Cover Date: May 1995; On Sale Date: March 1995
Writer: Larry Hama; Artist: Gary Erskine; Letterer: Bill Oakley/NJQ; Colorist: John Kalisz; Editor: Marie Javins; Editor in Chief: Bobbie Chase; Cover Artist: Gary Erskine
A vampire motorcycle gang, the Undead M.C., see a vision of John Blaze, who they plan to use to destroy a being they have chained inside a coffin. Leaving the coffin in the hands of the spider-woman, Shelob, the vampires head out to find Blaze. Meanwhile, while on the road with the Quentin Carnival, Clara uses the eyes of the Kristall-Starrer to show John a vision of his children traveling with the Wendigo in their hunt for Baal.
While they head toward Blaze, the leader of the vampire gang, Charnel, is run over by a passing motorist. He kills the motorist and leaves their body as a sign pointing toward Stark’s Pavilion. The carnival members stop when they see the body, with Blaze going inside the Pavilion alone. While he confronts Charnel inside the Pavilion, the carnival members are attacked by the other vampires. Meanwhile, the Punisher learns from a tortured informant that Charnel is a drug supplier and can be found at the Pavilion.
In another dimension, Wendigo and Blaze’s children prepare to kill Baal but stop when he tells them that their father is in danger. Back in New Jersey, Blaze blasts Charnel with hellfire and thinks he has defeated them, only for them to rise back up and attack him.
THE ROADMAP
John Blaze encountered the spider demon Shelob in Ghost Rider/Blaze: Spirits of Vengeance (1992) # 11.
Blaze's children, Craig and Emma, joined Jesse Pinto and the Wendigo to track down and kill Baal in Blaze (1994) # 6.
CHAIN REACTION
The series gains new artist Gary Erskine as it enters what will ultimately be the final story-arc.
I’ll be up front, I’m not a fan of this 3-part story. I feel like everything Hama and company had been working toward gets jettisoned in favor of vampires and angels, pushing to the background all that had been successful about the series to this point. I think a lot of that distaste comes from the vampires themselves, who come across as less than threatening and more like stooges. Charnel comes off as a solid villain, sure, but his crew of lackeys are more irritating than entertaining.
There’s also the fact that it’s a diversion from the book’s primary story engine, the search for Blaze’s children. I get that not every storyline can or should be centered around the kids, but this is too far a departure. Hama may have hung the series on weirdness and strange happenings, but without that narrative connecting tissue it just comes off as odd for odd’s sake.
The artwork unfortunately doesn’t help, as Gary Erskine struggles to adapt his style to the book’s tone. Judging by the art, Erskine thinks he’s retelling a version of the punk vampire film Near Dark, but Hama’s slapstick with the vampires plays at the opposite sense of style. Erskine doesn’t have much of a handle on the characters, established or otherwise, outside of Blaze himself. He seems to do well with the technical bits (the motorcycles, the shotgun, etc.), but his Quentin Carnival members are decidedly off-model.
For a series as compelling as this one has been over the last year, this issue can’t be held up as anything but a disappointing diversion. It’s too bad that this is what the series has to go out on in two issues’ time.
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