Marvel Comics Presents (1988) # 92

"Servants of the Dead, Part 3: In the Cathedral of the Dead"

Cover Date: December 1991

On Sale Date: October 1991

Writer: Howard Mackie

Artist: Guang Yap
Inker: Bud LaRosa
Letterer: Janice Chiang
Colorist: Fernando Mendez
Editor: Terry Kavanagh
Editor in Chief: Tom DeFalco

Cover Artist: Sam Keith

Having fallen from a collapsed bridge, Ghost Rider and Cable are plummeting into a deep chasm. After reaching his falling motorcycle, Ghost Rider uses his chain to form a bridge, allowing he and Cable to cross into a tunnel in the cavern wall. Ghost Rider retrieves his chain and the two heroes make their way through the tunnel to a cathedral with skeletal remains covering the floor. They sense something moving in the remains beneath them, but see nothing. Cable asks Ghost Rider if he serves the dead since he's a Spirit of Vengeance, but they are interrupted by a priest of the Grateful Undead, who calls them blasphemers. The priest's acolytes emerge and engage the heroes in a brief battle. When Ghost Rider and Cable win the fight, the priest calls upon his god that lives beneath the bones to drag them under and claim them as food.

THE ROADMAP

This issue is reprinted in Ghost Rider and Cable: Servants of the Dead # 1.

This issue of MCP also contained stories featuring Wolverine, Northstar, and the Beast.

That's right Cable, HE is in charge!

CHAIN REACTION

"Servants of the Dead" continues with some nice action sequences and a bit more philosophizing from Cable.

So far, this story hasn't done much but lurch from one brawl to another, but at least with this chapter we get a much needed change of scenery. It's all still underground caverns, of course, but the dead cathedral has a creepy aesthetic. There's something about a floor made of bones with things hiding beneath it that's just a cool, striking, and frightening concept. The Grateful Undead get to be seen as more than just shadows when the priest emerges, though there's still no explanation for what's going on. It all seems to be just random event after random event, with so much riding on coincidence. Ghost Rider and Cable are fighting foes they don't know for reasons that are vague beyond "save the girl" (a girl that doesn't even appear this issue).

Still, there's a nice moment between Ghost Rider and Cable, with the latter questioning the former's motives. It's not a leap to question Ghost Rider's obsession with vengeance as a worship of the dead, even though the readers know that's not the case at all. The narrative captions are written well by Mackie, especially in regards to how Cable views his new partner. "Words are not exchanged. Cable knows that, in this particular instance, Ghost Rider is in charge." Like I said in the last review, Mackie's take on Cable as being a consummate professional in the face of adversity is refreshing in an era of "hero fighting hero".

Guang Yap turns in yet another solid art job. His characters have a nice, fluid motion to their movements. The opening sequence of the heroes falling and saving themselves is handled very well, and as I said above, the cathedral looks appropriately creepy. The design for the priest looks good, and the fights are choreographed solidly.

With the introduction of the Grateful Undead's "god", things are finally starting to move forward in the story.

Nice coloring choice for this panel.