Caretaker (comics)

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Caretaker is a fictional Marvel Comics character who first appeared in the Ghost Rider #28 in the Rise of the Midnight Sons storyline. Caretaker is a member of The Blood, and watches over the Cypress Hills Cemetery in Brooklyn, New York. He encountered Johnny Blaze after Ghost Rider asked for the help of Blaze to save Danny Ketch. Johnny Blaze was preoccupied in New Orleans with his family affairs and the Caretaker does not intervene, so Ghost Rider was struggling to save his alter ego only to find Lilith had escaped the confines of her own reality. Caretaker also rides an "ancient motorcycle," which possibly refers to its being an older 1960s-era model.

[edit] Appearance in other media

Sam Elliott portrayed the Caretaker in the 2007 film based on Ghost Rider. This version of the character, however, was not a member of the Blood, of which there is no mention in the movie, but in fact was Johnny Blaze's predecessor to the Ghost Rider title, having been subjected to the same curse 150 years before. In the film, the Caretaker turns out to be Carter Slade, another character owned by Marvel Comics that was originally named Ghost Rider, but later changed to Phantom Rider to make way for the new version. But Sam Elliot's depiction of this character is more along the lines of the Caretaker, in terms of emotion, or lack thereof. At one point, he even transforms into a Ghost Rider-style version of Carter Slade, complete with a flaming skull, nearly-charred clothes & a mystical horse on fire, as the Phantom Rider.