Posted on: April 6th, 2009 Aaron’s Ghost Rider run ending in a BIG way!
Ghost Rider is one of those Marvel properties that you would expect to be considered “A-List” material, but for whatever reason, the Rider just didn’t get the attention the character deserved for a long time. A failed attempt at a movie only served to further cement Ghost Rider’s status as a “B-List” hero. A new ongoing Ghost Rider series was launched, to little fanfare. But the Rider has been gaining a lot of positive buzz in the past few months thanks in large part due to Jason Aaron and his incredible creative run. His stories have created a lot of interest in the character, and subsequently, sales are up. Looks like the Rider is back! But as is the case with all good things, Aaron’s run is nearing it’s completion. He will finish up later this year. But Aaron doesn’t plan to go out with a whimper. He plans on going out with a bang, in the form of a new series called “Ghost Rider: Heaven’s on Fire.” The currently running Ghost Rider series will go on a short hiatus, and will be replaced with Aaron’s epic mini-series that promises to be thrilling! The story will feature some familiar faces for fans of the character and the current series, and will offer some resolution to an existing story arc that many believed would’ve already ended. In “Heaven’s on Fire”, both Ghost Riders team up to storm the gates of Heaven and stop Zadkiel’s reign of terror once and for all. Now, I don’t know about you, but if that doesn’t have you salivating all over yourself, I don’t know what would. IGN sat down with Jason Aaron to preview the upcoming series, and here are the highlights:
Aaron on the ending of the last story arc – “The whole plan all along was that that story wouldn’t be resolved until I left the book. That’s my overarching story for the whole run… W had already built up Zadkiel to be a pretty formidable villain, but now he’s obviously much more powerful than he was to begin with. That inevitable confrontation between the Ghost Riders and Zadkiel obviously gets taken up to a different level.”
Aaron on the events leading up to the war for Johnny Blaze – “we look at Blaze and set everything up for the final arc, which is just going to be me throwing every bit of craziness at the wall that I still have left in my run… I’m bringing in more villains… and more heroes. I’m getting to write the Son of Satan for the first time… We’ll see villains like Master Pandemonium pop up, the return of the Orb and Blackout, and more on the new Vengeance.”
His final thoughts on what he can reveal about the story – “I can say that what basically starts this whole story in motion is that Son of Satan finds out from Blaze that Zadkiel is trying to kill the Anti-Christ. The Church of Satan has been working to breed the perfect Anti-Christ for years. Zadkiel’s forces have shown up, and they’re slaughtering all these potential Anti-Christs to where there’s only one left. Zadkiel is doing this to kind of throw Biblical prophecy out the window. If there’s no Anti-Christ, then the Book of Revelations is done. Zadkiel can basically rewrite prophecy and leave himself as the figurehead. We end up having Blaze, Caretaker, Son of Satan, and all these characters working together to save the Anti-Christ to save the world. And of course, that segues into them trying to take down Zadkiel himself. Meanwhile, Blackout and Deacon are back and still working for Zadkiel… They’re putting together a team of villains to take down the Ghost Riders…, some of whom are old Ghost Rider villains, and some who have never faced Ghost Rider before. Their whole purpose is to kill the Ghost Riders.”
This all sounds like a pretty epic event to me. I’m a HUGE fan of Jason Aaron’s run, and I think it’s the best Ghost Rider work I’ve ever seen. I’m bummed about seeing him leave, but at least he’s giving fans one last story, his opus, as a means of cementing himself as the greatest Ghost Rider writer yet. But there are some questions, as I’m sure the hardcore Rider fans have already noticed. Considering everything Blaze and Ketch have been through, everything Danny Ketch has done recently, why would Johnny Blaze want to team up with him? I’d expect him to be a little reluctant, and rightfully so. Well, Aaron addressed it very simply: “Danny’s going to make a big sacrifice. He’s going to make a choice that changes his character. The whole idea of bringing him back for me was to wind up with him in a place where he was an interesting character to write – to give him a little meat on his bones and to make him fun and to make him firmly part of the Ghost Rider mythology again.”
So we can expect to see some awkward interactions, some trials and tribulations, some trust issues… I get it, I really do. And I think this will work. If Ketch has to change who he is to earn back Blaze’s trust, I expect to get some drama added to the mix; a welcome addition to anycomic series, let alone a Ghost Rider one. I think that “Ghost Rider: Heaven’s on Fire” will be one of those events that fans of the character will never forget, and fans of comics in general will truly appreciate. Consider me stoked! I’ll be waiting patiently for my copy to arrive. It’s my sincerest hope that, not only will this series re-establish Danny Ketch as a serious player in the Ghost Rider mythos, but that it will also turn a whole new set of comic fans on to Ghost Rider. When Aaron and his talented mind leaves, the Rider is gonna need a little that extra bit of fan demand to sustain it’s series until the next genius rides into town.