Marvel Comics Presents #106

One of the stories mercifully comes to a close in this issue. The curtains close on the demon-filled Ghost Rider/Doctor Strange story. I would have liked the Wolverine/Nightcrawler tale and the Gerry Conway Young Gods epic to have ended this issue. But I understand why you can't have all 3 of your multi-parters end in the same volume. That kinda defeats the purpose of a rotating anthology title.

I was very intrigued by the one-shot story. It's about a one-eyed priest called Gabriel, the Devil-Hunter. If you were to call this guy a D-lister, I'd say you were being generous. A quick Marvel Wiki search reveals that Gabriel has only made 22 appearances in comics. 13 of those appearances were in the 1990s Damien Hellstrom horror series. His very first appearances were in a long-forgotten Marvel horror magazine, NOT COMIC, called Haunt of Horror.

Anyways, this story isn't memorable to me as I became an instant fan or anything like that. This issue was full of 1990s Marvel Comics cliches- gritty, grim and poorly drawn. But I swear I can see a character from Vertigo Comics swirling around in this. If Garth Ennis' Preacher- AKA Jesse Custer- wasn't birthed from this Devil-Hunter character, I'll eat my hat. Both characters are preachers with questionable faith, they both wear clerical collars and they both will at one point or another lose an eye! 

Yeah, I don't think I'll be dining on a fedora any time soon...

Rating: 5 out of 10 stars.