Blackout vs. Ghost Rider | Contest of Champions

Miles

Timmy, are you going to go see Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance?

Timmy

I haven’t seen the first one! But I’ve heard that it’s not totally terrible? Maybe I heard that from you. Is it terrible?

Miles

Um…it’s not terrible. But it’s not great either. Nic Cage being cast as Johnny Blaze was just a poor choice. I’ve never been a huge Ghost Rider fan, but, what I do know about Johnny Blaze is that Nic Cage just wasn’t the right choice.

Timmy

Agreed. Johnny Blaze is a character with gravitas, and no matter how good of an actor Nic Cage is (and I don’t think he’s very good), the fact that the real-life Nic Cage is such an object of ridicule is a real detriment. He’s part of the reason I haven’t seen it yet.

That said, I loved The Rock and Con Air.

Miles

Yeah, you know, I don’t understand what everyone’s beef is with Nicholas Cage. I think he’s great. I love a lot of the movies he’s in. I think the guy just needs to know how to say “no.”

Timmy

Well, irregardless of all that, we’re not here to talk about Nic Cage or even Johnny Blaze. We’re here to talk about young Danny Ketch. Now, being not very familiar with the Ghost Rider books, I had no idea that Danny Ketch was just a kid. And yet here we are: one of the most badass guys in the Marvel U is a puny, frightened kid.

Miles

Yeah by the way, the books we’re talking about here are Ghost Rider Volume 2: #’s 1-3. The first appearance of Danny Ketch as the new Ghost Rider and the first appearance of Blackout. Who is the villain in the new Ghost Rider movie.

Prior to Ghost Rider Volume 2: #1, Ghost Rider had been out of print for a while. The first Ghost Rider series ended with Johnny Blaze (The first Ghost Rider) actually exorcizing the demon that inhabited him to be able to become the Ghost Rider. So no Johnny Blaze, no Ghost Rider. Until Danny Ketch. This version of Ghost Rider’s origin isn’t explained in these issues but we later find out that Danny Ketch and Johnny Blaze were long-lost brothers and that their family was the inheritor of a mystical curse. Ketch eventually seemed to die, but the Spirit of Vengeance to which he had been bound through the bike’s talisman lived on, and Ketch himself was resurrected via a bonding with the Noble Kale.

So long story short, Blaze was inhabited by a demon named Zarathos who gave him the Ghost Rider powers and visage and Ketch was inhabited by a previous Ghost Rider by the name of Noble Kale who had become a spirit who was able to give Ketch Ghost Rider powers and visage.

*whew* Got all that?

Timmy

Comics, everybody!

Timmy

One thing I liked about these couple books is that almost none of the information you just gave us was in them. It got straight to the point, with minimal setup: a kid finds a magic motorcycle in a junkyard, and it transforms him into a spirit of vengeance. The details will all be worked out later; for now, we just want a guy with a flaming skull to kick some ass!

Miles

By the way, I know this Classic Contest has less to do with the film and more to do with the comics we’re talking about but I think it’s wildly appropriate to mention some movie factoids, especially this little nugget:

“We didn’t really honestly do a lot of research into the comic book version of Blackout,” Taylor admitted. “We kind of just took the visual of him and went from there.” – The director of Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance

Miles

Chris Sims writes a damn good review on the movie especially this part:

“the kid is named “Danny” after the second Ghost Rider, Danny Ketch. This illustrates one of the major problems with just throwing in names to reference the comics without actually tying them into anything, because you’re me, you spend the entire movie hoping that you’re going to see this 13-year-old turn into a crazy little kid version of Ghost Rider. It doesn’t happen, and I ended up walking away from it way more disappointed than I would’ve been if they’d just named the kid “Scott” or something.”

-_-

Timmy

Speak of Mephisto, and he shall arise: the first Ghost Rider flick was on cable last night, so I watched. It was alright; pretty standard comic book/Nic Cage fare. The best part by far was watching Sam Elliot and his horse catch fire. What a badass!

Timmy

We should probably set the stage for these books, though, eh? Basically, Danny Ketch and his sister Barbara are hanging out in a cemetery looking for Harry Houdini’s grave when they witness an illegal contraband exchange, between agents of the Kingpin and a new crime boss named Deathwatch, gone bad.

A gang of kids, the Cypress Pool Jokers, who also witnessed the exchange, make off with the contraband: a briefcase containing a potent biotoxin.

Timmy

Barbara, meanwhile, takes an arrow to the chest, and Danny is forced to drag her into a pile of debris in a nearby junkyard to protect her from Deathwatch’s henchmen. Fortunately for him, buried in that pile of rubble is a seemingly new motorcycle which, when he touches a glowing amulet on its chassis, transforms the youngster into Ghost Rider, the Spirit of Vengeance. Got it?

Miles

I’m glad you mentioned Sam Eliot’s role in Ghost Rider. See to me, he played a perfect Carter Slade. The one aspect of casting they actually got right in these movies and it’s the guy we see the least of.

Although, casting Sam Eliot as a cowboy Ghost Rider should’ve been obvious, the man is type cast forever as a cowboy anyway no thanks to his ridiculously appropriate voice for roles like that.

Miles

So the villain Ghost Rider is fighting in these books is Blackout. Blackout, is able to psionically extinguish any natural or artificial light source within his immediate vicinity.

When I was reading #2, his first appearance, I was like, why then doesn’t Blackout extinguish Ghost Rider’s hellfire light? But apparently supernatural light sources like Ghost Rider’s hellfire are not affected by Blackout’s power.

I actually kind of like this power. Timmy what are your thoughts on Blackout?

Timmy

I liked how in a conversation with Deathwatch, he referred to it as his “skin condition.” Funny.

Blackout is a cool enough villain with a good power. My gripe, which may have already been rectified in later Ghost Rider books, is that he shares the affliction of countless otherwise cool 90s characters: he just looks like a clown. Blackout dresses like one of the Lost Boys from Hook. He needs a better outfit!

Timmy

You see glimpses of it, when Blackout ambushes people in their homes: his power, and his persona, inspire genuine terror. And then he emerges from the shadows with his extraneous braids and Nantucket reds, and it deflates from the atmosphere of dread. He should look scarier.

Miles

Nantucket reds? What the hell is that?

Miles

The last three panels of #2 are possibly my three favorite panels of all time.

He’s Ghost Rider! He can’t catch up to the lamp shade demon?

Also, I think it’s really interesting that Blackout knows he’s out of Ghost Rider’s league.

Timmy

Firstly, these are reds.

“Well, I know my way around New England, I can tell ya that much!”

Timmy

Secondly, Ghost Rider is kind of an asshole. It’d be one thing if he was standing there by himself, watching Blackout slowly get away. But there’s a kid standing right there pleading with him! His parents were just brutally murdered!

Miles

Ah. They’re pants. Gotcha. I thought they were like a pack of heaters or something.

Timmy

It’s funny, I just read this book the other day, and I already forget the climactic battle between Ghost Rider and Blackout. Just your standard punching, right?

Miles

Yeah you know, there really wasn’t much of fight between these characters. They tussled a bit and punched and flung each other around but that’s it. Blackout knew he couldn’t use his namesake power on Ghost Rider so he was forced to use brute strength. The fight was kind of weak sauce if you ask me. I’m surprised Blackout didn’t try and block out the moon light to gain some sort of optical advantage over Ghost Rider.

Timmy

Right? Maybe we can chalk this up to it being an origin story, and the writers needing to do a lot more than just construct a decent fight.

Miles

I mean these guys are both pretty evenly matched when you consider that Blackout can’t use his light dampening power on Ghost Rider and Ghost Rider can’t use his penance stare on Blackout, (because Blackout lacks any kind of regret about the murders he’s committed). Ghost Rider’s hellfire is the only advantage that Ghost Rider has over Blackout.

Miles

Also, in that top right hand corner panel it looks like Ghost Rider and Blackout are making love.

Timmy

Making love? Who says that?

Timmy

I think the Penance Stare is probably Ghost Rider’s best and most underrated power. Without it, he’s just like, I dunno, Luke Cage and Johnny Storm.

Miles

“Make loving?”

Timmy

I feel guilty always bagging on 90s comics, because I consider those comics to be like my family. Good or bad, I love them, because they made me who I am. However, comma, I’m a grown ass man, and I pride myself on having some critical distance.

So I find that volume 2 of Ghost Rider commits the same sin as many other 90s comics, and that is forgetting things that are timelessly cool, in favor of things that are cool at the time. GR’s motorcycle is a case in point.

Timmy

Here’s Ghost Rider #1 from 1973.

There he is, the original American badass, in classic biker gear: leather jacket, leather gloves, riding his Harley. Now here’s Ghost Rider #1 from 1990:

Still cool, with the leather jacket and the flaming skull, but what the hell is he riding? Some kind of Kree battlebike? It doesn’t look like any kind of motorcycle you’ve ever seen.

Timmy

Point being, from Marlon Brando in The Wild One in 1953, to Sons of Anarchy today, people have always thought tough biker outlaws are cool. ALWAYS. You don’t have to spice it up with a bike that turns into a battering ram or any other silly stuff like that. It’s a guy with a flaming skull on a hellfire-fueled Harley. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.

Miles

ha. Kree battle bike, wtf.

Dan Ketch was a young dude. A younger dude than Johnny Blaze, of course Ketch is going to have a different bike than Blaze. Firstly because he’s from a different generation with different tastes. Secondly, Ketch didn’t need a stunt bike. Ketch transformed the bike to emulate and amp up the bikes’s he likes and that he’s familiar with of his generation. Thirdly, “If you’re not moving forward you’re moving backwards.”

I for one am glad Dan Ketch wasn’t another Harley fag, like Blaze was.

And no, I’m not taking down the word fag. Because:

Miles

Also, if there’s any part of 90′s Ghost Rider you’re going to shit on why don’t you shit on the actually shitty 90′s era of Ghost Rider:

Timmy

I’m obligated to post this, for Miles’s and the readers’ benefit.

Timmy

And, I mean, what do you want me to say? 1996 was a dark time. It’s best to just forget it and move on.

Miles

Wish I waited to use this seal image until now.

Timmy

Another lame thing about this new Ghost Rider: why the hell does it take place in New York? What’s the point of writing in a hellfire-fueled Kree battlebike if it’s going to have to navigate the cramped streets of Queens? Ghost Rider belongs out west, on the open road! The original Ghost Rider was a cowboy, for Pete’s sake!

Miles

Yeah I couldn’t agree with you more there. Ghost Rider has always been about the old west or the south or traveling carnivals to me. I love New York as much as the next guy, but, it’s been done. Leave New York to heroes likes Spider-Man. Speaking of which, shouldn’t like, more heroes live in more crime infested spots like…oh…Detroit?

Having said that, I also disagree with you because you can’t beat imagery of Ghost Rider blazing down the side of a skyscraper building with hellfire spewing behind him.

Miles

Alright well we’re gearing up to close out this Classic Contest in a bit but before we go lets talk a bit more about the match at hand.
Prior to the Ghost Rider movie coming out, I don’t think I could’ve named a Ghost Rider arch nemesis. Let alone A single Ghost Rider villain. Not the case anymore. I will forever associate Ghost Rider with Blackout.

Blackout for as lame as he sounds on paper, the man has fucked up Dan Ketch’s life pretty hardcore. Example:

Timmy

Yikes! But see, Blackout looks a little more creepy in that panel. Good job by you, GR artists.

Miles

Jesus! Can you imagine this happening to Aunt May when she was in a coma? Something like this would never happen in a Superman book or a Spider-Man book! Ghost Rider books are dark man. Which I mean, I shouldn’t be surprised, but still…

Miles

Although, later. Much later. Did Ghost Rider give into temptation and finally kill him. Finally, exacting, proper Ghost Rider like vengeance:

Miles

Maybe that’s why Ghost Rider lives in New York?

Timmy

Yikes!

Timmy

I think I’ll write some GR fan fic. This town deserves a better class of Ghost Rider story. And I’m gonna give it to them.