Ghost Riders: Heaven's On Fire (2009) # 1

"Heaven's On Fire, Part 1: Save the Antichrist, Save the World"

Cover Date: October 2009
On Sale Date: August 2009

Writer: Jason Aaron
Artist: Roland Boschi
Letterer: Joe Caramagna
Colorist: Dan Brown
Editor: Sebastian Girner
Consulting Editor: Axel Alonso
Editor In Chief: Joe Quesada

Cover Artist: Jae Lee

A priest from the Church of Satan leads a stranger into his monastery where the rest of his Satanic congregation lay dead. The priest says that angels came into their home and killed them all. He leads the stranger to a room marked "Breed Stock", the heart of Project Blackheart, where the Satanists were attempting to breed the Antichrist. During the massacre, the priest was only able to save one of the demon children, telling him to run as far as he could and hide. The priest has summoned the stranger to find the Antichrist and protect him from the angels; but the stranger is Daimon Hellstrom, first born Son of Satan, and he swears to find the boy only so he can die at his hands instead of the angels. Hellstrom sets fire to the monastery and sets out in search of the child.

 

Two weeks later, Johnny Blaze walks into Angelic Affirmations, a new age gift shop, and assaults the young woman working inside, demanding to know about Zadkiel. The woman's co-worker shoots Blaze with a shotgun loaded with magic crystals, which fails to kill him. When Sister Sara arrives and cuts the man's gun in half, the two shop workers reveal their true natures as servants of Zadkiel. Blaze transforms into the Ghost Rider, and he and Sara quickly subdue the two servants. They tell them that Zadkiel is working to crush Biblical Prophecy, he's going to stop the Second Coming from happening by killing the Antichrist, who is on the run from Zadkiel's forces. The two servants then disintegrate, taken back to Heaven by their master. Blaze and Sara leave the shop and Sara explains that no Antichrist means no Apocalypse, which makes the Book of Revelations null and void leaving Zadkiel free to write his own version of the End Times. Blaze and Sara set out across the country to find the Antichrist, and Blaze finally senses his presence on Wall Street in New York City.

 

At the top of a Wall Street skyscraper, the CEO of a corporation talks to his newest executive, who has already risen through the ranks after two weeks due to the tragic suicides of all his immediate superiors. The executive is a young boy named Anton Satan (pronounced Shuh-Tan), the Antichrist in hiding. While in his office, the Antichrist is attacked by a delivery man servant of Zadkiel. The Antichrist is rescued by Jaine Cutter, Occult Terrorist, who kills the assassin and says she's there to protect the boy as her job is to keep Heaven or Hell from taking over Earth. She leads the boy down to the building's ground floor, but a blast of light from the sky strikes near them. Jaine is knocked unconscious, and the Antichrist revives in time to see a group of Zadkiel's minions coming towards him.

 

Meanwhile, at the South Nashville Prison Hospital, Blackout and the Deacon approach their first recruit. The All-New Orb, recuperating from the massive eyeball trauma inflicted on him by the Caretaker, agrees to join them in their mission to kill the Ghost Rider.

Huh, apparently he's the patron saint of exposition.

THE ROADMAP

This issue continues from Ghost Rider (2006) # 35.

 

Zadkiel won the war for Heaven at the end of "Last Stand of the Spirits of Vengeance" in Ghost Rider (2006) # 32.

 

Blackout and the Deacon were last seen in Ghost Rider (2006) # 33, choosing candidates to help them kill the Ghost Rider. The All-New Orb made his first appearance in Ghost Rider (2006) # 26, where he was severely wounded by the Caretaker.

 

Daimon Hellstrom, the Son of Satan, first appeared in Ghost Rider (1973) # 1, the first half of which is reprinted in this issue. Jaine Cutter first appeared in Hellstorm (1992) # 13.

 

CHAIN REACTION

Jason Aaron's final arc on Ghost Rider gets off to a blazing start (excuse the pun, ha ha) with the first issue of a brand-new mini-series.

 

With little argument, Jason Aaron's run on this series absolutely revitalized the character, and its nice to see Marvel giving him a grand send-off with a special mini-series with all the pomp and pageantry usually awarded to books from their X-Men and Avengers lines (such as a sneak preview of this issue inserted in the backs of different Marvel comics the month before). Aaron seems to be pulling out all the stops in his final story, too, and if anything I'm wondering just how the hell he intends on wrapping everything up in the short span of six issues.

 

This arc is given a great hook, too, right out the gate. The issue's title says it all: "Save the Antichrist, Save the World". The nods to past continuity, such as naming the Antichrist breeding "Project Blackheart" and the use of Jaine Cutter from the Ellis/Manco Hellstorm series are all just icing on the cake. Regardless, this issue really is nothing more than set-up for the romp to come, telegraphed by the closing pages and the "Ghost Rider Revenge Squad" led by Blackout and the Deacon (and the All-New Orb, greatest new character of the decade!).

 

In a great decision of creative synergy, Aaron is reunited with the artist from his first Ghost Rider arc, Roland Boschi. I was greatly impressed by his artwork in that first arc, and his work on this issue shows a continuation of the manic and stylized art style he used then. His work is far from the Marvel "house style", and he has a masterful sense of pacing and mood that fits the Ghost Rider universe perfectly. If I had one complaint, its that I don't much care for his redesign of Daimon Hellstrom, mainly because I've always loved the look given to the character back during the Manco run on Hellstorm in the 1990s. Also to be complimented is colorist Dan Brown, returning to the book along with Boschi, whose colors are absolutely stunning. This is all around just one beautiful looking comic.

 

So this it, the beginning of the end of the best run on Ghost Rider since the early Howard Mackie days. Let's all of us enjoy the ride while it lasts.

Where else would you find an antichrist?