Issue(s): Ghost Rider #26
Cover Date: Jun 92
Title: "Blood feud!"
Credits:
Howard Mackie - Writer
Ron Wagner - Penciler
Mike Witherby - Inker
Bobbie Chase - Editor

Review/plot:
There's a war going on between the Thief and Assassin Clans in New Orleans.

Note that both the thief and the assassin above have super-powers. That will sort-of be addressed further ahead in this story, but it's a weird way to introduce the concepts of these two Guilds. For all intents and purposes, this is a war between two super-teams, not thieves or assassins.

Ghost Rider is also in New Orleans, having gone there to get the help of Johnny Blaze after GR's host body, Danny Ketch, was killed by Blackout last issue. We see that Ketch's spirit is still around in some capacity, stepping into the light.

The X-Men are also headed to New Orleans. They are traveling by car. If you've ever wondered why society hates and fears mutants, maybe it's because of incidents like this.

Ghost Rider stumbles upon the assassin we saw earlier attacking another thief. Notice that he says that all thieves have a special power.

Ghost Rider chases the assassin and winds up facing a group, led by what turns out to be a Brood.

The X-Men later arrive and investigate. Here's some really corny writing/storytelling.

The X-Men quickly run into the Brood, observing that most of Bella Donna's clan is effectively dead.

Ghost Rider has become infected by the Brood as well.

This crossover comes at a good time for both books because i think the creators on both books had no idea what the hell they were doing. Howard Mackie's Ghost Rider has been flailing, and especially after the defeats of Deathwatch and Blackout there wasn't much for Ghost Rider to do. And i don't think Jim Lee had grand plans for X-Men at this point either. But a team-up between the mega-popular Ghost Rider and the X-Men, in a story involving the Brood? It might not be very good, but it certainly meets the criteria for seeming cool. One problem is that we've missed this occurring during Mark Texeira's run as artist. Ron Wagner is doing a serviceable job, but if the point of this crossover was to have big awesome images, Texeira is the guy you'd want. The Ghost Brooder that we see in the final reveal here is actually kind of disappointing.

Quality Rating: C-

Historical Significance Rating: 1

Chronological Placement Considerations: Continues more or less directly from X-Men #8 and definitely continues directly in X-Men #9.

References:

• The X-Men are going with Gambit to New Orleans after Bella Donna asked for help in X-Men #8.
  
• Chasing the assassin into the the cellar of a church, Ghost Rider boasts that he's descended into Hell itself, with a footnote pointing to the Ghost Rider/Wolverine/Punisher: Hearts of Darkness oneshot.

Crossover: N/A

Continuity Insert? N

My Reprint: N/A

For some reason I found the car scene funny.

Also, Wolverine's claws look really long. I hate it when artists draw them like they'd come out of his elbows when retracted. And why does he have fangs?

It always seemed weird to me that the Ghost Rider could be infected by the Brood. It's not like he has any biology.

Yeah, I agree. But it kinda summarizes this is whole era in superhero comics: they probably just thought, "a Brood Ghost Rider, that sounds cool!" without thinking whether it makes any sense.