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| Cover Artist: Sam Keith |
Original Price: $3.95
Title: "Servants of the Dead"
Writer: Howard Mackie
Artist: Guang Yap
Inker: Bud LaRosa
Letterer: Janice Chiang
Colorist: Fernando Mendez
Editor: Terry Kavanagh
Editor in Chief: Tom DeFalco
SYNOPSIS
In the tunnels that run beneath Manhattan, mutant soldier Cable is investigating the movements of the sewer dwelling Morlocks. When the Morlocks spot him, Cable drops to the floor, only to have the ground collapse beneath him. Elsewhere, at Cypress Hills Cemetery, Dan Ketch is visiting the grave of his sister, Barbara.
Cable makes his way through an underground stream, miles away from his previous location. When he goes further into the caverns he comes across a young woman that's running for her life. She tells Cable that her pursuers are the Grateful Undead, two of whom attack Cable with throwing knives. Cable kills the two assassins, though the girl tells them they are not killed quite so easily. The girl leads Cable through the tunnels, eventually bringing them beneath Cypress Hills. Cable is attacked by two giant hands that come up from the ground, belonging to a "guardian" that Cable swiftly kills. Cable shoots the ceiling with his rifle, hoping to blow a way to the surface. This results in Dan seeing an explosion in the cemetery, followed by the girl's screams. Danny touches the gas cap of his motorcycle, transforming him into Ghost Rider. The Rider descends into the tunnel, where he finds the girl being carried away by the Grateful Undead and Cable pinned to the wall by a net. Cable tells Ghost Rider to cut him down because they're about to be attacked.
Having entered the tunnels beneath Cypress Hills Cemetery, Ghost Rider finds Cable trapped to the cave wall and the young girl being dragged away by the Grateful Undead. Ghost Rider frees Cable, and the two heroes are splattered with the girl's blood, thrown by the Undead as a warning for them to stay away. The two men follow the Undead to a huge cavern, where the mysterious underground group have set up an ambush. Using rocket launchers from the cliffs above, they herd Ghost Rider and Cable to a nearby wooden bridge. When Ghost Rider's motorcycle crosses the bridge, it collapses, sending both of them down into the chasm below.
Having fallen from a collapsed bridge, Ghost Rider and Cable are plummeting into a deep chasm. After reaching his falling motorcycle, Ghost Rider uses his chain to form a bridge, allowing he and Cable to cross into a tunnel in the cavern wall. Ghost Rider retrieves his chain and the two heroes make their way through the tunnel to a cathedral with skeletal remains covering the floor. They sense something moving in the remains beneath them, but see nothing. Cable asks Ghost Rider if he serves the dead since he's a Spirit of Vengeance, but they are interrupted by a priest of the Grateful Undead, who calls them blasphemers. The priest's acolytes emerge and engage the heroes in a brief battle. When Ghost Rider and Cable win the fight, the priest calls upon his god that lives beneath the bones to drag them under and claim them as food.
Ghost Rider and Cable have been pulled beneath the lake of bones in the Grateful Undead's cathedral. The priests then throw the young girl that the heroes had been attempting to rescue in with them, all of them pulled under into a murky mire by large tentacles. Ghost Rider and Cable both free themselves from the tentacles and, working together, are able to free the girl as well. The three burst out of the lake of bones on Ghost Rider's motorcycle and ride out of the cathedral, toward the surface. When the priest orders his men to follow them, he finds all of them struck dead by the Warriors of the Dead, another sect of the Grateful Undead. Angered that the priest's actions may have killed their god, the leader of the Warriors of the Dead kills the priest and vows to track down the surface dwellers to slay.
Cable makes his way through an underground stream, miles away from his previous location. When he goes further into the caverns he comes across a young woman that's running for her life. She tells Cable that her pursuers are the Grateful Undead, two of whom attack Cable with throwing knives. Cable kills the two assassins, though the girl tells them they are not killed quite so easily. The girl leads Cable through the tunnels, eventually bringing them beneath Cypress Hills. Cable is attacked by two giant hands that come up from the ground, belonging to a "guardian" that Cable swiftly kills. Cable shoots the ceiling with his rifle, hoping to blow a way to the surface. This results in Dan seeing an explosion in the cemetery, followed by the girl's screams. Danny touches the gas cap of his motorcycle, transforming him into Ghost Rider. The Rider descends into the tunnel, where he finds the girl being carried away by the Grateful Undead and Cable pinned to the wall by a net. Cable tells Ghost Rider to cut him down because they're about to be attacked.
Having entered the tunnels beneath Cypress Hills Cemetery, Ghost Rider finds Cable trapped to the cave wall and the young girl being dragged away by the Grateful Undead. Ghost Rider frees Cable, and the two heroes are splattered with the girl's blood, thrown by the Undead as a warning for them to stay away. The two men follow the Undead to a huge cavern, where the mysterious underground group have set up an ambush. Using rocket launchers from the cliffs above, they herd Ghost Rider and Cable to a nearby wooden bridge. When Ghost Rider's motorcycle crosses the bridge, it collapses, sending both of them down into the chasm below.
Having fallen from a collapsed bridge, Ghost Rider and Cable are plummeting into a deep chasm. After reaching his falling motorcycle, Ghost Rider uses his chain to form a bridge, allowing he and Cable to cross into a tunnel in the cavern wall. Ghost Rider retrieves his chain and the two heroes make their way through the tunnel to a cathedral with skeletal remains covering the floor. They sense something moving in the remains beneath them, but see nothing. Cable asks Ghost Rider if he serves the dead since he's a Spirit of Vengeance, but they are interrupted by a priest of the Grateful Undead, who calls them blasphemers. The priest's acolytes emerge and engage the heroes in a brief battle. When Ghost Rider and Cable win the fight, the priest calls upon his god that lives beneath the bones to drag them under and claim them as food.
Ghost Rider and Cable have been pulled beneath the lake of bones in the Grateful Undead's cathedral. The priests then throw the young girl that the heroes had been attempting to rescue in with them, all of them pulled under into a murky mire by large tentacles. Ghost Rider and Cable both free themselves from the tentacles and, working together, are able to free the girl as well. The three burst out of the lake of bones on Ghost Rider's motorcycle and ride out of the cathedral, toward the surface. When the priest orders his men to follow them, he finds all of them struck dead by the Warriors of the Dead, another sect of the Grateful Undead. Angered that the priest's actions may have killed their god, the leader of the Warriors of the Dead kills the priest and vows to track down the surface dwellers to slay.
A grave robber witnesses Ghost Rider, Cable, and the girl they've rescued emerge from beneath Cypress Hills Cemetery. After they've left, the grave robber is then killed by the Warriors of the Dead. In an abandoned warehouse in Brooklyn, Ghost Rider and Cable have brought the girl, who wakes up and attempts to run away. Cable convinces her to tell them about the Grateful Undead, who she explains are assassins well-versed in the mystic and warrior arts, at war with countless other subterranean races. She remembers being taken to a sacrificial place, but cannot remember her own name. She realizes that they are flesh eaters, they eat the dead. As she finishes her story, the three realize that the Warriors of the Dead have followed them and are about to attack.
Ghost Rider, Cable, and the girl they rescued are preparing to fight the Warriors of the Dead, who have tracked them to an abandoned warehouse. They find and kill one of the assassins, but the other Warriors use what Cable calls "ninja tricks" to evade their attack. The leader of the Warriors explain that it was they who brought the warrior arts to China centuries ago, then states that they are there to collect the girl, who was to be the bride of their god who dwells beneath the Cathedral of the Dead. Calling Ghost Rider and Cable valiant warriors, they ask only to take the girl and leave without a fight. Ghost Rider and Cable both refuse to allow the girl to be taken, and the head Warrior again states that he does not wish to kill them over a mistake as they attempt to protect one who is already dead. To prove it, the warriors throw knives into the girl, killing her, while Ghost Rider and Cable fight their way through the Warriors. The battle stops when the girl gets up with energy, not blood, leaking from the wounds in her chest, asking why she isn't dead.
The girl rescued by Ghost Rider and Cable has been revealed to actually be dead, having been stabbed by the Warriors of the Dead, her wounds leaking energy instead of blood. When the Grateful Undead's leader tells her that only they can help her, she fights back and refuses to go. Ghost Rider and Cable intervene on the girl's behalf, putting the fight at a stalemate. The head Warrior explains that the girl is no longer a living human being, instead she is a nameless shell reanimated by their priests during an ancient ritual, and all the memories of their race were placed inside her mind. Realizing that the Warrior speaks the truth, the girl goes into a rage and attacks him and her two protectors. She again refuses to go, but breaks down into tears when the Warrior tells her that she has no choice. Cable protests for her again, saying they will make sure she gets a choice. Then the room is engulfed with bright light and the floor gives way, with the Warrior stating that "all choice has been taken out of our hands...now our lives are in the hands of my god". Ghost Rider, Cable, the girl, and the Warriors of the Dead are brought back to the Cathedral of the Dead far underground. When they land, the all of the Warriors except for the bowing leader are sucked under the ground, and the skeletons around them form themselves into the shape of a man.
In the Grateful Undead's Cathedral of the Dead far beneath Cypress Hills Cemetery, the underground race's god has formed a body from the multitude of skeletons on the ground. Ghost Rider immediately attacks the god, saying that the girl they rescued will live. As he advances toward the girl, the Undead god tosses Ghost Rider aside and shrugs off Cable's gunshots. When the sole remaining Warrior of the Dead attempts to intervene, Ghost Rider punches him and Cable holds him at gunpoint. Ghost Rider punches his fist through the god's chest, but that does nothing to stop him. The god claims that the girl is one of the dead and is to be his bride. Ghost Rider attacks again, causing a hairline fracture in the god's skull, which Cable exploits with a bullet to the head. This reveals the god to be a human man, who stops the fight and wishes to understand why the heroes are attempting to prevent him from paying homage to the dead. He calls forth the Warrior of the Dead and reads his mind, but is shocked and angry over what he learns. He was once a necromancer who worshipped the dead; he came underground to live amongst the dead and became like a god to a race of people who lived there. Unbeknownst to him, his followers have become assassins, misunderstanding what he attempted to teach them. He tells Ghost Rider and Cable to leave him to his people, and when they ask about the girl the god tells her that her fate is her own. She chooses to die, prompting Ghost Rider and Cable to escape the Cathedral on Ghost Rider's motorcycle. They emerge on the surface in Cypress Hills Cemetery. They depart as allies, aware that no one witnessed their conversation or heroics...no one but the dead.
ANNOTATIONS
This special edition comic reprints the entire "Servants of the Dead" serial from Marvel Comics Presents (1988) # 90-97.
All creator credits and chapter titles have been removed from the reprinted pages.
All creator credits and chapter titles have been removed from the reprinted pages.
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