Happy Halloween from Vengeance Unbound!

For a character that looks the way he does, it's a little surprising that most Ghost Rider stories are not very scary.  A skeleton on fire jumping around on a motorbike seems to naturally sway toward the direction of superheroes, or even at its darkest just street-level crime with the occasional dollop of weird thrown on top.  However, since Halloween is upon us, I thought I'd offer up some thoughts on a few Ghost Rider comics that ARE genuinely scary, if not downright disturbing.

"TRAIL OF TEARS"

Cover Artist: Clayton Crain

The image above us there is a somewhat recent example, the 2006 mini-series "Trail of Tears" by Garth Ennis and Clayton Crain that re-imagined the western Spirit of Vengeance as a murdered former slave killed by bigots.  Ennis isn't a stranger to writing horror comics, as evidenced by his classic series Preacher and (my personal favorite) his run on John Constantine, Hellblazer.  His first go-round with Ghost Rider, 2005's "Road to Damnation" mini-series, was less scary and more tongue-in-cheek in its approach, but Ennis got deadly series with the follow-up.

I was tempted to disqualify this series as "horror", given the obvious influence of the Spaghetti Western on the material.  This is a western story, with a lot of tropes from that genre, but the tone of the book is so goddamned dismal and oppressive that the horror elements tend to overshadow the cowboy motif.  Clayton Crain is a lot of the reason for this, the man's digitally-painted artwork is beautiful and monstrous at the same time.  "Trail of Tears" is a Ghost Rider series that doesn't show the titular character's flaming skull until the last issue, which is pretty brave...but also effective, because Crain's design of the hooded Rider is extremely memorable.

And he has vultures and crows as pets-slash-weapons.  Why haven't we seen Johnny Blaze with the power of weaponized devil-birds?  Missed opportunity, methinks.

"STAINED GLASS AND SHADOWS"

Cover Artist: Bob Budiansky

If Ghost Rider Classic is what you fancy, I have a suggestion for you: find a copy of either the Essential Ghost Rider volume 4 or the Original Ghost Rider Rides Again 7-issue mini-series and prepare yourself for the best Ghost Rider stories you'll ever read.  At the end of a fantastic run of comics are issues 80 and 81, the final 2-part story of the 1970s Ghost Rider series, which actually (and kind of surprisingly), gave a satisfying conclusion to Johnny Blaze's struggle against the demon Zarathos.  Writer J.M. DeMatteis and artist/co-plotter Bob Budiansky started the story with the chilling fate of a small town fallen prey to a pastor capable of stealing away a person's soul and ended it with a Ghost Rider withering away to nothing while still fighting against his other half.

The old "fire 'n' brimstone" country preacher archetype is an easy one to fall into cliche and caricature, but the Sin-Eater of this story is charismatic and unassuming, which makes it even more terrifying when his true face is revealed at the climax to issue # 80. Nothing's scarier to me than religion taken to extreme, and green soul-eating tentacles are about as bible-thumping as it gets.  I'm from Kentucky, I know all about the Tentacle Soul-Sucker of Latter Day Saints, trust me.

"THE LEGEND OF SLEEPY HOLLOW, ILLINOIS"

Cover Artist: Arthur Suydam

If you're looking for something scary that was published within the last decade, pickings are a little slim.  Jason Aaron's run was absolutely batshit amazing, but I wouldn't really call it scary.  Weird as hell, sure, but it wasn't really horror.  So, how about a story that's actually set during Halloween and features a villain that is simultaneously the Devil and a guy with a flaming fucking pumpkin for a head?

"The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, Illinois" is one of the highlights of the mid-2000s run by Daniel Way, Javier Saltares, and Mark Texeira.  Despite being a peripheral tie-in to the Civil War crossover, the 4-part story arc uses the Halloween imagery of villain Jack-O'-Lantern as an effectively frightening comparison to Johnny Blaze, flaming head and all.  The artwork is what really sells this story, elevating the otherwise bloated/padded story into something worth reading.  Saltares and Texeira are legendary Ghost Rider artists, and seeing how they illustrate Blaze dragging Jack-O'-Lantern through a cornfield by his chain is pretty sweet.

"OBSESSION"

Cover Artist: Mark Texeira

My vote for the most pants-shittingly terrifying Ghost Rider story goes to this one from the first year of the 1990s relaunch.  Ghost Rider # 7 by Howard Mackie and Mark Texeira revamped a somewhat ridiculous Silver Age Iron Man and Captain America villain, the Scarecrow, into an absolute nightmare.  Replacing the cheesy version of the villain with a horrific portrait of a childhood abuse victim turned serial killer, Mackie and Texeira turned the Scarecrow into a lasting protagonist for Danny Ketch all through the 1990s.

As if that wasn't enough, this issue also cemented Blackout as one of the most chilling villains in Ghost Rider history.  Using his ability to extinguish light around him, Blackout stepped up and changed the game for this series with his actions here.  The scene is horrifying without being gruesome, with Blackout sitting in a darkened hospital room to monologue before placing his fangs to the victim's throat.

HONORABLE MENTIONS

Cover Artist: Steve Lightle

There are a few other stories worth mentioning, and when I have time I may give them a longer look.  For fans of the scary stuff, I recommend "The Walking Wounded" from Marvel Comics Presents, which placed Ghost Rider opposite Typhoid Mary in a story by Ann Nocenti and Steve Lightle (and was recently reprinted in the Daredevil: Typhoid's Kiss trade paperback, to boot!).  Ghost Rider # 34 from the tail end of Jason Aaron's run is also a pretty nice terror-tale, with both artwork by Tony Moore and the return of the Highwayman from early 1980s obscurity U.S. 1.

I'd love to hear other suggestions for scariest Ghost Rider story, so feel free to leave a comment below if you'd like to chime in.  Happy Halloween, Flameheads!

"You've Got a Second Chance, Johnny Blaze!"

A banner ad made years ago for Vengeance Unbound

So, I suppose this has been coming for quite a while now...

If you're a first time visitor to Vengeance Unbound, it's a Ghost Rider comic review and annotation site that I started up waaaaaaaaaaay back in 2001 and have operated sporadically ever since.  There have been server crashes, health scares, marriages, deaths, and most recently a baby son, all things that have made the site take various hiatuses throughout the years.  Most recently, the aforementioned baby son and a change in job schedules forced yet another hiatus to take place last summer. 

Maintaining and updating a whole website, even one as simplistically designed as VU, takes a lot of time and effort.  It's energy that I just don't have left to expend in my dottering old age.  Hence, this new blog, where I will be reposting each review currently housed at the old site, along with new ones when I have the time.  The original site will stay up until everything is moved over, including all of the articles and creator interviews I've written and conducted over the years.

This blog will also be the home to the brand-new Ghost Rider podcast that I and my cohort, Jim Yost, will be bringing you in coming months.  Expect some witty debate, theological explorations, and other spiritual ephemera, it oughta be a gas.  SKULLS ON FIRE is the name of the podcast, and it will be hosted here for everyone's listening pleasure.

I invite everyone here to join us on the Vengeance Unbound Facebook page as well, where I've been known to give away Comixology download codes for new issues whenever the mood strikes me.  I am absolutely not above bribery.

That's it, that's my sales pitch.  If you enjoy comic review blogs, like reading creator interviews, dig comic related blogs, or most importantly love Ghost Rider, I hope you stick around.  If you're a fan of the original VU, enjoy the reposting of those old reviews and look out for new ones.  This site won't die until I do, which will hopefully give me a few more years at the least.

Oh, and as for my aforementioned baby son?  I don't think it will surprise anyone to learn that I named the kid Johnny...