Ghost Rider (2011) # 4

"Give Up the Ghost, Part 5"

Cover Date: December 2011; On Sale Date: October 2011

Writer: Rob Williams; Artist: Matthew Clark; Inker: Sean Parsons; Letterer: VC's Clayton Cowles; Colorist: Robert Schwager; Editor: Stephen Wacker; Editor In Chief: Axel Alonso; Cover Artist: Adam Kubert

Alejandra, the newest Ghost Rider, is aboard a NASA space-station with her mentor, Adam, and a pair of lobotomized astronauts.  Adam explains that the satellite is actually a giant telescope used to take photographs of distant stars, and now they will use the giant lens to turn the Ghost Rider's power on the Earth to wipe it free of sin.  While Adam speaks, Alejandra hears the whispers in her head from the demon Zarathos, barely able to keep in control of her newfound power.

Meanwhile, back on Earth, Johnny Blaze returns to the devil Mephisto and demands a "space bike" to reach the satellite before Adam can end the world.  Mephisto claims that his power comes from making deals with people and asks Blaze what he would trade for the bike, making a soul contract appear before the man.  Blaze sells his soul to the Devil once again and launches into space on a futuristic motorcycle with the zombie-like Seeker accompanying him.  When the Seeker tells Blaze that he's there to ensure Alejandra becomes Heaven's Spirit of Vengeance, Johnny jettisons him into space to keep him from trying to claim the Ghost Rider for himself.  Using missiles fired from the bike, Blaze blows his way into the space-station, forcing Adam to accelerate his plan.  Adam activates the Ghost Rider's power in front of the telescope while Blaze makes his way through the satellite, losing his hellfire shotgun along the way.  Johnny puts the two zombie-like astronauts into an escape hatch, then finds Alejandra in front of the telescope.  Alejandra is unable to control her power, but Johnny talks her down by saying the power is hers to do with as she chooses.  Johnny is then shot in the chest by Adam, who is wielding the hellfire shotgun.  Adam admits that he is the one who created original sin, cursed by God for his curiosity, and he has been waiting for this moment ever since.  However, when Alejandra realizes what Adam has admitted, the Ghost Rider turns on him and fries him with hellfire, blowing up the station in the process.  Alejandra rides down to Earth atop the space-bike, which carries the dying Blaze.

Johnny wakes up in Nicaragua, in the village that Alejandra erased of sin.  Alejandra tells Johnny that she was able to save his life by removing the hellfire shot into him by Adam, and that now she is dedicating herself to finding a way to reverse what she did to the village.  Johnny offers to help train her in use of her power, but Alejandra refuses, knocking him down.  She rides away, saying "The Ghost Rider found me.  Now I'm going to put things right".

Ghost Rider (2011) # 2

"Give Up the Ghost, Part 3"

Cover Date: October 2011; On Sale Date: August 2011

Writer: Rob Williams; Artist: Matthew Clark; Inker: Sean Parsons; Letterer: VC's Clayton Cowles; Colorist: Robert Schwager; Editor: Stephen Wacker; Editor In Chief: Axel Alonso; Cover Artist: Adam Kubert

Mephisto transports himself and John Blaze to Hell's motorcycle garage, where the demon lord attempts to talk Johnny into signing a contract that will give him the bike of his choice and the chance to save the world from the fate his actions have doomed it to. Blaze punches Mephisto, but the demonic Servicer steps in and lifts Johnny from the ground. Blaze tells Mephisto that he can forget him ever becoming the Ghost Rider again, but Mephisto replies that Johnny can never be the Ghost Rider's host again anyway. Mephisto asks the man for help (even saying please!), but Blaze just laughs him off. The two are then transported to the base of the Asgardian Serpent, where they are invisible, and Mephisto explains that the Serpent's war of fear against humanity was the signal that Adam was waiting on to purge the world of all sin. The Serpent senses their presence, so Mephisto and Johnny return to Hell, where Blaze is shown a vision of the future: the human race, their sin burned from them by Adam and the Ghost Rider, live as emotionless zombies with no desires, flaws, or creativity. Mephisto needs Blaze because no one else alive has more experience controlling the Spirit of Vengeance and he must rescue the current host and get her away from Adam.

In Nicaragua, Alejandra has returned from her failed attack on Sin and her soldiers. Adam tells her to judge her fellow students in the temple, the people she was raised alongside, and free them from their sins. The Seeker, a reanimated corpse that chose Alejandra as the next Ghost Rider, tries to step in to stop Adam, but his armed bodyguards keep him at bay with gunfire. When Alejandra transforms into the Rider, she refuses to heed Adam's orders, so the two begin to fight. Adam grabs the Rider and forces her to comply.

Outside, Johnny Blaze arrives at the temple on his new motorcycle, blasting his way inside with his hellfire shotgun. Blaze shoots Adam in the shoulder, then partners up with the Seeker to power Alejandra down. However, the Servicer smashes into the temple and attacks; in response, the Ghost Rider unleashes a horde of demonic locusts from her mouth, which devours the Servicer in moments. When Johnny steps in and attempts to talk her down, the Rider turns on him and puts her scythe to his throat, declaring that she will wipe out all sin, starting with his.

Ghost Rider (2011) # 1

"Give Up the Ghost, Part 2" / "Sacrifice"

Published: September 2011; On Sale Date: July 2011

Writer: Rob Williams; Artist: Matthew Clark & Valero Schiti; Inker: Sean Parsons; Letterer: VC's Clayton Clowes; Colorist: Rob Schwager; Editor: Axel Alonso; Editor In Chief: Joe Quesada; Cover Artist: Adam Kubert

In the Mojave Desert, Johnny Blaze is happily living in a cabin, finally free from the curse of the Ghost Rider. As he relishes in his freedom, he's watched from afar by a coyote.

Meanwhile, the town of Dayton, Ohio is under attack by Sin and her armored forces under direction from the Asgardian Serpent. A news helicopter overhead is filming the carnage, which Sin allows so the world can see what they are doing. In the midst of the destruction, villains Blackout and Deathwatch are taking advantage of the death around them to make themselves more powerful. Suddenly, a new Ghost Rider teleports in and the villains realize that this Rider is female, not Johnny Blaze nor Danny Ketch. Two children watch from the rubble as this new Ghost Rider uses her motorcycle to ride past the villains, hellfire striking them with her version of the Penance Stare. Blackout and Deathwatch beg for mercy, and in return the Rider materializes a scythe of hellfire and cuts both men down. Ghost Rider is then attacked by Sin, who wields an Asgardian hammer. Using her bike as a distraction, the Rider briefly gets the upper hand against Sin; but when she attempts to use the hammer, the Rider is struck by lighting that knocks her out and reverts her to her human form. Sin leaves the girl alive and orders the helicopter to finally be destroyed.

Back at the Mojave Desert, Blaze enters his cabin to finds the coyote that has been watching him transform into Mephisto. The Devil informs Blaze that the man has damned the entire human race, and that the two of them are going to save it together.

While he watches the battle between Sin and Ghost Rider, Adam reflects back on the events of an hour previous in Nicaragua. Using the magic in the Ghost Rider's chains, he reanimates a dead body with the spirit of the Seeker, who is to choose the new host for the Spirit of Vengeance. Adam has gathered together a group of young men and women that he has prepared, and the Seeker goes forth with the chains to find the next host. When he passes by a young woman, she reaches out for the chain and finds herself caught on fire. As she transforms, she tells the Seeker that her name is Alejandra, and as her sin is burnt away she finds herself transformed into the next Ghost Rider. The Seeker opens a portal, through which Alejandra is transported to Dayton, leaving Adam behind to refer to the young woman as "my sacrifice".

Ghost Rider (2011) # 0.1

"Give Up the Ghost, Part 1"

Cover Date: August 2011; On Sale Date: June 2011

Writer: Rob Williams; Artist: Matthew Clark; Inker: Sean Parsons; Letterer: VC's Clayton Cowles; Colorist: Robert Schwager; Editor: Stephen Wacker; Editor In Chief: Axel Alonso; Cover Artist: Arturo Lozzi

While drowning his sorrows at a Mexican bar, Johnny Blaze tells the story of how he defeated a fire demon and its vampire mistress while explaining to no one in particular just how he became cursed as the Ghost Rider. A man enters who introduces himself as Adam, and he offers Blaze the opportunity to be free from his curse. Johnny declines Adam's offer, guessing that there will be a catch. He and Adam walk outside, where people are rioting due to what they believe is the end of the world. Blaze sees a man attacking a woman, and when he intervenes the man savagely beats him into unconsciousness.

Johnny wakes up in the house of the woman he rescued, who says that her attacker is her ex-husband. Blaze meets the woman's young son, and the two offer him food as thanks. Johnny believes that the woman wants something from him, and when she denies it he transforms into the Ghost Rider and leaves. He rides thousands of miles into the desert, and when he eventually stops he calls out to Adam, saying he's ready to accept his offer. Adam appears and teleports them both to Los Angeles, where he tells Johnny there is in fact a price to pay for the offer. Someone that Blaze has never met will become the next Ghost Rider, the curse passing from him to a stranger. When Johnny asks what Adam gets out of this deal, he says that he wants to save humanity before the world tears itself apart through fear and sin. Blaze swallows a tree root given to him by Adam, and is instructed to drive so fast that he rips the Rider from his bones. Blaze transforms into the Ghost Rider and starts driving through Los Angeles, finally opening a portal through Hell where demons tear away the Spirit of Vengeance from his soul. Blaze reappears on Earth in the desert, finally free from the Ghost Rider. Adam's war on sin is ready to begin...