Comic Book / All-New Ghost Rider

Drive ANGRy

This is the tale of an ordinary kid named Robbie Reyes, whose life is about to become a hell of a lot less ordinary. Get in. LET'S RIDE.

Robbie Reyes was an ordinary teen living with and taking care of his younger brother Gabe in the rougher part of East Los Angeles while also working part-time as a mechanic. After a particularly dangerous stint with a client's car, just before he loses his life, he's reborn with a body of bones and a head aflame, becoming the Ghost Rider.

Written by Felipe Smith and initially drawn by Tradd Moore, All-New Ghost Rider began in 2014 and ran for twelve issues, ending because of declining sales and the departure of Moore from its creative team.

Following the conclusion of ANGR, Robbie returned for the Secret Wars tie-in limited series Ghost Racers, which saw him competing against his fellow Ghost Riders in deadly races held within the capitol of Battleworld.

As part of 2016's Marvel NOW, relaunch, Robbie received a new limited series —simply titled Ghost Rider— with Smith as its writer, Danilo Beyruth on art, and Moore providing back-up stories. He later appeared in the 2017 Marvel Legacy one-shot, teasing his later membership as an Avenger a year later.

Outside of comics, Robbie joined the cast of ABC's Marvel Cinematic Universe-set Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. — portrayed there by Gabriel Luna — for its fourth season, playing a major role in its "Ghost Rider" arc. In May 2019, it was announced that Luna would reprise the role for his own Ghost Rider series on Hulu the following year. However, it was announced months later that the series would not be going forwards due to creative differences.

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All-New Ghost Rider provides examples of:

• A-Team Firing: With some help from a supernaturally-fortified car, most of the bullets rained down on the Ghost Rider have no effect.
• Accidental Murder: With all of his other powers ineffective against him, Robbie tries to use the Penance Stare on a rampaging Starbrand to hopefully horrify him into surrendering only for the former hero to literally EXPLODE with guilt.
• Accidental Misnaming: After he defeats Zabo/Hyde and his mercenaries in front of a large crowd of people, our protagonist becomes a local legend known as... "Skeleton Driver" or "Robot Racer" or whatever the people think he's called since neither he nor they know about the Ghost Rider legacy.
• Affirmative-Action Legacy: Latino-American. Acknowledged by Dr. Zabo and Mr. Hyde, who identify Robbie as a new Rider.
  • Neither he nor Eli know what or who the Ghost Rider is at first though, until Johnny Blaze explains it to them.
• All There in the Manual: Eli's last name (Morrow) and how he's a human spirit are explained in the comic's recap pages.
• Alliterative Name: Roberto 'Robbie' Reyes.
• Alternate Identity Amnesia: The morning after Robbie first becomes Ghost Rider, he finds himself at home in his bed, puzzled at what exactly went on the night before. When looking in the mirror, he notices his bruises from the thugs beating him up are completely gone and that his right eye is orange, wondering if he has pink eye. That night when he lays down, his curiosity of the previous night compels him to sneak back to the garage to take the car for another spin.
• Angrish: What Robbie's reduced to in anticipation of being busted by the police for street racing.
• Anti-Hero: Of the Nominal Hero variety, evolving into a Reluctant Hero under the tutelage of the Avengers.
• Ascended Meme: Robbie/Kamala Khan became a ship so popular that Marvel decided to play along.
• Back from the Dead: He gets shot to death and set on fire in his first issue, but immediately comes back as the new Ghost Rider.
• Badass Driver: He wasn't the first Rider not to be a rider by this point though, just the first to be a main character.
• Badass Normal: Subverted; before getting powers, he tries to protect his brother from some bullies with his bare hands, but is unable to do anything once they pull out a gun and gets beaten up.
• Big Brother Instinct: Nearly everything he does is motivated by his desire to protect his brother. When Robbie sees a group of punks harassing his little brother, he takes all three of them on without a second thought.
• Big Brother Worship: Gabe lets Robbie know he thinks he's amazing as Robbie carries him home from their mugging.
• Big Damn Heroes: Robbie during the climax of Engines of Vengeance.
• Big "NO!": Robbie screams one when his ruined life flashes before his eyes.
• Black Comedy Rape: One of the vengeful people that gang up on the defeated Zabo at the end of Engines of Vengeance is wielding a broom handle at a certain angle.
• Blade on a Rope: Robbie's variation of the Hell Chain has blades attached to both ends. The design notes hint that he can swap them out for different attachments including hammers and tire irons.
• Bland-Name Product: Gabe has several comics with no big name or real-life heroes in them. He's a big fan of Phantom Laser and Grouper Toad.
• Blood from the Mouth: Twice in the first issue. The first after a three-on-one beating, the second after being riddled with bulletholes. Robbie can't catch a break.
• Car Fu: How Ghost Rider combats a few would-be assassins in the beginning of the second issue.
• Chase Scene: As his street racing opponents peel away, Robbie realizes he's in the middle of one with a chopper.
• Civvie Spandex: Robbie's racing outfit coincidentally looks like Johnny Blaze's original outfit.
  • The cover of issue #8, where the two meet (and fight), has them wearing the same jacket.
• Clean Cut: What Robbie turns some rats and a cat who ate Zabo's pills into with his chains and attachments.
• Comes Great Responsibility: One of overarching themes of the Legend storyline as it examines whether Robbie should use his powers solely to benefit himself and Gabe or utilize them for a larger and possibly heroic agenda.
• Comic-Book Fantasy Casting: Robbie's design is based off of Zayn Malik, a former member of One Direction.
• Contrasting Sequel Main Character: He shares several similarities with Danny, but has a much more different relationship with Eli than Blaze does with Zarathos. In comparison to that Spirit of Vengeance, Eli's pronounced dislike of everyone around him seems rather quaint, especially when you consider that he's just a regular human spirit.
• Cool Car: Robbie's "borrowed" 1969 Dodge Charger definitely counts. Said car is even possessed by the Ghost Rider spirit.
• Crapsack World: The neighborhood where Robbie and Gabe live in is so bad that Robbie tells Gabe to never go outside when he hears "firecrackers"^note aka gunshots... and his fateful step onto the road to becoming the new Ghost Rider happens when he decides in desperation to get-rich-quick by winning a street race in the hopes that they can move out.
  • Part of the issue between him and Eli is that Robbie doesn't disagree about how bad things are, he'd just rather get himself and Gabe out than lay waste to it.
• Cruel Mercy: Robbie lets a depowered Zabo live, but leaves his fate to the people he just attacked.
• Curb-Stomp Battle: Grumpy's fight with Hyde, with Grumpy's loss. Morrow himself ends up on the receiving end of one during his fight against John Blaze. For all of Eli's bravado, Blaze easily proves why you don't mess with a veteran GR, slamming the newcomer around like a ragdoll. Morrow quickly realizes he's outmatched and resorts to a sneaky cheapshot before making his exit stage left.
• Dark Is Not Evil: With Robbie, it's just really brutal and violent. Averted with Eli Morrow, who IS a definite case of Dark Is Evil.
• Death Faked for You: Ghost Rider flies off an overpass and explodes midair, leaving the mercenaries to believe that Robbie is dead.
• Death Glare: Manifests the Penance Stare in Marvel Legacy #1, much to his surprise, as it hadn't been a part of his powerset before.
• Defeat Equals Explosion: The mercenaries express their disbelief that Robbie survived due to the dozens of bullet holes his corpse should've been sporting. After Ghost Rider explodes in a spectacular fashion, they report that the hostile has been neutralized.
• Didn't Think This Through: His plan to get Gabe and himself out of East LA? Steal a racing car and win an incredibly large prize in an underground street race. Once cops start chasing him, he suddenly realizes that if he gets arrested, Gabe will be left completely alone, with nobody to take care of him.
  • Freak Out: Result of above realization.
  • Eli's plan to attack the enhanced Grumpy. When that goes south, it's up to Robbie to find a way to deal with this monstrous new opponent.
• Dissonant Serenity: The Rider can be eerily quiet in his fights.
• Evil All Along: Eli Morrow. Russian Mob hitman. Satanist. Just plain scum.
• Evil Uncle: Eli is also Rob's uncle and the one who pushed his own sister down the stair while pregnant with Gabe. Thus causing Gabe's handicap nature
• Faux Affably Evil: Dr. Zabo offers the leader of the mercenaries a drink from a tube and some vodka, insisting that they need to celebrate the recovery of his defective pills. He then escorts the leader into the back room and comes out alone, covered in blood.
  • After Ghost Rider uses the Penance Stare against Eli/Robbie, Robbie is conked out when he returns to school only for Eli Morrow to take over Robbie's body... and turn out to be a homicidal former Russian hitman with scores to settle.
• Finger Poke of Doom: A mercenary attempts to fire a rocket at Robbie during the finale of Engines of Vengeance. It explodes in his face after Robbie causes it to detonate by quickly tapping its front with the tip of his chain knives.
• Foil: Zabo/Hyde to Robbie/Eli as illustrated here
  • Robbie's Jerkass classmate Guero is also set up as one. Both are said to be charismatic leader-types, but Robbie wants to improve his neighbourhood and clearly dislikes the thug life Status Quo, while Guero just wants money and power and reinforces the Status Quo. Appearance-wise, Guero's a blonde, lighter skinned teen dressed in bright, baggy clothes and happens to wear a crucifix while Robbie is a brunette who wears dark, tight outfits and has a decidedly infernal spiritual connection.
  • Calvin Zabo and Robbie's new substitute teacher, Daniel Wakeford.
• Foreshadowing: When Robbie's street racing, a newspaper swirling in the wind talks about a maximum-security prison escapee. He features in the very next issue.
• Four Eyes, Zero Soul: Dr. Zabo is imposing and cruel when it comes to his ruthless murder squad.
• The Freelance Shame Squad: When Mr. Wakeford tells his students that he was late because his iPad was stolen, the entire classroom breaks out into uproarious laughter, with one student pointing at him, while Robbie stares straight ahead, deadpan. Of course, one of the aforementioned classmates, Guero, is the one who stole it; the same one who attacked Gabe and beat up Robbie the other day.
• Funetik Aksent: One of the mercenaries has this when he tries to pronounce "bon appetit": "Bone-apah-teet!!"
• Glowing Eyes of Doom: Ghost Rider.
• Good Is Not Nice: Outside of his flaming skull, leather getup and flaming car, there's no heart of gold inside this skeleton. When pursuing some hired guns, he's relentless and merciless. Then again, it turns out that Evil's been piggybacking in Good's head...
• Grand Theft Me: Eli takes over Robbie's body after the Penance Stare weakens the both of them.
• Haunted Technology: Robbie's car is haunted by the entity that makes him the Ghost Rider.
• Healing Factor: Robbie gains one after being possessed and transforming into the Ghost Rider. Notably, the bullet wounds, and also the bruises he sustained from the bullies beating him up, are gone the next morning, with heterochromia iridum (different iris colors) the only difference. At school, said bullies even mention his face looks much better than they left it the previous day.
  • This also extends to the car itself.

• Hidden Depths: Seems to be a quiet, antisocial tough guy at first, but it quickly becomes apparent he cannot take the conditions he and his brother must live in and probably had to quickly grow up. Also, early advertising emphasized "cool underground street racer". Turns out it's not something he does for fun, but a desperate way to earn money to give him and his brother a better life.
• Hope Spot: The beginning of Legend has Robbie the happiest he's ever been, using his powers to make life better for him and Gabe... it doesn't last.
• Humans Are Bastards: Or to quote Eli's opinion on the matter, rubbish.
  • The only exceptions to this mindset seem to be Gabe, who Eli is fond of or at least knows better than to speak poorly of, and Daniel Wakeford, who Eli finds difficult to insult due to his Nice Guy nature.
• Hypocritical Humor: Eli goads Robbie into attacking an enhanced Grumpy head-on only to chide him for relying on brute force when it doesn't work.
• I'm a Humanitarian: Dr. Zabo eats the original leader of the mercenaries.
• Immune to Bullets: Bullets crumple and flatten against the Rider. The car's bulletproof to boot.
• Implacable Man: He can teleport wherever his car is. The vehicle itself can explode and transport itself elsewhere, and it is inexplicably capable of ambushing opponents during fights since it can drive itself.
• Important Haircut: At the beginning of issue 4, Robbie gives himself of buzz-cut, with the implication of Eli's gradual influence on Robbie. This reveals scar-like marks on his head/forehead that Eli claims are a sign that he and Robbie's power and bond are growing stronger.
• Inspirationally Disadvantaged: Some of the best scenes in the comic are Robbie being a great big brother to his developmentally-stunted younger brother Gabe.
• It Only Works Once: Eli claims that his partnership with Robbie will end if he's killed a second time.
• Kubrick Stare: As Robbie sits in class with utter pandemonium having broken out around him, he stares darkly ahead, completely silent.
• Laser-Guided Karma: Guero Valdez, the leader of the thugs who stole Gabe's wheelchair and mocked his disability, winds up being crippled and confined to a wheelchair himself.
• Lightning Bruiser: The titular All-New Ghost Rider. The car helps.
• Ludicrous Gibs: What the former leader of the mercenaries is reduced to after his failure.
• Mark of the Supernatural: After being possessed and becoming the Ghost Rider, Robbie's right eye becomes orange. Not knowing the reason, he attributes it to getting pink eye.
• Miles Gloriosus: Eli tries to promote himself as a powerful diabolical entity that can grant Robbie's wishes, but while his gifts aren't bad per se, he's clearly out of his depth, and during a particularly bad fight he meekly suggests they quickly think of a plan because he really doesn't want to die again.
• Meaningful Name: Guero, the Jerkass Gang Banger of the comic, is white skinned as befitting his nickname.
• Mirror Monster: The form Eli takes on, first appearing in a blink-and-you'll-miss-it panel before Robbie takes the car out for a joyride. He appears as a character proper when Robbie looks at the hood about an issue later, speaking back to him.
• More Dakka: In keeping with A-Team Firing above, one of the hired mercenaries shoots an RPG at Ghost Rider when their bullets fail to leave a scratch.
• Multi-Armed and Dangerous: Drug dealer Grumpy grows an extra set of arms after eating dozens of Zabo's pills.
• Mundane Utility: The supernatural nature of the car gives it superior handling, speed and acceleration than other cars, which Robbie uses to win street races. Eli does not approve how his powers are being used for street racing.
• My God, What Have I Done?: Though he's taken lives before that point (Grumpy's two thugs who took back the car, shotting Robbie's boss in the process), Robbie is beside himself when he accidentally murders a fellow street racer out of desperation due to Eli's goading.
  • To a slightly lesser extent, earlier in the same issue, Robbie accidentally knocks over a biker punk's motorcycle at a gas station, something the punk and his two mates had a problem with. When they lay their hands on him, Robbie goes all out and fights back. Eli then takes control, influencing Robbie to Curb-Stomp them into a bloody pulp. Before he goes any further, Robbie comes to and is freaked out at the whole mess as he drives off scared. Johnny Blaze, who's been on the trail of this new Ghost Rider, witnesses this scene and follows him, leading to the confrontation after the above event with the racer.
• Naïve Newcomer: To the Avengers, with the contrast between him and the veterans being pretty clear. Carol Danvers points out after the Celestial Incident that yes, he saved the world, and it was pretty epic, but it was also his first time doing so - once you start doing it regularly, then you've hit the big time. And to be fair, he stepped up.
• Narrative Profanity Filter: In true-to-life fashion, Robbie, his peers, and a whole bunch of other people swear often and constantly, getting bleeped out with the usual comic-book symbols.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Johnny Blaze's fight with Robbie/Eli pushes Eli to take over Robbie's body, treat Gabe like crap and burst into a Russian mob place.
• "Not So Different" Remark: Eli claims that he died in a similar fashion to Robbie and that sense of kinship encouraged him to bring the latter back to life.
• Not What It Looks Like: It is implied the Social Worker is unaware where Robbie suddenly got a huge wad of cash.
• Oblivious Mockery:
  Johnny Blaze: If I understand correctly, you did not make a pact with the devil?
  Robbie: What? Hell, no! Only an idiot would do that.
  Johnny "absolutely made a pact with Satan” Blaze: …
• Oh, Crap!: The mercenaries don this expression when all their munitions can't even scratch Ghost Rider.
  • Robbie and Eli have a simultaneous instance of this when Grumpy is about to knock them out with all four of his gigantic monster arms.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business: In issue 7, Mr. Wakeford is tellingly alarmed at the fact that Robbie, who up to that point has shown himself to be studious and serious regarding his education, is absent from school (due to accepting a race offer in Phoenix, Arizona). Also, previously in issue 6, he takes note of Robbie's more joval and talkative nature (which happens right after the Zabo fight), even though he is otherwise still on the ball classwork-wise, contrasting to the usually disruptive Guero's uncharacteristic solemness.
  • Issue 8, Eli taking over Robbie and treating everyone like crap, including Gabe.
• Parental Abandonment: It is revealed that both of Robbie's parents abandoned the family due to Gabe's disability.
• Pinball Protagonist: Robbie/Ghost Rider gets hit hard by this in his 2nd solo series, to the point the comic did a lot more to showcase Amadeus Cho, Laura Kinney and even Cindy Moon than the titular hero, coming off more like a background character in his own comic.
• Politically Incorrect Villain: The bullies who take advantage of Gabe's disability to bully him out of his wheelchair and steal it from him.
• The Precious, Precious Car: Sure the car can repair itself and Robbie can easily teleport to wherever it is if someone steals it, but it's the principle of the thing.
• Pretty Boy: Both males and females in-universe have made comments on how Robbie is really easy on the eyes. Two biker thugs even called him this before trying to mug him. You can imagine how that turned out for them.
• Product Placement: Apple's iPads are mentioned by name, and at one point a gangbanger can be seen drinking a 4 Loko.
• Promotion to Parent: Robbie is simultaneously a caregiver and best friend to Gabe, at one point euphemizing gun shots as firecrackers and repeating that they don't go outside when they hear firecrackers. Robbie is also a lot more mature than his peers because of Gabe. He doesn't rise to childish taunts from a group of thugs, mess around in class, or find his teacher being robbed particularly humorous.
• Realistic Diction Is Unrealistic: Great pains are taken to make sure the characters sound like real people. There's a liberal smattering of Spanish in the books and idiosyncratic onomatopoeias that will let a reader hear the precise laughs or groans in their heads.
• Red Oni, Blue Oni: Eli might say harsher things, but it's Robbie who has the flaring hot temper.
• Rewarded as a Traitor Deserves: Guero is almost killed by the mercenaries during their raid on Hillrock Heights after he told them where they could find the hideouts of several gangs... although by this point even his gang couldn't bear to leave children in a wrecked schoolbus in the crossfire, so Gabe saves Guero by distracting the mercenary long enough for Robbie as Ghost Rider to show up.
• Roaring Rampage of Revenge: Robbie immediately comes after the mercenaries that killed him, but doesn't manage to take them out. His assault on the thugs that shot his boss in the following issue is much more successful. Also, there's a lot of genuine roaring.
• Save the Villain: Robbie does this with Blue Pill enhanced Guero after he makes a bad move and plummets off a bridge. He also winds up accidentally snapping Guero's spine on a bent I-Beam, crippling him.
• Shout-Out:
  • Graffiti on the walls of Robbie's workplace are references to some of the creators' previous works - Peepo Choo and The Strange Talent of Luther Strode.
  • Guero's crippling in Issue #10 is a direct reference to the death of Gwen Stacy, with Guero being thrown off a bridge and Robbie attempting to save him by lassoing him with a whip, only to inadvertently harm him
• Slipping a Mickey: Two lowlifes pull this off in an attempt to make getting with a partygoer easier. They drop defective super-freak-out pills into her drink by accident, of course.
• Stealth Pun: Robbie is gunned down and murdered in a DEAD END alley.
• Stuff Blowing Up: At the climax of the Chase Scene in the second issue, Ghost Rider rams a mercenary jeep and careens off the overpass, exploding midair along with the villains.
• Sugar-and-Ice Personality: Cold and aloof with most people, anything but when it comes to his brother.
• Super-Power Meltdown: Hyde after ignoring Zabo's advice to not upset their carefully balanced physiology by eating the pointedly unstable pink pills.
• Superpowered Evil Side: Ghost Rider's modus operandi, it seems. Of course, in Dr. Zabo's case, he's evil as a skinny scientist or a 'roided-out monstrosity.
• Teleporters and Transporters: So what happens if someone takes the car? The Rider transports himself to it, pulling himself from its substance.
  • Robbie as Ghost Rider later does this with Gabe, depositing him through the trunk and to the garage right before the climatic Zabo battle.
• Thou Shalt Not Kill: He's highly against killing, even refusing to kill criminals. At the end of his first book, he agrees to kill only the worst of the worst, and only to satisfy Eli and keep him from going after Gabe again.
• Took a Level in Badass: Robbie becomes a much more savvy combatant after he encounters enemies that he can't defeat with pure brute force. As a member of the Avengers (who, along with Odin, tell him to cut loose), he successfully reanimates a dead Celestial, and defeats Johnny Blaze in a Challenge of the Ghost Riders - both of them cheated, but he did it better.
• Trash Talk: Deconstructed. His status as The Quiet One among the Ghost Riders makes him remarkably bad at this when he tries.
• Trying Not to Cry: Robbie tears up when his little brother praises him after he just failed to stop Gabe's wheelchair from being stolen. Ditto in #9 when Robbie finds out what became of Gabe during Eli's possession of Robbie◊.
• Wham Shot: The hail of gunfire Robbie suffers at the hands of who he thought were cops.
  • Also Issue 11, where Robbie finds a picture of his family, including himself, his father, his mother who is pregnant with Gabe...and Uncle Eli.
• What the Hell, Hero?: More or less said by Johnny Blaze once he sees what Robbie Reyes does with his Ghost Rider powers.
• Whole-Plot Reference: The gang war between a local crime boss and an outsider supervillain over powerful chemical bioweapons during which a young man is gunned down and resurrected as a Ghost Rider is in essence a massive callback to the first adventure of Robbie's 90s predecessor, Daniel Ketch, with Grumpy and Zabo taking the places of the Kingpin and Deathwatch respectively. Adding to that, Robbie's new substitute teacher is also named Daniel.
• Wreathed in Flames: In signature Ghost Rider style, the Rider's entire body is engulfed in flames, along with his car, for the duration of his drives.
• You Have Failed Me: Dr. Zabo murders the leader of the mercenaries when they fail to recover every last bag from the car. He gives a remaining one his predecessor's eye as a token of his promotion and a warning of what will befall him if he fails as well.

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