It's an extremely simple, straightforward story. Writer Howard Mackie certainly knew what he was doing in terms of proposing a comic book. It was probably just a happy coincidence that, in the early 1990s, these were also three of Marvel's most popular characters. The premise of Hearts of Darkness was that the three characters whose names came before the sub-title-Ghost Rider, Wolverine and Punisher-represented a new* breed of hero with levels of darkness in their hearts that pushed them so close to evil that the demon prince Blackheart thought he could tempt the three of them to assist him in assassinating his father, Mephisto who was, of course, one of Marvel's various Satan analogues. Turns out they did so by including a sequel I didn't know existed until I started reading this new edition, the 1994 Dark Design (plus a five-page Marvel Age interview with Hearts pencil artist John Romita Jr). I wonder what he would make of this new trade paperback edition, which costs $15.99 hell, having read the 1991 one-shot, I couldn't imagine how Marvel could get away with that price tag. My grandfather, for whom comic books used to cost a dime, was taken aback by the $4.95 price tag (which was actually steep even for 1991), but ultimately relented. My grandfather and my siblings were shopping downtown, back when my hometown's downtown still had stores in it, including a comics shop, and my little brother, then considering maybe getting into comics, asked my grandfather to buy it for him. Hey, I remember this one! It was an extra-long prestige format comic published in 1991.

Punisher vs ghost rider marvel heroes