Cover Date: November 1995; Publication Date: September 1995
In New York City, a pair of police officers are attacked by alien Brood warriors, who quickly transform the officers into more Brood soldiers. The Brood have been tasked by their queen to find the two individuals responsible for destroying the hive in New Orleans, namely Gambit and Ghost Rider. Meanwhile, in Cypress Hills Cemetery, Dan Ketch transforms into Ghost Rider and meets with his new informant, the mysterious Deep Throat. Even though he refuses to divulge his true identity, Deep Throat offers to help Ghost Rider with information, specifically on the criminal enterprises of Anton Hellgate.
Later, when Ghost Rider leaves the cemetery, he is unaware that he is being followed by the two Brood disguised as police. That evening, Dan is relaxing with his girlfriend Paula, when her stalker ex-boyfriend starts calling her phone again. Instead of talking about the situation with Dan, Paula ignores it and asks to go out on a walk. On the street outside, the disguised Brood recognize Dan and plan to strike while he is defenseless. Meanwhile, on a road leading into the city, Gambit is attacked by more Brood, who wish to assimilate him into their ranks.
While on their walk in the city, Dan and Paula coincidentally run into Stacy Dolan and her team leader Ski, who are out on a date. When they hear screams coming from a nearby alley, Stacy and Ski go to investigate and find themselves ambushed by the Brood. Dan follows and transforms into Ghost Rider, who attacks the Brood. At the same time, Gambit finishes his battle with the Brood and makes his way toward the city to find Ghost Rider. When Ghost Rider attempts to kill one of the Brood, he witnesses the alien revert back to his human host's form, and is unsure whether he should kill the alien if the host still survives after their transformation. Another Brood in human form attempts to convince Ghost Rider to kill her comrade, but Ghost Rider refuses. Stacy fires a bullet at one of the Brood and Ghost Rider pins the two aliens to a wall with his chain. They explain that their queen will soon rule the city, but Gambit arrives and asks Ghost Rider if he's prepared to go hunting with him for the remaining Brood.
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| Police Brood-tality? |
THE ROADMAP
Danny began dating Paula Harris in Ghost Rider (1990) # 58. The subplot with the stalker ex-boyfriend will be resolved in Ghost Rider (1990) # 69.
Ghost Rider fought the Brood alongside the X-Men during the "Brood Time in the Big Easy" crossover that spanned Ghost Rider (1990) # 26-27 and X-Men (1991) # 8-9.
CHAIN REACTION
The Brood return for a belated sequel to the original Ghost Rider/X-Men crossover, providing diminishing returns on what was a novel idea.
Mackie had a knack during his run on Ghost Rider for taking villains from other titles and adapting them into the street-level horror motif, it was a solid track record. Scarecrow and Mr. Hyde both fared incredibly well as Ghost Rider villains, and you can see where the thought was for bringing in the Brood from the pages of the X-Men. They're extremely horrific creatures that immediately invoke comparison with the Xenomorphs from the Alien franchise, and the opportunity to do genuine body horror stories with them is ripe for exploitation. The original Brood story that crossed over between the two franchises was not the greatest, but it had the good fortune of coming out right at the height of popularity for Ghost Rider and the X-Men.
Fast forward about four years and the comic industry is on its knees, Marvel is facing bankruptcy in the future, and Ghost Rider was not the sales juggernaut it had been in 1992. Howard Mackie was also on his way out the door on this title, though whether that decision had been made at this point is unknown, so I can see the appeal of calling back to that original Brood story to try and goose sales and provide a bit of closure to what some readers might have considered a dangling plot thread. Unfortunately, this sequel doesn't enjoy the benefit of an actual crossover with any of the X-Men titles, and has to make due with just a Gambit guest-appearance. It makes the story in this issue feel, I don't know, maybe a little cheap? For all I know it was just a case of Mackie wanting to have fun with the Brood some more before he stepped away.
The Brood also don't really get used to their full potential in this issue. I've always been a big fan of those original Chris Claremont space opera stories with the Brood in the 1980s, and I don't think Mackie quite gets the concept. His Brood don't have the qualities that made those stories so horrific in the first place, the fact that they don't just kill and replace you, they infect you with their offspring and you disappear, becoming one of the aliens with nothing left of your original personality. The way the Brood operate in this comic is more like the Dire Wraiths from the old ROM Spaceknight series, who actually did kill humans and assume their forms in much the same way as the Brood in this issue.
And then you have artist Salvador Larroca, who would seemingly be right at home with the science fiction aspects of a Brood story but doesn't actually get to draw anything but a few alien monsters. Mackie grounds the story in as realistic a setting as he can, and there's nothing wrong with that approach, but it doesn't really give Larroca a whole lot to sink his teeth into. I did like the bit with the Brood girl whispering in Ghost Rider's ear to commit murder, that sequence was handled well by the creative team. Larroca does still draw a great Ghost Rider, though, and his action scenes continue to be dynamic and exciting.
I wasn't really excited to read another Brood story in this series, but this comic wasn't bad. A bit bland, maybe, but still technically a solid comic.
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| Creature feature! |
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