In some comic book situations, strength just isn't enough. In times like those, it only makes sense for the Red Hulk to add the powers of the Ghost Rider’s Spirit of Vengeance, to himself in order to battle the forces of Hell threatening to overtake the planet.
In the six-issue crossover, Blackheart, the entire situation quickly escalates as the rookie Ghost Rider is tricked into opening a portal to Hell, releasing all sorts of demons and other diabolical characters.
While the spread of evil is held at bay temporarily, our unlikely team of killers and vigilantes work to fight through Blackheart’s offers and advances... but are eventually killed and deported to Hell itself, where Mephisto releases them from their idyllic but disturbing torture fantasies to bargain. He offers them the chance to return to Earth and stop Blackheart in return for a group favor, to be paid whenever Mephisto finds a task worthy of their skills. All four of the involved agree and they are returned to the demonically transformed Vegas whose mystical quarantine is about to expire and doom the rest of the Earth.
Red Hulk and the others interrupt Blackheart’s ceremony, but influenced by the overexposure of Hell’s indulgence of their most basic sins and impulses, Alejandra turns on the others by stealing the Spirit for herself around the same time Flash begins losing his control of the symbiote. Uninhibited, Venom then steals the contained spirit, hungry for the demonic power upgrade. He is stopped by Blackheart who throws the heroes out the window... before looking down to see Alejandra alive... hitching a ride with a massive behemoth with the combined powers of Red Hulk, Venom, and Ghost Rider speeding up the side of the building.
In a world that has the artistic qualities of a horror B-movie, Rick Remender keeps the story moving but in realistic dimensions as these characters navigate an environment that thrives on the evil it enhances in all of them. With everything looking even more bleak and doomed than before, our questionable saviors pull through with one of the greatest wild cards ever seen. Riding a massive flaming motorcycle, Ross juggles an array of combined abilities as he wails on Blackheart and provides one of the crucial blows necessary to stopping him and his plans once and for all.
In the end, our heroes defeat Blackheart and put (almost) everything back to the way it was. It’s sad that the terrifying trifecta only had barely an issue of adventure, but it was still fun nonetheless. Stranger characters in Marvel have found a way to come back and considering all four of them still owe a debt to Mephisto, it could just be a matter of where and when.
