Tuesday, February 09, 2021

Apparently, 'regret' means I post this every ten years or so.

The cover of this one makes Inferno look cool as, well, hell; while Satan looks like the devil Pitch from that MST3K Santa Claus. From 1993, The Original Ghost Rider #16, reprinting 1974's Ghost Rider #8, "Satan Himself!" Written by Tony Isabella, pencils by Jim Mooney, inks by Sal Trapan.
This has long since been retconned so this wasn't the capital-S Satan, but he's the one that turned Johnny Blaze into the Ghost Rider: Blaze, currently in control of the Rider, claims Satan broke the deal by saving Crash Simpson from dying of cancer or something, for him to immediately die in a motorcycle wreck. While Satan can't claim his soul, he can hit Blaze with enough pain he'd give his soul for it to stop; but Blaze has Roxanne Simpson in his heart to protect him. It would be just too bad if something happened to her, Satan tells him. Later, when he and Roxanne visit the Stunt-Master in the hospital, she is hit with a vision of her father burning in hell. Satan is intrigued that she then lies about it to Johnny.
While Roxanne is more than willing to stand against Satan with Johnny, she is still lured away by an image of her father, and is trapped in hell. Satan lets her visit Crash, just to see his torment, and she faints. Satan then levels up recurring lackey Slifer, into Inferno, and sets him on the Ghost Rider. Radiating waves of fear into the people of the city, GR is beset on all sides; while Roxanne remembers an earlier issue (of Marvel Spotlight) in which "the Messenger," the Lord Jesus Christ himself, took Crash to "his final reward." (Maybe I should've gone with DM instead of Orbital here...) Satan has a hearty laugh at that, claiming he had been the Messenger! But, he might be persuaded to release Crash, if Roxanne renounces her protection of Johnny! Cliffhanger. Also this issue: five pages of the Phantom Rider! It's not great, even when trying an Indiana Jones-style setting.

2 comments:

Mr. Morbid's House Of Fun said...

I remember the popular story behind this one. At least in terms of "Jesus" showing up to help out Blaze/GR, but Shooter didn't like that and edited it out himself to show it "really wasn't Jesus."

googum said...

Just reading this one, it works pretty well creatively. "But--he said he was Jesus!" Satan just laughs and laughs...(Actually, "the Messenger" probably never said he was Jesus, either, so that's kinda on them.)