Ghost Rider #75

History

By late 1982, the Ghost Rider series had entered its closing chapter under the DeMatteis–Budiansky creative partnership, with Tom DeFalco editing and Jim Shooter serving as editor-in-chief. Roger Stern had revitalized the book starting around issue #68 alongside Budiansky, and when Stern departed, DeMatteis took the writing reins with a deliberate plan to give Johnny Blaze's decade-long story a proper conclusion — naming the demon Zarathos, revealing his origin, and building a roster of new antagonists including Freakmaster, Centurious, and Steel Wind across the final arc. Budiansky functioned as both penciler and co-plotter, contributing visual and narrative ideas to DeMatteis's story framework, a collaborative method the two would continue after Ghost Rider ended. The issue hit newsstands with a cover/on-sale date of August 31, 1982, carrying a December 1982 cover date.

Trivia · 8 facts

• First appearance of Steel Wind (Ruriko Tsumura), a cyborg mercenary and stunt rider introduced as an agent of the Freakmaster sent to infiltrate and destabilize the Quentin Carnival.
• Written by J.M. DeMatteis with pencils by Bob Budiansky, inks by Dave Simons, colors by Bob Sharen, and letters by Joe Rosen; edited by Tom DeFalco under editor-in-chief Jim Shooter.
• Also contains the first appearance of Great Vincenzo, a carnival magician who inadvertently discovers Steel Wind's cyborg nature and is subsequently captured and sent to the Freakmaster.
• The story's central conflict is a stunt-riding competition arranged by Ralph Quentin to determine whether Johnny Blaze or Steel Wind keeps their place in the carnival — Steel Wind wins, temporarily ousting both Johnny and Cynthia Randolph.
• Steel Wind is depicted from her debut as a partially cybernetic character whose enhancements include rebuilt limbs granting superhuman strength and durability, with further augmentation occurring in later appearances.
• The Freakmaster — who made his own first appearance in Ghost Rider #70 — continues his behind-the-scenes machinations in this issue, having coerced Ralph Quentin through knowledge of his past to allow Steel Wind access to the carnival.
• The issue falls within the final story arc of Ghost Rider Vol. 2 (1973–1983), a planned conclusion that ran through issue #81; the arc was later collected in Marvel Masterworks: Ghost Rider Vol. 7, alongside issues #74–81 and related material.
• Steel Wind went on to appear in Ghost Rider/Blaze: Spirits of Vengeance (the Danny Ketch era), eventually shifting from villain to reluctant ally after Centurious killed her sister, Steel Vengeance, in front of her.

Cast · 6 characters

Full credits

Key issues in Ghost Rider

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#2 1st appearance — Big Daddy Dawson

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#4 1st appearance — Inferno

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#63 1st appearance — Corky Franklin

Variants (2)