Ghost Rider & The Midnight Sons Omnibus Mapping for the Tigereyes Most Wanted Marvel Omnibus 12th Annual Secret Ballot

Until April 5, I’ll be loosely mapping missing and most-wanted Marvel omnibus volumes every day! Today I’m continuing brief trip into the mystical side of Marvel by peering into all of the omnibuses that don’t yet exist for Marvel’s Ghost Rider – as well as the rest of the Midnight Sons!

This post explains titles and potential Ghost Rider & The Midnight Sons Omnibus Mapping for entries on the Tigereyes Most Wanted Marvel Omnibus 12th Annual Secret Ballot. You can vote right now (until 5 April 2024 @ midnight US ET) or watch our mega-length announcement stream reviewing every single voting option.

In addition to Ghost Rider, below I’ll also cover the potential omnibus volumes for Blade, Morbius, and The Darkhold – which were all titles that were a part of the “Midnight Sons” line launched by Marvel in the early 90s!

Ghost Rider is actually one of the trickiest characters to map into omnibus! There are many reasons behind this – his publishing history, the fact that there’s not just one “Ghost Rider,” complexities introduced by crossovers and creator changes, and Marvel’s existing collected editions mapping.

Before we get started, I have to give a shout-out to VinWritesWords, who creates comics guides at Cosmic Circus! There aren’t a ton of other people out there toiling over making comic guides and mapping comic runs, so I delight in every time I meet one. Having Vin as my very remote colleague and fellow comics historian for the past two years has brought me so much joy. He has been there for a quick motivational chat through many times where I was stuck in the middle of making a guide. I love how he makes guides that are focused on streamlined reading experiences and he is one of the biggest experts on the comics internet about the characters I am covering in this post! Vin’s opinions on mapping have definitely influenced how I think about these potential omnibus volumes.

After this post, I’ll only be focusing on two more solo heroes in their own posts – Wolverine and Spider-Man! All other solo characters will be either mapped in a Solo Heroes mega-post or as part of the X-Men line mapping.

If you’re not sure of what to vote for, stick around for my explanations. Or, if you’ve already voted, learn why the team behind the poll decided on these books and titles – including some of my mistakes and regrets as one of the editors of the options on the final poll.

Or… just find some great comics to read!

Remember: These mappings are just my suggestion of how Marvel could assemble these books. They are meant to help you decide on your votes and build your personal reading list, but your vote on the poll is NOT an endorsement of my specific map. It’s a vote in favor of Marvel creating a book with that title or covering that period.

Over-the-top comics posts like this one are made possible via the support of Patrons of Crushing Krisis. For less than the cost of a single comic issue a month you can fuel my in-depth comics coverage, plus gain access to dozens of exclusive collecting guides & reading orders – including all of the Crushing Comics Guide to Marvel Comics.

Ghost Rider Omnibus Mapping: Classic Ghost Rider

Marvel lagged for years when it came to collecting Johnny Blaze’s 1970s run as Ghost Rider, taking until 2019 to kick off his Masterworks line even while we began to see Masterworks from some titles from the end of the 70s!

Luckily, Marvel has kept up a yearly pace on those collections, which means the line will be completed next year! Yet, Marvel chose to ignore an even more classic Ghost Rider that preceded Blaze – and maybe we can fix that in our omnibus mapping. Visit the Guide to Ghost Rider for reading orders and existing collections of all of these issues.

Ghost Rider: Carter Slade AKA The Original Ghost Rider
For years, seeing this book seemed like a distant fantasy! However, now it feels like nothing is impossible since we’ve seen Marvel committing to printing more suspense comics from the 1950s and more of their licensed properties from the 70s and 80s. Could it be time to finally get a prestige collection of the original Ghost Rider – sometimes known as The Phantom Rider or the Night Rider?

This would be a slim omnibus collecting The Ghost Rider (1967) #1-7, as well as further appearances in Western Gunfighters (1970) #1-7, Giant-Size Kid Colt (1975) #3, Ghost Rider (1973) #50 & 51 (2nd story), and Avengers (1963) #142-143, and back-up story from the reprint title Original Ghost Rider (1992) #3-5, 7-12, & 15-20 (much of which was written by Dan Slott!).

Carter Slade has made further appearances (including in West Coast Avengers), but they’re all modern. This keeps a focus just on his classic material and stories deliberately inserted into that material.

Ghost Rider: Johnny Blaze Vol. 1
Ghost Rider: Johnny Blaze Vol. 2
We’re just one Masterworks volume away from finally covering the original run of Johnny Blaze in color reprints! That last Masterworks will be Volume 7, which means these books will be 3.5 Masterworks each. I sincerely doubt Marvel would milk this only mildly-popular 70s material to try to stretch it into three omnibuses!

These books will collect Johnny Blaze’s story from Marvel Spotlight (1971) #5-12, Ghost Rider (1973) #1-81, Marvel Team-Up (1972) #15 & 58, Marvel Two-in-One (1974) #8, Daredevil (1964) #138, Marvel Premiere (1972) #28, Avengers (1963) #214, Amazing Spider-Man (1963) #274, and Defenders (1972) #145-146 and material from Marvel Tales (1966) #255.

It doesn’t matter where exactly in that roughly 100 issues we break in the middle to split these omnibuses. You’re voting for either the first half of the second half of this run – or, vote for both!

Ghost Rider Omnibus Mapping: Danny Ketch, Ghost Rider

Just as Marvel was slow to collect Johnny Blaze’s classic Bronze Age material in color, they’ve lagged in covering Danny Ketch’s 90s series in any comprehensive format. Despite a few existing trade paperbacks, we only saw the Epic Collection line his this run last year – with our first omnibus finally arriving this September! For full coverage of this title, see Guide to Ghost Rider.

This run comes with significant mapping challenges, since at a point it spun off a second title and also acted as the center-point for an entire Midnight Sons line of comics! How can we collect it? Let’s explore what the next two volumes could contain. We couldn’t possibly add options to the poll past this point, as if we went any farther than the titles and volume numbers of these two books would start to vastly diverge and we’d have to give two separate options for every title – which would split the votes.

Ghost Rider: Danny Ketch Vol. 2 (AKA Rise of the Midnight Sons)
The first omnibus due this September collects through Ghost Rider (1990) #1-24. That means this second volume is absolutely sure to intersect the “Rise of the Midnight Sons” crossover that hit issues #28 & 31 and kicked off five new titles: Ghost Rider/Blaze: Spirits of Vengeance (1992); Morbius: The Living Vampire (1992); Darkhold: Pages From The Book of Sins (1992); Nightstalkers (1992), & Midnight Sons Unlimited (1993).

Ghost Rider was suddenly anchoring a line as big as the X-Men line!

What does that mean for our mapping? No one can say for sure. Some people think this line should stay primarily focused on Ghost Rider, which means this would focus on collecting issues of Ghost Rider and maybe also Spirits of Vengeance – adding the other titles only for direct crossovers. That map would likely include a minimum of Ghost Rider (1990) #28-39; Ghost Rider/Blaze: Spirits of Vengeance (1992) #1-12; the Rise of the Midnight Sons crossover (Morbius: The Living Vampire (1992) #1; Darkhold: Pages From The Book of Sins (1992) #1; Nightstalkers (1992) #1; Ghost Rider / Captain America: Fear (1992) OGN; the Web of Venom crossover into Web of Spider-Man (1985) #95-96); and material from Midnight Sons Unlimited (1993) #1 and Marvel Comics Presents (1988) #119-136.

That’s 32 full-length issues plus 19 x 8-page anthology stories, or about another 8 issues of content. Perhaps we could also sneak in the Midnight Massacre crossover, which means we’d add Ghost Rider (1990) #40, Ghost Rider/Blaze: Spirits of Vengeance (1993) #13, Nightstalkers (1992) #10, Darkhold: Pages From The Book of Sins (1992) #11, and Morbius: The Living Vampire (1992) #12.

However, Midnight Sons fans would argue that this line is as tightly-integrated as the X-Men line, and we should really see this omnibus line turn into a Midnight Sons omnibus line!

In that case, I’d expect this book to collect something more like Ghost Rider (1990) #28-38; Ghost Rider/Blaze: Spirits of Vengeance (1992) #1-6; Morbius: The Living Vampire (1992) #1-8; Darkhold: Pages From The Book of Sins (1992) #1-6; Nightstalkers (1992) #1-7; Ghost Rider / Captain America: Fear (1992) OGN; the Web of Venom crossover into Web of Spider-Man (1985) #95-96); and material from Midnight Sons Unlimited (1993) #1-2 and Marvel Comics Presents (1988) #119-130.

That’s about the same length as the map from above, just with a few fewer issues if Ghost Rider and Spirits of Vengeance and one less arc of Marvel Comics Presents. Every additional month forward we push gives us 6 more issues, so things add up fast.

I don’t think Ghost Rider has the sales heat to sustain collecting this line both ways. And, with a Blade film coming in the next few years, I’d wage that everyone’s favorite Daywalker gets more of his own omnibuses (more on that in a moment). Right now we just don’t know which way this could go. If you vote for it, you’re voting for a book that definitely includes Rise of the Midnight Sons! Let’s get this book on Marvel’s radar, and then we can argue over it later in a “Map My Rider” stream!

Ghost Rider: Danny Ketch Vol. 2 (AKA Siege of Darkness)
First of all, I was the one who made the typo in this title – it should be Volume 3! Hopefully that doesn’t keep too many people from voting for this thanks to the AKA helping clarify things.

As with the prior book, this could either be a Ghost Rider centric omnibus that collects the whole Siege of Darkness crossover (which hits this title starting in Ghost Rider (1990) #44) or it could be a Midnight Sons line-wide collection that gives us material leading into the crossover from every title.

Either way, if you vote for this you are definitely voting for the crossover itself to finally be collected – and it’s a big one! Siege of Darkness ran through Nightstalkers (1992) #14, Ghost Rider (1990) #44, Marvel Comics Presents (1988) #143 (1st story), Darkhold (1992) #15, Morbius: The Living Vampire (1992) #16, Marvel Comics Presents (1988) #144 (1st story & 2nd stories), Doctor Strange, Sorcerer Supreme (1988) #60, Ghost Rider/Blaze: Spirits of Vengeance (1992) #17, Nightstalkers (1992) #15, Ghost Rider (1990) #45, Marvel Comics Presents (1988) #145-146, Darkhold (1992) #16, Morbius: The Living Vampire (1992) #17, Doctor Strange, Sorcerer Supreme (1988) #61, Ghost Rider/Blaze: Spirits of Vengeance (1992) #18, and Midnight Sons Unlimited (1993) #4.

WOW. That’s 17 crossover issues. There is a precedent of collecting only character-relevant issues from this crossover, which is how the Doctor Strange omnibus line handled it. But, this is a major crossover event anchored on Ghost Rider, so I think this is the book that ought to contain the whole thing.

If you voted based on the map above that keeps things focused on Ghost Rider, this volume could easily collect this entire crossover and push past it to around issue #50. If instead you voted based on the “Midnight Sons” line map, this would be collecting 7-10 issues from each of six titles to get to the end of the crossover, making it a massive book!

Ghost Rider Omnibus Mapping: Modern Ghost Rider

The challenges of mapping Ghost Rider don’t end with his 90s series! The 2000s present a different kind of challenge thanks to a number of brief series, plus a stubborn incomplete omnibus that Marvel insists on reprinting later this week just to make things complex. See Guide to Ghost Rider to learn how all of those issues are currently collected.

The piece of information you need to know to understand these first two options is that the Ghost Rider by Jason Aaron omnibus starts in the middle of the run of Ghost Rider 2006 and collects Ghost Rider (2006) #20-35 & Ghost Riders: Heaven’s On Fire (2009) #1-6.

Ghost Rider (2001 – 2008) AKA by Daniel Way et al
If you vote for this book, you’re basically saying, “Give me everything Ghost Rider in the 00s right up to (and around) that Aaron omnibus!”

This would collect Ghost Rider (2001) #1-6 & 1/2 (AKA “The Hammer Lane”), Ghost Rider: Trail of Tears (2007) #1-6, Ghost Rider (2005) #1-6 (AKA “The Road to Damnation”), Daniel Way’s run on Ghost Rider (2006) #1-20 & Annual 1-2 (annuals NOT by Way), and Ghost Rider: Danny Ketch (2008) #1-5. It could also include an appearance in X-Force (2009) #9-10.

Even if you disagree with one or more of the series in that potential mapping, or if you feel this should push on to also collect the orphaned Ghost Rider (2011) series, a vote for this book is a vote for a volume that completely fills the gap prior to the Aaron book!

Ghost Rider by Daniel Way
Alternately, if you own the Jason Aaron book, you might just want the first half of that series! In that case, you’d want a simpler volume that collects Daniel Way’s run on Ghost Rider (2006) #1-20 & Annual 1-2 (annuals NOT by Way), maybe adding Ghost Rider: Danny Ketch (2008) #1-5 to distinguish this from a similar 2017 Complete Collection paperback.

A vote for this book is a vote for a streamlined omnibus that perfectly matches the Jason Aaron book already on yourself.

Ghost Rider: Robbie Reyes
Marvel introduced a new, younger Ghost Rider in 2014 named Robbie Reyes, who would go on to be adapted for screen in the Agents of SHIELD TV show.

This omnibus would collect all of Reyes’s solo Ghost Rider material from All-New Ghost Rider (2014) #1-12, Ghost Rider (2016) #1-5, Ghost Rider: X-Mas Special (2016) #1, and What If? Ghost Rider (2018) #1. I’d argue it should also include his major “race through hell” story from Jason Aaron’s Avengers.

Even though this is a slim volume, I don’t think it makes sense to add any Johnny Blaze or Danny Ketch content into this book. Similarly, while I’m sure some fans would argue this is the place to merge in that brief Alejandra Blaze series from 2011, I’m just not sure that watering this down helps it sell better.

But, you’re not voting for my map! You’re voting for the book title!

Ghost Rider by Ed Brisson
Ed Brisson is the next writer to tackle Ghost Rider, and he refocuses on Blaze and Ketch and their relationship with hell.

This would collect all of Brisson’s material from Ghost Rider (2019) #1-7, Absolute Carnage: Symbiote of Vengeance (2019) #1, Spirits of Ghost Rider: Mother Of Demons (2020) #1, King In Black: Ghost Rider (2021) #1, Ghost Rider 2099 (2019) #1, and material from Incoming (2017) #1 and Marvel Comics Presents (2019) #6.

It probably also makes sense to pick up the Spirits of Vengeance (2017) #1-5 series that preceded this, which was written by Victor Gischler and starred Johnny Blaze, and the contemporaneous Ghost Rider: Return of Vengeance (2021) #1 by Howard Mackie and 50th Ghost Rider Anniversary Special (2022) #1.

Ghost Rider by Benjamin Percy
Benjamin Percy’s run on Ghost Rider is still ongoing, but we’re deep enough that it’s already obviously omnibus-length!

This would collect Ghost Rider (2022) #1-21 & Annual 1/2023, Ghost Rider: Vengeance Forever (2022) #1, Ghost Rider/Wolverine Alpha (2023) #1, Wolverine (2020) #36, Ghost Rider/Wolverine Omega (2023) #1, and Ghost Rider: Final Vengeance (2024) #1-6.

Midnight Sons Omnibus Mapping: Blade, Morbius, & The Darkhold

In the early 90s, a pair of Ghost Rider’s spooky Bronze Age brethren – Blade & Morbius were linked to him in a line of Midnight Sons comic books, to which Marvel added a book about a book – Darkhold, the Book of Sins!

The Darkhold has played a significant role in the MCU as well as in current comics, we’ve had a meme-worthy Morbius movie, and Blade is about to make his MCU debut! That means all of these omnibuses could really see the light of day over the next few years – and your votes could help!

Blade: Nightstalker (1990 – 1999)
See Guide to Blade. A vote in favor of this book is a vote to pick up where Blade’s “Early Years” omnibus left off to collect his 90s series and major guest appearances.

That would certainly include a spine of Nightstalkers (1992) #1-18, Blade: The Vampire-Hunter (1994) #1-10, Blade (1998) One-Shot (AKA “Crescent City Blues”), Blade: Sins of the Father (1998) #1, Blade (1998B) #1-3, and Blade: Vampire Hunter (1999) #1-6 & ½. (Plus, let’s not miss his story in Marvel: Shadows and Light (1997) #1!)

That’s already a 40-issue omnibus before we get into any guest appearances (plus Tomb of Dracula (1991) #1-4)! Might Marvel split this into two books to take advantage of an upcoming surge in popularity?

You don’t have to commit to that now! Just vote for this book to signal you want to get underway on collecting 90s Blade.

Blade: The Modern Years (2002 – 2022) (includes by Marc Guggenheim)
See Guide to Blade. There is a clear break between Blade’s 90s material and his early-00s material, which begins with a run under the MAX line.

A vote for this book is a vote to collect a core of Marvel MAX Blade (2002) #1-6, Tomb of Dracula (2004) #1-4, Blade (2006) #1-12, Marvel Team-Up (2005) #8, Marvel Comics Presents (2007) #5 & 7-12.

That’s enough material for an omnibus all on it’s own, but it could also collect guest appearances in that period and push on to significant appearances in 2010 and beyond (including X-Men: Curse of the Mutants – Blade (2010) #1), since Blade doesn’t make many comic appearances prior to getting pulled into Ewing’s Mighty Avengers, and has few solo books in that period. It could even push all the way up to some of his appearances in Aaron’s Avengers (2018) to take this right up until the brink of Bloodline: Daughter of Blade (2023).

However, your vote is primarily to attack that 2002-2010 material in whatever way you personally envision – everything else that could be included is a bonus.

Darkhold: The Book of Sins (1973 – 1990 & 1992 – 1994)
Marvel has released a pair of chunky, almost-omni-sized trades collecting the Darkhold’s history and the complete 1992 series that would make a pretty awesome single omnibus! You don’t have to agree with my mapping in its entirety, but a vote for this book would be a vote in favor of “give me at least some Darkhold background AND the entire Midnight Sons era series.”

The first trade, “Avengers/Doctor Strange: Rise of the Darkhold,” collected early Darkhold stories from Marvel Spotlight (1971) #3-4; Werewolf By Night (1972) #1, 3, & 15; Tomb of Dracula (1972) #18-19; Marvel Chillers (1975) #1-2; Avengers (1963) #185-187; Doctor Strange (1974) #59-62, 67, & 81; Thor (1966) #332-333, and material from Dracula Lives (1974) #6; Amazing Spider-Man (1963) Annual 22; X-Men (1963) Annual 12, and Doctor Strange, Sorcerer Supreme (1988) #9-13 & 15.

The second trade, “Darkhold: Pages from the Book of Sins,” collected Darkhold: Pages From The Book of Sins (1992) #1-16, Doctor Strange, Sorcerer Supreme (1988) #90, and material from Midnight Sons Unlimited (1993) #1-2 and Marvel Comics Presents (1988) #145. (Note that it has just one crossover issue from Siege of Darkness).

Even if you don’t want all of that historic material, it probably makes sense to swipe at least the book’s initial origin and the set-up arc from Doctor Strange alongside the 1992 series for context.

Morbius: The Living Vampire Vol. 2 (1992 – 1995)
See Guide to Morbius. Morbius’s existing omnibus follows the character through his brief 1980s rehabilitation, after which he played an occasional guest-starring super-scientist instead of a vampiric villain.

That process was reversed in an arc of Doctor Strange, which set Morbius on his path to be included in the Midnight Sons line.

A vote for this omnibus is a vote to collect the entirety of that 1992 Morbius series! Realistically, I think that map would need to start with Doctor Strange, Sorcerer Supreme (1988) #10 & 14-18 to contextualize Morbius’s return to blood-sucking. Then, it would collect Morbius: The Living Vampire (1992) #1-32, crossover issues (Doctor Strange, Sorcerer Supreme (1988) #52-53; Nightstalkers (1992) #8-9); major guest appearances (Daredevil (1964) #324, Venom: The Enemy Within (1994) #1-3, Blade The Vampire Hunter (1994) #8), and his stories from Midnight Sons Unlimited (1993) #1-3, 5, & 7.

Even though Morbius appears throughout Siege of Darkness, I don’t think you benefit any from cramming it all into this omnibus – and the Doctor Strange line has already set a precedent for collecting single issues from that crossover. (Before you ask: no, I don’t think this needs to include Morbius’s appearance in the Siege of Darkness epilogue issues from Doctor Strange.)

Morbius doesn’t make any significant appearances for a while after this, and when he does he is reduced back to “Spider-Man’s sworn enemy” – not a terrific match with the tone and content of this book.