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| Cover Artist: Karl Kerschl |
Original Price: N/A
Title: "Reprise"
Writer: Chris Cooper
Artist: David Boller
Inker: Derek Fisher
Letterer: Janice Chiang
Colorist: Jim Hoston
Editor: Glenn Herdling
SYNOPSIS
From his dimensional prison, Zarathos watches John Blaze and states that Blaze had once been corrupted by a small portion of the demon's essence, which caused him to transform into a "dark version of Ghost Rider". Now, Zarathos plans on testing Blaze again, which will gain the demon power to conquer the world.
On a bridge leaving New York City, Blaze sees a demon made of hellfire terrorizing the motorists trapped in a traffic jam. Blaze hears a voice in his head telling him that he'll need to become the Ghost Rider again to defeat the demon, but John tries to ignore it. However, when he finds that his hellfire shotgun only makes the demon stronger, Blaze gives in and becomes the "original" Ghost Rider once more. He defeats the demon by absorbing its hellfire into his body, which places Blaze under Zarathos' control.
ANNOTATIONS
On a bridge leaving New York City, Blaze sees a demon made of hellfire terrorizing the motorists trapped in a traffic jam. Blaze hears a voice in his head telling him that he'll need to become the Ghost Rider again to defeat the demon, but John tries to ignore it. However, when he finds that his hellfire shotgun only makes the demon stronger, Blaze gives in and becomes the "original" Ghost Rider once more. He defeats the demon by absorbing its hellfire into his body, which places Blaze under Zarathos' control.
ANNOTATIONS
This mini-comic was the tenth in a series packaged with Toy Biz's line of Ghost Rider action figures. This issue came with the Original Ghost Rider figure.
There's really no place to fit this series into established continuity. It obviously takes place after "Siege of Darkness" and Ghost Rider (1990) # 50, but the relationships between Ghost Rider, Blaze, and Vengeance certainly don't fit the characters at the time.
If this follows the standard Marvel continuity (which is questionable, at best), then Zarathos was banished to another dimension at the conclusion of the "Siege of Darkness" crossover in Midnight Sons Unlimited (1993) # 4.
REVIEW
There's really no place to fit this series into established continuity. It obviously takes place after "Siege of Darkness" and Ghost Rider (1990) # 50, but the relationships between Ghost Rider, Blaze, and Vengeance certainly don't fit the characters at the time.
If this follows the standard Marvel continuity (which is questionable, at best), then Zarathos was banished to another dimension at the conclusion of the "Siege of Darkness" crossover in Midnight Sons Unlimited (1993) # 4.
REVIEW
Johnny Blaze becomes the Ghost Rider again, which is a move I'm surprised the regular comics hadn't tried yet by this point.
There's not a lot to say about this comic, since it's so short and it has to make its point so quickly by hammering out a way to make Blaze the original Ghost Rider again. Zarathos makes some interesting comments on how Johnny was once corrupted by a "fraction of my essence" and became a "dark version" of Ghost Rider, which is certainly one way of addressing the continuity quagmire revolving around the whole Zarathos/Medallion of Power stuff from around this time. It's as simplistic and as dumb-downed as it can get, which is appropriate for a toy tie-in comic, so you can't fault it there. The story doesn't even attempt to give any kind of explanation for how Blaze becomes the Ghost Rider again, he just sort of decides to do it after hearing a voice in his head, but again: limited page space and simplistic as possible. This series is almost review proof at this point.
The artwork is by David Bollers, who had drawn the last couple of these along with Karl Kerschl (who is still here on the cover duty), and it's perfectly serviceable for what it is. He does a good job with Zarathos, making him menacing on the opening page, and his original Ghost Rider is appropriately old school. His "hellfire demon" looks more like its made from electricity, but we'll say that's a coloring mistake and be generous.
I'll have a bit more to say about this story when I review the last chapter, because this is the same as before: interesting for collectors, but not worth tracking down if you just want to read it.
Grade: C
There's not a lot to say about this comic, since it's so short and it has to make its point so quickly by hammering out a way to make Blaze the original Ghost Rider again. Zarathos makes some interesting comments on how Johnny was once corrupted by a "fraction of my essence" and became a "dark version" of Ghost Rider, which is certainly one way of addressing the continuity quagmire revolving around the whole Zarathos/Medallion of Power stuff from around this time. It's as simplistic and as dumb-downed as it can get, which is appropriate for a toy tie-in comic, so you can't fault it there. The story doesn't even attempt to give any kind of explanation for how Blaze becomes the Ghost Rider again, he just sort of decides to do it after hearing a voice in his head, but again: limited page space and simplistic as possible. This series is almost review proof at this point.
The artwork is by David Bollers, who had drawn the last couple of these along with Karl Kerschl (who is still here on the cover duty), and it's perfectly serviceable for what it is. He does a good job with Zarathos, making him menacing on the opening page, and his original Ghost Rider is appropriately old school. His "hellfire demon" looks more like its made from electricity, but we'll say that's a coloring mistake and be generous.
I'll have a bit more to say about this story when I review the last chapter, because this is the same as before: interesting for collectors, but not worth tracking down if you just want to read it.
Grade: C
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