Sunday, January 09, 2022

Sunday Splash Page #200

 
"Who's Dumping Skeletons in Heaven?," in Ghost Rider: Heaven's on Fire #6, by Jason Aaron (writer), Roland Boschi (artist), Dan Brown and Lee Loughridge (color artists), Joe Caramagna (letterer)

Jason Aaron's run on the monthly Ghost Rider title (and that volume itself) ended with Johnny Blaze, Dan Ketch and the new Caretaker resolving that they would find a way to reach Heaven and stop Zadkiel's plan of conquering Heaven via the power of the Ghost Riders. The actual attempt is what this mini-series covers.

Aaron pulls out even more stuff. The gun nuns that I mentioned last week, but Damian Hellstrom gets involved, as well as an ex-girlfriend of his. No, not Patsy Walker. Jaine Cutter, who describes herself as an 'occult terrorist.' Man I don't want to know what Jason Aaron would do to Patsy Walker if he used her in this story. The Anti-Christ is involved (a snotty little kid working on Wall Street), because Zadkiel wants to kill him and avert the Apocalypse. Doctor friggin' Pandemonium shows up, as a pathetic loser whose demon hands torment him constantly.

I don't really understand how the conclusion works. Dan and Johnny somehow call up all the past Ghost Riders to attack Zadkiel, on the grounds that the power was never his to control, because God created the Ghost Riders. OK, but Danny had been attacking and stealing the power of Ghost Riders for a while for Zadkiel, who used it to grow strong enough to breach the gates of Heaven and assume control. So what's the difference? 

Anyway, suffice it to say they win, though Johnny does not get to be reunited with his wife and children in Heaven, so he still gets a bit screwed. God's a swell guy, if you grade on a generous curve. Sara gets to face the man who killed all the women in the convent she grew up in, and make the choice not to take his life. The Orb, somehow, doesn't die. Presumably no one figured he was worth killing.

After this wrapped up there were a couple of years with no Ghost Rider books, then a brief series with a lady Ghost Rider written by Rob Williams, and then a few years after that, Robbie Reyes showed up. He and Blaze seem to be sharing the role in the comics (or Blaze is King of Hell or something), and Alejandra joined Dan Ketch as the Riders nobody talks about.

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