Shadowland: Ghost Rider # 1

Cover Date: November 2010

On Sale Date: September 2010

Writer: Rob Williams

Artist: Clayton Crain
Letterer: Joe Caramagna
Colorist: Clayton Crain
Editor: Steve Wacker
Assistant Editor: Alejandro Arbona
Editor In Chief: Joe Quesada 

Cover Artist: Clayton Crain

Johnny Blaze, the Ghost Rider, rides up the side of Fisk Tower in Manhattan and crashes through the penthouse window. There he finds the Kingpin and his bodyguard, Lady Bullseye, waiting for him to arrive. Blaze threatens Kingpin with vengeance for all the evil he's done over the years, but to his surprise Johnny finds himself under the criminal's control. Fisk summoned the Spirit of Vengeance using ancient Hand magic, making it impossible for Blaze to harm or disobey him; while the Hand magic exists, Ghost Rider works for the Kingpin. Fisk tells Johnny that in order to be free of the spell he must go to a castle in Japan that serves as the Hand's seat of power. In the castle are three men, the Snakeroot Clan, who are secretly behind Matt Murdock's descent into evil within Shadowland. Shortly, Johnny is riding his hell-cycle across the ocean during a storm, thinking about how he saved Heaven from the archangel Zadkiel. He stops his bike atop the back of a giant whale and shouts to Heaven that after all he's done for them he deserves to finally be free; unsurprisingly, there is no answer.

Meanwhile, at the Hand's castle, the three members of the Snakeroot Clan - Makoto, Yutaka, and Takashi - have received warning that the "king of New York" has sent a terrible force to destroy them. A moment later, a knock on their castle door reveals a very human (and very drunk) Johnny Blaze. Due to the Hand magic controlling him, Blaze is also unable to harm the Hand ninjas despite his clumsy efforts. The ninjas quickly and easily beat him into unconsciousness.

When he wakes up, Johnny finds himself suspended over a deep well with the Snakeroot leaders standing in front of him. They ask for the identity of his "master", and though he wants Fisk to die as much as the Hand Blaze refuses to give up the name. Johnny confesses that he's trapped, unable to stop Fisk or the Hand, and he's been used so much lately that all he really wants is to die. Yutaka gives him his wish by stabbing him through the chest with a sword, then cuts his bonds so he can plummet to the bottom of the pit. Blaze wakes up in Heaven, where God tells him that he is still needed; Blaze agrees to go back, but he's calling in a favor from God first.

The Snakeroot are called away from their chamber by the screams of their ninjas, while Blaze - again the Ghost Rider - climbs out of the pit and wonders what they've done with his bike. The Snakeroot Clan stand in awe as their men are savagely massacred by a small legion of archangels, each one wielding a sword made of hellfire. When only Yutaka is left alive, Blaze calls off the angels and finds his motorcycle. With the Hand destroyed the magic that held the Spirit of Vengeance in check is gone, which Johnny tests by dragging Yutaka behind his bike with his mystical chain. The Ghost Rider is finally free...

Blowholes on fire!

THE ROADMAP

"Shadowland" was a crossover event that launched from the ongoing Daredevil series and featured many tie-in one-shots and limited series. This story takes place between Shadowland # 3 and Shadowland # 5.

The Kingpin summoned the Spirit of Vengeance with Hand magic in Shadowland # 2.

Johnny Blaze and his brother Dan Ketch freed Heaven by defeating Zadkiel in Ghost Riders: Heaven's On Fire (2009) # 6.

CHAIN REACTION

Ghost Rider receives a tie-in special to the "Shadowland" crossover, introducing readers to the next ongoing Ghost Rider scribe, Rob Williams.

In all honesty, "Shadowland" wasn't a very good series; though I admit freely that the only reason I bought the main mini-series was because of Ghost Rider's involvement. In fact, this one-shot was the only tie-in book that I picked up. The crossover spun out of Daredevil, who even at his best is a character I've never been able to muster much excitement for, and was written by Andy Diggle, who is a writer I usually make a lot of time for due to his past track record (see the Losers or Adam Strange). But "Shadowland" felt very formulaic and by-the-numbers to me: hero goes bad, other heroes try to talk him down but wind up fighting him, hero turned bad is actually possessed by evil, and hero wins back his soul by fighting his literal inner demon. 

Rob Williams wasn't familiar to me, and this unfamiliarity is what took me off guard when it was announced that he would be the next writer of the ongoing Ghost Rider series. It didn't surprise me so much, since he'd written this and the "Motorstorm" story, but it made me wonder why such an unknown writer was getting a gig previously written by Marvel golden boys like Daniel Way and Jason Aaron. I had high hopes for the series under Williams, though, based on what he produced here. Williams picked up from where Aaron left the character without missing a step, and even took things a step forward somewhat with Blaze's newfound suicidal tendencies. 

There were some hit-or-miss aspects to the writing, though. My one major problem with the script (I say major, but it's really pretty minor in the big picture) was the speech patterns that Williams gives to Johnny Blaze. I think he steered things way too far into "good ol' boy" characterization with all the "y'alls" and such. Blaze should have an informal speech pattern, but the southern drawl really needed to be pulled back. 

Clayton Crain made his return to Ghost Rider with this issue, having previously illustrated both the "Road to Damnation" and "Trail of Tears" mini-series with Garth Ennis, and it's like he never went away. Crain was born to draw Ghost Rider, and though I enjoyed his work on X-Force I think he produces his best work on this character. There are, of course, the usual problems with his art being too dark and murky in places, but the murk was toned down considerably since "Trail of Tears". Oh, and I don't know if it came from Williams or Crain, but Ghost Rider sitting atop a humpback whale was by far the coolest panel in the book. That whole sequence, in fact, with Ghost Rider riding over the ocean with the snow falling was illustrated beautifully. I hope this isn't the last time we see Crain drawing Ghost Rider, and it makes me wonder what became of the third Ennis/Crain mini-series that was supposed to be out so many years ago.

Rob Williams had some big boots to fill when he jumped aboard the series after Jason Aaron's run revitalized the character. This book, at least, made me think Williams might be up to the job after all.

"Way past fear," indeed.