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Vector Vengers: Vengeance - Midnight Sons — Description

It's the spooky Halloween season, so let's visit with a dark corner of the Marvel Universe in the 90s: the world of The Midnight Sons!*

A former marine who joined the NYPD, Detective Mike Badilino was chosen by the Mayor of NYC to lead a special task force to apprehend the suspected vigilante, Ghost Rider. A job to which Badilino took a brutal approach. Very brutal - killing criminals in cold blood brutal. Which seemed like a very shocking thing back then, before we the internet showed this sort of thing was kinda the norm. heavy sigh

Anyway...things went from bad to worse for Badilino, as he pursued Ghost Rider for months, only to fail again and again in progressively humiliating ways. Eventually, while seeking "extra-legal" help in killing ol' Flamehead, Mike drew the attention of someone much worse: the demonic Hell-Lord, Mephisto. Mephisto used his dark powers to rip the Mike to pieces and reconstruct him as a weapon against the Spirit of Vengeance. In fact, he turned Badilino into a dark mockery of Ghost Rider...another flaming-skulled motorcycle-riding creature of revenge, with similar powers but with an exaggerated version of Mike's own brutality. He was now Vengeance and his only goal was killing his "White Whale." Kind of on-the-nose, but sure, fine.

As it later turned out, Badilino was of a similar bloodline to both Danny Ketch and Johnny Blaze, and this new darker version of Ghost Rider was actually his birthright. While he remained a violent jerk, he began to mostly fight alongside his former enemies against the forces of evil. Yay?

But let's not forget...HE WAS ALREADY A MURDEROUS COP...but he could sell action figures for Marvel, so all forgiven? Well, not so much. He later went on a few murderous rampages as Vengeance, then, as penance, blew himself and another villain named Anton Hellgate (again, very on-the-nose name) to smithereens. And upon dying, went straight to Hell. Because, ya know...murderer.

*Do not repost my art without permission