Issue(s): Ghost Rider #67
Cover Date: Apr 82
Title: "Holding on to Sally"
Credits:
J.M. DeMatteis - Writer
Don Perlin - Penciler
Dave Simons & Tom Sutton - Inker
Mark Gruenwald - Assistant Editor
Tom DeFalco - Editor

Review/plot:
This issue sees a return of Don Perlin to art, and is also the first written by J.M. DeMatteis. DeMatteis will also write issue #71, and then becomes the regular writer beginning with issue #74 until the end of the series. This issue is just a standalone ghost story, though. It has an inventory story feel in the sense that it's completely divorced from Johnny Blaze's current status as a member of the Quentin Carnival (not that Johnny couldn't have ridden off by himself for a while). But it's a good little ghost story, more complex than similar supernatural stories during the Michael Fleisher run especially in the sense that there's actually a kind of moral to the story instead of just ending with "Ghost Rider defeats the demon!".

Johnny Blaze picks up a hitchhiker (actually, our ghost)...

...and then stops again to help out a guy who is having car trouble, except that turns out to be a trap by a group of muggers (one of whom looks more like a comic book writer than a local tough).

Johnny gets beaten up bad, transforms into Ghost Rider and chases the criminals, but he unwillingly transforms back into Johnny Blaze before he can fully "punish" them. Johnny is led by the girl to a house, and then he passes out.

He wakes up in the home of a woman, Veronica Stanton...

...that has lost her family to a series of tragedies: father to a heart attack, son to a war, and her daughter Sally to a local drunk driver that is the mayor's nephew and also one of the guys that jumped Johnny. Johnny is still a little groggy and unclear on exactly what happened, so when he goes to town to pick up some parts to repair his motorcycle, he doesn't recognize the thugs, but they recognize him...

...and follow him back to the lady's house.

At that point Johnny turns into Ghost Rider and starts beating the holy hell out of the thugs.

At this point the ghost - Veronica's daughter Sally, if you haven't guessed - re-manifests.

The point is that Veronica has been harboring a desire for vengeance, and Sally wants to show her how ugly vengeance is.

So Veronica appeals to Ghost Rider to get him to stop beating on the thug that killed her daughter. But, in another twist, Johnny's control of Ghost Rider is more far gone than Sally knew, so she has to step in to force him to stop.

Eventually Ghost Rider wears himself out and transforms back into Johnny.

A little stiff in art and dialogue and maybe a little obvious, but even as an inconsequential fill-in it feels like an improvement over what's been going on in the series for the past few years.

Statement of Ownership Total Paid Circulation: Average of Past 12 months = 121,227. Single issue closest to filing date = 110,061.

Quality Rating: C+

Historical Significance Rating: 1

Chronological Placement Considerations: Pushed back in publication time to allow for Null the Living Darkness' appearance in Ghost Rider #71 to take place before Defenders #113.

References: N/A

Crossover: N/A

Continuity Insert? N

My Reprint: N/A