Ghost Rider (1990) # 23

"Death Drive"

Cover Date: March 1992; On Dale Date: January 1992

Writer: Howard Mackie; Artist: Mark Texeira; Letterer: Janice Chiang; Colorist: Gregory Wright; Editor: Bobbie Chase; Editor In Chief: Tom DeFalco; Cover Artist: Mark Texeira

Linda Wei reports on the collapse of Deathwatch’s building in Midtown, blaming the destruction on a “Ghost Rider rampage”. Ghost Rider himself is trapped in the rubble beneath the building along with scores of people that were in the basement homeless shelter. While Ghost Rider digs his way through, tormented by the screams of the injured people, Deathwatch revels in the ecstasy all the death has given him. He is joined by two aides, Hag and Troll, to help him clean up the last bits of his organization before leaving the country. 

Deathwatch, Hag, and Troll infiltrate the 75th police precinct, where Michael Badilino is interrogating the ninjas captured during a fight with Ghost Rider. The lights go out and Badilino orders his men to wear night-vision goggles and head to the cells, where they find all of Deathwatch’s men being brutally killed. Badilino manages to hit Deathwatch in the shoulder with his pistol, which prompts the villains to leave, their task completed. 

Back at the destroyed building, Ghost Rider locates the homeless shelter and the people trapped within. His motorcycle arrives and he uses it to clear a path through the rubble to which they can all escape. When Ghost Rider emerges, he’s surrounded by police, but they are stopped from arresting him by the escaping people, who all praise Ghost Rider for rescuing them. Linda Wei attempts to cut the broadcast, but her cameraman says the studio wants them to keep filming, that Ghost Rider might not be a bad guy after all. Just before they board a plane to leave the country, Deathwatch gets news that Ghost Rider survived and tells Hag and Troll that he may have a connection to their “old friend Zarathos”. Ghost Rider goes to the hospital where Snowblind is being held and demands the critically injured villain give him information on Deathwatch, and that he will break his vow to never take a human life. Snowblind informs him that Deathwatch isn’t human

A good showing for Badilino!

THE ROADMAP

Deathwatch first appeared in Ghost Rider (1990) # 1 and had his last encounter with Ghost Rider in Marvel Comics Presents (1988) # 71.  However, he has been behind the scenes in several issues, having employed Blackout, H.E.A.R.T., and Snowblind; he set up the latter to be taken down by Ghost Rider in Ghost Rider (1990) # 21.

Linda Wei began her media campaign against Ghost Rider in Ghost Rider (1990) # 5 and it was revealed in Ghost Rider (1990) # 13 that she was working for Deathwatch.

Hag and Troll's connection to Deathwatch is explained in Ghost Rider/Blaze: Spirits of Vengeance (1992) # 6.

CHAIN REACTION

Deathwatch gets a much-needed spotlight while Ghost Rider gets introspective in this tense issue from Mackie and Texeira. 

More than any other before or after it, I think this issue is the definitive mission statement for Howard Mackie’s characterization for Ghost Rider. While it lacks some of the action sequences and motorcycle scenes that were the book’s hallmark, this one has such a clear-cut line in the sand drawn between the Ghost Rider, whose horrific appearance makes every fear him, and Deathwatch, who is unapologetically evil while maintaining the façade of an erudite gentleman of business. Both characters are defined so well through the course of this issue that it’s almost a masterclass in juxtaposition. Ghost Rider digs his way through a collapsed building, haunted by the dead bodies around him and driven to rescue the innocents still trapped; Deathwatch, on the other hand, spends the issue killing his own underlings, raiding a police station, and being every bit the elite upper-class monster. 

It was this issue that really cemented Deathwatch as a great villain, before this he was just the background manipulator who would appear at the end of an issue on the other side of a phone call, brandishing a wicked grin. While he started out on similar ground as the title’s other chief antagonist, Blackout, the differences between the two grew more pronounced as time went on. Blackout was a serial killer and Deathwatch, as of this issue anyway, was a mass murderer on a much larger scale. Everything about him is scaled up in this issue, from his new sidekicks Hag & Troll to his brief confrontation with Badilino in the jail, Deathwatch is given a consideration by the writer that had been lacking in the lesser villains dispatched in issues previous, such as Snowblind and Zodiak. 

There are also the constant manipulations going on around Ghost Rider that he’s not even aware of, such as Linda Wei’s insistent attempts to paint him as a villain in the media. Readers have long known that Wei was working a smear campaign because she’s in Deathwatch’s employment, and her comeuppance at the end of this issue is deserved but blunted by the fact that she gets off with little more than a finger wag by her cameraman. Granted, she does get brutally murdered by Blackout about thirty issues down the road, but still. Man, I hate me some Linda Wei. 

Mark Texeira’s artwork is phenomenal in this comic, once again proving that he’s one of the quintessential and definitive Ghost Rider artists. His character work is outstanding, as he’s able to show a range of emotions in the face of a character that has nothing but a skull to work with. He does a fantastic job staging the raid on the police precinct, particularly the panels that are drawn from the perspective of Michael Badilino’s night vision goggles. The only complaint, really, is that at no point does it look like Ghost Rider is trapped beneath a buried building, other than the opening splash page. He’s shown crawling around on rubble a lot, but more like he’s in a cave than anything else. It’s a small quibble with what is otherwise a fantastically illustrated comic. 

The Deathwatch arc has so far been one of the best of the book’s second year and seems to be building to an appropriately dramatic finale.

Awkward hugs!