GHOST RIDER #18 by Daniel Way, Javier Saltares, Tom Palmer and Dan Brown
© Marvel Comics
Mania Grade: C
Issue: 18
Authors: Daniel Way, Javier Saltares, Tom Palmer, Dan Brown
Publisher: Marvel
Price: $2.99
Issue: 18
Authors: Daniel Way, Javier Saltares, Tom Palmer, Dan Brown
Publisher: Marvel
Price: $2.99
GHOST RIDER #18
By: Kurt AmackerReview Date: Tuesday, December 25, 2007
The mind-blowing revelation in Ghost Rider #18 has already cracked the Internet in half, so I’ll liberally refer to it here. It you’ve avoided it thus far, know that spoilers are ahead.
Johnny Blaze has spent most of Daniel Way’s run hunting down the 666 avatars of Satan that escaped Hell with him at the start of the series. Each time he kills one, the remaining numbers grow stronger. It seems like Way intended the concept to drive the series for many, many arcs, but either I’m wrong, or the idea was abandoned and wrapped up quickly. This arc promises to finish off the concept, with all but two of the Prince of Darkness’s remaining avatars destroyed in a montage a few issues ago. Blaze and his trucker girlfriend, Dixie, have kept one barely alive in the back of her rig, hoping to kill it quickly after Blaze takes out the other one. The other one has taken the name Jack Daniels and posed as the owner of a football team. He’s used his influence to put on a free game, hoping to blow up the stadium with everyone in it because, well, he’s the Devil. Blaze finally confronts him with two angels that have suddenly arrived to assist him without much warning or explanation. It seems that the two are on the outs with God, and they figure that by helping to banish Satan back to Hell, they might return to Heaven. Satan recognizes the two and gets Blaze to give one the Penance Stare, thus revealing the truth about the Ghost Rider. When Roxanne Simpson saved Blaze from Hell back in the 1970s, a rogue angel named Zadkiel answered her prayers and recruited him as an enforcer for an angelic black ops squad. Satan owns Blaze’s soul, but Heaven owns Blaze.
This retcon of Blaze’s origins feels both forced and understandably necessary. As an agent of Hell, it seems odd that, after all these years, Satan couldn’t easily reclaim Blaze. Without jumping through a bunch of contrived mystical hoops, it seems reasonable enough that the Devil could take one of his own, particularly with Roxanne Simpson dead. At the same time, anyone reading the character for more than a few issues would ultimately have to concede their objection and accept the larger idea – that of a man trying to atone for a bad deal he made to save someone he loved. This issue clumsily explains a fatal flaw in the character’s logic, but one that has been around for so long as to almost render it meaningless. This feels like an idea just waiting to be undone in a couple of years.
I normally enjoy this series, but it seems that someone at Marvel – or Way himself – decided to jettison the broader story with which the series began in favor of something else. In doing so, the character’s origin has been tweaked again.
If you’re interested in this series, wait a couple of months until the next arc begins. The series will likely take a new direction, which would serve as a better place to jump on.
Questions? Comments? Let us know what you think at comicscape@mania.com.
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I am a huge fan of the first serie from the 70s and a huge fan of the serie from the 90s.
While I prefered the non Ghost Rider Blaze from the 90s I have come to accept that he is a Ghost Rider again.
I just hope that when they revealed the story on how he became a Spirit of Vengence again that it turns out to be Zarathos or another entity all together.
I do not wish this Ghost Rider to be Noble Kale. This Ghost Rider whould stay with Danny Ketch.
I just hope that whatever they do that they do not contradic the 90s run. I know that a lot of people do not like the Noble Kale origin but that is no reason to completely erase it.
I wish that we'll see the return of Dan Ketch one day. Who knows maybe there's 2 Ghost Riders out there now.