Issue(s): Ghost Rider #18
Cover Date: Oct 91
Title: "Lost souls!"
Credits:
Howard Mackie - Writer
Mark Texeira - Penciler
Mark Texeira - Inker
Chris Cooper - Assistant Editor
Bobbie Chase - Editor

Review/plot:
Johnny Blaze departs during the first four pages of this issue, relatively satisfied that this new Ghost Rider is on the up and up. Ghost Rider himself promises Blaze that he's convinced that he's not Zarathos but that he'll look into his origin.

Later, we see Rev. Styge getting chewed out by a mysterious master...

...and so Styge once again sends a limousine for Danny Ketch's mom. And she's apparently still so overwhelmed by grief that seeing her son getting punched around by the chauffeur doesn't change her mind about getting in the limo.

Sheesh, mom!

So Danny follows, and he sees his mom and a bunch of other desperate people meeting up with these guys.

Wow. Ok, guys, those outfits are NOT doing you any favors.

Rev. Styge calls himself a sin-eater, and it seems pretty apparent that he means it literally.

I mean you have got to be really wrapped up in your own grief - or loaded up on Ambien - to not notice what is going on here.

Of course Danny can't quite seem to figure it out either, even after slipping in all the blood.

Thank god for Ghost Rider's flaming head lighting up the mausoleum, or i think the plot would never have moved forward.

Ghost Rider then goes and confronts Styge, who admits that he's a cannibal.

Ghost Rider says that Styge's soul belongs to another, so he has to suffice with delivering physical pain to him, and he leaves him unconscious in the graveyard. He then brings Danny's mom home, and she decides that maybe Ghost Rider isn't that bad after all, and that she'll mourn like a normal person for now on.

In an epilogue, Styge returns to his boss, who pulls out his eyeball.

Oh my god, you guys! A villain that remembers the original Ghost Rider, and with a penchant for eyeballs? It can only be the return of the Orb!

Ok, it's not the Orb, but it looks like we're going to have to wait a year before we find out who it really is (or you can look at the Characters Appearing).

Quality Rating: C+

Historical Significance Rating: 1

Chronological Placement Considerations: The MCP splits this up so that the first few pages, before Johnny Blaze leaves, takes place immediately after issue #17 and then they fit in a lot of Ghost Rider's guest appearances before the rest of the issue happens. But there's nothing in the pages with Johnny Blaze that says it takes place immediately after the last story, and considering that Blaze had hung around for weeks training Danny Ketch already, having him stick around a while longer seems fine. You can interpret it either way you like, since it works out the same for me since i'm placing the issue based on where it ends. As to why Ghost Rider wouldn't go after Rev. Styge right away after the last arc, he says himself that it's not a priority.

Ghost Rider only winds up facing Styge again because Styge sent the chauffeur, and that didn't have to happen directly after last issue.

References: N/A

Crossover: N/A

Continuity Insert? N

My Reprint: N/A

I thought that it was fairly obvious who the "Master" was, considering the villain was a reverend that claimed to be a sin-eater and the references to Styge's soul belonging to another. Unfortunately, this raised further questions, which Mackie resolved in a disappointing manner (and some of which were never clearly resolved), possibly due to the need to include Lilith as a villain for crossover reasons. That being said, Mackie already has made things ridiculously complicated- Ghost Rider resembles the original Ghost Rider but isn't him but apparently is somehow linked to Blaze since Blaze can wield his hellfire but isn't Mephisto's handiwork but somehow the "Master" is free.