Ultimate Avengers 2 #6

Issue Details

Synopsis

CRIME AND PUNISHMENT PART 6 Ghost Rider has the winning advantage over his nemesis Robert Blackthorne, known as Vengeance, but is shot off him by S.H.I.E.L.D. soldiers led by the Punisher and Hawkeye. Blackthorne "thanks" them in return by blasting them away. Just as Blackthorne towers over Ghost Rider, Tyrone Cash grabs him as he hijacks his motorcycle and crash themselves into a gas station, causing a huge explosion. Blackthorne emerges unharmed and berates a weaken Tyrone for attempting that stint to kill him. He is then chain-roped by Ghost Rider and takes him and himself to a nearby church to "make [his] peace with God." Blackthorne frantically criticizes what he's doing as their presence inside holy sanctuary will weaken their damned themselves. Ghost Rider doesn't care as he pummels him, as they both transform back into their human selves. Blackthorne reaches for a candlestick and bashes Johnny Blaze off him. As he prepares to strike down Johnny, Blackthorne is shot in the shoulder by the Punisher. Blackthorne replies Castle for what he did, but only to be shot dead in the head.  Johnny Blaze gets up and held at gunpoint by Castle, who states to him that Blaze is still to be killed according to his superiors. However, Johnny tells him that he wouldn't shoot him as his actions were justifiable to avenge Roxanne Simpson's death and that he isn't too dissimilar from Castle. Johnny leaves.   Castle leaves the church and finds Hawkeye, telling him that he let the Ghost Rider go and his reasons for doing so. Hawkeye is shocked to hear this, but Castle lectures him that his actions are the same as the Ghost Rider and that both of them never ever lay their hands on innocents. S.H.I.E.L.D. helicopters appear, as Castle demands Hawkeye to know where the inhibitor implant that S.H.I.E.L.D. put in him is, so he can remove it and be free. Hawkeye punches Castle out as a group of S.H.I.E.L.D. soldiers arrive on the scene.   At Waukegan, Illinois, Johnny happily watches Roxanne Simpson and her new family play in a park as he sits with Mephisto. The demon was honest and kept his word in bringing Roxanne back, without even remembering her murder. Mephisto points out to Johnny he must continue sending souls in order to keep Roxanne alive as part of the deal. Johnny consents, as it is worth being the Ghost Rider.   Meanwhile, twenty miles away from New York City, Hawkeye and Nick Fury observe a scene of the wreckage of an armor convoy that was escorting the Punisher, who escaped twenty minutes ago. Fury acknowledges the fact to Hawkeye that S.H.I.E.L.D. couldn't track the Punisher, as his implant, in the form of a tooth, was knocked out when Hawkeye slugged Castle. Fury then knows that Hawkeye helped the Punisher escape.   As for the Punisher himself, he has left America for Russia, where he is again able to track down the Russian criminal the Red Hammer, and takes him down.