Issue(s): Ghost Rider #45
Cover Date: Jan 94
Title: "Blood"
Credits:
Howard Mackie - Writer
Ron Garney - Penciler
Christopher Ivy - Inker
James Felder - Assistant Editor
Bobbie Chase - Editor

Review/plot:
Ghost Rider saved Stacy Dolan during a Lilin attack last issue (eight chapters ago). This issue opens with her thanking him. She winds up sticking with him. She isn't aware that Ghost Rider is Danny Ketch, but she feels a strange bond with him.

Seer objects to her being brought back to The Nightclub, but then Hannibal King comes in from having met with Caretaker, and gives Seer a psychic message.

The message is that The Fallen are former members of The Blood, and now The Fallen are going to seek out the rest of The Blood and either convert or kill them. So the Midnight Sons (and extended family) have to split up and go protect the remaining members of The Blood.

Ghost Rider, Vengeance, and Seer go to one called Patriarch. They find him in a castle in Scotland, about to be attacked by a Fallen named "Ranter".

They manage to kill Ranter, but Patriarch refuses to go with them or accept their help. And it turns out he's already working for Zarathos.

You might be getting the impression that this Patriarch guy is important in some way. I assure you that that isn't the case. That's one of the exhausting thing about this crossover, and, relatedly, Howard Mackie's Ghost Rider and Spirits of Vengeance run. Things happen in dramatic reveals, but they later turn out to go nowhere.

Along those lines, Zarathos has recently had memories returned to him. The summary for last chapter in the back of this issue once again spells this out more clearly than the story. Zarathos used to be a member of the Fallen (and therefore the Blood). He was the leader of the Fallen, and a wizard, "in ancient times". We also see (in the story, thank you!) that Zarathos is having doubts about his role in all of this, since the Fallen are acting on plans that he set in motion "millennia ago". This is kind of the saving grace for this reveal. Because we've seen a lot of Zarathos' history, even recently, and the idea that he's just some ancient wizard never entered the picture. He was a demon! But i guess the fact that he didn't remember that he was a wizard and the fact that even now he no longer identifies with who he used to be helps somewhat. I still think the constant revisions to Zarathos' origin are bizarre. That along with the sudden destruction of the Medallion in this crossover after so much hoopla gives, or rather continues to give, the impression that Howard Mackie was flying by the seat of his pants throughout his run(s).

I said that the Midnight Sons split up to go after the Fallen, but that's not quite true. Johnny Blaze is just left behind at the Nightclub to have a drink and dodge Stacy's questions about Ghost Rider's secret identity.

It's kind of hilarious that Blaze was just sitting at a bar getting drunk while his companions were getting their asses kicked by Ranter. I mean i'd rather drink than have anything to do with a generic super-demon too, but what was the point of everyone splitting up if Johnny is just going to sit around?

Quality Rating: D

Historical Significance Rating: 1

Chronological Placement Considerations: This is part ten of Siege of Darkness. Part eleven is in Marvel Comics Presents #145.

References:

• Caretaker was kidnapped in Spirits of Vengeance #17.

Crossover: Siege of Darkness

Continuity Insert? N

My Reprint: N/A