Issue(s): Midnight Sons Unlimited #4
Cover Date: Jan 94
Title: "Moral courage"
Credits:
D.G. Chichester - Writer
John Hixon & John Bridges - Penciler
Bill Anderson, Rich Rankin, & Scott Koblish - Inker
Evan Skolnick - Editor

Review/plot:
This is the conclusion to Siege of Darkness. It should have been written by Howard Mackie, who was the writer of the Ghost Rider and Spirits of Vengeance stories. I find it odd that it was instead written by D.G. Chichester, who was replaced on Nightstalkers before the crossover began. This has been primarily a Ghost Rider story in the sense that Zarathos is the main villain, and this book gets into the history of Zarathos and the Spirits of Vengeance some more. So i just find it odd that it's written by someone who is no longer associated with the Midnight Sons line and who was never associated with Ghost Rider.

Anyway, at this point i don't care who writes it. Just finish this goddamn thing already.

We start by learning that there were ancient analogues to the Midnight Sons.

But then we jump into the big fight between the modern Sons and Zarathos & the Fallen. There's like a million characters and the Fallen for the most part are completely undeveloped, so it's not a very interesting fight. But it sure does fill pages.

Adding to the mess is "Strange", who decides to raise a skeletal army to help the good guys out.

Eventually some of the Fallen are weakened, and that causes Zarathos to call for a retreat. The good guys don't follow; after all, someone has to put Strange's undead army out of its misery.

The good guys then decide to go after another member of the Blood, called Foundry, to get info on Zarathos. She's in a jungle in South America. They find her...

...and she explains that she's a reluctant member of the Blood, forced to join after Zarathos killed her son. She says that the best way to defeat Zarathos is to defeat the Fallen, because he draws his powers from them. She's also forged a sword that can kill the Fallen, but it has to be tempered in Blood, with a capital B. Some of the Fallen eventually track the Sons to Foundry, and the Sons split up, most to defend Foundry while Blaze, Vengeance, and Strange go after Zarathos. Blade, with Foundry's permission, kills her to activate the sword, and he uses it to chop down the Fallen.

Zarathos is weakened, but it turns out he's not weakened enough. And that's because Embyrre, who switched sides, is still alive. She's still technically one of the Fallen. Morbius tries to kill her, but her father Raydar interferes. But he doesn't want his daughter to become a slave to Zarathos, so he goes to confront him, and gets killed. Morbius then convinces Embyrre to kill herself.

Zarathos still has some inherent power of his own...

...but the Midnight Sons are able to wear him out, and then Blade finishes the job with Foundry's blade. Zarathos turns into a statue.

Caretaker tries to get the Midnight Sons to stick together as a big super-group, and he's even got some armor for them. Frank Drake, who is fully human, is not allowed to join (and the remaining Darkhold Redeemers have already bowed out at this point. But the rest, i don't know, make a vow or something.

The characters will still continue on in their own books. Consolidating them into a Midnight Sons series might have made sense, though.

Anyway, it's all over no -- OMG, Lilith is back??! Noooo! NOOOOOOOOOOOO! WILL THIS EVER END?!?!

Actually, Lilith will not be seen again for years (the 2004 Witches series).

Ok, my overall review of this series:

Pros: Zarathos' design is pretty cool.

Cons: Everything else.

Quality Rating: D

Historical Significance Rating: 1

Chronological Placement Considerations: This is the seventeenth and final part of Siege of Darkness. But there is an epilogue in Ghost Rider #46.

References:

• Blade has mellowed out towards his supernatural allies after his time as Switchblade circa Nightstalkers #10.

Crossover: Siege of Darkness

Continuity Insert? N

My Reprint: N/A

One thing to note- Ghost Rider emerges from within Zarathos and weakens him- and at the end it's hinted Ghost Rider isn't dead. (Duh).