By Roy Thomas, Gary Friedrich, Tony Isabella, Marv Wolfman, Doug Moench, Len Wein, Mike Ploog, Tom Sutton, Jim Mooney, Herb Trimpe, Sal Buscema, Ross Andru & various (Marvel)
ISBN: 978-1-3029-4611-1 (TPB/Digital edition)
Win’s Christmas Gift Recommendation: Rousing Redemptive Comic Classics… 8/10
At the end of the 1960s American comic books were in turmoil, much like the youth of the nation they targeted. Superheroes had dominated for most of the decade; peaking globally before explosively falling to ennui and overkill. Older genres such as horror, westerns and science fiction returned, fed by radical trends in movie-making where another, new(ish) wrinkle had also emerged: disenchanted, rebellious, unchained Youth on Motorbikes seeking a different way forward.
Green Lantern/Green Arrow, Jack Kirby’s Jimmy Olsen, Captain America and many others took the Easy Rider option to boost flagging sales – and if you’re interested the best of the bunch was Mike Sekowsky’s tragically unfinished mini-masterpiece of cool Jason’s Quest in Showcase. At Marvel – still reeling from The King’s defection to DC/National in 1970 – canny Roy Thomas green-lit a new character combining that freewheeling, adolescent-friendly biker-theme with the all-pervasive supernatural furore then gripping the globe.
Back in 1967, Marvel published a western masked hero named Ghost Rider: a shameless, whole-hearted appropriation of the cowboy hero creation of Vince Sullivan, Ray Krank & Dick Ayers for Magazine Enterprises from 1949 to 1955. They both utilised magician’s tricks to fight bandits by pretending to be an avenging phantom of justice.
Scant years later, with the Comics Code prohibition against horror hastily rewritten – amazing how plunging sales can affect ethics – scary comics came back in a big way. A new crop of supernatural superheroes and monsters began to appear on the newsstands, supplementing the ghosts, ghoulies and goblins already infiltrating the formerly science-only scenarios of the surviving mystery men titles.
In fact, the lifting of the Code ban resulted in such an avalanche of horror titles (new stories and reprints from the first boom of the 1950s), in response to the industry-wide down-turn in superhero sales, that it probably caused a few more venerable costumed crusaders to – albeit temporarily – bite the dust.
Almost overnight nasty monsters (and narcotics – but that’s another story) became acceptable fare on four-colour pages and with a parade of pre-code reprints making sound business sense, the creative aspect of contemporary fascination in supernatural themes was catered to by adapting popular cultural icons before risking whole new concepts on an untested public.
As always in entertainment, the watch-world was fashion: what was hitting big outside comics would be incorporated into the mix as soon as possible. When proto-monster Morbius, the Living Vampire debuted in Amazing Spider-Man #101 (October 1971) and the sky failed to fall in, Marvel moved ahead with a line of shocking superstars – beginning with a werewolf and a vampire – before chancing something new: a spectral biker who could tap into both Easy Rider’s motorcycling chic and the prevailing supernatural zeitgeist.
The all-new Ghost Rider peeled out in Marvel Spotlight #5 (August 1972 and following western hero Red Wolf in #1 and the afore-hinted Werewolf by Night in #2-4).
This canny compendium collects those earliest flame-filled exploits: adventures from Marvel Spotlight #5-12, Ghost Rider #1-11 and a terror-tinged guest shot in Marvel Team-Up (#15), spanning August 1972 to April 1975, and the comics thrills, spills and chills begin with that landmark first appearance: an eerie tale of double-dealing and desperation introducing stunt bike Johnny Blaze, his fatally flawed father-figure Crash Simpson and Johnny’s devout and devoted girlfriend, sweetly innocent Roxanne Simpson.
Plotted by Thomas, scripted by Gary Friedrich and stunningly illustrated by Ploog, ‘Ghost Rider’ sees carnival cyclist Blaze sell his soul to the devil in an attempt to save his foster-father Crash from cancer. As is the way of such things, Satan follows the letter but not spirit of the contract and Simpson dies anyway, but when the Dark Lord later comes for Johnny, his beloved virginal girlfriend Roxanne intervenes.
Her purity prevents the Devil claiming his due and, temporarily thwarted, Satan spitefully afflicts Johnny with a body that burns with the fires of Hell every time the sun goes down…
At first haunting the night and terrorising thugs and criminals, the traumatised biker soon leaves the Big City and heads for the solitary deserts where – in ‘Angels From Hell!’ – the flaming-skulled fugitive joins a biker gang led by enigmatic Curly Samuels: in actuality a resurrected agent of Satan attempting to destroy the protective Roxanne to claim Blaze’s soul.
No prizes for guessing Curly’s true identity then, since the next chapter (inked by Frank Chiaramonte) is entitled ‘Die, Die, My Daughter!’…
The origin epic concludes with a monumental battle against ‘…The Hordes of Hell!’ (offering a rather uncomfortable artistic collaboration by Ploog & Jim Mooney), spawning a torturous Cold War détente between the still nightly-transforming Blaze and the Lord of Lies, as well as introducing a new eldritch enemy in Native American Witch Man Snake-Dance…
With Marvel Spotlight #9 the tragically undervalued Tom Sutton took over pencilling – with inks by Chic Stone – for ‘The Snakes Crawl at Night…’ as Medicine Man magic and demonic devil-worship combine to torment Blaze just as Roxanne goes west looking for him. To further confound the accursed cyclist, Satan decrees that although he must feel the pain, no injury will end Johnny’s life until his soul resides in Hell – which comes in very handy when Roxanne is sacrificed by Snake-Dance and the Ghost Rider has to battle his entire deviant cult to rescue her…
In #10, ‘The Coming of… Witch-Woman!’ (Friedrich, Sutton & Mooney) opens with Blaze a fugitive from the police and rushing dying Roxanne to hospital. Meanwhile back on the Reservation, tensions remain high as Snake-Dance’s daughter Linda Littletrees reveals her own connection to Satan, culminating in a devastating eldritch assault on Blaze in #11’s ‘Season of the Witch-Woman!’ (inked by the incomparable Syd Shores).
That cataclysmic conflict continued into Ghost Rider #1 (cover-dated September 1973), further extending the escalating war between Blaze and the Devil and using the conflict to introduce a new horror-hero who would take over the biker’s vacant slot in Spotlight.
Linda Littletrees isn’t so much a Satan-worshipping witch as ‘A Woman Possessed!’, but when her father and fiancé Sam Silvercloud call in Boston-based exorcist Daimon Hellstrom, they are utterly unprepared for the kind of assistance the demonologist offers.
With Roxanne slowly recuperating and Blaze still on the run, Ghost Rider #2 depicts the bedevilled biker dragged down to Hell in ‘Shake Hands With Satan!’ (Mooney & Shores) before the saga concludes in Marvel Spotlight #12 with the official debut of ‘The Son of Satan!’ courtesy of Friedrich, Herb Trimpe & Frank Chiaramonte, revealing Hellstrom’s long-suppressed inner self is a brutal scion of the Infernal Realm eternally at war with his infernal father.
The liberated Prince of Hell swiftly rushes to Blaze’s aid – although more to spite his sire than succour the victim – and, with his own series off to a spectacular start – continues to take the pressure off the flaming-skulled hero. Ghost Rider #3’s ‘Wheels on Fire’ (by Friedrich, Mooney & John Tartaglione) sees fresh directions explored with more mundane menaces and contemporary antagonists like the outlaw gang of biker Big Daddy Dawson who kidnaps the still frail Roxanne…
Blaze also learns how to create a spectral motorcycle from the Hellfire that perpetually burns through his body: a most useful trick considering the way he treats conventional transport…
Eager to establish some kind of normal life, wanted fugitive Blaze accepts a pardon from the State Attorney General in GR #4’s ‘Death Stalks the Demolition Derby’ (Vince Colletta inks) in return for infiltrating a Las Vegas showman’s shady operation, leading to another supernatural encounter, this time against a demonic gambler dubbed Roulette in ‘And Vegas Writhes in Flame!’ by the transitional creative team of Marv Wolfman, Doug Moench, Mooney & Sal Trapani.
A rising star, Ghost Rider next joined Spider-Man to battle a demented biker bad-guy in Marvel Team-Up #15 (November 1973, by Len Wein, Ross Andru & Don Perlin) which introduced lame-duck villain The Orb. Maimed and disfigured years previously confronting Crash Simpson, he seeks belated revenge against his heirs in ‘If an Eye Offend Thee…’ but should have waited until Blaze’s travelling roadshow was far away from superhero-stuffed New York City and its overly protective friendly neighbourhood webslinger…
Back at Ghost Rider #6 Tony Isabella, Gary Friedrich, Mooney & Trapani hit the kickstart hard in a perhaps ill-considered attempt to convert the tragic haunted biker into a more conventional superhero. ‘Zodiac II’ sees Blaze stumble into a senseless fight with a man possessing all the powers of the Avengers’ arch-nemeses. However, there’s a hidden Hellish component to the mystery as Blaze discovers when reformed super-villain turned TV star Stunt-Master turns up to help close the case and watch helplessly as the one-man Zodiac falls foul of his own diabolical devil’s bargain in ‘…And Lose His Own Soul!’ (Isabella, Mooney & Jack Abel).
A final confrontation – of sorts – commences in #8 as ‘Satan Himself!’ comes looking for Johnny’s soul, enacting a foolproof scheme to force Roxanne to rescind her protection. She finally does so as the Hell-biker battles Inferno, the Fear-demon (and most of San Francisco) in game-changing epic ‘The Hell-Bound Hero!’
Here Blaze is finally freed from his satanic burden by the intervention of someone who appears to be Jesus Christ…
The cover of issue #10 (by Ron Wilson & Joe Sinnott) featured GR battling The Hulk, but a deadline cock-up delayed that tale until #11 with the reprinted origin from Marvel Spotlight #5 filling those pages. Gil Kane & Tom Palmer reinterpreted the scene for their cover on #11 as the issue which closes this first tome finally details ‘The Desolation Run!’ (by Isabella, Sal Buscema, Tartaglione & George Roussos).
When Johnny joins a disparate band of dirt-bikers in a desert race, he collides with the legendarily solitary and short-tempered Green Goliath and learns who his true friends are…
I said “closes” but there’s always a few appetising extras on offer and this high-octane compendium compounds the chilling action with the August 1972 Marvel Bullpen Bulletins page announcing the debut of the Biker Ghost Rider plus house ads; design sketches by Ploog and John Romita; an eerie back-cover from FOOM #7 featuring early Ploog visualisations of the Blazing Biker and a stunning selection of original art pages by Ploog & Chiaramonte, Mooney & Shores, Gil Kane & Frank Giacoia, Romita, Kane & Palmer, and Andru & Perlin.
The 1990s saw these classics frequently reprinted and here Marvel Tales #254 provides 3 pin-ups by Jae Lee, Jan Harpes & Renee Witterstaeter plus a cover by Brian Stelfreeze, as well as The Original Ghost Rider reprint series cover gallery: offering art by Mark Teixeira, Jimmy Palmiotti, Javier Saltares, Andy Kubert, Joe Quesada, Jan Anton Harps, Kevin Maguire, Brad Vancata, Mark Pacella, Jeff Johnson, Dan Panosian, Ploog, Klaus Janson, Michael Bair, Darick Robertson, Chris Bachalo, Bill Wylie, Walter McDaniel, Andy Smith, Manny Galan & Scott Koblish, Gary Barker, Kris Renkewitz & Andrew Pepoy, bringing the fearsome fun to a close for now…
One final note: backwriting and retcons notwithstanding, the Christian boycotts and moral crusades of a later decade were what compelled the criticism-averse and commercially astute corporate Marvel to “translate” the biblical Satan of these tales into generic and presumably more palatable demonic creatures such as Mephisto, Satanish, Marduk Kurios and other equally naff downgrades. However, the original intent and adventures of Johnny Blaze – and spin-offs Daimon Hellstrom and Satana – respectively Son and Daughter of Satan – tapped into the period’s global fascination with Satanism, Devil-worship and all things Spookily Supernatural which had begun with such epochal breakthroughs as Rosemary’s Baby (Roman Polanski’s 1968 film more than Ira Levin’s novel) so remember these aren’t your feeble bowdlerised “Hell-lite” horrors.
These tales are about the real-deal Infernal Realm and a good man struggling to save his soul from the worst of all bargains – as much as the revised Comics Code would allow – so brace yourself, hold steady and accept no supernatural substitutes…
© 2022 MARVEL.