Cover Date: December 1980
On Sale Date: September 1980
Writer: Michael Fleisher
Artist: Don Perlin
Letterer: Diana Albers
Colorist: Rob Carosella
Editor: Denny O'Neil
Editor In Chief: Jim Shooter
Cover Artist: Bob Budiansky
"Graveyard of the Plundered Dead!"
Writer: Michael Fleisher
Artist: Carmine Infantino
Inker: Mike Esposito
Letterer: Harry Blumfield
Colorist: Rob Carosella
Editor: Denny O'Neil
Editor In Chief: Jim Shooter
On a deserted stretch of mountain highway late at night, Johnny Blaze suddenly finds himself in the path of a diesel truck barreling down on him. When Johnny tries to move over to allow the truck to pass, the large vehicle hits him and knocks him over the guardrail and down the side of the cliff. With only moments to save his life, Blaze transforms into the Ghost Rider, who manages to grab onto a random ledge of rock. The demon then creates his flame cycle and rides back up the mountain, only to find the truck has vanished without a trace. Frustrated and angry, the Ghost Rider allows Blaze to regain control, who then sees a message painted on the side of the cliff in front of him that reads "To all bikers - stay off my road. Or else. - Clement". Johnny looks at his bike and discovers that the fuel tank was ruptured in the crash, so he sets off on foot to find a mechanic that can help him fix it.
Soon, Johnny comes across a young man changing the tire on his expensive sports car. The kid immediately recognizes Johnny and admits that he's a big cycle fanatic. The kid, Frederick William Mathew Mitchell the Third - or just plain "Mitch" - agrees to give Johnny a lift once his tire is changed. Someone had scattered a handful of spikes along the road, giving him a flat tire. At that moment, four armed men on motorcycles pull up, admitting that they put the spikes on the road so they could kidnap Mitch and hold him for ransom. Johnny transforms into the Ghost Rider, who makes short work of the bikers and then returns to Blaze's form, confusing Mitch. Two motorcycle policemen arrive, but Johnny realizes that something is amiss right before he's knocked unconscious. The two cops are with the bikers, and Mitch is kidnapped after all.
Several hours later, Johnny awakens to find all of the men gone and Mitch's car consumed by a fire. A diesel truck then pulls up, and the driver offers Blaze a ride - even though Johnny recognizes the rig as the one that ran him off the road. Johnny tells the trucker, Clem, about Mitch being kidnapped...but Clem tells him that the police won't save him in time and that it's up to the two of them to help. At the biker gang's hideout, the kidnappers speak via radio with Mitch's rich uncle, who refuses to pay the ransom. The gang's leader, Deever, tells his men that if the money isn't theirs by dawn then he'll slit Mitch's throat.
Meanwhile, Johnny rides with Clem, but finds it odd that the truck's radio only plays songs and commercials from several decades ago. The truck also seems able to pass under bridges that are way too low for the vehicle to make it past. When they arrive below the hideout, Clem tells Johnny that he'll have to go the rest of the way alone because he's not able to leave his truck. Johnny agrees, and once out of sight turns into the Ghost Rider, who crashes through the roof of the lodge. Deever is the only one not scared and proceeds to throw a vial of nitroglycerin at the demon. The Ghost Rider catches the vial out of the air and tosses it into his mouth, allowing it to explode with no effect, laughing the entire time. The demon then fries all of the kidnappers with hellfire.
A short while later, Johnny and Mitch herd the men into the back of Clem's truck. Clem then refuses to give the two a ride back to town, and that he has to get going before the sun comes up. Johnny and Mitch then watch as Clem's diesel truck disappears before their eyes as it drives into the sunrise. An hour later at a gas station, Johnny and Mitch are approached by the store owner, who tells them that they must be crazy for riding bike's on "Clem's road". He then tells them a story of a diesel trucker named Clement Barstow, who was clubbed to death by a biker gang 30 years ago and now haunts the highway, killing bikers and helping out good people every now and then. But as the mechanic says he thinks the story is just an urban legend, Johnny and Mitch can only look at each other in disbelief.
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| Mind = BLOWN! |
THE ROADMAP
This issue features a Night Rider back-up story that takes place after the character's appearance in Ghost Rider (1973) # 50 and before The Ghost Rider (1967) # 4.
CHAIN REACTION
To read my review of Ghost Rider (1973) # 51 see my book Wheels On Fire: An Unofficial Guide to Marvel Comics' Ghost Rider: 1972-1983!
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