Issue(s): Spirits of Vengeance #11
Cover Date: Jun 93
Title: "The spider kiss!"
Credits:
Larry Hama - Writer
Vincent Giarrano - Penciler
Vincent Giarrano - Inker
Matthew Morra - Assistant Editor
Bobbie Chase - Editor

Review/plot:
A fill-in by Larry Hama and Vincent Giarrano.

Johnny Blaze is attacked by a spider demon named Shelob that wears the skins of the victims that it kills.

The demon starts off trying to seduce Blaze, and the conversation at the end, presented as a kind of twist ending, is that the demon probably did want to have sex with Blaze so that it could make babies with his hellspawn power (who would then eat him).

The fact that Blaze was targeted for his innate power seems to be the clearest confirmation that Blaze himself still has power of his own. Sure he has the magic shotgun (activated by Ghost Rider's hellfire) and the magic bike (given to him by Caretaker)...

...but if we were told previously that Blaze had power of his own, it didn't sink in with me.

Ghost Rider only appears briefly in this story to give Blaze some advice...

...and then is said to be off avenging innocent blood elsewhere.

He does show up at the end to make sure his catch phrase is used correctly.

Shelob will appear again in the 1994 Blaze solo series (that more or less replaces this one when it's canceled) which is written by Hama.

It's probably not a good sign when a random fill-in is better than a regular issue of your series. Certainly it feels less convoluted. Just coming up with a innovative creepy demon of the month seems like a much better way for this series to go most of the time, rather than all of the crossovers and endless mysteries and the huge cast of barely developed carnival characters.

Quality Rating: B-

Historical Significance Rating: 1

Chronological Placement Considerations: Next issue (Spirits of Vengeance #12) seems to take place prior to this.

At the start of this issue, Blaze is at a motel in New Jersey.

Blaze was in New Jersey for Spirits of Vengeance #12, too, but it's not clear why he's at a motel and not the McIntyre house. I guess he wanted some time to himself.

I like the disappearance of Ghost Rider during this issue as a way to indicate that Ghost Rider has been going off on his own a lot lately, to account for all of his guest appearances in other books between this and last issue/Ghost Rider #39.

References: N/A

Crossover: N/A

Continuity Insert? N

My Reprint: N/A

I'm pretty sure this was my very first comic book or maybe my first purchase from the local shop. It's not EC comics but it sure creeped me out.