The Original Ghost Rider Rides Again (1991) # 4

"Remnants!"/"Beware the Steel Wind!"

Cover Date: October 1991

On Sale Date: August 1991

Writer: J.M. DeMatteis
Artist: Bob Budiansky
Inker: Dave Simons
Letterer: Diana Albers/Joe Rosen
Colorist: Bob Sharen/George Roussos
Editor: Tom DeFalco
Editor In Chief: Jim Shooter

Cover Artist: Bob Budiansky

A distracted Johnny Blaze wrecks his motorcycle and barely survives the crash. After losing consciousness he and his bike are dragged into the woods by a mysterious figure. At the Quentin Carnival, still reeling from its destruction at the hands of the Circus of Crime, Red Fowler is told that Johnny left and heads out to find him and bring him back. Hours later, Johnny wakes up at a campsite with a man named Old Adam, who brought Johnny to the camp to help him after his crash. After a few hours of friendship, Adam is terrified at the sight of a man entering the camp enveloped in a cloud of mist. When Johnny tries to keep the man from taking Adam he is swatted aside and almost loses consciousness again. 

After he recovers, Johnny follows a trail of dead plant life to a decaying plantation house. Inside he discovers a dinner party of sorts, hosted by Centurious, who has placed Adam as his servant. The rest of the dinner guests, including Centurious’ “wife” Tara, are nothing but soulless husks animated by Centurious’ power. When Centurious attempts to take Johnny’s soul he unwittingly frees the Ghost Rider, who attacks Centurious. When Red appears, having followed Johnny’s trail, Centurious orders his soulless thralls to tear the man apart, which the Ghost Rider agrees would be a fine sight to witness. Ghost Rider attempts to fry Centurious with hellfire but finds that the man has no soul of his own and is overcome by the spirits trapped within the villain’s Soul Crystal, changing the demon back into Johnny. Adam sees one of those spirits is Tara, his sister who Centurious took as his bride, and realizes that he will never be able to free her. He sets the plantation house on fire and Centurious is buried beneath a collapsed ceiling. Johnny and Red escape, while Adam remains behind to perish with his sister. After Johnny and Red depart to return to the carnival, a path of dead foliage coming from the ashes of the home show that Centurious survived.

Any crash you can walk away from...?

A female stunt rider named Steel Wind appears at the Quentin Carnival, catching the attention of Johnny Blaze, Red Fowler, and carnival magician Vincenzo. Ralph Quentin tells them that Steel Wind is there at his request as a replacement for Blaze, who he fires from the carnival. Meanwhile, a mysterious young woman boards a bus with a picture of Johnny in her hand.

That night, the members of the carnival demand that Johnny be given a chance to prove himself against Steel Wind, and Ralph Quentin proposes a race between the two to decide who stays. The next morning, the two opponents ride through a hastily constructed obstacle course. Despite cheating by firing a laser into his gas tank, Steel Wind is about to lose to Johnny when his concentration is broken by a raging Ghost Rider, who demands to be set free to face the woman. Johnny loses and leaves in shame, taking reporter Cynthia Randolph with him after Quentin tells her she is no longer welcome.

Several nights later, Vincenzo goes to Steel Wind’s tent to try and talk with her and discovers her secret, that beneath her arm-length gloves are arms made of twisted flesh and cybernetic circuitry, a result of her being rebuilt after a boat explosion. She descends upon Vincenzo, who screams. Over the next few days, she begins a reign of terror at the carnival, telling them that if they don’t like her rules they can always leave, “as Vincenzo did”. One evening, Johnny and Cynthia reunite at the carnival, where the reporter explains what she’s dug up about Steel Wind, that her presence at a carnival inevitably leads to its financial ruin. They sneak in and join the rest of the carnival troupe in confronting Quentin and Steel Wind, who attacks Johnny on sight. After a motorcycle chase into the woods, the Ghost Rider manages to force the transformation and battles savagely with Steel Wind. When her motorcycle is destroyed and her ruined arms are exposed, she stops fighting and is fried by the Ghost Rider’s hellfire. A week later, the news of Steel Wind’s failure reaches her employer, the Freakmaster, who states that they will have to deal with Blaze before their plans for the Quentin Carnival can reach fruition.

THE ROADMAP

This issue reprints Ghost Rider (1973) # 74 and Ghost Rider (1973) # 75.  

Ghost Rider, king of the peptalk.