Ghost Rider is the name of an anti-hero, known variously as The Devil's Bounty Hunter, The Spirit of Vengeance, or Flame-head (among many other names).
Background[]
Johnny Blaze[]
The first and original Ghost Rider, John Blaze, was a professional stunt cyclist. He was adopted early in life by a man named Crash Simpson, who had a smoking problem. After smoking for so many years, Crash was diagnosed with lung cancer and presumed to die.
In an effort to save his stepfather, Blaze unknowingly sold his soul to Mephistopheles, or Mephisto for short. Although Crash obtains his health, he quickly dies in a stunt. Enraged, Blaze attempts to run away, but Mephisto arrives, claiming that his soul was his and that he wasn't going anywhere.
Mephisto then transformed Blaze into the Ghost Rider to defeat a Demon known as Daimon Hellstrom & sent him back to Hell. Succeeding, Blaze continues to serve Mephisto during the night.
Daniel Ketch[]
Danny Ketch was walking in the streets of New York City one day when he was attacked by a mob of gangsters. Terrified, he fled to a dump, where a found a magical sigil. Upon touching the sigil, he suddenly obtained the powers of the Ghost Rider.
Powers & Abilities[]
Although both Riders have basically the same powers, there are significant differences between their abilities, as follows:
In General[]
- Infernal Soul Physiology
- Fiery Undead / Alpha Skeleton Physiology
- Vengeance Spirit Physiology
- Vessel Possession: The Spirits do not require any human host to bond with. They're capable of enduring for themselves rather than needing a vessel to live. However, as immortal and benevolent weapons, they must possess a human host through various means in order to thwart any evil presence. The Spirits are considered to be ruthless against impurity and will torture the host for preventing it to fight off wickedness. This could cause several psychological and spiritual predicaments. If the act of prevention does occur, it will lead to either the Spirit having absolute control or losing the host's humanity succumbing to an incurable monstrous state.
- Host Empowerment: Any human being possessed by a Spirit of Vengeance will be granted unimaginable capabilities. Some of its abilities are visibly demonstrated due to how the host utilizes its powers. But because of the lack of imagination and knowledge, the majority of the Spirit's powers aren't in use and will only be seen if the user is familiar and imaginative with it's feats.
- Mythic Symbiosis
- Demonic Conduit
- Emotional Symbiosis
- Symbiotic Focusing
- Symbiotic Constructs
- Symbiotic Aura
- Symbiotic Combat
- Angelic Symbiosis
- Meta-Possession
- Necro Power
- Symbiotic Concentration
- God-like Capabilities: Like other overpowering figures, the Spirits have various capacities that challenges those of godly-powered individuals.
- God-like Speed: They are extremely fast entities vastly accelerating that almost couldn't be seen through the human naked eye.
- God-like Durability: Their durability greatly exceeds their Ghost Rider counter parts. The Spirits are invulnerable to almost any form of attack from earthly to cosmic.
- God-like Reflexes: Their reflexes surpasses even the fastest being to the point where their actions are invisible.
- Superhuman Capabilities: In their Ghost Rider form, their feats are decreased and are on par with other super-powered characters.
- Superhuman Strength: If in full control, the Spirit can lift objects and other materials to incalculable levels, and even when not in full control it bestows great strength upon its host.
- Superhuman Durability: The Spirits are impervious to any physical attacks making them difficult characters to kill. However, when come in contact or inflicted by a weapon of heavenly origin, this will greatly damage the Spirit.
- Superhuman Stamina: Due to their mystical nature, the Spirits have unlimited superhuman stamina.
- Superhuman Agility: The Spirit's grants it's user's with heightened movements, reflexes and coordination.
- Immortality: The Spirits themselves are immortal beings. They can live for an eternity and cannot be killed unless a weapon forged from Heaven decapitates them. Since the Spirit is a weapon of Heaven itself, it is possible that it can kill its own kind.
- Spirit Transferal: If a situation occurs where the host is killed by any physical means, the Spirit will detach itself from the current deceased host and will seek out a new body to inhabit.
- Regenerative Healing Factor: Their supernatural origins grants them the ability to regenerate any damaged or loss limbs through the mystical energies they possess.
- Empathic Reading: They possess the ability to read the heart and souls of individuals they encounter and determine whether or not they are innocent, guilty, and in need of punishment. This is most evidently done when becoming the Ghost Rider. The human host as well can without transformation can detect innocence and evil.
- Identity Tracking: Mostly seen in Ghost Riders, they can detect the individual's identity by simply looking at their souls. Other figures without souls can be detected by sensing their presence.
- Godly Body
- Enhanced Insight
- Spiritual Adaptation
- Sin Manipulation: The Spirit's main purpose is to cleanse sin. They can control and be empowered with the negativity released from the world.
- Sin Perception: A sub-power to reading a character's heart and soul, they can also tell, sense and smell what kind of sin or crime the individual committed whether it be a small sin such as petty theft or great one like murdering a person or being cruel to a loved one.
- Sin Eating: Also known as Sin Removal. They can remove a person's immoral acts to the point where the individual loses their humanity.
- Negative Energy Augmentation: Not only can the Spirit's remove or absorb an individual's transgressions, they can also be strengthened by the negativity released. This could be both sins, from the smallest of actions such as slapping one's wife to committing unforgivable crimes, and negative emotions a person is currently experiencing like misery and depression.
- Soul Manipulation: They can manipulate the very life giving essence of each being. They can do a number of things:
- Soul Reading: They can read a person's soul to determine whether they are innocent or guilty and tell what kind of sin they commit.
- Soul Consumption: If desired, the Spirit's can remove the soul of the person until they are lifeless.
- Soul Consumption Empowerment: Through consuming the souls of other living entities, the Spirit's can be strengthened to increase their powers and become more intimidating.
- Soul Mutilation: Through different means of mutilation, they can destroy the soul from within the individual's body.
- Elemental Manipulation: All Spirits can control elements, whether earthly, supernatural or cosmic; and use it to their advantage.
- Nature Manipulation: The Spirit of Vengeance can manipulate the forces of the world to their whim. They possess many abilities granting them dominion over the earth, sea and sky which they can impart upon the hosts of whom they possesses, i.e. making the earth crack open and swallow people or create impaling stalagmites, conjuring the weather to create and summon down lighting as is the case with Alejandra Jones. The Spirits can also, through their proxy, expel a host of ravenous locusts which burn and consume the flesh and spirit of those their set upon from his mouth.
- Elemental Purification
- Spiritual Fire Manipulation
- Elemental Curse
- Cosmic / Mystic Elemental Manipulation
- Demonic Elemental Manipulation
- Magic Manipulation: Whether it is divine or malevolent, angelic or demonic; the Spirits can control, project and generate mystical energies that empowers them and can utilize it in a multitude of ways. One of the Spirit's known magical elements to control is hellfire, a demonic element that can do physical and spiritual damage.
- Demon Magic Manipulation: A sub power to their manipulation to most mystical elements, artifacts and symbols, they can also control elements of demonic origin. Some spirits have even demonstrated to use satanic symbolism and pentagrams to their advantage.
- Necromancy: They have the power to control the dead. They can resurrect the deceased and use them to as form of communication to the world of the living by simply returning their souls from their bodies.
- Demonic Arts
- Possession: As mentioned, they can use the deceased as a form of communication to warn their enemies.
- Cursed / Demonic Elemental Manipulation
- Destruction Arts
- Cosmic Horror Powers
- Vehicle Magic
- Blade Magic
- Chain Magic
- Intangibility Cancellation
- Magic Arts
- Supernatural Pee
- Demonic Defense
- Magic Power
- Imagination-based Powers
- Power Weaponry
- Demon Magic Manipulation: A sub power to their manipulation to most mystical elements, artifacts and symbols, they can also control elements of demonic origin. Some spirits have even demonstrated to use satanic symbolism and pentagrams to their advantage.
- Immunity/Resistance: The Spirits are immune to almost many of conditions such as infections. They're highly resistant to such conventions that apparently, reality warpers seem to give them no complications.
- Demonic Fiery Transformation: As the Ghost Rider, the Spirit will reveal itself through the process of transformation. The reason it appears to be a flaming skeleton is because of its purpose to unleash unholy vengeance. It's nether worldly appearance strikes fear unto those who look at it. Most of the Spirit's powers are more evident through the Ghost Rider.
- Hellfire Manipulation: Also known as Infernal Pyrokinesis. As the Ghost Rider, the most prominent ability of the Spirit is control, project, generate and manipulate the ethereal element known as hellfire. They can perform a number of capabilities:
- Hellfire Infusion: They can imbue any object and materials with hellfire.
- Hellfire Forgery: In addition to infuse hellfire to objects, they can alter its appearance into something more sinister. Also, they can even create their own piece of equipment made out of the fire.
- Hellfire Constructs: They can structure walls and wings made out of hellfire.
- Hellfire Telekinesis: They can control any object infused with hellfire and do multiple things through their mind.
- Hellfire Attacks / Combat: They can project hellfire through their eyes, mouth, hands and chest. They can create balls, shoot a laser-like beam, spew out massive waves and perform omnidirectional explosions resulting to devastation.
- Hellfire Weather: In some cases, The Rider can bring forth paranormal weather conditions whenever they travel. They can even rain down from the sky a destructive fire storm.
- Biblical Representations: Other Riders have demonstrated to unleash creatures in the form of a plague found in biblical scriptures such as locusts.
- Hellfire Infusion
- Hellfire Generation
- Fire Immunity
- Incineration
- Fire Aura
- Weaponry Refinement
- Bio-Hellfire Manipulation
- Destruction Arts
- Dimensional Travel: They can traverse through different dimensions. Through the use of their mystical powers, they can travel to other realms without any complications.
- Vortex Creation: They can even construct portals that lead them to other places.
- Home Sending
- Symbiotic Portal Creation
- Energized Transformation
- Cloning: A sub-power to constructing various objects, they have the ability to craft duplicates of themselves. They will act similarly to their creator. When killed, they will burst into a puff of hellfire.
- Spirit Absorption: By simply touching another individual possessing the Spirit, they can absorb its essence leaving the host paralyzed or killed by the effect.
- Self-Size Size: They can increase their normal sizes to gigantic proportions making them a difficult target.
- Size Alteration: Not only can they alter their own size, they can even change the size of other materials as well.
- Penance Ability: All forms of Spirits of Vengeance / Ghost Riders have an ability to strike penance on its victims. It can be in the form of a physical attack such as a fist or a piece of weaponry. One of the most known penance abilities is the Penance Stare, a traumatizing ability where it locks it's victim's eyes to theirs and incapacitates them physically, mentally, and spiritually. It can be focused on certain sins, for example Wolverine was once given the Penance Stare focusing on his sins committed during a single day during World War I. Various circumstances can allow one to resist the Penance Stare such as having multiple eyes, lack of regret, or having suffered great emotional or physical pain. The Venom symbiote has twice proven immune to the Penance Stare, and attempting to use it backfired and incapacitated Johnny Blaze.
- Demonic Symbiosis / Inner Demon
- Demonic Combat
- Dark Power
- Fire Demon Physiology
- Inner Demon
- Energized Transformation
- Hellfire Manipulation: Also known as Infernal Pyrokinesis. As the Ghost Rider, the most prominent ability of the Spirit is control, project, generate and manipulate the ethereal element known as hellfire. They can perform a number of capabilities:
- Curse Empowerment
- Morphamerge
- Supernatural Warrior / Entity Physiology
- Ascended Transcendent Demon Physiology
- Lone Hand
- Fear Inducement
- Semi-Absolute Immortality
Johnny Blaze[]
The common theme of the Ghost Rider is a human host who transforms into a flaming-headed motorcyclist with supernatural powers. When riding their bikes, the vehicles can travel faster than conventional motorcycles and can maneuver impossible feats such as riding straight up a vertical surface or across water.
Initially when transformed, Blaze's motorcycle would simply catch fire. Later, he could create a cycle made of pure flame (hellfire). Hellfire is a supernatural flame which typically burns the soul and not the body, but also could be used as regular flame. Projecting hellfire as a weapon is his main form of attack. He also possesses supernatural strength and resilience, as well as almost total invulnerability to physical damage. Any damage he does take is quickly recovered, as Ghost Rider is made of pure hellfire, which he can use to immediately regenerate any lost limbs or holes in his body
For a time, when Daniel Ketch was the Ghost Rider, Johnny did not have his typical powers. Instead, he wielded a shotgun that fired mystical force-blasts and rode a mystic motorcycle (both somehow empowered by exposure to Ketch's hellfire).
In the newest incarnation of Johnny Blaze as Ghost Rider, another main weapon in his arsenal has been his chain, which was first used by the Dan Ketch Ghost Rider. The chain, much like the rest of Ghost Rider, is made of hellfire given a solid physical substance. Ghost Rider can control the exact movement of the chain with his mind, allowing it to do things normal chains cannot, such as reach vast distances and wrap around enemies without fail. The chain is seemingly unbreakable. This incarnation's most powerful weapon is the "Penance Stare". When he locks eyes with his victim, he can make them experience all the pain and suffering that they have inflicted on everyone in their lifetime, permanently damaging their soul in the process.
The entity which is the current source of Ghost Rider's power has been described by , the Sorcerer Supreme of Earth, to possesses sufficient mystical power to challenge the Green Scar incarnation of the Hulk, as shown in .
Daniel Ketch[]
The Ghost Rider is empowered as a result of the magical properties of a mysterious emblem affixed to a large and powerful motorcycle possessed by Daniel Ketch. This gives him the ability to transform into a mystic being which appears as a flaming skeleton dressed as a motorcyclist, and provides him with superhuman strength, speed, stamina, and durability. As the Ghost Rider, Ketch can use his "Penance Stare" — the ability to cause others to experience a level of emotional pain equivalent to that which they have caused others as a result of illegal or immoral activities. When in close combat, he locks eyes with his victim and makes them feel all the pain that person has ever inflicted on anyone in their lifetime. This, of course, has several weaknesses. If high on drugs like cocaine, or if the person is blind, or if he cannot make eye contact due to the victim having more than two eyes, Ghost Rider's Penance Stare cannot function. An attempt to use the Penance Stare on the symbiotic being, Venom, resulted in Ghost Rider being knocked unconscious. It also cannot work on soulless beings such as Centurious.
As the Ghost Rider, Ketch uses a length of heavy chain approximately 3 feet (0.91 m) long which possesses magical properties. For instance, when it is thrown it is able to separate into individual links which behave like shuriken, later reintegrating and returning to the Ghost Rider's hand. The chain can grow in length, is supernaturally strong, and can transform into other weapons such as a spear. He can also spin it fast to be used as a drill.
The common theme of the Ghost Rider is a human host who transforms into a flaming-headed motorcyclist with supernatural powers. When riding their bikes, the vehicles can travel faster than conventional motorcycles and can maneuver impossible feats such as riding straight up a vertical surface or across water. In a one-shot comic featuring Doctor Strange and the Daniel Ketch/Noble Kale version of Ghost Rider, it was shown to be capable of riding on nothing but air. This was repeated shortly after Kale started to regain his memories, causing him to alter his suit by sheer force of will, and created an entirely new bike.
When empowered, Ketch's motorcycle undergoes a more radical transformation. It changes from a conventional looking motorcycle to one that appears both powerful and high-tech. Along with flaming wheels, the bike includes a shield-like battering ram on the front. Like the Blaze/Zarathos version, this Ghost Rider's bike was capable of incredible stunts, such as driving up sheer walls, across water, and in at least two known instances, through the very air itself. Ghost Rider also created two other bikes that he could utilize in the same manner as the one he normally rode, one out of necessity when Blackheart stole the original in a crossover graphic novel that brought together Ghost Rider, Wolverine, and the Punisher, and again in the regular series as a spare in case something made him unable to get to his regular cycle. The latter would wind up in the hands of Johnny Blaze.
He has displayed some other powers briefly, like the ability to summon a wall of flame. In the beginning, Ketch could only transform "when innocent blood was spilled" and had to touch the gas cap of his motorcycle. Later it was revealed that this was only a psychological limitation he himself caused, and which Daniel later overcame.
Unlike Blaze, the Ketch Ghost Rider possessed a Penance Stare which made the target experience all the pain and suffering they've caused others. He possessed Hellfire powers similar to the Zarathos/Blaze version, but he also had the ability to destroy the undead, and was supposedly Marvel's incarnation of the Angel of Death/Judgment, which detailed the supposed origins of the Noble Kale version of the Ghost Rider.
In addition, Ketch and Noble Kale actually worked together to an extent, unlike Blaze and Zarathos, who battled for dominance and control over their shared body. Kale had a compassionate side and while there were times that he seemed tempted to simply take over completely, he refused to do so, though he felt anger at condemning Daniel to only being able to live his life out half the time, while he dominated the other half. Kale and Ketch, like Blaze and Zarathos, could sometimes communicate through dreams, and in at least one issue communicated via messages written on a mirror in lipstick.
Paraphernalia[]
Weapons[]
- Supernatural Weaponry
- Anything they can imbue their hellfire with is a weapon. Their most known weapon to use is a mystical chain capable of growing in great lengths, control the movements with the Rider's mind and penetrate almost anything it breaks.
- Hook Mastery
- Hellfire Shotgun
- Heavenly Weapons: Mostly, the weapons they use are weapons created from Heaven. It is possible that the weapons they wield can kill themselves.
- Anything they can imbue their hellfire with is a weapon. Their most known weapon to use is a mystical chain capable of growing in great lengths, control the movements with the Rider's mind and penetrate almost anything it breaks.
- Power Weaponry
- Familiar Item
- Near-Complete Arsenal
Transportation[]
- Vehicle Mastery: As Ghost Riders, they can utilize any form of transportation, whether it be a vehicular machine or an animal, they can alter its appearance and mechanics transforming it to a Hell Vehicle.
In other media[]
Film[]
In February 2007, a Ghost Rider film was released, focusing on Johnny Blaze as the Rider. It starred Nicolas Cage as Blaze/Ghost Rider.
Television[]
Live-Action
He appeared in a tax commercial on TV as Ghost Rider, whom is lit on fire and later sets the sprinklers off as a joke.
Animation
The Rider appears in various cartoons, commonly Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends and Incredible Hulk.
Video Games[]
- Ghost Rider appears as an unlockable playable character in the game Marvel: Ultimate Alliance.
- The Rider is quickly and vaguely shown riding up a building on his cycle in the 2000 Activision Spider-Man game, but only if a certain cheat code is used.
- Ghost Rider is the first playable character in the 2007 Ghost Rider video game. The wiki for the game is available here [1].
External links[]
- Ghost Rider from Wikipedia
- Ghost Rider & Spirits of Vengeance from Marvel Wikia
- Ghost Rider from Ghost Rider Movies Wikia
- Ghost Rider from Marvel Cinematic Universe Wikia
- Ghost Rider from Superheroes Wikia
- Ghost Rider from Marvel Cinematic Database Wikia
- Ghost Rider from Marvel Movies Wikia
- Ghost Rider (Marvel), Ghost Rider (GR Film Series), & Ghost Rider (MCU) from Heroes Wikia
- Ghost Rider from Unnatural World Wikia
- Ghost Rider from Beast Wars Transformers Wikia
- Ghost Rider from Gods & Demons Wikia
- Ghost Rider from Demonic Paradise Wikia