Ghost Rider remains a character that has had its unique ups and downs over the years. The book debuted during the early 1970’s Marvel launch of horror titles and survived far longer than its contemporaries. Yet, in the 1980’s, the book’s sales sputtered and it was cancelled. In the 1990’s, the title amidst some jeering as the character was considered “silly”. I really don’t know what character they were referring to because Ghost Rider was never a silly character. Perhaps they should pick up a copy of Essential Ghost Rider and familiarize themselves with the character. Sure, some of the stories were uneven. That was par for the course back in the 1970’s. And, yes, the book did suffer a little “softening’ as many assumed that an overly frightening character such as Ghost Rider needed to be toned down a bit to maintain its popularity. (A plan that seldom works)

 In the 1990’s, the book was relaunched and it was a huge hit. Actually, Marvel opted to relaunch its whole horror comic line with the “Midnight Sons” titles. I read them religiously in college and always found them to be high quality and entertaining books. But, their popularity did not last and despite once strong sales, the very excellent relaunch of Ghost Rider bit the dust.

Of course, you can never keep a good title down and even some of the worst sellers in history have seen new launches. So, it is no surprise Ghost Rider returned in mini-series form and later in his own monthly series. (Surely, the awful movie played a part in this decision) Now, we have a new Ghost Rider mini-series featuring the somewhat forgotten Ghost Rider, Danny Ketch.

When Ghost Rider was published in the early 1990’s, the originally Ghost Rider, Johnny Blaze, was replaced by a new one named Danny Ketch. Why did they do this? Who knows…maybe they felt a reboot of the series needed to be a complete reboot. Fear not, Danny Ketch did fine in the role of Ghost Rider. And, yes, Johnny Blaze did return as Ghost Rider. Blaze even got his own title Ghost Rider: Spirits of Vengeance.
Then, the true curse of the Ghost Rider returned: cancellation.

When the book returned recently, Johnny Blaze was front and center in the role of the demon of vengeance. However, old fans like myself were asking “Whatever happened to Johnny Blaze?” With the new 5 issue mini-series Ghost Rider – Danny Ketch, we get that answer.

TO BE CONTINUED……