The Punisher War Journal (1988) # 29-30

"Crash and Burn" & "Spin Cycle"

Cover Date: April & May 1991
On Sale Date: February & March 1991

Writer: Mike Baron
Artist: Mark Texeira
Letterer: Jim Novak
Colorist: Gregory Wright
Editor: Don Daley
Editor-In-Chief: Tom DeFalco
Cover Artist: Michael Golden

The Punisher is riding his motorcycle down a freeway when he gets in a race with another biker wearing a strange helmet. The other biker sparks a flame on the front of his helmet and his head catches on fire, killing him. When Castle investigates the body, Ghost Rider arrives and tells the Punisher that the biker came from the Roaring Island, a massive tank built out of dozens of smaller vehicles. A new drug called Spin is being manufactured and sold from the Roaring Island, and they'll most likely be delivering to the lead singer of the band Aerostar, who is playing a nearby coliseum the next night.

The next day, Frank's partner Microchip shows him what information he has on the Roaring Island, which is capable of jamming any surveillance or photography. Castle attempts to get some sleep, and when he wakes he finds some medicine left for him by Microchip that will counteract the effects of Spin. Later, at the coliseum, Frank watches as a delivery man from the Island visits Hovelhaus, singer for Aerostar. On the way out, the delivery man shoots a security guard and escapes on his bike, with the Punisher in hot pursuit. Cars sent from the Roaring Island chase Castle, but they are stopped by the just-arrived Ghost Rider. The police arrive, and when Punisher's bike stalls Ghost Rider leaves him behind. Before the police can arrest Frank, all of the lights and electronics in the area short out, followed by the arrival of the Roaring Island. A grenade is thrown from the massive vehicle, which knocks the Punisher unconscious.

The Punisher is brought aboard the Roaring Island, where he is interrogated by the head of the Island, Straker, who wants to know who Frank is and why he was after their courier.  Frank manages to convince Straker that he's a junkie looking to score from the Island, so Straker decides to give him a test to see if he would make a good courier.  In order to keep up his cover, Frank takes a hit of the new drug, Spin, and has an explosive attached to his wrist.  He's then given a new bike and told to do a drug delivery to a client, if he's not back by sundown they will trigger the explosive.

Wired from the drug, Punisher rides into Brooklyn and stops a local, telling them to put the word out that Punisher is looking for the Ghost Rider.  Castle is unaware that he's just spoken to Dan Ketch, the Ghost Rider's human host, who notices that the Punisher was behaving strangely.  Frank arrives at the address of his delivery and beats up some junkies inside before being invited into an apartment by his partner, Microchip.  Microchip gives Frank a computer disc with a virus program that will cause all the interlocking vehicles that make up the Roaring Island to disengage.   On his way back to the Island, Punisher is found by Ghost Rider, who agrees to listen to the Punisher's plan.

When he returns to the Roaring Island, Straker gives Castle a special helmet for his "initiation run", a helmet that is programmed to light up a dose of Spin automatically.  While Straker is distracted, Frank puts in the virus disc, but nothing happens.  Castle takes his bike out and drives under a bridge, and out the other side rides Ghost Rider, who is seen by the Island.  The explosive on Punisher's wrist is triggered, but Microchip had been waiting under the bridge to disarm it.  Microchip tells Frank that the disc didn't work because he had to press "enter" first, which Straker himself does when he tries to target his weapons on the Ghost Rider.  The Roaring Island falls apart, Straker barely escapes with his life, and Ghost Rider departs, telling Punisher and Microchip that he'll be watching them.  

Some serious speed lines!

 THE ROADMAP

Ghost Rider last appeared in Marc Spector: Moon Knight (1989) # 25. Ghost Rider has a cameo appearance in Damage Control (1991) # 4 before making his next full appearance in Daredevil (1964) # 295-295.

The Punisher and Ghost Rider last met in Ghost Rider (1990) # 6 and meet next in Ghost Rider/Wolverine/Punisher: Hearts of Darkness.

CHAIN REACTION

Ghost Rider guest-stars in this two-issue arc by Mike Baron and Mark Texeira.

Considering he was the artist on both Ghost Rider (formally the finisher over Javier Saltares pencils, he had recently been promoted to full artist) and Punisher War Journal, it's not surprising that Mark Texeira wound up doing a story involving both characters. I find it a bit strange that this was done solely in the Punisher's title considering the artist straddling both books, but the month this issue was released the Ghost Rider title was involved in a terrible crossover with the Doctor Strange series. Regardless, Mike Baron inserts Ghost Rider into what was usually a fairly down-to-earth Punisher series. I can only imagine it was Texeira's involvement that spurred this story to life, though I could of course be mistaken.

Unfortunately, Mike Baron doesn't really produce much of a story here. Baron was a good writer who wrote some absolutely definitive Punisher stories in the 1980s and early 1990s, I love his work with the character. This one, however, wasn't one of his highlights. There's an interesting concept for the Roaring Island (though that brings with it a bigger problem that I'll address later), but there's nothing surrounding that idea to make this much of a real story. Punisher runs into the biker and Ghost Rider by coincidence, but is still able to provide the plot synopsis as if he had planned it all out in advance. The issue flies by at a breakneck pace, which I suppose is appropriate for a story about motorcycles and guys on speed, but it doesn't leave much of a fulfilling comic in its wake. This is an issue that is there for one reason: to let Texeira draw Ghost Rider and the Punisher together, not much more justification beyond that.

Texeira is a perfect artist for both characters, because his work just screams "dark and gritty". Even this early in his career, the guy was born to draw Ghost Rider, and it makes sense to let him do some advance work on the character in the title he was already drawing before taking on the full art chores for the other series. However, past the flashy aspects and the dead-on characterization of Ghost Rider lies some serious problems. The first is how he handles the Punisher in this arc, giving him a design that just makes no sense at all. When he gears up to go after the Roaring Island, Castle puts on a near-identical Ghost Rider outfit, complete with chain and spikes, for reasons I can't fathom. He still has the traditional skull emblem (though why he wears it when going out on a mission such as this is also problematic, though that's endemic of a lot of Punisher stories), but other than that he's a dead-ringer for Ghost Rider. Even more problematic is the way Texeira struggles with the design of the Roaring Island itself. Baron's script describes the Island in a way that totally doesn't match up with Texeira's depiction. The idea of a rolling fortress made up of other vehicles is such a cool concept, but what we see on the page doesn't resemble the description at all. We get a big tank, complete with turrets, and while it looks good it just doesn't synch up with what the characters have been talking about throughout the issue.

From what I understand, the "Marvel Method" of writing comics involves the writer giving a very basic plot breakdown, with the artist then using that plot to essentially be a stage director in charge of laying out how that plot is paced and how the story is told.  The writer then goes back over the finished artwork and writes the dialogue, making it a true collaboration instead of an artist following a strict script format that allows for less freedom.  So, I'm not sure if that's how Mike Baron operated during his time writing for Marvel, but there is a major lack of communication between him and Texeira that made this a really difficult comic to follow.  Things are laid out in dialogue that have no visual representation on the page, some things are assumed to be covered by the art without explanation (such as Microchip's "Lester Lute" alias, which is treated as something we should all recognize but the art fails to deliver until the dialogue flags it up), and other things are just glossed over in exchange for pretty splash pages.  The most glaring problem comes at the end, where the story is resolved not with action (though there are plenty of panels of Ghost Rider dodging missiles) but with an off-panel character pressing an "enter" key and the villain suddenly screaming as the Roaring Island explodes.  It seems like Baron had to do a lot of work to force the artwork into something resembling a coherent narrative, but perhaps that problem lays not with Texeira but with the plot he was given?  I honestly don't know, but this is a frustratingly hard comic to follow and understand.

The story, though, is still whipping by at a frenetic pace that forces the reader to play catch-up as it goes along.  You have a villain that's apparently inspired by a talk radio host (John Cage, is that in reference to something?) to create the Roaring Island to deal drugs as a precursor to the Mad Max future that's envisioned, which is pretty bonkers.  You have Punisher trying not to lose his shit as he smokes some high-class meth and Ghost Rider flip-flopping between whether he's going to fight or work with Punisher (even changing his mind mid-dialogue in some panels).  This just doesn't feel like it was a well-thought out story, which is surprising given how great a lot of Baron's Punisher stories from this time are.  Maybe I'm right in thinking it was just an exercise to allow Texeira some Ghost Rider drawing practice and Baron was forced to write along as the pages came in?

Regardless of the mechanics of how this comic was created, it's just not very good, especially when compared to the far superior Ghost Rider/Punisher team-up that Howard Mackie and Javier Saltares did the year before.  Unless you really want to see more Texeira Ghost Rider (and that's certainly something worth seeing), I'd skip these issues.

The closest Ghost Rider got to being in a 1980s action movie.