Tony Isabella (who idenfies himself as Roman Catholic) wrote Marvel's GHOST RIDER title from 1974 - 76. In interviews he has stated, "...For issue #8, I wanted to get the book back to its core concept of Satan trying to claim Johnny Blaze's soul... How could Johnny Blaze be saved? I was thinking out loud about it in the Marvel Bullpen when the great Steve Gerber suggested, half in jest, that maybe God could save Johnny. I loved the idea and, with the blessing of editor-in-chief Roy Thomas, made "the Friend" a recurring character in the series."
Below is a page from issue #9:
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It seems that Tony didn't intend to have "the Friend" as an ongoing character, but rather in that story arc alone to get Johnny Blaze out of the occult trappings and into a place where the character would be more like Evel Knievel (who professed faith in Christ in his latter days, by the way).
Wow, I knew that Tony Isabella had written the Ghost Rider in the 1970's, but I had no idea that he was attempting to bring Christian themes to the title. Putting Jesus Christ in a secular comic book was a very controversial move even back then. I agree that there are doctrinal problems with his writing, still it was a noble effort on his part. Even though Jim Shooter is heartily labeled by many creative employees of Marvel Comics during the 70's and 80's as a jerk and a control freak during his time as Editor & Chief of the company I have to be fair. By that I mean that this is Mr. Isabella's side of the story and I've yet to hear Mr. Shooter's point of view on this affair. While I do believe that many of the complaints about him as Marvel's Editor & Chief are true I still would hear his side of this story before voicing my complaints about him.
As for the character known as "The Friend" I have to wonder if not having him be revealed as Jesus Christ may be for the better. I'm sure most (if not all) comic book fans can say that they've enjoyed the exploits of a certain character and somewhere down the road new creators (writers, artists, editors) take creative control of that character and go in a direction that was totally awful. I fear this scenario very well could have happened if "The Friend" was revealed to be Jesus Christ. Mr. Isabella's use of him was noble, but would future writers who decided to use him take an equally noble approach? Maybe, but maybe not. Other writers might have portrayed him in both an inaccurate and blasphemous way.
The story doesn't end there, though. Tony went on to say, "There was no controversy about the addition of Jesus Christ to the book until, as Marv Wolfman was ending his stint at editor-in-chief, Jim Shooter took offense to it and took it upon himself to rewrite my last issue and destroy the finale I had been working towards for two years. ...At a time when Marvel had several demonic entries operating in its universe, I was determined to let have Heaven have a voice in these stories. ... Jim Shooter, who was just an assistant editor at that point, stated he was offended by the story and took advantage of the chaos during the end of Marv Wolfman's time as the editor-in-chief and the start of Gerry Conway's to rewrite and have partially redrawn the already-completed and ready to go off to the printer issue. So, yes, it was a last-minute change. At the time, Shooter told me he was offended by the story and that statement was backed up by others who heard it. I asked for my name to be taken off the issue (#19 in 1976), but he refused to honor that request." Shooter's rewrite revealed that "The Friend" was actually an illusion created by the devil to confuse Johnny Blaze/Ghost Rider (which didn't make any sense at all from a story standpoint, especially after a two year buildup). Isabella's intent was to have Blaze become a Christian, and for the darker supernatural elements to leave the book, having Ghost Rider become a regular super-hero.
I never was a fan of the character, but it's interesting to see what has been attempted in secular comics regarding spiritual themes that are actually Christ-honoring and uplifting (even though there are doctrinal problems evident in Tony's writing---earning second chances and such like--- he was trying to be reverent).
Alec