Marvel regained the rights to Ghost Rider in 2013.10 years later, and there is still no Ghost Rider movie. The reason seems obvious. Ghost Rider, like Blade, does not fit in the Earth-616 universe of the MCU movies. But with the Spider-verse expanding the MCU beyond Earth-616, and the Kang arc leading to what is expected to be an end for the 616 story, it is time to branch out into other universes.
Perhaps Ghost Rider may have some role to play in the multiverse war as a multi-dimensional authority, but we imagine the Rider’s movie reboot being a street-level story – heavy on the street part. TheGhost Ridermovie needs a good story, and we have one for you. This freak of the week story iscelebrated by comic readers as one of the bestGhost Riderissues, and it has all the ingredients for a movie. It is a simple road chase narrative, with Ghost Rider in pursuit of a demonic trucker called the Highwayman. The Highwayman appears inGhost Riderissue number 34 from 2006, titledTrials and Tribulations Part 2: On the Road Again, written by Jason Aaron and drawn by Tony Moore.
Who is the Highwayman?
The Highwayman was a human trucker before making a deal with a demon and becoming the immortal, Highwayman. Highwayman’s truck, The Black Rig, pulls a trailer, carrying demons in the back. He kills travelers on the roads and feeds them to the demons he hauls. He wears a black cowboy hat, an eye patch, and a black blazer with red shoulders. The character’s design is based on country musician, Dick Curless, whose 8-track is seen in the passenger seat of the truck in one panel.
What is The Black Rig?
The Black Rig is a living demonic thing itself. The pencil artist, Tony Moore, embellished every interior shot of the 18-wheeler’s cabin with small, twisted and monstrous details. The gear shift has a baby demon head as a knob. A baby’s foot hangs on a ball chain hanging from the CB radio like a rabbit’s foot. The cable between the microphone and the radio is some twisted veins. The ignition is an eyeball that the key is inserted into. The seats are constructed of bones with hip bones as headrests. The whole interior is ribbed with bones, like the walls of H.R. Giger’s derelict inAlien. The 8-track player has a mouth, and the whole dash is covered in eyes.
What Happens in The Highwayman Comic Issue?
Danny Ketch, the human host of the Spirit of Vengeance, drives up to a burning diner. Ketch is not interested in whatever caused the destruction, but Ghost Rider is. The Rider comes forth and takes over. Ghost Rider catches up to the Highwayman as he is feeding the demons in his trailer the heads of tourists from a bus. The Highwayman outmaneuvers Ghost Rider, climbing a canyon wall and coming down on top of him, running the Rider over. Ghost Rider and the Highwayman battle on the road, and Ghost Rider leads the Black Rig to a collapsed bridge, but the Black Rig jumps the gap and hits the Rider while both vehicles are airborne. Ghost Rider climbs up the grill of the truck, throws his meat hook through the windshield, and decapitates The Highwayman.
Why the MCU’s Blade Should Focus on the Character’s Origin Story
In the continued absence of Blade in the theaters, we will explore six aspects that should inform the script and its place in the MCU.
Monster Effects and Body Horror
This story already requires some gnarly design for the truck’s interior and exterior, and the level of violence that the Highwayman commits will mean loads of practical body horror special effects. But there is the opportunity for some classic animatronic fun. In the comic, we never see what it is the Highwayman is hauling in the trailer and feeding. After Ghost Rider defeats the Highwayman, and his head tries to crawl away like the head of Norris inThe Thing, the movie has to give us the monster in the trailer, and we want something on the scale of the alien queen inAliens.
A Movie With a Vehicular Enemy
Ghost Riderneeds to be a road movie. It is not just about Ghost Rider seeking revenge for victims of supernatural circumstances. Ghost Rider is going to be navigating the supernatural of the highways. There will be ghost hitchers, werewolf biker gangs, zombie cowboys, and other phantasms.Ghost Riderneeds road action, and the story of the Highwayman gives Ghost Rider a villain with a supernatural vehicle to challenge the abilities of the Rider’s bike.
The Desert Setting Will be Easier to Film
Filming in a city will be more expensive, create more safety concerns, and limit the amount of road you can film on. The Highwayman story is set in the desert. Filming in the desert makes it easier to find isolated locations and film lengthier chases. There is less in the background that you might need to erase in post-production. You can more freely wreck an 18-wheeler, you can blow up cars, and you don’t have to worry about damaging buildings, noise complaints, or the safety of onlookers that gather when filming in a city.
Which Ghost Rider Should be Featured in the MCU?
It’s only a matter of time until Ghost Rider makes his MCU introduction, but which character should be featured?
The Desert Is the Biker Movie Archetype
Biker movies are the children of Westerns. The biker films inherited the deserts of the West from the cowboy films. The biker movies represent a culture that rose in the 1950s and ’60s, set against the suburban society of their fathers and the wholesome tales of cowboys on the television or the cinema screen with John Wayne, before cowboy movies became gritty with the new ItalianWesterns and the rise of Clint Eastwood. The biker movie is the successor to the Western in the modern world; the biker is the new cowboy, wandering the West on a horse of steel.
The Highwayman Comic Issue Has a Built-in Soundtrack
In addition to the title reference to the Willy Nelson song,On the Road Again, there is a panel within the comic that shows us some of the Highwayman’s 8-tracks in his passenger seat. In the past, one might have imagined a soundtrack for Ghost Rider with heavy metal guitar, but this story’s Western setting and motifs need country music, and not just well-trodden tunes by Willy, Johnny Cash, David Allen Coe, and Waylon Jennings. The 8-track that the Highwayman chooses to play during his road battle with Ghost Rider is Dick Curless’Tombstone Every Mile, written about a deadly piece of highway in the woods in Maine that claimed countless truckers in the winters.
In the pile of 8-tracks of ’60s and ’70s country music in The Black Rig’s seat are Dave Dudley’sSix Days on the Road, C.W. McCall’sBlack Bear Road, Jerry Reed’sAlabama Wild Man, and Red Sovine’sPhantom 309. Of all the 8-tracks inThe Highwayman’s collection,Phantom 309is the most influential on the plot. It tells the story of a hitchhiker who is picked up by a big rig called Phantom 309. Similar to David Allan Coe’sThe Ride, the hiker discovers at the end of the song that he has been riding with a ghost. Phantom 309’s driver died on the highway, dodging a busload of kids, and he haunts the road, picking up hikers and dropping them off at the diner he used to frequent.
The Highwayman Story Allows Focus on Ghost Rider
There are no supporting protagonists, no romantic interests, and no one is being saved. This is a revenge tale. The villain is doing horrific things, and Ghost Rider is going to follow the trail of crime scenes, give chase on the highway when he finds the monster, and he is going to administer some ultra violence. TheBlademovie has allegedly seen multiple scripts, including one in which the title character is relegated to a supporting role, likeMad Max: Fury Road. If there is aMad Madmovie to follow the format of, it is one of the first three, with the focus on Max.
It Is Street-Level Action, but it Is Cosmic in Importance
The film is a street-level, vehicle-focused story. There are not hundreds of extras. There are no protagonists but Ghost Rider. There are no alien invasions, but the weight of what these characters are makes this a battle that is meta in the MCU multiverse. Ghost Rider and the Highwayman are demons. These are beings that come from an alternate universe. They come from Hell. Like the Dark Dimension, which is the dominion of Dormammu (seen in the firstDoctor Strangemovie), there is only one Hell across the multiverse. Hell is an alternate dimension, which means it has a different beginning from all the timelines of our universe.
The battle that Ghost Rider fights is higher than Thanos, Galactus, or Kang the Conqueror. He is an extradimensional being, battling foes that have broken into the Earth dimensions. This could have implications for the identity of the Rider in the MCU. We do not know if there are multiple Riders across the multiverse of Earths, or if there is only one Rider who is capable of traveling throughout the multiverse.
If you would like to read Ghost Rider’sThe Highwaymanissue,you’re able to find it here.
