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Director: Mark Steven Johnson
Screenwriter: Mark Steven Johnson
Studio: Columbia Pictures
Release Date: February 16, 2007

Cast: Nicolas Cage, Wes Bentley, Eva Mendes, Matt Long, Sam Elliott, Peter Fonda, Donal Logue, Joel Tobeck, Arthur Angel, Daniel Frederiksen, Laurence Breuls, Peter Callan, Matthew Wilkinson, Matt Norman, Marcus Jones

But there was something special about Johnny Blaze, the young motorcycle daredevil who sold his soul to save the life of another and was betrayed in that bargain. Ghost Rider became a supernatural force constantly at war, caught between the pull of good and evil inside himself. That was the part of the story that really caught my attention. A classic kind of Dr. Jekyll/Mr. Hyde character but one that wore biker leathers and rode a flaming Harley. My little adolescent mind seized on that, and still hasn’t let go of it all these years later.

Ghost Rider broke out of the pages of Marvel Spotlight and grabbed his own title magazine, which lasted for 10 years or so, with sporadic frequencies. Johnny Blaze's character and the nature of Ghost Rider went through a lot of retconning. He tended toward the supernatural for a while, hit the superhero phase, then crossed back into the supernatural theme again.

Later, during the second run of Ghost Rider (Volume 2), Danny Ketch took on the mantle of the Spirit of Vengeance. Soon, readers discovered that Ketch was Johnny Blaze’s brother. All in all, Ghost Rider has been through a lot of changes and reinvention.

Greg Cox's book Ghost Rider is a novelization of the movie coming out in February, and I was torn between waiting to be surprised with the film or reading the book. I passed the book by twice, then picked it up and read it in two sittings. Ghost Rider was one of my favorite characters because he looked so cool, and I rode a motorcycle for a while. The character has instant appeal for guys, and women seem to dig him too because Johnny Blaze is the quintessential bad boy.

The book/movie is basically a re-envisioning of Johnny Blaze/Ghost Rider's origin, and it sets the stage for a franchise of films, ala Spider-Man, Hulk, Daredevil, Elektra and Fantastic Four. Ghost Rider follows some of the retconning done in comics, like Johnny’s relationship with his father, Barton Blaze, and progresses from that spin. Of course, there's a girl in the movie version: Roxanne Simpson, the daughter of the circus owner where the Blazes performed their death-defying motorcycle stunts. Johnny loved her and had plans to flee the circus with her.

The book/movie starts out with a prologue featuring the first Ghost Rider, a man named Carter Slade, who was a Western hero in Marvel Comics (he got retconned into the mythos as well later, as well as being renamed Phantom Rider). This Western Ghost Rider in the book/movie worked for Mephistopheles and was sent to collect a contract worth 1000 souls. That Ghost Rider chose to hide the contract instead, and then he rode off into the sunset.

Fast forward to the tragedy that left Johnny Blaze's soul exposed. With his father dying of cancer, 17-year-old Johnny Blaze contracts with Mephistopheles, trading his soul for his father’s health. Mephistopheles throws in fame and glory almost as an afterthought, making it apparent that those weren’t Johnny’s real goals.

Fifteen years later, Mephistopheles returns for Johnny's soul and transforms him into the Ghost Rider to battle Blackheart. Blackheart is actually Mephistopheles's son and intends to take over his dad's rule because he thinks his dad is being too cautious.

The Ghost Rider in the book/movie is an interesting blend of Johnny Blaze and Danny Ketch, who was the second modern Ghost Rider. Ketch first had the spirit chain of fire used to flail bad guys, but it looked way too cool too pass up for the movie.

From the book, I can see there’s going to be a lot of action, fighting as well as motorcycle stunts (the trailer showing Ghost Rider racing up the side of the building on the Hellcycle is something I’m not going to forget any time soon). Cox does a really good job of bringing those stunts into sharp focus on the page, but it left my appetite really whetted for the upcoming big-screen release.

Greg Cox's book is a great treatment of the script. Cox is an experienced tie-in writer (that special breed otf writer who can step into someone else's world, tell a good story, and walk away without leaving disturbing ripples). I cruised through the pages and had a great time living the adventure.

The opening fanfare, “The End,” blows up like an outtake from Alice Cooper’s Billion Dollar Babies, with glam-Godzilla guitars and spook-choir hurrahs. “Dead!” is a sleek, bleak bruiser, like Queen’s “Keep Yourself Alive” in widow’s weeds. And in the hyperoperatic “Mama,” Way — playing a soldier up to his neck in blood, raging against the woman who gave him life — briefly duets with Liza Minnelli, who belts her two big lines only to have Way sing back at her with vicious obscenity. It is brassy casting, as if Minnelli has been dropped into a Glenn Danzig production of Bertolt Brecht’s Mother Courage and Her Children. It also sounds like an idea Alice Cooper (the singer) might have had in 1976 while golfing with George Burns.

But this is not the Seventies, and My Chemical Romance are very much a band of their time — post-9/11. The first song Way wrote for the group (with ex-drummer Matt Pelisser) was “Skylines and Turnstiles,” based on his experience that day in New York, watching the Twin Towers fall in front of him. There is a lot of fire and rubble in these songs, too. And there are bodies all over the place — dead in the streets (”Welcome to the Black Parade”); near death in hospital beds (”Dead!” and “Cancer”); or just too numb to give a shit about morality (”House of Wolves”) or forgiveness (”I Don’t Love You”). Starting with a riff that stabs and stutters like an old Buzzcocks lick and packing a bridge that is pure Iron Maiden, “This Is How I Disappear” is an exciting, perverse goodbye, from one lost soul to the object of his suffocating affection. “And without you is how I disappear/And live my life alone/Forever now,” Way sings from the depths of obsession — and, it seems, his grave. The poetry is rickety, but the self-pity is arena-ready.

Next to that, My Chemical Romance’s 2004 album, Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge, is orthodox buzz-saw misery. Apparently, the band — which co-produced the vacuum-packed overkill of The Black Parade with Rob Cavallo, who also worked on Green Day’s punk-suite hit, American Idiot – now believes that if you’re going to feel sorry for yourself, you might as well do it with gusto. “When I grow up, I want to be nothing at all!” Way wails in “The End,” surrounded by what sounds like ELO with a case of G n’ R. The excess comes with diminishing returns. Cavallo and the group over-rely on the avenging-army drumroll shtick, and what is deliciously vintage for most of the record — Way’s bright, breathless yelp, with harmonies stacked to eternity; the lightning bolts of Brian May and Mick Ronson cutting through Toro’s and Iero’s widescreen grind — loses luster by Tracks Twelve and Thirteen, “Disenchanted” and “Famous Last Words.” The best last words should have been Track Eleven, “Teenagers,” a tight fist of T. Rex-style crunch with a great punch-the-air chorus: “They said all/Teenagers scare/The living shit out of me.”

Teenagers are the ones who should be scared shitless. They are about to inherit a hell on this earth that is more terrifying, day by day, than anything Way imagines here. In fact, the most realistic and contemporary thing about this album’s supercharged-Seventies Armageddon is his bitter, almost jealously guarded helplessness in nearly every song. Content to be the Queen of complaint (and damn good at it), My Chemical Romance offer no answers and give no hope — except for the shot of light that comes in the second manic half of “Welcome to the Black Parade,” whenever Way hits the vocal hook. “We’ll carry on,” he sings repeatedly, at full rock-hero tilt. He doesn’t say where. But the way he says it sounds great and worth believing, no matter how old you are.

Fans voting online at Yahoo! Music narrowed the field from 12 finalists in the "My Grammy Moment" contest for unsigned artists.

The five finalists, all women, are Africa Miranda, 30, of Montgomery, Ala.; Jillian Gaudious, 25, of Long Branch, N.J.; Brenda Radney, 22, of Staten Island, N.Y.; Robyn Troup, 18, of Houston, Texas; and Jessica James, 18, of Warner Robins, Ga.

"We have been overwhelmed by the enthusiastic response we have received for our `My Grammy Moment' opportunity, and the top five finalists reflect a diverse group of extremely talented singers," Recording Academy President Neil Portnow said in a statement Wednesday.

Fans will continue to vote online at Yahoo! Music.

The top three finalists will be announced during Super Bowl weekend, then head for Los Angeles to rehearse with Timberlake.

Online and text message votes during the 49th annual Grammy Awards, which will be telecast Feb. 11 by CBS Corp.'s CBS network from the Staples Center, will determine the contest's winner.

The winner will be announced live on the show.