Obsessively putting our comics in chronological order since 1985.
| 1982-02-01 00:04:45 |
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Ghost Rider #70-71
Issue(s): Ghost Rider #70, Ghost Rider #71
Cover Date: Jul-Aug 82
Title: "Freaks!" / "The tears of Adam Henderson"
Credits:
Roger Stern / J.M. DeMatteis - Writer
Bob Budiansky / Don Perlin - Penciler
Dave Simons / Dan Bulanadi - Inker
Linda Grant - Assistant Editor
Tom DeFalco - Editor
Review/plot:
The freakish strongman from the carnival act Johnny Blaze is traveling with...
...is recruited by a group of freaks.
They're managed by a clearly evil man, and Ghost Rider fights them for a while...
...but the strongman, Jeremy, decides to go with the freaks in the end because he's one of them. Meanwhile, the carnival's resident clown's son shows up, but the father, Corky, doesn't seem too happy to see him.
I'm not a big fan of the whole carnival scene, but Roger Stern's a good writer.
The second issue here is written by J.M. DeMatteis, and it's a follow-up to the terrible Defenders #103, wherein the Defenders fought an evil cloud call Null the Living Darkness.
This issue is a little less pseudo-metaphysical than that one, but it's still not great.
Quality Rating: C
Historical Significance Rating: 1
Chronological Placement Considerations: Null the Living Darkness appears here before his appearance in Defenders #113. That Defenders story is part of an arc that has been pushed back in publication time, so that affects this issue as well, and causes some of Ghost Rider's past few issues to get pushed back.
References:
- Johnny Blaze saved Red Fowler from the Loan Shark in Ghost Rider #65.
- Null the Living Darkness was last seen in Defenders #103.
Crossover: N/A
Continuity Insert? N
My Reprint: Original Ghost Rider Rides Again! #2
Inbound References (2): showCharacters Appearing: Clown, Corky the Clown, Cynthia Randolph, Freakmaster, Ghost Rider (Johnny Blaze), Madame Olga, Null the Living Darkness, Ralph Quentin, Red Fowler, Renaldo, Zarathos Previous:
Captain America #272Up:
MainNext:
Fantastic Four #241
Comments
The metaphysical psychobabble mumbo-jumbo from J.M. DeMatteis would get much worse and appear in pretty much everything he wrote from here on in(though it did work in some non-superhero titles).
"Not many businesses will hire a seven foot tall man who scares the customers."
Utter nonsense. Insensitive narrative overall. Not what I expect from Roger Stern. Maybe he's not the right fit for Ghost Rider. They should've moved him over to the Avengers sooner, & put Shooter on Ghost Rider, yes.
