Of all the memorable guns produced in the 90s (Cable’s massive arsenal of oversized bazookas being the most obvious stand-outs), the single gun worth noting in my mind for sheer ridiculousness was Johnny Blaze’s hellfire shotgun. I honestly think Johnny Blaze survived the 90s pretty well, especially in comparison to some of the other more unfortunate Marvel “pouches and mullets” makeovers. The Johnny Blaze series I remember the best from this era might also have the longest title from that decade: “Rise of the Midnight Sons ~ Ghost Rider/ Blaze: Spirits of Vengeance.” Now that’s an easy google search. Somehow “Spirits of Vengeance” artist Adam Kubert was able to bring Blaze back (Note – In the 90s he went by just Blaze) still sporting the Evel Knievel jumpsuit under a Gambit-style trench coat, with a pony tail and shades. He even smoked and cussed! Palling around with 90s Ghost Rider (who was randomly separated from host Danny Ketch during the story), Blaze was armed with only the most awesome gun a 70s comic-relic revamp could ask for: the ubiquitous, occult-bounty-hunter hellfire shotgun!

Okay, obviously this isn’t your over the counter Wal-Mart riffle. This pump gun packed one hell of a punch. I don’t remember if it’s ever explained where he got the gun (Could it have been Mephisto or Zarathos?), but it was seemingly his only defense against the super-natural since I’m pretty certain Blaze did not have any other super-abilities after being separated from his form of the Ghost Rider. Actually, his gun only seemed to take effect when he was near the other Ghost Rider. So as long as he was hanging with the new flame-head, he was blasting hellfire and riding a harley with flaming wheels. Otherwise, he was pretty much a vulgar loser. My biggest question was where he got the hellfire shotgun shells. I envision him waiting for Ghost Rider to fall asleep to secretly pack the hellfire off his slumbering, flaming-skull. Sounds complicated. Either way, given the opportunity I’d roll with Blaze.

While I’m at it, I think the Spirits of Vengeance mini-series is worth mentioning for one other reason: brain eating. Before they introduce the abomination that is Vengeance into the Ghost Rider mythos, the series had a story arc with Spider-Man and Venom (playfully titled “Spirits of Venom”). That was one of my favorite story-lines when I was a kid and it still features my favorite incarnation of Venom. During this period, Venom was obsessed with eating Spider-Man’s brains. I thought that was so cool. Why can’t Venom still want to eat Spider-Man’s Brains? I think Blaze even has a line about how sick he is of all the brain eating talk. For what it’s worth, that story-line also featured Johnny Blaze blasting the demons out of the Hobgoblin with his hellfire shot gun. They really should bring that gun back the next time they have an ongoing Ghost Rider series.

-Jon

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