Circle of Four Part Two

Las Vegas has been transformed into a literal Hell on Earth thanks to a spell cast by the demon Blackheart. However, a mystical barrier has been placed around the city to prevent the spell from spreading thanks to a mystical amulet placed on the Las Vegas sign by Johnny Blaze. As authorities try to make sense of the barrier around the city, Doctor Strange and Son of Satan arrive to warn them against tampering the amulet. Examining the mystical artifact, Strange recognizes it as an amulet once given to Hawkeye to capture the Ghost Rider.[1] Son of Satan figures this has to be the work of John Blaze.

Inside the barrier, Johnny Blaze rides around the demon infested centrifuge while the Ghost Rider has gone to stop Blackheart’s spell. If he stops before then, the entire city will be sucked into Hell. The mystical forces are starting to take their toll on Blaze who hopes Alejandra succeeds before it is too late.

At that same moment, inside the Devil’s Den casino, the Ghost Rider has joined forces with Agent Venom, X-23, and the Red Hulk have come to stop Blackheart’s spell only to be confronted by the Antithesis, mystical constructs that are the exact opposite of themselves. Blackheart and his lover, Gari Oyle order their minions to attack, each warrior clashing with their opposite. While the angelic Ichor battles Ghost Rider, the brain creature called Encephalon fights the Hulk, the cheerleader X-666 battles X-23, while the Evangelist fights Agent Venom. The clash sends the combatants flying out of the casino and out into the hellish landscape that Las Vegas has become.

As Ghost Rider speeds away, Ichor follows while Blackheart telepathically tries to make the Spirit of Vengeance an offer. Meanwhile, Red Hulk and Agent Venom agree to continue their truce until after the battle is over, after which the Hulk intends on bringing Venom in for going AWOL. When Venom faces the Evangelist, an entity fashioned after his late father, he is overwhealmed by a flurry of Bible pages that begin stripping away his symbiote.[2] Without the symbiote, Flash Thompson is without his legs. The Evangelist mocks him for using the symbiote as a crutch just like his alcoholism. To demonstrate this, the twisted preacher forces the symbiote to take on the shape of Flash and hands it a flash. As the symbiote drinks its “face” begins to decompose. He then mocks Flash for being just like his father, whose alcoholism and abuse beat him down long before Flash lost his legs in war.[3]

The Red Hulk tries to get X-23 to focus but she too is distracted by her opposite, X-666. The demented cheerleader with her razor-sharp pom-poms attacks X-23, mocking her lack of nuance and humanity since she is nothing more than a clone conditioned to be a killer, but is nothing more than a knock off Wolverine.[4] This enrages Laura Kinney who decides to rush off and to kill the ones responsible for stealing a sample of her blood. Meanwhile, the Red Hulk presumes that Encephalon is an easy target since it doesn’t have any capacity for speech. Suddenly, the brain creature begins giving him telepathic orders which that the Red Hulk, a former soldier, cannot stop from obeying.

Watching this from his office, Blackheart is deeply entertained but turns his attention back to the Ghost Rider. Blackheart offers her the opportunity to cure the people of Nicaragua who have had their souls stolen, however, he warns her that Ichor destroys her before she agrees the offer will be null and void.[5] Ichor then knocks Ghost Rider off her bike and, while explaining that it is the blood of the gods, Ichor opens a chasm in the ground. It goes on to say that it wants to make Alejandra Jones pay for her past sins. However, Ghost Rider leaps out of harm’s way onto her motorcycle and tells Ichor that Alejandra Jones is dead and all that is left is the Ghost Rider. When the motorcycle strikes Ichor, it causes it to revert back to human form. Ghost Rider is surprised that her opponent is human and races off to look for her foe. Blackheart is impressed and continues making offers to the Ghost Rider.

Outside the barrier, Doctor Strange casts spells to try and get past the mystical barrier but all he can do is sense great weakness from the other side as the heroes on the otherside begin to falter. Strange fears that they won’t be able to stop the spell from spreading. Attacking the barrier with his trident, the Son of Satan tells the sorcerer to be ready because Hell is coming.

Recurring Characters

Agent Venom, Ghost Rider, X-23, Red Hulk, Blackheart, Gari Oyle, Doctor Strange, Son of Satan, Johnny Blaze, Symbiote Warriors, Antithesis (Ichor, X-666, the Evangelist, Encephalon)

Continuity Notes

1. For more on Hawkeye’s past attempts to contain the Ghost Rider, see Ghost Rider (vol. 7) #7-8.

2. Harrison Thompson recently died of cirrhosis of the liver in Venom (vol. 2) #7.

3. Harrison was a lifelong alcoholic which was first revealed in Spectacular Spider-Man #-1. Flash lost his legs while serving in the army in Amazing Spider-Man #574.

4. X-23 was created out of Wolverine’s genetic material. For more on her origins see X-23 #1-6.

5. This was caused when Adam (yeah, the guy from the Bible) tried to wipe away all sin from the people of Nicaragua in Ghost Rider (vol. 7) #3.