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