Howard Mackie Talks His Return to Danny Ketch in New Ghost Rider Series (Exclusive)
History With Danny Ketch
ComicBook.com: Marvel has had a lot of recent success exploring untold tales of the past. What's it been like to return to a character like Danny Ketch that you have so much rich history with?
Howard Mackie: To say that it's been surreal is a gross understatement-- and I NEVER understate ANYTHING! Here's the thing... I've had a long-standing policy of "Don't Look Back". When I'm done writing a character I am done. I try not to read stories involving the character after my run is done and I NEVER reread my old work.
I don't read the work of other writers handling a character after me because I do a ton of interviews, podcasts, etc... and I don't ever want something I say to be misconstrued as criticism. I don't want to be that guy who says, "Oh... I would have handled that differently." or something worse. I did bend that a few years back and read a bunch of the Robbie Reyes stories by Felipe Smith. I figured it was all SO different it could be fun... and it was! Then-- a few years back-- I ran into Ed Brisson and Aaron Kuder at NYCC and decided to read their run. I quite liked it as well. I thought their treatment of the characters was a natural progression of where I left them.
I never reread my own work because I always expect to be disappointed-- usually in my own writing. When I was fortunate enough to land this assignment I really HAD to reread my stuff to get back into the head of the characters I hadn't explored in quite some time. It started out exactly as painfully as I expected. I cringe-read through the first few issues and was horrified that it was as successful as it was at the time. BUT... I started to see my development as a writer going side by side with the development of the characters in the book. In the end... I was quite pleased with what I was reading. Of course, I tried to convince myself that someone else had written the whole thing.
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New Threats and Villains
Since this story is set in the past, where do we pick up Danny's story when the series debuts? What threats/villains should fans keep an eye out for?
This story is set AFTER Johnny Blaze returns to confront the new Spirit of Vengeance and his host. Blaze is featured heavily in the story as are a few new villains-- named the BROKER and THE MASTER-- as well as the return of a couple of fan favorites(and my own favorites) BLACKOUT and SCARECROW.
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Ghost Rider's Status in Marvel Universe
What are your thoughts on Ghost Rider's status in the Marvel Universe currently? We've seen new Ghost Riders introduced (Robbie Reyes), and Johnny Blaze and Danny Ketch have both gone through some interesting character arcs, with Johnny formerly being the King of Hell and Danny recently as the new Spirit of Corruption.
As I said, I try not to read TOO many stories written after I left the book, but I did dig the Robbie Reyes stories, and what Ed and Aaron did, and I've read one or two of the most recent run and quite liked it-- but I stopped because I didn't want to unintentionally touch on current continuity.
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Fan Anticipation
What are you most looking forward to fans seeing when Danny Ketch: Ghost Rider hits stores?
I am really not sure. I hope the fans get to see a glimpse of what I was writing in the past with some pointers toward the future. I'm looking forward to hearing from them this summer on the convention circuit.
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