The Creators – Benjamin Percy – Writer, Cory Smith – Artist, Bryan Valenza – Colours, Travis Lanham – Letters

The Players – Ghost Rider (Johnny Blaze), Zeb

The Story – Something is not right with Johnny Blaze and the world around him. Something is off and there is a part of him that knows it.

The Take – Ghost Rider gets another shot at life and an ongoing title courtesy of Benjamin Perce and Cory Smith and it no longer finds Blaze as the King of Hell, nor is there any sign of Danny Ketch or what happened in the last short-lived book, though the creative team could potentially pick things up at some point. Instead, Blaze is given a fresh start of sorts as it finds him with a wife, kids, money and a house and a perfect life as most would see it. Of late though, he got into a motorcycle accident and now has a head wound that has messed him up enough to see a therapist. His dreams are nightmares of the worst variety and he has waking visions that haunt him. Percy writes a very damaged Johnny Blaze, a man unable to live with the satisfaction of what he has because he knows that something is wrong. Is it his mind? Is it something else? Percy gives Blaze a lot of doubts and a lot of pain along with them and he has dragged Blaze down to his lowest self, something that has not been done as of yet over the course of his long history. Percy paints a mystery as the book moves along and it is obvious that there is something below the surface that there is more to what is being shown and by the end of the story, readers are given a cliff-hanger that finds Ghost Rider unleashed but who is it that had tied him down, chained him away and who is going to pay for it. The artwork by Smith is solid and perfect for a book such as this, the man able to draw the every day along with the horror of both the Ghost Rider and the world that he inhabits. For a first issue, the book has everything that one could want and it is more than enough to draw people back for a second helping, it is just hopeful that they pick up this issue and those that follow in order that Blaze continues to live on in his own title for some time to come.

Worth It? – Yes!