"Hell hath no fury like a flaming skeleton on a motorcycle." Ghost Rider is one of the earlier 'thriller' heroes of the
Marvel Universe, as in, heroes that deal with the underworld baddies like demons and the likes of Mephisto. The premise is basically:
Badass Biker with a
Flaming Skull for a Head. There are two famous Ghost Riders in the universe that the audience knows.
The first is Johnathon 'Johnny' Blaze, who first appeared in
"Marvel Spotlight" #5 (August, 1972). A stunt motorcyclist who trained under his dead father's friend Craig 'Crash' Simpson. He also became the fiancee of Crash's daughter Roxanne. His mother was alive, as well, but she abandoned him, taking away his brother Daniel and sister Barbara. Due to the abandonment, Johnny tended to supress the memory about them, so it would seem life would be good for him...
Until one event where Johnny slipped off on his motorcycle stunt training, costing the life of Crash's wife, a mother figure to Johnny. This caused Johnny to swear off motorcycling, and deteriorated his relationship with Crash as Johnny refused to take public stunts, preferring to train in the shadows. Then, Crash revealed that he had cancer, but even then Johnny still refused. Trying to find a way out of his impasse, Johnny turned to the occult and eventually learned of a spell that could summon
Satan. That spell summoned Mephisto (though it has recently been retconned to be Lucifer who made the deal with Johnny), whom Johnny asked to cure Crash's cancer. Mephisto upheld his bargain and cured Crash...
... only to have him dead in an accident at the very next stunt he performed.
Obviously, Mephisto demanded Johnny hold to his bargain and agree to become his slave... except Roxanne did a
Big Damn Heroes and expelled Mephisto with
The Power of Love. Unfortunately, Mephisto already bonded Johnny with the spirit of Zarathos, a vengeful demon (angel after the retcon) that he defeated in the past, turning him into the Ghost Rider. Both souls defied Mephisto, but eventually came to clash in who was to have control of the body. After much struggling, Johnny managed to seal the spirit of Zarathos and live in peace. For a short while, at least, until the next Ghost Rider appeared...
The second
Ghost Rider is Daniel Ketch, actually the half-brother of Johnny Blaze. He first appeared in
"Ghost Rider" vol. 2 #1 (May, 1990). When attacked by thugs to protect his sister Barbara, a touch to his sister's pendant suddenly bonded him with a spirit
Kale, turning him into the new Ghost Rider. Johnny took note of this and eventually became Dan's
Big Brother Mentor of sorts in his adventures.
However, both Johnny and Danny eventually found themselves at odds and the two Ghost Riders clashed in battle. Meanwhile, an angel called Zadkiel was taking advantage of events on Earth for his own plans.
It's eventually
revealed that the Ghost Rider has quite another origin from what Johnny and Danny were told: the Spirits of Vengeance are black-ops agents for
Heaven, and there have been multiple Spirits across the cultures of the world since Biblical times. Thanks to Zadkiel, though, there are now only two - Johnny and Danny. And it's down to them to stop Zadkiel's ultimate scheme...
As of 2011, Johnny Blaze has officially given up the mantle of the Ghost Rider, letting Alejandra become the new host of the Spirit of Vengeance.
Ghost Rider provides the examples of:
- Anti-Hero: As the Ghost Rider, Johnny Blaze ended up Type IV when Zarathos gained more control and Dan Ketch is Type III.
- Anti-Hero Substitute: In the 90s there was a short time when they tried to replace Ghost Rider with his Darker and Edgier counterpart and ex-enemy, Vengeance. Obviously, it didn't work, because you can't make somebody so dark much darker without coming out as ridiculous.
- Awesome Mc Cool Name: Johnny Blaze. "John Blaze" is a slang term meaning "cool", but became such long after the character's creation.
- Badass Biker
- Badass Longcoat: Danny Ketch dons one as Ghost Rider once he gets out from under Zadkiel's thumb.
- Badass Normal: Johnny Blaze after he gets rid of the spirit of Zarathos. He later becomes a Badass Abnormal due to some Cyborging.
- Bat Family Crossover: Back in the 90s, there were four series that were launched by an arc called Rise of the Midnight Sons (Not surprisingly, Ghost Rider got two of the issues in that arc). The names of these series were Spirits of Vengeance, Morbius, Nightstalkers and Darkhold. There was also a comic that came out called Midnight Sons Unlimited, which came out once every four months. The two crossovers that happened between all of these series were Midnight Massacre and Siege of Darkness. Siege of Darkness is an interesting case since it also had two issues of Doctor Strange and four issues of Marvel Comics Presents in it. It ended in the fourth issue of Midnight Sons Unlimited, which led into Vengeance becoming the new Ghost Rider for four issues. Whew.
- Body Horror: Skinbender's specialty.
- Call It Karma: The Penance Stare. If you look into GR's eyes while he's within an arm's reach of you, he can force you to experience every iota of pain you ever inflicted on others without cause in your entire life. Your average hood just realizes he should go home and rethink his life. A Complete Monster will be reduced to a vegetable - unless they don't have a soul. The latter means GR just slaughters them with his bare hands.
- Notable exception is a religious fanatic in serivce of Zadakiel, who has no supernatural means to protect himself from Penace Stare, yet remained unaffected - his fanaticism was so strong even experiencing every single atrocity he ever committed couldn't make him realize he is anything but God's holy warrior.
- Capcom vs. Whatever: Will finally be joining the roster in the Updated Rerelease of Marvel Vs Capcom 3, Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3.
- Chain Pain: In the original comics, a magical flaming chain manifests when Johnny Blaze or Dan Ketch transform into Ghost Rider.
- Chekhov's Gunman: One of Deathwatch's ninja mooks in the third issue of 90s Ghost Rider.
- Cool Bike: One of the most triumphant examples. It's interesting to note that Johnny and Danny's bikes are of wildly different designs, yet are actually fairly on par when it comes to looking cool - Johnny's is of the Harley mold popular in the time the character was created, while Danny's is much more modern and in general much bulkier.
- Creator Provincialism: Played mostly straight until the recent series where the new caretaker tells Johnny that every country has its own version of Ghost Rider. That is, until Danny went and took them all.
- Crossover: Ghost Rider usually keeps to his own corner of the Marvel Universe, but Danny has been known as a member of "the New Fantastic Four", a brief replacement for the real FF made up of Marvel's most popular heroes: himself, Spider-Man, Wolverine, and the Hulk. Recently there's a crossover with Alejandra, Venom (the Flash Thompson version), Red Hulk, and X-23 in an obvious New FF tribute.
- Cyborg: Plenty of those in the 90s issues.
- In Marvel 2099 timeline, this includes a cybernetic version of the Ghost Rider itself!
- Damsel In Distress: Roxanne Simpson's role in the earlier issues.
- Dark is Not Evil
- Deal with the Devil
- Death Glare/Eye Beams: The Pennance Stare (depending on how it's depicted), which inflicts its victims with all the pain that they have inflicted on the innocent. Unlike most Death Glares, it can kill if the target has caused enough pain and suffering on others. In the 90's Fantastic Four cartoon, Ghost Rider floored Galactus with it.
- And yet, in another story, trying to use the Penance Stare on Venom caused it to backfire, because... well, apparently just because of Venom's alien costume. Go figure.
- Death Seeker: Suicide and Death Ninja.
- Everything's Better with Monkeys: Centurious' flunkie Carver is always accompanied by his cyborg monkey.
- Evil Albino: Blackout
- Flaming Skulls
- Fad Super: Early on Ghost Rider was heavily associated with motorcycle stunt riding, popular back in 1972 when he was created, and also an early forerunner of the horror comics fad Marvel was into at the time.
- Gadgeteer Genius: Eli and his son Quinn.
- Green Lantern Corps: After the Heaven retcon. It makes sense when you think about it.
- Hellfire: Ghost Rider exacts his vengeance on evil with this.
- Henshin Hero: All the Ghost Riders have a normal human form and can only access their powers when transformed into a Spirit of Vengeance.
- Heroic Dolphins: Ghost Rider was saved from a killer shark by dolphins.
- The Mind Is a Plaything of the Body
- My Horse Is A Motorbike
- Name's the Same: Initially, in the late 40s, there was a western comic book character called Ghost Rider, who later had his own Marvel published magazine in the 60s. After the introduction of the modern Ghost Rider in the 70s, the character was renamed Night Rider and then Phantom Rider - though this was after a few clumsy attempts to integrate him into the Ghost Rider mythos properly.
- Nigh Invulnerable: Ghost Rider can shrug off even the most brutal non-mystical attacks as if they're nothing. Even the friggin HULK'S brute strength can't keep him down for long. GR is also immune to any kind of attack that requires the victim to have a soul except for his own penance stare.
- Ninja Pirate Zombie Robot: A leather-clad skeleton on fire who rode a motorcycle made of flames. And that was just the first incarnation of the character.
- Painful Transformation: Complete with Transformation Trauma.
- Phlebotinum Rebel
- Playing with Fire
- Prophetic Name: Johnny Blaze.
- Redheaded Hero: Johnny Blaze.
- Retcon: A pretty bad case. First Blaze gets a whole new bunch of relatives he didn't know he had, then even the origin of the Ghost Riders is completely changed. And let's not get even started on whether it was Satan, Mephisto, or Lucifer, or all of them, who was behind everything.
- Scissors Cuts Rock: The Ghost Rider manages to defeat water-based powers with his fiery abilities since he can both make fire hot enough to evaporate water and hell fire, which doesn't need air. Some opponents have used some unnatural water sources to counter him though. Such as when Water Wizard got his powers enhanced by...a deal with the devil...
- Shotguns Are Just Better: Blaze has a hellfire shotgun.
- Shovel Strike: Specialty of the Caretaker.
- Skull for a Head: One that's on fire, no less.
- Spikes of Villainy: Vengeance.
- Terror Hero: Type 4 and 5.
- Talking Is a Free Action
- Vapor Trail
- Variable Length Chain: Dan Ketch's weapon of choice as the Ghost Rider.
- Weak Sauce Weakness: Because the Penance Stare's ability to cause pain is so powerful, it has several of these. If the victim has more than two eyes, Ghost Rider can't use it on them. It won't hurt people who do not have souls and if they can't actually feel pain it is worthless. It also will not work on lords of hell. And if the target has a penance stare too, he'll get it right back. Ghost Rider's strong enough to beat most targets regardless but these at least make him do more than look at an opponent disapprovingly to beat him.
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