Our fourth annual Ghost Rider Annual...

...and yet I don't think we've seen a number three yet, they're numbered like Milk & Cheese! From 2008, Ghost Rider Annual #2, "A Town Called Mercy" Written by Simon Spurrier, art by Mark A. Robinson, color art by Raul Trevino.

The helpful recap page brings us a bit more up to speed on the current Ghost Rider status here: Johnny Blaze had discovered Ghost Rider was really a weapon of Heaven, bonded to him by the rogue angel Zadkiel. I'm not sure if Zadkiel's motives were clear, but Blaze wanted revenge for the wreck of his life. This month, Blaze visits the small town of Mercy, Idaho; which has recently become a combination of the Aokigahara "suicide forest" and the Mothman: suicidal people have been drawn there, and their bodies were sometimes found after an "angel" sighting. The town is not especially enthusiastic about the increase in tourism; a deputy tries to warn off Blaze, who doesn't scare, but has a dream about an angel of mercy, then wakes up to see a girl go into the forest. Blaze follows, but is stopped by the deputy, then the sheriff; but hearing a scream Blaze transforms into Ghost Rider: they find the girl, dead; her dying words that something cut her.

Going out hunting for the 'angel,' the sheriff sends the deputy back for ammo when his piece is empty, then asks Blaze if he thinks suicide should be a mortal sin. Blaze defers to answer that, but says he does think the deputy's gun was loaded earlier...and he had seen blood on the sheriff's hands before he got to the dead girl. The sheriff reveals himself to be a frankly terrifying fallen angel--with a very Evangelion design, I thought. The angel very nearly kills Blaze, who is just frustrated that if he dies, Zadkiel would go unpunished. The returning deputy manages to distract the angel enough for the Rider to down it; then it tells its story: a former gatekeeper of Heaven, he did not fight Zadkiel, but was punished for questioning if suicide should be a sin. He felt those who had already suffered enough should be allowed into Heaven, and was cast out for it. The angel had been sending those souls to Heaven, and could've sent Blaze there to face Zadkiel, but he can't if Blaze doesn't fight him: "Otherwise, it's suicide." The scorched angel is no match for the Ghost Rider, and is killed after a short fight.

For good measure, or to eat up space, this one also features a reprint of Ghost Rider #35, "Death Race!" Story and art by Jim Starlin, with additional inks and finishes by Al Milgrom, Mike Nasser, and Steve Leialoha. Ghost Rider has to beat Death, or "Death Ryder," in three races. It's pretty good! Although it was issue #35, for little reason it's set between issues #13 and #14, except that I guess more weird stuff happened earlier in the series. Jesus shows up, have to race Death across the desert, whatever...(Actually, it's because Johnny was a bit more in control at that time.)