writer: Gary Friedrich
artist: Mike Ploog
inker: Frank Monte
letterer: John Costanza
editor: Roy Thomas
on stands: October 1972
reprinted in 1992 as: The Original Ghost Rider no. 2 with cover art by Javier Saltares.
Marvel Spotlight no. 6, now free of the burden of squeezing in all that back story, kicks off an all-new story arc to get Johnny Blaze on the path to becoming a super hero (of sorts). And it starts pretty much like the last issue, with Ghost Rider being chased by a gang of thugs called Satan's Servants with ridiculous names like Baby Jack. Once again Johnny is cornered and decides to try to scare his attackers. Although it works, the gang leader Curly Samuels thinks Johnny is a "far out jock" and wants to recruit him. Johnny's reply? Okay sure ~ he needs a "pad to crash". Ohhh the 70s. So painful.
Johnny gets intimate with Curly real fast. He has to in order to recap the previous issue. "It began," he says, "when I was a small lad...." I wish I were making that up.
Curly then hypnotizes Johnny and breaks out with the Death's Head Candle (everyone in these comics seems to have one just conveniently lying around). Curly is revealed to be Crash Simpson brought back from the dead to retrieve Johnny's soul, but Johnny's soul is locked in by Roxanne's love. Crash reverts back to Curly and lies in wait. Meanwhile, Johnny ~ none the wiser ~ returns to do his show. He and Roxanne quarrel and she storms out (get used to it). Curly and his gang show up at the performance to "kidnap that great girl cyclist" and so, of course, Ghost Rider comes to the rescue. The crowd thinks it's part of the show, so they take a bow.
Later, Curly visits Roxanne in her dressing room and hypnotizes her in order to kidnap her and sacrifice her to Satan (his own daughter!). This is going to be the formula for the whole of Friedrich's turn as writer on the series. It's kind of unfortunate that the man who originated the character couldn't come up with better storylines than this.
Next: The unholy alliance! (so it says)
artist: Mike Ploog
inker: Frank Monte
letterer: John Costanza
editor: Roy Thomas
on stands: October 1972
reprinted in 1992 as: The Original Ghost Rider no. 2 with cover art by Javier Saltares.
Marvel Spotlight no. 6, now free of the burden of squeezing in all that back story, kicks off an all-new story arc to get Johnny Blaze on the path to becoming a super hero (of sorts). And it starts pretty much like the last issue, with Ghost Rider being chased by a gang of thugs called Satan's Servants with ridiculous names like Baby Jack. Once again Johnny is cornered and decides to try to scare his attackers. Although it works, the gang leader Curly Samuels thinks Johnny is a "far out jock" and wants to recruit him. Johnny's reply? Okay sure ~ he needs a "pad to crash". Ohhh the 70s. So painful.
Johnny gets intimate with Curly real fast. He has to in order to recap the previous issue. "It began," he says, "when I was a small lad...." I wish I were making that up.
Curly then hypnotizes Johnny and breaks out with the Death's Head Candle (everyone in these comics seems to have one just conveniently lying around). Curly is revealed to be Crash Simpson brought back from the dead to retrieve Johnny's soul, but Johnny's soul is locked in by Roxanne's love. Crash reverts back to Curly and lies in wait. Meanwhile, Johnny ~ none the wiser ~ returns to do his show. He and Roxanne quarrel and she storms out (get used to it). Curly and his gang show up at the performance to "kidnap that great girl cyclist" and so, of course, Ghost Rider comes to the rescue. The crowd thinks it's part of the show, so they take a bow.
Later, Curly visits Roxanne in her dressing room and hypnotizes her in order to kidnap her and sacrifice her to Satan (his own daughter!). This is going to be the formula for the whole of Friedrich's turn as writer on the series. It's kind of unfortunate that the man who originated the character couldn't come up with better storylines than this.
Next: The unholy alliance! (so it says)
THE COSTUMES: Johnny pretty much wears his leathers throughout this issue, but Roxanne has a few new outfits to share including a new stunt-riding costume (page 22), some groovy street clothes (page 19), and, at the end of the issue she's seen in what appears to be a light blue nightgown or dressing gown (page 31). Because the style of this gown changes in the next issue, I've modified it to compensate for the lack of continuity by suggesting it's a robe rather than a single piece so that when we see it again without sleeves, we can all just pretend that the outer layer was removed rather than admit that once again Ploog was asleep at the wheel. Of all the Ghost Rider artists, Ploog is probably the most notorious for not being consistent about his own designs.
That said, there's continuity problems in this issue that are more the colorist's problem than Ploog's. On pages 25-26, Roxanne's stunt outfit goes from long-sleeved to short-sleeved to no-sleeved. Lot of sloppy work throughout this issue.
It's occured to me that Weebly (the host for this site) behaves differently on Macs than it does on other PCs. If you are having trouble viewing or downloading the images, please let me hear from you so I can figure out some way to make adjustments and ensure that things are accessible here the way they should be.
Also, I didn't have time to get to Ghost Rider: Trail of Tears last week, but I haven't forgotten! I'm hoping I will get to it before the weekend's out.
That said, there's continuity problems in this issue that are more the colorist's problem than Ploog's. On pages 25-26, Roxanne's stunt outfit goes from long-sleeved to short-sleeved to no-sleeved. Lot of sloppy work throughout this issue.
It's occured to me that Weebly (the host for this site) behaves differently on Macs than it does on other PCs. If you are having trouble viewing or downloading the images, please let me hear from you so I can figure out some way to make adjustments and ensure that things are accessible here the way they should be.
Also, I didn't have time to get to Ghost Rider: Trail of Tears last week, but I haven't forgotten! I'm hoping I will get to it before the weekend's out.