Cover Date: July 1992; On Sale Date: May 1992
Writer: Howard Mackie; Artist: Ron Wagner; Inker: Mike Witherby; Letterer: Janice Chiang; Colorist: Gregory Wright; Editor: Bobbie Chase; Editor in Chief: Tom DeFalco; Cover Artist: Jim Lee
Ghost Rider and the X-Men descend deeper into the tunnels beneath New Orleans, hunting for the Brood Queen and the children of the Thieves and Assassins Guilds that are being held captive by the aliens. They find the children affixed to the cavern wall and the X-Men get to work freeing them before the Brood discover their presence. Ghost Rider and Gambit break away from the group to search for the Brood Queen, with Wolverine following behind to join them. Ghost Rider feels Dan Ketch’s presence inside his mind and realizes that his human host still lives, just before the three heroes are surrounded by the Brood. Elsewhere in New Orleans, John Blaze is told by the Quentin Carnival psychic, Clara, that Ghost Rider is in the French Quarter looking for him.
Back in the tunnels, the traitor of the Assassins Guild confronts Ghost Rider, Gambit, and Wolverine, bragging about all the Thieves he has killed. The other X-Men are attacked by a second group of Brood while the children are being rescued, but all the Brood are eventually killed. The traitor assassin escapes when the Brood Queen arrives and attacks the X-Men, but she is dragged to the surface by Ghost Rider using his chain and motorcycle. The queen tries to tempt Ghost Rider with the power he felt while possessed by the Brood, but he responds by ripping all the skin off her alien body. This doesn’t kill the queen, who again attacks Ghost Rider and the X-Men. Blaze arrives and blasts the queen with his hellfire shotgun, followed by the X-Men destroying her body completely. Later, Ghost Rider and Blaze depart from the X-Men, while the assassin watches from a nearby rooftop, vowing vengeance on Gambit and Ghost Rider.
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| Serious business... |
THE ROADMAP
Ghost Rider has come to New Orleans seeking out John Blaze, who was last seen with the Quentin Carnival in Ghost Rider (1990) # 25.
This is the second part of a crossover that continues from X-Men (1991) # 9. Following their encounter in this issue, Wolverine and Beast will track down Ghost Rider to assist him again in Ghost Rider (1990) # 29.
Ghost Rider, along with Wolverine and Gambit, will face the Brood again in Ghost Rider (1990) # 67-68.
CHAIN REACTION
Well, Ghost Rider rips the skin off a Brood Queen and turns it inside out, that’s something I didn’t expect to see in this comic.
I think this issue has Howard Mackie suffering from the same trouble that plagued the X-Men creative team in the previous chapter of the crossover, the two titles just don’t mesh well tonally, and it causes characters to get sidelined. Ghost Rider is rightly the main character in this issue, given that it's his title, but it’s a stark contrast to him being used as a subservient slave to the villains in the last chapter. The X-Men take the backseat, with only Gambit and Wolverine stepping up to take any kind of prominent role. Cyclops, Rogue, and the rest might as well not even be in this comic for all that they have to do, and Mackie takes great pains to separate them out from the “cool” characters.
It’s no shock that Ghost Rider, Wolverine, and Gambit break off on their own to kill a bunch of Brood, but the story still struggles with justifying this title’s role in the story. Ghost Rider has no real reason to be there, and only at the very end does his ongoing story creep back into the narrative. John Blaze shows up to lend a hellfire shotgun blast to the Brood Queen, while the X-Men stand around in the background in various states of disgust. Blaze must show up at the end to set up the next crossover event, but it ultimately makes the X-Men’s role superfluous during the final battle with the Brood Queen.
Mackie is also much more heavily invested in the workings of the Assassins and Thieves Guilds because his chapters are the only ones to feature the traitor Assassin working as the Brood’s agent. His identity is left unrevealed in a highly unsatisfying manner because, despite him vowing revenge on Ghost Rider, the character’s story moves completely over to Mackie’s upcoming Gambit limited series. Ghost Rider readers are left with the impression that the inciting villain of the story is just a nameless guy with a creepy smile. I think he’s actually Bella Donna’s brother that Gambit “killed” when he was in the Thieves Guild? My Gambit knowledge is less than extensive.
Wagner and Witherby do a fairly great job on the artwork this issue, their last before moving over to the Morbius series launching as part of “Rise of the Midnight Sons”. While not as stylized as some of his contemporaries, Wagner has a good handle on both Ghost Rider as a character and the atmosphere his title needs. The book looks dark and scary, which is a big shift away from the bright colors and flashy action poses of Jim Lee’s chapter of this story. He does make a sufficient bridge artist for the X-Men characters, though, who certainly would have looked garishly out of place if Texeira had still been the artist on the series.
Overall, this crossover is one that reads like the sales department cooked up to move units of two hot titles. Ghost Rider and X-Men really had no reason being paired together for a story and the result is middling at best.
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| Ewwww! |
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