Ghost Rider (Johnny Blaze)

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Ghost Rider

Ghost Rider #1 (Sept., 1973). Art by Gil Kane and Joe Sinnott.
Publication information
Publisher Marvel Comics
First appearance Marvel Spotlight # 5 (August 1972)
Created by Roy Thomas
Gary Friedrich
Mike Ploog
In story information
Alter ego Johnathon "Johnny" Blaze
Team affiliations Champions
Midnight Sons
Defenders
Legion of Monsters
Notable aliases Frank Ryder
Abilities Superhuman strength and durability
Invulnerability to heat and flame
Ability to project regular and ethereal flame
Ability to travel between interdimensional realms and along any surface
Can conjure a bike using Hellfire
Wields magical chain
Rides flaming motorcycle
"Penance Stare"
Wields shotgun that can produce Hellfire

Johnathan "Johnny" Blaze is a fictional character, a supernatural superhero and anti-hero 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. Academy-Award actor Nicolas Cage portrays him in the 2007 film Ghost Rider.

Contents

[edit] Publication history

Variant Cover to Ghost Rider (vol 3).Art by Marc Silvestri.
Variant Cover to Ghost Rider (vol 3).
Art by Marc Silvestri.

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 penciller Jim Mooney handling most of the first nine issues. Several different creative teams mixed-and-matched until penciller 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, born in Waukegan, Illinois. 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 remaining two children, Barbara and Danny, with her.

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 died, 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 or at least Johnny believed it was, although Crash died soon after in a stunt trying to jump over 22 cars. Mephisto, when confronted by Blaze over Crash's death, declared that he had kept his end of the bargain. Johnny's exact words in the bargain had been for Crash to be spared the disease which was killing him, not for the cancer to be cured, though this was the obvious intent behind Johnny making the deal to begin with. True to his word, Crash had not died of the cancer, but instead had died during the failed jump. Which Mephisto quickly pointed out when he came to claim his prize. 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. While Johnny still had his soul, he was forced to punish the wicked and evil upon Mephisto's demands whenever needed.[1]

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.

As the Ghost Rider, he encountered Daimon Hellstrom.[2] Johnny later came to work as a movie stuntman for Delazny studios.[3] As the Ghost Rider, he teamed with Morbius, Man-Thing, and Werewolf by Night.[4] He lost a motorcycle stunt riding champsionship to Flagg Fargo,[5] and later came to work as a stunt rider for the Quentin Carnival.[6]

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.[7]

For a while, Johnny became a drifter and then an adventurer. He eventually became the owner of the carnival. In time, he learned of the existence of Daniel Ketch as the Ghost Rider. Believing the new Ghost Rider to be Zarathos, Johnny traveled to New York City to kill him.[8] Johnny abducted Ketch and battled the Ghost Rider. Johnny became convinced that Ketch was not Zarathos, and aided him against Blackout.[9] Alongside the Ghost Rider and Spider-Man, Blaze then fought the Hobgoblin.[10] He also helped Ghost Rider and the X-Men battle the Brood Queen.[11]

He later teamed up with the new Ghost Rider 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. In the team's first appearance, they battled Lilith and her Lilin.[12]

Blaze went back to leading his carnival. Despite it being staffed with many powerful entities, it was nearly destroyed in a demonic attack led by the creature Vengeance. The dead, friend and foe alike, were taken by government forces to be dissected. Blaze, with the help of friends, living and dead, breaks into the facility and destroys all the bodies.

A later confrontation with the forces of evil would lead to Roxanne's death. Blaze would later become a demon hunter and hunt down the demons responsible for her death and kill them all. Roxanne was later discovered to have been resurrected as or simply transformed into the being named The Black Rose. She was later returned to Johnny, despite memory loss, in the final issue of the Dan Ketch series of Ghost Rider. Roxanne's current status is unknown, as she hasn't appeared in any Ghost Rider comics since, outside of flashbacks.

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 transform back into Ghost Rider, through means unknown. Johnny encountered an old man who seemed to know about the recent return of the Ghost rider, and claimed that the current woes of the former stunt cyclist were due to the fact that he needed to learn to forgive himself for his past mistakes and move on with his life.[13] This Ghost Rider entity spoke only a singular line, and was much more savage than Noble Kale. However, there is no indication as to who or what this creature was. This entity would appear not to be Zarathos, who is either dead or else is trapped within his own body which had been turned to stone.[14] However, Zarathos and Centurious were believed to have been trapped within the Soul Crystal for the rest of eternity which itself was shown in the hands of Mephisto,[15] so the possibility that this Ghost Rider is an incarnation of Zarathos isn't an impossibility.

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 Kazann 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 Kazann, 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 Kazann, and offers to help the Ghost Rider since they are after the same goal.

Hoss and Blaze fight with Ruth and she steals his bike, they pursue her in Hoss' Cadillac. When they arrive to where Ruth is Kazann is already free, thanks to the efforts of a corrupt paraplegic business owner named Earl Gustav. Hoss and Ruth fight while Blaze battles Kazann, who lets Johnny know he's been duped by Malachi. As this happens Gustav's secretary, Jemima Catmint, makes her boss recite an incantation that sends Kazaan back to Hell. Johnny thinks he's free, but gets shot in the head by a dying priest (whom he had blasted with hellfire earlier) with a holy bullet and is sent back to Hell. He confronts Malachi who reveals that he tricked Johnny. Johnny threatens to kill him, but is prevented from doing so by Ruth, who kills him herself. Hoss appears, and reveals that Kazann and Malachi were actually brothers, who passed information to each other about Heaven and Hell. Once Kazann escaped from Hell, Malachi needed to find someone (Ghost Rider) to get him back before Ruth, in order to prevent Kazann from spilling the beans about Malachi exchanging secrets of Heaven with him while he was being tortured by angels.

[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. During a battle at a gas station, Blaze defeats the corpse of a recently-deceased father that has been animated by the Devil. After vanquishing the devil another incarnation appears and tells him that suicides go to hell. Detecting the magical disturbance caused by Ghost Rider's escape, Doctor Strange investigates the situation, but, believing Doctor 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 bodies he has possessed. It is revealed that when Lucifer traveled to the mortal realm his essence shattered and spread to recently deceased people—six hundred and sixty-six of them to be precise—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 they cannot die from suicide as that is a sin and would send the devil back to hell. As each one would fall the remaining will become even stronger as the demon's essence is reconstituted. Ghost Rider must be the one to kill them because, although initially just anybody could slay the bodies, eventually the remaining bodies will become so powerful that no being could kill Lucifer. 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 to force Lucifer into a single body and then drag that body back to Hell with him, Johnny Blaze sets off to destroy Lucifer; as he leaves, Numecet weeps, her tears reviving the catatonic Doctor Strange.

[edit] Civil War

Johnny ends up in Sleepy Hollow, Illinois where a serial killer is decapitating local children and soon learns his identity: the supervillain known as Jack O'Lantern. Killed by the Punisher, Stevie Levins' body is occupied by one of the several aspects of Lucifer. The local Sherrif thinks Blaze is to blame but soon realizes the truth. Ghost Rider and The Sherrif confront Levins/Lucifer at the door of a Preacher's house, and after a short fight Ghost Rider tears out Levins/Lucifer's heart and smashes his head.[citation needed]

[edit] World War Hulk

Johnny Blaze angers the Ghost Rider when he tries to save several people and allows the Lucifer fragment they were currently fighting to escape. Later after watching a broadcast on T.V., Blaze decides to go to New York and fight the Hulk, against the Ghost Rider's will. The issue ends with Ghost Rider coming to a halt on his motorcycle in front of the Hulk.[16]

After attempting to urge the Hulk to stop, Ghost Rider engages the Hulk. Their battle is monitored by Doctor Strange and Mister Fantastic. Dr. Strange believes that the demonic entity that supplies Ghost Rider's mystic power is possibly capable of defeating the Hulk, even going as far as to call his powers "godlike". However, as it is Ghost Rider, not the fully powered Zarathos who is engaging the Hulk, and the Hulk easily defeats Ghost Rider. After the battle, the true Zarathos emerges to face the Hulk, but Ghost Rider regains control of the shared body and rides off because, as Dr. Strange says in the end of the issue, Ghost Rider protects only the innocent, which none of the Illuminati are.[17]

[edit] Behind the scenes

Roy 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

Eventually, Marvel did do a Ghost Rider film, as well as a videogame and a line of action figures to tie in with the movie. Friedrich kept true to his word by suing Marvel Enterprises, Columbia TriStar Pictures, Hasbro and the makers of the videogame over profits gained for the use of his character.


[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 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. Ghost Rider'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.

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.

The demonic entity which is the source of Ghost Rider's power, Zarathos, has been described by Doctor Strange, the Sorceror Supreme of Earth, to possesses sufficient mystical power to challenge the Green Scar incarnation of the Hulk, as shown in World War Hulk.[18]

[edit] In other media

[edit] Film

Ghost Rider was featured in his own film, played by star Nicolas Cage and his young form is played by actor Matt Long.

In the movie, Johnny was with Barton Blaze in a father/son motorcycle stunt performance in a traveling circus, with Roxanne Simpson as his sweetheart. When he learned of his father's life-threatening cancer, Johnny sold his soul to Mephisto in return for Barton's cancer to be cured. But Barton died soon after in a stunt gone wrong, though actually murdered by Mephisto himself. After being infused with the Ghost Rider powers, Johnny left Roxanne to keep her out of harm's way. Years later, after seeing Roxanne, settling his affairs with her, Johnny was forced by Mephisto to track down Blackheart, eventually defeating him to be free of the contract he made. Though he succeeds in regaining his soul, Johnny refused to give up being the Ghost Rider, intending to use the very power Mephisto bestowed against him.

[edit] Video games

[edit] Music

[edit] References

  1. ^ Marvel Spotlight Vol. 1 #5
  2. ^ Marvel Spotlight Vol. 1 #13
  3. ^ Ghost Rider Vol. 2 #13-26
  4. ^ Champions #1-2
  5. ^ Ghost Rider Vol. 2 #46
  6. ^ Ghost Rider Vol. 2 #63-80
  7. ^ Ghost Rider Vol. 2 #81
  8. ^ Ghost Rider Vol. 3 #10
  9. ^ Ghost Rider Vol. 3 #14-15
  10. ^ Ghost Rider Vol. 3 #16
  11. ^ Ghost Rider Vol. 3 #27
  12. ^ Spirits of Vengeance #1
  13. ^ 'Hammer Lane' miniseries, under the Marvel Knights imprint
  14. ^ Rise of the Midnight Sons #1-6
  15. ^ Ghost Rider Vol. 2 #81
  16. ^ Ghost Rider # 12
  17. ^ Ghost Rider # 13
  18. ^ Ghost Rider #13

[edit] External links

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