Issue(s): Spirits of Vengeance #13
Cover Date: Aug 93
Title: "Dead man's tales"
Credits:
Howard Mackie - Writer
Adam Kubert - Penciler
Joe Kubert, Dan Green, Klaus Janson, & Frank Spinks - Inker
Matthew Morra - Assistant Editor
Bobbie Chase - Editor

Review/plot:
Blade is trying to get into Dr. Strange's house to get at the Darkhold before the Midnight Sons can get the book to stop him, and with the various powers he's absorbed, he's able to break through Strange's house's defense (Strange himself is not home).

Ghost Rider, on the other hand, is kept out.

Blade locates the Darkhold and grabs it. But Strange has protected it with one final spell. It's a spell of displacement that is meant to teleport the book away if someone tries to take it, so that Strange can retrieve it at his convenience. But Blade has powers that allow him to fight the spell. Louise Hastings has Ghost Rider ensnare the Darkhold with his chain, since she needs it to reverse the spell that is affecting Blade. Then Blade and Ghost Rider battle, and Blade is defeated.

Note Blade using Modred's powers without any concern about the curse. But it turns out that absorbing Ghost Rider results in a similar problem. Ghost Rider's penance stare is apparently always turned inward, so now that Blade has absorbed his powers, he feels its effect.

This incapacitates Blade, allowing Hastings to use the Darkhold to reverse everything that Blade has done, including revive all the people that he's killed.

This comes at the cost of her soul, however. Using the Darkhold isn't cheap.

Some of the people that were "killed" by Blade, including Modred and Johnny Blaze, want to take out some vengeance on him. But Ghost Rider won't allow it, saying that he's one of the nine and therefore important to resisting the threat of Lilith. We don't see any other kind of reconciliation; Blade certainly doesn't apologize for what he's done. He leaves, without a word, with the other Nightstalkers.

Also in this issue, we see the woman that Blade attacked in Ghost Rider #40. She's identified as the Seer. We first see her getting attacked by hellfire and saying something about Caretaker being right about it being the time for the gathering of the blood. In the end we see her talking to a few other people who say that they're not going to get involved.

We also the reemergence of Lilith, and both Centurious and the Darkhold Dwarf rubbing their hands together. All are seemingly pleased by the schism that's arisen between the Midnight Sons.

Overall this was a decently fun crossover that was well executed. I'm actually surprised that it doesn't seem to have been collected in trade form, because it's a decent sampling of the Midnights Son books. It's light on character in a way that's typical for a crossover, but it's a fun adventure story. As i said earlier, it fails to be anything more than a superhero story with horror trappings, but to fans of the Marvel universe that shouldn't be a problem.

Quality Rating: C+

Historical Significance Rating: 1

Chronological Placement Considerations: This is the 5th and final part of Midnight Massacre. Nightstalkers #11 is an Aftermath issue, but doesn't necessarily follow directly.

References:

• Blade read the Darkhold page that transformed him in Nightstalkers #10.
  
• The Seer was first seen in Ghost Rider #40.

Crossover: Midnight Massacre

Continuity Insert? N

My Reprint: N/A

It's interesting that FNORD is reviewing these issues relating to the DARKHOLD while it's currently being featured on "AGENTS OF S.H.I.E.L.D.".

So, was this really a fun crossover? The summaries make me think this was story was kind of abysmal...

And how does Blade bounce off to being a protagonist again? This story shows that he's a murderer. Yes, he was warped by Chthon... but he chose to allow it!

Once i accepted that it was standard superhero fare and not an attempt at anything Vertigo-ish or the like, i enjoyed it at a basic level. Blade absorbing the powers of some of the Midnight Sons and using them against the others was Big Dumb Fun.

Nightstalkers #11 will explore the repercussions for Blade (sort of) but the big effect of this story is how his actions have severed the bond of the nine, emboldening Lilith and Centurious (as we'll sort of see in Road To Vengeance: The Missing Link).