Issue(s): Ghost Rider #65
Cover Date: Feb 82
Title: "The lair of the Loan Shark!"
Credits:
Michael Fleisher - Writer
Jack Sparling - Penciler
Tom Sutton - Inker
Mark Gruenwald - Assistant Editor
Tom DeFalco - Editor

Review/plot:
This issue resolves the tension between Johnny Blaze and Red Fowler by having Johnny - as Ghost Rider - help Red Fowler with a Loan Shark problem. And please note the capitalization; this isn't just a Loan Shark, it's the Loan Shark.

Things start with Johnny being unable to prevent himself from transforming into the Ghost Rider.

And, as the Ghost Rider, he terrorizes Red.

But then Red sees him transform back into Johnny Blaze.

After that, Loan Shark kidnaps Red.

And then Johnny rescues Red as Ghost Rider.

So now Red gives up his grudge against Johnny, but he also secretly (until issue #73) knows that Johnny is Ghost Rider.

This is the last issue in Essential Ghost Rider vol. 3, and when i saw that final panel i half-wondered if it was modified for the trade, even though the Essentials line usually reprints issues without alteration. But the panel is in the original as well. We are kind of close to the end of an era; J.M. DeMatteis and Roger Stern's alternating run begins in two issues. But there's still one more Michael Fleisher story to go.

As for this issue, the fact that Red's loan shark is called the Loan Shark and looks like some kind of combination pirate-vampire is particularly campy. I detect Tom DeFalco's hand in that, although things are amplified by Jack Sparling's old school pencils. However, i do think the development with Red Fowler is pretty admirable. His relationship with Johnny could have easily remained an endless rivalry, and changing him from a rival to someone that has Johnny's back is an unusual turn, and a good one.

Quality Rating: C-

Historical Significance Rating: 1

Chronological Placement Considerations: N/A

References: N/A

Crossover: N/A

Continuity Insert? N

My Reprint: Essential Ghost Rider vol. 3

Did we ever find out why Red borrowed the money?

Not in this issue. In addition to the panels shown here, he only says to the Loan Shark, "I-I'd kill you if anyone found out! So help me, I'd--", and then the Shark says that Red's gone crazy and he has his henchman hit him.

In issue #70, Roger Stern has Johnny Blaze think that Red has a minor gambling problem and that's probably why he had to go to a the loan shark. But that was probably Stern's way of wrapping that thread up without making it into a "thing".