Issue(s): Ghost Rider #28
Cover Date: Feb 78
Title: "Evil is the Orb!"
Credits:
Roger McKenzie - Writer
Don Perlin & Tom Sutton - Penciler
Owen McCarron & Pablo Marcos - Inker

Review/plot:
Another creative team change for Ghost Rider, with Roger McKenzie taking over for Jim Shooter. Don Perlin, who began his run last issue, remains on art, although it seems there was some additional help this time.

Having driven in the desert for hours trying to forget the fact that Hawkeye and the Two-Gun Kid treated him like he was a real demon, Johnny Blaze passes out and gets picked up by a pot-smoking dude driving a "Grass Hut" car. That won't get you pulled over.

He trades vehicles and winds up in the car with an older woman who thinks Blaze should settle down and become an accountant like her son, and he eventually makes his way into town where he buys a new bike (he had been riding his hellfire construct).

Meanwhile, Rocky Simpson is fending off the advances of Brahma Bill, the biker Johnny raced last issue. She's looking for Johnny. But before she can get to him, she's caught by the Orb and brainwashed. The Orb then sends a gang of hypnotized bikers against Johnny.

Bill actually helps Johnny against the bikers...

...but once he turns into Ghost Rider he doesn't need any help...

...and he thoroughly terrorizes the Orb.

Johnny then takes his leave, not realizing that he's allowing Bill to return to a mind-wiped Rocky.

This is, i think, Roger McKenzie's earliest work at Marvel (looks like he came from Warren). I generally think of him as competent but not inspiring, and that's pretty true for this story. I like that he's continuing the question of Blaze's demonic nature from Shooter's run, and i guess the Orb is as good a classic Ghost Rider villain to kick off a run with as you can get. But while the scripting is definitely more natural than Shooter's run, the story is more run-of-the-mill.

Quality Rating: C

Historical Significance Rating: 1

Chronological Placement Considerations: Ghost Rider has been "riding for hours" since leaving Hawkeye and the Two-Gun Kid.

References: N/A

Crossover: N/A

Continuity Insert? N

My Reprint: N/A

Considering the implication that Brahma Bill used Roxanne's amnesia to take advantage of her (or, put plainly, rape her), I hope GR eventually gave him a hellfire enema. Or worse.