DEATHLOK #9-10 (1992): Ghost Rider

Good thing we have this comic, because there simply wasn’t enough Ghost Rider in 1992 comics.

They meet.  They assume the worst of each other.  They fight. 

But it’s a trick by Nightmare.  Ghost Rider smashes Deathlok to pieces.

Nick Fury rebuilds him.  Deathlok says thank you.  Fury tells him he’ll be asking him to repay the favor, soon. It’s unclear, but it appears that Fury now thinks Collins owes him–and is considering turning Deathlok into a SHIELD asset.

The main reason this story includes Nightmare is so we can see Michael Collins having dreams about missing being human with his family.  Y’know, to humanize him. And also because Nightmare knows Zarathos.

He refers to Ghost Rider as Zarathos in this comic, but we’ve been led to believe (in Ghost Rider’s own series) that he is not Zarathos. It’s unclear if this is an intentional misdirect or simply a mistake owing to the fact that Howard Mackie is the writer of Ghost Rider and the series has a different editor.

The art is highly stylized, but I really like it–especially for a story featuring Nightmare, where much of it takes place in dreams.

This isn’t a bad story. Gregory Wright is a good writer and this series is fairly strong. It’s just frustrating to see so many of the same characters in every single comic each month.

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