News from C2E2, the new Ghost Rider creative team is made up of writer Rob Williams (Daken: Dark Wolverine, Cla$$war) and newly Marvel exclusive artist Matthew Clark (Inhumans, Doom Patrol).
It’s the first ongoing series starring the character — who was seen in last year’s street-level crossover Shadowland — since the recent Jason Aaron-written series ended in 2009 with issue #35. This series will tie-in to Fear Itself initially, and the fact that the character’s starring in a new film slotted for 2012, titled Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance, doesn’t hurt in drawing attention, either.
But is THIS Ghost Rider Johnny Blaze? The writer is cryptic.
[Writer Rob]Williams: Johnny Blaze is still going to be a central character in this series. Old school Ghost Rider fans are going to be seeing Johnny’s classic bike and look. But part of our hook is Johnny being given a faustian pact — he can rid himself of the curse of the Ghost Rider forever if he’s willing to pass it on to someone completely anonymous to him. It’s the old moral chestnut of ‘you could have a million dollars but someone you’ve never met in China would die.’ Johnny’s sick of this life. Of what he sees as a terrible curse. Our initial arc is called “Give Up The Ghost.”‘ But if he does pass on the Rider, who will it move to? People will have to buy the book to find out.
And what about Danny Ketch?
Williams: Danny’s in our plans. He’s not an initial point of focus but he’s out there. And Johnny Blaze’s decision is going to have a major effect on Danny Ketch’s life too. We wanted to make this series an accessible jumping on point for new riders, but we’d be foolish to ignore the rich lore of past Ghost Rider series’. So there’ll be some new and some old favourites – both in terms of good guys and bad guys.
