Ghost Rider: Danny Ketch #1 review

The only “Ghost Rider” issues that I was ever into were the 1990s issues featuring Danny Ketch.  Since then, I’ve gone back and read some of the Johnny Blaze stuff, and it has its moments, but for me, the best Ghost Rider was reluctant hero Danny Ketch.

At first, his origin was simple – mystic motorcycle makes him the Ghost Rider.  Then, it got infinitely more complicated. Somewhere along the line I stopped reading.  The book got canceled.  Johnny Blaze came back.  Then, recently, in “Ghost Rider,” writer Jason Aaron brought back Danny Ketch.  He seemed to have become a bad guy in the time since we saw him last, which didn’t thrill me.

Now, writer Simon Spurrier and artists Javier Saltares and Tom Palmer explain what happened to Danny Ketch to get him to that point in “Ghost Rider: Danny Ketch.”  In the miniseries, Ketch is down on his luck. He finally managed to free himself of the Ghost Rider curse, but now finds himself empty.  He craves adventure, and maybe something else.  He calls the technomancer who freed him from the curse, and begs her to give it back. But it’s beyond her power.

As the issue concludes, Danny gets a taste of power from a mysterious benefactor, but not enough to quell his craving, or to keep him safe from harm.