Ghost Rider (2006) # 17

"Revelations, Part 4"

Cover Date: January 2008
On Sale Date: November 2007

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

Cover Artist: Mark Texeira

The Ghost Rider is confronting one of the final three Lucifer hosts, this one in the body of an elderly woman, on a highway outside of Buffalo, New York.  The host wants to make a deal with the Rider to give up the other two remaining hosts in exchange for leaving her for last.  Though he initially refuses, the Rider realizes that she is the only way to find the kidnapped children held hostage by the other two hosts.  She concentrates and locates them in a town called Colville.  Nearby, the angels Vraniel and Emmael listen and decide to travel to Colville to assist the Ghost Rider.

 

The two angels arrive, exhausted from flying, just as the Ghost Rider does at a small barn where the second Lucifer host is holding a little league team captive.  The Rider busts into the barn and attacks, but during the battle the cellphone that Blaze had been using is destroyed.  Elsewhere, Blaze's love interest and partner in his plot to stop Lucifer, Dixie, is staying in a motel waiting for his call.  Ghost  Rider uses his chains and motorcycle to remove the host from the barn (just as he'd used his chains to secure the female host under the highway bridge before leaving), but doesn't realize that his hellfire has set the barn aflame with the children still inside.  The angels make their presence known, showing that they've rescued the children, and Vraniel uses most of his power to destroy the Lucifer host.  Emmael offers to help Ghost Rider, but the Rider states that all he needs is a phone.  Suddenly, the Lucifer host's cellphone rings, prompting Emmael to declare "BEHOLD".

Not too bright...

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 and they reconnected in Ghost Rider (2006) # 14.

 

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

 

CHAIN REACTION

"Revelations" continues and oh god why won't the hurting stop?

 

First off, for a change let's talk about the artwork first (mainly because I want to avoid talking about the plot for as long as possible).  While pencil artist Javier Saltares continues his work on the title, finisher Mark Texeira has left for the greener pastures of Moon Knight, and veteran inker Tom Palmer has stepped in to work with Saltares on the final three issues of this arc.  Palmer is an inker of long-standing with Marvel, having worked with such greats as Gene Colan, John Buscema, and Steve Epting.  Saltares is a phenomenal artist who draws what is, for me anyway, the definitive Ghost Rider (look, his leather jacket and jeans actually look like leather and denim, not spandex!).  However, the pairing of the two just looks...wrong, I guess?  Palmer has a tendency to make any artist he works with conform to a model standard, and here, yeah, it looks like Tom Palmer artwork all right.  Saltares, on the other hand, never looks quite as good as he does when he works with Texeira, the two artists have such a synergy between them that seeing one without the other is jarring.  So going from the smooth Texeira finishes that we're used to seeing to the sketchy hatchings of Palmer is a major transition that does kind of hurt the visual consistency of the book.  The artwork isn't BAD by any stretch of the imagination, it just lacks the punch that the Saltares/Texeira work had. 

Okay, sigh, the story.  Daniel Way continues to tick off his boxes when it comes to his standard writing tropes.  This is the "every character is a moron" issue of the arc, where we have two unbelievably stupid occurrences.  First off, we have an angel who forgets he has wings.  Giant feathered wings that must weigh a ton, attached to his back like an appendage, and he forgets.  Second, Ghost Rider sets a barn full of children on fire and then forgets about them...okay, I can almost buy this one, because we've seen before that the Spirit of Vengeance is concerned less with saving people than with destroying evil.  This isn't Johnny Blaze in control anymore, so forgetting the kids is actually pretty standard when it comes to the character, but then the moment gets ruined when the Ghost Rider falls on his knees and shouts "NOOOOOO!" when he realizes the kids were in the building.  You can't have it both ways, either he is so consumed with vengeance that he doesn't care, or Blaze is in control and is therefore an idiot for forgetting the kids in the first place. 

There's not much more to discuss, really, because like last issue things have slowed to a glacial pace.  Johnny's met the angels and narrowed down the Lucifer hosts to two, so next issue should speed things along nicely.  Here's hoping, anyway.

 

They are kinda his thing.