Cover Date: March 1993; On Sale Date: January 1993
Writer: Howard Mackie; Artist: Bret Blevins; Inker: Al Williamson; Letterer: Janice Chiang; Colorist: Gregory Wright; Editor: Bobbie Chase; Editor in Chief: Tom DeFalco; Cover Artist: Bret Blevins
NYPD Lieutenant Michael Badilino sits in his darkened apartment, dwelling over his obsession with capturing the Ghost Rider. He’s suddenly attacked by a group of armed soldiers, led by a woman with cybernetic enhancements named Heart Attack., who desires all he knows about Ghost Rider. Badilino receives a phone call telling him that Ghost Rider is engaged in a battle in Greenwich Village. Badilino uses the distraction to escape from Heart Attack, vowing revenge on her as he watches from the roof of his apartment building.
Ghost Rider is fighting Death Ninja in the streets and has become increasingly frustrated at his inability to hurt or kill his enemy. Death Ninja is grabbed by Suicide, who has decided he still wants to die and believes that only Ghost Rider can kill him. Ghost Rider leaves the scene, not willing to play the game, prompting Death Ninja to turn his swords on Suicide. Ghost Rider goes to a nearby alley and transforms back into Dan Ketch, his transformation nearly caught on camera by a girl named Adrienne who wandered into the alley. Caretaker arrives and tells the girl to leave, warning Dan that she almost caught him on camera. Caretaker tells Dan that he needs to save Suicide from Death Ninja, that he may need Suicide in the future.
Death Ninja is stabbing Suicide over and over, prompting Dan to transform back into Ghost Rider to save him. Heart Attack arrives and joins the battle, easily defeating both Ghost Rider and Death Ninja. She reveals herself to be Tyler Meagher, who blames Ghost Rider for the death of her friends in H.E.A.R.T. Badilino arrives with a former A.I.M. scientist named Myron, who has developed an energy weapon that Badilino forces him to use against Ghost Rider. Heart Attack escapes, but the rest of the combatants are caught in the weapon’s blast. Badilino finds Suicide’s skeleton and believes it to be Ghost Rider’s, but he’s hit in the face with Caretaker’s shovel before he can confirm. Caretaker digs Ghost Rider out of the rubble and takes both him and Suicide away to try and work out some answers to what’s been happening.
THE ROADMAP
The Death Ninja was killed by the Ghost Rider while posing as one of Deathwatch's men in Ghost Rider (1990) # 3.
Tyler Meagher, Heart Attack, first appeared in Ghost Rider (1990) # 8. Her team, H.E.A.R.T., were all killed by agents of the Firm in Ghost Rider (1990) # 33.
Suicide last appeared in Ghost Rider (1990) # 20.
Lt. Badilino last appeared in Ghost Rider (1990) # 28 and appears next in Ghost Rider/Blaze: Spirits of Vengeance (1992) # 9.
CHAIN REACTION
Ghost Rider hits the kitchen sink issue of the series with four villains crammed into 22 pages. Unfortunately, it’s a bit of a mess.
Mackie and company had been able to make this type of crowded chaos of characters work to great efficiency during “Spirits of Venom”, which took multiple points of view and character interactions and balanced everything with a near flawless craft. This issue of Ghost Rider, though, tries and fails to do the same thing without allowing the space it [131] needed to breathe. Had this been extended out to two or three issues, with each villain allowed moments to shine, it probably would have worked. As it stands, though, it’s just overpopulated with characters that ultimately push Ghost Rider to the side in his own comic.
The villain selection is interesting on its own merits. Death Ninja is a welcome carry over from the previous issue, while Heart Attack’s introduction is a natural progression of the Firm plot that had been simmering in the background for several months. Even Badilino’s return is a nice touch, showing that he’s starting to become much more than the Punisher clone he debuted as. Suicide, though, is the one that I can’t imagine any reader was looking forward to seeing again, and its his inclusion that feels the most forced. Suicide is awful on ever level, from concept to personality to design, and Mackie’s attempt to give him a greater level of importance through the dialogue is disappointing.
It’s also becoming very obvious that Bret Blevins was miscast as the artist on this series. His bright, animation style of art clashes with the characters, and even the darkness that made the previous Death Ninja issue look so great has been abandoned. I’m not the biggest hater on Blevins, I think he’s an incredible artist on the right projects with the right collaborators, but he’s just not clicking here. Heart Attack, the big debut character of the month, comes across as something out of the Power Rangers, and lacks any kind of menace her character should hopefully convey.
This period in the title’s history reads like Mackie is just throwing everything against the wall that he can think of, hoping that some of it will stick. It’s not working and in fact only serves to make the series hopelessly dense and off-putting.
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