Cloak and Dagger (1988) # 18

"The Heat is On..."

Cover Date: June 1991
On Sale Date: April 1991

Writer: Terry Kavanaugh
Artist: Dave Ross
Inker: Sam DeLarosa
Letterers: Brad K. Joyce
Colorist: Nel Yomtov
Editor: Danny Fingeroth
Editor-in-Chief: Tom DeFalco

Cover Artist: Dave Ross

Cloak, Dagger, Spider-Man, and a girl named Anna have been brought to Mephisto's dimension as part of his plot to open a doorway between Hell and Earth for his demon army.  Ghost Rider arrives, having traveled through a dimensional doorway on Earth, and Mephisto explains his plot to the heroes before the demons begin to swarm over them.  Mephisto is distracted by events elsewhere and teleports way to meet with Thanos, leaving his demons to subdue the heroes.  Ghost Rider places Anna on his motorcycle, which rides her through a portal and back to Earth, and he then turns his attention toward the demons, joining Spider-Man, Cloak, and Dagger in their fight.  When Mephisto returns he assumes a giant size and swallows Cloak and Dagger whole, while Ghost Rider rides out of Hell with Spider-Man on the back of his bike.  They manage to reach Earth, but Cloak and Dagger are spat out by Mephisto and transported somewhere else entirely.

He's taking his title a bit literally.

THE ROADMAP

Ghost Rider last appeared in Ghost Rider (1990) # 18 and appears next in Quasar (1989) # 22-24.

Ghost Rider will encounter Cloak and Dagger again in Marvel Comics Presents (1988) # 119-122.

Spider-Man has teamed up with Ghost Rider multiple times, most recently in Ghost Rider (1990) # 17.

Ghost Rider will next encounter Mephisto in Ghost Rider/Wolverine/Punisher: Hearts of Darkness.

This issue of Cloak and Dagger is a tie-in to the "Infinity Gauntlet" crossover event.

CHAIN REACTION

Ghost Rider and Spider-Man make guest-appearances for seemingly no reason in this "Infinity Gauntlet" tie-in issue of Cloak and Dagger.

For those who may not know, Infinity Gauntlet was an event series that Marvel released in 1991 by Jim Starlin, George Perez, and Ron Lim that told the story of Thanos creating the titular Infinity Gauntlet.  Unlike other past events, such as "Acts of Vengeance" and "Inferno", Marvel did not force every comic in the line to produce tie-in issues and instead left that choice up to the creative teams.  From what I understand, most creators opted out of tie-ins because they thought the event would be unsuccessful, which looking back in hindsight was a pretty foolish notion.  This choice likely explains why Ghost Rider didn't tie into the event, though to be fair the Ghost Rider series didn't do many crossovers in its first two years, especially not line-wide ones.  This comic, at least, explains where Ghost Rider was and what he was doing during the "Infinity Gauntlet" event if anyone was wondering.

I'm talking a lot about the "Infinity Gauntlet" story because honestly, this issue of Cloak and Dagger is almost review-proof.  It features both Spider-Man and Ghost Rider for reasons I can't explain, they just happen to be there without much explanation (though again to be fair, that's how a lot of early 90s Ghost Rider appearances play out).  Mephisto does an awful lot of exposition in the first few pages that apparently recap an entire year's worth of Cloak and Dagger issues while still not giving much context for what's happening.  There's lots of demon fighting, and writer Terry Kavanaugh at least gives enough variation to the fight scenes to keep them from being too repetitive.  They just take up way too much space without much in the way of stakes.  The heroes don't actually beat Mephisto, Ghost Rider turns tail and runs away with a kicking and screaming Spider-Man behind him, and there's lots of Cloak and Dagger plot stuff that I didn't follow at all.  Oh, and that Infinity Gauntlet tie-in gets justified by a one page cameo appearance by Thanos.

The artwork at least looks nice, though Dave Ross' visuals for Hell don't leave much to the imagination.  It's stereotypical comic book Hell, complete with cave ceilings and random fires burning in the background, all kind of trite and boring.  Ross draws a good Ghost Rider, though, and his action scenes have a nice flow to them.  It's all just uninspired, maybe due to the book heading for cancellation with its next issue?

This is one of those totally inconsequential Ghost Rider guest appearances that can easily be skipped over, especially since there's nothing of real note or worth to engage with. 

"Silence Spider-Man!  We are not in next month's issue!"