Cover Date: May 1993; On Sale Date: March 1993
Writer: Howard Mackie; Artist: Adam Kubert; Inker: Bill Reinhold; Letterer: Michael Heisler; Colorist: Gregory Wright; Editor: Bobbie Chase; Editor In Chief: Tom DeFalco; Cover Artist: Adam Kubert
Steel Wind and her demon horde continue the assault on the Quentin Carnival, while Vengeance watches from a nearby hillside. Steel Wind attacks Ghost Rider directly, prompting Vengeance to finally enter the fray, riding through and killing human and demon alike. Just as Steel Wind is preparing to give the Rider the death blow with her sword, Vengeance grabs her arm and rips it from her cyborg body, claiming that no one is going to kill the Ghost Rider but him.
Meanwhile, Blaze attempts to pull the Carnival people together so they can have a chance of winning. Kody refuses to fight, until the demons invade the tent and grab Clara. Outside, Vengeance attacks the Ghost Rider, while Steel Wind slithers away. She spies Eli, the Carnival's crippled mechanic, a few feet away, whom she then stabs in the back with her blades. Blaze sees this and in a furious rage blows the woman away with hellfire. Eli dies, but not before handing John an envelope. John and Miranda then attempt to find her son, Timmy, but instead see Kody, who has transformed into a savage, bestial creature that is killing the surrounding demons with ease. Miranda finds Timmy's jacket on the ground, and as she cries a green mystical energy begins to pulse from her eyes.
On the other side of the battlefield, Vengeance continues to beat down on Ghost Rider, claiming that the Rider caused some sort of pain against his family. Before Vengeance can kill the Rider, however, a blast of mystical energy erupts from Miranda, obliterating the demon horde and blasting both Steel Wind and Vengeance away. Meanwhile, watching from his lair, Steel Wind's master observes the events at the Carnival. The master is then revealed to be Centurious - the Soulless Man.
Not long after, Blaze and the surviving Carnival members attempt to pull themselves back together. Miranda's son, Timmy, has disappeared and Eli - along with dozens of others - is dead. Wolf comments that they beat the demons, but John fights back tears as he asks what they actually won. All they can do now is bury their dead, their friends and family, and wait and see what tomorrow brings.
THE ROADMAP
This story continues in Ghost Rider (1990) # 39.
This issue, along with Ghost Rider (1990) # 37, revealed that Centurious was behind many of the recent tragedies in the lives of both John Blaze and the Ghost Rider. Imprisoned in the Soul Crystal in Ghost Rider (1973) # 81, Centurious made his actual reappearance, in shadow, in Ghost Rider (1990) # 18, but has been behind the scenes since at least Ghost Rider (1990) # 3. Since his reappearance, Centurious was behind the following events:
-- the transformation of Reverend Styge into a new Sin-Eater, revealed in Ghost Rider (1990) # 18.
-- the funding of the criminal organization, the Firm, which first appeared in Ghost Rider (1990) # 25.
-- the creation of Steel Vengeance in Ghost Rider/Blaze: Spirits of Vengeance (1992) # 2, the Death Ninja in Ghost Rider (1990) # 34, and Heart Attack in Ghost Rider (1990) # 35.
The supernatural abilities and backgrounds of the Quentin Carnival survivors will be explored in future issues; Eli's in Ghost Rider/Blaze: Spirits of Vengeance (1992) # 12, Kody's in Ghost Rider/Blaze: Spirits of Vengeance # 21, and Miranda's in Ghost Rider/Blaze: Spirits of Vengeance (1992) # 22.
Steel Wind is found in the army installation that is built atop the destroyed Quentin Carnival by John Blaze in Ghost Rider/Blaze: Spirits of Vengeance (1992) # 20. Her appearance in Ghost Rider/Blaze: Spirits of Vengeance (1992) # 14 is a continuity error.
CHAIN REACTION
In one of the greatest all-out-action issues in Ghost Rider history, Mackie and Kubert put in everything but the kitchen sink alongside Ghost Rider, Blaze, Vengeance, the Quentin Carnival, Steel Wind, the Stygian Demons...whew, deep breath.
With all of the lead-up to the Carnival's destruction in the past few issues, Mackie found himself having to deliver nothing less than complete devastation and supporting cast annihilation to make good on what he'd been teasing. And make no mistake, he succeeds in the Quentin Carnival's demise with almost giddy abandon, meticulously rampaging through the lives of each Carnival member as they find themselves stuck between forces way more powerful than they. The Carnival members themselves, despite the hackneyed idea of them getting futuristic weaponry built by Eli (built from what? they're in a frickin' Carnival!), each get time in the spotlight as at least two background characters step up to join the supporting cast ranks with Wolf and Clara. The revelations of Kody and Miranda each having supernatural abilities really takes you by surprise on your first read through of this issue, successfully upping the ante of the battle with each turn of the page.
"Upping the ante" is a good theme to apply to this issue, as throughout the story things just keep getting worse and worse for our heroes. Having been destroyed by Mephisto and Steel Vengeance a few issues before, the Carnival is now at war with Steel Wind and her army of Stygian Demons - and that's at the start of this issue. Vengeance is quickly added in, and in a nice visual touch he's seen wading through the war zone as if the men and demons are nothing but gnats buzzing around him. Even though he technically debuted in the previous issue, this is the one where Vengeance really steps up as a true threat to the Ghost Rider, besting the Spirit of Vengeance at every turn. Mackie does well in showing that Vengeance really is more powerful than the Ghost Rider; whether its truly his power or if it's simply a by-product of the intense hate he feels is up for debate.
There's tons of drama and tragedy in this story, as horrible things happen to characters left and right, particularly Blaze's supporting cast. As we see the Carnival burning to the ground around them, the biggest shock comes in the death of Eil. While he hadn't been that important of a character, he was still more in the foreground than Kody or Miranda toward this issue, and his death did come as a surprise. Amidst all of this carnage, however, Mackie still turns in at least one humorous moment that - possibly unintentionally - had me chuckling. Throughout the story, Steel Wind has limbs ripped off and blown off before getting obliterated by Miranda's mystical wave; it's really bad, but I couldn't help but think of the Black Knight from Monty Python and the Holy Grail when she keeps getting up from these terrible wounds.
Something else worth mentioning: the gratification of the Centurious reveal. We'd gotten a brief tease of his return in the same month's issue of Ghost Rider, but here we see the villain in his true form for the first time since the closing of the first GR series. Adam Kubert only pencils in the villain's head, but the new design for Centurious is immediately creepy and eye-catching. It's just a shame that none of the other artists were able to capture the menace that Kubert put into the design. Regardless, it's a huge validation of all the speculation and rumors that had started up at the time about who was responsible for all the misery in the lives of Blaze and the Ghost Rider, and though it wasn't a surprise it was still an awesome moment - the ultimate evil from the first Ghost Rider series was back, and a collision of forces was on the horizon.
Andy Kubert and Bill Reinhold turn in yet another awesome job on the artistic front, making such scenes of destruction and anguish seem easy in comparison to how difficult they must have been. One thing that I've always appreciated about their work is that they rarely fill their panels with blank backgrounds - in every panel there is something going on in the background. Here, the battle between Vengeance and Ghost Rider is accented by the war going on around them, and Kubert never lets us forget that we've just been plunged into a battleground. Plus, his Vengeance is truly an awesomely scary sight (and I assume he designed Vengeance himself, meaning he's an excellent character designer as well).
This story was subtitled "Carnival of Death", and it certainly lived up to that name. Great writing and great art make for a stellar issue that I highly recommend.
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