MARVEL SPOTLIGHT #9 (featuring GHOST RIDER) Ive never been a deep GHOST RIDER fan. A flamboyant 70s book, it was certainly a comic I always picked up. My favourite GHOST RIDER story of all was Phantom of the Killer Skies from #12 by Tony Isabella, Frank Robbins and Frank Giacoia/Mike Esposito. Its the best story in the GHOST RIDER ESSENTIALS vol. 1. Im gazing through without raising a sweat. Its simply an inspired comic-story with all the right touches: A killer double-page spread. Some title lettering by Robbins himself scattered throughout. Robbins well inked - rather than the jarring Colletta that was to cloud the next few GHOST RIDER books. A Bronze book with a Golden Age-styled poetry to it. And theres the biplane/hellbike juxtaposition, all by itself... Its only competition at any point may have been GHOST RIDER #35 by Jim Starlin and Steve Leialoha. Especially at this point, GHOST RIDER was a textbook 70s body of work. I believe Gary Friedrich wrote some good moments and combined with Ploog very effectively*, but that he was slack about sub-plots and keeping track of things. *MONSTER OF FRANKENSTEIN by Friedrich and Ploog is splendid work, most of it adapted. MARVEL SPOTLIGHT #9 opens with Ghost Rider plunging to his ultimate demise. Friedrich calls Johnny Blaze half man, half servant of Satan. Until the last few issues by Stern and DeMatteis, it always seemed to float around ambiguously as to just what exactly Johnny Blaze had been transformed into. Snakes Crawl at Night is written by Gary Friedrich, penciled by Tom Sutton and inked, curiously I think, by Chic Stone. Im not a fan of Chic Stone - he usually has an undesirable laminating effect. Here though, coping with the flourishing wildness in Suttons pencils, he opens up a new brand of Stone, one that recalls his inks on John Buscemas SILVER SURFER #16-17. Hes pushed to be more expressive and less tame. He doesnt dull much of Sutton, thats for sure. The Serpent creature/apparition/snake-giant that the bad news Indian known as Snake Eyes has conjured has chased Johnny off a cliff. The end of page two invites us to believe the partys over for the Ghost Rider. The malignant Medicine Man goes to the edge of the cliff to peer down. Euphoric, he throws himself into some tangled dance. To the victor go the moves! Others have been combing the territory for Blaze. Mr Casey has a rodeo: Didnt want cycles at the rodeo anyway... Thats all, he says to Johnnys flame, Roxanne Simpson. Between them, they figure out that the biker in question had a canyon he wanted to investigate; the Copperhead Canyon. Rather than standing around outside the rodeo arguing, Casey teams Roxanne with Sam Silvercloud, one of his right-hand men. In the jeep, Roxanne and Sam talk land rights. They zip through the burning Arizona dust. Sam Silvercloud speaks affirmatively of repatriation by the Apache. They stop and look around. Sam tells her that he knows that Johnny Blaze is dead!! He overpowers her easily and ties her with rope. Youre mad... and why are you doing this? I have already told you... I act for my people... and for justice! Hes driving them to a date with Snake Dance. Its morning at rodeo headquarters, and now Roxanne Simpson is missing, as well. Casey doesnt mention Silvercloud, who shes missing with. (??) He dispatched him! Bart Slade, a crippled turncoat after Number One position in the Evel Knievel business, assures Casey he can stand in for the stunt cyclist. Hours and hours later, in the sweltering afternoon heat, who should come clawing their way out of a shallow blanket of rubble but the injured bikie on everyones mind. Hes unmarked... Satan himself ignites the air and burns in front of Johnny. He was present to ensure Johnnys survival. Had he died at the hands of a mortal, theres no way Satan could have gathered his soul. All that work for nothing. Did Friedrich have this ghost in the machine in mind at the literal cliffhanger of GHOST RIDER #10? Maybe, maybe not. The storylines do hinge on this point, so it doesnt grate. Until that glorious moment... you are free... and immune to all the murderous feats of our fellow man! Hours of contemplation pass before a helicopter attracts Johnnys attention. Hes soon rescued by a samaritan who figures hes lost his horse. And at the same instant, darkness also falls on the nearby Indian Reservation... and with it, horrors no white man ever before has heard... Is this kind of writing dead now? The caption assumes that Im both white and male. (By chance, thats true.) Anyway; Roxanne Simpson is going to be sacrificed. Its a bargaining for more power. Snake Dances people are hungry and live in despair. But the children cower. He has two snakes mounted on his shoulders, not unlike War Machine and his cannons. Theres more to the picture: Snake Eyes thinks to himself about how much he tires of ...this charade... Far from lilly white, the redskin is a simple liar and fraud. With brittle justifications and a naked longing for more power to go with his showmanship, he isnt an antihero; hes simply a rat. Inside the junk-strewn shack, he is going through his treasure chest ...dredging out the ancient instruments of destruction. Johnny jumps to he ground from the copter. He makes it to the dressing room which he ...never thought would look so good! He begins to change his apparel - well, just to put on a fresh suit of same. What really changes is his Flame On! head!! Its that time! Look, I honestly forget what brings on his changes at this point. I suppose its nightfall. Ghost Rider is surprised to find Bart Slade about to enter the shows spotlight. He stops him physically. The cycle-gymnastics intended for the evenings spectacle would be suicide for Slade. The next two pages prove it, too. The Rider jumps through flaming hoops and over a series of poles held shoulder height, two men a piece. Suttons angles are beautifully chosen. Its when Johnny has to jump a line of steers that he lets his mind wander - and he and vehicle fall down and go boom. Naturally, he steps from cataclysm. The crowd have had their moneys worth and its no concern of Ghost Riders if they havent. He sights Sam Silvercloud and gets Roxannes location out of him. Though how the hell he could possibly know of Silverclouds complicity is beyond me. Its just the loose sort of detail Gary Friedrich falls down on regularly. Annoying? You bet. Blaze bikes it to the reservation. Roxanne is tied to a snake creature-effigy the size of two sofas. The penile conventions are played and yet theyre nothing overt; or at least theres nothing over-the-tip (so to speak.) It doesnt look wholesome or nuthin - it just looks provocative and electrifying within the boundaries of a mainstream comic, from the time when zombies, walking animations of the truly undead, could only be referred to obliquely as zuvembies. (That Comics Code Authority rule was on its last legs about now...) So Snake Dance waves his pets and promises the Serpent Roxanne for his bride. He awaits a sign. Nothing coming, one of his shoulder snakes lances at her. It doesnt actually connect, though. Instead, Snake Dance has his wonderful fanged deluxe-sized worms striking and biting himself. Its like being pinched by a rubberband to him. Now hes going to make the sacrifice. If she survives as he can... They bite her hands! Sutton delivers. Ouch! Snake Dance is playing everyone, the crowd, even his gods. Roxanne begins to weaken. Reenter: the Ghost Rider! Ghost Rider chases - Snake Dance sprints. The heat is on. The best moment in his comic is this: Ghost Rider has her in his arms. His hellfire and pony show keep the others at bay. Simply awesome! Ghost Rider has to take his leave - Roxanne is beginning to die. He vows that he will be back if she perishes. Theyre sure she will and tremble accordingly. Before he goes, Ghost Rider destroys their huge serpent totem. And he goes... To be continued in MARVEL SPOTLIGHT #10 (where Sutton is matched rather intriguingly with Jim Mooney on inks.) One of the dopey things I love about earlier GHOST RIDER is how no one takes Johnny in full Satan-mode seriously. Theyre standing right next to him and saying that his ghost cycle routine doesnt scare them a bit. Yeah? Would they say the same standing next to the Blazing Skull or Johnny Storm or a human-sized Dormammu? My foot, they would. This guys naked skull is on fire for the love of Peter, Paul and Mary! The air burns around him. He has Satan stench. (If he doesnt, he ought to have.) And when hes sitting in a car with a roof - well, theres that burning globe of his sparklng with hellflame - but nothing melting or distorting. Ghost Rider - safe for children. He should stunt ride at kindergardens.
Posted on: Sun, 17 Aug 2014 02:57:05 +0000
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