Issue(s): Marvel Comics Presents #98, Marvel Comics Presents #99 (Ghost Rider story only)
Cover Date: 1992
Title: D'Spryte Times, D'Spryte Measures: "Part one" / "Part two: Fallen Spirits"
Credits:
Dan Slott - Writer
Jimmy Palmiotti - Penciler
Jimmy Palmiotti - Inker
Mark Powers - Assistant Editor
Terry Kavanagh - Editor

Review/plot:
It may not have been clear in the previous arc thanks to Cable's appearance, but this story confirms that Ghost Rider will be an ongoing co-headliner for this series. Many of those stories will be team-ups, but this two-parter is a solo tale. Many of these stories are written by Howard Mackie, leading me to wonder why we needed a second regular feature by the same writer as the regular series (and that's before Ghost Rider/Blaze: Spirits of Vengeance). This two-parter is written by Dan Slott, though. It also features rare pencils by Jimmy Palmiotti, who had been inking at Marvel for a while now (this is more or less the first time Palmiotti has done pencils, not counting a Madonna bio he did for Personality Comics and a pin-up for Punisher Summer Special and possibly some work he did as part of Mark Texeira's studio where the exact breakdowns are unclear).

As you can tell by the title, this story features D'Spayre, and that always makes me despair, but at least Dan Slott brings some whimsy to it, if you'll accept an adorable tiny but still sinister D'Spayre clone, called a D'Spryte, bothering a homeless man as being whimsical.

On the homeless guy Jack's say-so, D'Spryte goes after the guy that refused to give Jack any money, and makes him climb onto a ledge to jump. Danny Ketch sees him, but since innocent blood hasn't been spilled, he can't transform into Ghost Rider. So he spills some of his own. Umm, really? That's how it works?

No, i didn't think so.

Unable to turn into Ghost Rider, Danny just watches while the guy splatters on the pavement. Then he's able to transform, in all the face-melting glory.

Ghost Rider catches D'Spryte, but then he's swarmed by the things.

Ghost Rider tries to escape the D'Sprytes using Spider-Man's swinging technique, but that's not really his forte.

And the Penance Stare doesn't really work against these guys.

On top of that, the D'Sprytes make a crowd of onlookers turn into a brick-throwing mob. Jack sees the D'Sprytes manipulating the crowd and tries to stop them, but they don't listen to him. Ghost Rider then uses his chain to whip away all the D'Sprytes, and then everything resets. Even the cut Danny gave himself is gone. The guy that jumped is still dead, though. It's kind of a weird ending, not to mention abrupt. Danny does decide to spend some time talking to Jack, though, although not enough for the character to ever appear again.

Slott seemed to have a cute idea but not a story to go with it. Palmiotti pencils are perfectly fine. Nothing standout, but nothing to say that it was the right decision that he go back to mostly doing inks only.

If anything, this story gives us the D'Sprytes. Now we just need a Mini-Sized Man-Thing and we can do a super-deformed version of Uncanny X-Men #144.

Sam Kieth makes the D'Sprytes look almost Isz-like on the cover.

Quality Rating: C-

Historical Significance Rating: 1

Chronological Placement Considerations: Per the footnote, this takes place after Ghost Rider #23. I'm counting this as an appearance of D'Spayre.

References:

• Danny thinks to himself that he's had no chance to have any semblance of a life, what with going after Zodiak, Snowblind, and Deathwatch. The footnote points to Ghost Rider #19 through Ghost Rider #23.

Crossover: N/A

Continuity Insert? N

My Reprint: N/A