Cover Date: October 2023; On Sale Date: August 2023
Writer: Benjamin Percy; Artist: Geoff Shaw; Letterer: VC's Travis Lanham; Colorist: Rain Beredo; Editor: Darren Shan & Mark Basso; Editor in Chief: C.B. Cebulski; Cover Artist: Ryan Stegman
At a baseball game in Massachusetts, a mutant is killed inside a bathroom. Meanwhile, Johnny Blaze and Wolverine investigate a group of mutants that were murdered and fused into a grotesque statue of body parts. Later, disguised as forensic officers, Wolverine and Blaze look at the mutant killed at the baseball game, similarly mutilated into a form of horrific artwork. They take the body to Logan's contact in the CIA, Jeff Bannister, who confirms with tests that the victim was a mutant. Blaze gets Bannister to look up arcane symbology in his digital database, which nearly triggers his transformation into the Ghost Rider.
Years earlier, Wolverine attempted to kill Ghost Rider, believing him to be the demonic creature that attacked the X-Men and killed innocent motorists at a traffic accident. Ghost Rider persuaded Wolverine that he was not the culprit, but the true killer - the young boy named Bram - had already disappeared, leaving the trail cold.
In the present day, Logan and Blaze arrive at Bram's former orphanage in New York to get information on the "orphan murders" from years ago. Blaze is guided by the Spirit of Vengeance to unlock a chained door, where he finds a child that has been tortured by the orphanage's director. Blaze transforms into the Ghost Rider, who uses the Penance Stare on the director and gains information on Bram and the government agency that had been there a week before asking questions. The Rider shares the information with Wolverine psychically and the two realize that the government agency is working out of Hell's Backbone in Utah, which is the new home of Project Hellfire.
THE ROADMAP
This is Legacy # 260 of the ongoing Ghost Rider series.
This story continues from Ghost Rider/Wolverine: Weapons of Vengeance Alpha # 1 and continues into Wolverine (2019) # 36.
Johnny Blaze and Wolverine met during the race at Hell's Backbone in Ghost Rider (2022) # 5. The site was then used as Blackheart's base of operations until Ghost Rider (2022) # 10, when he was defeated and sent back to Hell by Ghost Rider.
CHAIN REACTION
"Weapons of Vengeance" continues into the ongoing Ghost Rider series as Johnny Blaze and Wolverine start their investigation.
If there's one thing that marks this as a Benjamin Percy Ghost Rider story, it's the main characters visiting a crime scene. It's weird that this series has become almost a type of police procedural, but here we are with our characters tracking down leads and interrogating witnesses. Law and Order: Special Vengeance Unit, anyone? It does lend itself well to the ambiance of the series, though, matching the somber tone as Logan and Blaze follow the bread crumbs to find their perpetrator. Percy also does a good job establishing a balance between the worlds of Ghost Rider and Wolverine, bringing in some of the latter's supporting cast while allowing the narration to properly be done by the former.
I'm torn about this story so far, as I don't think the past meeting between Wolverine and Ghost Rider is significant enough to warrant them reuniting to track down Bram. There's at least a 10 year gap between the past and present day sequences, given the aging of Bram to adulthood, and that the news of a ritualistic murder (even one as distinct as these) would be enough to flag the memories of one fleeting night a decade before. It stretches believability a bit and you have to kind of just shrug your shoulders, accept it, and move on with the story if you want to enjoy it on its own merits.
And there certainly ARE merits to this comic, as the investigation is at least somewhat intriguing. I don't buy for a second that Blaze and Logan could just walk into a crime scene in disguises to take a body away, but the sequence with the orphanage director is very well done. It allows the characters to shine in their own specific ways, especially when you have Blaze fighting to keep the Ghost Rider restrained at various points along the way. Having Wolverine be the voice of reason is a good juxtaposition of the character's usual headstrong traits, especially in comparison to how he's depicted during the flashback.
Geoff Shaw and Rain Beredo continue to illustrate the hell out of this story, and it's so refreshing to have a crossover between titles being handled by the same creative team for every chapter. Shaw doesn't miss a beat with his depiction of the grotesque body statues that Bram creates, and his Ghost Rider is magnificent. He also does a great job in differentiating between the past and present incarnations of the Rider, as the 1970s version looks much less menacing and more "super hero" than the modern one.
This comic has the reader jump through lots of hoops to follow along with the story, but the suspension of disbelief is mandatory to keep up. I can't say I'm thrilled to return to Hell's Backbone, but we'll see where Percy and Shaw take things from here.
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