Wolverine and Ghost Rider: someone has to be 'Good Cop'

[shakalooloo]

As with the Punisher, Ghost Rider works best when going up against the most deplorable adversaries.

Comments

[mastermahan]

Well that's a cool, thematically appropriate transformation.

[blues32]

Not sure when this came out...but getting some Immortal Hulk vibes from that transformation.

[mastermahan]

Oh, absolutely. But horror fits Ghost Rider.

This is an ongoing story, so post-Immortal Hulk.

[blues32]

Ongoing story? Is it a flashback? I mean, it started with Xavier in a chair, all the X-Men hanging out, and living in the mansion in West Chester.

[panthyr]

I think the previous bit was a flashback - first scan here starts with NOW. NEW YORK.

[commodus]

Ghost Rider is one of those strange characters where I really love the IDEA behind them, and when they appear in other comics they work well, but for love or money I simply cannot get into their solo comics.

[blueprintstyles]

They should do movie Ghost Rider like they did the Hulk, he just improves the experience and has cool fight scenes but is not the main story.

[blues32]

Like in the Fantastic Four cartoon where he just casually shows up, uses the penance stare on Galactus, and leaves?

[mastermahan]

Ghost Rider* just doesn't make for an interesting protagonist. He's The Spectre with a better character design - a basically invincible, normal-guy-possessing, supernatural revenge spirit. Heck, he's even an angel sometimes.

So I was to pitch a Ghost Rider series, I'd make it a horror series. Make it about the people who encounter this horrifying fire demon.


*Johnny Blaze and Danny Ketch. Robbie Reyes doesn't do the personality shift into being one-note.

[beyondthefringe]

If I were to do Ghost Rider, it wouldn't be far off from Percy's approach in a way.
Lean heavily into overlapping themes of biker culture, open road urban legends, weird shit happening in the empty places of the world. Johnny Blaze, perpetually on the move across the highways and byways of America. Running into ghosts, monsters, predators--protecting the innocent, punishing the guilty, and never at peace with himself.

Haunted roadside attractions. Abandoned theme parks. Decrepit carnivals. Performing at county and state fairs. I'd make the Highwayman from U.S.1 a recurring villain. Have him encounter a much less ridiculous take on Razorback. Introduce a spinoff of the Circus of Crime that's much scarier, much less familiar.

Think wild, think unsettling. Think speed and the open road and the sound of the motorcycle in the dead of night with no one for miles around except things that should not be named. You know it's bad when the least scary people you meet are the one percenter motorcycle clubs...

Fuck, if I wrote horror, I'd be all over this.

[starwolf_oakley]

Ghost Rider has "an edge look" (as said by Rebel Wilson in the 2007 movie) but actually building stories around him is where the problems can start.

Plus there's "Well, is Johnny Blaze in control or not?"

[super_fly]

The closet full of glass shards I could see happening, but where in New York do you get an iron maiden?

[remial]

what? in new york? you want an iron maiden, you know a guy, who knows a guy, eventually you find a guy who has an iron maiden and is willing to sell it to you, no questions asked.

not saying it is a 2 step process, but you do favors for people and eventually...

[shadowkat]

Agreed - it's not hard to come by anything in New York. New Yorkers know this.

[cainofdreaming]

Anything? Even parking space? Or edible hot dogs?

[shadowkat]

Yes. Anything. And seriously? Those are easy items. Have you actually been to New York? I live in Brooklyn, NY - finding parking spaces isn't really that hard here according to multiple co-workers who drive and various others I've talked to. (I don't because hello public transportation.) And hot dogs, not that hard either. They even have a place that sells gourmet hot dogs. And Nathan's famous hots are apparently a brand now. Granted, whether hot dogs are actually edible or not is another discussion entirely.

[shadowkat]

Well, that's an amusing buddy-cop pair-up. Wolvie is actually paired with someone crazier than Wolvie. Which actually works better than the other way around.

[panthyr]

I like Logan in the background on the bottom of the second page: "Well, looks like shit's about to go down, better get the cowl on - wouldn't want anyone to recognize me."