Cosmic Ghost Rider is a 2023 comic book series from Marvel Comics. It's written by Stephanie Phillips with art by Juann Cabal and color art by Espen Grundetjern.
The series is a sequel to the previous Cosmic Ghost Rider trilogy and is connected to the shared Marvel Universe, although the lead character - the Ghost Rider himself - is from an Alternate Universe.
In the main Marvel Universe, Frank Castle became the Punisher, a deadly vigilante. But this version of Frank instead became the Ghost Rider. And then the herald of the world-destroying Galactus, the champion of the Omnicidal Maniac named Thanos and, eventually, one of the Guardians of the Galaxy. He also went insane.
But now Frank's a repairman in a dusty little town on a backwater planet in space sector nine. He's not the ghost rider. But he's dreaming of the rider - dreaming the rider is out there somewhere, killing people. But they're just dreams. Just dreams. Nothing to worry about.
Cosmic Ghost Rider (2023) contains examples of the following tropes:
- Doppelganger Link: A mysterious connection to his doppelganger has Frank's powers randomly go out whenever they both try to use them.
- Dream Within a Dream: In issue #1, Frank wakes up in Marlow's bar after dreaming of the Cosmic Ghost Rider's initial rampage. Then, at the end of issue #1, Frank - with a different hairstyle - wakes up after dreaming of events in Marlow's.
- Earn Your Happy Ending: For the first time in all his various miniseries, Frank's misadventure has a positive ending for him. He's become a better person, certainly saner while retaining his powers. Additionally he's Easily Forgiven by Alexelle, may have befriended Jane Foster and even the Sh'iar government just gave him a slap on the wrist by giving him community service. Finally Alexelle gets touched his powers when Frank reintegrates and she becomes an extra Cosmic Ghost Rider.
- Literal Split Personality: Frank's trip through a black hole back in his appearance in Guardians of the Galaxy has divided him into two distinct bodies with at least one representing a facet of his personality. He later gets caught in a black hole again and wakes up in a pocket dimension with lots more doubles.
- Older and Wiser: Here Frank has finally settled down and his bloodlust has cooled off, he's a better if more melancholic man for it.
- Space Western: Marlow's is a space bar in a western-style town, with unpaved streets and dust blown by the wind. And then a bounty hunter in a cowboy hat rides into town looking for a fugitive...
- Variant Cover: As well as the standard cover, the first issue has five variant versions. All of them focus on Frank in his Cosmic Ghost Rider form, either portrait pictures of his flaming skull or action shots showing him on his bike.
