Marvel Mythos and Media #3 - Ghost Rider, Part Three

by Shawn Lampron | Wednesday, October 1, 2008

Mythos:

Welcome! If this is your first visit to Marvel Mythos and Media, be sure to take a look at previous columns to orient yourself!

Welcome to the conclusion of our in-depth look at the comic and media history of Ghost Rider and friends. In our first column, we took a look at the origins of everybody’s favorite possessed biker, while the second column gave us a chance to examine his powers, villains and friends. In this last column, we’re going to wrap up the opening arcs of Johnny Blaze as Ghost Rider before mentioning some of the other versions of Ghost Rider.

When we last left Johnny Blaze, he was in a bit of an identity crisis. He’d somehow defeated the Hulk and was fresh off a victory over Satan thanks to the help of Jesus. (Check out my previous column if you don’t believe THAT crazy synopsis!). During battles with the Zodiac, a lame super villain outfit I mentioned last column, Ghost Rider met a friend named Stuntmaster. After befriending him as Johnny Blaze, and needing fresh scenery and no more Roxanne as hostage bait situations, Johnny made his way to Cali to call in some favors.

I’m not sure what it is about him, but there’s something about Stuntmaster that makes me want to punch him square in the crotch. Haha! Witty banter, gents!

Luckily, Stuntmaster is able to find some work for our friend Johnny, and he’s soon employed as a stuntman for the movie studio at which Stuntmaster works. Why this studio needs two stuntmen who specialize only in driving motorcycles is baffling, but it would lead to Johnny meeting a new lady. Unfortunately for him, this was a lady with some baggage.

Stealing a blind hero’s girlfriend? Poor Daredevil. He didn’t even see it coming…

Karen Page just happens to be one of Matt Murdock’s, Daredevil’s, unlucky ladies. Why unlucky? Daredevil is notorious for having lady friends who meet untimely ends. Karen Page would ultimately become addicted to heroin, become a porn actress, and then sell Daredevil’s identity for a hit of smack before being killed off. Again, I can’t make this stuff up. However, in this tale, Karen still has her life together and is trying to spend some time away from her superhero ex.

Unfortunately for Karen and Johnny, a Ghost Rider nemesis that first appeared in an issue of Marvel Team-Up came looking for him. For those unfamiliar, Marvel Team-Up can be a fun read, but it’s basically a throwaway book. This apt description helps one understand the lameness of this villain. Sadly, though, aside from Mephisto, this villain would become his well-known rogue. Meet Orb, a former stunt motorcyclist who feels he was wronged by Johnny’s adoptive father, Crash Simpson. In a competition with Crash, the man who would become Orb was left horribly disfigured.

Visine purchases almost bankrupted the poor bastard.

While recovering, Orb was granted a mystical helmet, blah blah blah. The long and short of it is that this silly looking eyeball helmet allows him to hypnotize people into doing what he wants. While that power does little for him against Ghost Rider, he can use those Johnny cares about like chess pieces to torment Ghost Rider. Despite his prominent place in Johnny’s rogues’ gallery, Johnny makes short work of him and Orb is still left with a face that looks like Silly Putty.

Insert Sloth joke here. “Friend?!”

While lame, he fares better than the C-list Fantastic Four villain known as the Trapster. What does this loser with the power to trap with gadgets have to offer? Clearly, Ghost Rider was still suffering from a dearth of villainy when he’s forced to battle a man whose original villain name was Paste-pot Pete!

Yeah, he really looks nefarious.

Soon enough, the series hit an even more disastrous detour that my brother and I, in a private joke, consider one of the funniest comic stories ever published. In a journey to the coast, a random one-shot story, Ghost Rider encounters a man living with his adult daughter shooting at dolphins from his beach house. It seems this man, a former government agent, blames the death of his wife upon these dolphins and is fixated upon revenge.

F***ing Flipper…

Published in Ghost Rider #16, the issue is hilarious and well worth a look to anyone searching for something amusing. Of course, by the end, the man learns a valuable lesson and loves all aquatic life once more. The point is that the series was faltering and needed a jumpstart. Within an issue, it was time to trudge out the supernatural again. A friend of Johnny’s starts to suffer from possession, showing clear influences from The Exorcist in terms of the distorted face and behavior.

So this is what Bea Arthur looks like before makeup…

Ugh. Read the dialogue and shudder. Clearly, this was leading up to more demonic storylines. Also, notice that this is an exorcism. That means our old pal Daimon Hellstrom can’t be far behind as well.

Well…Daimon looks a little less ridiculous than the last time we saw him.

Despite that his powers originally came from Satan, the Prince of Darkness once again fails to strip Johnny of his powers. The logic behind this isn’t explained, and even Johnny seems incredulous himself that he’s able to keep his powers. Imagine how the readers feel. Predictably, Satan fails again. After pummeling Satan with a few good punches, Johnny is free to be Ghost Rider as he pleases once more. 

As previously mentioned, Karen Page is around, so the obligatory Daredevil crossover was on its way. Together, they battled Deathstalker, a villain so lame that his origin barely passes even the flimsiest of comic book logic. A scientist gone wrong story, he’s somehow trapped between two dimensions with the one clear ability of having his own sort of death touch. One wonders why he never touched himself just once and spared Marvel readers years of agony.

I love the properly accentuated EMPHASIS.

So, that brings us to the end of Ghost Rider #18 and the end of the material covered within this column. I’ll give you some more information in the Media section, but other than that, if you’re curious, hunt those back issue bins, search online, and buy those essentials to learn more about Ghost Rider!

*All images used are from Marvel Comics’ Essential Ghost Rider Volume 1.

Media

Media is being taken over for a bit of Mythos overtime this week to wrap up Ghost Rider!

The original Ghost Rider series stretched on for ten years, beginning in 1973 and meeting its demise in 1983. Johnny Blaze was ultimately stripped of the Ghost Rider persona, revealed to be a demon named Zarathos which inhabited his body, and he was left to live curse-free and pursue the American dream with Roxanne. 

The gap between Ghost Rider series was seven years, and when Ghost Rider returned, it wasn’t Johnny Blaze taking control of those fiery handlebars. In 1990, Daniel Ketch, who would eventually be revealed to be a very distant relative of Blaze, was granted the power. His costume change will probably be more familiar to younger readers: Ghost Rider suddenly gained spikes and chains to wield. Again, though, Ghost Rider couldn’t maintain a consistent following. The series was cancelled in 1998.

Ghost Rider was given a third shot in a limited series penned by the very able Garth Ennis, but Blaze is put in as Ghost Rider again with no explanation, contradicting the end of the second series. The five people who actually read this series received nosebleeds from trying to figure out what the hell was happening.

Somehow, based on his failed series, a movie project was greenlit. Given Ghost Rider’s previous financial failures, this is remarkable! One can only guess that Nic Cage’s star power and Marvel’s movie successes led to the maneuver.

How many favors did this man pull to get the movie made?

Despite the fact that the movie was roasted by critics and many fans, it managed to make a tidy sum and renew interest in the character. Predictably, Marvel rushed out a new ongoing series in 2006 putting Johnny Blaze back on the cycle. This series has survived thus far, but Ghost Rider is having a difficult time fitting in with Marvel’s current superhero culture. He’s noticeably absent from any major crossover events such as World War Hulk and Secret Invasion. Once again, he’s being underused.

Maybe Ghost Rider is way in the back somewhere…

Whether Ghost Rider will ever receive a decent shot as an elite Marvel character is yet to be seen. Stranger things have happened. Such obscure characters as Luke Cage, Ms. Marvel and Iron Fist have all found themselves to be given prominent spots in the Marvel universe in recent years. Will Ghost Rider receive the same upgrade? Only time will tell.

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