Cover Date: December 1972; On Sale Date: September 1972
Writer: Gary Friedrich; Artist: Mike Ploog; Inker: Frank Monte; Letterer: Herb Cooper; Editor: Roy Thomas; Cover Artist: Mike Ploog
In the dressing room at Madison Square Garden, Curly (the deceased
Crash Simpson reincarnated in a different body) prepares to kill his
unconscious daughter with a large knife. Suddenly, Satan appears and
tells his servant that Roxanne must be sacrificed in his temple, and
only then will Crash regain his rightful body. Curly hides Roxanne in a
large barrel and wheels her outside, where he catches a cab.
Elsewhere, the Ghost Rider tears down a deserted
highway on his motorcycle, attempting to collect his thoughts. He is
quickly spotted by a parked police car, who give chase after Blaze.
Johnny weighs his options of either stopping and letting the police see
him or running. He decides to try and escape, and speeds off into the
night. After a harrowing chase, Blaze realizes that he won't easily lose
the officers. He races toward a destroyed bridge, which he jumps on his
cycle. The police, unable to pursue, state their disbelief at what they
just witnessed. Later, the Ghost Rider seeks refuge in a cemetery,
where he decides to stop and rest. Meanwhile, Curly arrives at the
temple, where he tells his satanic followers to prepare a black mass. He
takes Roxanne into the basement and lays her on a large altar, where
she will be sacrificed at midnight.
Having fallen asleep in the cemetery, Blaze is
awaken at dawn by his transformation back into his human form. Realizing
what time it is, he races back to Madison Square Garden, where he is
scheduled to perform another cycle show. An hour before the show, Johnny
is told by his road manager, Bart Slade, that Roxanne has been missing
since the night before. Blaze flies into a rage, threatening Bart that
if he doesn't find Roxanne soon, he'll be fired. An hour later, at the
start of the show, Johnny apologizes to Slade, unaware that the manager
has plans to steal Roxanne away from him. After the show, Slade tells
Blaze that one of the guards saw a curly-haired individual leaving the
locker rooms the night before. Johnny realizes that it was Curly who
took Roxanne, and decides to go find him as soon as it gets dark.
That night, the Ghost Rider busts into the hangout
of Satan's Servants, Curly's cycle gang. The demonic biker traps the
hoodlums in a ring of fire and commands that they tell him where to find
Curly. They tell him that he hangs out at a strange church a few blocks
away. At that moment, Curly and his followers prepare the altar for the
black mass. They bring out Roxanne, who is dressed in ceremonial garb,
and chain her to the altar. Curly snaps his fingers, and Roxanne awakens
from her trance. As Curly begins to bear down on her with a large
knife, Johnny rides down the stairs of the church on his motorcycle,
melting the knife with a blast of hellfire. The cult members quickly
scatter, but Johnny is quickly stopped in tracks by the appearance of
Satan, who tells Johnny that only the death of his servant can stop her
sacrifice. Both Blaze and Curly agree to a duel, but Satan then reveals
his pawn's true form, that of Crash Simpson, and gives him a weapon: the
flaming blade of Hell itself. Roxanne screams for Johnny not to hurt
her father, but as Blaze says: "Either he dies -- or we do!"
 |
| Nap time? |
THE ROADMAP
Satan reveals that the Crash Simpson disguised as Curly Samuels is only an illusion in Ghost Rider (1973) # 9.
CHAIN REACTION
This is the continuation of the Ghost Rider serial running in Spotlight, but things aren’t really looking up from the quality of the previous issue. We’re still in the middle of the Crash Simpson storyline, and yes, this issue is just as ludicrous as the last.
There’s a common technique that was used in comics around the time of this issue called “forced drama”, usually used on the first or last pages of an issue. We get a perfect example of this technique with this comic’s first page that features Crash Simpson, in the body of Curly Samuels, preparing to execute his daughter while Satan watches from the background. It’s a good hook, immediately setting up a peril for our damsel in distress, but it’s also completely false. On the next page, Satan stops Curly and tells him that Roxanne must be sacrificed to him in his own temple. Okay, fair enough, but why then, Satan, were you commanding your slave to murder her right then on the previous page? It’s selling false drama, creating an immediate danger that’s reversed with a complete lack of logic or story continuity on the next page.
That’s just the first two pages, folks, and things sure won’t be getting better from there.
This series had two plot devices that were running either separate or together in every issue of the early stories: Roxanne as the helpless girl that Johnny must save, and Johnny being chased by the police. Obviously, the Roxanne in danger plot has been running since last issue, but this issue gives us our first chase by the cops. Because it’s the first of such sequences it at least seems somewhat fresh, but it can’t hide its intent. The police chase scenes are there to provide action, yes, but it’s also there to take up pages that have nothing to do with the plot. I think Friedrich may have realized just how paper-thin his story was for this issue and tossed in the chase sequence to eat up space. Of course, those pages could have been used to simply finish the story, considering Friedrich does so ten pages into the next issue.
Anyway, Roxanne is a captive of the Satan Cult (made up exclusively of women, another plot theme that will crop up in a later Friedrich story) that’s being led by her father. I detailed my problems with this story in the review of the previous issue, so I’ll only reiterate one point: I don’t blame later writer Tony Isabella for reversing Crash’s role in this story because it makes Blaze’s “father figure” out to be an irredeemable villain that’s eager to kill his daughter for Satan.
On the plus side, this issue does have some great artwork by Mike Ploog in his last full issue on the series (he’ll only draw the back half of the following issue). Ploog manages to make the police chase visually engaging with all of the detail put into the back alleys and roadways through which Blaze travels, and his depiction of the cult preparing to sacrifice Satan is appropriately chilling. Mike Ploog was the driving force behind this series in its infancy, and the series lost a lot when he left. Had a lesser artist illustrated these issues, Ghost Rider might not have been the runaway success that it was.
So yes, it’s an important issue for the evolution of Blaze in his early days, but it’s honestly not a very good example of what the writer or the character had to offer.
 |
| Surely the only time Roxanne will need to be rescued |
No comments:
Post a Comment