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| Cover Artist: Phil Hugh Felix |
Original Price: $1.50
Title: "Vengeance Forsaken"
Writer: Chris Cooper
Artist: Reggie Jones
Inker: Fred Harper
Letterer: Ul Higgins
Colorist: Joe Andreani
Editor: Richard Ashford
Editor in Chief: Tom DeFalco
SYNOPSIS
Atop the crown of the Statue of Liberty, Psiphon and his terrorists are holding a group of hostages for a ransom of 50 million dollars. Vengeance is bound by chains and Psiphon's own tendrils, providing an ultimate source for the villain's power. Police helicopters fly over the monument, one of which is destroyed by Psiphon's tentacles. Vengeance struggles in his bonds, but only serves to feed more power to Psiphon through his tentacles. The villain tells Vengeance that once he gets the money he plans to slaughter the tourists anyway - and in response, Vengeance breaks free of his chains and blasts Psiphon with hellfire. Vengeance then quickly kills the four terrorists, but is attacked from behind by a recovered Psiphon. As Psiphon beats on Vengeance, he tells him that he feeds on strong negative emotion, giving him power and invulnerability. The stronger the violent thoughts, the strong he becomes - which is why he lured the hero to him, for there is no stronger emotion than vengeance. Finally figuring out the key to defeating Psiphon, Vengeance transforms back into Michael Badilino, which immediately sucks all of the strength from Psiphon's body. Badilino picks up a gun, but instead of shooting he kicks Psiphon off the monument to his death.
Meanwhile, in Washington D.C., a group of men watch video footage of the battle, coming to the conclusion that Vengeance must be monitored and - if necessary - neutralized. They give this task to Sam Buchanan, a former Darkhold Redeemer, who tells the men that he lost the only woman he ever loved to the supernatural, and that he won't stop until all such beings have paid. The men tell Buchanan that effective immediately he works for them - and his first target is Vengeance.
ANNOTATIONS
Vengeance assumed the mantle of the "new" Ghost Rider in Ghost Rider (1990) # 46. The original Ghost Rider and his human host, Dan Ketch, died in Ghost Rider/Blaze: Spirits of Vengeance (1992) # 18.
Sam Buchanan last appeared in Midnight Sons Unlimited (1993) # 4, the conclusion to "Siege of Darkness". The woman Buchanan loved, Victoria Montesi, "died" in Doctor Strange, Sorcerer Supreme (1988) # 61.
Psiphon returns in Marvel Comics Presents (1988) # 164.
This issue of Marvel Comics Presents also contained stories featuring the Black Panther, Captain Universe, and American Eagle.
REVIEW
Vengeance's first solo outing as the headliner of Marvel Comics Presents comes to an end, and we're left with a story that's probably as good as it possibly could be given the villain and plot available.
As I said in the previous issue's review, Chris Cooper is left with an unenviable task with this series - he has to write an ongoing series with only 8 pages per issue for a character that can't be changed in any way because of his starring role in the more important Ghost Rider series. This proves to be an obvious problem, mainly because Vengeance isn't that terribly interesting to begin with. He's the Ghost Rider mixed with the Punisher, and he's frightfully boring in his current "anti-hero" incarnation. When Vengeance as a villain he at least had a clear motivation and a nice identity mystery surrounding him. Now he's simply told to be "Ghost Rider, just more violent", and I certainly don't think that's strong enough for him to carry TWO books on his own.
The disposable nature of MCP also means we're going to be saddled with unimportant stories and villains that are labeled "also-ran" right out of the gates. Psiphon is a laughable attempt at creating a villain to match up against Vengeance, who is really just a villain himself. Cooper is able to by pass the first question - why the hell doesn't Vengeance just incinerate this loser on the first page? - by making Psiphon's powers reliant on anger. Unfortunately, that also forces the horribly corny ending down our throat with Vengeance turning back to Michael Badilino in order to cut off Psiphon's power source. If I understand Psiphon's ranting correctly, however, it doesn't matter if it's Vengeance or Badilino that's in front of him...they're kinda the same person, with the same emotions. Unlike the Ghost Rider, Vengeance and Badilino are NOT two separate beings, and the ending to this story falls apart after a good few seconds of idle thought.
Reggie Jones and Fred Harper turn in another perfectly decent work of art with this story, but they still have a great deal of amateurishness to overcome. Panels are frequently devoid of backgrounds, and on occasion it's difficult to distinguish just what's going on in the action.
This story was certainly not a great debut for Vengeance in MCP - but it's still really hard to blame Chris Cooper when you look at what he has to work with.
Grade: D
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