Ghost Rider #20

[Cable]

Ghost Rider makes a baby in this issue

Full Spoilers:

Spoiler: show

Johnny Blaze and Talia Warroad are going around rescuing people from being sacrificed to the Cult of Mephisto, but they always seem to be one step behind the leader Stefan. They finally get to the Rocky Mountain School for Troubled Youth, a cover for the organization to use to brainwash kids into the dark arts. Johnny presses Talia about her past with Stefan, asking if she loved him. She says it was obsession, and she was drawn to him for similar reasons she is drawn to Johnny: she likes people that don't live in denial of the darkness inside them. As they approach the school they find it is protected by a spell called a 'blood wall.' Blaze is about to crash through as Ghost Rider but Talia wants to see what is happening inside before they go violently smashing their way in. She wants to create a moonchild. Taking her clothes off, she lies with Ghost Rider under the full moon and in a flash of fire a little skeletal dude is spawned. We now get a flashback of Dr. Strange visiting Talia's parents and telling them their house has become stained. This results in zombie versions of the parents attacking them before Strange intervenes and the zombies turn into bugs. The parents flee as Strange begins purifying the home, and he tells them he will discover her whereabouts after. Back to Blaze, who is uncertain about this moonchild they have made. They get into a disagreement about whether children should ever be brought into the world, with Talia against it due to the trauma she has suffered. Meanwhile we see Stefan has a new young girl enthralled with him. He teachers her various magical runes, including one that marks someone for death. He takes her on a motorcycle ride and they come across a car crash. The girl discovers with horror that her parents are dead in the wreckage. Stefan embraces her and as they walk away we see the death rune on the top of the crashed vehicle. Back to Blaze and Talia and she says after her own parents died because of her and Stefan she learned not to give a sh*t about anyone because in the end they are all roadkill. She then says she can see through the eyes of the moonchild, and she sends it through the wall and into the school.

There is also a bonus story where Kushala encounters the modern Ghost Rider while tracking down and destroying an evil demonic man that escaped when she was pulled forward in time over 100 years ago.

What the f*#$ did I just read?

Percy is known to do some wild things but I was genuinely both confused and creeped out by this one. I don't know what that moon baby is or how the heck they made it but its out there now haunting the dreams of everyone who reads this. Props to artist Nieto for his part in this horror.

The backup story by a different creative team meanwhile is forgettable in both story and art.