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| Cover Artist: Ron Garney |
Original Price: $2.95
Title: "Reborn Again"
Writer: Howard Mackie
Artist: Ron Garney
Inker: Al Williamson
Letterer: Janice Chiang
Colorist: John Kalisz
Editor: Bobbie Chase
Editor In Chief: Tom DeFalco
Title: "A Lover's Eyes"
Writer: Howard Mackie
Artist: Roger Cruz
Inkers: Hubbs, Pepoy, & DeCarlo
Letterer: Janice Chiang
Colorist: John Kalisz
Editor: Bobbie Chase
Editor In Chief: Tom DeFalco
SYNOPSIS
"Reborn Again" - In and around Cypress Hills Cemetery, strange lightning has been seen in the skies over the past three nights. In a news broadcast, reporter Linda Wei says that vigilante activity has once again risen in the area, and that criminals are being found brutally beaten and in a state of terror. Elsewhere in Brooklyn, two men attempt to rob and rape a young woman. From behind them a chain rattles, followed by a bright glow of flame. Moments later, the woman is left standing in fear as the two men lay on the ground, incapacitated. Not long after, policemen Michael Badilino and John "Ski" Sokolowski examine the two men, who are still in the alleyway. Despite what Badilino knows to be true, he has no choice but to accept Ski's theory...that the Ghost Rider is back.
Later, in Cypress Hills Cemetery, Badilino arrives and encounters John Blaze, who has also heard of the rumors surround the Ghost Rider's return. Blaze kicks open the door to the mausoleum that housed the Ghost Rider's remains, and the two men are shocked to find the Rider himself standing in the darkened crypt. Responding to Blaze's questions about Zarathos, the Rider replies only that if he has returned then he must assume that Zarathos has as well. Blaze asks the demon about letting Dan return to life as well, which the Rider would rather not do. Finally, after some hostile threats from both Blaze and Badilino, the demon triggers the transformation, and a bearded and naked Dan Ketch stands among them. Blaze and Dan get ready to go home to see the kid's mom, and Badilino asks John to give a notepad to Stacy Dolan, since he has other things to take care of at the moment. Blaze and Dan ride off, leaving Michael alone in the cemetery...alone, that is, until a limo pulls up. Hellgate steps out and quickly disarms Badilino with a blast of energy, energy which has been designed to disrupt Michael's ability to transform into Vengeance. Hellgate allows Badilino to escape, to run, hoping that he'll lead him to the Ghost Rider.
At the Ketch house, Blaze (along with his wife, Roxanne, and two children, Emma and Craig) watch as Dan and his mother reunite. John then answers the door, showing a bewildered Stacy Dolan. Upon seeing him, she runs forward and the two share a passionate kiss and embrace. A few minutes later, Badilino comes crashing through the front door, trying to warn them about Hellgate. Everyone in the house run outside in an attempt to get away, but Hellgate is awaiting them on the roof. With another blast of energy, he strikes Badilino and teleports him away. Blaze tells Roxanne to get the kids away while Dan transforms into the Ghost Rider. Hellgate attacks from behind, and says that despite his appearance, he is not the demon that the Rider believes him to be. he claims to be a man of science, and as he blasts the Ghost Rider to the ground, he reveals that he is responsible from bringing the demon back to life by bathing the cemetery with every spectrum of energy known to man. While Hellgate savagely beats the Ghost Rider, Blaze reluctantly realizes that he has to help, leaving his family in hiding. Realizing that the two Spirits of Vengeance make a formidable team, Hellgate fires another blast of energy that hits the car behind which Roxanne and the children were hiding, causing it to explode. Blaze collapses in denial, but the Ghost Rider uses the opportunity to take the offensive against their enemy. With Hellgate in his grasp, the Rider gives him the penance stare, causing the villain to feel more pain than he has ever before experienced. Despite the pain, Hellgate musters his strength and flies away.
Later, Blaze tells Dan that he identified Roxanne's dead body, but that there are no traces of his children anywhere. Devastated by his loss, John tells Dan to stay away from him, and that if he ever sees him or the thing inside him again, he'll kill them both. Dan takes a walk through the cemetery and comes across the shattered statue of Zarathos. After briefly looking at the broken stone, he returns to his thoughts, vowing vengeance for Roxanne and Blaze.
"A Lover's Eyes" - Dan Ketch and Stacy Dolan walk down a street in their neighborhood, trying to figure out how to move their relationship forward now that Stacy knows about Dan and Ghost Rider. Stacy is hurt that Dan didn't trust her with the truth, and Dan apologizes to her for all the secrets.
Their kiss is interrupted by screams for help from the top floor of a nearby building. An explosion rocks the building, prompting Stacy to pull out her gun and investigate. She tells Dan to call for more police and to keep Ghost Rider out of the way. Dan sees the medallion on his bike glowing, and he decides to transform despite Stacy's wishes. Ghost Rider rides into the building and finds Stacy injured. She tells the Rider that six heavily armed men are taking a man and his wife to the roof. Stacy follows Ghost Rider to the roof and watches as he takes out the armored troops, who are actually working for Flag-Smasher and are attempting to kidnap a man who works for the electric company. After Ghost Rider defeats the men and takes out their helicopter, Stacy congratulates Dan for saving the day. Ghost Rider pushes her away and tells her that he is not Dan before riding away.
ANNOTATIONS
The Ghost Rider was killed in battle with Zarathos in Ghost Rider/Blaze: Spirits of Vengeance (1992) # 18, and Zarathos in turn was killed and trapped inside a stone statue in Midnight Sons Unlimited (1993) # 4.
Blaze's story continues in Ghost Rider/Blaze: Spirits of Vengeance (1992) # 23 and the fate of his children is revealed in Blaze (1994) # 1. Vengeance is taken captive by Hellgate in this issue and is rescued in Ghost Rider (1990) # 52.
Roxanne Blaze will be resurrected by Blackheart as his consort, Black Rose, in Ghost Rider (1990) # 77. Her identity will be revealed in Ghost Rider (1990) # 93 and she is reunited with John in Ghost Rider: Finale. It is revealed in Ghost Rider (2006) # 5 that she had once again died and she is seen in Heaven in Ghost Riders: Heaven's On Fire (2009) # 6.
Ghost Rider last encountered Flag-Smasher and ULTIMATUM in Ghost Rider (1990) # 6.
Stacy learned that Dan and Ghost Rider are the same person in Ghost Rider/Blaze: Spirits of Vengeance (1992) # 18, and she joins the team to take Ghost Rider down in Ghost Rider (1990) # 57.
This issue also featured a back-up story by Howard Mackie and Roger Cruz, and a series of pin-ups by the following artists: Adam Kubert, Scott McDaniel, Jimmy Palmiotti, Shawn McManus, and Salvador Larroca.
This issue was published in two versions: one with a standard format cover and one with a die-cut foil-enhanced cover.
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| Enhanced Cover Edition |
REVIEW
The Ghost Rider is alive and back in the saddle once again...raise your hand if you were actually surprised that this would happen. Replacing popular characters with "revamped" or "edgier" clones was all the rage at Marvel around this time - see the Scarlet Spider, War Machine, the Lynn Michaels Punisher, and Thunderstrike - and also popular was the "anti-hero", or villain turned vigilante. Marvel had some success in turning Venom, arguably one of Spider-Man's scariest villains, into one of these anti-heroes, so the formula was applied to Vengeance as well in hopes of catching the lightning in a bottle for a second time.
Suffice it to say, Ghost Rider readers were not amused. Fans had put up with the downslide of story and art quality over the past few years, hoping for a light at the end of the tunnel, only to be greeted with the rather anticlimactic "death" of the Ghost Rider near the end of the "Siege of Darkness". Sales were plummeting for the book, so it was up to Howard Mackie and Bobbie Chase to try and bring things back to basics - back to what had made Ghost Rider such an unbelievable hit in the first place.
So, what would be more appropriate than to bring back the Dan Ketch Ghost Rider in the double-sized 50th issue? Never mind that the character had only been gone for five months worth of stories, the fans demanded his return...so you can't blame Marvel for caving. Naturally, I was one of the readers clamoring for the real Ghost Rider to come back, but in hindsight I can see how it really wasn't fair that Vengeance was given such an abrupt wrap-up. As unpopular and uninteresting as the character had become since turning into a "hero", Vengeance still had his fans and a good number of subplots that were just dropped into limbo -- or would have been, were it not for Chris Cooper and his Vengeance stories in Marvel Comics Presents. In what was probably a wise move, Mackie let go of Vengeance - as he did with Blaze shortly after - and allowed other writers to take him, giving him the chance to focus on just the Ghost Rider. And honestly, that was what the book needed more than anything else.
This anniversary issue also deals with setting up the status quo for the upcoming Blaze series, giving John a reasonable excuse for cutting ties with his brother Dan and the Ghost Rider. While I understand why the decision to make Blaze separate from Dan, I have problems with the way the schism was carried out. Roxanne Simpson, forever the "damsel in distress" for the Ghost Rider mythos, finally meets her death; and, honestly, I can't blame the writers for killing her off. Roxanne had become such a background character over the years that she was nearly unrecognizable from the girl she was when she first appeared. The problem stems from the disappearance of John's children: Roxanne dies in the explosion, but the kids just "disappear". From what's shown in this issue, Mackie either a) had no idea what Blaze writer Larry Hama had planned for the kids or b) just couldn't think of any other way to write their kidnapping into his story. Either way, it does make for a very odd transition when you get to the Blaze series, because the disappearance of the children has absolutely nothing to do with Hellgate...something that this issue certainly eludes to.
We also get the explanation behind the Ghost Rider's return to life explained via Hellgate's exposition. I did like the juxtaposition of science over supernatural, with Hellgate's scientific experiments being responsible for bringing the Ghost Rider back. It was almost too much of an overt attempt to say "hey, we're done with all the supernatural stuff in this book!", but it was a nice bit regardless.
This issue is also pretty much the end of Ron Garney's tenure as artist, though he does come back to pencil issue # 52. I was never a huge fan of Garney's work on Ghost Rider - though better than some artists on the book, such as Bret Blevins, Garney was still fairly mediocre. I will say, however, that Garney was the only artist to make me like the "cyborg" redesign of John Blaze.
So, while not a truly great issue, "Reborn Again" is certainly a step in the right direction for the Ghost Rider series. The book is on its way to recapturing the magic of the early days, and despite how contrived it was with being such a cop-out it still feels good to have the real Ghost Rider back as the star of his book again.
Grade: B
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