Midnight Sons Unlimited (1993) # 4

“Siege of Darkness, Part 17: Moral Courage”

Cover Date: January 1994; On Sale Date: November 1993

Writer: D. G. Chichester; Artist: John Hixson & John Bridges; Inker: Bill Anderson, Rich Rankin, & Scott Koblish; Letterer: Gail Beckett; Colorist: Mike Worley; Editor: Evan Skolnick; Group Editor: Bobbie Chase; Editor In Chief: Tom DeFalco; Cover Artist: Tristan Shane

At Glastonbury Tor in England, the remaining Midnight Sons face Zarathos and the Fallen in battle. The fight goes poorly for the heroes until Strange reanimates a legion of dead warriors to aid them. During the battle, the Caretaker notices red dagger designs burning on his allies’ arms. Zarathos feels pain when the Fallen Metarchus is injured, causing the demon to teleport himself and his followers away. The Midnight Sons return to the Nightclub and speak with Embyrre, one of the Fallen who turned away from Zarathos when she was ordered to kill her father, the Blood named Raydar. Caretaker learns that another member of the Blood named Foundry is still alive and may know how to stop Zarathos.

The Midnight Sons locate Foundry in a South American jungle and learn that the Fallen are being used as batteries of negative energy by Zarathos. Foundry created a sword, called Justiciar, that can kill the Fallen, but first it must be tempered with the death of a member of the Blood. The Fallen arrive and the heroes come up with a plan; Strange, Blaze, and Vengeance teleport to face Zarathos while the rest kill the Fallen. Blade is forced to kill Foundry to activate Justiciar and uses the sword to kill the three Fallen.

In Tibet, Zarathos feels pain coming from deep inside himself. Thinking he is weakened, the Midnight Sons attack, but are quickly defeated. Morbius realizes that Zarathos is still drawing energy from Embyrre and goes to the Nightclub to kill her as well. Raydar teleports to Tibet and is killed by Zarathos, followed quickly by Embyrre, who destroys herself to deprive Zarathos of energy. Aided by the spirit of Ghost Rider attacking Zarathos from within, the Midnight Sons overpower the demon and stab him with Justiciar, which transforms him into stone.

Later, the Midnight Sons place the stone prison of Zarathos stop a mausoleum in Cypress Hills Cemetery, as a warning to others who try and cross them. Inside the mausoleum, the Caretaker leads them in a ritual that marks them all with the dagger brand of the original Midnight Sons, banding them together when they are needed. Outside, Lilith appears in most around the stone Zarathos and tells him that she is pregnant with his demonic children.

The Midnight Sons locate Foundry in a South American jungle and learn that the Fallen are being used as batteries of negative energy by Zarathos. Foundry created a sword, called Justiciar, that can kill the Fallen, but first it must be tempered with the death of a member of the Blood. The Fallen arrive and the heroes come up with a plan; Strange, Blaze, and Vengeance teleport to face Zarathos while the rest kill the Fallen. Blade is forced to kill Foundry to activate Justiciar and uses the sword to kill the three Fallen.

In Tibet, Zarathos feels pain coming from deep inside himself. Thinking he is weakened, the Midnight Sons attack, but are quickly defeated. Morbius realizes that Zarathos is still drawing energy from Embyrre and goes to the Nightclub to kill her as well. Raydar teleports to Tibet and is killed by Zarathos, followed quickly by Embyrre, who destroys herself to deprive Zarathos of energy. Aided by the Ghost Rider attacking Zarathos from within, the Midnight Sons overpower the demon and stab him with Justiciar, which transforms him into stone.

Later, the Midnight Sons place the stone prison of Zarathos atop a mausoleum in Cypress Hills Cemetery, as a warning to others who try and cross them. Inside the mausoleum, the Caretaker leads them in a ritual that brands them all with the dagger mark of the original Midnight Sons, banding them together when they are needed. Outside, Lilith appears in mist around the stone Zarathos and tells him that she is pregnant with his demonic children.

THE ROADMAP

This is the conclusion to the "Siege of Darkness" crossover event, continuing from Ghost Rider/Blaze: Spirits of Vengeance (1992) # 18, which featured the death of the Ghost Rider at the hands of Zarathos.

Vengeance appears next as the "new" Ghost Rider in Ghost Rider (1990) # 46. John Blaze appears next in Ghost Rider/Blaze: Spirits of Vengeance (1992) # 19.

Zarathos is freed from his imprisonment and bonded again with John Blaze in Ghost Riders: Crossroads (1995) # 1. He will remain dormant in Blaze's body after that issue until once again re-emerging as the Ghost Rider in Ghost Rider (2001) # 1.

CHAIN REACTION

The “Siege of Darkness” finally comes to an end, promising a new beginning for the line that ultimately goes nowhere.

This crossover killed the Midnight Sons imprint and it’s a minor miracle that Ghost Rider didn’t get cancelled along with all of the other titles in the line. It was an ambitious ploy, sure, taking a group of related comics and giving them their own special corner at Marvel. I’m sure the people in charge saw it is their answer to DC Comics’ popular Vertigo line of mature reader horror comics. The tactic could have worked if not for the fact that they launched it with a 17 part crossover that only had a solid story for the first half of its length.

I think my biggest problem with this story is that it took what should have been a defining moment for the Ghost Rider series and diluted with a glut of other titles and swamped with an unnecessary fetch quest for 2/3 of the run time. The Blood, who started out as mildly interesting, were proven to be anything but, they might as well have been mutants or Eternals. The Medallion of Power was an inconsequential plot device, overly important until the moment it wasn’t. Most damning is how Ghost Rider and John Blaze were sidelined in a story that should have been all about them. I mean, Blade gets the killing blow! Blade! There’s no sense of resolution or catharsis there, when it should have been Blaze’s fight at the end. I could have forgiven and understood the Ghost Rider sacrifice in the previous chapter if it had pushed Blaze into the main protagonist role.

On its own merits as a comic, let alone the conclusion to such a long-running crossover, this just doesn’t work. D.G. Chichester has a job that’s not exactly enviable, especially considering he wasn’t even involved with the Midnight Sons line since his departure from Nightstalkers several months earlier. Using the extra-sized anthology title to give the finale more pages is a sound theory, there’s just not enough to fill those pages. I mean, Chichester fills every panel with text (so much text, people!), but it’s ultimately shouting into an empty abyss. The Fallen are less interesting, especially when the attempts to give them any type of characterization was a futile gesture. Zarathos continues to pale as the big bad that had been hyped up for so long, but he was just a straw man threat that had nothing unique about him. You could have slotted in any other demon name, and it wouldn’t have made a bit of difference. The nostalgic history they were trading on by using Zarathos was wasted, which was a shame.

The biggest red flag for this comic is the artwork. No disrespect meant to Hixson and Bridges, but they’re not exactly A-list artistic talents. They’re both artists early into their career, and while its great they were given such a huge break with this issue, they just aren’t ready for prime time and are a huge sign that Marvel editorial just didn’t care about this line of titles anymore. They tell the story sufficiently enough, there just isn’t much of a draw to their work.

“Siege of Darkness” wasn’t just a disappointment, it was the noose around the neck of the Midnight Sons imprint. Ghost Rider thankfully recovers after a short stumble, but that was surely just by the grace of its creative team. Thankfully, things do get much better from here.