Micro-Reviews: GHOST RIDER - Volume Two, Part Three

GHOST RIDER #15 (July 1991) Price hike! Can comics survive at $1.75?

Witness Tex render agonizing pain on a face that lacks eyes or lips.

It’s actually a cool shorthand for an injured Ghost Rider. Spidey has his torn costume, Ghost Rider has exposed bones. H.E.A.R.T Corp. returns, just to ‘90s things up. Apparently, they’re still hunting the racist serial killer. It would seem Blackout, the vampire villain from earlier, is the culprit.

“Seem” because I can’t tell if that story’s still in play. Blackout wasn’t established as a racist kid killer in his first appearances, as I recall. Some lingering Shooter-esque internal conflicts remain. Ghost Rider must decide if he’s a killer (though this was addressed months ago.)

And Blaze realizes his shotgun fires hellfire (cue the electric guitar solo!) that sends his victims directly to Mephisto. Does he take out evil on Earth, even if it empowers a demon? McFarlane teased that conflict for Spawn briefly, before deciding it was just cooler to have him disembowel whoever without feeling bad.

I’m sorry, but does it seem as if there isn’t a lot of…effort being placed into these scripts?

GHOST RIDER #16 (August 1991) That’s not how reflections work I think, but who cares?

One of Tex’s best opening splashes. And there’s a lot of competition there.

Even though this was released a year before Image, it has the feel of a post-Image Marvel book: Creators picking up plot threads from the Image Seven & attempting to find something mineable. This is a sequel to McFarlane’s Ghost Rider/Hobgoblin story, the one that turned Hobgoblin into a religious fanatic. (notblogx.blogspot.com/2009/12/spider…) 

Mackie ties it in with the abrupt revelation that Dan’s mother has joined a cult, which meets in an abandoned church. Born-Again Hobgoblin doesn’t approve.

McFarlane wrote his story under the assumption Ghost Rider casually kills criminals, even though this book rejects that interpretation. Yet, Spidey swings in, already lecturing Ghost Rider on killing. We know Ghost Rider doesn’t kill; you remind us of it often! We’re never even told how Spider-Man found this church; he appears literally out of nowhere. In the midst of this, Blaze gives Dan a KARATE KID style training montage. And, really, none of this is that interesting. Except for the art, which has Tex interpreting McFarlane’s look for several pages.

GHOST RIDER #17 (September 1991) If nothing else, Hobgoblin looks like he should be a Ghost Rider villain.

Apparently DARKHAWK #3 also plays a role in this storyline, per one footnote. Give all your quarters to Marvel, kids. Okay, from the first page, there’s really no reason for Spidey to be obstructing Ghost Rider like this.

Except Danny now wants to kill? Actually not a bad conflict, giving normally milquetoast Dan the bloodlust.

As a sequel to a SPIDER-MAN arc that just looked cool & had little else going for it, it’s hard to expect much from this. It also looks cool, & tries to recreate the climax to the original story --

--which had Spidey protecting a kid Ghost Rider had forgotten in his vengeance quest. Now, it’s Dan’s mom who must be protected, even as Ghost Rider resists Dan’s bloodthirstiness. Could’ve been a credible conflict, but the execution is so stilted it’s hard to care.

The real question that must be addressed -- Danny’s mom joined a cult in-between issues? This supporting cast’s still so shallow that nothing feels shocking or out-of-character…because they’re barely ciphers anyway.