Marvel Spotlight #5

A tryout book for a new kind of hero

Marvel Spotlight began in November 1971 as one of three tryout titles proposed by Stan Lee, a way to test a feature's popularity without paying to launch a full series. The first issue introduced the Western hero Red Wolf, and issues #2 through #4 ran Werewolf by Night before that character got his own book.

Issue #5 handed the spotlight to a new Ghost Rider. The Grand Comics Database dates it on sale on May 30, 1972, with an August cover date. It cost twenty cents and ran 36 pages. The cover, signed by Mike Ploog, carries the line "A Legend Is Born!" and the tag "The most supernatural superhero of all!"

Inside, the 22-page lead story opens with "Rain... Engulfing the city in a damp blanket of doom." It introduces Johnny Blaze, a motorcycle stunt rider with a traveling show, along with his mentor Crash Simpson and Crash's daughter Roxanne. To save the man who had become a father to him, Blaze makes a bargain with the devil and is transformed into a spirit of vengeance with a flaming skull. The issue lists the devil as Satan; Marvel later identified him as Mephisto, and the demon bound to Blaze became known as Zarathos.

Two friends from Missouri and a former Marine

Gary Friedrich was born on August 21, 1943, in Jackson, Missouri. He and Roy Thomas were childhood friends, and Thomas recommended him first to Charlton Comics and then to Marvel, where Friedrich took over Sgt. Fury and his Howling Commandos with issue #42 in May 1967. Friedrich always insisted the flaming-skulled rider was his idea: "It was always my idea from the first time we talked about it."

The character was first pitched as a villain for Daredevil. Thomas, by then Marvel's editor-in-chief, recalled his reaction: "That's too good an idea to be just a villain in Daredevil. He should start out right away in his own book." The splash page credits Thomas with "aid and abetment."

Mike Ploog, born in Mankato, Minnesota, spent ten years in the U.S. Marine Corps before leaving in 1968 for animation work at Filmation and Hanna-Barbera. Around 1969 he began about two years of work under Will Eisner on PS, The Preventive Maintenance Monthly, a military instructional magazine, and Eisner's style shaped his own. At Marvel he had already launched Werewolf by Night in Marvel Spotlight #2 in February 1972, and he later moved into film design and storyboards for Ghostbusters, The Dark Crystal and Labyrinth.

Marvel's second Ghost Rider

Johnny Blaze was not the first Ghost Rider. In 1949 another publisher ran a Western hero of that name, Rex Fury, created by writer Ray Krank and artist Dick Ayers for editor Vincent Sullivan. After that trademark lapsed, Marvel launched its own Western Ghost Rider, Carter Slade, in Ghost Rider #1, cover-dated February 1967, created by Ayers, Friedrich and Thomas.

Once the motorcycle Ghost Rider arrived, Marvel needed to keep the two apart. It renamed the Western hero Night Rider in a 1974 to 1975 reprint series and finally settled on Phantom Rider.

The tryout worked. Ghost Rider ran in Marvel Spotlight #5 through #11, cover-dated August 1972 to August 1973, and then received his own series in 1973, which lasted 81 issues until June 1983. A younger Ghost Rider, Danny Ketch, followed in 1990.

Who owns the Spirit of Vengeance

On April 4, 2007, Friedrich sued Marvel, Sony Pictures and others, claiming the copyright to Ghost Rider had reverted to him in 2001. On December 28, 2011, U.S. District Judge Katherine B. Forrest ruled that Marvel owned the character, finding that Friedrich gave up any claim when he signed checks containing language relinquishing his rights.

An appeals court reversed that ruling in June 2013, and by September 6, 2013, both sides agreed to settle. The final agreement required Friedrich to pay Marvel $17,000 in damages and to stop selling Ghost Rider merchandise he had made himself. Friedrich died in St. Louis on August 29, 2018, at 75.

On screen, Nicolas Cage played Johnny Blaze in Ghost Rider in 2007 and Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance in 2011.

Four perfect copies

The book's all-black cover, set inside a "picture frame" border typical of the early 1970s, shows every scuff and chip, which helps explain why near-perfect copies are so rare. By 2021 CGC had graded only four copies at 9.8, none higher. For comparison, Giant-Size X-Men #1 then had 195 entries at 9.8 and Incredible Hulk #181 had 127.

A CGC 9.8 copy sold at auction in October 2016 for $48,500. On June 17, 2021, a CGC 9.8 copy with white pages from the Oregon Coast Collection, assembled by a long-time Oregon collector who was retiring, sold at auction for $264,000 including buyer's premium. Reports called it the highest auction result recorded for any Bronze Age comic book, about 445 percent more than the 2016 sale.

Demand was not limited to the top. A comics columnist wrote in March 2022 that Marvel Spotlight #5 was the most-requested back issue at his shop, and tied for sixth on a standard list of the top 25 Bronze Age comics; he linked the rush to rumors that the character would join Marvel's film universe. One dealer reported in 2024 that lower-grade prices had fallen back from their pandemic peaks.

The numbers

Cover price

20 cents

Pages

36; Ghost Rider story 22 pages

Printer

World Color Press, Sparta, Illinois

Print run

Not documented in the sources consulted

CGC 9.8 census, April 2021

4 copies, none higher

Census, December 2021

240 copies at CGC 9.0 and 293 graded higher

Total graded, October 2021

3,789 copies, four of them 9.8, per a market-data tally

Timeline

1. 1949

   A Western hero named Ghost Rider, Rex Fury, appears from another publisher, drawn by Dick Ayers.

2. Feb 1967

   Marvel's Western Ghost Rider, Carter Slade, debuts in Ghost Rider #1.

3. May 1967

   Gary Friedrich takes over Sgt. Fury and his Howling Commandos with issue #42.

4. Nov 1971

   Marvel Spotlight launches as a tryout title.

5. Feb 1972

   Mike Ploog launches Werewolf by Night in Marvel Spotlight #2.

6. May 30, 1972

   Marvel Spotlight #5 goes on sale for 20 cents, introducing Johnny Blaze as Ghost Rider.

7. Aug 1973

   Ghost Rider's run in Marvel Spotlight ends with issue #11; his own series follows in 1973.

8. Jun 1983

   The first Ghost Rider series ends with issue #81.

9. Apr 4, 2007

   Friedrich sues Marvel and others over ownership of Ghost Rider.

10. Dec 28, 2011

    A federal judge rules that Marvel owns the character.

11. Sep 6, 2013

    After an appeals court reversal, Friedrich and Marvel agree to settle.

12. Oct 2016

    A CGC 9.8 copy sells at auction for $48,500.

13. Aug 29, 2018

    Gary Friedrich dies in St. Louis.

14. Jun 17, 2021

    A CGC 9.8 white-pages copy from the Oregon Coast Collection sells at auction for $264,000, a Bronze Age record.

The world in 1972

• Feb 21, 1972

  President Nixon begins his week-long visit to China.

• Mar 15, 1972

  The Godfather premieres in New York.

• May 15, 1972

  Alabama Governor George Wallace is shot and paralyzed while campaigning.

• Jun 17, 1972

  Five men are arrested breaking into the Democratic National Committee offices at the Watergate.

• Jun 23, 1972

  Title IX is signed into law.

• Aug 12, 1972

  The last U.S. ground troops are withdrawn from Vietnam.

• Sep 1, 1972

  Bobby Fischer defeats Boris Spassky for the world chess championship in Iceland.

• Nov 29, 1972

  Atari releases the arcade game Pong.

Price record

A realized auction price is what a buyer actually paid on the date shown, including the buyer's premium where the sale reported it. It is the strongest kind of reference price, and it is a record of one sale of one object on one day, not a promise of what the next example will bring.

By reference price, Marvel Spotlight #5 is number 21 of 100 in the comics entries of the FLOAT 100. 92 of those 100 rest on a realized sale; the rest carry an asking price or a guide value, and each page says which. Rank within the FLOAT 100 itself (67 here) is editorial: how much an object defines its field, not price alone.

Did you know

• Ghost Rider was first conceived as a villain for Daredevil; Roy Thomas decided he deserved his own book.
• Marvel had already published a Western Ghost Rider in 1967 and later renamed him Phantom Rider to make room for Johnny Blaze.
• Roy Thomas's credit on the splash page reads "aid and abetment."
• Artist Mike Ploog served ten years in the Marines and later drew storyboards for Ghostbusters and The Dark Crystal.
• Co-creator Gary Friedrich ended his lawsuit over the character by agreeing to pay Marvel $17,000.
• In the issue itself, Johnny Blaze's bargain is with Satan; the devil was later identified as Mephisto.