Obsessively putting our comics in chronological order since 1985.
| 1992-01-01 02:06:11 |
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Marvel Comics Presents #102 (Phantom Rider)
Issue(s): Marvel Comics Presents #102 (Phantom Rider)
Cover Date: 1992
Title: "Stunt show"
Credits:
Gary Barnum - Writer
Dave Hoover - Penciler
Dave Hoover - Inker
Mark Powers - Assistant Editor
Terry Kavanagh - Editor
Review/plot:
I expect D'Spayre to be used when you've got a character that has some emotional issues that he needs to work through (punch). So to the degree that you'd use the villain, you'd use him with a character that has a regular series, after some trying event that he went through. You wouldn't use him for a character that has barely had any appearances, because you haven't yet established what the character is about, so hopefully there's nothing for him to be despairing about yet, or else he's just one downer of a character. I honestly can't imagine what a modern day Night/Ghost/Phantom Rider series would be like, but when you get a chance to showcase the character, you'd think you'd have something in mind.
Archeologist Hamilton Slade is doing a guest stint at the La Brae Tar Pits when he is disturbed by a teacher whose students are such little fatties that they ran away from their school tour to sit on the floor and double-fist sweets into their mouths. Someone comes along to guide the teacher back to the tour, and Slade doesn't like the looks of him.
And sure enough, the guy causes the tar to animate some mastodon bones.
The tour guide is D'Spayre.
The animated mastodons shrug off the Phantom Rider's phantom force, and Phantom Rider starts to despair.
Phantom Rider notices that D'Spayre is feeding off the despair, so he lies to the teacher and the kids, telling them that this is all part of a hologram show. And that causes D'Spayre to lose his powers.
D'Spayre flees, or whatever it is that he's supposed to be doing here. I think maybe he's just having the back spasm. But the kids sure think it's rad.
I don't even know what D'Spayre was trying to accomplish. Is this what he's come to? Trying to terrify random kids on a school tour with giant tar elephants? It's not exactly a subtle way of making people despair. I am the exact opposite of being a fan of D'Spayre, and even i feel nothing but pity and indignation for the guy here. This has got to be his saddest showing. Not to mention the fact that two separate writers have recently thought of him when coming up with a throwaway story for Marvel Comics Presents. "Who's a crappy character no one will care if i mess up? Right. D'Spayre!"
As for Phantom Rider, is this what his regular series would be? Riding around cheering up children? Is he a rodeo clown or a superhero? Wait, don't answer that.
Quality Rating: D
Historical Significance Rating: 1
Chronological Placement Considerations: N/A
References: N/A
Crossover: N/A
Continuity Insert? N
My Reprint: N/A
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Comments
The art here is actually better than most mainline books at the time, where Image knockoffs had turned every character into pouched, roided out freaks
@Bob - Agreed with you. Dave Hoover was a really good artist who unfortunately passed away much too young.
So I'm in the process of reading all the Ghost/Night/Phantom Rider appearances over the years. Of course there are ups and downs - the run of stories in the early 70s' "Western Gunfighters" title is actually pretty damn entertaining, while the WCA stories in the 80s were uneven at best. But THIS. Even besides the question of why an archaeologist would be studying paleolithic fossils, do we really have to witness him yelling, "Phantom, do your stuff!" ... Which is only matched by the inanity of the Rider himself shouting (to nobody in particular) "Let's get serious... with a shot of Phantom Force!" And the way his costume (and hat, and guns, and horse's harness) are now decorated with dozens of little SKULLS, like he's just wandered out of a Spencers store in the local mall, was a truly awful attempt to 90s-ize the character without doing the work of actually making him interesting. (Note how his boots are now generic superhero-style boots instead of actual cowboy boots too.) IMHO, a badass time-displaced spirit-cowboy could have been a good fit for the 1990s if they'd found the right artistic team (maybe a running guest role in Mackie & Texeira's Ghost Rider?). As it stands, after this tripe, he wont appear again til 2007.
"Those children should be PETRIFIED!" "And YOU should just be FRIED!"
Wow. It's bad enough for D'Spayre that he's been reduced reduced to scaring kids at tar pits; but THIS is the kind of witty banter he has to endure in the process?! This is the low point of his career. Which is REALLY saying something.
