Early days of Ghost Rider, but not entirely essential

books:


	• Essential Ghost Rider, Vol. 1 (Marvel Essentials) Roy Thomas, Michael Ploog, ... Marvel Comics, 2005 - 560 pages average customer review:based on 11 reviews view larger image
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Early days of Ghost Rider, but not entirely essential

Ghost Rider was one of many Marvel characters created in the 70's that has been much maligned in terms of his origin, status, and overall how he's been written. Essential Ghost Rider suffers from the same problems that are apparent in many of Marvel's Essential books: this contains early visions of the character, but the stories themselves are not entirely essential. Essential Ghost Rider begins with motorcycle stunt performer Johnny Blaze making a deal with the demon Mephisto to save the life of his stepfather Crash, and in return, Blaze offers up his soul. However, as these things tend to go, the deal turns sour, and Blaze ends up being bonded to the demon Zarathos; transforming him into the flaming skull-headed spirit of vengeance known as Ghost Rider. All this is told in the opening Marvel Spotlight issues, which are the best to be found in this collection and feature the excellent art by Mike Ploog, who helped give Ghost Rider his awesome, trademark look. However, after we get to Ghost Rider's own issues, the book becomes wildly inconsistent and convoluted as a revolving door of writers (including Mike Friedrich, Marv Wolfman, Doug Moench, Gerry Conway, and Jim Shooter among others) all attempt to do their own thing, while trying to insert cameos and guest spots from top tier Marvel characters like Spider-Man, the Hulk, and Daredevil. Not to mention that the book has a mix of heroic and horror moments as well that only works occasionally. That being said, Essential Ghost Rider is worth checking out for fans who want to see just where the character got his start, but don't expect anything prolific, or "essential" for that matter.

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Graphic SF Reader

Demonic biker boys, and cheesy super bad guys. As much fun as I remembered, with some early looks at quite a few of Marvel's supernatural type characters. You meet Daimon Hellstromm, the Son of Satan, the Witch, and others. Flaming skull head guys are cool, comics artists have worked this out as now there are several of them.

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Just Getting Warmed Up

Ghost Rider battles Satan, the ultimate adversary, who unfortunately comes across as a stereotypical, almost comically inept supervillian. A necessary look at the character's origins, but it only got better from here.

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reviews: page 1, 2, 3

When orphaned stunt-show star Johnny Blaze discovers his adoptive father Crash Simpson is dying of a rare blood disease, he barters his immortal soul for a miracle cure. The trade-off ultimately leaves him bound to the demon Zarathos, and their melding of spirits would manifest itself every night in the form of Ghost Rider, the most supernatural super-hero of all! Collects Marvel Spotlight #5-12, Ghost Rider #1-20 and Daredevil #138.