Cover Date: August 2022; On Sale Date: June 2022
Writer: Benjamin Percy; Artist: Juan Jose Ryp; Letterer: VC's Travis Lanham; Colorist: Bryan Valenza; Editor: Darren Shan; Editor in Chief: C.B. Cebulski; Cover Artist: Bjorn Barends
Wanting answers about who he is and what happened to him in Hayden's Falls, Johnny visits a mystical tattooist named Necro. Locking him down in his chair, Necro begins to tattoo the history of the Spirit of Vengeance on Johnny's skin, telling stories of past Ghost Riders as he works. He talks about Jimmy Underhill, the Ghost Rider of the late 1800s, who made a deal with Mephisto while being hung from a tree. He then talks about Danny Ketch, and a time where Johnny had to be rescued from the vampire Blackout by his brother.
Necro continues, telling stories of Vengeance facing off against Dracula's blood train and Robbie Reyes meeting the Scarecrow in a corn field. The visions that Necro tattoos onto Johnny's skin even transcend into the future, where Zero Cochrane fights the rogue angel Zadkiel. Finished with the tattoos and armed with the knowledge of his history as the Spirit of Vengeance, Johnny transforms into the Ghost Rider and rides away.
THE ROADMAP
This issue takes place between Ghost Rider (2022) # 3 and Ghost Rider (2022) # 4.
The sequence with Vengeance and the Midnight Sons takes place at some point between Ghost Rider (1990) # 46 and Ghost Rider (1990) # 50, during the brief period when the Noble Kale Ghost Rider was dead and Vengeance had taken his place in the Midnight Sons.
Robbie Reyes' appearance takes place directly before Avengers (2018) # 50, where he is spirited away to another dimension by Deathlok.
It is unknown if the Ghost Rider 2099 seen here is the one from the 1994 Ghost Rider 2099 series or the more recent Ghost Rider 2099 one-shot from 2019. Zadkiel, who appears in this sequence, first appeared in Ghost Rider (2006) # 27.
CHAIN REACTION
Marvel celebrates 50 years of Ghost Rider with this special one-shot that looks back at the character's legacy.
This is a hard comic to review, because honestly there's not much to it outside of some cool vignettes that last only a page or two each. It's certainly an interesting approach to a story, using magic tattoos to delve into the character's legacy, as it allows Ben Percy to touch on many of the past Ghost Riders. I do find his choice of ones to spotlight to be curious, though, as he invents new ones like Jimmy Underhill while ignoring other established Riders. No mention of Kushala or Carter Slade, nor the prehistoric Ghost Rider from Avengers, all of which would have made more sense than a giant cave bear with a flaming skull.
Still, all of the vignettes work very well, giving characters like Danny Ketch, Vengeance, Robbie Reyes, and Ghost Rider 2099 their fair share of page time while keeping the narrative focused on Johnny Blaze. I just fail to see the point of it all when it comes to Johnny's ongoing storyline, it doesn't really gel as a story of its own. Johnny gets some magic tattoos that apparently all burn off at the end of the comic and what did he learn other than there were Ghost Riders before him (which he already knew)? It seems, with the best will in the world toward this comic, a bit of a waste of time.
Juan Jose Ryp absolutely kills on the artwork here, though. His renditions of each Ghost Rider, beautifully spotlighted in a splash page for each, jump off the page and are given just enough variations to look like individual characters and not just a flaming skull ad nauseum. There's the typical gore associated with Percy's run on the character, particularly the Blackout sequence where Ryp really runs wild with the vampire feasting. I love the artwork on this and I really hope Ryp comes back to illustrate more issues in the future.
As a celebration of Ghost Rider's history, this comic works well, it just doesn't have legs to stand on its own as a story. Regardless, I find myself liking this one quite a bit even its because it just tickles my nostalgia.
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