Daniel Way/Mark Texeira/Javier Saltares
Marvel
ok, no more of this Zarathos shit. no more tug-of-war for control. no more Danny Ketch and the mystical medallion. no more Spirits of Vengeance. no more debts to the devil ... well, at least the debt part. Mephisto has been banished to the minor leagues.
this time, the one, true Ghost Rider has taken the handlebars.
the history of Ghost Rider had become so convoluted, he was in danger of sliding into Hawkman territory/apathy. good thing he got that flaming skull and biker thing going. flaming skulls are cool; hawk costumes ... ehh. to recap: young circus cyclist sells his soul to the devil, to keep his mentor alive. devil reneges by having the mentor die anyway, young man gets saved by his girlfriend, and devil gains revenges by bonding man's soul with another demon with supernatural powers. and an ass-kicking bike.
Daniel Way, one of my favorite new writers along with Robert Kirkman, de-constructs the mythos and picks out the best parts: permanent control, the chain, the Penance stare, and the cycle. and a couple of new gimmicks. oh, and don't forget, Johnny Blaze, an American original.
this time, we find Johnny trapped in Hell (continuing from the Road to Damnation miniseries). Lucifer, a.k.a. Satan, presides over and sneers at Johnny's futile attempts to escape.
until Johnny runs into a slug (ugh) named Greexix, who's legally-blind but may or may not have been attempting to escape too.
having nothing better to do, Johnny rescues the little bugger.
"... giant turd coming through! INCOMINGGGG!!!"
lest you think humor is banned in Hell, this is where i like Way's writing, blending amusing stuff with the action. i mean, Ghost Rider sounding like Owen Wilson?
and you never thought you'd see Ghost Rider with Doop, huh?
"what is this ... an X-Statix book??"
and best reason for checking out (the) Way? plot twists in a snap!
"thanks, buddy ... those BK Stackers were really good!"
yes, Johnny Blaze has escaped Hell and gone back to Earth but so has Lucifer.
but wait! couldn't Lucifer just come and go as he pleases? not really. only Ghost Rider could bridge the two planes, and Lucifer, cunning bastard that he is, saw him as his ticket out. but then again, why did he keep spinning devious plots to keep Ghost Rider in, crushing his hopes in the process, when Lucifer could have let him go and piggybacked out? maybe its all a game. you wanna call Lucifer and ask? here's his number: 1-800-555-HELL.
so everywhere (or at least everywhere in America), some bad shit goes down and certain people get possessed a demonic entity.
how do we know its demonic? shoot, just listen to this conversation:
so where the hell is Ghost Rider? (oops, sorry i shouldn't say that; he's no longer in hell, after all). he's just in a cemetery, duking it out with Dr. Strange (yeah, he called to ask Johnny to join a new team he was forming, the Defending Champions).
"and this is what i think of your idea!"
used to being fooled by Lucifer, Ghost Rider tries to use his Penance stare to subdue this "Dr. Strange" - and it turns out to be the wisest thing he did because he finds out that the Doc is the real deal. A mystical figure, Numecet, appears and explains to Johnny (and us spectators) what the hell is going on.
i guess he's not talking about Wacko Jacko.
when Ghost Rider crossed over to the Earthly plane, he came in intact; Lucifer didn't. he was scattered all over (all those demonic possessions), and he wants the Ghost Rider to come and kill each one. Ghost Rider would willingly oblige, except that Numecet cautions that each piece killed only serves to channel the power back to the remaining entities, until Lucifer reforms his being, and will remake Hell on Earth (like he needs to?!?!). curious Johnny asks for the number of beings he has to whack, and he's stunned by the answer. i'll give you a hint ... it has three-digits and it starts with a 6.
against impossible odds, Ghost Rider has no choice.
only if Carson's corpse gets reanimated
its cool to have Ghost Rider putting the hurt on Lucifer himself. i mean, we never get to see that! we can consider him the boss of bosses for all things bad, can't we? - all these supervillains, who else motivates them? Ghost Rider is going directly to the source!
there's a sequence where some kind of dialogue is necessary; even wars have truces and peace talks. Johnny and Lucy (hah!) have a moment ... after Lucifer lures him back to his old haunts (the Quentin Carnival) and waxes philosophical.
the first story arc ends as the carnival blows up (another nail in the coffin of the past) and Johnny riding off into the night to find the remaining Satan clones. police checking out the blast area finds a bible intact - a mystery for next time.
it was brilliant to bring back Javier Saltares and Mark Texeira, who were the artists' on the series during the '90s. having them tag-team on the book should get them to stay for awhile (i hope). the two are adept with dark tones that fit the character and stories (although this could mean no one else could do it justice).
since the Ghost Rider movie is coming out in ... February (they said), i just have one quibble on the choice of having Nic Cage play the part: those flames will burn out any remaining hair he has on his head. and oh, if director/writer Mark Steven Johnson stumbles on this like he did Daredevil and Elektra ... he has a Penance stare coming.
in closing, Ghost Rider has a question for you:
you better have the right answer. your choices are "yes" and "no" and "no" just left town.
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issues read: #1-5
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