![]() ![]() Ghost Rider now sported shoulder spikes, a fiery chain and a futuristic-looking motorcycle. ![]() The character was reinvented with a new host, Danny Ketch, and the look and powers were upgraded to fit readers’ perceived taste for more “extreme” heroes. When comics took a darker, more violent turn in the late-’80s, however, Marvel saw the opportunity to revive the demonic vigilante. Though the series occasionally attempted to explore some moral and religious depths inherent in the concept, it largely remained a horror-tinged superhero comic until the series ended with Ghost Rider #81 (June 1983), when the demon left Blaze’s body. Ghost Rider made enough of an impact to earn its own book in June 1973. When sinners are nearby, Blaze transforms into a being made up of pure hellfire, complete with his distinctive flaming skull, and his motorcycle catches fire. As a result, Blaze is inhabited by the demon Zarathos and becomes a “spirit of vengeance”. Johnny Blaze is a stunt motorcyclist who sells his soul to the devil to save the life of his father. The ’70s Ghost Rider was clearly a character that began as a striking image, a demonic motorcyclist with a flaming skull for a head, and was then fleshed out into a character. When the Johnny Blaze incarnation debuted and achieved some success, the original Ghost Rider was retroactively renamed the Phantom Rider. A previous Marvel character named Ghost Rider was featured in a western comic which debuted in 1967 and only lasted seven issues. Johnny Blaze/Ghost Rider first appeared in Marvel Spotlight #5 (August 1972), created by Roy Thomas, Gary Friedrich and Mike Ploog. While Blade captured the pre- Matrix, late-’90s zeitgeist and overcame a modest budget to become a surprisingly effective trifle, Ghost Rider wasted a talented cast and much higher budget on a boring, generic, ugly-looking film that has been mostly forgotten. Unfortunately, the comparisons end there. Despite this, both Ghost Rider and Blade films were surprisingly successful and were granted sequels. Although Ghost Rider and Blade have their fans, they are C-list Marvel characters through and through. Also, neither the Ghost Rider nor Blade characters ever experienced a true high point of popularity in the comics before or after their respective films. Both are supernatural horror characters created in the first half of the ’70s during the boom in horror-related comics. The closest analogue to Ghost Rider is Blade. But a little over a year before that, Marvel achieved some moderate success from another lesser known character with 2007’s Ghost Rider. This approach would lead to one of Marvel’s biggest breakout successes when Iron Man (Favreau) launched the Marvel Cinematic Universe in 2008. ![]() The biggest properties had yielded the biggest hits, while some of the lesser known ones had enjoyed some surprising, moderate success. Since then, Marvel licensed its biggest properties (Spider-Man and X-Men), along with lesser known properties with name recognition (Hulk and the Fantastic Four), as well as properties that had experienced great success only within comics (Daredevil and the Punisher). Granted, Blade came at a time when Marvel Comics was filing for bankruptcy, so licensing it may have been a ‘nothing to lose’ scenario. The Marvel Films, on the other hand, began in earnest with Blade (Norrington, 1998), based on a character that even many comics fans were unaware of prior to the film. Until recently, Marvel’s closest competitor in the comics medium, DC Comics, has focused mainly on producing Batman and Superman films. One of the admirable traits of Marvel Films is its willingness to take a risk by adapting lesser known characters.
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