Writer: Jason Aaron; Artist: Tony Moore; Letterer: Joe Caramagna; Colorist: Dave McCaig; Assistant Editor: Sebastian Girner; Editor: Axel Alonso; Editor In Chief: Joe Quesada; Cover Artist: Arthur Suydam
At a small roadside diner, a truck driver tells his fellow truckers about the legend of the Highwayman, a trucker who sold his soul to Satan to be the greatest truck driver on the road; but the more he drove the less human he became, eventually turning him into a demon who drives the Black Rig, hauling the Devil's loads and harvesting souls for his dark master. The other truckers are quick to dismiss the story until a gasoline tanker truck driven by a headless driver crashes into the diner and explodes, killing everyone inside. The Highwayman watches from his rig, with the head of the tanker truck's driver mounted on the hood of his truck.
Meanwhile, Danny Ketch is in his sixth day on the road, still riding toward nowhere in particular. Lost and alone, he's waiting for the world to end now that Zadkiel has taken control of Heaven. He stops at the site of the burned-down diner and tries to ignore it, but his bike refuses to start. When he gets off to walk away, the transformation into the Ghost Rider is triggered against his will. Since falling back to Earth from Heaven, Danny is more cursed than ever before; now he's a slave to vengeance. That's the price he has to pay, every day of his life, for laying waste to Heaven. The Ghost Rider mounts his bike and rides off in search of whoever destroyed the diner.
Elsewhere, the Highwayman has crashed his Black Rig into a bus filled with "alien abductees", all of whom are now dead. The Highwayman stands at the back of his trailer, tossing in human heads to feed the demons contained within. After he closes the trailer doors, he barely dodges the hook on the end of Ghost Rider's chain. Ghost Rider roars past him, but when he stops to turn around, the Black Rig has disappeared. The Rider looks around, but doesn't see that the Rig has backed straight up the cliff wall behind him. The Highwayman guns his engine and runs the Rider over, leaving him a smashed pile of bones on the road. Ghost Rider reforms himself and gets back on his bike, ready to play a game of demonic "chicken" with the Black Rig. Ghost Rider zips past the truck and slices open the side of the trailer with his hook, causing the Rig to bleed. The enraged Highwayman takes after the Ghost Rider, eventually catching him as they jump over a broken bridge. The Rider climbs up the hood of the truck and throws his hooked chain through the windshield, which the Highwayman ducks and gloats that the he missed him. The Rider pulls back on the chain, and the hook catches the Highwayman by the neck and decapitates him. After the Black Rig has wrecked onto its side, the demons within calling out curses to Ketch, the Rider finds the Highwayman's severed head. He picks up the head and blows hellfire from his mouth, incinerating it, then tosses it over his shoulder to catch the Rig on fire as well. Later, after turning back to normal, Danny watches the Rig burn, thinking about how he's right back where he started as a Spirit of Vengeance. He rides off, thinking that if there's a bright side to any of it, it's that the world's going to end soon enough due to Zadkiel.
A few days later, a trucker at a diner gets out of his rig and is grabbed by his throat by an even more demonic looking Highwayman, who asks if the guy's truck comes with an 8-track player.
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| Something I can never un-see! |
THE ROADMAP
The events that led to Danny becoming an agent for Zadkiel are told in Ghost Rider: Danny Ketch (2008) # 1-5. Danny was tricked by Zadkiel into absorbing the power of all the Ghost Riders on Earth and was used as a weapon by the rogue angel to take over Heaven, as shown in Ghost Rider (2006) # 32. As a result, there are only three Ghost Riders left in the world: Johnny Blaze, Danny Ketch, and Deputy Kowalski/Vengeance.
Danny appears next in Ghost Riders: Heaven's On Fire (2009) # 2.
The Highwayman first appeared in the early 1980s series US-1.
CHAIN REACTION
"Trials & Tribulations" continues with a look at Danny Ketch and what he's been up to since the end of Zadkiel's war for Heaven, while also reintroducing an obscure villain that hasn't been seen since the early 80s.
I've never read the short-lived US-1 series, which focused on a space trucker named Archer who could pick up CB transmissions via a metal plate in his skull, but thanks to internet comics bloggers like Chris Sims I've certainly read a lot about it. Its one of those comics that bombed when it first ran but is looked at as something supremely awesome today, a phenomena that you actually see quite often these days (see all the love for ROM, Spaceknight). Jason Aaron is obviously a fan of the series and in this issue brings back the book's major villain, Archer's brother, the Highwayman. It surprised me that a character that could easily have remained a joke was so easily translated to fit into the Ghost Rider's horror-centric world. In fact, he fits so well that I can't believe its taken this long to use the character in such a capacity, especially considering the parallels between his origin and Blaze's deal with the Devil. Aaron and Moore make the Highwayman into a chilling demonic force, a character that (and I can't believe I'm saying this) I hope doesn't fade back into obscurity after this.
More importantly, at least for this book's ongoing story, we get to see Dan Ketch as a true, heroic Ghost Rider once again. Since the Blaze Ghost Rider has co-opted the look and design of the 90's GR, it was a necessity that when Danny came back he had a new look to go with him. The design given to him in the Ghost Rider: Danny Ketch mini-series is gone as well - as it should be, since the more regal and powerful form he had during that story would logically have passed along with the power taken by Zadkiel - and we're given a much more gritty, visceral visual appearance for Danny's Rider. The brown duster and hooked chain are great visuals, and helps to differentiate Ketch's Ghost Rider from Blaze's by giving them wildly different looks and weapons. Thankfully, though, Danny still retains the motorcycle he rode throughout the 90's series, giving us a nice bit of visual continuity.
I also can't help but marvel at the artwork of Tony Moore, who turns in another great job. In each issue so far there's been one defining aspect to the art; the previous issue it was the designs of 18 different Ghost Riders throughout history, and in this issue its easily the transformation sequence. We've seen some brutal transformations into Ghost Rider in the past, particularly during Mark Texeira's run, but none have ever captured the horrific visuals so perfectly as this. For the first time, Ketch's transformation looks unbearably painful and grotesque. Another nice attribute of Moore's art is the design of the Black Rig, the interiors of which look like a living organism with teeth and eyeballs (particularly the demonic 8-track player, such a great touch).
I'm really enjoying these one-shot stories that Aaron and Moore are giving us in this arc. I felt like "Last Stand of the Spirits of Vengeance" came close to losing what made Aaron's opening arc so revolutionary, bogging it down too much in continuity, and this arc gets back to that "any wild idea goes" approach. This issue we get a fantastic done-in-one action issue against a "new" villain and the return of a classic Ghost Rider. What else can you ask for?
I've never read the short-lived US-1 series, which focused on a space trucker named Archer who could pick up CB transmissions via a metal plate in his skull, but thanks to internet comics bloggers like Chris Sims I've certainly read a lot about it. Its one of those comics that bombed when it first ran but is looked at as something supremely awesome today, a phenomena that you actually see quite often these days (see all the love for ROM, Spaceknight). Jason Aaron is obviously a fan of the series and in this issue brings back the book's major villain, Archer's brother, the Highwayman. It surprised me that a character that could easily have remained a joke was so easily translated to fit into the Ghost Rider's horror-centric world. In fact, he fits so well that I can't believe its taken this long to use the character in such a capacity, especially considering the parallels between his origin and Blaze's deal with the Devil. Aaron and Moore make the Highwayman into a chilling demonic force, a character that (and I can't believe I'm saying this) I hope doesn't fade back into obscurity after this.
More importantly, at least for this book's ongoing story, we get to see Dan Ketch as a true, heroic Ghost Rider once again. Since the Blaze Ghost Rider has co-opted the look and design of the 90's GR, it was a necessity that when Danny came back he had a new look to go with him. The design given to him in the Ghost Rider: Danny Ketch mini-series is gone as well - as it should be, since the more regal and powerful form he had during that story would logically have passed along with the power taken by Zadkiel - and we're given a much more gritty, visceral visual appearance for Danny's Rider. The brown duster and hooked chain are great visuals, and helps to differentiate Ketch's Ghost Rider from Blaze's by giving them wildly different looks and weapons. Thankfully, though, Danny still retains the motorcycle he rode throughout the 90's series, giving us a nice bit of visual continuity.
I also can't help but marvel at the artwork of Tony Moore, who turns in another great job. In each issue so far there's been one defining aspect to the art; the previous issue it was the designs of 18 different Ghost Riders throughout history, and in this issue its easily the transformation sequence. We've seen some brutal transformations into Ghost Rider in the past, particularly during Mark Texeira's run, but none have ever captured the horrific visuals so perfectly as this. For the first time, Ketch's transformation looks unbearably painful and grotesque. Another nice attribute of Moore's art is the design of the Black Rig, the interiors of which look like a living organism with teeth and eyeballs (particularly the demonic 8-track player, such a great touch).
I'm really enjoying these one-shot stories that Aaron and Moore are giving us in this arc. I felt like "Last Stand of the Spirits of Vengeance" came close to losing what made Aaron's opening arc so revolutionary, bogging it down too much in continuity, and this arc gets back to that "any wild idea goes" approach. This issue we get a fantastic done-in-one action issue against a "new" villain and the return of a classic Ghost Rider. What else can you ask for?
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| Love the hook addition to the chain. |
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