Issue(s): Warheads #10
Cover Date: Apr 93
Title: "Revelations!"
Credits:
Nick Vince - Writer
Jerry Cruz - Penciler
Jerry Cruz - Inker
Tim Quinn - Assistant Editor
John Freeman - Editor

Review/plot:
This issue starts with two of the Warheads, Leona and Perez, conspiring to steal Mys-Tech's wormhole technology. They joined the Warheads based on a lie that they would be helping the world, and now that they know that isn't the case, they want to do something else. But before they can do anything, they're called into the briefing room for a mission.

Meanwhile, Blackheart is lonely and wants to talk with Misha, but she's not interested.

That other demon is there for a regularly scheduled torturing of Blackheart, courtesy of his father, Mephisto. And that's why Blackheart has been secretly helping Misha and the Warheads, and it's also why he's manipulated the Mys-Tech exec Rathcoole into attacking Mephisto, as he did last arc and as he's doing again here. This time Rathcoole is sending an entire team of Warheads into Mephisto's realm to kill him.

Rathcoole is a little confused, or maybe i am, because the sword he is talking about sounds like the one that he and Gregory tried to use to kill Mephisto in the previous attempt. Maybe this is the real sword, whereas last time they used the wrong wand to make the sword.

The rest of Mys-Tech are not happy that Rathcoole continues to act on his own, and they kill the weird cherub things (seen floating around in earlier issues of this series without much explanation) that had agreed to work with him.

The Warheads fight their way through Hell...

...and they come across what looks like Dr. Strange being tortured by Blackheart. Dr. Strange claims to be Misha's Voice.

"Dr. Strange" leads them to the location of the sword, which is guarded by the other half of Gregory, merged with the other half of the demon Gregory is merged with.

The two run into each other and get their proper bodies back, but use up the magic in the crystal shards that were supposed to get them home. I guess these crystals were from the original wand that turned out to be the wrong one. It's not very clear.

Perez is killed by a demon during the battles with the demons. At this point, Blackheart kind of gives away the fact that he's not really Dr. Strange.

Mephisto then shows up and sends the Warheads home, not really taking out the blame on them since they were manipulated. He also tells Blackheart that he did good, before re-imprisoning him.

Mys-Tech similarly don't blame Rathcoole once they understand that Blackheart was controlling him.

The art in this is just terribly amateurish. It affects the impact of the story. Trying to kill Mephisto is Mys-Tech's end goal, so sending the Warheads to do it here should be a big deal. But the whole thing feels like a fill-in issue.

This issue is the first Marvel UK book to have a statement of ownership, and the average sales value is just dismal for the time period. The sales seem to have been pretty volatile if you go by the "closest to filing date" number, i guess based on the guest stars. Even that number would be in the cancellation range for a regular title, though.

Statement of Ownership Total Paid Circulation: Average of Past 12 months = 25,040. Single issue closest to filing date = 93,760.

Quality Rating: D+

Historical Significance Rating: 1

Chronological Placement Considerations: I'm following the MCP in placing this before Mys-Tech Wars.

References:

• Mephisto eats Blackheart like he did before, in Hearts of Darkness.

Crossover: N/A

Continuity Insert? N

My Reprint: N/A

The "single issue closest to filing date" looks like an error to me. Real number might have been 9,376, rather than 93,760.

So the cherubs were also Blackheart's agents?

If it's a mistake, it's carried over into all the other relevant values in the SOO (10A, 10E, 10G).

That's all we see of the cherubs in this issue (and we see very little of them at all in the series), but i interpreted it as Rathcoole making a deal with them right there, so prior to this they weren't Blackheart's agents.

Numbers on Marvel UK books were high but not that high by this point on Warheads I suspect. It was cancelled soon after.