Issue(s): Ghost Rider #35, Ghost Rider #36, Ghost Rider #37, Ghost Rider #38
Cover Date: Mar-Jun 93
Title: "You can't always get what you want" / "Transformations in pain" / "Forward to the shadows" / "Blood obligations"
Credits:
Howard Mackie - Writer
Bret Blevins - Penciler
Al Williamson - Inker
Matthew Morra - Assistant Editor
Bobbie Chase - Editor

Review/plot:
Police lieutenant Michael Badilino is attacked by Heart Attack, who is Tyler Meagher, formerly of HEART but now an agent of the Firm.

Badilino gets the better of Heart Attack and escapes. Heart Attack only wanted info from Badilino on Ghost Rider, but now Heart Attack has made Badilino's hit list, and he hopes to take out both of them. During their fight, they hear on the radio that Ghost Rider is fighting Death Ninja again. Ghost Rider has already defeated Death Ninja...

...but they are interrupted by an attack from Suicide.

Ghost Rider leaves them fighting each other, thinking to himself that his existence makes less sense every day.

He transforms back into Danny Ketch, and then realizes that he's been caught on camera by a film student named Adrienne. Caretaker chases her away.

Danny is upset that his actions as Ghost Rider seem to keep generating more super-villains, meaning that he's doing more harm than good. But he returns to the fight between Death Ninja and Suicide when it seems like Death Ninja might actually succeed in killing Suicide (despite Suicide being ok with that). And it turns out that Heart Attack has been laying in wait.

Lt. Badilino is also summoned by the police, with one cop noting that they would normally call in Code: Blue but Badilino is so obsessed with Ghost Rider that they'd get in trouble with him if they didn't call him first. Badilino is pressuring a former AIM operative to provide some advanced weaponry.

The use of the weapon ends the four-way fight. But Badilino is fooled by the skeletonized Suicide into thinking that Ghost Rider is defeated, and Ghost Rider and Caretaker manage to subdue Badilino.

Caretaker promises that we'll now get some answers, but next issue features Mr. Hyde and Daredevil and a villain called Succubus, so there isn't a lot of room left for answers to anything. As Calvin Zabo, Hyde has been staying at a homeless shelter, and Succubus makes victims of the people there, saying that she'll use what they give her to go after Ghost Rider like Death Ninja, she has a mysterious master).

Meanwhile, Danny and Caretaker take Suicide's regenerating skeleton to a basement, but Danny decides to not wait around to watch Suicide come back to life. He bumps into Adrienne again on the way out, and then is attacked by Succubus.

Succubus triggers Danny's transformation into Ghost Rider, but Ghost Rider is too strong for her, so she flees. Ghost Rider then transforms back into Danny, and tries to return to Caretaker, but finds that the door to the basement is now gone.

Meanwhile, Succubus returns to the shelter, but this time she picks Zabo as her victim, which triggers his transformation into Mr. Hyde.

And Daredevil happens to be on the scene.

Danny also arrives, but he's stuck in human form. Then Succubus tries to attack him again, which triggers his transformation. So he's able to join the fight.

Ghost Rider penance-stares Mr. Hyde, and Daredevil knocks Succubus out with a punch (!). Ghost Rider then turns back into Danny, and Daredevil tells him that he'd better run before the police show up. Daredevil tells Danny that he should learn to trust the powers that he gets from Ghost Rider.

After the heroes leave, Succubus drains the lifeforce from Mr. Hyde.

The next issue features a guest appearance by Archangel and provides some revelations about the Firm. It starts with Ghost Rider waiting at the cemetery, with a plan to lure Heart Attack out. It works.

Stern from the Firm is supervising the battle. It seemed like Stern took over the Firm in Ghost Rider #32 (not that long ago) but here he is working for a mysterious master, although he bristles at it.

Heart Attack seems to have been brainwashed into thinking it was Ghost Rider that killed her HEART partners, but her head is cleared during this fight, and she withdraws, swearing vengeance on the Firm. Ghost Rider is busy fighting Firm goons, and the fighting attracts the attention of Archangel, who i guess just happens to have been in the area. He thinks the Firm goons look like "Reaver rejects", which is an interesting reference point for him since i don't think he ever fought the Reavers directly.

With Angel's help, Ghost Rider defeats the goons and then presses the attack, going to the Firm headquarters. The thing about Ghost Rider is that he's all but unstoppable on his own, so Archangel's guest appearance is almost superfluous.

Ghost Rider gives Stern the old penance stare and then leaves with Angel. But Heart Attack decides that it's not enough, so she returns to kill Stern. Instead, she arrives just in time to learn that Stern's boss is really Centurious and get killed by him (or at least sucked into a television, but it does seem to be her last appearance).

Note that Centurious, like so many others, is under the impression that Ghost Rider is Zarathos.

The final issue in this entry deals with the return of Scarecrow. But first, some pathos.

Awww. I may beat you with chains and sear your soul with my penance stare, but nothing hurts more than people being scared of my flaming skull face.

But back to the Scarecrow. As the Feds investigate the Firm's building in the aftermath of Ghost Rider's attack, they discover the room where Scarecrow was being kept.

Ghost Rider, meanwhile, has found himself drawn to the grave of Barbara Ketch, Danny's sister. Danny's girlfriend, police officer Stacy Dolan, also shows up at the grave and tries to arrest Ghost Rider. There is a reference to him saving her life, which is from the Fear oneshot, but there's no footnote. I noted in that issue's entry that the story ended with the Scarecrow exactly where he was at the end of his previous appearance in Ghost Rider #7, almost as if Mackie was making sure that he didn't have to reference anything from Fear. But obviously this story does reference Ghost Rider saving Stacy's life. The lack of a footnote might have made things extra confusing to people that might not have been aware of Fear, since it would seem like Scarecrow is appearing here directly from issue #7 but there's all this talk of Ghost Rider proving himself to Stacy.

In any event, Ghost Rider tells Stacy that she can't and won't stop him, and then he goes after Scarecrow.

After Ghost Rider stops Scarecrow, Stacy helps Ghost Rider hide when the rest of the police show up.

After this point Ghost Rider will be occupied with events with Blaze in Spirits of Vengeance for a while, so if it felt at all like we were building to some kind of revelation - and it didn't, really - that will have to be put on hold. And in any event the Centurious stuff will dove-tail with events in Spirits of Vengeance; Centurious was a Johnny Blaze villain, after all.

Bret Blevins has been doing a decent job on art. Maybe not as showy as the early Texiera stuff, and also not as wild and cartoony as his own art has been on other books. But he's done after these issues, with Ron Garney replacing him (after a Mike Manley fill-in next issue).

Statement of Ownership Total Paid Circulation: Average of Past 12 months = 357,200. Single issue closest to filing date = 411,000.

Quality Rating: C

Historical Significance Rating: 1

Chronological Placement Considerations: Ghost Rider #33-38 take place before Spirits of Vengeance #4. This takes place after Ghost Rider/Captain America: Fear. Daredevil can't appear here between Dead Man's Hand and Daredevil #310 (which is an Infinity War tie-in), so this takes place during Infinity War.

References:

• Suicide was first seen in Ghost Rider #19.
  
• Mr. Hyde says that he's not himself because the Hulk hurt his head in Hulk #368 and Ghost Rider singed his soul in Ghost Rider #4 (no footnotes, and Mr. Hyde has had other appearances).
  
• Daredevil recognizes Danny Ketch from when Ghost Rider "recently" helped him against the Hand. That was in Daredevil #295.
  
• Archangel knows that Ghost Rider is a good guy from when he helped the X-Men circa X-Men #9.
  
• Barbara Ketch died in Ghost Rider #7, which also featured Scarecrow.
  
• Scarecrow subsequently appeared in Ghost Rider/Captain America: Fear.

Crossover: N/A

Continuity Insert? N

My Reprint: N/A