Writer: Ivan Velez Jr
Artist: Javier Saltares
Publisher: Marvel
Price: $3.99
Almost ten years ago Marvel finished off the very successful Ghost Rider series, but failed to put out the last issue. The readers (all 2 of them at that point as the series careered towards cancellation) were left with a cliffhanger as the Flame headed spirit of vengeance became the lord of the underworld. That was 1998 and out of the blue Marvel solicited this special release.
You may ask yourself “why?” Well, even as one of the few people who realised that the issue never materialised I’m at a loss as to what purpose putting out this comic now serves. There’s no trade collection coming, the movie about to come out features a different Ghost Rider - this story has the nineties Ghost Rider, Danny Ketch, as opposed to Johnny Blaze as its protagonist - and it was ignored in continuity within months of being published with the next appearance of Ghost Rider. The current Ghost Rider series, first by Garth Ennis and currently by Daniel Way, do not even mention any of this.
So what’s it like? Well as a reader of the series it works quite nicely tying up loose ends, giving our heroes some what of a happy ending (which in this series is quite an achievement given how many of the cast members, including the main hero, died during its run). However there is a but… and this is quite a big but, even with the summary of what has gone before and with the summary of who characters are new readers will find themselves struggling to get into the story. There is qute a detailed history of the character in the back, but that is after the two issues of story.
It’s great that Marvel put this out, for those of us who read the book back then. I have no idea why, but I really do hope they decide to collect the series into trades as it was great at various points when dayglo covers and silly crossovers weren’t getting in its way.
Mark Peyton – has a MA in History and Research from the University of Hull specialising in the Hundred Years War. In a complete departure from that he now runs communications and membership for a UK based Trade Union as well as being a part time writer/journalist.
He is a founding member of Millarworld acting as a moderator and as an editor for Fractal Matter.