Ghost Rider

Sometimes really bad films manage to spawn very enjoyable sequels. Here are 15 of the finest examples.

Your friendly neighborhood Lego Spider-Man, clicking away like only a Lego Spider-Man can. Over the last few years, Lego has been in the Peter Parker business, and the result is a range of figures with surprising depth to their roster --- and some really surprising additions (and exclusions)! As huge Lego fans, ComicsAlliance has been picking and clicking Lego Spider-Man characters since they launched five years ago. And clearly we needed to rank them!

The Marvel Cinematic Universe had its Big Bang in 2008, with Iron Man and Robert Downey Jr.’s debut as the incorrigible Tony Stark. In casting a charismatic leading man, feeding him some genuinely fresh one-liners, and stitching them together with a few impressive action setpieces, producer and MCU mastermind Kevin Feige had struck gold. He then went to work methodically stripping the mine clean, roping Chrises Evans and Hemsworth into multi-film contracts and watching as the billions rolled in. He devised a winning formula of easy screen-idol mass appeal and an eminently palatable house visual style to go along with it, a method still yielding massive success to this day. (Guardians of the Galaxy 2, Thor 3, and Spider-Man Who Even Knows What Number, coming to theaters in 2017!) And it all began with R.D.J. as an irresistible new breed of defender, the sort of guy you either want to be or be with. One year earlier, Marvel’s idea of a blockbuster superhero was Nicolas Cage as a flaming CGI skeleton clad in S&M biker gear.

Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. has literally dropped the Ghost Rider from Season 4 to focus on its LMD arc, but even if Gabriel Luna’s Robbie Reyes returns, it’s worth wondering what became of the other figure we met, suspected to be Johnny Blaze. Sadly, producers clarify we won’t be seeing him again, as the Rider only takes one host at a time.

We're looking back at the long and weird history of superhero comics by picking our favorite heroes from each decade in our latest fantasy draft. Each team must include one character who debuted before 1950, one character that debuted in each decade from the '50s to the '90s, and one character that debuted in 2000 or beyond, plus two wildcard picks from before and after 1980, for a total team of nine characters. Our writers have each picked five characters so far. Today they pick another member of the Batfamily, a romance heroine, a handful of X-women, and one of the Green Lanterns. But which one?

Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. made a noteworthy gamble in Season 4, to swing a little darker by adapting a new Ghost Rider for live-action. That said, midwinter finale “The Laws of Inferno Dynamics” put a pin in the Rider to bring us a new “LMD” arc, something executive producer Jeffrey Bell admits was partly out of “financial considerations.”

Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. briefly filled the gap from winter finale to 2017 return with a full Slingshot miniseries, but new word suggests Life Model Decoys will fully take over for Ghost Rider next year. Our first synopsis teases not only May’s kidnapping, but also the return of our Inhuman-hating Watchdogs.

If there’s one thing we’ve learned from our years on the Internet, it’s that there’s no aspect of comics that can’t be broken down and quantified in a single definitive list, preferably in amounts of five or ten. And since there’s no more definitive authority than ComicsAlliance, we’re taking it upon ourselves to compile Top Five lists of everything you could ever want to know about comics. 'Tis the season, and so this week we're taking a look at some of the oddest, zaniest, and just plain weirdest Christmas comics of all time!

Tradd Moore’s work is crazy, detailed, over-the-top nonsense, so it’s great to see him back on a story --- no matter how short --- for Ghost Rider #1. Moore is especially notable for his flexibility, and the opportunities for fun this provides to his collaborators. With his work being larger than life, it means the colorist working with him can play around with their work, too. They don’t necessarily have to strive for realism in their rendering, and can make the colors really pop and get in your face. Val Staples has that opportunity with their short story in Ghost Rider, and she takes it.

Marvel’s ‘Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.’ puts Season 4 back into sleep mode with midwinter finale “The Laws of Inferno Dynamics,” but is a big change for Daisy and a Patriot-ic showdown with Eli enough to keep things moving? And did we really need another evil May? Find out in our full review of tonight’s latest ‘Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.’!