Ghost Rider:
In the beginning, there was the Ghost Rider, a cowboy in a glow-in-the-dark costume in the old west.
Then there was Ghost Rider, aka Johnny Blaze, a stunt biker who made a bad deal with the devil, and cursed with the ability to transform into a guy with a flaming skull for a head. He putzed around a few years in the 1970's (during which the cowboy was renamed first Night Rider, then Phantom Rider). Eventually he was cured of his curse.
Fast-forward to the 1990's. Howard Mackie creates a new Ghost Rider, Danny Ketch, who's initially unrelated to the Blaze version. For about six years, he putzes around dropping hints about the character's true origin, along the way bringing back Johnny Blaze as a scruffier and grimmer character with a shotgun and a trenchcoat (who also happens to be Danny's long-lost brother!).
He's replaced by Ivan Velez, who comes up with a slightly confusing origin involving Danny's ancestor, a witch's curse, and the least angelic-looking angel I've ever seen. Then, he gets canceled, and Mackie invalidates the entire arc in an issue of Spider-Man.
Couple of years ago, Devin Grayson writes a miniseries with the Blaze version, managing to not only ignore the 90's GR entirely, but also the end of the original version. Ugly book, ugly art.
In any case, Garth Ennis is doing his own take on the Blaze version, starting next week, one as faithful to continuity as Straczynski's STRANGE mini, Ellis' IRON MAN, or the Hudlin BLACK PANTHER. |
