Spider-Man (1990) # 6-7

"Masques"

Cover Date: January & February 1991

On Sale Date: November & December 1990

Writer: Todd McFarlane

Artist: Todd McFarlane
Letterer: Rick Parker
Colorist: Gregory Wright
Editor: Jim Salicrup
Editor-In-Chief: Tom DeFalco

Cover Artist: Todd McFarlane

In an abandoned warehouse in New York City, the Hobgoblin rages against the voices in his head. The villain has gone religiously insane since his transformation into a demon, and has kidnapped and imprisoned dozens of innocent people that he deems to be "sinners". He approaches a woman and her child and tells her that he is doing the work of God, eliminating the sinners from the world. He kills the woman by suffocating her, but takes a liking to her little boy when he doesn't shy away from his hideous face. He frees the boy and hugs him.

In Brooklyn, the Ghost Rider holds a priest off a building ledge, accusing the holy man of being a sexual predator of children. The priest denies that he's done anything wrong, and in response the Rider drops him a dozen stories to the alley below. Unbelievably, Ghost Rider catches the priest on the ground, saving his life only to give him the penance stare. At daybreak, Peter Parker sneaks out of his house, but is caught by his wife, Mary Jane. Peter kisses her goodbye and swings out into the city as Spider-Man.

Meanwhile, Hobgoblin and the boy leave the warehouse, which the villain destroys with a pumpkin bomb that kills all of his victims inside. The police investigate the scene afterward, learning that the Hobgoblin was responsible. From a nearby alleyway, Ghost Rider watches and listens. Spider-Man attempts to track his enemy down by questioning a drug user that he leaves webbed to a wall while his cocaine blows away in the wind. Ghost Rider gathers his own information by attacking a gun runner that knows the Hobgoblin's location.

At a new empty warehouse, Hobgoblin converses with the boy he kidnapped, complimenting him on converting to his beliefs. Spider-Man enters and attempts to talk to Hobgoblin while removing the boy to safety, but the Goblin believes Spider-Man to be a Devil come to challenge his faith. Hobgoblin and Spider-Man battle briefly before the boy asks Spider-Man to leave his new friend alone. Spider-Man finally sees the boy's face, which is now partly demonic like the Goblin's. While this is happening, the Ghost Rider nears the warehouse.

Spider-Man stands shocked with what the Hobgoblin has done to the small boy he kidnapped, the child's face now partly demonic. The boy insists that Hobgoblin is trying to help people, when in truth he's completely insane and murdering anyone he deems to be a "sinner". At that moment, the Ghost Rider bursts through the wall of the warehouse, causing Hobgoblin to believe it is Lucifer himself come to claim him. Ghost Rider declares that he is there to seek vengeance for the twelve people killed by Hobgoblin's hands while Spider-Man tries to help the boy who still insists that Hobgoblin is his friend. Hobgoblin attempts to run Ghost Rider down with his glider, but the Rider simply destroys it, sending the Goblin flying across the room. Utilizing the mystical power granted to him when he was transformed into a demon, Hobgoblin creates a flaming bat-creature to replace his destroyed glider. Ghost Rider and Spider-Man both attack, causing Spider-Man to order the Rider to back-off before his recklessness gets someone killed. When Spider-Man mentions the boy, the Goblin goes berserk and tackles the Rider in order to crash through the ceiling with his enemy. Spider-Man protects the boy when the Ghost Rider falls from the great height, crashing back down into the warehouse.

Hobgoblin re-enters the building, ranting about his mission from God. Spider-Man tells the boy the stay put while he takes care of the Goblin, then asks the boy what his name is. The child answers that his name is Adam. Hobgoblin deflects the two heroes attacks and tells Adam that it is time for the two of them to depart. While the Goblin approaches the boy and takes him in his arms, Ghost Rider boards his motorcycle and guns it toward the maniac. Spider-Man, realizing that Hobgoblin has the boy, yells at Ghost Rider to stop before he kills him. Ignoring the hero, Ghost Rider strikes Hobgoblin with his bike, sending Adam sailing into the air. Spider-Man manages to catch Adam, but not before the boy is badly hurt from the impact. Ghost Rider pummels Hobgoblin into unconsciousness, but is stopped from going further by Spider-Man, who is disgusted at Ghost Rider's viciousness endangering an innocent child. Ghost Rider departs, stating that someday Hobgoblin will not have Spider-Man there to save him from vengeance. Spider-Man holds Adam with Hobgoblin unconscious on the ground while Ghost Rider rides away.

Those flames are epic!

THE ROADMAP

Ghost Rider last appeared in Marvel Comics Presents (1988) # 71 and appears next in Fantastic Four (1961) # 347. where he again teams up with Spider-Man (along with Wolverine and the Hulk).

Hobgoblin was transformed into a true demon by N'astirh in Spectacular Spider-Man # 147, which was part of the "Inferno" crossover.

Spider-Man first encountered the original Ghost Rider in Marvel Team-Up (1972) # 15. He battled the demon Zarathos after his separation from Johnny Blaze in Amazing Spider-Man (1963) # 274.

Ghost Rider gets his second chance to fight Hobgoblin in Ghost Rider (1990) # 16-17, where he also again encounters Spider-Man.

CHAIN REACTION

Spider-Man was the last of the "Heroes for the 1990s" titles premiered by Marvel, of which the revamped Ghost Rider was also a part. Given to artist Todd McFarlane as a vehicle for him to both write and draw Spider-Man, this book dealt with much darker and disturbing subjects than the typical Spider-Man titles.

Let's face it, Todd McFarlane was absolutely on fire in the late 80s and early 90s, making his new Spider-Man series Marvel's # 1 seller (until Jim Lee's X-Men # 1 debuted a year or so later) despite the artist being every bit the amateur when it came to writing as well as illustrating. He was on a steep learning curve, as he was too big of a sales draw for Marvel to deny his request to write, while at the same time his first story-arc "Torment" drew critical fire for its frankly disturbing imagery with a character usually used for much lighter fare. This 2-part story-arc, "Masques", continued the trend of darker stories with another revamped villain, the Hobgoblin, in place of the Lizard from the first arc. I bought and read McFarlane's Spider-Man series when it was being released, and for the most part I enjoyed it. But to be fair, I tended to enjoy darker fare in the comics I read, so I was very much in the target demographic for the series.

The most important aspect of this issue, however, is that McFarlane deemed the new Ghost Rider – still in its first year of publication as well – enough of a sales draw to use in Marvel's highest selling title. If critics were still refusing to accept that Ghost Rider had arrived as the "next big thing", this was the point at which their denials completely lost the ability to hold water. McFarlane's choice to use the new Ghost Rider in his second story on Spider-Man speaks just as much to the talents of Howard Mackie and Javier Saltares for making the new character interesting enough to make an immediate impact on the wider Marvel line. Of course, this was the starting point for what would eventually become an over-saturating of the character, to the point where he was guest-appearing in nearly every title Marvel produced (the death knell being his appearance in several Marvel UK titles).

I admit, Ghost Rider doesn't really come out looking very good at the end of this story, but that's more the deliberate fault of the writer instead of a detriment to the character. Todd McFarlane had a clear idea of what he wanted to do with the character, emphasizing the "vengeance" aspect of the new Ghost Rider to a degree we hadn't yet seen in the character's own title. McFarlane portrays Ghost Rider as an unstoppable force of nature that locks in on his target and lets nothing stand in his way. There's nothing wrong with that take on the character, it's one I rather like in fact, but where McFarlane goes too far is portraying the Rider as willing to endanger an innocent child to gain his vengeance on the villain. The new Ghost Rider was all about protecting and, if needed avenging, those deemed as "innocent", and seeing him nearly run down a child was a bit much. This skewed portrayal was done for no reason other than to trump up Spider-Man as a "truer hero" than the Rider, allowing the writer to speak through Spidey at the end with his speech about real heroes protecting the innocent no matter what. That's all well and good, Spidey, but that's exactly what Ghost Rider does in stories not written by Todd McFarlane.

I distinctly remember that the decision to make Hobgoblin a religious nutcase was met with a bit of controversy, which is understandable given the nature of religion in this country. I felt it to be a fairly logical progression for the character, even though as critics of the story mentioned the character had no established religious background to speak of. But if you had been transformed into a hideously demonic form, would a leap into religion with its demons and angels and Heaven and Hell be so unlikely? I give McFarlane credit for not shying away from large, potentially controversial, themes in his first writing attempts – I remember the third arc with Wolverine being about animal abuse, right? And the fourth, with Morbius, being about the state of the homeless in New York?

Even if I didn't care for the way McFarlane went too far with the Ghost Rider's characterization, I still really enjoyed this story-arc. I was apparently one of the few who liked the religiously-insane demon incarnation of the Hobgoblin, but I can see why it might be a hard pill for some readers to swallow. The topics addressed in this story are a bit heavy for your typical Spider-Man story, and it does seem to be an odd fit at times. But this series was far from what one would call "subtle", and like with Ghost Rider McFarlane's portrayal of the insane Hobgoblin goes a bit too far into the realm of ridiculousness. McFarlane was still an amateur writer at this point, and I can forgive some of the heavy-handedness as long as the central story is sound. I don't really appreciate using Spider-Man to preach at us about the nature of "innocence", but at least it doesn't detract from the action in the book.

Whatever you may think of McFarlane's writing, one can hardly deny the man's artistic gift. In particular, Todd draws one hell of a mean-looking Ghost Rider with flames that look like they're going to leap off the page. I remember an interview with Mark Texeira during his stint on Ghost Rider where he admits that his approach to drawing the Rider's flames was completely reevaluated after he saw McFarlane's rendition.

The story gets credit for sheer moxie, even if the problems with having an untested writer are evident. Despite its problems, I've always liked this arc.

"I'll be back!"