Adamantium meets chrome.
"Johnny Blaze and me, we got a few things in common. Maybe there's a part of us that longs for company, but we tend to go it alone. Our teams, our relationships, our families, even our nations — they fall apart. Nobody's ever sure if we're the good guys or the bad guys, least of all ourselves. Johnny's had a rough go of it lately — living off diner food, sleeping in different shitholes every night, chasing rumors of devils down dark highways. He's got a demon inside him. It's a poison, but it's a weapon too. To fight the darkness, he looks to the darkness inside him. That's another thing we got in common."
— Logan
Ghost Rider/Wolverine: Weapons of Vengeance is a 2023 crossover story from Marvel Comics, involving the Ghost Rider (2022) and Wolverine (2020) titles.
Written by Benjamin Percy with art by Geoff Shaw, it is part of X-Men: The Krakoan Age and, in January 2023, was the very first announced event of the Fall of X era.
Starring Ghost Rider and Wolverine, it's Superhero Horror meets Detective Drama as two of Marvel's foremost anti-heroes join forces to track down an old foe that once eluded them many years ago — a supernatural Serial Killer called the Stitcher. The comic also jumps back in time to tell the untold story of the first ever meeting between Logan and Johnny Blaze, blending the past and the present as events slowly unravel the secrets behind the Stitcher slayings, and the greater conspiracy that lurks behind it all.
Main Storyline
- Ghost Rider/Wolverine: Weapons of Vengeance Alpha #1
- Ghost Rider (Vol. 10) #17
- Wolverine (vol. 7) #36
- Ghost Rider/Wolverine: Weapons of Vengeance Omega #1
Ghost Rider/Wolverine: Weapons of Vengeance contains examples of the following tropes:
- Always Night: Both the flashbacks and present day stories take place entirely at night, creating a dark and foreboding atmosphere throughout Logan and Blaze's journey.
- Ambiguously Evil: Bram, a mysterious orphan possessed by a malevolent demon named Bagra-ghul, is closely linked to the demon's ritualistic murder sprees. While it seems obvious that the creature is primarily responsible for these heinous acts, it's not clear whether or not Bram has any agency or control in all of this. Is he a victim too? Or is he, in some level, consciously spurring the creature to kill out of spite for all the times Bram has been shunned and mistreated by others? At the very least, he's well aware of the demon's diabolic nature but makes no effort to resist its urges and often comes across as apathetic to others' suffering (especially as a young adult). The Omega Issue throws all doubts out of the window as Bram not only proves himself to be a spineless Dirty Coward, but also admits that he wants to keep living his contemptous life together with Bagra-ghul. Ghost Rider ultimately judges Bram to be just as guilty as the demon, and condemns both to suffer his damnation stare.
- Asshole Victim:
- The Omega Issue opens with two unnamed mutants who decide to blow up a house in the middle of a suburban neighborhood, killing all the people inside. Their justification? Because mutantkind is being persecuted by the US government in the wake of Krakoa's collapse, and they want the rest of humanity dead in retaliation. Unfortunately for these two upstart terrorists, they're soon hunted down by the Hellverine, who shreds them into bloody chunks.
- Ada Flores also counts. It's quite evident from the look on her face that she derived no personal pleasure in exploiting her job as a social worker to send the poor and the downtrodden to their doom, but she's still a horrible person for consciously having participated in Bram and Bagra-ghul's murderous activities out of misguided love for Bram after adopting him as her son. She is eventually killed by the very same demon she nurtured for so many years.
- Beyond Redemption: Though initially presented as a sympathetic, tragic figure, Bram makes it clear at the story's climax that while he's not proud of all the lives he has taken as Bagra-ghul's vessel, he does not want to be separated from the demon, and actually resolves to keep on killing in the name of Mephisto. This convinces Johnny Blaze/Ghost Rider that Bram is not worth saving, and thus condemns him to hell along with Bagra-ghul.
- Big Damn Heroes: Talia ends up saving Jeff Bannister's life by getting to him just in time before he's taken over by a swarm of demonic flies. She and Jeff later come to Johnny's aid after he's been captured by Weapon Plus, freeing him before he's subjected to their horrific experimentations.
- Body Horror: Whenever the demon kills groups of people, it leaves all of the bodies ritualistically broken and twisted into some kind of totem pole or pillar as a Calling Card.
- Brown Note: Jeff Bannister's research on the supernatural eventually causes him to be attacked by demonic apparitions in the form of flies that burst out of his mouth, just as Johnny Blaze warned him would happen to those who dig too much into the abyss without taking precautions. Fortunately for Jeff, Talia Warroad arrives in the nick of time to pull a Big Damn Heroes moment and saves him from a gristly end.
- CIA Evil, FBI Good: Inverted as far as Talia Warroad and Jeff Bannister's experiences are concerned. Jeff is a CIA man who goes out of his way to help heroes like Wolverine and Ghost Rider do what needs to be done, while Talia is a former FBI agent who got kicked out of the force for digging too deep into their corrupt dealings with Orchis and Weapon Plus. Both express no love for the latter organization.Jeff Bannister: F.B.I.? I @#$% hate those bureaucrats.Talia Warroad: Me too. That's why they fired me.
- Continuity Nod: The last time Wolverine was possessed by demons, he was called "Hellverine
". Father Pike recycles the name when he transfers Bagra-ghul into Wolverine. - Commonality Connection: In Logan's own words, Johnny Blaze and him are quite similar in that they're both angry, tortured souls who tend to struggle alone, fighting the worst of evils yet never really sure of their own moral compass, and having experienced firsthand what it's like to form strong relationships with others only to watch those relationships fall apart to some form of tragedy or another. Notably, these two were different people when they first met, back when Logan was still a bitter and closed off individual trying to find his place among the X-Men, while Johnny was but a rather unassuming young man not yet accustomed to the harsh burdens of being Ghost Rider. Having gone through so many trials and tribulations and life-changing events over the years since, both men are able to connect and understand each other better in the present, united in their strengthened resolve to protect and avenge the innocent and to punish the wicked.
- Creepy Child: The primary target of our two anti-heroes is a strange orphan named Bram, who, as a young boy, already exhibited supernatural powers of malevolent nature. He is revealed to be directly connected to a series of gristly murders, all of which concerns people who got involved with him in some way or another.
- Crossover: Between Percy's current runs on Wolverine and Ghost Rider. This is also be the first Wolverine-centric event since 2022's X Lives and X Deaths of Wolverine.
- Curbstomp Battle: The few minutes that Wolverine spent in the basement looking for candles was all Bram's demon needed to beat the crap out of all of the other X-Men (Angel, Colossus, Nightcrawler, Professor X, Shadowcat, and Storm).
- Evil Counterpart: Bagra-ghul, also known as the Stitcher, is essentially one to the Spirits of Vengeance. Both are powerful incorporeal beings from hell that latch onto human hosts in order to manifest into the world, driven by the need to inflict violence. Spirits, however, are benevolent by nature and are out only to punish or destroy evil, whereas Bagra-ghul is a remorseless Serial Killer that harms both innocents and guilty alike for its own sadistic pleasure. When forcibly bonded to Wolverine, the Stitcher even takes on a Ghost Rider-like appearance (burning skull and all).
- Exposition Beam: Ghost Rider subjects Wolverine to one of these after using the Penance Stare to extract information from a man in Ghost Rider #17.Wolverine: Next time, just @#$% tell me what you learned, okay?
- Flashback Episode: The crossover jumps back and forth between the present time and to Logan and Johnny's early days as Wolverine and Ghost Rider, around the time when Logan first joined Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters (more or less serving as the school's grumpy guard dog) and when Johnny was first starting out as GR. It also finally explores the untold story of their very first meeting.
- Good Parents: Ada Flores is a dark subversion. Initially presented in flashbacks as a kind, motherly woman who took great risk in raising Bram despite his troubled and dangerous nature, it's later revealed that she became a willing accomplice in Bram's horrific activities, supplying him and his inner demon victims to feast on instead of seeking proper help from exorcists to cleanse Bram and lead him down a better path. Though loving and caring towards Bram in her own way, Ada's misguided methods are at least partially responsible for Bram's downward spiral into the codependent, morally bankrupt coward he eventually becomes.
- Here We Go Again!: While infiltrating the Weapon Plus facility in Utah, Logan and Johnny are ambushed from behind by robots, and the ol' Canucklehead (alongside ol' Bonehead) once more finds himself being strapped onto that all-too familiar brainwasher helmet. He even lampshades it by screaming, "Not the helmet! Not again!" in utter exasperation.
- Heroic Willpower: Even after being captured, brainwashed, and forced by Orchis to serve as a new vessel for the Serial Killer demon, Bagra-ghul, Wolverine is able to hold onto his humanity and defy Father Pike's order to kill an infant, ultimately breaking Bagra-ghul's control over him.
- Impersonating an Officer: Blaze and Logan disguise themselves as a pair of forensics specialists to get past the cops when conducting their investigation on a murder that took place inside a Massachusetts baseball stadium. It works without a hitch.
- It Amused Me: Mephisto created Bagra-ghul because he was bored and thought it would be fun to make a demonic Mad Artist.
- Jerkass:
- Wolverine in the flashback story acts like a huge dick, true to form during the early days of his X-Men stint. When Charles Xavier makes the decision to refuse Bram custody due to the boy's non-mutant nature and his powers being of supernatural origin, Logan only scuffs "good riddance", saying that Bram "stunk like a steaming pile of sulfur." Xavier, in turn, scolds Logan for lacking sympathy, pointing out that he of all people should know how it feels like to be alone and haunted by pain. Contrasting this, Wolverine in the present day has mellowed out a lot thanks to decades of Character Development, and at one point even plays the voice of reason to Ghost Rider's more violent impulses.
- The administrator of a New York-based orphanage that once took in Bram is eventually exposed as a cruel dirtbag who physically and mentally abuses the children under his care. Even before this, a flashback of his younger days proves that he was already pretty rotten back then, coldly suggesting to his colleague, Ada Flores, that she ought to just leave Bram to die in a ditch somewhere and spare herself of any responsibility.
- Karmic Death:
- Ada Flores appears to be a kindly and well-meaning woman who took in and raised an unwanted orphan by herself, spurred by motherly affection for the boy, Bram, despite his dangerous nature. While that part is true, it also comes to light later on that Ada willingly took part in Bram's heinous crimes, using her status as a social worker to deceive, lure and entrap poor souls for Bram's demon to feed on and satiate its murderous cravings in discretion. Ada herself would eventually fall victim to the demon's bloodlust when it decides that it's no longer satisfied with their arrangement — a fitting end for such a sinful life.
- Bram's biological parents were Satanists who purposely arranged for their child to be corrupted by Mephisto. The moment the baby was born, the demon possessing him slaughtered them and everyone else in the ER.
- Matrix Raining Code: Jeff Bannister's monitors all start displaying red code when Johnny has him use the CIA's database to look up various Tome of Eldritch Lore.
- Meaningful Look: Used to good effect by Geoff Shaw to highlight how different Blaze and Logan's present day selves are to their past incarnations. The Logan of old had a perpetual scowl to show how temperamental and socially closed-off he was, while Johnny had a meek expression to indicate his youth and relative inexperience. Fast forward to the present, and both men carry the same neutral but steely-eyed look on their grizzled faces; a tell-tale sign of how far they've changed and learned since then to become the Older and Wiser anti-heroes of today.
- Meaningful Name: The Stitcher got its moniker from the sadistic way it kills its victims, first chopping up and mutilating their bodies, then rearranging and "stitching" them together into utterly bizarre macabre displays.
- Mirror Character:
- Bram is essentially what Johnny Blaze would've been if the latter had none of his more admirable traits; specifically the younger, less experienced Blaze from when he was bound to the evil version of Zarathos. Like the young JB, Bram is a tragic figure saddled with a malevolent entity that's forcing him to commit unspeakable horrors. But while Blaze heroically struggled to suppress Zarathos for years and eventually triumphed over him, Bram is a spineless coward who lacks even a speck of moral fortitude to stand up against Bagra-ghul, and instead forms a twisted codependency with the demon. Another difference between the two is the fact that, while flawed and fallible, Johnny is capable of empathy and acts of selflessness, whereas Bram never shows concern or pity for anyone but himself.
- Also Bram to Wolverine — a man who's always known how it feels to struggle daily to contain one's bestial urges to kill, maim, and perform cruel acts against others. While Logan followed the path of discipline and moral conviction to overcome the worst of himself, Bram instead succumbed to his demon's whims and has long stopped trying to be better.
- Mistaken for Murderer: Ghost Rider and Wolverine's first ever meeting starts with a scuffle thanks to this. Johnny arrives at the scene of the crime first, but before he could even begin investigating, Logan shows up, immediately assumes the worst upon seeing the horrifying skeleton monster before him, and attacks, leaving Blaze no choice but to fight back.
- New Media Are Evil: In a rather literal case, it is apparently quite easy for demonic evil to infiltrate computer systems, so after Talia saves Bannister after he is assaulted through his computers, she shuts down all of them and insists that they conduct their demonology research through more "analog" and "old school" means (books).Talia: Malware takes many forms.
- Outside-Context Problem: The reason why Charles Xavier ultimately declines to admit Bram into the X-Men school program despite sympathizing with the young orphan's plight is because Bram is neither a mutant nor is the nature of his powers within Charles' area of expertise. The best he can offer for Bram's sake is to advise the boy's custodian, Ada Flores, to seek out people who specialize in dealing with the supernatural.
- Orphanage of Fear: While paying visit to the orphanage where Bram's demon massacred a number of children many years ago, our two heroes quickly discover what a foul and wretched place it actually is. On top of the administrator's blatant disregard towards any upkeep and sanitation, said man also happens to be an abusive Child Hater who regularly torments the kids under his care, much to Blaze and Logan's disgust.
- Papa Wolf: Once again, Johnny Blaze's protective instinct towards children is shown in terrifying glory. Guided by the Spirit of Vengeance, he discovers a secret torture room inside a New York orphanage where an emaciated child collapses in his arms. As soon as the boy informs him of the administrator's horrible maltreatment of the kids living there, Blaze stares daggers at the man, unleashes his vengeful alter-ego, and gives the scumbag a much deserved taste of his own medicine.
- Police Are Useless: As per usual. Local authorities are left stumped and just plain ineffective at dealing with the Bram killings despite the mounting casualties, serving only to delay or hinder Blaze and Logan's own private investigation into the matter, who, unlike the cops, actually do know what they're doing.
- Resolved Noodle Incident: The flashback portions of the story finally answers how, when, and where Logan and Johnny first met and worked together.
- Retcon: In the original Ghost Rider comics, Johnny Blaze didn't wield a chain and his primary mode of attack was blasting hellfire out of his hands, not breathing it like a dragon. He only started to use chains after the Danny Ketch run concluded and Marvel brought Johnny back to serve as their primary GR (incorporating Danny's look and weapon as his own) and it took a few more years before the comics introduced his Breath Weapon which has since largely eclipsed how he originally utilized hellfire. Here, Johnny is shown in the flashback scenes to be already proficient in using chains and prefers breathing hellfire over the hand blasts.
- Shout-Out:
- The cruel orphanage administrator from Ghost Rider #17 locks "naughty" children in The Chokey from Matilda.
- Bram is at one point shown playing what looks like Mario Kart.
- Synchronization: When Wolverine slashes Bram, the same wound appears on the demon, which recoils in pain like Bram.
- Take Me Out at the Ball Game: One of Bram's victims is killed and mutilated in the washroom while attending a baseball game at the Mud Bat Stadium.
- Taken for Granite. What happens to Bram and Bagra-ghul at the end of the comic, courtesy of Ghost Rider's damnation stare.
- The End... Or Is It?: The story concludes with a final shot of Bram's demonic eye peeking out from its petrified state, making it clear that he and Bagra-ghul are far from vanquished.
