Superior Spider-Man Annual # 1

Cover Artist: J.G. Jones
Published: Jan. 2014
Original Price: $4.99

Title: "Hostage Crisis"
Writer: Christos Gage
Artist: Javier Rodriguez
Inker: Alvaro Lopez
Letterer: Chris Eliopoulos
Colorist: Javier Rodriguez
Editor: Stephen Wacker
Editor-In-Chief: Axel Alonso 

SYNOPSIS
A former employee of the Kingpin sells information about Peter Parker being connected to Spider-Man to the vampire assassin Blackout, who kills the informant in return. Later, Parker (whose body is now inhabited by the mind of former villain Otto "Dr. Octopus" Octavius) visits with his Aunt May and her husband Jay Jameson, who expresses concern about Peter's work with Spider-Man. Peter leaves and goes down into the subway, unaware he's been followed by Blackout. On a train, Peter uses his Spider-Bot camera systems to check up on the city and sees May and Jay being attacked by Blackout. The vampire easily disables Jameson kidnaps May before Parker can make it back to their apartment. Blackout left a cellphone for Peter, which means he won't kill May until he gets what he wants.

Not long after, the cellphone rings inside Spider-Man's headquarters. Blackout proves that May is still alive, then gives his demands that Parker is to sabotage Spider-Man's equipment so the villain will have an advantage against him. Parker uses his Spider-Bots to triangulate Blackout's location, but decides he needs to do some research on his enemy before taking action. He contacts Danny Ketch, former host to the Ghost Rider, whose sister was murdered by Blackout. Ketch tells Spider-Man that Blackout will target everyone he loves if he doesn't kill him, and offers up a few suggestions about his weaknesses, including sunlight. Spider-Man briefly considers asking Dr. Strange for help, but decides against it when he realizes that Strange could possibly discern that he is actually Otto Octavius.

Spider-Man tracks Blackout to an abandoned slaughterhouse, where he catches the villain exiting the building with May. Using his Spider-Bots to form a forcefield around May, Spider-Man deprives Blackout of his hostage. The fight turns vicious, with Blackout submerging the hero in darkness and stabbing him in the back with his claws. Blackout attempts to rip out Spider-Man's throat, but an electrical plate in his neck shocks the vampire into unconsciousness, which Otto/Peter had planned. He tells May to leave, breaks Blackout's legs and arms, and hangs him from meat-hooks. Octavius then brutally removes Blackout's fangs and claws, leaving the vampire to beg for his life. Spider-Man tells Blackout that he is going to spread the word to all criminals that Parker and his family are off limits from now on, and he then uses a generator to fry Blackout with artificial sunlight. The next day, a pickpocket steals Parker's wallet, but gives it back and begs for mercy when he realizes who he has stolen from. Meanwhile, the Green Goblin has returned and is plotting against Spider-Man.

ANNOTATIONS
Blackout last appeared in Ghost Rider (2011) # 1.

Danny Ketch last appeared in Wolverine (2010) # 6. How he lost his powers has yet to be revealed.  He will make his next appearances, fully re-powered as the Ghost Rider, years later in Fantastic Four (2018) # 3-4.

Blackout killed Danny's sister Barbara in Ghost Rider (1990) # 7 and nearly killed Dan by ripping out his throat in Ghost Rider (1990) # 25. Blackout became "half demon" when he was reborn as one of the Lilin in Ghost Rider (1990) # 41.

REVIEW
Blackout attempts to make a comeback by killing Spider-Man, not realizing he's dealing a newly "superior" foe.

I don't normally review comics that only feature a Ghost Rider cameo (see last year's issue of Wolverine and the X-Men that had GR on the cover, only to feature him in one measly panel), but I thought this one was appropriate to make an exception about. Not only was Blackout a major Ghost Rider villain during the 1990s, but this issue also gives us an update on the whereabouts of Dan Ketch. Plus, it's a pretty great comic in its own right!

I've only read a few sporadic issues of the Superior Spider-Man series, most of them from the "Team-Up" spin-off series. It's a pretty great concept, Dr. Octopus's mind in Peter Parker's body trying to prove himself a better hero than the original Spider-Man, and it's a premise that allows for some truly new takes on the traditional "Spidey fights random bad guy" story. Blackout, when handled correctly, can be a truly terrifying villain, and it's sad that he's never really lived up to the potential he had in his original appearances from the 1990s Ghost Rider series. Since then he's been treated either as a joke (see Jason Aaron's run, where he's called "the Clapper with fangs") or as disposable canon fodder (as in Rob Williams' run, where he's taken out by Alejandra in the span of two pages).

Christos Gage seems to have a lot of affection for those early Howard Mackie stories, though, because he not only gets Blackout's character he also understands how the villain operates. Blackout isn't scary because he's a vampire, he's scary because his standard modus operandi isn't to attack the hero but to kill the hero's family (and friends and acquaintances and so on...). Just like with Dan Ketch years ago, Blackout comes at Peter/Otto through his loved ones by kidnapping Aunt May, a tactic that usually works for him. It blows up in his face in a spectacularly horrific fashion here, though. Blackout, for all his ferocity, is a coward that is afraid to take on an opponent face-to-face, so his fate at the comic's end is appropriately vicious.

We also get a look at what Danny Ketch has been up to since his last appearance, and again it shows that Gage knows the early stories well. Of all the villains he faced during his time as the Ghost Rider, Blackout is the most personal for Danny, and even though he's powerless I liked that offered to come help Spider-Man. Despite being just a normal human, Danny's still a hero, which shows he's handling his "disability" much better than he did the LAST time he lost the Spirit of Vengeance.

The artwork by Javier Rodriguez is also a big win for this comic. I'm not familiar with Rodriguez's work, but his style fits the Spider-Man aesthetic perfectly. In particular, he does well with the Superior set-up, making Peter/Otto much more insect-like and creepy in his movements and presence. His Blackout looks scary, and I love the way he interprets his light-dampening ability, with only certain colors standing out in each panel to represent where the characters are in relation to the darkness.

While this comic certainly isn't essential for Ghost Rider collectors to pick up, I'd still highly recommend it for anyone that was a fan of the 90s series and wants to see a few of the characters from that time handled with care and respect.

Grade: A+

Creator Interview: Trent Kaniuga

Artwork: Trent Kaniuga
Since I just re-posted all of the reviews of "The Hammer Lane" mini-series, I figured now was a good time to re-post the interview I did with Trent Kaniuga back in 2009.  I felt really bad after doing this interview, because Trent was a helluva nice guy and he was convinced I hated his artwork after he read my reviews for his first three issues of Ghost Rider.  "Why did you want to interview me if you didn't like my work?" he asked, and I really felt like a gigantic asshole.  So I assured him that yes, I was critical of parts of his work, but I also liked quite a bit of what he'd done on the character, which I pointed out to him in those reviews.  You'll notice I was a little kinder to him in the reviews for issues 4-6.
Oh, and I totally cop to the fact that I was wrong about him missing deadlines on the series, another thing that made me feel like a first class heel.

As part of our anniversary extravaganza, Vengeance Unbound proudly presents a chat with the artist on Ghost Rider: The Hammer Lane, Trent Kaniuga!

1) Before we start talking about Ghost Rider, I'd like to touch on your older work and the comic that you're most associated with: namely, Creed. If I remember correctly, that was your first project as a comic artist? Even if it wasn't, it was still fairly impressive to have a successful creator-owned series at the start of your career. How did Creed get its start at Image?

Wow, that was a long time ago.  My very first comic was actually a book called "Deadbolt", and he was a really generic kind of a super hero, but with a strange religious twist.  I was 15 years old when it was published, and it didnt sell very well.  We used to go to malls in Elkhart Indiana and set up a table on weekends to sell our own comics. We'd get a free table  because Allen Stewart, the publisher would dress up as spiderman and run through the mall jumping at kids, singing and dancing to the spiderman theme song. I realized that I wanted to create characters that nobody would ever have to dress up as at a mall, so I made CreeDCreeD was first published when I was 17 years old, on cheap newsprint, and it got a lot of support from various distributors (back then there were 4), and it earned a lot of press.  Every publisher that I worked with on CreeD wanted multiple covers and new issue #1s, so the series is quite confusing. But Im putting all 20 or so issues together into an omnibus finally for everyone that ever got lost trying to collect the series.  The Image thing happened only after I did my run on Ghost Rider, which was my best selling book, thanks to the talented people that I worked with on that.
 
2) Ghost Rider was your first assignment at Marvel, correct? How did you get the job illustrating Devin Grayson's Ghost Rider series?

I was doing work in fashion in Los Angeles for a company called JNCO which was known for a very graffiti style culture, and they wanted to branch into entertainment.  So I made a couple of stories for them, and sold them into animation and merchandising before being fired for creating a show about homeless martial artists or something. Actually about 10 people a week were fired from JNCO, so I took it as a good thing.  I was just passing my portfolio around to people that I knew, and my old friend Joe Quesada called me immediately and said " I got a project for you!, what do you think of Ghost Rider?"

To which I responded "besides that he's a badass?"

Just because I was enthusiastic about the possibility, I stayed up all night and did that cover for the first issue of the Hammer Lane, and sent it out to the Marvel Editors and they loved it!  After that, he pretty much assembled the team.  It was really fantastic getting paired up with Devin and Danny.  I think we all worked well together, throwing ideas back and forth.  Devin was very open to including things that I just thought would be a lot of fun to draw into the series, and Danny made my pencils look incredible every issue.

3) When you came into the project, did you have any input on the plot or was that something already finalized by that point?

Devin had a really solid idea for what she wanted to do. The place where I had the most influence was in choreographing some of the action.  For instance, I asked her if we could have him get blown to peaces "terminator style", and we just... made it happen.  My tendency is to push things as far as I can go, until someone stops me.  Marvel never said "no" to this sort of thing so... it got into the final.

4) Was Ghost Rider a character you were a fan of? If so, what are some of your fond memories of the character? If not, did your opinion change once you got the job illustrating his book?

I always loved the Johnny Blaze character, but not so much Danny Ketch.  Something about "touching a magical demonic gas cap that turns him into the spirit of vengeance" didnt seem cool to me.    

The concept of the Ghost Rider character is very iconic, and creates great situational dilemmas. I think that Ghost Rider can either be REALLY badass, or really cheesy, depending on how its handled. When I was a kid, there was a comic book shop down the road, run out of a guys garage called "poor boys comics".  They had piles of old Man-thing comics and world war 2 propaganda books as well as piles of old $0.25 Ghost Rider books... and that was my first introduction to Ghost Rider.

5) Now, I'm going to try and ask this question as gracefully as possible, so please bear with me. While I remember the reception being fairly positive when “The Hammer Lane” was first released, history does not seem to have been kind to it. A lot of Ghost Rider fans, particularly those who frequent internet message boards, hold a very low opinion of the work you and Grayson did on the character. Why do you think that is? Do you see those fans' opinions on “The Hammer Lane”as being unfair to the work?

Nietzsche said "All great things must first wear terrifying and monstrous masks in order to inscribe themselves on the hearts of humanity".  Maybe this book needs time to really grow on people, to see that we were doing things that had never been done with the character before.  Of course, I can only speak for the pencils.  And also, I feel that I could do a better book now, as Ive grown exponentially as an artist.  From that perspective, you could look at any artists early work and tear it to pieces (excluding Picasso).  I see this as an interesting look into the history of the development of my work.

To be honest, Im a bit suprised... this is the first time that Ive heard anything negative about the series. (Although I dont google my own work all the time).  The book was in the top 10 selling books for every issue of its release.  Wizard Magazine posted me in the top 10 artists during its release.  I could quote countless positive reviews you know, but I dont want to keep you up all night. 

 I think that when a character has been around as long as Ghost Rider, its always going to be difficult to satiate every member of your audience.

6) I do remember clearly that the series encountered a lot of missed deadline problems while it was being released. Did you have trouble keeping with the book's monthly deadline, or was the book's lateness due to some other factor unrelated to you at all?

This is also news to me.  From my perspective on the pencils, I never once got a phone call about the deadlines.  Im a professional, and Ive never once missed a deadline on any project.

7) Not long after your mini-series wrapped up, I remember reading about a sequel being in the works by you and Devin Grayson called Ghost Rider: Redux (in fact, I think I even remember a cover you drew for it, an image of GR holding a scythe?). What happened to this project, why was it never realized?

The internets like to skew the truth with these kind of things.  Its an interesting place to experiment.  That image was drawn over at a friends house just for fun.  I wanted to put together a 1970s funkadelic stylized  version of Johnny Blaze as a stunt motorcyclist, living like a rockstar, and pitch it as a story, but I only ended up posting the picture on my own website.  In the vastness of interspace, truths and unrealities began to form around the image, when in reality is was simply an homage.  I really enjoyed drawing Ghost Rider, and would have loved to do more.

8) I ask this in every interview: what did you think of the Ghost Rider movie?

I'm just pleased that they didn't give Ghost Rider that orange afro that they showed before its release.

9) What are you up to these days, any new projects on the horizon?
I'm currently a Sr. Concept Artist at Blizzard Entertainment.  I worked on World of Warcraft and am currently creating character and environment designs for Diablo 3.  In comic books, I am collecting every issue of CreeD into an Omnibus, currently titled CreeD: Omnichronos, and I am developing a new comic book series that I dont know how I will be humanly capable of drawing on top of everything else.  Unless of course I cut a deal with the devil.

10) Trent , thank you for taking the time to do this interview with me. Any last words for all the Ghost Rider fans out there?

When I was a boy, my step father used to tell me the worst jokes, and terrible terrible limericks. He'd get a little drunk and spout them out almost at random.  He'd say, with such a serious, thoughtfull tone...

"Trent...
There once was a man from new grass-
Whose balls were made out of brass-
in stormy weather, he clung them together-
and lightning shot out of his ass."

To this day, Im still not really sure what the hell he was talking about.

 Thanks again to Trent for taking part in this interview!

Creator Interview: Howard Mackie

Howard Mackie
The following interview was conducted way back in November, 2003 for the original Vengeance Unbound website.  I'll be re-posting the interviews from the site at appropriate intervals, such as now since I just finished posting the reviews for the first six issues of Mackie's Ghost Rider series from 1990.
Coming forward for the next exclusive Vengeance Unbound interview, former long-time Ghost Rider scribe Howard Mackie talks about just why the book was successful, why he loved the character, and why the series ultimately failed!

1) I suppose we'll start these questions at the beginning of the Ghost Rider timeline...the series had been cancelled for a decade by the time 1990 rolled around, and it seemed that Marvel had given GR nary a thought throughout the 80s. What made you decide that Ghost Rider was a character a 90s audience would enjoy? For that matter, what made you decide to resurrect the character?

I didn't really DECIDE that the audience would enjoy Ghost Rider, but I KNEW that I loved the character from the early series. I particularly enjoyed Marc DeMatteis' work toward the end of the first Ghost Rider series, and made sure that everyone working at Marvel knew I loved the character. I was working at Marvel (as part of the editorial staff) in the late 80's and Mark Gruenwald (then Executive Editor of Marvel) suggested I stop talking about the character and write up a series proposal.

Ghost Rider was one of the most visually interesting characters out that there—still is. How can you go wrong with a flaming skull, a leather jacket and a motorcycle? The look really gets your attention right from the start.

I believe that my passion for the character had a lot to do with the success of the second series. If I had sat around and tried to figure out what the audience would like it wouldn't have worked.

I can tell you that very few people were behind a new Ghost Rider series at that time. The sales department tried to kill the series on a number of occasions before it started. They put every roadblock in the way of the series that they could possibly create. It was only because of the work of Bobbie Chase (editor) and Tom DeFalco (editor in chief) that the series ever saw the light of day. Of course, once the initial issues sold out and went back to multiple printings the sales department hailed themselves as geniuses.

2) Right at the start, your new version of Ghost Rider seemed to skyrocket to massive popularity amongst the readers. What did it feel like to be doing a book that was challenging X-Men and Spider-Man as one of Marvel's top sellers, and what do you think were the crucial factors to this success?

It felt pretty cool. Especially since no one believed it would happen. I was in Bobbie Chase's office one day and one of Marvel's top writers came in for a visit. He saw the mock up for the cover to GHOST RIDER #1 and said, "They're bringing THAT back again?" He then looked me in the eye and told me straight out that the book would be cancelled after four issues. I took a great deal of pleasure in watching the first few issues outsell everything Marvel published at the time—including the books being written by that writer.

I think the success had lots to do with the Ghost Rider book being different from everything that was being published at the time. There was a supernatural element to the book, but it wasn't a horror title. If you think about it, Ghost Rider's look should pretty much guarantee his being a villain. So, it was really hard to categorize him.

3) Probably the biggest surprise for fans of the original Ghost Rider was the fact that Johnny Blaze had been cast aside in favor of Dan Ketch, a completely new character. What were your reasons in choosing to write Dan instead of the already established Blaze as the host for your new Ghost Rider?

I was trying to create something entirely new, while remaining faithful to the original concept. In truth, I was such a big fan of the original series, and the way it ended that, so I didn't want to jump right into the new series by undoing big chunks what Marc DeMatteis had done. Besides, from day one I had started formulating a way to bring Blaze back into the book.

4) At the height of the book's popularity, Marvel introduced readers to the Midnight Sons "family" of titles, all of which spun out of Ghost Rider. Did this idea originate out of a new direction for GR, editor mandates, or something else entirely? Also, though the Midnight Sons books started off quite strong, all the titles except for Ghost Rider were cancelled within just a few years...why do you think the line eventually failed?

At Marvel, at the time, almost everything at that time (and maybe still) was editorially driven. The Midnight Sons was born out of the success of the GHOST RIDER relaunch, but it completely ignored why GHOST RIDER was a success.

Anytime Ghost Rider appeared as a guest star in any book—sales went up! So, the "powers that be" decided we needed MORE Ghost Rider material. They looked at the Ghost Rider book and tried to figure out what was making it successful—"He's a pretty scary looking character," one of them said. "Pretty horrific!" said another. "Must be HORROR that sells!" a third said.

So editorial was given the edict to create a horror line of comics. I'm guessing that no one bothered to read the book that I was writing. If they had they would have noticed that I was making a real effort for Ghost Rider to be the only truly supernatural character in the book. For instance, Blackout was created as a low powered mutant that was a vampire wannabe. It wasn't until the whole Midnight Sons thing that that he became a "real" vampire. That was a mistake on my part.

Unfortunately, I allowed myself to go along with this thought process. Despite my better judgment, with the creation of the Midnight Sons, Ghost Rider became one of many horror titles. It really was a case of the cart following the horse.

Don't get me wrong, I think some of the titles in the Midnight Sons line were quite good. I just think horror titles can be difficult to sell. From what I understand, they still are. The bigger problem was that once it was created, the Midnight Sons line dictated the direction of the Ghost Rider titles.

This was occurring at a time when Marvel was being very driven by the marketing department. Titles could no longer stand by themselves. It was all about groups of books. Ghost Rider, a unique book when it was launched, was no longer allowed to stand on it's own. We had to have group meetings, decide things by committee and have all the stories tie in. It was the beginning of the end for me.

5) Forty-some issues into the book, readers were finally given your origin of the Ghost Rider with the story of the Medallion of Power, the Blood, Zarathos, etc... an origin that seemed at times to be somewhat convoluted and contradictory to what had been said in previous issues at the title's beginning. How did you come up with this story idea...in other words, what's the origin of GR's origin?

See the above answer. Some of the elements were of my creation. Others were ideas born out of group discussions in effort to make the entire line tie together.

Personally, I would have left Ghost Rider's origin a mystery. It's always, always, always better to have fans begging to know about a character's origin than to ever give it to them. You will always disappoint someone and you are left with nothing. Unless… you allow yourself to fall into the old, "Er, no… that origin we told you a few years ago… that's not the REAL origin… THIS is the real origin!" It's been done to death in comic books. It's a sales ploy. It's a gimmick and it's born out of desperation. The only thing worse is the killing of characters only to bring them back later on. Been there and done that.

6) It can be said without a doubt that during your tenure on Ghost Rider you worked with some of the best artists in the comic business...from Javier Saltares and Mark Texeira to Ron Garney, Adam Kubert, and Salvador Larroca. In your opinion, which of these artists gave you "the definitive Ghost Rider"?

That is way too tough of a question to answer. First of all, I'd wind up insulting too many people. Secondly, I really did get to work with the best guys in the business at the time. You left out a few others… John Romita Jr., Andy Kubert, Joe Kubert, Lee Weeks… are just a few who spring to mind.

Realistically, Javier and Tex set the tone for everything that followed, but every artist contributed something.

7) After six years on Ghost Rider (and nearly every spin-off title), you decided to leave the book. Was this decided simply because you had become tired of the book, or were there other reasons for your departure?

See the answer to question number 5. Also, the book had been handed off to another editor. I had worked with Bobbie Chase from the very beginning. She and I had a great working relationship. It's tough when a new editor comes on to a book you've been writing for a few years and says, "This is where I want the book to go." Tough, but the way it is. Editors are the final word when it comes to a monthly comic book under their domain. As long as you know the rules when you sign on—and I did—there's no room for hurt feelings. Also, I had too much other work and had written a lot of GHOST RIDER stories. All those things said, it was just time for a change.

Almost immediately I missed writing the adventures of Ghost Rider, Dan Ketch and Blaze.

8) When you were writing Peter Parker: Spider-Man in the late 90's, you wrote a reaction issue to the then-recent cancellation of Ghost Rider under Ivan Velez Jr.'s pen. In this issue, it seemed as if you were trying to rework what Velez had done on the book up until it's end...what were your thoughts on the direction GR took after you left, and what prompted that issue of Spider-Man?

Honestly, I didn't read too much of Ivan's work. No reflection on his writing, but it would have been too hard to do. Once I've worked on a title, I try not to look on them after I'm gone. I created the character of Dan Ketch and could see every place it deviated from what I had done, or planned to do.

That PETER PARKER issue was written at the prompting of Ralph Macchio. He wanted me to give Marvel back the Ghost Rider I had created. He was my editor, so I did it to the best of abilities. There was no offense meant toward Ivan at all.

9) Now that we've beat your past work to death, let's move forward to the present. Do you have any upcoming projects that you'd like to tell our readers about?

I have drifted away from comics—and vice versa. I have a number of kid's books in development with a few publishing houses. I have pitched a couple of projects to Marvel, but haven't heard anything. I won't be holding my breath—I'm part of the "old guard." That's okay—times change. I've even toyed with the concept of pitching another relaunch of Ghost Rider to Marvel, but I'm not sure if they would be receptive to the idea.

10) Mr. Mackie, thank you for taking the time out of your busy schedule to do this interview...are there any comments you'd like to leave with the readers before we end?

I was surprised and pleased to see that there is still interest in GHOST RIDER even though Marvel is not currently publishing a monthly title. Thanks for the chance to chat. It's been fun.

Special thanks to Mr. Mackie for being cool enough to do this interview, and I know that speaking strictly for myself...I'd buy a Ghost Rider relaunch by him in a heartbeat!