"Panic On Pier One!"/"Shock Therapy"
On Sale Date: September 1991
Writer: Chris Claremont/Scott Lobdell
Artist: Sal Buscema/Vince Evans
Inker: Pablo Marcos/Phil Sheehy
Letterer: Irv Watanabe/Jade Moede
Colorist: Jan Cohen/Mike Thomas
Editor: Archie Goodwin/Kelly Corvese
Editor In Chief: Jim Shooter/Tom DeFalco
On a night time New York street, a Hollywood production crew sets up to shoot a live stunt for the Stuntmaster television show. Coincidentally, the shoot is taking place directly in front of Peter Parker's apartment building, prompting he and Mary Jane to stop and watch. Johnny Blaze, the resident stunt cyclist for the show, suits up and starts the stunt, unaware that danger lurks from a nearby rooftop. As Blaze's bike touches down on the roof of a car, a sticky substance of some sort is shot onto the wheel, ripping the front half of the bike off. Unable to get the bike under control, Johnny transforms into the Ghost Rider in order to survive. Luckily for him, Parker has climbed a building and donned his trust web-shooters, which pull Blaze away from what could have been a messy wreck. Peter dons his Spider-Man costume and joins Blaze on the street, but before any explanations can come about, a stream of fast-hardening paste wraps around Spidey's body, carrying him into the air. Above them, the terrible Trapster says that after he finishes Spidey off, he'll be back for Blaze!
Suspended from his flying platform by the paste line, Spidey is forced to listen to the Trapster's explanation on how he escaped from prison. Finally, using his web-line to gain leverage, Spidey leaps onto the platform to attack the Trapster. The villain gets the upper hand, however, and hurls Spider-Man from the platform! Riding on the street below on his mystical flame-cycle, the Ghost Rider sees Spidey's fall. Riding in a tight circle, Blaze creates a heat vortex that slows the wall-crawler's fall and allows him to be caught without injury. The Trapster, his sky-sled damaged from the fight, crashes on a nearby aircraft carrier, followed quickly by Spidey and GR. Blaze follows the Trapster into the ship's nuclear weapon loading area, and corners him in front of some volatile chemicals. Spidey tries to stop GR from using his hellfire, for fear of causing a nuclear explosion, but the hero is instead put on the receiving end of Blaze's soul-searing flame. Ghost Rider then turns his attentions to the Trapster, blasting him with a stream of hellfire, which burns not his body, but his soul. The Trapster falls, screaming in agony, while Spidey condemns GR for what he's done. He tells Blaze that they're supposed to be the good guys, and that they should be better than the guys they fight. Blaze merely responds with "I am what I am." before riding off, leaving Spidey to take the Trapster to a hospital.
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| "And I'll burn his soul to boot!" |
One week after the Trapster's defeat by Spider-Man and the Ghost Rider, the villain is suffering horrible nightmares spawned from the Rider's hellfire. Peter Petruski wakes up screaming in his hospital bed, with his nurse, Catherine Polumbo, rushing to his side. She tells him that he needs to give these things time, and that after all he's been through the doctors feel he's making tremendous progress. She even adds that she thinks he's a very brave man. Petruski comments that the bravest thing he's ever done is calling himself something as stupid as Paste Pot Pete in public. He then tells her that he feels like he's lost his self-respect; that he's lost a piece of his soul. She tells him that she'll be back to check on him, and he replies that he'd like that.
After she leaves, Petruski sees his costume and paste guns tossed down at his feet. He looks up and sees the Ghost Rider sitting astride his bike, having melted his way through the room's outer wall. The Rider tells him he's come to send him to Hell, and Petruski quickly realizes that he's not dreaming. The Trapster cowers in fear until the Ghost Rider says that he will punish anyone who has aided him, starting with his nurse. This forces the Trapster to action as he says that Catherine is the most decent woman he's ever known, and that he'd roast in hellfire for eternity before he'd let the Rider touch her. The villain grabs his paste gun and attacks, following it up with an onslaught of flaming hot paste. The Ghost Rider stumbles back, stuttering out that the Trapster is insane. Petruski lands a solid punch to the Ghost Rider's face, sending him falling out the window. He says that he was insane, but he got better.
A few moments later, Catherine enters the room to find Petruski wearing his Trapster costume. She asks some frantic questions, but all Peter says as he steps out the window onto his glider is "I'm sorry, Catherine. It could have been magic." As the Trapster flies away, the Ghost Rider watches from the street below. The holographic image of the Rider fades away, revealing the Wizard, who waves at the Trapster and whispers "welcome back, my friend".
THE ROADMAP
This issue features a reprint of Marvel Team-Up # 58. The back-up story takes place directly after the events in that issue.
The Trapster first encountered the Ghost Rider in Ghost Rider (1973) # 13.
The Wizard has served as the Trapster's teammate in several incarnations of the Frightful Four.
CHAIN REACTION
I've been tossing up the notion of whether I should review this story or not for a while now - technically, the Ghost Rider doesn't really appear in it. But, I finally decided that, since the story is focused on the Ghost Rider despite his absence, a review was warranted.
Following on the heels of the Trapster's defeat and subsequent torture via the Rider's hellfire in the Marvel Team-Up story reprinted here, the villain is in a hospital trying to recover from the nightmares and lack of self-confidence that's crippled him. It's a nice character study for the Trapster, who is honestly a bit of a joke in villain circles (I mean, the guy shoots out glue, not exactly fear-inspiring). It also shows what could have been an end to his criminal career with the relationship sparked with the nurse, but for the twisted camaraderie of the Wizard, who honestly thinks he's doing his "friend" a favor by forcing him to get back on the supervillain horse despite all the failures he's endured.
While the Wizard's masquerade as the Ghost Rider isn't obvious until the last page, you can tell that there's something not quite right with the demon once he appears in the Trapster's room. Sure, even at this time in his life, the Blaze incarnation was pretty vicious, but not to the point where he'd go to so much trouble to torment an already-defeated villain. So despite being telegraphed, the last page twist is pretty decent, and I do like the Wizard's "welcome back, my friend" in the last panel. It's a nice touch. The story does try a little too hard to cement (heh, pun not intended) the Trapster as an actual threat, because he IS a joke. But that's kind of the point of the story, a "redemption" of sorts, so I can forgive it.
The artwork is by Vince Evans, a name I didn't recognize - Evans is most likely one of those budding 90's artists that slaved away on back-ups and fill-in stories but never quite hit the big time. It's a shame, because he does turn in some nice work here, particularly on the Ghost Rider himself. The opening splash page of the Trapster's nightmare, with the giant skull of the Rider threatening to consume him, is particularly nice.
So all in all, it's a decent story that adds to the Marvel Team-Up issue before it - and, honestly, it's better than the Trapster probably deserves.
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