A new creative team takes over and delivers one of those rarest of Marvel creatures: An excellent Ghost Rider story. What makes it great? Well, the characterizations and art are fantastic but it’s the willingness of the team to wrestle with the ideas of God and Satan, which are at the core of the Ghost Rider character.
Johnny Blaze goes looking for whoever made him the Spirit of Vengeance (having learning that the Devil didn’t do it in the last arc), and discovers that it was actually an angel named Zadkiel–a servant of God. And so he tries to get to Heaven for revenge.
Starting off by burning a priest to send a message.
And that’s all in the first few pages.
The tale begins in the midwestern town of New Beulah, which is full-on in the tradition of ’70s Grindhouse. A man named Lucas Collier nearly dies in a car crash that kills his girlfriend.
The site of Collier’s accident on Highway 18 is cursed by ghosts, and a local Deputy goes to investigate why there are so many car crashes. That man, Deputy Kowalski, runs into Ghost Rider during Johnny Blaze’s search for Zadkiel. He also gets his hand cut off by cannibals.
Ghost Rider hits him with his penance stare.
Kowalski will return in future issues.
Lucas Collier is hospitalized in New Beulah and awakened with a profound fear of angels. This draws the interest of Johnny Blaze, who tries to visit Collier in the hospital but…
He is kept prisoner by nurses armed with shotguns and machine guns, who worship Zadkiel.
After Ghost Rider busts him out, Collier tells him what’s going on…
Zadkiel is waging a war on God and has created “siege engines” built by the souls of the recent departed who were on the path to go to Heaven but were intercepted at the Gates by Zadkiel.
Ghost Rider and Collier fight off the shotgun nurses and ghosts but get separated on Highway 18. Collier becomes convinced that Johnny Blaze can’t defeat Zadkiel and kills himself–preferring to end up in Hell than to be captured and used for Zadkiel’s siege engines.
After destroying all the nurses and ghosts on Highway 18, the curse is lifted. Blaze rides out of town. Behind him, a man shows up and tells a local that everything that happened was part of Zadkiel’s plan. The man says he works for Zadkiel, the view pans out and…
It’s Danny Ketch!
Outstanding story. Excellent read.