Random Happenstance

My subconscious needs a script doctor, or I swear I will ankle this imaginary flick.

From Ghost Rider #81, "The End of the Ghost Rider!" Written by J.M. DeMatteis, pencils by Bob Budiansky, inks by Dan Bulanadi and Kevin Dzubin. Reprinted in the Original Ghost Rider Rides Again! #7.

So, I had to get up at four in the morning for work today. It's only an hour earlier than usual for me, and honestly work is about the only thing I can consistently wake up for on time: friends, family, school, exercise; all of those I can blow off and sleep in, but work I can be fired from. (And then there was a system failure, and I only ended up working an hour overtime. Better than nothing, I suppose, and then I was able to help my wife with the kids.)

Anyway, I was dreaming about the Ghost Rider movie. I was unaware of giving it a whole lot of conscious thought, really. I had planned to see it, and figured it would be like Daredevil (from the same director, Mark Steven Johnson): that is, profitable with just enough changes to piss off the fanboys. I'm hard pressed to think of another $100 million grossing film (that's not a Star Wars prequel) that is as maligned as Daredevil was.

For some reason--I'm guessing 'synapse misfire', Nick Cage/Johnny Blaze was sharing a crappy apartment with the Sam Elliott character, and the other guy--Donal Logue, thank you IMDB! Speaking as a guy who's lived in crappy apartments with many roommates, Logue seems like a guy who'll sit around your apartment playing Mario Kart and drinking Coors until 3:00 AM. You are never going to get Sam Elliott as a roommate. Never ever. I don't care how eloquent the ad you put in the free paper is, or if you live in the very epitome of Texas: never.

Later, Cage (date of birth 01-07-64) was trying to work up the nerve to blurt out that he's always loved the Eva Mendes (03-05-74) character, which is only slightly weird since he's ten years older. Mendes was a little distraught, since they were watching a prisoner being moved from jail to state lockup (and that's totally a spectator event, if I'm not mistaken), guards moving him along in chains and shackles and probably but hopefully not one of those Hannibal Lector masks. I don't know the exact motivation, but we can figure said prisoner swore undying revenge, blah blah blah, right? And he is promptly struck by lightning and incinerated, to turn up as Blackheart in the next reel. Great.

My dream ended up being all setup and no payoff. How Cage becomes Ghost Rider, or even any Ghost Rider scenes at all, was left out by my subconscious, as my alarms went off. Thank you, mind. Glad I didn't pay $7.50 for that.

A very dark panel from Ghost Rider #5 (March 2006 limited), "The Road to Damnation, part five" Written by Garth Ennis, art by Clayton Crain.