Cover Date: January 1994; Publication Date: November 1993
Blaze wakes up in a hospital next to his critically-injured wife, Roxanne, to find himself surrounded by the Hidden and Seer screaming at him to wake up. He blasts his way to the hospital parking lot and takes out a large number of Hidden assassins. When he returns to the Emergency Room, he finds that Seer has protected Roxanne and was the one responsible for getting them to the hospital. Blaze takes Roxanne in his arms and asks Seer to teleport them to another hospital far away. Later, at another hospital, Blaze tells Seer that Roxanne will live but is in the intensive care unit. He thanks Seer, despite how he feels about the Blood, and she directs him to look north near the Canadian border for his children.
In a compound chalet in the Colorado Rockies, the Hidden leader Dark Design is finishing the indoctrination of a new Initiate into the Hidden. They are interrupted by their master, Regent, who tells the Hidden to take care of Blaze. Meanwhile, near the Canadian border, Blaze is tracking George and Marianne Waters, the siblings he had entrusted his wife and children to for protection. Unknown to him, a silent helicopter has just dropped the Initiate nearby. George attacks Blaze, but John gets the upper hand and sees Marianne standing with his son and daughter.
At the hospital, Regent visits Roxanne and is confronted by Seer. Regent easily overpowers her and disappears with Roxanne. Back in the forest, Blaze demands answers from the Waters siblings. The Initiate attacks, and when Marianne sees Blaze trying to protect the children she decides to help him, despite what her brother says. Once the Initiate is beaten, George and Marianne confide in Blaze. They tell him that Roxanne had made a deal with Regent, who is one of the Blood, and the Hidden to turn over the children, which forced them to go on the run. George then stabs John in the face with a knife, revealing that he is a member of the Hidden, then shoots and kills his sister. George and the Initiate leave with the children, while Blaze loses consciousness, questioning why Roxanne would betray him.
THE ROADMAP
Blaze sent his wife, Roxanne, and children, Craig and Emma, away with George and Marianne Waters in Ghost Rider/Blaze: Spirits of Vengeance (1992) # 1.
Blaze blames the Blood for the death of Dan Ketch in Ghost Rider/Blaze: Spirits of Vengeance (1992) # 18. (which was published after the release of this issue). John learned that he and Dan were brothers in Ghost Rider/Blaze: Spirits of Vengeance (1992) # 16.
The details of Roxanne's arrangement with Regent is revealed in Blaze: Legacy of Blood (1993) # 4.
It's easy to forget about this mini-series, since it came out amidst the "Siege of Darkness" crossover yet wasn't a part of it (in fact, it takes place AFTER the crossover that was being published concurrently with it). I think it gets that stigma that comes with the "Siege" stories and their immediate aftermath, which were some pretty terrible comics, and "Legacy of Blood" often gets lumped in with that. It also features the dreadful cyborg Blaze design, which dates it terribly as 90s EXTREME schlock. All of those things are working against it, but this persists in being an actual good comic produced in a sea of surrounding detritus.
Howard Mackie's reinvention of John Blaze was one of the strongest parts of the 1990s Ghost Rider revival, and even with all of the lame changes going on (cyborg parts and long lost siblings?) Mackie's characterization for Blaze never wavered. He was an increasingly distrustful man forced into extreme circumstances and was hardened even more because of it. Yes, he leans a little too much into the "bad-ass gun toting vigilante" cliché, but it's evened out nicely by John's willingness to do whatever he has to do to regain his family. I'm a family man, and even though I don't have a hellfire shotgun or mystical motorcycle I can understand and agree with John's characterization here. The back-to-back revelations of betrayal from Roxanne and George were definitely surprises, not just for Blaze but for the readers as well. George, sure, we never got to know him outside of a few panel cameos, but Roxanne Simpson?
If there was one thing Mackie loved during this era, it was the "mysterious group" archetype, and this series gives us not one but two of them. The Blood were never my favorite concept, even though I liked characters such as Caretaker and Seer as individuals the group itself was just an excuse to throw powers around without having to explain much. They are, of course, present during this series by virtue of featuring Seer and the big bad villain, Regent. We don't know much about Regent at this point, but he'll go on to at least be interesting, which is more than can be said for characters like Patriarch from "Siege of Darkness". The Hidden come off a fair bit better, even if they're an off-brand version of the Hand, ninjas with a mystical bent that at least have an intriguing concept behind they're "no one sees the true face of a Hidden" bit. I especially liked George's line about the Hidden wearing many masks, "I wore the mask of your brother since my birth". It doesn't make much sense, but it sounds cryptic as hell.
The artwork by Ron Wagner and Howard Rourke continues to fit the series to a tee, drowning it in black ink and murky atmosphere. There's a lot of Bill Sienkiewicz influence in the work, with all of the stray linework and brushed inks, it's really rough yet beautiful at the same time. I can see some similarities to early Leonardo Manco as well, who would have been coming up as a contemporary around this time on the Hellstorm series. It's a shame they're saddled with the shitty Blaze design, their rendition of classic trench coat John would have looked great here.
"Legacy of Blood" is a stand-out from this time, which wasn't so great for the rest of the Midnight Sons titles. Recommended.
Blaze blames the Blood for the death of Dan Ketch in Ghost Rider/Blaze: Spirits of Vengeance (1992) # 18. (which was published after the release of this issue). John learned that he and Dan were brothers in Ghost Rider/Blaze: Spirits of Vengeance (1992) # 16.
The details of Roxanne's arrangement with Regent is revealed in Blaze: Legacy of Blood (1993) # 4.
CHAIN REACTION
"Legacy of Blood" continues to ratchet up the tension as Blaze gets some answers about his missing wife and kids.
It's easy to forget about this mini-series, since it came out amidst the "Siege of Darkness" crossover yet wasn't a part of it (in fact, it takes place AFTER the crossover that was being published concurrently with it). I think it gets that stigma that comes with the "Siege" stories and their immediate aftermath, which were some pretty terrible comics, and "Legacy of Blood" often gets lumped in with that. It also features the dreadful cyborg Blaze design, which dates it terribly as 90s EXTREME schlock. All of those things are working against it, but this persists in being an actual good comic produced in a sea of surrounding detritus.
Howard Mackie's reinvention of John Blaze was one of the strongest parts of the 1990s Ghost Rider revival, and even with all of the lame changes going on (cyborg parts and long lost siblings?) Mackie's characterization for Blaze never wavered. He was an increasingly distrustful man forced into extreme circumstances and was hardened even more because of it. Yes, he leans a little too much into the "bad-ass gun toting vigilante" cliché, but it's evened out nicely by John's willingness to do whatever he has to do to regain his family. I'm a family man, and even though I don't have a hellfire shotgun or mystical motorcycle I can understand and agree with John's characterization here. The back-to-back revelations of betrayal from Roxanne and George were definitely surprises, not just for Blaze but for the readers as well. George, sure, we never got to know him outside of a few panel cameos, but Roxanne Simpson?
If there was one thing Mackie loved during this era, it was the "mysterious group" archetype, and this series gives us not one but two of them. The Blood were never my favorite concept, even though I liked characters such as Caretaker and Seer as individuals the group itself was just an excuse to throw powers around without having to explain much. They are, of course, present during this series by virtue of featuring Seer and the big bad villain, Regent. We don't know much about Regent at this point, but he'll go on to at least be interesting, which is more than can be said for characters like Patriarch from "Siege of Darkness". The Hidden come off a fair bit better, even if they're an off-brand version of the Hand, ninjas with a mystical bent that at least have an intriguing concept behind they're "no one sees the true face of a Hidden" bit. I especially liked George's line about the Hidden wearing many masks, "I wore the mask of your brother since my birth". It doesn't make much sense, but it sounds cryptic as hell.
The artwork by Ron Wagner and Howard Rourke continues to fit the series to a tee, drowning it in black ink and murky atmosphere. There's a lot of Bill Sienkiewicz influence in the work, with all of the stray linework and brushed inks, it's really rough yet beautiful at the same time. I can see some similarities to early Leonardo Manco as well, who would have been coming up as a contemporary around this time on the Hellstorm series. It's a shame they're saddled with the shitty Blaze design, their rendition of classic trench coat John would have looked great here.
"Legacy of Blood" is a stand-out from this time, which wasn't so great for the rest of the Midnight Sons titles. Recommended.
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