended him the night before. When Johnny tells her that he totally gets off on being the Spirit of Vengeance, she replies by telling him a secret of her own, that her real name is Agnes. Piston offers Blaze a ride, and the two leave Sturgis on her motorcycle with the bikers cheering them on.
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| Because that's what demons care about! |
THE ROADMAP
Ghost Rider appears next in Ghost Rider (2001) # 1/2.
Johnny hired Gunmetal Gray to kill the Ghost Rider in Ghost Rider (2001) # 2.
Blaze met Merril the mechanic in Ghost Rider (2001) # 2 and his son Juneau in Ghost Rider (2001) # 4.
Ghost Rider appears next in Ghost Rider (2006) # 1 with Johnny Blaze trapped in Hell. How Blaze died and was sent to Hell is revealed via flashback in Ghost Rider (2007) # 7-8.
The creative team of Devin Grayson and Trent Kaniuga produced one other Ghost Rider comic outside of this mini-series: Ghost Rider (2001) # 1/2, which was produced as a promotional comic by Wizard Magazine.
CHAIN REACTION
We've finally reached the conclusion to "The Hammer Lane", which thankfully means I won't have to review any more issues of this terrible comic.
I can't imagine what Marvel editor-in-chief Joe Quesada thought when he approved this series, especially with it being part of the Marvel Knights line that had produced some truly excellent revamps of somewhat stale characters like Daredevil, Black Panther, and the Punisher. Ghost Rider desperately needed a writer that not only could tell a great story but that also respected the characters enough to at least know their history. Sadly, we got neither when Devin Grayson was picked to write the Ghost Rider revival, and I think her only criteria for this book was that she rode a motorcycle. I've heard good things about Grayson's Batman stories from this same period, so I don't want to say she's a bad writer - but she's obviously one who couldn't be bothered to do any research at all on Ghost Rider, and that's just lazy in these days of instantaneous information via the internet.
As I've said in previous reviews, there were some good things about this series, they were just eclipsed by the many, many BAD things. Taking just this issue as an example, we get a Ghost Rider who is apparently worried about having a reputation of a coward even though he's a vengeful demon and not a little girl; we get Johnny Blaze again saying he thinks being the Ghost Rider is "cool" when in every other single Ghost Rider comic EVER it's rightfully depicted as being a fucking nightmare of an existence; and we get Gunmetal Gray. I've not talked much about this guy in previous reviews, mainly because I knew I'd be ranting about him in this one. Gunmetal Gray isn't just a terrible character, he's a terrible villain for Ghost Rider. The only reason he survives the first panel of their fight this issue is because the hero doesn't fight back, yet that somehow is supposed to make us think this loser is a badass tough guy? If there were ever a Ghost Rider villain that should remain in character limbo, it's this guy.
The artwork could have been enough to salvage this story, but alas it seems that Trent Kaniuga is having another "off day" with his art. Kaniuga was an artist that I genuinely liked when the first (and even second) issue of this series came out; I really enjoyed his design of Ghost Rider, his detail work was great, and the truck crash sequence in # 1 was choreographed really well. But something happened between that first issue and this one, because it doesn't even look like the same guy's work. The characters are blobby and malformed, even allowing for the exaggeration in Kaniuga's cartoony style, and his fight panels are static and lifeless. The guy's artwork picked back up in quality last issue, but here it dips back down again and I'm not sure why. It's not like he can't draw a great Ghost Rider, just look at the awesome cover to this issue!
But in all the ways that count, "The Hammer Lane" was a train wreck of a comic series, one that sold a good amount of copies but still doomed the character to several more years of stagnation before a proper creative team was brought in to do the relaunch that should've happened here. I can't recommend anyone reading this, outside of maybe the first issue, unless you're a Ghost Rider completist or just want to see what all the fuss was about back in 2001. Otherwise, stay far, far away.
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| "So, wanna go on a date?" |
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