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| Cover Artist: Javier Saltares |
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Title: "Doghead & Spiked Tails"
Writer: Ivan Velez Jr.
Artist: Javier Saltares
Inker: Andrew Pepoy
Letterer: Richard Starkings
Colorist: Brian Buccellato
Editor: Tom Brevoort
Editor In Chief: Bob Harras
SYNOPSIS
The Ghost Rider walks through the New York City sewer system, searching for the monster responsible for the disappearance of dozens of people over the last several weeks. Noble stumbles across a humanoid rat creature that's feasting on the flesh of a corpse, a creature that refers to the Rider as an "old foe". Kale grabs the rat creature, whose name is Verminous Rex, with his chain and pulls him into the light. Memories flood the Ghost Rider's mind, memories of his first encounter with Rex during World War I, where the creature was killed by a landmine. Rex tells him that sometimes the dead come back, and in anger Noble smashes his fist through the rat's body. Unexplainably, Noble feels something building inside him, and suddenly Verminous Rex is engulfed by hellfire. Nothing is left of Rex but ash, leaving the Ghost Rider to question what happened. He hears laughter in the darkened tunnels behind him, but sees no one when he turns. Sure that he's been manipulated by an unknown being, the Rider exits the sewers and rides off on his motorcycle.
Later that night, Dan Ketch awakens in his apartment, sore from his night out as the Ghost Rider. Deciding to go visit his mother in the mental hospital, he casually wonders where his brother John has disappeared to. Unknown to Dan, John Blaze and Jennifer Kale are in Canada, searching for Blaze's two lost children. The next morning, Dan walks past an outdoor grocery and decides to buy his mother an orange. He stops briefly to talk to the shop worker, an immigrant named Chio, and his dog, Chupi. Dan makes his way to the hospital and sits next to his catatonic mother, asking her how she's feeling. Dan sighs, apologizing for everything that's happened, and his mother's response is an unexpected slap to her son's face. Out of her stupor, Mrs. Ketch forgives him, but tells him that she wants to know everything he's hid from her, including how Barbara was involved.
At the end of the day, Chio and Chupi close up the grocery store and go for a walk through a park. On their route are two drug addicts, one of which uses all of their drugs and refuses to give the girl any. While Blackheart watches from the distance, the woman goes into a frenzy and kills her boyfriend over the drugs with a broken bottle. At that moment, Chio and Chupi step forward, prompting the girl to scream at some incoming police, yelling that Chio's dog killed her boyfriend. Afraid that he'll be deported and that they'll kill his dog, Chio grabs Chupi and runs from the police, straight into incoming traffic. A bus pulls out in front of him, killing both dog and master instantly. At the moment of his death, however, Blackheart comes forward to Chio and offers him the chance for vengeance and the ability to keep himself and his dog safe forever. Chio accepts, and Blackheart merges the dog and man into one monstrous being: Doghead. Doghead leaps on the bus and kills the driver as punishment for running them over, but suddenly finds himself shocked at his blood thirst. More police arrive and begin to shoot at Doghead, but Blackheart spirits him away to Hell before he can be harmed.
In the void, the Ghost Rider thinks about his encounter with Verminous Rex, and how he didn't know he was able to destroy the undead. A shadowy woman then appears to Noble, telling him that he needs to remember all the things he's been forced to forget. Before she can explain, the woman fades away, leaving the Ghost Rider with even more questions. In Hell, Blackheart shows images of his four Spirits of Vengeance: Wallow, Pao Fu, Verminous Rex, and Doghead, to his aides, Black Rose and Skritch. Blackheart tells him that his new Spirits of Vengeance will subjugate the world in his name, prompting Black Rose to ask about the Ghost Rider. Blackheart tells her that the Ghost Rider will lead his Spirits because he is weary of his curse, unhappy with his lot in life. He then pulls a body from a lake of hellfire, explaining that if the Ghost Rider leads his Spirits of Vengeance, he will regain his true body: the body of Noble Kale.
ANNOTATIONS
Ghost Rider appears next in Venom: Sign of the Boss # 1.
Blackheart has already gathered two of his Spirits of Vengeance: Wallow in Ghost Rider (1990) # 87 and Pao Fu in Ghost Rider (1990) # 88.
Mrs. Ketch was admitted to the mental hospital after seeing the Ghost Rider take possession of her daughter's corpse and then return to Dan's body in Ghost Rider (1990) # 85.
The identity of the woman that visits Noble in the void is revealed in Ghost Rider (1990) # 92.
Doghead makes his final appearance ten years later in Ghost Rider (2006) # 26, where he gets his head blown off by the Caretaker's hellfire shotgun. Verminous Rex also makes a reappearance around the same time and is killed by Dan Ketch in Ghost Rider: Danny Ketch (2008) # 5.
REVIEW
Javier Saltares finally returns to the ongoing Ghost Rider series following his work on the Minus One interlude issue, and we're getting the first signs of stability in the book with this prelude to "The Last Temptation".
The big news for this issue, of course, was Javier Saltares coming back to the series he helped start nearly ten years before with writer Howard Mackie and finisher Mark Texeira. While neither of his co-creators return alongside him, Saltares' return to Ghost Rider immediately takes the book's quality up several notches. Following the last year of ill-conceived artistic decisions on the series and the rash of fill-ins since Pop Mhan's departure, Saltares' clean line work and more realistic renderings are a breath of fresh air. It's telling, though, that not even he is capable of making the "Speed Racer" costume look good. God, that thing was just a total eyesore, wasn't it? Inks for this issue are handled by Andrew Pepoy, and while he does an admirable job its obvious that the absence of Mark Texeira really leaves a mark on Javier's work.
Story-wise, Velez is running toward his endgame arc on the book with this final "interlude" issue that finishes the introductions of Blackheart's faux Spirits of Vengeance. Whereas the last two issues gave us single-issue tales of Pao Fu and Wallow, this issue gives us two new Spirits. Unfortunately, one is much more successful than the other. Verminous Rex is introduced as an old enemy of Noble Kale from World War I, a humanoid rat-creature who feeds on the dead. I've always found Rex to be an interesting villain, much more in line with some of the early Mackie villains than we've seen throughout Velez's run. Doghead, however, is just one huge bag of whatthefuckery. An immigrant who is fused with his dog after he's mistakenly accused of a crime and then run down by a truck, its just a ludicrous premise. His visual's not bad, thanks to Saltares, but despite the massive amount of time spent on his origin I'm surprised he came off as such a joke (which is obviously not what Velez intended, instead going for tragedy that's overwhelmed by the ridiculous execution).
Regardless, the writing's on the wall for the big changes that start next issue as the book tries in vain to recapture some of the qualities that made it so successful in the past. If there's a hint of desperation in the air, I promise you're not imagining it.
Grade: B-
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