Ghost Rider: Vengeance Unbound

GHOST RIDER # 11 (volume 1)

SYNOPSIS
In the most desolate desert area of the United States, a cross-country motorcycle endurance race is preparing to go underway. One of the bikers is Johnny Blaze, who took the Stunt-Master's place in the race as a way to forget his most recent battle with Satan and the departure of Roxanne Simpson. Among the other racers are Terry Fairbanks and Nora Joyce, a divorced couple that were once a riding team but who are now opponents, and Douglas Forester, the man funding the race who is also a competitor. While Blaze checks his bike before the race, the race's starter - a man named Lemuel Driftwood - attempts to strike up a conversation with him. Even though Johnny really doesn't want to talk, he listens as Driftwood tells him about Forester's family dying in a plane crash, and that he sponsered the marathon as a way to forget his pain. Lemuel then says that he himself was raised in an ophanage and was sick a lot as a child - a turn of discussion that causes Blaze to brush off the conversation by saying he needs to check over his bike. Disappointed, Driftwood decides it's time to start the race and fires his pistol into the air, prompting the racers to begin. After a few quick moments, however, Lemuel makes an impulsive decision to prove that he's just as good as the bikers, hopping on a stand-by bike and joining the race himself.

Unknown to Blaze, among the fans at the race's start lurks the disguised Inferno, who has been charged with the task of making Johnny die while committing an evil act, hence condemning his soul to Hell. Inferno resumes his demonic form as he teleports to another part of the desert, finding the pawn he plans to use to trap the Ghost Rider: none other than the incredible Hulk. Using his fear-inducing powers, Inferno causes the Hulk to be attacked by an illusionary version of the Ghost Rider. The hallucinatory Rider causes the Hulk much pain, but then just as suddenly as he appeared he disappears. The Hulk is now in a furious rage at being attacked, and he leaps off to find Blaze (whose location has been placed in the man-brute's mind by Inferno). Inferno watches the Hulk leave, sure that when the monster attacks the bikers Blaze will run to save himself...and then, after the Hulk kills Blaze, his soul will belong to Satan.

Back at the race, Blaze undergoes the transformation into the Ghost Rider, having forgotten that most of the race takes place at night. While he scrambles for an explanation, Mr. Forester tells him that his ghost tricks won't scare anybody out of the race, and John thanks himself for having the foresight to include the Ghost Rider bit into his cycle act. The six racers continue on until, suddenly, the Hulk crashes down in their path, determined to kill the Ghost Rider. Unable to stop in time, Forester jumps off his bike, allowing it to crash into the Hulk. Annoyed by the crash, the Hulk prepares to kill Forester...but, to the surprise of all, Lemuel Driftwood rides to the rescue, barely pulling Forester away in time before the Hulk strikes. Blaze attempts to lure the Hulk away, but finds that his hellfire does little to harm the rampaging monster. The Hulk attacks, knocking Blaze from his bike, but before the advantage can be pressed, Fairbanks and Joyce manage to distract the goliath while Forester and Driftwood help Blze to his feet. Having regained his senses, Blaze blankets the Hulk with hellfire, burning up all of the oxygen around his head. Eventually, the Hulk passes out due to lack of oxygen and falls to the ground defeated. The bikers celebrate momentarily before Blaze recommends that they leave the area before the Hulk wakes up. Later, after the weary bikers make it to the finish line, the one racer that continued on during the Hulk's attack (and subsequently won the race), asks Blaze why he helped a bunch of losers instead of winning the prize money. Johnny looks back at the four people who helped him and tells the other man that he's got it wrong, "there isn't a loser in the pack".

ANNOTATIONS
This story was originally scheduled to appear in Ghost Rider # 10 (vol. 1), but due to "the dreaded deadline doom" the story was pushed back to the next issue.

This issue marks the first appearance of Blaze's "Skull Cycle" that took the place of his hellfire bike for a brief period. The Skull Cycle was destroyed in Ghost Rider # 21 (vol. 1) and Blaze returned to creating bikes out of hellfire once more.

Inferno first appeared as the demon Slifer in Ghost Rider # 4 (vol. 1), and was transformed into his fear-monger form in Ghost Rider # 8 (vol. 1). Satan sent Inferno to Earth to spy on Blaze at the conclusion of Ghost Rider # 9 (vol. 1). Unfortunately, this was Inferno's last on-screen appearance, though he was mentioned in Ghost Rider # 19 (vol. 1) as being the person responsible for Roxanne Simpson's whereabouts.

REVIEW
We're finally treated to the Hulk story that was promised for the previous issue. Was it worth the wait?

Up to this point, other than a sole guest-appearance in an issue of Marvel Team-Up, Ghost Rider had stayed off in his own little corner of the Marvel Universe. This makes good sense, considering how much the Satanic, supernatural overtones of the character would clash with the four-color superheroes that take up most of Marvel's line-up of comics (though it was surprising we didn't get any interaction with Tomb of Dracula or Werewolf by Night during this period). But with new writer Tony Isabella came a desire to push Ghost Rider away from the horror aspect in favor of making him a superhero, so in came the guest-stars. Pairing Blaze up with the Hulk was a favorable choice on Isabella's part, and here's why.

Like Blaze, Bruce Banner was subject to a transformation into a monster against his will, echoing the Jekyll and Hyde motif that made for such great monster stories throughout the years. Unlike the Hulk, at least at this point in his history, Blaze was still himself after his transformation into the Ghost Rider, and the two juxtaposed against each other nicely. And speaking solely as a slobbering fanboy, a fight between Ghost Rider and the Hulk was too cool to pass up.

This story also falls during the weird transitional period between the Satan period and the Los Angeles status quo, when the book seemed to be flailing around with no idea where it was going to land. It was a time-filler while Isabella weighed his options on where to take the book now that the Satan aspects had been kicked into touch. So this issue is the start of a triptych of one-shot stories that showcased Blaze helping his fellow man to gain "redemption" of a sort. It was established in the previous issue that should Blaze die while committing a selfish or evil act, he will go straight to Hell; so we get our first “temptation of Johnny Blaze” tales here. Inferno was correct that it would have been easy for Blaze to abandon his fellow racers to save his own skin – and against the freaking Hulk, who would blame him? – and considering Blaze's reaction toward his "fellow man" in the past, like when he let Las Vegas burn from Roulette in order to save his girlfriend, his decision could have went either way. But naturally, Blaze is the hero of the book, so he stayed to face down and eventually beat the Hulk. What made the fight memorable is not just the clever way Blaze beats the massively more powerful Hulk (by suffocating him) but the way each of the other racers pitches in to help. Isabella crafted the script carefully, and while you can see the eventual redemption of each emotionally damaged character coming as soon as the story starts, it's nice how he ties it all together into one climactic battle against the Hulk.

The artwork is provided by guest-artist Sal Buscema, no stranger to drawing the Hulk in the pages of his own magazine and that of the Defenders. I would fathom a guess that Buscema was chosen for exactly this reason, though I'm sure his relative swiftness at turning around projects was a major factor as well given how late this story was when it finally got published. The book was still looking for a regular artist following Jim Mooney's departure, and Buscema came through in the clutch.