Cover Date: 1994; On Sale Date: August 1994
Writer: Warren Ellis; Artist: Javier Saltares; Inker: Mike Witherby; Letterer: Lorina Mapa; Colorist: Kevin Somers; Editor: Chris Cooper; Group Editor: Bobbie Chase; Editor in Chief: Tom DeFalco; Cover Artist: Javier Saltares
High atop a building, the Scarecrow and his flock of crows watch his next potential victim on the street below. Scarecrow jumps down and knocks the innocent man unconscious but is interrupted by the police as he's dragging him away. The two officers attempt to arrest the villain, but the Scarecrow's fear-inducing power causes them to hesitate in fright - resulting in the male officer's death and the female officer's abduction. He takes his two victims back to his home, an abandoned reservoir beneath a toxic waste dump that would kill a normal man simply by breathing the air. The Scarecrow, however, has been changed by doctors, who gave him both the gift of fear and the ability to heal in the presence of fear - fear makes him immortal, he cannot die. In his new home, the Scarecrow thinks back to his hatred of the Ghost Rider and his childhood as the victim of his abusive mother.
Four nights later, the Scarecrow watches the Ghost Rider from the window of an abandoned building, in which he holds several more kidnapped people. At the door to the building, the Scarecrow throws his pitchfork across the street - with the intestines of a victim attached, knocking the Ghost Rider off his bike as he drives by. The Rider releases his chain and strikes the Scarecrow in the heart, a blow that would've killed a normal man. Ghost Rider follows the villain into the building, where he's attacked by a healed Scarecrow and knocked through the window.
Scarecrow returns to the reservoir and dumps off his newest batch of living victims, beginning his long night of unloading and building. He thinks back again, this time to when the doctors were operating on him. One of the doctors had severed his vocal cords, making him unable to scream...trapping his fear, something that he swears won't happen again. Later, Scarecrow listens through the window of the 15th Police Precinct as Captain Dolan and his men discuss the rash of kidnappings. Back in the reservoir, Scarecrow attempts to sleep, but instead has a nightmare of the Ghost Rider.
Later, in Brooklyn, Captain Dolan rides with two uniformed officers as they patrol the streets. Scarecrow lands atop their car, pulling the driver out of the car as his next captive. The second officer is stabbed by the pitchfork, forcing Dolan to reach onto the car's floorboard and press the gas pedal. The car crashes into a light post, and after he pulls himself from the wreck Dolan is approached by the Ghost Rider, who tells him that the Scarecrow is his. Back at the reservoir, the Scarecrow has completed his work - he has built a house where he cannot die or even be made to suffer. He stands triumphant outside, confident that this time he'll finally get to win.
Scarecrow tracks Ghost Rider down and sets a trap, causing the Rider to collide with the hanging bodies of unconscious innocents in a blind alley. Ghost Rider takes chase after the killer, the Scarecrow merrily keeping a few steps ahead...until they finally reach the reservoir. The Rider falls into the dark pit, landing in ankle deep water that's mixed with blood. He looks around and sees walls built into a maze, with live victims tied to them - a house of fear that the Scarecrow has sealed himself into with the Ghost Rider. Ghost Rider moves through the large room and is attacked by the Scarecrow in a series of hit-and-run strikes, while the Rider's attempts at retaliation result in the innocent victims strapped to the walls being hurt. Ghost Rider follows Scarecrow into another room and the door slams shut behind him, trapping him with the Scarecrow. The villain tells him that he will let him kill him - if the Rider refuses, Scarecrow will stab into the walls of the room, killing innocent people, and any attempt to stop him may result in some fatal accidents. Ghost Rider answers this by asking when all the innocents have been killed, what will then prevent him from exacting vengeance a thousand times heavier? Scarecrow hesitates, taken back by the Rider's grim statement, and is caught off guard by a strike of the demon's chain. Ghost Rider grabs Scarecrow and tells him that while he will not take his life, he can ensure that he never wriggles out of anyone's grasp ever again.
Later, after the Ghost Rider has left, the police arrive and start the rescue of the dozens of innocent people in the reservoir. Captain Dolan enters and, instead of fearing the Scarecrow, now pities him. The police stand over the broken and disfigured Scarecrow...the Ghost Rider broke every bone in his body and held them so that they healed crooked. He will never walk again, and his fear is once again trapped inside him.
"Raising Cain"
Writer: Ian Edginton; Artist: Reggie Jones; Letterer: Lorina Mapa; Colorist: Tom Zuiko
Vengeance is fighting a monster made out of garbage, which was created via magic by an old woman named Ruby Avedon. She summoned the "Gris-Gris Man" to take revenge on the young punks who had been threatening the elderly people in her building, but the thirst for vengeance corrupted her. She killed several of her neighbors, and when policeman Michael Badilino came to check on them, she tried to kill him as well. Badilino transformed into Vengeance and fought the garbage creature, which is connected to Ruby's own life-force - so when Vengeance destroys the creature, Ruby dies as well
"Truck Stop"
Writer: Frank Lovece; Artist: Kevin Kobasic; Inker: Phillip Moy; Letterer: Steve Dutro; Colorist: Joe Andrea
John Blaze is riding ahead of his carnival on an interstate highway, and when he stops at a diner, he's nearly run over by a truck driver with a little boy in his cab. Blaze enters the diner and finds a woman crying...and to his surprise, the woman is Linda Littletrees, the Witch Woman! She and Blaze sit down to talk, and she tells him that the trucker was her husband Sam who has become crazy and violent. When Linda comes on to John, he excuses himself and goes outside. The truck then crashes through the diner, destroying it and injuring Linda. John jumps on his bike and rides after the truck, disabling it with his hellfire shotgun. When Blaze is threatened by the crashing truck, Linda wakes up and uses her satanic power to rescue him. John saves Sam from the wreck and he tells her that Linda is again worshiping Satan and threatened to kill him if he didn't stay away from their son. Realizing his mistake, Blaze confronts Linda, who becomes enraged that he's rejecting her. John blasts her with hellfire, which knocks her unconscious. Later, the Caretaker arrives to take her away, promising to help Linda as much as possible.
THE ROADMAP
Ghost Rider last appeared in Ghost Rider (1990) # 52 and appears next in Ghost Rider (1990) # 53.
The Scarecrow was given his fear-inducing powers by the Firm in the Ghost Rider/Captain America: Fear bookshelf special, and last appeared in Ghost Rider (1990) # 38. He'll appear next in Ghost Rider (1990) # 61 as one of the prisoners in the Black Hole.
Following the events in this story, Captain Gerald Dolan will retire from the police force. He returns in Ghost Rider (1990) # 66 as the mysterious "Deep Throat" that acts as the Ghost Rider's informant.
The Vengeance story takes place after he is freed from Hellgate's torture experiments in Ghost Rider (1990) # 52 but before the Vengeance back-up story in that same issue. Vengeance makes his next appearance in Venom: Nights of Vengeance # 1.
The Blaze story takes place between Blaze (1994) # 1 and Blaze (1994) # 2.
Linda Littletrees last appeared waaaaaay back in Ghost Rider (1973) # 4.
CHAIN REACTION
Warren Ellis steps up for his first of two Ghost Rider issues, this time telling what amounts to pretty much the definitive Scarecrow story with a twist ending that's absolutely killer.
Obviously, Warren Ellis is a name that most comic readers recognize today, but this Annual came out in 1994, back before Warren Ellis was a known name and his only work of note was the cult Hellstorm series and a just-beginning run on Doom 2099. So it was a bit of a surprise to find a Ghost Rider story written not only by someone other than Howard Mackie, but also one by such an unknown commodity.
Suffice it to say, Warren doesn't disappoint.
Many writers, upon approaching Ghost Rider, run with the superhero aspect, while others focus more on the urban vigilante scenario. Ellis, on the other hand, has approached this story with his eye more on telling a true horror story focusing on the deranged mind of a serial killer. Scarecrow is a character that had previously fit in quite well in the Ghost Rider series during his previous appearances, but had sort of faded away during the whole Midnight Sons/"Siege of Darkness" era. This is his comeback as one of the Rider's main antagonists, and the story is disturbing both in its brutality and the insight Ellis gives us to the Scarecrow's twisted thought process.
What's even more remarkable is how well Ellis gets the Ghost Rider as a character, nailing his personality despite the story being told from the Scarecrow's point of view. I prefer Ellis' version of the Rider to the pontificating soliloquy spouting version that had ruled Mackie's series throughout the Midnight Sons era - in this issue, the Ghost Rider only speaks when he has to, and his actions are more powerful than anything he could say. The twist ending, that takes both the readers and the Scarecrow by surprise, shows just how far the demon will go to achieve vengeance - and his "no killing" rule is taken to its extreme in the punishment he dishes out. Both the Scarecrow's trap and his ultimate fate are wonderful ideas that work both as concepts and in execution.
Another important aspect of this story is the return of original series Javier Saltares to the character, if only for this one issue. Despite the absence of his collaborator Mark Texeira, Saltares still turns in a great amount of work that took me back to the look of the book's glory days. His Ghost Rider, along with Texeira's solo version, is the quintessential look for the character. What's unfortunate is that the Comics Code rules that neutered bits of the script, particularly the gruesome image of the Scarecrow's tripwire made of human intestines (which were colored white to look like bone, despite the script explicitly stating them as organs).
This story, more so than his next fill-in issue on the series, proved that Warren Ellis had what it took to tell a truly powerful and memorable Ghost Rider tale. This issue is highly recommended.
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