Ghost Rider (2006) # 14

"Revelations, Part 1"

Cover Date: October 2007

On Sale Date: August 2007

  

Writer: Daniel Way
Artist: Javier Saltares
Inker: Mark Texeira
Letterer: Joe Caramagna
Colorist: Dan Brown
Editor: Aubrey Sitterson
Executive Editor: Axel Alonso
Editor In Chief: Joe Quesada

Cover Artist: Mark Texeira

 

Johnny Blaze has just spent a night in a motel room with Dixie, a truck driver he had met once before and had recently run into again. He starts to tell her about a plan he recently thought up for dealing with Lucifer, a plan which hinged on keeping the Spirit of Vengeance from going too far. Over the past few months, the Ghost Rider has been killing Lucifer's avatars, reducing their number until only a few remain. Some of the ones he killed included a doctor and a police hostage negotiator (who he booted off the roof of a building). When fighting one avatar, Ghost Rider rammed his motorcycle into the demon's truck, leaving him alive with a gearshift stabbed through its head.

 

Meanwhile, two angels named Vraniel and Emmael, are in Heaven discussing their betrayal of their leader, another angel named Zadkiel. The two angels regret having sided with Zadkiel against God, and wonder if they will be able to redeem themselves enough to return to Heaven. On Earth, a young woman named Darlene has an argument with her mother and sister. When she goes to bed, Vraniel appears before her, telling her she has been chosen for a holy mission.

Devil werewolf halitosis.

THE ROADMAP

The Ghost Rider escaped from Hell, unknowingly bringing Lucifer to Earth with him, in Ghost Rider (2006) # 1. Lucifer's plan to invade Earth by inhabiting the bodies of the recently deceased was revealed in Ghost Rider (2006) # 4. 

 

Johnny Blaze met Dixie in Ghost Rider (2006) # 2.

 

Blaze's plan for stopping Lucifer is revealed in Ghost Rider (2006) # 19.

 

This issue contains the first mention of Zadkiel, whose role in the creation of the Spirits of Vengeance will be revealed in Ghost Rider (2006) # 18. Zadkiel will make his first on-panel appearance in Ghost Rider (2006) # 27.

 

CHAIN REACTION

"Revelations", the final arc of Daniel Way and Javier Saltares' run on the series, kicks off with an issue that's, well...hrm, it's awfully pretty to look at it, isn't it?

 

Going back to review the last few issues of this run had made me wonder if perhaps I had been too harsh on Daniel Way. After a really bad opening story arc, issues 5 through 13 were anywhere from "good" to "freaking great", particularly with the "World War Hulk" tie-in issues. Then I sat down and re-read "Revelations", and no, I am absolutely not being too hard on this series. We're heading into one of the worst storylines in Ghost Rider history here, so that's something, I guess.

 

The "Lucifer possessing 666 host bodies on Earth" idea was flawed from day one, if only because there's no way a writer's run would be able to sustain that plot for any length of time without it becoming monotonous. With this being Way's final arc, though, the storyline has entered crunch time and is now rushing to put all the pieces into place for the finale. Let's do the math here: Lucifer exploded over the Earth and entered the recently deceased bodies of 666 humans. In the past 13 issues, Ghost Rider has killed exactly seven of them. This issue contains a flashback sequence that shows several more Lucifer kills over the past two months, but even allowing for all of the off-screen deaths and a generous amount of time between arcs (say, to be extremely generous, a year since issue # 1), that still doesn't leave Blaze with enough time to kill over 600 demons. Of course, that would also mean that all of Lucifer's avatars have been located in the United States instead of scattered all across the world. True, Way did say in the earlier issues that the avatars would be finding other ways to die until they reached the point where only Ghost Rider could kill them, but they can't kill each other because "suicides go to Hell", right? The avatars have been difficult for Blaze to kill since issue # 6, so just how many were able to die by other means before that point? Thinking about this plot makes my head hurt.

 

Okay, so what about this issue all by itself as a single comic experience, does it hold up? Well, if you like the artwork by Saltares and Texeira, then yes it certainly does. Way gives them pages and pages of glorious carnage, most using large splash panels for full effect, and it looks great. The page with the freeway crash aftermath and the double-spread montage of action are all poster-worthy. The artwork is by far the best thing about this issue (and the whole run, to be honest), but it would have been nice if there had been a story to go along with all the pretty pictures. Way gives us a few subplot pages with the angels that are kinda interesting, but then he dovetails into yet another "redneck misadventures" bit that again takes up way too much time and space that's desperately needed for other things. 

 

Sadly, this is the best issue of the "Revelations" arc, just to warn you all of what's coming up next.

 

The Devil has a "splitting headache", right?