Ghost Rider (1973) # 42

"The Lonesome Death of Johnny Blaze!"

Cover Date: March 1980
On Sale Date: December 1979

Writer: Michael Fleisher
Artist: Don Perlin
Letterer: Diana Albers
Colorist: Benedict Sean
Editor: Dennis O'Neil
Editor-In-Chief: Jim Shooter
Cover Artist: Bob Budiansky

Atop a hill, the Ghost Rider watches the Jackal Gang as they hijack an armored car at night.  When they see the demon riding toward them, the gang splits up and ride off in different directions.  Ghost Rider chooses to go after the two that have stolen the armored car, and after heating up the interior of the vehicle to the point where they have to stop, he fries them both with hellfire and gains the information he needs about the gang.

The next day, the amnesiac Johnny Blaze wakes up and wonders how he can be so exhausted when he's slept for thirteen hours.  He rushes to the race track, where he and the pit crew see that Gina Langtree has wrecked their car on the far end of the track.  While the crew go to get their fire suits, Blaze jumps into a car and drives to Gina, where he is able to rescue her right before her car explodes.  When they get back to the garage, Gina thanks Johnny (who she knows as Frank Ryder) a kiss, which enrages Carl, the pit foreman that's in love with her.  He challenges Johnny to a race around the track with the loser leaving never to return.  Blaze agrees, and Gina secretly wishes him luck in winning.  When they're out of sight of the others, Carl runs Blaze off the road, then runs up and hits him in the back of the head with a crowbar, just like when he was rendered amnesiac.  In order to cover up his crime, he pushes Blaze's car off a cliff with him inside.  Johnny wakes up during the fall, his memories returned due to the blow to his head, and he transforms into the Ghost Rider before the car hits the bottom and explodes.  The demon crawls from the wreckage, forms his motorcycle, and rides away.  At the top of the cliff, Gina has witnessed everything and confronts Carl, saying that she's called the police to arrest him.  Meanwhile, the Ghost Rider arrives at the Jackal Gang's hideout and attacks, burning the building to the ground and assaulting all of the men with hellfire, ensuring that they will turn themselves in to the police and confess their crimes.

The next day, Johnny walks through the desert, unable to remember anything that happened to him after he was hit over the head by the hobos on the train.  It's conceivable, he wonders, that something important happened him to him during that time, but he'll likely never remember it.  At that moment, miles away, Gina crimes herself to sleep, hoping that somehow "Frank Ryder" is still alive and that he'll return to her someday.

"Could you spare a minute to talk about the Lord?"

THE ROADMAP
Gina Langtree makes her next appearance in Ghost Rider (1973) # 54, when she accidentally runs into Blaze in Las Vegas.

CHAIN REACTION
To read my review of Ghost Rider (1973) # 42 see my book Wheels On Fire: An Unofficial Guide to Marvel Comics' Ghost Rider: 1972-1983!


In the grand scheme of things, Johnny, nothing important happened.

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