Avengers #25: Review

Oct 2019

Jason Aaron, Stefano Caselli

::: click cover to ENLARGE it :::

Story Name:

Challenge of the Ghost Riders Part 4: Spirit of Avengeance

Review & Comments

Rating:

Avengers #25 Review by Rob Johnson (November 1, 2019)

Erick Arciniega helps Jason Keith colour things in.

Johnny Blaze will be appearing in the new Ghost Rider series along with his brother Danny Ketch also a GR.

Cosmic Ghost Rider will have *his* next mini-series Revenge Of The CGR.

Iron Man's prehistoric adventure will I believe be left on the back burner because the next story arc will concern Starbrand.

From Our Blog:

Gwen Stacy, beauty queen of Standard High School, was Peter Parker's (alias Spider-Man) first great love.

Gwen Stacy: Classic Beauty

Synopsis / Summary / Plot

Avengers #25 Synopsis by Rob Johnson

Ghost Rider (Robbie Reyes) is in Hell with Ghost Rider (Johnny Blaze), now King of the place, in a vehicular race to see who will absorb whose power and take the throne. But Robbie's ride, his Hell Charger car, has been smashed flat by the giant fist of dead Dark Celestial Void who is possessed by Robbie's uncle Eli Morrow who used to inhabit the car. Watching are Robbie's dead parents.

Eli now tries to smash *Robbie* flat too, But Robbie pushes back and halts the fist. Then he sends his Ghost Rider chains to wrap the arm and pull it from the Celestial body. Eli can't understand where his nephew gets the strength from, but Robbie says he may be the worst Ghost Rider ever but he's an Avenger now. And uses the severed arm to punch Eli in his Celestial face as he swears to win the race. Eli says he doesn't have a car to ride ...

... but then the Avengers (Black Panther, Blade, Captain America, Captain Marvel, She-Hulk and Thor) turn up in Thor's flying ship Skidbladnir (suitably enhanced with Wakandan/Stark engines) and offer him a lift to the finish line. They're accompanied by the Cosmic Ghost Rider on his space-going version of a Hell-Cycle.

Johnny Blaze nears the finish on *his* Hell-Cycle trying to justify to himself taking Robbie's power. He needs it to successfully keep control in Hell but believes he's not a bad person like the previous incumbent Mephisto. But he puts the lie to that by ordering the surrounding sinners/demons to bow down to him on pain of Penance Stare.

Then Thor drops in with Blade on tow. And Blade's sword slices through the Hell-Cycle. Thor then pushes through Blaze's Hellfire with his metal arm and pins him to the ground with Mjolnir. But GR sinks into the ground of Hell and reappears to turn his broken bike into a Hellfire-wrapped metal hammer bigger than Thor's. And as demons converge on Blade (who appears to be still using the Breathing Gun) the hammers clash.

Now Black Panther and Captain America jump down from the Asgardian ship to join the fight as the ship continues on towards the finish line. Captain Marvel is driving as She-Hulk provides an extra boost of gamma power and Skidbladnir surges forward. Blaze wonders why Eli Morrow didn't stop them with the power of the Celestial body he gave him. Then Cosmic Ghost Rider provides the answer by arriving carrying the Celestial's head, which he throws away before diving his Cycle down to attack the ordinary GR.

But Blaze sends demons to block Frank Castle's path as other demons carry *him* towards the goal. And yet more demons attack the flying ship. Johnny reconstitutes his bike and rides towards the waiting throne of Hell. But Robbie Reyes has added his Hellfire to the ship's engine and it leaps ahead to crashland on the throne before Blaze can reach it.

Winner Robbie takes out his anger by punching out Johnny. He claims that cooperation was what won him the race, and he offers the hand of cooperation to his rival. He then repeats what he said in #23 that he doesn't want the throne or Johnny's power. Panther suggests Blaze leave the throne too and return to Earth with them. But he ignores that offer and just complains that Robbie has left him as King without the extra power he needed among demons who now know that he is vulnerable. CGR joins them ready to beat Blaze up but instead hands reach out from the ground to drag Johnny down into Hell.

Thor and CGR scour the place but can't find Blaze. Thor does return with Robbie's car. BP will get Hellstorm to check it is truly free of Eli's spirit. Robbie says goodbye to his parents who are proud that he did all this to protect his young brother Gabe. They leave with the assembly of other Ghost Riders (from the last 2 issue). And Robbie is now more comfortably resigned to being a GR.

Epilog 1 - Robbie takes Gabe Reyes for a ride in his car out in the desert. He says he's decided to stay in his job (which Gabe doesn't know is as an Avenger and a Ghost Rider). And he shows Gabe just how fast this car can go.

Epilog 2 - Cosmic Ghost Rider decides to leave Earth for space again.

Epilog 3 - Iron Man is still exploring the Turkish cave where a fossilised IM helmet was found from 1 Million BC (#22). Suddenly the helmet lights up and says "Rege Mephisto" and there's an energy surge. When next we see Tony Stark he's in that deep past in an Ice Age where 6 months have passed for him. His armour has gradually stopped working, but he keeps having to fight off 'the devil' (Mephisto?).

::: click cover to ENLARGE it :::