What do you think?
Rate this book
Ghost Rider Epic Collection
Ghost Rider Epic Collection, Vol. 2: The Salvation Run
One of the biggest stars to come out of the 1970s era of Marvel continues his Epic Collection journey - the Spirit of Vengeance, Ghost Rider!
In his second Epic Collection, Ghost Rider faces a myriad of adversaries — from the awesome Orb and the Gladiator, to the Eel and the Enforcer! The Rider travels across the America’s backroads and the supernatural worlds beyond. They will bring him into the realm of the mystical Dr. Druid and into a team-up with Hawkeye and Two-Gun Kid against the fearsome Manticore! And with Karen Page in Ghost Rider’s cast, Daredevil enters the fray in a crossover classic drawn by John Byrne! Also featuring the fearsome joining of Ghost Rider, Man-Thing, Morbius and Werewolf by Night as the Legion of Monsters!
COLLECTING: Ghost Rider (1973) 12-28, Marvel Two-in-One (1974) 18, Daredevil (1964) 138, Marvel Team-Up (1972) 58, Marvel Premiere (1972) 28, material from Marvel Tales (1966) 255
In his second Epic Collection, Ghost Rider faces a myriad of adversaries — from the awesome Orb and the Gladiator, to the Eel and the Enforcer! The Rider travels across the America’s backroads and the supernatural worlds beyond. They will bring him into the realm of the mystical Dr. Druid and into a team-up with Hawkeye and Two-Gun Kid against the fearsome Manticore! And with Karen Page in Ghost Rider’s cast, Daredevil enters the fray in a crossover classic drawn by John Byrne! Also featuring the fearsome joining of Ghost Rider, Man-Thing, Morbius and Werewolf by Night as the Legion of Monsters!
COLLECTING: Ghost Rider (1973) 12-28, Marvel Two-in-One (1974) 18, Daredevil (1964) 138, Marvel Team-Up (1972) 58, Marvel Premiere (1972) 28, material from Marvel Tales (1966) 255
408 pages, Paperback
First published October 29, 2024
8 people are currently reading
24 people want to read
About the author
Tony Isabella
399 books24 followersTony Isabella is an American comic book writer, editor, artist and critic, known as the creator and writer of Marvel Comics' Black Goliath; DC Comics' first major African-American superhero, Black Lightning; and as a columnist and critic for the Comics Buyer's Guide.
Contents
Contents
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
February 27, 2025
Marvel Two-in-One (1974) #8 - First up is a story with Ghost Rider and Ben Grimm, the Thing. This one is a little wonky, and rather typical in how the format of these team-up titles can be extremely contrived. It’s also a Christmas story, sort of. And I couldn’t even begin to tell you how many times I’ve read this one. I’m being generous with an extra star (3/5).
Ghost Rider (1973) #12-15 - These issues get Johnny Blaze started on a new career path, Hollywood man. But he has some trouble with the Phantom Eagle and then the Trapster before that new direction gets settled. With his arrival in Los Angeles he pretty quickly gets caught up in events with the Champions (check out Champions Classic: The Complete Collection for those stories), but his own adventures continue as he faces off with the Orb.
Ghost Rider #16 - This is a fill-in that deals with dolphins, the CIA (obviously inspired by the film Day of the Dolphin), and child abuse and - yeah it’s kind of weird and has no connection to the regular events, but it’s not a bad tale.
Marvel Premiere (1972) #28 - In many ways, I’d say it’s the weirdest of this collection. Take four disparate Marvel characters with nothing else in common and throw them into a supernatural team of monsters without rhyme, reason or context. I loved this story of The Legion of Monsters when it first came out precisely because it leaves more unanswered than it answers. I can’t say that any of these characters (Johnny Blaze Ghost Rider, Jack Russell Werewolf by Night, Morbius the Living Vampire and the Man-Thing) were among my favorites, but there were at least some runs with the characters that really stood out as masterpieces. Not so much here. But it was actually the bizarre combination of these four that made this issue work so well, and made it such wild fun. (3/5) (This is also included in Ghost Rider Team-up, Morbius Epic Collection Vol. 2: The End of a Living Vampire & Werewolf by Night: The Complete Collection, Vol. 3.)
Ghost Rider #17-19 - These issues are part of the story that gives this volume its name. Son of Satan guest-stars and apparently gets his soul back from the devil’s claim on it (but to be honest, I thought he’d already done that). This is the kind of reoccurring threat or menace that leaves much of the run rather disappointing. This is not a bad story, so much as it just does not feel all that original.
Daredevil (1964) #138 & Ghost Rider #20 - This special 2-part crossover is from the unmistakable and masterful team of John Byrne and Chris Claremont. And it is wonderful. Unfortunately, it’s not from the regular team of either of these titles, so it does stick out like a pig in a pink tutu at a rodeo. Byrne’s art is a wonderful and fun as ever, but Claremont’s characterizations of the leads is not consistent with either title. Still it’s a great and entertaining read. (4/5)
Ghost Rider #21-24 - Gladiator, the Eel, Stunt Master, the Enforcer, Water Wizard. Ghost Rider is getting a regular rogues gallery now. Basically these issue revolve around the Enforcer trying to build a criminal empire in LA. There are a lot of shenanigans, some of which makes sense, and the. You have to add in love triangle between Johnny Blaze, Roxanne Simpson and Karen Page, none of which makes a lick of sense. So there was clearly not a lot of coordination among the various writers and artists during this period of Ghost Rider’s history. At least there’s a beautiful issue with art from Gil Kane. And there’s even a brief appearance by Black Widow, Hercules, Angel, and Iceman, our hero’s teammates in the Champions.
Marvel Team-Up (1972) #58 - Ghost Rider is in NYC for a Stuntmaster shoot. Luckily, Spider-Man is nearby to help foil the Trapster from killing Ghost Rider. Usual shenanigans ensue. What’s interesting here though is that Trapster ends up absolutely terrified of Ghost Rider and the hellfire he spews forth. Nothing particularly note-worthy here, except that it sets up a nice epilogue as told in Marvel Tales #255 (and included in this volume).
Ghost Rider #25-28 - These issues start off with kind of a throwaway villain, Malice, and a story that doesn’t do much more than set up the next issue. Dr. Druid makes an appearance as he tracks down Ghost Rider because he believes Ghost Rider is a demon. What really makes this one interesting is that the events depicted shatter Johnny Blaze’s life in Los Angeles. Clearly these are transformative issues, this one features guest-stars Hawkeye and Two-Gun Kid during the their Wild West bromance era. Again, the end result is just events that keep pushing Blaze away from the life he’d been building in Los Angeles. The last of these issues deals with the return of the Orb and what could very well be the last chance Johnny might have of seeing Roxanne. As much a bitter ending for the volume as it is for Ghost Rider’s career in Los Angeles.
With material from Marvel Tales (1966) #255 - This is the only thing in this volume that I haven’t read at least once before. Basically a little epilogue that pulls Trapster out of the depths of depression he found himself in after the events of Marvel Team-Up #58. It’s a nice little bonus, even if Ghost Rider doesn’t technically appear.
This volume does not hold a lot of favorite stories for me, some nostalgia perhaps, but not a lot of stuff that personally grabbed me. While it does cover his time in Los Angeles, Ghost Rider’s appearances in Champions Classic: The Complete Collection are much more of interest to me. There’s a lot of floundering and trying to find strong story threads here for it to really work for me. But it is part of an experiment to try to take the character into more traditional superhero directions. Some of it work, a lot didn’t. Maybe the next stage of the life of Johnny Blaze will work out better, or maybe not.
Ghost Rider (1973) #12-15 - These issues get Johnny Blaze started on a new career path, Hollywood man. But he has some trouble with the Phantom Eagle and then the Trapster before that new direction gets settled. With his arrival in Los Angeles he pretty quickly gets caught up in events with the Champions (check out Champions Classic: The Complete Collection for those stories), but his own adventures continue as he faces off with the Orb.
Ghost Rider #16 - This is a fill-in that deals with dolphins, the CIA (obviously inspired by the film Day of the Dolphin), and child abuse and - yeah it’s kind of weird and has no connection to the regular events, but it’s not a bad tale.
Marvel Premiere (1972) #28 - In many ways, I’d say it’s the weirdest of this collection. Take four disparate Marvel characters with nothing else in common and throw them into a supernatural team of monsters without rhyme, reason or context. I loved this story of The Legion of Monsters when it first came out precisely because it leaves more unanswered than it answers. I can’t say that any of these characters (Johnny Blaze Ghost Rider, Jack Russell Werewolf by Night, Morbius the Living Vampire and the Man-Thing) were among my favorites, but there were at least some runs with the characters that really stood out as masterpieces. Not so much here. But it was actually the bizarre combination of these four that made this issue work so well, and made it such wild fun. (3/5) (This is also included in Ghost Rider Team-up, Morbius Epic Collection Vol. 2: The End of a Living Vampire & Werewolf by Night: The Complete Collection, Vol. 3.)
Ghost Rider #17-19 - These issues are part of the story that gives this volume its name. Son of Satan guest-stars and apparently gets his soul back from the devil’s claim on it (but to be honest, I thought he’d already done that). This is the kind of reoccurring threat or menace that leaves much of the run rather disappointing. This is not a bad story, so much as it just does not feel all that original.
Daredevil (1964) #138 & Ghost Rider #20 - This special 2-part crossover is from the unmistakable and masterful team of John Byrne and Chris Claremont. And it is wonderful. Unfortunately, it’s not from the regular team of either of these titles, so it does stick out like a pig in a pink tutu at a rodeo. Byrne’s art is a wonderful and fun as ever, but Claremont’s characterizations of the leads is not consistent with either title. Still it’s a great and entertaining read. (4/5)
Ghost Rider #21-24 - Gladiator, the Eel, Stunt Master, the Enforcer, Water Wizard. Ghost Rider is getting a regular rogues gallery now. Basically these issue revolve around the Enforcer trying to build a criminal empire in LA. There are a lot of shenanigans, some of which makes sense, and the. You have to add in love triangle between Johnny Blaze, Roxanne Simpson and Karen Page, none of which makes a lick of sense. So there was clearly not a lot of coordination among the various writers and artists during this period of Ghost Rider’s history. At least there’s a beautiful issue with art from Gil Kane. And there’s even a brief appearance by Black Widow, Hercules, Angel, and Iceman, our hero’s teammates in the Champions.
Marvel Team-Up (1972) #58 - Ghost Rider is in NYC for a Stuntmaster shoot. Luckily, Spider-Man is nearby to help foil the Trapster from killing Ghost Rider. Usual shenanigans ensue. What’s interesting here though is that Trapster ends up absolutely terrified of Ghost Rider and the hellfire he spews forth. Nothing particularly note-worthy here, except that it sets up a nice epilogue as told in Marvel Tales #255 (and included in this volume).
Ghost Rider #25-28 - These issues start off with kind of a throwaway villain, Malice, and a story that doesn’t do much more than set up the next issue. Dr. Druid makes an appearance as he tracks down Ghost Rider because he believes Ghost Rider is a demon. What really makes this one interesting is that the events depicted shatter Johnny Blaze’s life in Los Angeles. Clearly these are transformative issues, this one features guest-stars Hawkeye and Two-Gun Kid during the their Wild West bromance era. Again, the end result is just events that keep pushing Blaze away from the life he’d been building in Los Angeles. The last of these issues deals with the return of the Orb and what could very well be the last chance Johnny might have of seeing Roxanne. As much a bitter ending for the volume as it is for Ghost Rider’s career in Los Angeles.
With material from Marvel Tales (1966) #255 - This is the only thing in this volume that I haven’t read at least once before. Basically a little epilogue that pulls Trapster out of the depths of depression he found himself in after the events of Marvel Team-Up #58. It’s a nice little bonus, even if Ghost Rider doesn’t technically appear.
This volume does not hold a lot of favorite stories for me, some nostalgia perhaps, but not a lot of stuff that personally grabbed me. While it does cover his time in Los Angeles, Ghost Rider’s appearances in Champions Classic: The Complete Collection are much more of interest to me. There’s a lot of floundering and trying to find strong story threads here for it to really work for me. But it is part of an experiment to try to take the character into more traditional superhero directions. Some of it work, a lot didn’t. Maybe the next stage of the life of Johnny Blaze will work out better, or maybe not.
May 11, 2025
I felt this was a noticeable improvement over the last volume, with the storytelling being a big standout reason as to why. I had fun reading this volume throughout where it never felt like there was anything it did bad, but it also didn't have much that stood out either. solid read throughout.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews