Cover Date: July 1993; On Sale Date: May 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
In Dover, New Jersey, a quartet of men sneak through the forest - John Blaze, Ghost Rider, Wolf, and Kody - outside the armed military camp established over the ruins of the Quentin Carnival. The men sneak onto the base and find the large tent that house the dead bodies of their friends. They start soaking the bodies with gasoline, not wanting scientists to start dissecting them like freaks. John recovers the body of his friend, Eli, and tells Wolf and Kody to escape while he and the Ghost Rider provide a distraction. After they leave the tent, John and the Rider are confronted by a battalion of soldiers, who state that they are being taken into custody. Their mystical motorcycles arrive, allowing them to escape as the soldiers open fire, one round clipping Blaze across the shoulder. The bullets then strike the gasoline soaked tent, causing it explode as the two men ride into the forest. Atop a hill overlooking the camp, John says goodbye to his deceased friends. He then says that he has to find out the answers to the questions in Eli's letter, and the meaning of a key inscribed with the same medallion emblem as the Ghost Rider's motorcycle. The two ride off again, planning on leading the army in the wrong direction from their rendezvous point with the others.
At the city limits of Dover, Vengeance enters the town on his own mystical motorcycle, determined to find Ghost Rider despite being slowed down by the Caretaker in New York. Two army helicopters fly over him, ordering him to surrender, but he simply blasts them out of the sky with hellfire. At the opposite border of the city, Wolf's truck is stopped by by a military blockade who have to take a look in the back of the vehicle. Kody rips through the truck door and nearly kills the soldiers until Wolf stops him. Miranda then uses her own mystical power to make the men forget about them.
While the army chase Ghost Rider and Blaze, John comments that his arm feels like its on fire and that they've led the soldiers far enough away. Opening the throttles on their bikes, the two heroes easily outdistance the army. Elsewhere Vengeance, on the other hand, removes the large spikes from his shoulders and tosses them backward, killing the soldiers that were pursuing him. Fifteen minutes later, John and the Ghost Rider arrive at Eli's cabin. Leaving the bike's behind to walk up to the cabin, Blaze says that the bullet that hit his arm must have been an incendiary load. He doesn't notice the bit of flame that is coming from the cut on his shoulder. After they leave, Vengeance finds the bikes and the medallion that Mephisto ordered him to retrieve. Vengeance decides to get it later, instead making his way to the cabin to kill the Ghost Rider. Vengeance attacks Blaze and Ghost Rider, initially overpowering both of them. Nothing the two heroes do seems able to stop Vengeance, who says that he'll keep coming and coming until one day when the Ghost Rider will die. Unexpectedly, Vengeance then disappears into a mystic portal that sends him to a destination unknown. The heroes are approached by Eli's son, Quinn, who teleported Vengeance far away.
Inside the cabin, as the rest of the Carnival arrive, Quinn tells Blaze that his father was a powerful mystic, and that his only desire was to help John before he died. Quinn takes Blaze into a room with a large box, which is opened with the key inscribed with the medallion. John sees a vision of Eli, who gives him a message that he's left him two gifts: the first is in the box and the second is his son, Quinn. "The time of the Blood and the Medallion is coming", Eli says, his final words to John. Later, outside in the forest, John and the rest of his companions bury Eli and mourn the loss of their friends and family.
THE ROADMAP
This story continues from Ghost Rider (1990) # 39. Blaze and Ghost Rider appear next in Ghost Rider/Blaze: Spirits of Vengeance (1992) # 11, which was a fill-in issue that takes place chronologically out of order.
The pain in John's shoulder is not caused by an "incendiary bullet" as he believes. His body is actually completely contaminated by hellfire, as revealed in Ghost Rider/Blaze: Spirits of Vengeance (1992) # 14 and Ghost Rider (1990) # 41.
The first gift given to Blaze by Eli is finally shown in Ghost Rider/Blaze: Spirits of Vengeance (1992) # 15.
The Quentin Carnival was destroyed by Steel Wind and Vengeance in Ghost Rider/Blaze: Spirits of Vengeance (1992) # 10. Blaze and his companions return to the ruins of the Quentin Carnival one last time in Ghost Rider/Blaze: Spirits of Vengeance (1992) # 21.
The man that became Vengeance made his deal with Mephisto in Ghost Rider/Blaze: Spirits of Vengeance (1992) # 9. His true identity will be revealed in Ghost Rider/Blaze: Spirits of Vengeance (1992) # 15 and his reasons for hating Ghost Rider/Zarathos will be told in Ghost Rider/Blaze: Spirits of Vengeance (1992) # 16.
CHAIN REACTION
Spirits of Vengeance reaches its 1-year anniversary with this issue, which wraps up the plotlines that have been running through both this and its sister title, Ghost Rider, over the last year. In all honesty, as good as this series was, it should've been cancelled here.
After a brief trip over to the Ghost Rider series, Spirits picks up where it left off in issue # 10 (with # 11 being a fill-in). Following the destruction of the Quentin Carnival, Blaze and his oddball squad of freaks break into the remains to investigate just why the military have quarantined the site. Vengeance is quickly added to the situation, and all of the events surrounding the Carnival and the Medallion of Power are moved further into place. It's obvious upon reading that this series is so much more about John Blaze than anyone else, with even the Ghost Rider being saddled as more of a silent partner than co-star. But that's only fair, considering Ghost Rider already has his own series, and Blaze is a character that can easily support a series of his own even when separated from his more popular demonic alter ego.
This issue is excellent, no bones about it. But that's where the problem lays - this was a series that was vastly superior to its sister book, both in story and artwork, but this was also the issue where all of that ended. From here on, Spirits of Vengeance became a book continually mired in crossovers issue after issue until the "Siege of Darkness" ended with the "death" of the Ghost Rider. That left this series in a very precarious position: a Ghost Rider/Blaze team-up mag that was suddenly missing one of its co-stars. After that, the series only lasted a few issues to allow Mackie to wrap up his plotlines regarding John Blaze - the plot lines not already wrapped up in the Blaze: Legacy of Blood mini-series, that is. In essence, this series became useless and it was a mercy killing when it was finally cancelled in favor of Larry Hama's Blaze series.
But let's talk specifically about this issue. "Obligations" is a perfect example of just how good Spirits was in its prime, and a fitting coda to the incredible first year for both Howard Mackie and Adam Kubert. John Blaze is the star here, and you can feel the character's remorse, pain, and flat-out depression over what's happened to him and his Carnival family over the last few issues. His home has been destroyed, his wife and children sent away for their own safety, and the majority of his friends have been murdered and turned into military test subjects - and he really has no idea why all this happened. He's yet to know about Centurious' involvement in his misery, which won't happen until the "Road to Vengeance" storyline a few months down the road, and the guy is simply at his breaking point. My favorite bit of dialogue in this issue comes from Blaze: "And now? My life seems to be filled with "and nows" lately. And now I bury my friend. And now I try and pull my life together. And now..." John Blaze has hit rock bottom again in a way not seen since his early days bonded to Zarathos, and the creative team express this perfectly.
We also get a continuation of the Vengeance storyline, and the character continues to shine as a truly brutal threat to our heroes. Reading this and the previous "Carnival of Death" story really makes me regret the decision to make Vengeance into a Venom-esque hero a little after this, because Mackie certainly created the "lightning in a bottle" effect that's so rare in new characters. Such a shame.
Adam Kubert and Bill Reinhold also turn in a pitch-perfect job on the art front, and I've always considered this to be Kubert's swan song on the title before moving on to more lucrative pastures (such as Wolverine, his next assignment after Spirits). The common majority of Ghost Rider fans consider Javier Saltares and Mark Texeira to be the definitive art team for the 90's incarnation of the character - and it's much deserved, no doubt - but I feel that a lot of people overlook what Kubert and Reinhold did on this book. I'd be hard pressed to make a choice between Saltares/Tex and these two guys, because both teams brought distinctly unique takes on Ghost Rider and Blaze.
I loved Spirits of Vengeance during its first year, and this issue was no exception...I just wish they would've quit while they were ahead.
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