Ghost Rider Team-Up

Reprints Marvel Premiere #91, Ghost Rider #27 and #50, Marvel Team-Up #91, Marvel Two-In-One #80 and Avengers #214
Written by Bill Mantlo, Jim Shooter, Steven Grant, Michael Fleisher and Tom DeFalco.
Penciled by Frank Robbins, Don Perlin, Pat Broderick, Ron Wilson and Bob Hall.
Inked by Steve Gan, Dan Green, Bruce D. Patterson, Don Perlin and Chic Stone.

A six-pack of Bronze Age tales starring the Spirit of Vengeance!

A mountain sprouts up in the middle of Los Angeles and causes an earthquake! It attracts the attention of four of the world's most horrific super-beings: The demonic Ghost Rider, known to the world as Johnny Blaze, famous stunt cyclist! Michael Morbius, the Living Vampire! Werewolf By Night! And the macabre Man-Thing!

They learn that the mountain is the work of Starseed.  He lived on Earth millions of years ago, on the same mountain. He's the sole survivor of a society that dwelt in the mountain, creating advanced technology in the time of the Neanderthals.

Starseed invites them to come with him and live inside the mountain. But Ghost Rider points out that the world has changed and that one cannot just park a mountain on Sunset Boulevard and cause earthquakes. Morbius and the Werewolf are both hungry so they attack Starseed! It's every monster for himself!

Sometime later, Johnny Blaze's personal life is in shambles, so he seeks solace in the Mohave Desert.  Blaze ends up at Cheery-O's Dude Ranch, where he bumps into the Avenger Hawkeye and Matt Hawk, the Two-Gun Kid! Hawk is a hero from the Wild West who recently time-traveled into the 20th century.

Things are going well for the heroes. Blaze is teaching Two-Gun how to ride a motorcycle. But suddenly Hawkeye is attacked by a monster who calls himself Manticore! He tells Hawkeye he has been contracted to kill an Avenger, and Hawkeye was available, but Manticore didn't bet on Ghost Rider being around.

Peter Parker and his friend Glory Grant go to a carnival in Connecticut. They take in a sideshow, where Peter notices a familiar face.The Ghost Rider is performing as The Blazing Skull. Parker points this out and gets thrown out of the carnival.

Later that night, Peter returns to investigate the sideshow as Spider-Man. He learns that Ghost Rider has been hypnotized by Spidey's old foe Moondark the magician. Moondark has torn the soul of Johnny Blaze away from the body of Ghost Rider. Spider-Man ends up going toe-to-toe with Ghost Rider, who is under the control of Moondark!

Subsequently, Johnny Blaze time-travels back into the Wild West! He inadvertently ends up on a sacred Indian burial ground.  Several Indians respond by shooting Blaze full of arrows before he can turn into Ghost Rider. Thankfully, Blaze is rescued by Carter Slade, better known as the ghostly cowboy hero called Night Rider!

Night Rider saves Blaze's life, which is a good thing. Ghost Rider aids Night Rider in a battle with the outlaw who calls himself the Tarantula. And if that's not enough trouble, they're also attacked by the mythical winged serpent called Hobomokko!

Following that adventure, Johnny Blaze goes to New York City for a stunt cycling performance at Shea Stadium. But he's starting to lose control over the Ghost Rider persona. His demonic side is taking over and acting irrationally. Ghost Rider leads the NYPD on a high-speed chase until he turns back to Blaze.

He's spotted by Ben Grimm of the Fantastic Four. The Thing sympathizes with Blaze, since he's also a "monster" like Ghost Rider. Blaze gives Ben two tickets for his stunt show.

At Shea Stadium, Blaze jumps over a row of cars on his motorcycle. But in the middle of the show, two teens in the crowd decide to steal one of the cars. Blaze turns into Ghost Rider and goes crazy and his thirst for vengeance takes over, he wants to kill the teens. It's up to the Thing to save them.

Lastly, Warren Worthington III, better known as the mutant superhero Angel, is driving through the mountains of New Mexico. He spots Ghost Rider, his former teammate with the Champions, cycling on the highway. Angel's girlfriend, Candy Southern, is frightened, but Warren says Ghost Rider is a friend.

Things change when Ghost Rider runs them off the road! Their car is wrecked and Angel is shocked.  Johnny Blaze has lost control over the spirit of vengeance and decides Angel is an enemy, hitting him with a blast of hellfire!

Candy calls Avengers mansion, seeking help from the Beast, Angel's former X-men teammate. Beast has left the Avengers, but Captain America takes the call. The Avengers arrive in New Mexico and try capture Ghost Rider. The Avengers outnumber him, but it won't be easy to subdue the Spirit of Vengeance.

Review:
Ghost Rider Team-Up is not a very good book. What makes it frustrating is that I can think of several other stories featuring Ghost Rider and another hero that would've been better choices for this tpb. Why wasn't the ridiculous-but-fun Christmas story from Marvel Two-In-One #8 used instead of the one from MTIO #80? Ghost Rider teamed with Daredevil in a crossover against Death Stalker that featured some early art of John Byrne. This book contains pin-ups that mention Son Of Satan's guest appearances in Ghost Rider. Why not include one of those, instead of Avengers #214, where Ghost Rider is basically written as a villain, albeit a reluctant one. Moving on to what's in the book:

Story:
A mixed bag that has a couple good stories and some clunkers. I'll start with the positives

The Hawkeye/Two-Gun/Manticore story isn't great, but it's a decent "villain of the month" story.  Manticore looks pretty cool, though he's not much of a match for the Ghost Rider.

I thought the Spider-Man team-up was the high point of this book. Placing a battle on a rollercoaster makes for a great action sequence. And it was interesting to see Peter Parker go on a date with his friend Glory Grant, something that rarely happened to my recollection.
  
The team-up with Night Rider is a solid western story, with plenty of action. Of course, in the early days, Night Rider was known as Ghost Rider. This is never mentioned in the story, but I presume this was meant to be an inside joke for the readers.

Johnny Blaze is surprised to find himself in the 19th century.

Johnny Blaze's meeting with Ben Grimm is okay, even if it's not as good as their aforementioned Christmas team-up. But it's hardly essential Bronze Age material.

The first tale promises the teaming of "The Legion Of Monsters." But the "monsters" spend most of the story listening to Starseed tell his backstory or fighting with each other. Some "legion" they turned out to be. Starseed isn't very interesting either. A pointless story, Starseed has never been seen since this issue and the Legion Of Monsters doesn't appear again until 2010 (without Ghost Rider).

The Avengers story is an odd inclusion. It takes place in the middle of a long storyline built around the mental breakdown of Yellowjacket. Ghost Rider doesn't appear until the 7th page of the tale. He's the bad guy here, since Blaze is losing control of his demonic side at this time. It hardly constitutes a team-up, and Angel's appearance feels very random.

Art:
Ghost Rider Team-Up contains art that's generally better than the stories.

The best art here comes from Pat Broderick and Bruce D. Patterson, from the Spider-Man portion.

Their art looks influenced by Michael Golden (a star penciler at the time) with a little bit of Steve Ditko thrown in.  Nice work.

Johnny Blaze performs stunts at Shea Stadium

Don Perlin and Ron Wilson were always reliable for good, enjoyable "Marvel house style" pencils. Chic Stone's inks overpower Wilson's art a bit, but it's still okay. Perlin and Dan Green make Manticore look pretty cool in their story.

The Legion of Monsters story wouldn't be good under any circumstances. But the art of Frank Robbins and Steve Gan makes it even worse. Bob Hall and Dan Green are okay in the Avengers story.

Starseed promises to turn the "monsters" back to their human forms.

How Does It Look?:

Here's the splash page of Marvel Premiere #28, borrowed from Diversions of the Groovy Kind:

And here's how it appears in Ghost Rider Team-Up:

It's a pretty good facsimile. 

Extras:

Ghost Rider #50 contained a checklist of Ghost Rider's appearances and several pin-ups. Those are represented in this tpb as well. 

Ghost Rider Team-Up isn't great, but if you're a fan of the artists featured inside, or a Ghost Rider completist, you might enjoy it more than I did. The art from Broderick, Perlin and Wilson earns it an extra half-Sal.

J.A. Morris' rating.

.5



2 and a half Sals.