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Cover Dates: December 2008 & January 2009
On Sale Dates: October 2008 & November 2008
Writers: Craig Kyle & Christopher Yost
Artist: Mike Choi
Letterer: VC's Cory Petit
Colorist: Sonia Oback
Editor: John Barber
Executive Editor: Axel Alonso
Editor In Chief: Joe Quesada
On Sale Dates: October 2008 & November 2008
Writers: Craig Kyle & Christopher Yost
Artist: Mike Choi
Letterer: VC's Cory Petit
Colorist: Sonia Oback
Editor: John Barber
Executive Editor: Axel Alonso
Editor In Chief: Joe Quesada
Cover Artist: Mike Choi
Later that night, Proudstar wakes up in bandages, wondering why he is still alive. Sitting across from him on a fallen tree log is Ghost Rider, who tells Warpath to gather his strength. Tonight, he's going to show him how to kill a demon. Ghost Rider explains to Proudstar the history of his native people, who knew about the threat they face before they were all killed. Proudstar's birthright connects him to the spirit forces, but because he is no shaman he doesn't know how to access his power. Ghost Rider offers to show Proudstar how to touch the dead and fight spirits such as the Demon Bear. The Bear is filled with darkness so thick that Ghost Rider admits even he does not truly understand it, but they can still kill it. As he paints marks on Proudstar's face, Ghost Rider tells him that he will become the monster slayer, and that other tribes had a name for this religion - they called it the Ghost Dance.
Warpath and Ghost Rider confront the Demon Bear, who is mad with rage. The two heroes attack, and Proudstar finds that he is finally able to strike the Bear, unlike during his previous fight with the monster. The Demon Bear knocks the two heroes aside, and Ghost Rider comments that the beast fights like it is insane or in great pain. As the Bear attempts to devour Proudstar with its jaws, Ghost Rider sees a skull-headed demon blade stabbed into the Bear's hide - it has been wounded and poisoned by dark magic. While Ghost Rider binds the Bear with his chain, Warpath grabs the demon blade and pulls it free. The Demon Bear transforms into its true form, the Spirit Guides, Gods of the Apache. The knife had corrupted them, driving them mad with magic. The spirit gods rush forward and show Proudstar a vision of their suffering and the face of their enemy.
Later, Proudstar reunites with his X-Force teammates at the Angel's home in Colorado. He tells them that Eli Bard is responsible for digging up and taking his tribe, including the body of his brother. James doesn't want to be a killer, but now he has no choice.
This issue also included a parallel story-arc featuring X-Force attempting to recover a sample of the Legacy Virus, which began in X-Force # 7 (2008) # 7.
Naturally, when I saw Ghost Rider was guest-starring in this arc, I was stoked.
Of course, it would have be nice if the arc had been illustrated by the book's regular artist Clayton Crain, who has a history with ol' Flamehead. I imagine that had to have been the reason the Ghost Rider guest-appearance was approved in the first place, so that Crain could draw the character again, considering that Ghost Rider isn't exactly a character that will bring in sales to a flagging book these days. Whatever the reasons or intentions, though, we get artists Mike Choi and Sonia Oback on the art chores for this four-issue story. Choi's art is always a welcome addition to a series for me. Likewise, his rendition of Ghost Rider here looks great, though with closer inspection I realized it really shouldn't work at all. Choi's art is very smooth and clean, suitable for superhero stories, but I wouldn't have guessed that his work looks equally as impressive on a horror story. One look at his depiction of the Demon Bear is enough to settle that argument, I think.
Outside Camp Verde, an abandoned Native American reservation in Arizona, the X-Force member James "Warpath" Proudstar is attacked by an immense supernatural force called "The Demon Bear". Warpath attempts to fight, but finds that he is unable to touch the creature - the Bear, on the other hand, easily swats Proudstar onto a nearby cliff-face. Ninety-seven miles away, traveling by motorcycle across a desolate highway, John Blaze hears the Demon Bear's roar. Blaze puts the breaks on and transforms into the Ghost Rider. Warpath continues his attempts to fight the Demon Bear, but is hopelessly outmatched. While pinned down between the beast's claws, he notices a skull-headed dagger sticking out of the Bear's shoulder. Before the Bear can kill the mutant, Ghost Rider speeds by, taking Proudstar along with him as he races towards the horizon.
Later that night, Proudstar wakes up in bandages, wondering why he is still alive. Sitting across from him on a fallen tree log is Ghost Rider, who tells Warpath to gather his strength. Tonight, he's going to show him how to kill a demon. Ghost Rider explains to Proudstar the history of his native people, who knew about the threat they face before they were all killed. Proudstar's birthright connects him to the spirit forces, but because he is no shaman he doesn't know how to access his power. Ghost Rider offers to show Proudstar how to touch the dead and fight spirits such as the Demon Bear. The Bear is filled with darkness so thick that Ghost Rider admits even he does not truly understand it, but they can still kill it. As he paints marks on Proudstar's face, Ghost Rider tells him that he will become the monster slayer, and that other tribes had a name for this religion - they called it the Ghost Dance.
Warpath and Ghost Rider confront the Demon Bear, who is mad with rage. The two heroes attack, and Proudstar finds that he is finally able to strike the Bear, unlike during his previous fight with the monster. The Demon Bear knocks the two heroes aside, and Ghost Rider comments that the beast fights like it is insane or in great pain. As the Bear attempts to devour Proudstar with its jaws, Ghost Rider sees a skull-headed demon blade stabbed into the Bear's hide - it has been wounded and poisoned by dark magic. While Ghost Rider binds the Bear with his chain, Warpath grabs the demon blade and pulls it free. The Demon Bear transforms into its true form, the Spirit Guides, Gods of the Apache. The knife had corrupted them, driving them mad with magic. The spirit gods rush forward and show Proudstar a vision of their suffering and the face of their enemy.
Later, Proudstar reunites with his X-Force teammates at the Angel's home in Colorado. He tells them that Eli Bard is responsible for digging up and taking his tribe, including the body of his brother. James doesn't want to be a killer, but now he has no choice.
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| He did literally kill THE DEVIL after all. |
THE ROADMAP
Ghost Rider last appeared in Ghost Rider (2006) Annual # 2 and appears next in Ghost Rider (2006) # 26.
This issue also included a parallel story-arc featuring X-Force attempting to recover a sample of the Legacy Virus, which began in X-Force # 7 (2008) # 7.
CHAIN REACTION
I'm going to go ahead and say this up front: I loved X-Force. I've been an X-Men fan for a long time, longer than I've been a Ghost Rider fan even, but I've not been too impressed with the line of X-titles for years now. One of the very few I picked up regularly was this series, which took an absolutely ridiculous premise (its an X-team, and they ALL HAVE CLAWS!) and turned it into a love-letter for nearly every random concept I've loved from decades past. Archangel, the Right, Magus, Domino...hell, this story-arc brought back the Demon Bear from the awesome Claremont/Sienkiewicz run on New Mutants in the early 80s! So, yeah, this book was unabashedly my guilty-pleasure read at the time.
Naturally, when I saw Ghost Rider was guest-starring in this arc, I was stoked.
Of course, it would have be nice if the arc had been illustrated by the book's regular artist Clayton Crain, who has a history with ol' Flamehead. I imagine that had to have been the reason the Ghost Rider guest-appearance was approved in the first place, so that Crain could draw the character again, considering that Ghost Rider isn't exactly a character that will bring in sales to a flagging book these days. Whatever the reasons or intentions, though, we get artists Mike Choi and Sonia Oback on the art chores for this four-issue story. Choi's art is always a welcome addition to a series for me. Likewise, his rendition of Ghost Rider here looks great, though with closer inspection I realized it really shouldn't work at all. Choi's art is very smooth and clean, suitable for superhero stories, but I wouldn't have guessed that his work looks equally as impressive on a horror story. One look at his depiction of the Demon Bear is enough to settle that argument, I think.
Ghost Rider's appearance here isn't much more than "generic mystical guide", a role that's usually reserved for the likes of Doctor Strange. While it could be easy to write this off as a token excuse to include a name guest-star, I think there's more to it than that. Despite having long had areas of its history that dealt with supernatural elements (Magik, Limbo, the Crimson Dawn, etc..), none of the characters in X-Force have had much experience with magic or demons. So bringing in a familiar character to guide Warpath in his fight with the Demon Bear is a wise decision, and I think using Ghost Rider was a fairly inspired choice. X-Force is not your typical superhero book, its much darker and grittier than the normal X-Men fare, and using the similarly dark and gritty Ghost Rider in place of the normal stand-in Doctor Strange was a much more appropriate choice for this book's tone.
If you've never read X-Force, I hope that Ghost Rider fans will at least picked up these two issues due to his guest-appearance. It really was a wonderful series that transcended its frankly ridiculous "X-Men with claws!" premise. Recommended.
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| Choi's Ghost Rider is rock solid. |
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