Ghost Rider (2006) # 11

"The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, Illinois, Part 4"

Cover Date: July 2007

On Sale Date: May 2007 

Writer: Daniel Way
Breakdowns: Javier Saltares
Finishes: Mark Texeira
Letterer: Joe Caramagna
Colorist: Dan Brown
Editor: Michael O'Connor
Supervising Editor: Axel Alonso
Editor In Chief: Joe Quesada

Cover Artist: Arthur Suydam

Having laid a trap for Lucifer/Jack O' Lantern and his army of zombies, Ghost Rider walks through the yard of the house to confront the devil. Lucifer throws a volley of pumpkin bombs, which Ghost Rider causes to explode by hitting them with his chain. Inside the house, Sheriff Harry O'Connor barely survives the blast by hiding behind a couch. When the smoke clears, an enraged Lucifer discovers that the explosion has destroyed his army of reanimated corpses, while Ghost Rider stands unharmed. Harry retreats into the house, and is confronted by his zombified godson Cameron, who was Jack O' Lantern's first victim. Hearing Harry's scream, Ghost Rider throws his chain at Lucifer, but it is intercepted by the demon's glider. The chain wraps around the glider, which flies into the air, taking the Rider with it. Inside the house, zombie Cameron attempts to kill Harry.

 

Carried into the sky, Ghost Rider has an inner dialogue with Blaze as he stands atop the glider and breaks it in half with his chain. He begins to fall to the ground, but his motorcycle ramps into the air, catching him as he descends. Harry defends himself against Cameron, coming to terms with the fact that his godson was a bad kid who probably would have killed someone if he hadn't been killed first. He kicks the zombie into a refrigerator, which falls on top of the monster, crushing it. Lucifer walks in with a shotgun, but before he can kill Harry he is caught by the legs by Ghost Rider's chain and dragged into another part of the house, where O'Connor has set a trap consisting of a ring of claymore mines. The mines explode, destroying most of the house and badly injuring Lucifer's host body. Ghost Rider walks up to Jack O' Lantern, rips out his heart, sets it on fire, and shoves it back into the demon's chest, causing him to explode. Ghost Rider then stomps on the flaming pumpkin head, crushing it. Blaze retrieves Harry from the basement, and the sheriff tells him to get out of his town and not ever come back. Blaze rides out of town that very night.

Jack O' Lantern adheres to the "rubber and glue" fight rules.

THE ROADMAP

This issue is a "Casualties of War" tie-in to Marvel's crossover event Civil War.

 

The Jack O' Lantern was murdered by the Punisher in Civil War # 5.

 

Lucifer's plan to invade Earth by inhabiting the bodies of the recently deceased was revealed in Ghost Rider (2006) # 4.

 

Cameron Fillardi was Jack O' Lantern's first victim and died in Ghost Rider (2006) # 8. Artist Javier Saltares mistakenly draws another victim of Lucifer, Donnie from Ghost Rider (2006) # 9, instead of Cameron in this issue.

 

CHAIN REACTION

Jack O' Lantern makes his inglorious exit as the surprisingly decent "Legend of Sleepy Hollow, Illinois" arc wraps up.

 

As I've said in previous reviews, the problem with the Lucifer hosts idea is that it was bound to become repetitive, so having the Devil replace a recently-killed super-villain like Jack O' Lantern was a great way to break up that monotony. The villain has a great visual that contrasts nicely with Ghost Rider himself and he's a bigger threat than just another demon for Blaze to blow up with hellfire. The problem, again, is with Way's writing of Lucifer as a petulant child instead of an arch-villain. Calling the hero "stupid" and falling for the "no bullets in the gun" trick is just pitiful, and Lucifer's dialogue is nowhere near as funny as I'm sure the writer thought it would be. Lucifer, in any of his guises, just has no personality outside of "I do bad things because I'm evil".

 

But not all of the characters in this arc are written that poorly, because Harry O'Connor is interesting enough in his own right despite being pretty clichéd as the "grizzled law enforcer". I also appreciate how Way writes the personality of Ghost Rider as totally separate from Johnny Blaze, to the point where the two are having internal arguments again. This issue still has the standard Way plot holes (what was the point of the zombie army again?), but the arc holds up much better than either Way's opening or ending storylines.

 

Naturally, the saving grace of not only this issue but the majority of Way's run on the series is the artwork by Saltares and Texeira. When it comes to Ghost Rider, the duo can do no wrong in my eyes. They get plenty of opportunities to show off with splash pages (which are there, of course, in place of plot advancement, but still...), even if there's yet another full page explosion taking up valuable page space. True, the artists do accidentally draw the wrong kid when Harry meets his dead godson Cameron, but unless you're reading the issues back-to-back it probably wouldn't even be noticed.

 

I'm not a fan of the Way run, but "Sleepy Hollow" is most definitely some of his best work on the series.

 

FINISH HIM!