Follow TV Tropes

Following

Comic Book / Ghost Rider

Go To

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/2466474_ghost_rider_jhonny_blaze.jpg
"Look into my eyes."

An old cowboy went riding out
One dark and windy day
Upon a ridge he rested
As he went along his way

When all at once a mighty herd
Of red eyed cows he saw
Plowin' through the ragged skies
And up the cloudy draw

Ghost Rider is one of the earlier thriller heroes of the Marvel Universe, as in, heroes that deal with underworld baddies like demons and the likes of Mephisto. The premise is basically: Badass Biker with a Flaming Skull for a Head.

Marvel first used the Ghost Rider name for a Western hero named Carter Slade. This character rode around on a white horse in an all-white getup. He was retroactively dubbed the Night Rider, and then the Phantom Rider.

The Ghost Rider name was then re-used for a modern character, Johnathon "Johnny" Blaze, who first appeared in Marvel Spotlight #5 (August, 1972). Blaze was the first version of the character to use the now-iconic motorbike and flaming skull. 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 suppress 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 die in an accident during 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 "Danny" Ketch, actually the 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 a mysterious medallion doubling as a gas cap on what appeared to be a junked motorcycle suddenly bonded him with a spirit Kale, turning him into the new Ghost Rider. Johnny took note of this and eventually became Danny's Big Brother Mentor of sorts in his adventures.

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.

In the 2011 series, Blaze gave up the mantle of the Ghost Rider, letting Alejandra Jones become the new host of the Spirit of Vengeance. He would go on to try to mentor Alejandra but, at the end of that series would retake the mantle of Ghost Rider back with Alejandra only retaining a portion of its power.

In March 2014, the All-New Ghost Rider series debuted. Featuring a new character, Robbie Reyes, taking on the eponymous mantle, Robbie uses a car instead of a motorcycle and lives in East Los Angeles. As opposed to mystical and demonic threats, Robbie's series largely focused on youth gang culture and living in the ghetto, though there were some mystical elements. Johnny Blaze eventually showed up in the series, inducting Robbie into the Ghost Rider family.

As part of the 2017 Marvel Legacy initiative, there was a Spirits of Vengeance miniseries, featuring a team of demonic heroes consisting of Johnny, Blade, Daimon Hellstrom and Satana.

For the 2018 Marvel: A Fresh Start initiative, Robbie was announced as a member of The Avengers.

In 2022, to mark the character’s 50th anniversary, a new ongoing series launched, with Johnny Blaze once again the lead character.

Comics

  • The Ghost Rider (1967) - a Western with a historical setting, starting the Carter Slade character.
  • Marvel Spotlight on... Ghost Rider (1972) - stories in the Rotating Protagonist Marvel Spotlight title, which introduced Johnny Blaze and the supernatural biker Ghost Rider.
  • Ghost Rider (1973) - a solo series for the Johnny Blaze version of the character
  • Ghost Rider (1990) - starring the Danny Ketch version of the character
  • Ghost Rider / Blaze: Spirits of Vengeance (1992)
  • Blaze: Legacy of Blood (1993)
  • Blaze (1994)
  • Ghost Rider (2001)
  • Ghost Rider (2005)
  • Ghost Rider (2006)
  • Ghost Rider: Trail of Tears (2007)
  • Ghost Rider: Danny Ketch (2008)
  • Ghost Riders: Heaven's on Fire (2009)
  • Ghost Rider (2011) - the debut of the Alejandra Jones version of the character, who becomes the Ghost Rider after the curse is transferred from Johnny Blaze.
  • All-New Ghost Rider (2014) - starring the Robbie Reyes version of the character.
  • Ghost Rider (2017)
  • Spirits of Vengeance (2017)
  • Ghost Rider (2019)
  • Ghost Rider: Kushala (2021)
  • Ghost Rider (2022), starring the Johnny Blaze version.
  • Ghost Rider/Wolverine: Weapons of Vengeance (2023) - A crossover between Wolverine (2020) and Ghost Rider (2022), starting and ending in its own one-shot specials.
  • Ghost Rider: Final Vengeance (2024), a direct sequel to the 2022 run, but with a twist. Johnny Blaze is Brought Down to Badass after his Spirit of Vengeance gets taken by a supervillain (The Hood), forcing him to go on an epic journey to regain his powers and become Ghost Rider again.

Alternate universe Ghost Riders

  • Ghost Rider 2099 was one of the heroes of the futuristic Marvel 2099 line. When hacker Zero Cochrane is killed, his mind is uploaded into a cybernetic body. This version of the Ghost Rider isn't supernatural, and the flames surrounding his skeletal form are holographic.
  • The Ultimate Marvel Ghost Rider is a different version of Johnny Blaze. In this continuity, Johnny and his wife are innocents sacrificed to Satan by a biker gang. Johnny then barters his soul to resurrect his wife - and becomes the Ghost Rider, returned to Earth to kill evildoers and empower Satan's army.
  • Ghost Racers is a limited series spinning out of the 2015 Secret Wars event, which temporarily combined Marvel's alternate worlds into a single universe. It features versions of Johnny, Danny, Alejandra, Robbie and Carter Slade participating in a death race.
  • Cosmic Ghost Rider is a spin-off of the 2018 Thanos series. A future version of The Punisher becomes the Ghost Rider, and also goes mad. After deciding to go back in time to kill Thanos as a baby, he realizes that the child isn't evil yet, so decides to raise him to become a better adult.

Ghost Rider in other media


Ghost Rider provides the examples of:

  • Abhorrent Admirer: Skin Bender is pretty much Ghost Rider's Lena Hyena.
  • Affably Evil: Hoss, a redneck demon who hunts down other demons and wayward souls is pretty polite, even to the souls of victims he killed. He also tries to make Ghost Rider's stay in hell more pleasant.
  • All Bikers are Hells Angels: Subverted; the Ghost Rider looks the part but very few of the people who become the Ghost Rider fit the description.
  • Amazon Brigade: The Furies, H.E.A.R.T., The Gun Nuns
  • Ancient Artifact: Two of the spirits of vengeance were bound to two shards of a medallion at one point. Danny Ketch met the caretaker because it was his job to keep an eye on the thing. It no longer drives any plots, having served its purpose but Caretaker stuck around. Also, Centurious had an item called the crystal of souls.
  • And I Must Scream: Ghost Rider attempts to put Scarecrow in this state by breaking all his bones and twisting his limbs in a way that would have insured he never healed properly and would remain practically a quadriplegic.
  • The Antichrist: Anton Satan (Pronounced Shu-tan), Aka Kid Blackheart, claims to be the antichrist. He has human parents but claims his father is the devil. Daimon Hellstrom is the son of a demon lord who intended for him to be the antichrist but he has no desire to be one. Anton and Daimon don't like each other.
  • Anti-Hero: So far we have not had a protagonist who was not. Johnny Blaze was at first the classical antihero who despite doing heroic things did not have a very desirable life. Zarathos is a Nominal Hero. Danny Ketch started as a Pay Evil unto Evil type but softened to I Did What I Had to Do as he decided the penance stare was a horrific thing to put people through and he really did not like killing people either. Noble Kale is another classical antihero and Alejandra is another pay evil onto evil type.
  • 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.
  • Artifact Domination: Danny Ketch became the second Ghost Rider when he found his by-then dead biological mother Naomi Blaze's old motorcycle and touched the gas cap, becoming possessed by the Spirit of Vengeance.
  • Artifact Name \ Artifact Title: Only in Brazil, due to Dub Name Change: It was translated as Motoqueiro Fantasma (Ghost Biker). As Johnny Blaze and Danny Ketch versions ride motorcycles, it fits them well. Then came the Robbie Reyes version, riding a muscle car, but the translator kept the "Ghost Biker" name - although in a few media it's fixed by referring to Robbie as Motorista Fantasma (Ghost Driver).
  • Badass Biker: Ghost Rider. Obviously.
  • 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 an Empowered Badass Normal due to some Cyborging.
  • Badass Preacher: Sister Sara.
  • 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.
  • Blessed with Suck: Snowblind, a drug dealer granted super powers, which among super human strength, generating blinding light and resistance to psychic powers, allowed him to see. Unfortunately, to use some of his powers he had to use them all, and being able to see made him prey to Ghost Rider's Penance stare. Something he'd never have to worry about if he stayed blind and no, "psychic power resistance" did not help. Being a drug dealer is bad enough but he's worked for both Deathwatch and Blackheart, pretty much ensuring he will run into a Ghost Rider.
  • Body Horror: Skinbender's specialty, since she can twist forms of others to her will.
  • Bounty Hunter: Ghost Riders are sometimes forced to work as these for hell, including Blaze once. Hoss serves as one for Hell full time and Ruth does for heaven. The three have worked together when they surprisingly found they had the same targets like Kazann.
  • Breeding Cult: Project Blackheart collected and paired up the most evil human beings it could find in hopes they would produce an antichrist after enough generations. Anton Satan is supposedly the closest they got to their goal before Zadkiel destroyed it.
  • 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 villain will be reduced to a vegetable - unless they don't have a soul. The latter means GR just slaughters them with his bare hands. An exception is a religious fanatic in service of Zadakiel, who has no supernatural means to protect himself from the Penance 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.
    • That said, Ghost Rider is capable of controlling the intensity of the Stare; during an issue of Spider-Man/Fantastic Four, Ketch's Ghost Rider was able to break Wolverine out of mind control by using the Penance Stare to make Wolverine experience the pain he caused others on a single day of the First World War.
    • Morbius was also comparatively immune to the Stare's effects as he is aware that he has done wrong when feeding on the innocent, with Ghost Rider accepting Morbius's vow to focus on criminals when feeling in the future.
  • The Cameo: In the final issue of Heaven's on Fire, when every Ghost Rider in existence fight the legions of hell, Carter Slade, the Phantom Rider formerly known as Ghost Rider, appears for a panel kicking ass with the others.
  • Casting a Shadow: Blackout, so named because his power involves suppressing sources of light and creating darkness. Some things are too much for him to handle though, like Ghost Rider's hellfire body.
  • Celestial Paragons and Archangels: Uri-El, a pretty good guy, was the first of these we were introduced to. Others like Malachi and Zadkiel turned evil. Ruth is completely detached from the people she's supposed to be defending but hasn't gone far enough out of line to be demoted yet. The black hosts are mostly good and even save the Ghost Rider once when he was in trouble but some of them remain loyal to their superiors, even after they have Fallen.
  • Chain Pain: In the 1990s comics, a magical flaming chain manifests when Danny Ketch transformed into Ghost Rider. Johnny and Zarathos later inherited a form that echoes that of the Dan Ketch/Noble Kale gestalt, and is able to do similar feats to them
  • Cheated Death, Died Anyway: This is part of Ghost Rider's origin. Johnny Blaze sold his soul to Mephisto in exchange for a cure for his adopted father's cancer. Mephisto agreed, and thus Crash Simpson was miraculously cured of cancer, but he then died in a stunt gone wrong.
  • Chekhov's Gun: The 2006 series has a Ghost Rider from the future asking if the Earth's been invaded by Skrulls yet.
  • Chekhov's Gunman: One of Deathwatch's ninja mooks in the third issue of 90s Ghost Rider.
  • Chess with Death: At one point, Ghost Rider encountered the Grim Reaper, who forced him to race for his life. Ghost Rider eventually won by cheating, causing the Reaper's bike to crash over a cliff.
  • The Chosen Many: After the Heaven retcon. It makes sense when you think about it.
  • Church Militant: Zadkiel's underling Deacon ignored the Penance Stare because in his heart he was only out to save sinners. The gun nuns too, they were a little more inline with mainstream morality.
  • Civvie Spandex: The spirits of vengeance in general do not have costumes or uniforms but the Ghost Riders are known for their leather jackets.
  • Color-Coded Characters: There was a decent enough reason in the story for Danny Ketch to end up bonded to a different spirit of vengeance but the real reason was so that the readers would have an easier time telling him and Blaze apart during the heaven arc.
  • 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.
  • Crapsack World: The neighborhood where Robbie Reyes and his younger brother Gabe Reyes live in is so bad that Robbie tells Gabe to never go outside when he hears "firecrackers"note ... and his fateful step onto the road to becoming the new Ghost Rider is when he decides in desperation to get rich quick by winning a street race in the hopes that they can move out.
  • 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. Later there was a crossover with Alejandra, Venom (the Flash Thompson version), Red Hulk, and X-23 in an obvious New FF tribute.
    • He was also in Hearts of Darkness, a crossover with Wolverine and Punisher.
  • Cyborg:
    • Plenty of those in the 90s issues, which includes Johnny Blaze, who had cybernetic casing installed on him so the Hellfire within wouldn't leak out and consume him.
    • 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: The dark force dimension is not an evil place, but Blackheart is and outside of Mephisto's realm it is where he is most powerful. For that matter, Mephisto's realm was not an evil place when Mephisto was removed from it (which is a difficult task, considering his very existence is tied to it but the angels eventually worked it out). And of course the titular hero himself.
  • Deadline News: Invoked by Blackout and later Skadi, perhaps taking a page from his book since he was with her.
  • Deadpan Snarker: Depending on who the current host is at the time, GR can be this.
  • Deal with the Devil: Many, most are done with Mephisto but there are no shortage of evil people and things trying to manipulate whoever they can contact.
  • Deadly Gaze: The Penance Stare (which may vary from an intense Death Glare to physical Eye Beams, depending on how it's depicted). It is a look that 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. Those who live are sometimes demoralized enough to wish they had died. In Fantastic Four: The Animated Series, Ghost Rider floored Galactus with it.
  • Death Seeker: Suicide and Death Ninja.
  • Demon Lords And Arch Devils: Many of the villains belong in this category, Ba'al, Lucifer, Mephisto, Blackheart and Lilith being some of the more notable ones. Nightmare may or may not be one of these but apparently has raped one and is an enemy of the Ghost Riders.
  • Demon of Human Origin: Occasionally this has happened to a Ghost Rider, though not usually by their own will in the main series, such as with Johnny Blaze and Zarathos. In the Ultimate Universe though, being the Devil's bounty hunter is the Ghost Rider's default.
  • Demonic Possession: All manners of it. John Blaze and Zarathos were a case where the "demon" wanted out of the human as much as the human wanted it out while Mephisto sat back and laughed.
  • Depending on the Writer: Whether it's Johnny or Zarathos calling the shots when Blaze transforms into Ghost Rider. Some stories have a clear split, with Johnny being just Johnny, and Zarathos being in full control of the Ghost Rider. Others have Johnny being in complete control in both forms, while still others have the two personalities fighting for control. The version that's most widely used is a sort of "unwilling partnership" detailed in The Mind Is a Plaything of the Body below.
  • The Drifter: Naomi, Blaze and Danny have all become one when the burden of being a Ghost Rider got a little depressing.
  • Driving Up a Wall: Ghost Rider (Danny Ketch) had his mystically transformed motorcycle riding up a wall to escape police pursuit.
  • Doomed Fellow Prisoner: Inverted. Anyone who winds up in a cell with him tends to wind up under his Penance Stare.
  • Early-Installment Weirdness: The character was much more a traditional superhero when he first debuted, fighting human criminals like Water Wizard, The Orb and The Enforcer, characters more at home in the early Spider-Man comics than here. This also resulted in Blaze becoming part of the Champions (widely regarded as one of the weirdest superhero teams around, lineup-wise).
  • Enfant Terrible: One villain Johnny Blaze encountered during his time Walking the Earth in the Mojave was a reality-warping mutant child. Trapped in a protective sphere because his body can't survive outside, the boy (actually well over 100 years old but hasn't aged since childhood) uses his powers to torture anyone unfortunate enough to stumble across the area.
  • Everybody Hates Hades: Pluto is a villain in Marvel and part of the shared universe Ghost Rider lives in. It was only a matter of time before they clashed. Noble Kale also fought the Furies a couple times, but in that case they weren't portrayed as malicious villains so much as being really bad at their jobs.
  • Evil Tastes Good: Deathwatch was a crime lord, who instead of eating food, fed upon other people's misery. His favorite was the pain of death.
  • Expy: Ultimate Ghost Rider — a murdered human who makes a pact with one of his 'verse's Demon Lords And Arch Devils for the love of his wife and who returns as a ghastly undead monster, charged with gathering souls to swell Hell's army... doesn't this remind you of anyone?
  • 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.
  • Fiery Redhead: Sister Sara.
  • Flaming Skulls: Spirits of vengeance in general and many angels like Zarathos after he was retconned into one.
  • For Science!: The crime lord Anton Hellgate tried to experiment on Ghost Rider and Vengeance for this reason. In the end it got him killed by Vengeance, twice.
  • Gadgeteer Genius: Eli and his son Quinn.
  • God Is Good: Ultimately, as well as loving and patient.
  • Good Is Not Nice: The spirits of vengeance who star obviously, especially Zarathos. Also applies to Ruth.
  • Hell Has New Management: Nobel Kale takes over Hell after slaying Mephisto and Blackheart, then sends Danny Ketch back to Earth, releasing him from his duties as Ghost Rider.
  • Hellfire: Ghost Rider exacts his vengeance on evil with the flames of hell.
  • 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 Dolphin: Ghost Rider was once saved from a killer shark by dolphins.
  • Hero with Bad Publicity: Possibly every Ghost Rider, but Danny Ketch had the worst publicity considering he was one of the nicer Ghost Riders.
  • Hollywood Satanism: The comic does at least does mention that not all satanists fit the Hollywood stereotype, but you'll hardly ever see the harmless variety and if you do, they will be quickly killed off by or converted into the Hollywood type. Satan is a contested title in Marvel world anyway, though there have been brief periods where a good person held the title.
  • Horrifying Hero: He IS a terrifying burning skeleton dressed like a thug riding a burning motorcycle. Most of the civilians in Marvel are understandably terrified of him, and even his old allies the Champions found him unsettling.
  • Immune to Fire: The Ghost Rider is immune to fire by dint of being the host of a Spirit of Vengeance and a wielder of Hellfire.
  • Ineffectual Sympathetic Villain: Water Wizard's powers were worthless against Ghost Rider, who didn't even pay him attention in most encounters. It took an ill fated deal with the Evil Sorcerer Moondark before he finally realized his time and resources were better spent doing something besides bothering Ghost Rider. Too bad his more practical activities got Ghost Rider's attention and motivated the spirit of vengeance to punish him for real.
  • Infernal Fugitives: A demon called Kazann wants to escape from Hell and invade Earth. An archangel and another demon are sent to capture him, but there is an angel who does not want them to catch Kazann and frees Johnny Blaze from Hell to do the job... which means the demons now want him back too.
  • Involuntary Shapeshifter: Initially John Blaze would only, become the Ghost Rider at night. Later his changes became more random and unpredictable before gaining some measure of control. Some of his enemies accidentally forced the change, and Zarathos was able to cause the transformation on his own at times when Johnny's life (and thus his own.) was in danger. Danny Ketch initially could only become Ghost Rider when innocent blood was spilt around him until Caretaker helped him and Noble Kale (His Ghost Rider's real name) get over the limitation. Likewise, there was the occasional villain who could force the change, and Noble managed it a handful of time as well, usually to protect Danny or others.
    • Noble Kale, the Ghost Rider whom was bonded to Danny Ketch, was originally a human and transformed against his will by his own father at the behest of Mephisto to battle the Furies. He did the job with terrifying effectiveness. However he refused to take a human life, which caused Uriel to step in and prevent him from being fully claimed by Mephisto. As a result, he became a Spirit of Vengeance, destined to serve both Heaven and Hell for eternity. He was further altered after the fact by Uriel, who made him the Angel of Death, as part of a plan to kill Mephisto once and for all.
  • Kill the Lights: Blackout suppresses all light sources in his presence.
  • Knight Errant: Spirits of vengeance by their nature, but Danny Ketch at least aimed for this from the beginning.
  • Magic Feather: Danny Ketch initially believes he transforms into Ghost Rider by touching his mystical motorcycle. In Hearts of Darkness (a Crossover with Punisher and Wolverine), Blackheart steals Danny's bike. Believing himself unable to transform, he decides to steal an ordinary bike to reach the villain's location, only to discover that he can transform on his own, also changing the ordinary bike into a mystical one.
  • Make Them Rot: Blackout decays everything he touches almost instantly. In Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance, he finds it rather surprising that the only food that doesn't mold up and rot away are Twinkies.
  • The Mind Is a Plaything of the Body: Zarathos and Noble Kale are limited by their human hosts, who have to consciously give in to them to operate as at full power. For Zarathos this was an annoyance until it was retconned to John Blaze's willing bond making him stronger but he still not allowed to really cut loose by Blaze more often than not. Noble Kale does not mind as much as he cannot control his power at all if he is on Earth without a host.
  • Morality-Guided Attack: Ghost Rider's Penance Stare makes the target feel all the pain and suffering they've caused innocents over the course of their life.
  • Muscles Are Meaningless: Ghost Rider is mostly hellfire, clothing and bones yet has great strength and toughness. His strength is magically based and comes from his demon side.
  • My Horse Is a Motorbike: See the below entry on Phantom Rider, who was originally Ghost Rider and rode a horse.
  • Nigh-Invulnerability: Ghost Rider fairly early on was portrayed as extremely difficult to kill, though it took Johnny Blaze at least some time to realize this. Bullets harmlessly pass through his skeletal form, superhuman punches just end up smashing against his unbreakable bones, and he has no organs, blood, or skin to make bruise and bleed, giving him effectively limitless combat stamina, so while he CAN be tossed around and beaten up, it just doesn't really do any long-term damage. However mystically-based attacks can and do hurt him. Unfortunately most of his enemies are as mystically oriented as himself.
  • Ninja: Deathwatch employs them to get his lost chemical weapons back but the Danny Ketch Ghost Rider makes short work of them. The Kingpin and Lady Bullseye use magic to summon the John Blaze Ghost Rider and send him to Japan hoping he will hinder the Hand Ninjas for them. Unfortunately they send him into a binding spell.
  • 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.
  • Not a Mask: Occasionally has to patiently explain this to various superheroes and other people he meets. They usually take it well.
  • Not The Illness That Killed Them: After Johnny Blaze realised that his father, a stuntman, suffers from lung cancer, he made a Deal with the Devil (Mephistopheles or Mephisto): his soul for his father's health. The father was completely healed the next day but died anyway later by failing his trick. When Johnny tries to blame Mephistopheles for his father's death, the latter replies that he has nothing to do with it: Johnny's father's death is a Surprisingly Realistic Outcome and, because he kept his promise, Johnny's soul is his property anyway.
  • One-Steve Limit Blackheart the demon, the Blackheart project started by the evil monks, or the kid who calls himself Blackheart? Anton Satan or Anton Hellgate? Daniel the host of Noble Kale or Daniel the angel?
  • The Order: The Blood, ancient defenders of the Earth who at one point fought alongside the spirits of vengeance. One of their modern descendants is the Caretaker.
  • Our Spirits Are Different: All the Ghost Riders except for John Blaze/Zarathos are vengeance spirits with human hosts. Zarathos manipulated the spirits of vengeance into helping him against his rival, Mephisto. Mephisto forced Zarathos to live like a Ghost Rider when the spirits wised up and deserted him. He eventually comes to like it though.
  • Our Vampires Are Different: Night Terror had the ability to see a person's memories by drinking their blood.
  • Painful Transformation: Complete with Transformation Trauma.
  • Phlebotinum Rebel: The original pitch was John Blaze eventually learning to use the devil's power for good. This was retconned to Mephisto not getting everything he wanted out of the deal but still upsetting Naomi Kale and Zarathos, so the Ghost Rider thing mostly succeeded in its intended purpose.
  • Playing with Fire: Hellfire, though Noble Kale/Danny Ketch later discovered how to produce natural flames as well.
  • Polly Wants a Microphone: Mister Eleven, a talking crow. There have been talking crows in real life but it was still suspicious, as it was trying to take advantage of Danny Ketch's depression. It ended up leading him to Zadkiel.
  • Post-Modern Magik: Ghost Riders have triumphed over things such as enchanted drills designed to penetrate spirit barriers, demonic truck driving human traffickers and Well Intentioned Extremists trying to rid the Earth of sin by blasting it with hellfire from a space station. In some cases, anything the Ghost Rider utilizes is warped by his essence into something befitting his power. This extends from what he rides to what he weaponizes.
  • Pronouncing My Name for You: Anton Satan will insist his name is not to be pronounced how an given English speaker would read it. In case you were wondering, it's supposed to be pronounced Shu-tan.
  • Prophetic Name: Johnny Blaze.
  • Pulling Themselves Together: The Ghost Rider, though rarely since his individual parts are nigh unbreakable and held together with unnatural fire, will do this eventually if his body is separated in any way. Skinbender can do this too.
  • 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.
  • Rogues' Gallery Transplant: Scarecrow was originally a Silver Age villain for Iron Man, then fought Captain America and The Falcon for a while; when he tried murdering people to attract Cap's attention, he ended up attracting Ghost Rider instead, and the two have since clashed multiple times; more recently he's just been a random villain all over the MU, showing up in several different books.
  • 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 an evil sorcerer.
  • Secret Legacy: It was kept secret from John Blaze and Danny Ketch specifically because their mother didn't want any of her kids taking up the mantel, which happened anyway, despite her efforts.
  • Serial Killer: Icebox Bob, an undead serial killer.
  • 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 and Buttview.
  • Spin-Off: During the 90s run of the comic, two other books were introduced: Spirits of Vengeance, which showed further adventures of Danny Ketch, Johnny Blaze and Vengeance; and Blaze, which followed Johnny Blaze's quest to find his kids.
  • Story-Breaker Power: Ghost Riders are not the most crossover friendly guys. First Blaze "only" lifted between 5-25 tons and "only" shot hellfire (which could be shrugged off by Physical Gods and the Undead, as if that was much weakness), then summoned an uncannily fast wall climbing motorcycle. Ketch had these plus the Penance Stare, an extending chain and undead killing fire. By Reborn Again a host-less spirit was breaking apart the streets of New York by accidentally cracking its chain too hard. Blaze later pulled a train without noticing, without even using the full power of the Ghost Rider.
    • Later they attempted to justify this by making it so that Ghost Rider could be as powerful as necessary to get the job done. During the World War Hulk crossover event, Dr. Strange flat out calls the Ghost Rider the most powerful being on Earth. He then stated that it's the host of the spirit of vengeance that limits the entity simply by "being human".
  • Strong as They Need to Be: Originally, the idea for the Danny Ketch Ghost Rider was to become more powerful than the Blaze version he replaced. This happened and all was good. Then Blaze Rider came back and was for some reason just as strong as the powered up Danny. Since it wasn't explained it makes some of Blaze's earlier comics seem silly when he struggles with much less demanding problems.
  • Super Not-Drowning Skills: He can't drown and water can't put out hellfire.
  • The Syndicate: Like many gang related villains, Deathwatch wanted to be the Kingpin of Crime. Ghost Rider kept getting in his way of course.
  • Talking Is a Free Action: Yes, Ghost Rider can hold a conversation with people while speeding around them on his motorcycle, somehow, noise of the engines be damned!
  • Tank Goodness: Subverted. Ghost Rider's motorcycle splits it in half without even slowing down.
  • Terror Hero: Type 4 and 5.
  • Thou Shalt Not Kill: The Danny Ketch version only.
  • Unspoken Plan Guarantee: Basically applies to Ghost Rider's victory over Lucifer during the storyline where Lucifer had manifested on Earth in multiple bodies that would become stronger as each of them was killed. One prior comic was focused on Johnny killing various Lucifer fragments while reflecting on a good idea he'd just had, but it wasn't until the final confrontation that the reader learned what this 'good idea' was; Johnny would leave one Lucifer fragment in a paralysed, brain-dead state so that he could trick Lucifer into facing him at half strength and kill the two weakened Lucifers simultaneously.
  • Variable-Length Chain: Danny Ketch's weapon of choice as a Ghost Rider.
  • Vengeful Ghost: Invoked, being more known as "The Spirit of Vengeance" in any of his incarnations (excepting the first Western version, later known as "Phantom Rider", a vigilante that takes the "ghost" as his alter-ego instead being really dead).
  • Weaksauce 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, or are blind, 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. It also backfires or is completely ineffective against the insane and those who are bonded with a symbiote. It's also ineffective against those who are incapable of remorse or just don't care about the suffering they've caused. 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.
  • Wolverine Publicity: Ghost Rider was Marvel's first really popular Anti-Hero, and throughout The '70s (and later again in the 90s) he would pop up in some other Marvel property at least on the cover about once a month.

 
Feedback

Video Example(s):

Top

Hellmouth

Ghost Rider's "Hellmouth" ability allows him to create a "drop" in the form of a portal to Hell, into which hapless enemies can be shoved.

How well does it match the trope?

5 (3 votes)

Example of:

Main / Hellgate

Media sources:

Report