Cover Date: August 1993; On Sale Date: June 1993
Writer: Howard Mackie; Artist: Ron Garney; Inker: Chris Ivy; Letterer: Janice Chiang; Colorist: Gregory Wright; Editor: Bobbie Chase; Editor In Chief: Tom DeFalco; Cover Artist: Ron Garney
Blade, now powered by a page of the Darkhold, kills and absorbs the power of a healer in the Bronx. Meanwhile, Demogoblin chases a small-time sorcerer in his own quest to destroy all other demons. The sorcerer shows him an image of Blade, who Demogoblin recognizes as the Demogorge, in hopes of saving his own life. Demogoblin decides to recruit Blade to his cause and kills the sorcerer anyway. Ghost Rider and Frank Drake, on the trail of Blade from Boston, discover Demogoblin, who flees to find Blade himself.
Elsewhere in the city, Blade arrives at a nightclub after sensing a powerful supernatural force inside. He targets a young girl dancing in the club, but is interrupted by Demogoblin, who proposes an alliance between them. Ghost Rider and Drake arrive and attack Blade, but Demogoblin grabs both Blade and the girl, escaping with them to the top of the one of the World Trade Center towers. Ghost Rider follows on his motorcycle and saves the girl from being killed. When Demogoblin grabs Ghost Rider from behind, Blade runs his sword through them both, killing Demogoblin. The girl teleports away, mentioning that Caretaker was right, and it is time for the Blood to gather. Blade absorbs Demogoblin’s power and incapacitates Ghost Rider, nearly killing him with Blaze’s hellfire shotgun before Drake arrives and traps Blade in a stasis field. Ghost Rider barely escapes with his life, on his way to find the Darkhold Redeemers for assistance against Blade.
THE ROADMAP
This is the second chapter of the "Midnight Massacre" crossover, continuing from Nightstalkers (1992) # 10 and continuing into Darkhold: Pages From the Book of Sins (1992) # 11.
Ghost Rider last encountered Demogoblin during the "Spirits of Venom" crossover in Ghost Rider/Blaze: Spirits of Vengeance (1992) # 5-6.
CHAIN REACTION
“Midnight Massacre” rolls on with a slightly less impressive body count. I mean, does anyone really care about Demogoblin other than Howard Mackie?
I suppose Mackie’s hands were kind of tied for this issue, since he can’t really kill off the main character when he still has a second ongoing title serving as the conclusion to the crossover. In reality, it makes this chapter lose the punch that Nightstalkers had the week before, where it felt like literally anything could happen, and no character was safe. Perhaps if Frank Drake had been offered up as the sacrificial lamb it might have resonated more, but then the rest of the story would have lacked that connection that Blade needs with his Nightstalkers teammates. Demogoblin was trotted out as the victim of the piece, and while it does help mark this as a typical issue of Ghost Rider, it doesn’t really add anything to the story.
It is a little refreshing to find a Ghost Rider crossover where Ghost Rider himself isn’t the driving force. This is a storyline spun out of Nightstalkers and Darkhold, so having Ghost Rider come in as the heavy hitter playing catch-up really works. It also cements [157] Blade (or “Switchblade”, as he’s called now) as a really dangerous opponent who only gets stronger as he goes. Had Ghost Rider been there before King and Blaze died, I doubt it would have been much of a fight, right? That’s probably why Blaze was one of the first victims, to give Blade that edge (no pun intended) he needed against the vastly more powerful Ghost Rider.
Ron Garney is at home here, seemingly unable to escape the Nightstalkers even after leaving their title. His work here doesn’t look as good when paired with Chris Ivy instead of Tom Palmer, but it gives the chapter a nice change of gears into action-movie territory after the moody horrorfest of Kirk Van Wormer over in Nightstalkers. The Ghost Rider title has that supply of testosterone its desperately needed since Mark Texeira left the series.
Honestly, this chapter of “Midnight Massacre” doesn’t amount to much other than showing how Ghost Rider isn’t going to be the salvation figure of the story. It’s perfectly solid, just not much meat on the bones.
No comments:
Post a Comment