Cover Date: November 1980
On Sale Date: August 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
Following the destruction of the Little Thunderbird Dam, Johnny Blaze wakes up in a cave and is confronted by the mysterious Native American woman. The elderly woman transforms into her younger self, telling Blaze that she warned him what would happen if the white man continued to desecrate the land. Emerging from the cave, Johnny finds that he's been transported over a hundred years in the past. The woman disappears just as Blaze is discovered by an Indian hunting party, who wish to kill him for trespassing on their burial ground. They shoot Johnny with arrows, but he is able to steal one of their horses to escape. Unfortunately, he rides into a box canyon. The war party is stopped from killing him by the arrival of the Night Rider, who uses his seemingly supernatural power to scare them away. He takes the gravely wounded Blaze back to the home of his alter-ego, Carter Slade, in the nearby settlement of Bison's Bend.
Three days later, Blaze wakes up in Carter's home, having recovered from his injuries. Slade tells Johnny about the Night Rider, and that he's an urban legend of the area. The next day, Blaze and Carter are in the town cafe when they hear about the bank being robbed by the Tarantula and his gang, who have left the bank building on fire with a young child inside. Blaze rescues the child, afterward telling Slade that he "worked in a circus" as a cover for his heroics, and the two men join the posse to apprehend the Tarantula. However, they find that the trail has been covered by rubble caused by dynamite. Slade and Blaze go their own way, each transforming into their alter-egos to find the villain. Ghost Rider and Night Rider both find the outlaws and attempt to apprehend them, but the Tarantula throws a stick of dynamite at the Night Rider. The Ghost Rider, sensing a kinship between himself and his counterpart, takes the brunt of the explosion, though the Night Rider is still badly injured. Transformed back to his normal self, Blaze recognizes the Night Rider as Carter Slade, who asks to be taken to the Comanche medicine man Flaming Star. Blaze takes Slade to Flaming Star, who says he will keep the hero alive, and Johnny leaves on horseback to find the cavern through which he'd time traveled. However, Flaming Star's daughter, Spotted Doe, is the woman responsible for bringing Blaze to the past, and she tells her father that a great evil has arrived masked as a man. Under her father's orders, Doe goes off to summon the Manitou to fight off this evil.
Once the Manitou is summoned, Blaze finds himself again transformed into the Ghost Rider against his will. He is then attacked by a winged serpent creature called the Hobomokko, called forth by the Manitou. The Ghost Rider destroys the monster, but is attacked by the Manitou, who forces the Rider to transform back into Blaze. Atop the nearby hill, Spotted Doe is found and kidnapped by the Tarantula and his men, which breaks her concentration and causes the Manitou to vanish just before it can kill Blaze. Johnny transforms into the Ghost Rider and rescues Spotted Doe, frying the Tarantula and his gang with hellfire.
Later, Flaming Star and Spotted Doe apologize for thinking Blaze was evil, and the recovered Night Rider thanks Johnny for saving his life. Spotted Doe takes Johnny back to the cave that transported him through time, but when he comes back out, he realizes he's returned ten minutes before the destruction of the Little Thunderbird Dam. Blaze again turns into the Ghost Rider and stops the demolition crew from destroying the dam, throwing away the dynamite before it can explode and destroy the burial ground.
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| A kinship that runs deeper than either suspects. |
THE ROADMAP
Carter Slade, the Ghost Rider of the Old West that was also called the Night Rider and the Phantom Rider, first appeared in The Ghost Rider (1967) # 1. He appears here between The Ghost Rider (1973) #s 3 and 4.
Though his inclusion in the Spirit of Vengeance mythos has been sporadic at best, Carter Slade was seen as one of the Ghost Riders at the conclusion of Ghost Riders: Heaven's On Fire (2009) # 6.
As repayment for saving his life in this issue, the spirit of Carter Slade will possess the body of his ancestor Hamilton Slade to rescue Johnny Blaze from Moondark the Magician in Ghost Rider (1973) # 56.
The Tarantula last appeared in The Ghost Rider (1967) # 2 and appears next in The Ghost Rider (1967) # 5.This issue also includes three pin-up pages featuring Ghost Rider's team-ups with the Son of Satan by Carmine Infantino (from Ghost Rider (1973) # 17), the Hulk by Gil Kane (from Ghost Rider (1973) # 11), and the Phantom Eagle by Herb Trimpe (from Ghost Rider (1973) # 12).CHAIN REACTION
To read my review of Ghost Rider (1973) # 50 see my book Wheels On Fire: An Unofficial Guide to Marvel Comics' Ghost Rider: 1972-1983!
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| Of course it's the Hobomokko, who wouldn't recognize it on sight? |
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