Ghost Rider: Vicious Cycle by Daniel Way, Javier Saltares and Mark Texeira

Johnny Blaze was the original Ghost Rider, having made a deal with the Devil to save his adopted father from dying of cancer. Instead, the man died the next day in a crash during his stuntriding circus show, and Johnny was only saved through the intervention of Roxanne Simpson, who saved Johnny with a pure heart full of love. The Devil took his revenge by binding a revenge spirit named Zarakos to his soul, making Johnny become the Ghost Rider.

Now, Johnny is in Hell, literally. He's there being tormented by the Devil. The Devil holds out hope to Johnny and crushes it, again and again and again. It's one of the main forms of the Devil's amusement- holding out some hope for Johnny to change something or make a difference, and then brutally crushing that hope. Johnny realizes that fact, but doesn't seem able to change his actions, to stop grasping for any shred of hope that comes his way.

When he encounters a digging demon trying to escape, Johnny tries not to listen when it claims to have found a way out of hell, but eventually he gives in and rescues the thing from the Devil's captors and forces it to show him where it could dig out of Hell. But when he shakes on helping it escape as well, it turns out to be the devil, and when Johnny sinks into the water of the cavern and manages to make his way out, the Devil tags along with him.

Rescuing the Devil from Hell wasn't what Johnny wanted to do, but he doesn't realize what happened at first. His cycle runs out of gas and he's given a lift to a truck stop from a female trucker who, unbeknownst to him, recognizes him from when she was a girl. But he can't get over his suspicion that he's still in Hell, and that all of this is just a trick from the Devil. Especially when he's attacked by someone sporting the eyes like the Devil

Especially when he runs into Stephen Strange in a local graveyard. Johnny attacks Strange, who is attempting to speak to him, thinking that he's the Devil. Strange attempts to defend himself, but Johnny is too strong, and when Strange fails to fall to his "penance stare", only then does Johnny realize the horrible mistake he's made. But one of Strange's spirit allies, a woman called Numecet, shows up and tells Johnny what happened.

The Devil did indeed escape Hell along with Johnny. Johnny's soul still had a body to go to, so he inhabited his body again. But the Devil was *only* a soul, and when it reached the earth, it shattered into pieces- 666 pieces. Each piece possessed a nearly dead or newly dead body, and now they are out in the world wreaking havoc.

Johnny wants to go and fight them, but Numecet points out that with each one Johnny destroys, the piece of the Devil's soul he frees will go into the rest, making them stronger. And by the time he's down to only a few souls, those left will be very powerful. Should he manage to take them down so that only one soul is left, the devil will have won- his soul will be in one piece, inhabiting a real, physical body. And that's what he wanted all along.

Johnny doesn't see that he has a choice, though, and leaves to begin his task. Numecet agrees that he is the only one who can do it, and also, that no one can stop him from doing it. But that doesn't mean that she's happy about it. And her tears finally revive Stephen Strange.

So. Johnny knows that the Devil is after him, but he's lured into one last trap, at the site of the old circus where Crash Simpson died and where Jonny summoned the Devil. We see the story told out, and are given a bit of hope for Johnny as he roars off into the night after defeating one of the Devil's pseduobodies. But given the odds that lie against him, is there any hope for him to defeat the Devil? Or will he soon be back in his former position, trapped in Hell and taunted by his foe? Is this just the largest trap of all?

After the comic Ghost Rider went defunct back in the late 80's, it had been killed off through lack of sales. But fans of the series never forgot, and in 2007, he was brought back for this series, after another short series and the final end to the Ghost Rider series was published, probably to coincide with the coming of the film starring Nicholas Cage.

This book is the first five issues of the new series, and was intended to give fans a long story arc to look forward to. In that, it doesn't fail. Hell is suitably Hellish, if you'll pardon the pun, that you can see why Johnny is desperate to leave. But the manner of his leaving is just another trick of the Devil, and Johnny, hardened by his time in Hell, cannot at first believe that he has really escaped, not even when the female trucker kicks him in the 'nads for being a prick... but she still helps him later.

Not having read any of the original series aside from one graphic novel featuring Danny Ketch, Wolverine and the Punisher versus Blackheart, I can only say that this graphic novel is a wild ride, and quite enjoyable. A situation is set up that only Ghost Rider can deal with, and he brings his trademark hatred of evil with him, even if Johnny Blaze is perhaps more hardened after his time in Hell.

I liked this book a lot, and I'd definitely recommend it to anyone who enjoyed comics. While you don't have to know much about the original comics series to enjoy it, it does help to know something about the character's original appearance and powers. But having watched the movie will suffice.