When orphaned stunt-show star Johnny Blaze discovers his adoptive father Crash Simpson is dying of a rare blood disease, he barters his immortal soul for a miracle cure. The trade-off ultimately leaves him bound to the demon Zarathos, and their melding of spirits would manifest itself every night in the form of Ghost Rider, the most supernatural hero of all!
Interestingly, the synopsis doesn't really line up with what is actually in the book itself. There is, for example, no mention of "the demon Zarathos," which is apparently a later retcon to the character, along with the fact that Johnny Blaze sold his soul to Mephisto, Marvel's Goethe-inspired devil analogue, rather than Satan himself.
Like Zarathos, Mephisto never appears nor is mentioned in this tome, collecting the first four years' worth of Ghost Rider appearances (I chose the above cover to put atop this post not because it has Ghost Rider identifying his enemy as Satan, as he's named on a few previous covers as well, but simply because that's my favorite of any of the covers in this particular collection).
I also found it interesting that so much of what I personally associate with the character—"the spirit of vengeance," the chains, the "The Penance Stare", the ability to "Ghost Rider-ize" the things he rides on—are completely absent from these early adventures, and must have debuted much later in what I guess we could call the Ghost Rider saga (Growing up, the only Ghost Rider comics I had actually read* apparently starred the Danny Ketch version; I had also, of course, seen the pair of Nicolas Cage-starring films, which also seemed inspired by the later takes on the character, despite being centered on the original Ghost Rider).
The basic story of these early years also seems to have had a lot of notable starts and stops, with changes to the status quo, the setting, the supporting cast and the various "rules" of Ghost Rider's transformations and abilities.
This is likely due to how many creators were involved. There are seven men named in the credits who we might consider writers, with the character's co-creator Gary Friedrich scripting a dozen issues (and getting one "Plot" credit) and Tony Isabella 11 issues. Marv Wolfman writes two issues (the cross-book Ghost Rider/Daredevil crossover), while Dough Moench and Bill Mantlo get one "writer" or "Script" credit apiece, and Roy Thomas and Wolfman each also have a single "Plot" credit apiece.
That might seem like a lot of hands for so few issues spread across two titles, and the pencil art wasn't any more consistent. Mike Ploog, Tom Sutton, Jim Mooney, Sal Buscema, Frank Robbins, George Tuska, Bob Brown and John Byrne all take turns drawing the stories herein, each credited either as "Artist" or "Penciler"; there are, of course, plenty of other hands doing the inking.
Given the rather rapid creative turnover, and the some half-dozen changes in direction in so few pages, and the fact that even years and hundreds of pages into his continuing storyline, the character had yet to settle into the eventual, finalized version of the character (i.e. the spirit of vengeance, melded with Zarathos, pawn of Mephisto, etc), I guess this is yet another Marvel character we could say was developed rather than emerging from any one creator's head (or creative team's collective, metaphorical "head") like Athena from Zeus'. (I do realize there is a bit of controversy regarding who created the Ghost Rider character, and that the dispute had eventually become a legal one; for what it's worth, according to Wikipedia Ghost Rider was created by Friedrich, Ploog and Thomas, while Stan Lee came up with the name "Johnny Blaze" and the name "Ghost Rider" was, of course, repurposed from a 1960s Western character...who had, in turn, taken the name from a Golden Age Western character.)
With so much about the character, who was part of Marvel's 1970s embrace of the horror genre, thus in flux, and the now peculiar but fascinating use of Satan as a Marvel comics character (to say nothing of Jesus Christ, who appears repeatedly, though mostly in flashback, throughout Isabella's run), these are extremely interesting comics to read in 2025.
Rather than attempting any sort of review to encompass so big and diverse an enterprise as Essential Ghost Rider Vol. 1, I thought I would instead just offer some thoughts on the contents as they occurred to me.
Do note that this volume contains Marvel Spotlight #5-#11, Ghost Rider #1-#20 and Daredevil #138, and that they are here presented in black and white, so if I want to find out what color hair love interests Rocky Simpson or Karen Page (!) have, or the exact hues of the costumes worn by The Orb, The Smasher, Death's Head or Paste-Pot Pete The Trapster, I'll have to look for images online.
There are a handful of other early Ghost Rider appearances (including a Spider-Man team-up in Marvel Team-Up, a Thing team-up in Marvel Two-in-One and regular appearances in Isabella's The Champions, for example) that might have proven important in the character's development but aren't included here.
•Fifty-three years later, long after the character had been integrated into the fabric of the Marvel Universe, this first appearance doesn't seem like that big of a deal. Yeah, it's Ghost Rider on the cover of a comic book, so what, you know?
But I'm trying to imagine what it must have been like to be a little kid in 1972, a decade after the publisher started regularly releasing books featuring super-powered people in tights fighting monsters, aliens and supervillains every month. What must it have been like to turn the squeaky metal comic book rack at the local drugstore to reveal the image of...a leather-clad skeleton whose head was on fire, popping a wheelie on a motorcycle!
That had to have the sort of impact that would eclipse that of, say, yet another DC image of a gorilla or a crying superhero or a character posing a direct question to the reader, and/or whatever the rest of the capes and tights characters might have been up to that summer.
I have to assume that artist Mike Ploog's above cover lead to a lot of kids flipping through that book's pages and then digging in their pockets for a quarter. What a crazy design for a superhero that was.
This cover also features the first instance of "The Most Supernatural Superhero Of All!", which was basically Ghost Rider's tagline, sort of like Daredevil's "The Man Without Fear!", for these first few years of his weird-ass existence.
Although, as we'll see, he's not really much of a superhero at all in these early adventures.
•In the credits box on the first page, top billing goes to Stan Lee, with an "Edited by" credit. Beneath that? "Conceived & Written", assigned to Gary Friedrich, and then, beneath that, "Drawn By: Mike Ploog." At the very bottom, right after the credit for letterer Jon Costa, comes ones reading "Aid and Abetment: Roy Thomas."
•In the credits box on the first page, top billing goes to Stan Lee, with an "Edited by" credit. Beneath that? "Conceived & Written", assigned to Gary Friedrich, and then, beneath that, "Drawn By: Mike Ploog." At the very bottom, right after the credit for letterer Jon Costa, comes ones reading "Aid and Abetment: Roy Thomas."
I guess this is where the current creator credits originate.
•In the opening scenes, Friedrich writes captions in the second person, apparently addressing Johnny Blaze/Ghost Rider as "You." You/he is riding around at night in New York City and happens to pass by a couple of guys as they are in the act of murdering someone. Not very superheroically, he ignores them and just keeps on going, but the criminals get in a car and give chase, hoping to kill him, since he witnessed their crime.
"That glow from his head's givin' me the creeps!" one of the criminals says, to which his partner answers, "Probably just a luminous helmet!"
•In the opening scenes, Friedrich writes captions in the second person, apparently addressing Johnny Blaze/Ghost Rider as "You." You/he is riding around at night in New York City and happens to pass by a couple of guys as they are in the act of murdering someone. Not very superheroically, he ignores them and just keeps on going, but the criminals get in a car and give chase, hoping to kill him, since he witnessed their crime.
"That glow from his head's givin' me the creeps!" one of the criminals says, to which his partner answers, "Probably just a luminous helmet!"
Were luminous helmets a thing in the early 1970s? Because throughout these comics, people will constantly seem to dismiss Ghost Rider's freakish supernatural appearance—his head is a burning skull that never goes out!—by excusing it as a weird helmet or some kind of mask or disguise or other trickery.
•After his initial adventure with these bad guys, during which he demonstrates his sole offensive superpower (summoning hellfire from his hands) and jumps over the bad guys using a board that is conveniently placed upon a sawhorse as a ramp (Ghost Rider seems to often luck into finding naturally occurring ramps to jump off of in these comics), he returns to his Madison Square Garden dressing room, and to human form, as the night has ended. At the outset, he automatically turns into Ghost Rider every night and remains in that form until dawn; this will, like so much else, soon change.
From there, we get Blaze's fairly involved origin story, which accounts for the next fifteen pages, and includes a few twists and turns that prove fairly unnecessary, like the fact that his adopted mother died in a motorcycle explosion, and that he made a deathbed promise to her to never ride in the motorcycle stunt show.
That show is, of course, that of his adoptive father, Crash Simpson, and Johnny keeps his promise for a long time, to the disappointment of Crash and Johnny's adoptive sister/love interest (?!) Rocky, even though he continues to practice stunt riding in secret.
I assume you know the basics of the story. On the eve of his show making it to Madison Square Garden, Crash's doctor informs him he has developed some unnamed disease, and he only has a month to live. Johnny, who has apparently been reading about Satan since childhood for some reason, summons the devil and promises his soul in exchange for Crash being spared from the disease. Satan agrees, but only technically holds up his end of the bargain: Crash doesn't die of the disease...but only because he instead dies attempting a difficult stunt during the MSG show.
•After his initial adventure with these bad guys, during which he demonstrates his sole offensive superpower (summoning hellfire from his hands) and jumps over the bad guys using a board that is conveniently placed upon a sawhorse as a ramp (Ghost Rider seems to often luck into finding naturally occurring ramps to jump off of in these comics), he returns to his Madison Square Garden dressing room, and to human form, as the night has ended. At the outset, he automatically turns into Ghost Rider every night and remains in that form until dawn; this will, like so much else, soon change.
From there, we get Blaze's fairly involved origin story, which accounts for the next fifteen pages, and includes a few twists and turns that prove fairly unnecessary, like the fact that his adopted mother died in a motorcycle explosion, and that he made a deathbed promise to her to never ride in the motorcycle stunt show.
That show is, of course, that of his adoptive father, Crash Simpson, and Johnny keeps his promise for a long time, to the disappointment of Crash and Johnny's adoptive sister/love interest (?!) Rocky, even though he continues to practice stunt riding in secret.
I assume you know the basics of the story. On the eve of his show making it to Madison Square Garden, Crash's doctor informs him he has developed some unnamed disease, and he only has a month to live. Johnny, who has apparently been reading about Satan since childhood for some reason, summons the devil and promises his soul in exchange for Crash being spared from the disease. Satan agrees, but only technically holds up his end of the bargain: Crash doesn't die of the disease...but only because he instead dies attempting a difficult stunt during the MSG show.
Breaking his promise to his mother, Johnny impulsively gets on a motorcycle and successfully makes the same jump that had just killed Crash. Then, in his dressing room, Satan appears to claim his soul, but Rocky enters and thwarts the evil one with her purity: "Back, o foul denizen of the depths! As the cross is to a vampire...so is the presence of one pure in heart to you! Disappear...I command you! Or the forces of good with me...will destroy you!"
It works and Satan departs without Johnny's soul, but there is that one weird side effect of the deal: Every night Johnny transforms into the Ghost Rider.
•Ploog's Satan sticks to the shadows in the few panels in which he appears. The only detail from his darkened face we see are the luminous, pupil-less eyes, and he appears shirtless and extremely buff. In the first panel in which he appears, he sits atop a throne, his hands clutching the armrests. In the other he stands in a cloud of Kirby dots, and is only visible from the waist up. His face is again concealed in darkness, but he points a finger of a clawed hand at Johnny and hold some kind of staff in his other hand.
Marvel Spotlight #6 (1972)
•After transforming in this issue, Johnny/Ghost Rider looks in the mirror, and says, "Yes...the transformation is complete now...the flesh on my face is transparent...and the eerie, flame-like glow surrounding my head!" Wait, his face doesn't, like, disappear? It just turns transparent? That's...weird. It never comes up again, though.
•The cover and title refer to the motorcycle gang featured in this issue as "The Angels From Hell," which sounds a little...familiar, but they actually refer to themselves as "Satan's Servants" throughout the story. When they spot Ghost Rider, they too rationalize his flaming skull. "Hey, dig the crazy glowing helmet!" one of them says.
•The motorcycle gang's leader, who introduces himself as Curly, recruits Ghost Rider and, back at their crash pad, he hypnotizes him into telling him his story, which leads to a three-page recap of the previous issue. It turns out that Curly is actually the dead Crash Simpson in a magical disguise; Satan has offered him a get out of hell free card if he will help deliver Johnny's soul to him. The only catch? Rocky's connection to Johnny still thwarts Satan, and so Curly/Crash and the Servants capture Rocky from the MSG show.
Marvel Spotlight #7 (1972)
•Curly/Crash takes the unconscious Rocky to "THE CHURCH OF SATAN!!", in a cellar beneath the streets of Manhattan. He orders the cloaked "servitors" to "prepare" her, which apparently means stripping her out of her clothes (off-panel, of course) and dressing her in a loin cloth and chainmail bikini top before chaining her to an altar.
•Johnny, as Ghost Rider, arrives before she can be sacrificed, but then Satan appears, reveals Curly's true form as that of Crash (who is wearing some sort of elaborately designed briefs that, like Rocky's get-up, look more barbarian comic than superhero comic) and gives Crash his very own sword to kill Johnny with. It's a fight to the death between Crash and Johnny, with Rocky's life hanging in the balance!
•Satan's presence is still pretty shadowy, and we only ever seem to see his torso, arms and darkened face, although by this time it's clear he also has a pair of horns that curls over the back of his head.
Marvel Spotlight #8 (1973)
•Jim Mooney shares a "Drawn By" credit with Ploog on this issue.
•Jim Mooney shares a "Drawn By" credit with Ploog on this issue.
•Crash and Ghost Rider battle in Hell, but eventually Crash gives up his efforts to kill his adoptive son and sides with him, and they instead fight various weird monsters. It is here that "the other side" of the war between Heaven and Hell seems to show up for the first time.
Ghost Rider is carrying the body of Crash, who was apparently crushed to death (re-death...?) by a dying monster that he has slain, when a cloaked and hooded figure appears, introducing itself in a whispered voice as "The Messenger."
"I represent all that is good...and righteous!" The Messenger says, telling Ghost Rider to place Crash's body on a convenient nearby altar, so that he can send Crash to "his final reward". To do so, he says he needs Johnny to trust him, to have faith and to kneel before the altar. Johnny does does so, and then the Messenger sends Ghost Rider back "to the world of mortals," telling our supernatural hero "Farewell for now, Johnny Blaze! Be sound of spirit and pure of heart... and perhaps...one day...we may meet again!"
So what was that all about? Is "The Messenger" meant to be some sort of angel? Or, perhaps, Jesus Christ himself? That would seem rather unlikely, but then, as I said, Jeus does show up later in these pages...
•The plot barrels forward, Friedrich and company apparently creating a serial adventure without too strict regard to matching particular story beats to the confines of a single issue. So the adventure in hell takes up about the first half of Spotlight #8, and then we move immediately into a new plot: Johnny, who has inherited Crash's stunt cycle show and kept it going, flies it out west.
He plans to jump Copperhead Canyon, which is somewhere in the vicinity of the Grand Canyon.
He plans to jump Copperhead Canyon, which is somewhere in the vicinity of the Grand Canyon.
And so the Ghost Rider story moves from superhero-crowded New York City to the deserts of the southwest; it won't return East.
•Ghost Rider gets his first supervillain. His name is Snake-Dance, and he's apparently a powerful Native American shaman of some sort (The script uses the term "Indian" for all of the native characters, though). In addition to being the charismatic leader of various native warriors, he can apparently magically summon snakes and turn into a giant snake himself. There is a land dispute between "The Indians" and the U.S. government centered on Copperhead Canyon, and Snake-Dance and his followers are concerned that if Johnny jumps the canyon, it will make it famous, and the government less likely to relinquish their control of it. And so Snake-Dance's agents try to sabotage Johnny, and then, later, the villain uses his powers against Ghost Rider.
Marvel Spotlight #9 (1973)
•Tom Sutton and Chic Stone are the art team for this issue.
•For the second issue in a row, Roxy will be captured, stripped off-panel, dressed in a skimpy costume (this time, a buckskin minidress that an old-school Western film "squaw" might wear) and is threatened with sacrifice (this time to an unspecified snake-god).
•Previously Johnny had rescheduled his shows to the daytime so that he could perform them without a flaming skull for a head, but, by this point, he has started performing as Ghost Rider, his staff and audience assuming that his appearance was a costume he adopted for theatrical purposes during his show.
•While Snake-Dance isn't too terribly sympathetic a character, Friedrich does devote some panels to his inner monologue, and he seems genuinely concerned with his people's plight, and their mistreatment by the government, and he says he regrets having to take innocent lives. (The man who kidnapped Rocky also spends some panels on the subject, lecturing her on how the land really belongs to them.)
•By the time Ghost Rider arrives at the reservation, Rocky has been bitten by snakes on both wrists and is wracked with fever. He will need to get her to a hospital quickly to save her...good thing he rides a motorcycle.
•"But it's so far!" he thinks. "There's no way I can get her there soon enough...unless luck's on my side! And those red-skinned devils had better pray it is!"
•"But it's so far!" he thinks. "There's no way I can get her there soon enough...unless luck's on my side! And those red-skinned devils had better pray it is!"
"Red-skinned devils"?! That's not very politically-correct of you, Ghost Rider! Did people still talk like that in the early 1970s?
•I guess I shouldn't be too surprised; I mean, the Washington Redskins didn't change their name until 2020. The Cleveland Indians didn't chang their name until the following year and, as someone who works with the public in a Cleveland suburb, I regularly see people wearing Indians-branded gear, often featuring the face of racist caricature Chief Wahoo, whose image was retired a few years prior to the name change. While I haven't kept an official count or anything, I do seem to see more Indians gear than Guardians gear, either due to nostalgia or assholes reacting to the name change.
Marvel Spotlight #10 (1973)
•Sutton is still penciling, now with Mooney inking.
•We're not done with Native American politics, or villains. As Ghost Rider races Roxy to a hospital, Sam Silvercloud, the man who kidnapped Roxy, pulls out a noose, and is about to lynch Snake-Dance, ranting about how their people need to do away with idols and the man who led them worship them. Suddenly, a bullet rips through the hanging rope, and others "POW!" at Sam's feet. The shots come from Little Littletree, daughter of Snake-Dance and fiancée of Sam, who has just returned to the reservation. She'll play a big part in the stories to come.
•Ghost Rider makes it to the hospital before Roxy succumbs, but there's another problem: The hospital is apparently out of serum to stave off the poison. Back at the reservation, Linda snatches a vial of said serum from her father, after, climbs aboard what looks like a much too-big chopper, and speeds toward the hospital, thinking ominous thoughts: "Master...if the girl dies...our cause will be lost...Please, master! I beg of you...let the girl live!"
•Ghost Rider makes it to the hospital before Roxy succumbs, but there's another problem: The hospital is apparently out of serum to stave off the poison. Back at the reservation, Linda snatches a vial of said serum from her father, after, climbs aboard what looks like a much too-big chopper, and speeds toward the hospital, thinking ominous thoughts: "Master...if the girl dies...our cause will be lost...Please, master! I beg of you...let the girl live!"
Marvel Spotlight #11 (1973)
•The Master turns out to be Satan, of course. Linda fell into Satanism through her roommate Jennifer ("Don't knock it, honey!). The devil apparently empowered her and sent her to destroy Ghost Rider. She dons a midriff-baring top and a pair of hot pants and attacks him with fire powers, but fails to defeat him, and then turns her fire powers on herself. The previous issue's title and this issue's cover refer to her as "The Witch-Woman."
Ghost Rider #1 (1973)
•After his Marvel Spotlight tryout, Ghostie has earned his own title. Gil Kane and Joe Sinnot's cover echoes that of Ploog's for that of his first Spotlight issue, only here he's popping a wheelie amid a couple of cops as opposed to the criminals on the previous image.
•Although the first issue of Ghost Rider's own comic, this is actually also the first appearance of Daimon Hellstrom, The Son of Satan, who would take over Marvel Spotlight from Ghost Rider and soon earn his own short-lived title. I really liked this character and his earlier comics appearances (collected in 2006's Essential Marvel Horror Vol. 1). Like Ghost Rider, Son of Satan was another horror comic/superhero amalgam, and his storyline also obviously used Satan as a character in the Marvel Universe...and would, eventually, see retcons to remove the actual Christian bad guy from the story, just as the Ghost Rider story would.
•Friedrich and Sutton are very clever in their framing of Hellstrom throughout, never quite showing the character's face, but instead his shadow, close-ups of his hands or chest, the back of his head and so on. This would continue for two issues, until we get to Spotlight #12.
•How does Hellstrom end up here, anyway? Well, Snake-Dance found Linda's comatose body, and brought it back to the reservation. Her body was neither burned by fire nor crushed from her fall, but her father diagnoses her as being in a state of possession. Sam, remembering an ad he saw in a newspaper, places a long-distance call to professional exorcist "Mr. Daimon Hellstrom--in Boston!"
•Before he can arrive, however, Satan arrives at Linda's bedside, looking a bit like the Human Torch, but with a more Dormammu-esque face. He literally possesses Linda's body—"And now, still possessing all of my hell-spawned powers, I, Satan, am free to roam the Earth in her body!"—and rushes off into the night.
•Johnny spends some panels thinking about the previous few issues as he speeds back to the hospital and Rocky's side. He ends up getting there more quickly than he expected, as he breaks a police barricade, catches a bullet in the shoulder and crashes. A policeman kneels over his unconscious form: "He's still breathing--but he's hurt bad! Call an ambulance! He'll be lucky if he makes it to the hospital!"
•He does, and awakens as Ghost Rider at night, realizing that the transformation seems to have healed him—at least while he's in his Ghost Rider form. He rushes out to hail a cab ("Ask no questions, mortal!"), intent on making it to Copperhead Canyon in time to finally make the jump and do so before his employee Bart attempts the dangerous stunt, risking his life in the process (With good reason as Bart does make the attempt, and smashes into the wall of canyon, exploding with a "KER-WHOOM"). The panel with the taxi? Probably my favorite of all those in this book.
Ghost Rider #2 (1973)
•Mooney takes over the art duties from Sutton.
•Daimon Hellstrom arrives at Snake-Dance's shack shortly before night, and, after talking to him and Sam, instructs them to bind his hands with a chain covered in ankhs and then lock him in a room, with Odysseus-like instructions: "Do not enter again until sunrise--no matter what!" He falls to his knees and pray so the "Holy Father in Heaven".
•In the desert, Ghost Rider, Roxy and Satan-in-Linda's body are attacked by a motorcycle gang, "Big Daddy Dawson's Ruthless Riders--!!" After the giant Dawson roughs up Ghostie, who refuses to use his hellfire for fear of exposing himself as a real diabolical figure and not just a guy in a really, really good costume, Satan snaps Linda's fingers, and he/she and Ghost Rider disappear, leaving Roxy and Dawson's mercy.
•Although the words "rape", "sexual assault" or even "sex" are never used, it's pretty clear to me, an adult, that Dawson intends to rape the scantily Roxy here. I imagine that, had I read this as a little kid, that wouldn't quite have occurred to me, though.
•In Hell, Satan resumes his usual form—here his body is covered in lines, though, suggesting a body of pure flame, given that's the way The Human Torch's flame-body is usually depicted—and has his demons drag Ghost Rider before Satan's throne. A flaming sword appears over our prone hero, and an imperious voice cries from off-panel; "STOP! Before you claim another life, Satan---You must first answer to me!"
Although Satan's shadowed face obscures any expression, he's apparently surprised and distressed: "No--Not you-- NOT YOU!!", he cries.
Who could this unseen character be? Why, it's the character the comic has been not quite showing us for two issues now, of course, the guy on this, a cover that, I daresay, may be even more exciting than that one upon which Ghost Rider first popped a wheelie...
Who could this unseen character be? Why, it's the character the comic has been not quite showing us for two issues now, of course, the guy on this, a cover that, I daresay, may be even more exciting than that one upon which Ghost Rider first popped a wheelie...
•Marvel's first mistake in their usage of the Son of Satan character? Doing away with his flaming chariot drawn by monster horses. Here said conveyance is drawn by Herb Trimpe for the first time. Trimpe draws this issue, which Friedrich scripts. Stan Lee, who had the first credit in the issue that introduced Ghost Rider, is here reduced to a "Produced by" credit along the bottom of the page.
•The Son of Satan explodes out of the room he was locked in, having convinced his captors to release him, transformed. Not only is he no longer wearing a suit and tie, but his eyebrows are thin and arched, his teeth sharp, his ears pointed and his fiery hair swept up like horns. He talks in a hilariously imperious way that reminds me of Namor or Doctor Doom, only more imperious...?
He explains his whole deal (appearing as Daimon Hellstrom during the day, but becoming the Son of Satan at night), demonstrates his infernal powers and screams for a few pages, before we get an awesome splash page of his monster-drawn chariot and he climbs aboard it and streaks off into the night like a comet. He finds Roxy (who Trimpe draws in a different dress than Mooney had drawn her in; here, she seems back in her buckskin minidress). After confronting the bikers and chasing all but Dawson off (instead, he hurls his trident at his hand and then melts his gun with a heat ray from his hands), he pulls Roxy's hair and questions her, and then walks to Hell (Apparently, there's a cavern in the dessert that leads there).
•In Hell, father and son squabble, with Daimon calling the devil old and questioning his mental faculties and telling readers that as long as he "possesses the sacred trident--made of netheranium, the one substance which can sap your powers," he is safe from Satan. After a few pages of battling zombies, he reaches a detente with his father—who Trimpe draws as a devil-shaped Human Torch, sporting a pair of vestigial wings and more classic erect horns—and is given permission to walk out of Hell with Johnny Blaze and the prone Linda. Hellstrom deposits them in the middle of the desert and then takes off on his chariot.
•In Hell, father and son squabble, with Daimon calling the devil old and questioning his mental faculties and telling readers that as long as he "possesses the sacred trident--made of netheranium, the one substance which can sap your powers," he is safe from Satan. After a few pages of battling zombies, he reaches a detente with his father—who Trimpe draws as a devil-shaped Human Torch, sporting a pair of vestigial wings and more classic erect horns—and is given permission to walk out of Hell with Johnny Blaze and the prone Linda. Hellstrom deposits them in the middle of the desert and then takes off on his chariot.
Ghost Rider #3 (1973)
•Stranded in the desert, Johnny—who artist Jim Mooney draws in Ghost Rider form, although Trimpe had him in his human form when last we saw him—is sure he and the now revived Linda will die there. She teaches him a new magic trick, though: By gesturing and concentrating, he is able to summon a flaming motorcycle, one that, Linda explains, will last as long as he has access to his powers, which here means until dawn. He races towards civilization to send help to Linda, hoping he can make it before his powers fade, his motorcycle disappears, and his injuries return. He makes it to a freeway leading into town, anyway.
•Meanwhile, Rocky, back in a different mini-dress, is still being menaced by Dawson—"I always get my way in the end! You can either be friendly and make it easy on yerself--or you can keep fightin' me and--well, you think about it--on the way to my pad!" As bad as that sounds, he doesn't end up raping Rocky; instead, he keeps her tied to a chair in his pad while he reads the newspaper and sees that Johnny Blaze is in the hospital (again). He plans to take Rocky to him and ask for ransom, but by the time he gets to Blaze, night has fallen. After a brief motorcycle chase, Ghost Rider inadvertently kills Dawson. (He shoots hellfire from a finger at Dawson's tire, and it blows out his tire, sending him careening into the trailer on a semi and exploding). G.R. seems unhappy about having done so.
Ghost Rider #4 (1974)
•This issue promises more than just motorcycles for the young vehicle fan. First, Ghost Rider is pursued by the police through the desert again, and this time they surprise him with a special souped-up dune buggy that comes roaring out of the back of a trailer used as a roadblock (They'll eventually catch him, when the sun rises and he turns back into the badly-injured Johnny Blaze again). Then, we see Johnny's next career move: He signs up to participate in Dude Jensen's demolition derby, where he will attempt to stay alive as guys in cars try to smash into him on his motorcycle.
•It is perhaps here worth noting that we are hundreds of pages into the Ghost Rider saga, and our hero has yet to do anything even vaguely like fight crime. He has mostly just been focusing on his career, his conflicts coming in the form of Satan and a couple of people who have it out for Johnny for one reason or another. His most heroic acts so far have involved saving Roxy, who keeps getting captured or menaced as bad actors attempt to get at Johnny through her.
•It is perhaps here worth noting that we are hundreds of pages into the Ghost Rider saga, and our hero has yet to do anything even vaguely like fight crime. He has mostly just been focusing on his career, his conflicts coming in the form of Satan and a couple of people who have it out for Johnny for one reason or another. His most heroic acts so far have involved saving Roxy, who keeps getting captured or menaced as bad actors attempt to get at Johnny through her.
•Linda comes on to Johnny to Rocky's consternation ("Whatever you say, handsome," Linda says as Johnny dismisses her. "But when you get lonely, remember all you have to do is whistle!"), Rocky spies on Jensen's operation for the state attorney general, and Ghost Rider sets an assassin on fire with his hellfire, this time showing none of the regret he had for blowing up Dawson.
Ghost Rider #5 (1974)
•Ghostie meets another supervillain, although this one is apparently another lackey of Satan's. His name is Roulette, "The Demon of Las Vegas!", and he was obviously using that name long before Geoff Johns assigned it to a JSA villain 27 years later. Not that the two are anything alike; this Roulettee is an undead henchman of Satan who looks like the Grim Reaper on the cover and like a cloaked reptile man in the interior. He appears in a portal in the sky, and hurls fireballs.
•Whatever happened to Friedrich, he must have left the title unexpectedly, as this issue's plot is credited to Marv Wolfman and Dough Moench gets the writer's credit. (New writer Tony Isabella would take over next issue, although Friedrich would still get a "concept" credit in that issue.) Whatever Friedrich might have had planned for the Jensen character, it's changed immediately: It turns out that after Jensen was murdered by casino owners, he was raised from the dead by Satan, given powers and transformed into Roulette. Jensen's henchman, Slifer, is also revealed to be a demon. Roulette sets a fire to kill off Rocky and then attacks Las Vegas with his fireballs. Ghost Rider saves Rocky, naturally, then incinerates Roulette. I guess he won't be needing that name after all, so the JSA Roulette must have been welcome to it...
•Whatever happened to Friedrich, he must have left the title unexpectedly, as this issue's plot is credited to Marv Wolfman and Dough Moench gets the writer's credit. (New writer Tony Isabella would take over next issue, although Friedrich would still get a "concept" credit in that issue.) Whatever Friedrich might have had planned for the Jensen character, it's changed immediately: It turns out that after Jensen was murdered by casino owners, he was raised from the dead by Satan, given powers and transformed into Roulette. Jensen's henchman, Slifer, is also revealed to be a demon. Roulette sets a fire to kill off Rocky and then attacks Las Vegas with his fireballs. Ghost Rider saves Rocky, naturally, then incinerates Roulette. I guess he won't be needing that name after all, so the JSA Roulette must have been welcome to it...
•During this issue, there's a change made to the "rules" of Johnny's transformation: Rather than only becoming Ghost Rider by night, he automatically transforms when danger (here, in the form of Roulette) is near. This will be the case for the rest of the book, at least.
Ghost Rider #6 (1974)
•Isabella comes on as the new writer and seems to immediately be making things more Marvel-ous. This issue's story is entitled "Zodiac II", and an asterisk tells us that The Avengers just defeated Zodiac in their own mag a few months ago. Despite the fact that the members of the villainous organization are apparently all locked up, several of their goofy-ass members are shown committing various crimes in San Francisco, "Late the home of Daredevil and The Black Widow." What is going on, exactly? I imagine this might have been to some interest to Marvel fans in 1974...?
•Johnny drives to what I guess what must be Carson City to meet with the attorney general, who already has Rocky and his own son in his office. He tells Johnny that they have a job for someone with super-powers: Take down Zodiac. The reference to super-powers causes Johnny to clutch his face, and think to himself, "Super-powers?! Funny...I never thought of my Satanic abilities that way." Still, he refuses to help, but the DA's son, a former FBI agent who has had a psychological break, won't take no for an answer, pulling a gun on Johnny, fighting him in his Ghost Rider form, and ultimately threatening to strangle Rocky. Johnny/Ghostie eventually accedes, and the issue ends with him facing off against another dumb-looking member of Zodiac, the motorcycle-riding bull-man Taurus.
Ghost Rider #7 (1974)
•Ghostie had his Spider-Man team-up between the last issue and this one, apparently. At least, that's what an asterisk and editorial box seems to suggest. I suppose that was collected in an Essential Marvel Team-Up volume...?
•Ghost Rider (and the readers) learn what is going on with the Zodiac guys seemingly all being on the loose after he and tagalong Stunt-Master, a one-time Daredevil villain who went straight and started a Hollywood stunt show, are captured by Taurus...who transforms into Scorpio...? And then Aquarius....? So, what's his deal? Well, apparently Aquarius has become "The one man Zodiac!"
Shortly after the Avengers business, Aquarius went to jail, and learned that, thanks to a rare lung condition, he only had a year left to live. Roulette's hench-demon Slifer showed up, and made a deal with Aquarius: In exchange for his soul, he would get the powers of all of the Zodiac members for one year. (He will, like Johnny Blaze, be tricked on a technicality, and Hell ends up claiming him at issue's end.)
•If the moral of Spider-Man comics is that "With great power comes great responsibility," the moral of Ghost Rider comics might be "Don't sell your soul to Satan, fool!"
•At one point during a fight with the escaping Ghost Rider and Stunt-Master, Aquarius becomes Capricorn, who I think might be not just the dumbest member of Zodiac, but the dumbest Marvel villain I've ever seen. The usual symbol for Capricorn is a half-goat, half-fish, but this guy's powers seems to be....really long antennae, that he can use as tentacles...? I mean, just look at this goofball. I don't get it.
Ghost Rider #8 (1974)
•This issue, entitled "Satan Himself!" is, obviously, another Satan-starrer, and, by this time, Mooney has drawn him more-or-less like your standard cartoon devil. Though there is a bit of cross-hatching on his big, (red?) figure, his face and head are clearly visible now, and we can see his pointy ears, his sharp teeth, his little horns and his now snake-like eyes. He's wearing a little pair of briefs to preserve his modesty, paired with a big, dramatic cape, with a high collar of the sort Dracula seems to favor.
•After failing to take Ghost Rider again (he's thwarted by G.R.'s thoughts of Rocky), he decides to attack him through Rocky, like everyone else, I guess. He transports "the virginal Miss Simpson" to Hell, tells her that her dad Crash is still suffering there and, when Rocky brings up the seemingly-heavenly "Messenger" from earlier, Satan tells her that he himself was the Messenger in disguise. He promises to free her dad's soul for real if she will renounce her protection of Johnny.
•As for the hero of the book? He's busy dealing with "Inferno the Fear Monger, the Deadliest Demon of All!" A giant, scaly brute with one eye. This new threat radiates pure fear, which appears as multiples of the word "FEAR" seemingly emanating from his body in the art. He's turned the crowds of San Francisco against Ghost Rider.
Ghost Rider #9 (1974)
•This is it! The issue you've been waiting for! And by "you" I mean "I"...! The debut of Jesus Christ himself in the Marvel Universe! (At least, I think it is; did he appear in an earlier Marvel book? Do let me know, if so; I'd like to read it!)
•Rocky formally renounces her protection of Johnny Blaze to save her father's soul (for no reason, as it turns out, since Satan didn't actually have Crash's soul in Hell after all; the Crash he kept showing to her was actually just an illusion. Does this mean Satan also wasn't really The Messenger? Unclear). Satan strips Ghost Rider of his powers, but not his flaming skull form. And then he appears on Earth, boasting, "Nothing stands between me and the possession of that soul!"
And then this happens!
So who is this guy supposed to be...? Well, he's got long hair and a beard, like Jesus, although I'm sure there were a lot of guys on the West Coast in the early '70s who also had long hair and a beard (Heck, I did throughout much of my college years in the late '90s). He's wearing street clothes, rather than the white robe with red sash and sandals pop culture Jesus is usually dressed in, but then, there's no reason the literal Son of God couldn't appear wearing whatever he wants.
The real tell as to his identity seems to be the way he bosses Satan around, though, basically just gesturing at him, and the devil then turns and disappears, shouting curses over his shoulder as he fades away.
That, and, of course, the way he talks so authoritatively regarding the state of Johnny's soul and matters of sin and Hell.
When Johnny asks who he is though, the stranger walks away, saying only, "I am...a friend."
"Somehow, that is answer enough," Isabella's narration states.
"Somehow, that is answer enough," Isabella's narration states.
Like so much else in these early Ghost Rider comics, this seeming intervention from Jesus Christ himself will eventually be retconned away, but it's pretty clear that Isabella intended for this to be Jesus himself, and that Johnny Blaze certainly recognizes him as such.
Although this "Friend" character won't literally appear before Johnny again for some time, not until issue #15, Johnny thinks about him quite a bit, and he often appears in flashbacks as Johnny remembers this turning point in his life.
Although this "Friend" character won't literally appear before Johnny again for some time, not until issue #15, Johnny thinks about him quite a bit, and he often appears in flashbacks as Johnny remembers this turning point in his life.
In the next issue, Johnny thinks to himself: "I don't know why I was saved and if I ever told anybody who I thought that guy was I'd be locked up." The issue after that, he refers to the Friend simply as "Him", while thinking about getting "a special rescue from above."
This is, obviously, a pretty big deal.
Having particular superheroes practicing particular religious faiths isn't that crazy or unusual. We've already seen in this very collection, for example, Daimon Hellstrom praying to God (And Marvel's Daredevil is rather famously Catholic, but I'm not sure how far back in his history that started; is that a Frank Miller thing, and thus from the '80s...?) But putting the figurehead of one of those religions into the comic in such a direct way? Well, that is pretty crazy and unusual.
Generally superhero/"universe" comics will use intermediaries like angels or other messengers to stand in for the Christian God, for example, and/or they are rather vague about matters referring to God, using terms like "The Voice" or "The Presence", or having him take new and unique forms.
Still, given how often Satan himself has been a character in this comic, it does make a certain degree of sense to have heavenly powers involve themselves in Ghost Rider's conflict, and using Jesus himself is certainly a bold, daring choice.
Although, as we'll eventually learn, it was perhaps too bold and daring for at least some of the folks at Marvel. (For what it's worth, Roy Thomas, Len Wein and Marv Wolfman would all edit the run of Isabella-scripted comics that start with the introduction of the Friend and end with Isabella's last issue, in which said Friend is revealed to be...not-Jesus. But we'll get to that later.
Although, as we'll eventually learn, it was perhaps too bold and daring for at least some of the folks at Marvel. (For what it's worth, Roy Thomas, Len Wein and Marv Wolfman would all edit the run of Isabella-scripted comics that start with the introduction of the Friend and end with Isabella's last issue, in which said Friend is revealed to be...not-Jesus. But we'll get to that later.
•While Johnny has been given a second chance and a new lease on life, another major change comes: Rocky breaks up with him, feeling guilty that the same "'purity of spirit'--really naivete" that had been protecting him from Satan almost just doomed him to Satan. She walks away, saying, "That young girl has to go away for a while. She's got to grow up. She's got to become a woman."
Ghost Rider #11 (1975)
•Enough theology, though. It's time for Ghost Rider to fight The Hulk. This he does while competing with several other misfit motorcyclists in a desert marathon survival race. Satan's demon Inferno The Fear Monger goads the Hulk into fighting Ghost Rider.
•I'm not sure about future Ghost Rider/Hulk fights, but Isabella makes it pretty clear that Ghost Rider isn't even in the Hulk's weight-class here. Still, with home book advantage, he ultimately wins, mostly by staying out of Hulk's reach, blasting apart a boulder that Hulk throws at him, and using his hellfire to encircle the Green Goliath with flames that burn up all of the available oxygen, causing the Hulk to pass out.
•This issue features the debut of Ghostie's famous "skull cycle." (You can see it on the cover above.) He seems to have lost his ability to create motorcycles out of his flames when Satan withdrew his powers from him in the previous issue.
•This issue's pencil artist is Sal Buscema, and John Tartag and George Roussos share an "embellishers" credit. The artists give Ghost Rider pupils that occasionally stare out of his previously blank eye sockets; artists after Ploog would sometimes do so, but not very often.
•This issue features the debut of Ghostie's famous "skull cycle." (You can see it on the cover above.) He seems to have lost his ability to create motorcycles out of his flames when Satan withdrew his powers from him in the previous issue.
•This issue's pencil artist is Sal Buscema, and John Tartag and George Roussos share an "embellishers" credit. The artists give Ghost Rider pupils that occasionally stare out of his previously blank eye sockets; artists after Ploog would sometimes do so, but not very often.
•Oh, and if it looks like I skipped Ghost Rider #10, that's only because Essential Ghost Rider Vol. 1 did so. Apparently it was a reprint of Spotlight #5 for some reason.
Ghost Rider #12 (1975)
•Another issue, another guest-star, although this one is a rather unlikely one: The Phantom Eagle, the World War I flying ace created by Friedrich and artist Herb Trimpe in 1968's Marvel Super-Heroes #16. Here he is literally a phantom, as he's been dead for decades before he and his ghostly plane manifest in the desert, hunting a now quite-elderly enemy form the war.
•Frank Robbins comes on as pencil artist, here sharing a "storytellers" credit with Isabella. His art is a little more angular and cartoony than Mooney's, and he too has a tendency to draw eyeballs in Ghost Rider's skull.
•On the splash page, Ghost Rider thinks about his recent run-in with the Thing, so apparently his Marvel Two-in-One appearance falls between issues #11 and #12 of his own magazine.
•On the splash page, Ghost Rider thinks about his recent run-in with the Thing, so apparently his Marvel Two-in-One appearance falls between issues #11 and #12 of his own magazine.
Ghost Rider #13 (1975)
•When Johnny realizes that he still has his normal face during the night, he comes to the conclusion that his curse of turning into Ghost Rider must have changed. He reasons that because he has used his powers to aid others three times since his meeting with the Friend, he must have passed some sort of test and earned a respite from his curse. From here on out, he seems to change only in response to danger.
•Johnny rides to Hollywood to take up a job previously offered to him by Stunt-Master: To be the motorcyclist's stunt double on his television show. The show also stars Daredevil's old flame, secretary-turned-actress Karen Page. After Ghost Rider rescues her from The Trapster, who shouts something about a million-dollar bounty on her head, she rewards Johnny with a big open-mouth kiss.
•Johnny rides to Hollywood to take up a job previously offered to him by Stunt-Master: To be the motorcyclist's stunt double on his television show. The show also stars Daredevil's old flame, secretary-turned-actress Karen Page. After Ghost Rider rescues her from The Trapster, who shouts something about a million-dollar bounty on her head, she rewards Johnny with a big open-mouth kiss.
•George Tuska and Vince Colletta handle the art on this issue and the next two as well.
Ghost Rider #14 (1975)
•The next supervillain to challenge Ghost Rider is one of my favorite Marvel villains, based solely on his amazing design: The Orb! His first appearance was apparently in that 1973 issue of Marvel Team-Up that Ghostie shared with Spider-Man. In addition to looking weird, his giant eyeball helmet appears to allow him to mind-control others.
•After a splash page, the issue opens with this weird panel, recapping the entirety of the previous issue in a block of prose:
•After Johnny unexpectedly gets a cold shoulder from Karen—"the coldest shoulder I ever got"—Karen's stunt double Katy Milner explains that Karen is a hard one to figure out and offers to show him around the studio. This she does and, in the process, she introduces him to two characters whose appearance here surprised me even more than that of Jesus/The Friend, but then, I went into this book expecting that one.
Here, check it out:
Here, check it out:
Is that the same Richard and Wendy Pini of Elfquest fame? Indeed, it is! Apparently, the couple met a few years previously via the Silver Surfer letter column and were either friends with or admired by several Marvel creators, as their ongoing appearances in Isabella's run aren't the only times they and/or Elfquest would appear in Marvel Comics (Check out the "Appearances in other media" section of their Wikipedia page).
Ghost Rider #15 (1975)
•After Ghost Rider rescues Karen from The Orb, tackling the villain off his motorcycle and then punching him so hard that he cracks his eyeball helmet like a big egg ("ZOM"), he reverts back to Johnny, a sure sign that there is no longer any danger. But he keeps beating on the unconscious Orb ("WHACK!", "CRUMP"). Karen rushes up to him, begging Johnny to stop hitting him, as he's suffered enough and saying that if he keeps hurting him, hating him, "You're no better than he is."
Johnny argues about how dangerous The Orb is and how he deserves to die, when suddenly the Friend appears on the side of the road, saying "If you must lash out at a fellow creature, Johnny Blaze-- Why not lash out at me?"
"You-- the man who saved me from Satan!" Johnny says when he sees him, to which the man replies, "I am...also a man, Johnny."
He points out that Johnny is transferring his anger at his real foes—Satan and Pluto, the latter of whom he must have encountered in an early issue of The Champions, the unlikely super-team he had joined between issues of Ghost Rider—and Johnny releases The Orb, taking The Friend/Jesus' hand.
"I'd like to shake your hand, mister," Johnny says.
The other man thinks in a thought cloud, "My hand is always outstretched, Johnny Blaze. You have only to take it."
See? Pretty Jesus-y right? This would be the character's last appearance in the book, at least in the flesh. Johnny will refer to him once more in his thoughts, and we'll see another image of him in a flashback, and then he will appear—on a cross!—in an illusion that confronts Johnny in a future issue.
Ghost Rider #16 (1976)
•Had the initial impact of the image of a burning skeleton atop a motorcycle lost been blunted after a few years of repetition? Well, how about if the burning skeleton on a motorcycle fought a shark?! I like how shameless Marvel is that they are trying to appeal to the shark mania that Jaws had inspired on the cover, billing this story as being "In the gripping tradition of JAWS!" By that, of course, they simply mean that this comic has a shark in it.
•This issue is written by Bill Mantlo.
•This issue is written by Bill Mantlo.
•This one is kind of bonkers. Johnny has the weekend off, so he's riding around the coast when his tire is accidentally shot out by a man who is busily engaged in shooting dolphins with a sniper rifle. The shooter had previously been training dolphins to carry bombs for the U.S. government, and, one day while out on his boat with his wife and daughter, he saw a fin closing in on his daughter in the water. Thinking it was a shark, he fired his rifle at it, but it was actually just a dolphin, and one he had loaded a bomb on. The resultant explosion swept his wife out to sea, so now he murders dolphins for revenge, despite his daughter's efforts to stop him.
Ultimately, he and Ghost Rider end up in the ocean and are being attacked by a Great White shark, when a pod of dolphins comes to their rescue, fighting off the shark. One of them even gives Ghost Rider and the unconscious man a ride back to shore.
Ghost Rider #17 (1976)
•Isabella is back, as is artist Frank Robbins...and so too is the Son of Satan!
•Another interesting opening to this issue. After the splash/title page, there are a few panels devoted to continuity, informing readers what issues happened in which order, concerning Ghost Rider and Champions.
Do note Wolfman's text in the box along the bottom of that panel: "And who says we don't worry about continuity around here any more?"
Is that something people were complaining about, in the letter columns at the time, I guess? Because that was fifty years ago now. What would readers who thought Marvel's continuity in 1975 was getting too loose or confused think of the publisher's line in the year 2025?
•First Jaws, now The Exorcist. Johnny returns to Hollywood only to find that his friend Katy is in the hospital, with what the doctor suggests must be a case of possession. Katy, who now has a pair of pointy horns in her curly hair, as well as pointy teeth and ears, throws people around with outsized strength, exhibits magical powers and taunts Ghost Rider. She threatens to stab her own throat with a shard of glass, before tossing it away.
"No, Johnny, I'm not going to kill myself this time," she says. "But maybe next time. And there's other things I can do to myself, Johnny. Things that would make you very, very sick." Could she be referring to that scene in The Exorcist with the crucifix? "Don't you deserve Hell for putting an innocent girl through all this?"
"No, Johnny, I'm not going to kill myself this time," she says. "But maybe next time. And there's other things I can do to myself, Johnny. Things that would make you very, very sick." Could she be referring to that scene in The Exorcist with the crucifix? "Don't you deserve Hell for putting an innocent girl through all this?"
The doctor suggests and exorcist, and, as luck would have it, it's the same one Johnny has already met, Daimon Hellstrom, the Son of Satan.
•Hellstrom eventually expels the demons from Katy—"Call me Legion-- --For we are many!"—and our two hell-powered heroes are able to beat them all in hand-to-hand combat, burning them with their fire powers. Katy has settled peacefully into her bed, but our heroes can't reach her, as she is sealed within an invisible forcefield. A guy dressed like a supervillain enters, announces himself as "The Challenger," and declares that, in order to save Katy's life, Ghost Rider must complete "the deadliest race course ever devised."
•Hellstrom eventually expels the demons from Katy—"Call me Legion-- --For we are many!"—and our two hell-powered heroes are able to beat them all in hand-to-hand combat, burning them with their fire powers. Katy has settled peacefully into her bed, but our heroes can't reach her, as she is sealed within an invisible forcefield. A guy dressed like a supervillain enters, announces himself as "The Challenger," and declares that, in order to save Katy's life, Ghost Rider must complete "the deadliest race course ever devised."
•Ooh, look at all the guest stars...!
•Though we see Johnny take off through a cave mouth in the hospital room, the true terrain of the race appears to be Johnny's own mind...or the astral plane...or some otherworldly dimension. There he will essentially face his own bad memories. In the first few pages, he's riding alongside Crash and Rocky, right up until he and Crash have to make the jump that had originally killed Crash. Again, Crash is killed while Johnny makes it, and here Rocky yells at him and rushes off, but he can't follow her off the course or he will forfeit the race. Then he has to make the Copperhead Canyon jump again. And then he's presented with all of the supervillains he has ever faced, in all of his adventures, which means Snake-Dance, The Orb, Aquarius, The Trapster and The Miracle Man (the last of whom apparently appeared in that Marvel Two-in-One featuring Ghostie).
•This, by the way, is the splash page revealing them:
You'll note that what passes for Ghost Rider's rogues gallery is cavorting around "a 'friend' whose identity Johnny Blaze has always known, but never dared admit." I mean, here Isabella and Robbins literally put him on the cross, with bands of energy instead of nails holding him there, which seems appropriate for a superhero comic. The figure even has one above his head, like a crown of thorns or, perhaps, a halo. They really couldn't be any clearer about the Friend's identity without saying the word "Jesus."
The word "crucified" is used, though and, later, after Ghost Rider has defeated all of the villains again and pulled the man down from the cross, G.R. thinks, "He can't die like this again!"
•Enter The Thing. He, Spider-Man and Ghost Rider's fellow Challengers Angel, Iceman, Hercules and Black Widow appear and attack Ghost Rider. At the end, after Herc has flung him into Spidey's web, Black Widow touches his forehead, and he converts back into Johnny Blaze.
•In the last four panels, we return to the real world, where a crazy-looking villain who looks like a mummy with a cape and goggles astride a ghost horse, its skeleton clearly visible through its translucent flesh, orders Stunt-Master to kidnap Karen Page. This is Death's-Head, not to be confused with the later Marvel UK robot hero, Death's Head.
Ghost Rider #19 (1976)
•The villain The Challenger taunts our hero ("What kind of idiot are you, Johnny Blaze...?"), telling him that he was never actually saved by Jesus. Only he doesn't use the name "Jesus", of course, but instead says this:
You thought you succeeded, didn't you? You thought you cheated Satan of his claim on your soul! You fancied yourself "saved" by a "higher authority!"How delectable! How wickedly delicious! For is Satan not also the prince of false hopes? The image of your "Friend" was his most delightful ploy! How totally you immersed yourself in false security!
And so, despite how clearly the imagery, the actions and the dialogue of the Friend scenes throughout the previous issues equated the character with Jesus, we are now being told that he never was, in fact, Jesus or some other agent of Heaven, but was instead simply another machination of Satan's, the devil apparently, what, just pretending to be dismissed by the authority of the figure, who he knew all along was his own illusion? And he did this just to delay his own gratification (snatching his own defeat from the jaws of victory), all so he could instill in Johnny a few weeks or months of false hope, and then take it away...?
That's a hell of a byzantine plan.
Now, obviously, this is what the comic book that saw print says, and it is, for better or worse, the official canon. Remember what Douglas Wolk said about authorship and the Marvel Universe in All of the Marvels, which I excerpted in this post? Legally (and I guess I would say technically), the "maker" of Marvel comics is Marvel itself, the corporation. And this is the decision that Marvel made, that the Friend character was just an unnecessarily complicated plot by Satan to mess with Johnny.
That's clearly not what Isabella intended, though, as he's said before in interviews (Some of which seem to have suffered from Internet rot, but this one still active). According to Isabella, the plan was for the religious elements to fade into the background, with Johnny being a Christian, but his Christianity manifesting through his actions, which, if you want to boil "Christianity" down to the so-called Golden Rule of doing unto others as you would have done unto yourself (which, I know, isn't a strictly Christian idea, although Jesus speaks a version of that in the Gospels**), well, aren't most superheroes Christian...or, when viewed through the angle of "Does this hero abide by the Golden Rule?", at least Christian coded...? (Yes, I know there are obviously many Big Two superheroes who are explicitly not Christian, including Jewish heroes, Muslim heroes and atheist heroes...)
I don't know if Johnny's faith would have led to him praying or going to church on-panel like various superheroes later would (like the previously-mentioned Daredevil, or DC's post-Crisis, pre-Flashpoint version of The Huntress), but it certainly doesn't sound like Isabella planned on making him a born-again Christian or an evangelist (ala Betty Cooper and the kids from Riverdale in Al Hartley's Spire-published comics), or even an agent of heaven in the way that, say, DC's The Spectre (and sometimes The Phantom Stranger) is portrayed, or even like the weird 1997-1998 iteration of The Punisher with the glowing guns was.
That's a hell of a byzantine plan.
Now, obviously, this is what the comic book that saw print says, and it is, for better or worse, the official canon. Remember what Douglas Wolk said about authorship and the Marvel Universe in All of the Marvels, which I excerpted in this post? Legally (and I guess I would say technically), the "maker" of Marvel comics is Marvel itself, the corporation. And this is the decision that Marvel made, that the Friend character was just an unnecessarily complicated plot by Satan to mess with Johnny.
That's clearly not what Isabella intended, though, as he's said before in interviews (Some of which seem to have suffered from Internet rot, but this one still active). According to Isabella, the plan was for the religious elements to fade into the background, with Johnny being a Christian, but his Christianity manifesting through his actions, which, if you want to boil "Christianity" down to the so-called Golden Rule of doing unto others as you would have done unto yourself (which, I know, isn't a strictly Christian idea, although Jesus speaks a version of that in the Gospels**), well, aren't most superheroes Christian...or, when viewed through the angle of "Does this hero abide by the Golden Rule?", at least Christian coded...? (Yes, I know there are obviously many Big Two superheroes who are explicitly not Christian, including Jewish heroes, Muslim heroes and atheist heroes...)
I don't know if Johnny's faith would have led to him praying or going to church on-panel like various superheroes later would (like the previously-mentioned Daredevil, or DC's post-Crisis, pre-Flashpoint version of The Huntress), but it certainly doesn't sound like Isabella planned on making him a born-again Christian or an evangelist (ala Betty Cooper and the kids from Riverdale in Al Hartley's Spire-published comics), or even an agent of heaven in the way that, say, DC's The Spectre (and sometimes The Phantom Stranger) is portrayed, or even like the weird 1997-1998 iteration of The Punisher with the glowing guns was.
That is, I'm pretty sure it would have been okay if Marvel let Isabella keep the Friend as a barely-disguised Jesus figure, especially given the fact that they had already been doing so for 10 issues.
Was the Friend controversial? Was Marvel getting lots of angry letters and threats of boycotts? I have no idea, obviously, but having grown up amid the Satanic panics of the 1980s, when people freaked out about hair metal music and Dungeons & Dragons, I think Marvel's handful of books featuring Satan as a comic book character might have been more controversial among mainstream society than having a supernatural hero vaguely embrace Christianity through an unnamed Christ-like figure.
Anyway, apparently an assistant editor rewrote some of Isabella's dialogue in this issue concerning the friend, and, I suspect, Satan. Although Isabella is the only credited writer, Comics.org's notes on the issue say that the letters page credits assistant editor Jim Shooter with a "scripting assist" (Reading this story in the Essential collection as I am, of course, it just looks like Isabella is responsible for all of the issue's content).
While I'm sympathetic to the argument that maybe Jesus in the Marvel Universe was a potentially controversial choice, and therefore a risk the publisher might have decided not to take, the time to address the point would have been before the Friend's first appearance, and not, like, after his tenth.
While I'm sympathetic to the argument that maybe Jesus in the Marvel Universe was a potentially controversial choice, and therefore a risk the publisher might have decided not to take, the time to address the point would have been before the Friend's first appearance, and not, like, after his tenth.
The only published, professional writing I've done has been for newspapers and websites, and consisted of either news reporting, art criticism, or something arts and entertainment related. Still, I've had my stuff edited in such a way here or there in such ways that I found the changes annoying, mostly when I felt the editors made a big mistake that made me look dumb, or when I felt they changed the wording in such a way that it changed the meaning of what I was trying to say.
I can only imagine how infuriating it must be to write such a long piece of fiction over such a long period of time, only to have an editor mess with a climax you were building to and, worse still, to leave your name attached, making it look as if the resultant work was all your responsibility.
If I were the Tony Isabella of 1975, I would be extremely pissed at Shooter, editor Marv Wolfman and Marvel in general, and I'm not at all surprised that this seems to be his last issue of the series.
I can only imagine how infuriating it must be to write such a long piece of fiction over such a long period of time, only to have an editor mess with a climax you were building to and, worse still, to leave your name attached, making it look as if the resultant work was all your responsibility.
If I were the Tony Isabella of 1975, I would be extremely pissed at Shooter, editor Marv Wolfman and Marvel in general, and I'm not at all surprised that this seems to be his last issue of the series.
As I said, though, even if I didn't go into this issue knowing that Marvel would be retconning Isabella's Friend character, this issue would still feel a little off to me.
As The Challenger is calling Johnny an idiot for falling for Satan's Jesus illusions, his costume burns off and he is revealed to be....Satan!
Or, at least, that's what the art says. And the cover. (That's it at the top of the post, remember. It features Satan saying, "Ghost Rider Must Die!", and Ghost Rider responding, "We'll see about that, Satan!") The diabolical figure that Robbins draws in the issue is clearly Satan as we've met him previously in this comic, just as Mooney was drawing him near the end of his run (Although Robbins gives him little booties as part of his briefs and cape ensemble).
Yet this guy who looks just like Satan keeps referring to Satan in the third person, referring to himself as "the archdemon sent by Satan himself". This archdemon and Ghost Rider battle, with Ghost Rider ultimately realizing that Satan/his stand-in is only as powerful as he believes him to be, and this allows him to wrestle with him and ultimately punch him out.
Were this actually Satan, it would seem to be a climax to the whole story that preceded it, a turning point for the Ghost Rider character. If it's just another one of Satan's hench-demons, it seems weirdly overwrought.
I suspect that Shooter, in thinking that Marvel shouldn't have Jesus on-panel, must have also decided that Satan shouldn't be on-panel either...?
Anyway, it's a a very strange comic, one that reads differently than it looks.
As The Challenger is calling Johnny an idiot for falling for Satan's Jesus illusions, his costume burns off and he is revealed to be....Satan!
Or, at least, that's what the art says. And the cover. (That's it at the top of the post, remember. It features Satan saying, "Ghost Rider Must Die!", and Ghost Rider responding, "We'll see about that, Satan!") The diabolical figure that Robbins draws in the issue is clearly Satan as we've met him previously in this comic, just as Mooney was drawing him near the end of his run (Although Robbins gives him little booties as part of his briefs and cape ensemble).
Yet this guy who looks just like Satan keeps referring to Satan in the third person, referring to himself as "the archdemon sent by Satan himself". This archdemon and Ghost Rider battle, with Ghost Rider ultimately realizing that Satan/his stand-in is only as powerful as he believes him to be, and this allows him to wrestle with him and ultimately punch him out.
Were this actually Satan, it would seem to be a climax to the whole story that preceded it, a turning point for the Ghost Rider character. If it's just another one of Satan's hench-demons, it seems weirdly overwrought.
I suspect that Shooter, in thinking that Marvel shouldn't have Jesus on-panel, must have also decided that Satan shouldn't be on-panel either...?
Anyway, it's a a very strange comic, one that reads differently than it looks.
•Back at the hospital, Johnny rejoins Hellstrom (who has chilled out considerably since his first appearances) and some members of his current supporting cast at Katy's side, only to make a startling discovery: Katy was actually Rocky all along, "Katy" being "a false identity that some demon named Inferno constructed" over her own personality.
Which makes little sense, given that Katy, who was Karen's stunt double, had previously told us she had a brother who she was working to support, and that, in addition to a family and career of her own, she also had friends like the Pinis. I wonder if this too was a change made to the issue, as Isabella did say some of the art was re-drawn in addition to the scripting changes...
Daredevil #138 (1976)
•Ghost Rider editor Marv Wolfman is credited as writer/editor of this issue, the first of a two-part crossover with Ghost Rider. The guest artist is some guy named "John Byrne," who is here inked by Jim Mooney.
•Given Karen Page's appearance in Ghost Rider, this crossover was perhaps inevitable, even though DD seems to have since relocated back to New York City by this time. We open with Daredevil in Los Angeles, though, fighting a not very imaginatively named super-strong villain named Smasher (not sure if he's original to this book, or a pre-existent Marvel character). He's working for Death's Head, here with no hyphen, and he defeats Matt and brings him to his boss.
•Johnny goes looking for the missing Karen Page and briefly fights her kidnapper Stunt-Master, before the latter explains that he was mind-controlled into the deed by Death's Head, and that he would lead Ghost Rider to her.
•As to what Death's Head wants with Karen, apparently the original was her father, but he's dead now. This new Death's Head wants Karen to tell him the secrets of her father's scientific research. He fights Daredevil, who seems to recognize his voice and to know who he actually is. Whoever he is, he has a pretty cool design. Especially his ghost horse.
Ghost Rider #20 (1976)
•The cover spoils the reveal of Death's Head's real identity, that of another death-themed Daredevil villain, Death Stalker, whose super-powers apparently include a special "death touch." How he affected his disguise is never made clear, which is a bummer, because summoning a spectral horse to ride on seems like it would be a lot harder than dressing up in another guy's costume.
•After some fights, Ghost Rider ultimately sets Death Stalker on fire, and he burns away into nothingness, although the heroes can't be sure if he really burnt up or just merely disappeared again while his cloak was on fire.
•After some serious talks about their relationship, Karen says she doesn't have the stamina for the sort of trouble that follows Matt Murdock/Daredevil around, and though he says he'll always be there for her if she needs him, she says she hopes she never will. She climbs onto the back of Johnny's motorcycle for a ride back into town, but it doesn't sound like she's going to end up being his love interest either, as she had just got done declaring "I can't take being in the center of this sort of trouble...I'm not a superhero like you two are. I'm just an ordinary person."
•After some serious talks about their relationship, Karen says she doesn't have the stamina for the sort of trouble that follows Matt Murdock/Daredevil around, and though he says he'll always be there for her if she needs him, she says she hopes she never will. She climbs onto the back of Johnny's motorcycle for a ride back into town, but it doesn't sound like she's going to end up being his love interest either, as she had just got done declaring "I can't take being in the center of this sort of trouble...I'm not a superhero like you two are. I'm just an ordinary person."
Say, I wonder whatever ended up happening to Karen Page...? I sure hope she never gets addicted to drugs or starts acting in pornography during a grim, gritty take on a Marvel hero in the '80s or anything...
Anyway, that's the first 560 pages of Marvel's Ghost Rider saga. It would ultimately last a decade, finally concluding in 1983's Ghost Rider #81. That entire series would end up being collected in four volumes of Essential Ghost Rider, and while I would certainly like to see what happens next, when the retcons regarding Zarathos and Mephisto actually take place and, especially, how supernatural elements regarding Heaven and Hell would be dealt with in future issues, I'm not sure if I'll be able to find the long-out-of-print Essential collections of the title. (As with DC's similar Showcase Presents collections, I wish I had just bought all of them I could find at the time, even if I wouldn't get around to reading them for another decade or so). In the meantime, I plan to circle back and read Isabella's Champions, which I found collected as Champions Classic.
*And there were only two of them. The first was 1991's Ghost Rider/Punisher/Wolverine: Hearts of Darkness, which I bought as a back issue from the Ashtabula comic book shop that was on Main Street in the early 1990s. I am assuming teenage Caleb did so because, in addition to featuring Marvel's main badass heroes of the moment, it also boasted a great cover and interior art by John Romita Jr and Klaus Janson (whose name I recognized from The Dark Knight Returns). (I wonder, should I try revisiting that book now? Having just read Wolverine: Evilution, I admit to some curiosity about '90s Wolverine...)
And, second, there was 1993's Ghost Rider #33, which I bought new off the rack of that same comic shop, apparently just because I liked the name "Madcap" and the Bret Belvins art I saw when flipping through it. I would later see various Ghost Riders show up in Marvel comics after I started to read the publisher's line in 2000 or so, but the only version of the character I actually followed in a regular title was the third—or is that fourth?—version of the character, Robbie Reyes, the one with a metallic skull and a car rather than a motorcycle.
**In Luke 6:31 and Matthew 7:12.
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