Ghost Rider (Johnny Blaze)
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Johnny Blaze, or John Blaze, is a fictional, supernatural superhero in the Marvel Comics universe. He is the second Marvel character to use the name Ghost Rider, following the Western hero later known as the Phantom Rider, and preceding Daniel Ketch, the second supernatural Ghost Rider.
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[edit] Publication history
Following the western comics character to originally use the name, this Ghost Rider first appeared in Marvel Spotlight vol. 1, #5 (Aug. 1972), created by Gary Friedrich and artist Mike Ploog.
The character received his own series in 1973, with penciler Jim Mooney handling most of the first nine issues. Several different creative teams mixed-and-matched until penciler Don Perlin began a long stint with #26, eventually joined by writer Michael Fleisher through #58. This Ghost Rider's career ended when Zarathos fled Blaze's body in issue #81 (June 1983), the finale.
Blaze occasionally appeared in the subsequent, 1990-1998 series Ghost Rider, which starred a related character, Daniel Ketch.
[edit] Fictional character biography
Johnny Blaze, a stunt daredevil, was the son of Barton Blaze and Naomi Kale. He spent his early years in the Quentin Carnival where his parents starred in a stunt show with Craig "Crash" Simpson. Blaze's family had ended when his mother abandoned Barton and Johnny and took the family's two children.
Losing his mother caused Blaze to repress many of his memories of her and his siblings. When his father died in a stunt, Blaze was adopted by Crash and Mona Simpson. The Simpsons helped Blaze by fabricating his past with the hope that it would be less painful than the truth. Now believing that his real mother was Clara Blaze, who had passed away, Blaze became an enthusiastic member of the Simpson clan, growing closer to their daughter, Roxanne. The two soon became inseparable and, as they grew older their fondness for one another moved beyond familiar.
Blaze would eventually join the Simpsons into their own traveling stunt show — the Crash Simpson Stunt Cycle Extravaganza. Crash had become a real father figure in Blaze's eyes, and on learning of Crash's life-threatening cancer, Blaze turned to the occult. His studies led him to a spell which supposedly could summon Satan himself. Johnny was unaware that he in fact had summoned Mephisto. Desperate to save him, Blaze sold his soul to Mephisto in return for Crash's cancer to be cured.
Crash Simpson's cancer was cured, although Crash died soon after in a stunt trying to jump over 22 cars. Blaze, still at the mercy of Mephisto, believed he would lose his soul to Mephisto until he was saved by Roxanne. Roxanne proclaimed her love for Blaze, and drove Mephisto away with the purity of her emotion.
Blaze was unaware that Mephisto had bonded him with the demon Zarathos as an act of revenge for not being able to obtain Johnny's soul for himself. Johnny was transformed into a Ghost Rider, a leather-clad skeleton, his head cloaked in a sheath of flame, the night after Crash's death. Basically, he still had his soul, but he was forced to punish the wicked and evil upon Mephisto's demands whenever needed.
Blaze became a bounty hunter for Mephisto. Whenever he was in the presence of evil he would transform into the Ghost Rider, to exact the devil's revenge, returning the evil to Hell. Blaze was not completely lost in the transformation however, and would also help the innocent when they were in danger.
Eventually, Zarathos would gain control of Johnny Blaze, and the Ghost Rider would become the spirit of Zarathos unleashed. Johnny himself was becoming stronger as well, and the conflicting personalities led to a battle over Blaze's physical body.
Before too long Centurious appeared, stealing Blaze's soul into his soul crystal. Zarathos, weakened from the ordeal used the last of his strength to shatter the crystal, freeing Blaze's soul and many others contained inside of the crystal as well. Before the crystal was reformed, Centurious was absorbed into the crystal. Zarathos followed him into the crystal, freeing Blaze from the curse, restored his soul and ending his time as the Ghost Rider.
He later teamed up with the new Ghost Rider (Daniel Ketch) to form the "Spirits of Vengeance". During this time Blaze would again ride a bike with wheels on fire and would sling a hellfire spitting pump-gun. Their mentor Caretaker would later reveal that they were in fact brothers.
Starting over, Blaze eventually found a new job as an accountant and a new girlfriend, Chloe. Though free from the curse and with his soul back, Johnny would eventually learn how to transform again into the Ghost Rider.
Johnny Blaze soon found himself constantly pursued by demons of Hell, intent on forcing him to make good on the demonic pact he had made. It was all that the Ghost Rider could do to out-run the evil, but it wasn't enough. Eventually. Johnny was captured and taken to Hell.
[edit] The Road to Damnation
The Road to Damnation series, by Garth Ennis & Clayton Crain, finds Johnny Blaze trapped in an endless cycle of torture and escape in the pit. It is here that the angel Malachi appears to the Ghost Rider, offering to free him from Hell with his soul intact, in exchange for hunting down the demon Kazzan who has been unleashed upon the earth.
Malachi tells Blaze that the only way he will be freed from Hell permanently is to beat the Archangel Ruth to Kazzan, in order to stave off the destruction that she will cause should she fight him. Along the way, Blaze meets a demon, Hoss, who is also in pursuit of Kazzan, and offers to help the Ghost Rider since they are after the same goal.
[edit] Vicious cycle
In July 2006, a new ongoing monthly series, titled Vicious Cycle began. Written by Daniel Way with art by Mark Texeira and Javier Saltares, the same artistic team from the 1990 series. The storyline takes place after the Ennis miniseries, and features Johnny Blaze finally escaping hell.
Blaze's escape is a plot engineered by Lucifer himself, as when Johnny escapes from Hell the devil comes with him. It is that when Lucifer travelled to the mortal realm his essence shattered and spread to recently deceased people, each one of them resurrected and imbued with a portion of the devil's strength. In order to reform his body each one of the human hosts has to die, but cannot die from suicide as that is a sin and would send the devil back to hell.
Believing Dr. Strange to be Lucifer in disguise, Blaze attacks him, and for the first time he uses the Penance Stare, debilitating Dr. Strange. It is then that the celestial being Numecet appears and reveals the intent of Lucifer to Blaze.
She tells Johnny Blaze that he is stronger than he can comprehend and is a vital part of Lucifer's plans; as he intends for the Ghost Rider to kill each of the posessed. As each one would fall the remaining will become even stronger as the demon's essence is reconstituted.
Numecet attempts to dissuade Blaze but to no avail. He knows that if he had the ability to cross to the mortal realm with Lucifer, he must have the ability to return with him as well. Resolved, Johnny Blaze sets off to destroy Lucifer; as he leaves, Numecet weeps, her tears reviving the catatonic Dr. Strange.
[edit] World War Hulk
Ghost Rider is set to take part in World War Hulk, where he will fight against the Hulk in Ghost Rider #12.
[edit] Behind the scenes
Thomas, Marvel's editor-in-chief at the time, described the character's genesis:
- "I had made up a character as a villain in Daredevil — a very lackluster character — called Stunt-Master... a motorcyclist. Anyway, when Gary Friedrich started writing Daredevil, he said, "Instead of Stunt-Master, I'd like to make the villain a really weird motorcycle-riding character called Ghost Rider." He didn't describe him. I said, "Yeah, Gary, there's only one thing wrong with it," and he kind of looked at me weird, because we were old friends from Missouri, and I said, "That's too good an idea to be just a villain in Daredevil. He should start out right away in his own book." When Gary wasn't there the day we were going to design it, Mike Ploog, who was going to be the artist, and I designed the character. I had this idea for the skull-head, something like Elvis' 1968 Special jumpsuit, and so forth, and Ploog put the fire on the head, just because he thought it looked nice. Gary liked it, so they went off and did it." [1]
Friedrich on the above, in 2001:
- "Well, there's some disagreement between Roy, Mike and I (sic) over that. I threatened on more than one occasion that if Marvel gets in a position where they are gonna make a movie or make a lot of money off of it, I'm gonna sue them, and I probably will. ...It was my idea. It was always my idea from the first time we talked about it, it turned out to be a guy with a flaming skull and rode a motorcycle. Ploog seems to think the flaming skull was his idea. But, to tell you the truth, it was my idea."1
[edit] Christian-themed story arc
Tony Isabella, a comic book writer in the mid-1970s, had written at one time a story arc where Johnny Blaze became a Christian, and in doing so, freed himself of the curse. Isabella said in May 2007, "I’d written a story wherein, couched in mildly subtle terms, Blaze accepted Jesus as his savior and freed himself from Satan’s power forever."
Contemporary Christian Music Sightings said on the subject, "According to Isabella’s account, the story arc took two years to unfold, and was approved by several editors. But when the story reached the big twist -- and a certain mysterious drifter was going to be revealed as Jesus Christ -- an assistant editor “took offense” and intercepted the issue right as it was about to go to the printer and completely rewrote the story."
Isabella says, "To this day, I consider what he did to my story one of the three most arrogant and wrong-headed actions I’ve ever seen from an editor."[2]
[edit] Powers and abilities
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 Dr. 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.
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 invulnerability to physical damage. Ghost Rider also has been known to set the souls of the wicked on fire. Recently, Johnny Blaze managed to use Daniel Ketch's Penance Stare against Dr. Strange.
[edit] Appearances in other media
- The Ghost Rider is a playable character in the video game of Marvel: Ultimate Alliance.
- The Ghost Rider has his own video game on PS2 and PSP: Ghost Rider (video game).
- Ghost Rider was featured in his own film, played by star Nicolas Cage and his young form is played by actor Matt Long.
