Magic The Gathering meets Supernatural in a cover that leaves me wishing Johnny Blaze had more to do with the rest of the Marvel Universe.

Where's everyone else?

Some comics suffer the problem of squeezing in too many cameos and none of them really get fleshed out. I feel like Ghost Rider needed more of a pal to talk things through. You know how Jensen Ackles, the dark, brooding one has the other guy on Supernatural to keep him in check? Johnny needs another guy (I am not really feeling Dixie, and the part she plays in the end of the arc is lack lustre).

Let's pick apart the plot.

Presumably back in mid 2007, Daniel Way was coming up with a story arc he thought would be worth putting pictures to. He gets a hold of Javier Saltares and says, "Right, old hot head is going up against six hundred and sixty six incarnations of the Devil himself. One six hundred and sixty sixth of him will embody some recently dead guy and flame-face has to ward them off until the final battle.

In this issue, GR is looking for the last three (really four if you count the festering corpse).

Ghostie faces off with number four and she (the recently deceased was a woman wearing a waitress uniform) pleads with him. Her bargaining tool is that she knows where the kidnapped children are being kept.

Ghostie extracts what he needs and presumably penance stares her to ashes (you don't see the end result). Suffice to say, she doesn't appear again for the rest of the story!

The two angels. Beavis and Butthead.

Vraniel and Emmael struggle to fly on the mortal plane and take a bit longer to get to the barn where one of the final three avatars of Satan is holding the kids (who plead for water). They want to prove to Ghostie that they're on his side [see earlier issues.. I've got no idea why he doesn't trust them].

The rider blasts into the barn, setting it alight with his hellfire, endangering the kids. Cue the magical magical bondage chains to wrap around the demon.

GR's steed drags the demon off out into the open to be dealt with.

The angels fly in and rescue the kids off panel after the demon tries to assert that they've burned as a result of the hellfire. Yay for the angels.

The angry angels meanwhile swoop in as the demon's cackles are halted as he realises the children are safe.

Vraniel mightily tosses his "Heaven Sword" (my title, not Way's) at the demon, killing it. But weirdly, Vraniel falls to the ground in exhaustion. He must have must have put too much soul energy into the sword as he threw it. Tough gig.

Ghostie is pissed he lost the flip phone (crushed in an earlier scene).

God pulls through and saves the day and makes the phone magically unbreak and appear in the arse pocket of the charred demon. Without the flip phone he couldn't call Roxie who's watching the corpse (who'll in the end become Satan's Earthly plane incarnation). He also couldn't call the other demon in the next issue who plans on denotating a bomb in a stadium to taunt him. Where's he getting all their numbers?

The Lord works in mysterious ways. Could have shown up and instantly vanquished all evil instantly, but no. "Mysterious ways".

Behold! It's a heavenly turd.

Nah. This is the Devil. And he is piss-weak. God's little miracle at the end was horse shit and the huge revelation in the next issue which affects the direction of the next arc is that Ghost Rider is actually an angel who was fucked with by Zadkiel (another angel), bonding Johnny Blaze with the Ghost Rider (a heavenly entity).

What sort of angel does that to a guy? And because of a prayer from Roxie, no less? Give me a break.

I'm only reading these because I've got them already. Get them from Comixology if you want but I'm not leaving a link. Google that yourself.

This wasn't a party, so no invites.

All the best,

Nick.

All content is original and belongs to @nickmorphew. [28 May 2018]

Disclosure: This article was not a paid promotion and was not self-upvoted. Nor were there any affiliate links.

I’m still looking for an artist to cover my work on my fantasy saga, Adventures in Elowyn Glade.

And because you stayed and upvoted, here's my exclusive variant cover.