Issue(s): Marvel Comics Presents #100
Cover Date: 1992
Title: "Dreams of Doom / Whose nightmare is it anyway?! / Mutant dreams / Awakenings"
Credits:
Howard Mackie - Writer
Sam Kieth - Penciler
Sam Kieth & Tim Vigil - Inker
Mark Powers - Assistant Editor
Terry Kavanagh - Editor

Review/plot:
For the 100th issue of Marvel Comics Presents (which is only about 4 years of publication), Marvel does something special, giving us a single book-length story. And not only does it have some especially fun covers by Sam Kieth, but the interior art is by him too. The story continues from the prelude in last issue's Wolverine story. It features Nightmare going around to various characters. Nightmare serving as a kind of glue between four individual stories would have been unique enough to mention for this book, but this goes further than that and has the character that appears in chapter one continue into chapter two, etc..

The first character to be visited by Nightmare is Dr. Doom. Doom apparently sleeps fully armored.

I'd say that might get uncomfortable, but this is Dr. Doom we're talking about. I'm sure it's as comfortable as can be. It's probably cushioned, climate controlled, etc.. He probably doesn't even really need the bed.

Anyway, Nightmare appears to Doom directly.

And this isn't the first time.

Doom's nightmares involve purple tentacle monsters, obviously. And also the Fantastic Four.

But Doom wakes up, saying that he's "in control".

A chambermaid heard Doom moaning during his nightmare, and apparently got the wrong idea.

Doom goes to a Doctor Tinner, who was supposed to devise a device that would protect Doom from Nightmare. The device obviously didn't work, although it is what allowed Doom to escape the nightmare by waking up. Doom demotes Doctor Tinner, putting one of his Tibetan monks in charge.

In Chapter Two, Danny Ketch has a dream, but he's visited at first by Dr. Doom, not Nightmare. Doom wants Ghost Rider to help fight Nightmare. Danny refuses to transform for Doom, and then Nightmare shows up.

Danny does transform, and Ghost Rider is able to drive off Nightmare.

Doom and Ghost Rider then go recruit Wolverine. Nightmare shows up, hinting that Doom is up to something in the non-dream world, and it eventually comes out that Wolvie and Ghost Rider have been captured by Doom in real life.

Doom is trying to eliminate Nightmare, and therefore nightmares, altogether. But Ghost Rider and Wolverine are unable to be controlled, so they rebel from Doom's scheme. The backlash kills the Tibetan monk that was overseeing the project.

Sam Kieth's art is perfect for a surreal dream story...

...but the plot is kind of disappointing. Nightmare seemed to be personally making Doom a target, and Doom taking precautions against that is different than trying to kill the personification of nightmares, which a mystic adept like Doom should know isn't feasible. There's a loose attempt to tie this story in with the one from last issue, with Dr. Doom suggesting to Wolverine that Nightmare was targeting him, too (Nightmare seemed to choose Wolverine at random last issue, but by the end he seemed to be hinting that there was more to come, and Nightmare will be back to bother Wolverine in a future Howard Mackie story in this series). But that all turns out to be irrelevant and the story devolves into a generic "bad things are a part of this world and we can't just get rid of them all" plot. Also, i can see why Ghost Rider would choose Nightmare, since he has fought/will fight Nightmare ad nauseam with success, but Wolverine's inclusion here can only be because he's a regular headliner on this book. And the idea that they are able to break free of Doom's control just because they are teh awesome is insulting. Even the art seems to degrade by the end.

Still, i prefer this crappy full-length story with mostly good art to the standard four crappy short stories with mostly bad art.

Quality Rating: C

Historical Significance Rating: 1

Chronological Placement Considerations: I'm placing this after last issue, although it doesn't necessarily have to follow immediately.

References: N/A

Crossover: N/A

Continuity Insert? N

My Reprint: N/A

Ugh! I never liked Sam Kieth's artwork. It's a headache to look at and his characters all look deformed. How he ever got work on superhero comics is beyond me.

Some of the artwork by Sam Kieth on this story is beautiful and wonderfully detailed, and in other parts it looks really rushed & sketchy. It's very inconsistent.

I didn't remember Tim Vigil co-inking this. Since it was probably seven or eight years before I discovered Faust: Love of the Damned, back in 1992 his name would not have leaped out at me. I do wish that Vigil could have done more work for Marvel (or DC) because his style is so totally at odds with mainstream superheroes, and he would probably have drawn some really distinctive stories.

Doctor Doom's disapproving dialogue to his servant seems like Howard Mackie attempting to cover for the fact that Kieth unexpectedly drew her as a sexy, half-naked French maid.

One thing about Kieth's depiction of Ghost Rider that always annoyed the hell out of me was that he gave him these gigantic shoulders. It always looked to me like Ghost Rider had this long, heavy block of wood just sitting there. it's *very* glaring on his various MCP covers.

I do have to admit that I love Dan Ketch's line "Hey, this is my dream! I'm done with you and your transformations. Bring on the dancing girls, a dragon or something." That crowd in fancy dress with the comically large machine guns (complete with wacky sound effects) also makes me chuckle.

Sam Kieth's art seems to have finally evolved by this point into the style he'll use on The Maxx next year. Lots of big Mr. Gone-style silhouetted grinning faces, those distinctive purple washes and faces that run back and forth betweeny cartoony and hyper-real to suit the story. Worth it just for that art.

I got this issue a few weeks ago for £2. I wonder if it's supposed to be worth more than that. Looks like it was sitting in the shop for years, waiting to be sold to some random dude. I like the unusual, cartoony cover, although Ghost Rider seriously looks like a human candle. Johnny Blaze never had that much flame around his head.