I'm willing to give Halloween 2 a pass for it, but otherwise...

If you watch a ton of cheapass B-horror films--and I certainly do!--you are going to see a number of them contain a scene where a character is either watching, or switches past, Night of the Living Dead. Because of a copyright foul-up, it fell into the public domain, so anybody can use it, and seemingly does. (I don't know if this page with examples is still updated, because it should be full to overflowing...) I don't usually have a problem with "they're coming to get you, Barbara!" but I don't love this one.

From 1997, What If? #95, "Broken Soul" Written by Ivan Velez Jr, pencils by Eric Battle, inks by Steve Moncuse. 

At this point in What If?, not only was the Watcher no longer presenting the stories, but the covers rarely seemed to have the simple pitch-line of prior issues. It somehow makes the book more insular: instead of having the Watcher watch--er, walk you through how things went down in this universe, you're just expected to already be buying and consuming every single book Marvel puts out! This one is, um, what if Mephisto corrupted Danny Ketch to destroy Ghost Rider? Mephisto knows the rules for Ghost Rider, that his host must be of his direct lineage; and knows how to manipulate that: speaking to Danny from childhood, through "his trusted teddy, Mr. M," Mephisto appears to turn Danny bad. (Unless he always was here, I guess.) At age 6, Danny sets a fire that kills his parents, primarily because he locked them in. By age 17, he's on his way to the police academy, as well as an accomplished serial killer. (Jennifer Kale, no!) Danny's sister, Barb, has just found out what she long suspected: she and Danny had been adopted; and they even have an older brother, who, miles away, is having nightmares of flames engulfing his own kids: Johnny Blaze.

Barb writes a letter to Johnny, who reads it, then tears it up. She tries to explain to Danny, who reveals his own secret: he's lost track of how many people he's killed. After he kills Barb, Mephisto's voice guides him to a mysterious motorcycle, and orders him to touch it. The Ghost Rider appears, but not the traditional black-clad rider: this one's in red, with a crazier skull that would probably be a pain in the ass to draw on the regular. Finding Barb's body, the Rider is distraught, then furious when attacked by the caretaker's dogs. (Small-c caretaker, not the recurring character!) Unable to "control my own violence," the Rider knows something is very wrong, and turns back into Danny. Mephisto advises him, he now has "the power to destroy at your leisure and to forever escape harm and recrimination." Now, Danny could murder, then let out the Ghost Rider, who would appear at the scene of a murder, and be unable to find anyone to blame for it. The "Spirit of Vengeance" was becoming the "spirit of scapegoats," and powerless to do anything about it. While Danny enjoys his beautiful wife, great job, and "extracurricular activities," Mephisto has one more job for him: take care of his older brother.

The ghost of Barb attempts to warn Johnny, but too late, as Danny has already turned on the gas and blown out the pilot light. The Blaze family barely escapes with their lives, but now face the insane Danny. (Aside: I could not for the life of me remember Johnny's wife's name, or if she was ever named, but he married Roxanne Simpson, right? What are his kids' names? Why do they seem to have not grown at all this issue, which has to take a couple years from when we first see them to the trailer fire? And why do the kids have to share a bunk in the trailer?) After catching a knife in the hand, Danny swears he'll be back to murder them later, but now they have to deal with the Ghost Rider! Who, doesn't put up a lot of fight, instead asking Johnny to kill him. With the Rider dead, Mephisto's fun is over, since Danny is left alone, in an empty void, for eternity. Well, that's worth a chuckle for him, at least. 

 

This stretch of What If? continues the book's longstanding tradition of "and then everybody died!" but usually in a more amped-up, grimdark manner. I really should blog #98 one of these years...