THE GHOST RIDER - JOHNNY BAZE
VOLUME ONE
PART THREE
- Notes on the previous posts -
Welcome back to our comic book deep-dive chronicling the early years of Johnny Blaze a.k.a. the Ghost Rider! For the hell of it, we decided to go back and do a complete 100% read of every Johnny Blaze appearance from Marvel Spotlight #5 in August 1972 through to the end of his solo volume in June of 1983. Comprising well over 100 comics including guest appearances and his team book, Johnny Blaze's story has a beginning and, in a rare moment for comic books, a nice ending (or what would've been anyway).
And this series of posts endeavors to chronicle it all!
Join us, won't you, as we highlight the best moments in the series and underline the instances where Ghost Rider went from being scarcely recognizable during his early days on to the iconic character he is today.
To recap, in Part One we covered Marvel Spotlight #5 thru #12, Ghost Rider #1 thru #12, Marvel Team-Up #15, Marvel Two-In-One #8, and Avengers #118 (22 issues in total). In Part Two we covered Ghost Rider #13 thru #26, The Champions #1 thru #17 (including every Champions tie-in), and a bunch of cameos, guest appearances, specials (41 issues and more if you include the Champions tie-in issues without GR in them). We'll call it 63 comic books covered between these first two posts.
To get caught up on those previous posts, click the links below:
GHOST RIDER - JOHNNY BLAZE: VOLUME ONE Part One
GHOST RIDER - JOHNNY BLAZE: VOLUME ONE Part Two
To begin, Part Three will cover the beginning of a new era for Johnny Blaze and the start of something great. We'll touch on Ghost Rider #27 thru #50, and Marvel Team-Up #91. Comparatively, this section of the character's history is more controlled and consistent as opposed to how scattered and directionless the previous section proved to be. We saw the beginning of something that resembled the Ghost Rider we know today near the end of the last post, specifically Ghost Rider #24 thru #26, and the start of the great character work to come.
This section will showcase the first real extensive run of a consistent creative team on the character, a creative team that really has a grasp on who the character is and where the character works best. Not only that, but we'll also see some genuine character work and building of the lore. When Jim Shooter came on the book with Ghost Rider #23 on thru #26 we really started seeing the character come into his own and the first hints of where the story would ultimately head towards. And I am extremely happy to report that the series only gets better from here.
Without further introduction... let's ride!
THE DEMON, THE DOCTOR, AND THE HUNTER
The last issue saw Johnny Blaze pulling up his roots and leaving his life in Los Angeles behind, including both Roxanne and Karen Page. Issue #27 sees Johnny on the open road again, aimless and without a destination. The story potential with this setup is endless. He arrives on a dude ranch with Hawkeye and the Two-Gun Kid of all people (all of whom previously fought alongside each other against a group of aliens from the Shadow Realm in Champions #11). This issue marks Jim Shooter's last issue as writer on the book before becoming its editor. Luckily Jim Shooter's influence remains with the book and the character even after he leaves to become Marvel's editor and chief. In this issue, during the battle with the Manticore, GR is so frightening that he scares even Hawkeye and Two-Gun Kid. Johnny notices their fear and distrust of him, further driving him away from others into a nomadic life on the road.
Issue #28 features the return of the Orb, becoming one of Johnny Blaze's more frequently recurring villains. The Orb, using his hypo-helmet, hypnotizes the residents of the town Johnny is riding through, including Roxanne who returns in search of Johnny. As Johnny is attacked by the Orb and the hypnotized townsfolk they wrap him in chains and drag him along the back of a motorcycle. Johnny transforms into Ghost Rider in what is the first image of Ghost Rider wrapped in chains. It's brief, but it is the very first image of the character with chains, what would later become an essential part of GR's iconography. The issue ends with the Orb defeated and Johnny leaving without ever seeing Roxanne (whom remains hypnotized, forgetting Johnny completely).
Noteworthy here, artist Don Perlin came aboard the book with issue #26 and starts his epic 36 issue run on the book, contributing the longest stint of any artist on the book.
The Issue #29 thru #31 feature the first ever epic meeting between Ghost Rider and Doctor Strange. The Dread Dormammu invades Ghost Rider's mind, crafting a life-like illusion of being attacked by Doctor Strange. Dormammu stokes Johnny's anger and Ghost Rider's fury. Driven to a murderous rage, Dormammu seamlessly takes GR out of the illusion and into reality within Doctor Strange's sanctum sanctorum. GR believes his illusory battle with Doctor Strange is continuing and blindsides an unprepared "real" Stephen Strange. Overwhelmed by GR's ferocity, Doctor Strange projects his astral form into GR's mind. Clea, while at the market with Wong, senses her beloved in danger and returns to the sanctum.
Inside Ghost Rider's form, Doctor Strange uncovers Dormammu's psychic assault on Johnny Blaze. Unable to repel both an attack by Ghost Rider in the physical plane and an attack from Dormammu on the mystic plane, Doctor Strange pushes Johnny's soul out of his body and into Stephen Strange's body. With Johnny's soul now outside his body, "The Demon" that is Ghost Rider is fully unleashed for the first time! Doctor Strange battles Dormammu within Ghost Rider and Johnny, now in control of Doctor Strange's body (and assisted by Clea), battles the fully demonic Ghost Rider in the physical world.
Meanwhile the Devil's mercenary, simply named "Bounty Hunter," is tracking down Johnny Blaze. As the Bounty Hunter claims his bounties everyone is horrified by his face (which isn't revealed to the reader just yet). Back at Bleeker Street, the combined forces of Doctor Strange, Johnny Blaze, and Clea drive Dormammu out of GR and reunite Johnny's soul with his body. At that moment, the Bounty Hunter arrives and GR has to run for his life! Clea urges Stephen to help Johnny, but Stephen, weakened by the battle, hasn't the strength, his remaining energies needed to repair the defenses of the Sanctum Sanctorum.
Fleeing for his life, Johnny is captured by the Bounty Hunter. Issue #32 sees Johnny about to be executed. Before the execution, the Bounty Hunter reveals himself to be another Ghost Rider like Johnny Blaze, charged with tracking down the Devil's bounties to earn back his soul and freedom from Hell. Johnny Blaze is the Bounty Hunter's 50th and final bounty needed to reclaim his soul from Satan. In an unexpected (but also completely expected) twist, Johnny is saved by another demon trying to cash in on the bounty reward. Johnny tells the Bounty Hunter that, if he believes Satan would ever honor a bargain, he's deluding himself, that these demons were sent by Satan to deliberately sabotage the Bounty Hunter's chances. Time runs out on the contract and, because of the interference of other demons, the Bounty Hunter is unable to fulfill his contract. More ghost riders suddenly appear to drag the Bounty Hunter back to Hell.
Johnny sees what could've (should've) been his fate reflected in the Bounty Hunter. Once freed, Johnny tries to save the Bounty Hunter, but is weakened by the battle and unable to rescue the Bounty Hunter from being dragged back into Hell. Johnny is left alone to ponder the fate that was supposed to have been his.
If it didn't come through, I absolutely loved these issues. These four issues (#29 thru #32) are easily the best issues of Ghost Rider so far! The run from issue #24 through #32 far outshines anything that came prior, displaying how great a character Ghost Rider is. Don Perlin continues contributing the illustrations for these issues and author Roger McKenzie pens the scripts. McKenzie continues showcasing Ghost Rider with the same power and awe that Jim Shooter imbued GR with.
Issues #33 and #34 are Roger McKenzie's last two issues on Ghost Rider. These issues are a two part story that, on the outside, seem goofy and bonkers (that's because they are), yet somehow work incredibly well. GR meets a cartoonish prospector with nigh infinite power. As Johnny tries to wrap his head around this, they are attacked by what appears to be a UFO or futuristic hovering battleship. Cyborgs on motorcycles emerge, capture the duo, and take them inside where Johnny encounters a mutant boy in a bubble named Nathan Beame. A mutant with omega level psychic abilities and able to prolong life, Nathan was born over a century ago in a sickly body but with a godlike mind. Only Ghost Rider's hellborn powers are enough to stop this mad mutant! Like I said, from the synopsis it is one of GR's most far-out and crazy stories, but upon reading it is surprisingly resonate and well executed.
Issue #35 feels like a special event as writer/artist Jim Starlin delivers a complete one-shot story taking on both writer and artist roles himself. Johnny Blaze, while driving through a lonely stretch of road in the middle of the night, is confronted by the literal figure of Death. Death claims that Johnny has been taunting them for years, well before even becoming the Ghost Rider, citing all of the death-defying stunts Johnny has engaged in. Death challenges Johnny to a race which will determine the fate of not only Johnny's soul, but also the souls of two others in their path. This is a standout issue in the series that ends not quite as one would expect. It's a tense and atmospheric one-off story.
THE VENGEANCE FROM HELL
Here we begin the longest and most consistent run of any creative team on the book. Writer Michael Fleisher and artist Don Perlin team for 23 issues here, only broken once or twice. Michael Fleisher has a firm grasp of the character, maintaining the same menacing and badass persona Jim Shooter imbued the character with and maintains a consistent power set. Ghost Rider feels like a solid character rather than one in flux, and has direction as opposed to a character no writer prior knew quite what to do with. And Don Perlin maintains reliable and consistent imagery, finally finding the best depiction of this Ghost Rider.
With issue #36 the story begins leaning a bit further into the idea of Johnny Blaze and Ghost Rider being two different beings, Johnny and Ghost Rider referring to the other as if they were their own persons, expanding upon ideas hinted at within GR #26 and #29 thru #31. There's a sense from Ghost Rider that he loves what he's doing, delivering hellish punishment to the wicked and longing for more demonic mayhem. GR begins regularly referring to himself as a deliverer of hellish vengeance (using the word "vengeance" regularly, but the phrase "Spirit of Vengeance" has yet to be said again since issue #26). Johnny starts to worry what GR would do if he were let completely off leash.
Prior to this section, the earlier issues of this volume present the Ghost Rider as being just a "nick name" Johnny receives when he transforms into his hellish appearance. Issue #26, when confronted by Doctor Druid, presented the idea that a demon may be lurking inside Johnny Blaze. Issue #30, when Doctor Strange separates Johnny's soul from the Ghost Rider, the story describes GR as the Demon being uncaged. From the intervening issues this duel persona is downplayed until now.
Issues #36 through #42 are one to two issue stories with little super hero elements to them, almost more "human interest" stories where Ghost Rider deals with more realistic threats such as solving murders, battling death cults, highway robbers, and such. The presence of other known Marvel characters is completely non-existent. All of this is to the book's benefit, letting the title character shine on his own and differentiate himself from the other characters. They feel like episodes of the CW show SUPERNATURAL or the 70s INCREDIBLE HULK with Bill Bixby where our main character rarely stays long at any one place. Johnny drifts in and out of towns, seemingly drawn to trouble, solving problems, and leaving the townspeople better (and sometimes worse off) than he found them.
I really enjoyed these issues. Written by Michael Fleisher and illustrated by Don Perlin, these issues have Johnny Blaze traveling back and forth across the midwest, between the winding canyons of Arizona, to Colorado, Nebraska (just west of Omaha), and Kansas. There are many stand out moments across this run, such as Johnny preventing a kid from making a revenge pack with the Devil (stopping the boy from making the same mistake Johnny made); stepping amongst a death-worshipping cult and being mistaken for Death itself; and hearing a grisly description of a malformed baby being "mercy-killed" by his grandfather. And more!
The creative team of Michael Fleisher and Don Perlin are both dialed into this particular style of narrative. Don Perlin's artwork grows better with every issue too. Starting with issue #37 Perlin starts consistently leaving out the eyes from Ghost Rider's face with only empty black eye-sockets instead, which proves far more striking than the, at times comical, eyeballs in the skull. Speaking of the skull, some of the best depictions of Ghost Rider's skull in the series thus far are rendered here as well. I've always felt that one of the key elements in any Ghost Rider book is a powerful artistic rendering of the skull, and Perlin ups his game and delivers some great skull imagery, better than, in my opinion, any of the previous artists on the book (a possible caveat being Don Heck's art in GR #24).
Hopping over to MARVEL TEAM-UP #91 here, this was one of the few guest-appearances Ghost Rider made outside his own book during this period. Written by Steven Grant (no, not that Steven Grant) and amazingly illustrated by Pat Broderick, once again Ghost Rider encounters Spider-Man, both heroes aligning against the evil magician Moondark. Spider-Man attends a carnival side-show in which Ghost Rider is inexplicably on display! Moondark has stolen Johnny Blaze's soul and has Ghost Rider mentally enslaved along with most of the carnies. Moondark pits Ghost Rider against Spider-Man, Spidey's only hope being to free Johnny Blaze's soul and break Moondark's sway over Ghost Rider. This is a solid issue that kinda harkens back to the earlier issues of Ghost Rider and is a nice reminder that Ghost Rider still exists alongside the rest of the heroes in the Marvel universe. That and Pat Broderick's artwork is great, rendering a striking Ghost Rider, maybe even being the best GR's looked so far.
Don Perlin's run is interrupted here as artist Carmine Infantino provides art for issues #43 and #44
In issue #43 the series gets a little injection of the supernatural (other than GR himself) as a centuries old magician named Azaziah uses a magic spell to separate Johnny Blaze from Ghost Rider in an effort of the magician's to take over Ghost Rider's body himself. These issues are key in that they finally show Ghost Rider's real personality unencumbered by Johnny Blaze. The demon that is Ghost Rider is in fact its own entity and is revealed to be pure evil. Now free of Johnny Blaze, the demon wants only to burn the world and everyone in it in hellfire. Ghost Rider himself reveals that he was buried within Johnny's consciousness for a long time and it was Johnny's influence that leashed him and directed him to do acts of good. The true name of the demon isn't revealed yet but these issues mark the most significant character development of him thus far in the series.
As the Demon embarks on a reign of terror and destruction, Johnny discovers that both he and Ghost Rider are dying and need to be reunited in order save one another. But the magician Azaziah is hoping to unite with Ghost Rider first. This story wraps up in issue #44 with Johnny defeating Azaziah and reuniting with the Demon. The only mar on these issues is that they were not illustrated by the main artist of this run, Don Perlin, but rather guest artist Carmine Infantino. Infantino delivers strong artwork but it breaks up the nice flow and consistency the series had. Don Perlin returns and continues for another good run starting with issue #45 though #59.
Issues #45 through #47 return the focus to Johnny Blaze as he struggles to hold on to the one part of his life that he hasn't lost; his status as the reigning stunt-bike champion. Johnny enters a tournament with up and coming stunt-biker Flagg Fargo to decide who will be the champion. These issues explore what remains of Johnny Blaze that he hasn't yet lost due to becoming the Ghost Rider. The issues are maybe some of the best character studies of Johnny Blaze in the series, especially with issue #47 in which Johnny attempts to lock away Ghost Rider within and never summon GR again. And, in true Marvel comics fashion, it all ends badly for our hero in fire and brimstone.
Issue #48 dives back into the supernatural with Ghost Rider battling giant vampire bats, feeling right out of a 1930s Universal monster movie. It's enjoyable but not as strong as the prior "human interest" stories, Michael Fleisher's talents shining brightest there. Still, by this point there is a longing for more elements of the fantastic and Fleisher and Perlin oblige us in a two-part story with issues #49 and #50. Blending what looks to be a human interest story at first into a time-traveling mystic adventure, Ghost Rider is transported back in time one-hundred years to a place called Bison Bend where he meets... THE GHOST RIDER; Carter Slade, the true original Ghost Rider! The time-traveling element is handled well and the overall story is a nice celebration of the characters. Issue #50 is a grand double-sized issue commemorating not only the milestone issue but also the first meeting of both Ghost Riders.
And, before this post gets any longer, this looks like a fine place to end. Overall, I'd say this section of the series, really beginning with Jim Shooter's writing, is far stronger than just about all of the Ghost Rider issues prior. It's just my opinion, but the characters and the series itself really find its footing here from issue #23 to issue #50. This section spotlighted in this post is, more or less, the most consistent its ever been and, more importantly, Ghost Rider feels like a much stronger and more engaging character.
One of the significant factors of this is when Jim Shooter comes aboard as the writer. Shooter really showcases the character well, making Ghost Rider a force to be reckoned with. Shooter is the first writer to lean into Ghost Rider being on a mission of vengeance and helping the fiery skulled alter ego find his voice and demonstrating how awesome and terrifying GR's powers are. This carries through to the following writer, Roger McKenzie, and perfected by Michael Fleisher. Ghost Rider was always cool, but once Jim Shooter arrives the character really becomes something badass and special.
Before we go...
KEY MOMENTS FOR THIS SECTION
1) CONSISTENT POWERS (finally!)
*Expert stunt-driving skills (first revealed in Marvel Spotlight #5)*
*Transformations occur at will (first begun in Ghost Rider #22)*
*Can create a flaming motorcycle out of hellfire that can move at speeds in excess of 300 mph (first revealed in Ghost Rider #3)*
*Super-strength (first explicitly shown in Ghost Rider #25)*
*Nigh invulnerability (first revealed in Marvel Spotlight #9)*
*Soul searing hellfire (first explicitly stated in Ghost Rider #26)*
*Intense heat hellfire (first revealed in Marvel Spotlight #5)*
2) ICONOGRAPHY
*begins regularly describing himself as a deliverer of "Vengeance." (starts feeling like a catchphrase around Ghost Rider #36)*
*artists begin leaving out the eyes on GR's skull (beginning in Ghost Rider #37)*
*Johnny Blaze and Ghost Rider are revealed to be two different entities (Ghost Rider #30)*
*Ghost Rider's (the demon inside Johnny Blaze) true personality is revealed, that of an evil demon longing for havoc and destruction (Ghost Rider #43)*
3) MAJOR ENEMIES
*The Orb - Drake Shannon (returns in Ghost Rider #28)*
*The Dread Dormammu - attacks GR in a ploy to kill Doctor Strange (Ghost Rider #29 thru #31)*
*The Bounty Hunter - Lemuel Haskill (Ghost Rider #29 thru #32)*
*Nathan Beame - powerful psychic mutant (Ghost Rider #33 and #34)*
*Death - the actual entity of Death ((Ghost Rider #35)*
*Azaziah - The Crimson Mage (Ghost Rider #43 and #44)*
Flagg Fargo - rival stunt driver to Johnny Blaze (Ghost Rider #45 thru #47)
*Moondark - The Mystic (Marvel Team-Up #91)*
4) MINOR ENEMIES
*The Manticore (Ghost Rider #27)*
*The Death Cult (Ghost Rider #38 and #39)*
*Nuclear Man (Ghost Rider #40)*
*Dalton Cartwright and Tabitha Arcanne - Transylvanian vampire lords (Ghost Rider #48)*
*Tarantula - Clay Riley (Ghost Rider #50)*
5) ALLIES - GUEST STARS
Hawkeye & Two-Gun Kid (Ghost Rider #27)
Doctor Strange & Clea (Ghost Rider #29 thru 31)
Spider-Man (Marvel Team-Up #91)
Carter Slade - the original Ghost Rider (Ghost Rider #50)
And this is where we'll leave you for now
Once again, in case you missed it, click here to get caught up with
JOHNNY BLAZE - GHOST RIDER: PART ONE
JOHNNY BLAZE - GHOST RIDER: PART TWO
and be on the look out for Part Four coming soon!
And for more Ghost Rider related posts check out these others too!
TOP TEN GHOST RIDERS
TOP TEN GHOST RIDER VILLAINS
TOP TEN DOCTOR STRANGE VILLAINS
TOP TEN MARVEL SUPERNATURAL HEROES
TOP TEN MARVEL HEROES YOU'VE NEVER HEARD OF
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