GHOST RIDER # 25 (volume 1)
SYNOPSIS
Johnny Blaze, in his form of the Ghost Rider, conjures his motorcycle from pure hellfire in a darkened alleyway in Los Angeles. Despite the dizzying effect the effort of forming his bike causes him, Blaze knows that if he wastes any time than several lives may possibly be at stake. He rides out of the alley, startling the people on the street, and races toward the Hollywood Wax Museum, which is engulfed with an inferno of flames. Realizing that the fire department are fighting a losing battle with the blaze, the Ghost Rider races up the side of the building across the street and then jumps from its roof straight into the burning museum. Finding a woman trapped inside, the sight of the demon biker causes her to faint. When the fire fighters have given up all hope of any survivors, Blaze blasts through the wall and sets the woman down in front of them. He then jumps on his bike and races through the crowd, away from the building. As he leaves the scene, he spots a modified sports car racing away as well. Johnny doesn't give much thought to the car other than a hope that the cops will chase it instead of him.
Back in the same alley where he formed his cycle, Johnny returns to his human form and returns to his normal bike. Later, at Delazny Studios, Johnny notices that things are unusually quiet. When he enters the studio, he finds Karen Page, who leads him to a dressing room that contains the rest of the crew. On the television is a live news report from a local power plant that is surrounded by the police. The police spotlights land on a costumed figure atop the plant, a figure that identifies himself as Malice. When the cops begin to move closer to the building, the villain fires at the ground with a gun that causes an earthquake below their feet. Before they can regain their footing, he employs another device that causes their guns to fall to pieces and their cars to explode. As the cops run away, Malice tells the cameras to remember his name and to tell the newspapers that he was the one who burned down the wax museum as well. As everyone flees, Malice turns and fires his weapon at the power plant, causing it to explode and subsequently throws much of the city into darkness.
Later, after the Delazny crew have parted ways for the evening, Johnny rides home on his bike, lost in thoughts of Karen Page and Roxanne Simpson. Suddenly, a car runs a stop sign and barrels at him, not slowing down an inch. Only with the use of his skills as a stunt-rider does Blaze manage to keep from being hit. He gives chase to the car, but then suddenly realizes that its the same one he saw after the wax museum fire. Naturally, when he catches up to the car, he sees that the driver is none other than Malice, who is using his weaponry to rob a bank. The criminal robs the bank while Johnny stares, awestruck. Only after Malice has again sped off in his car does Blaze realize that he should have stopped him. Transforming into the Ghost Rider and hopping upon his flame cycle easily catches up to Malice's car. Blaze goes into his spook act, saying that the villain will "feel the aching horror of Hell", but then realizes that there's no possible way Malice could hear him. Pushing aside the thoughts of why he lapsed so easily into his hellspawn act, Blaze finds himself assailed by a barrage of missiles from the back of the villain's car. When all miss, Malice drives across a bridge and then blows it in two, with the Ghost Rider stuck on the opposite side. Thinking himself home free, Malice drives on.
Some time later, Malice finds that the Ghost Rider is somehow now standing in the road in front of him. With the car going at a speed of 80 MPH, Blaze stands stock-still and allows the vehicle to hit him head on, not fazing him in the slightest. When Malice crawls from the wreckage, the Ghost Rider tells him that his thirst for vengeance will not be denied and then fries him with a blast of hellfire. The flame burns deep into the villain's soul. The Ghost Rider then rides away, leaving the broken Malice stuck to the road in a pool of molten tar.
ANNOTATIONS
This is the first issue in which Blaze begins to question the nature of his demon identity, as he finds himself becoming more wild and uncontrollable as the Ghost Rider. The demon's rage causes him to go on the run in Ghost Rider # 26 (vol. 1), and he stays that way until he joins the Quentin Carnival in Ghost Rider # 63 (vol. 1).
This issue is reprinted in Essential Ghost Rider vol. 2.
REVIEW
It's been a long-held tradition in comics that - for reasons fathomable only to marketing departments - "anniversary" issues are not celebrated in year marks but in quarters. Inexplicably, when a comic series reaches issues 25, 50, 75, and 100 a celebration is generally in order...simply because those are "important" numbers that sound good and official and more often than not a reason to get more money out of readers by jacking up page counts and adding variant and gimmick covers. But, while Ghost Rider # 25 falls a few years before this became standard practice, writer Jim Shooter gives us what would later be coined a "jumping-on point" with this single-issue story. It introduces new readers to the status quo and cast of characters...though this seems completely unnecessary due to the sudden change of the status quo just one issue later.
Jim Shooter's run on Ghost Rider was poor, to say the least. The four-issue arc that proceeded this was silly in a silver-age superhero way, unnecessarily confusing in parts, and a completely unwelcome shift from the darker superheroics the book had seen during previous writer Tony Isabella's long stint. Part of the blame for Shooter's "spandex hero fights spandex bad guy" motif could possibly be thrown on the Ghost Rider's membership in The Champions, the ill-fated and mismatched super-team that was a failure from day one. But the biggest problem with "Menace Is a Man Called Malice!" is the sheer unoriginality and blandness of the villain, the aforementioned Malice. The character's costume design is a poor riff on classic Jack Kirby, with garish purple and yellow colors that shifts the villain from "menace" to "ridiculous". He's also the worst kind of villain, one who has no motivation for his actions other than being evil for no reason.
Truly, the only noteworthy aspect of this mediocre story is the first inkling that Blaze is becoming more wild and ruthless as the Ghost Rider. This is a plot that will come to great fruition under the pen of other writers, such as Michael Fleisher, but I believe Shooter had something else in mind instead of the Ghost Rider being a separate demon entity in Johnny's body. From the way the script in this and the next issue reads, hints are given that the growing violence of the Ghost Rider is due to the dark side of Blaze's own personality coming to the fore; and while this is certainly an interesting idea, it definitely pales before the eventual emergence of Zarathos.
As I've said in other reviews, I have never been a fan of Don Heck's artwork, and this issue is one of his worst. It's obvious that Jack Kirby's unique style had become the "house style" of Marvel during this time, and Heck was one of the more blatant rip-offs of the King. And while he could possibly do decent work on other titles, such as the Avengers, Heck certainly fails to capture the mood and energy that a series like Ghost Rider demands.
So, while the 25th issue of a comic series is generally a special event, this issue is certainly nothing to celebrate. It's glaringly awful from script to art, and I recommend anyone other than Ghost Rider completists to stay far away.
Grade: D
Ghost Rider # 25 (volume 1)
Published: Aug. 1977
Original Price: $0.30
Cover: Gil Kane
Title: "Menace Is a Man Called Malice!"
Writer: Jim Shooter
Artist: Don Heck
Inker: Tony DeZuniga
Letterer: Denise Wohl
Colorist: Warfield
Editor: Archie Goodwin