Ghost Rider.
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The Spirit of Vengeance.
The old flaming skull…guy?
Alongside Dr. Strange and Blade, Ghost Rider remains one of the most popular supernatural heroes in the Marvel stable. With his arrival this fall on Season 4 of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., Robbie Reyes is bursting onto the scene after Johnny Blaze cut a path via the Nic Cage movies.
Ghost Rider has had a long and varied history in the Marvel comics with numerous characters taking the mantle, and its time for the latest iteration to jump into live action.
If you’re looking for a place to find the best Ghost Rider stories, look no further.
Marvel Spotlight #5
The first appearance of the Ghost Rider, Marvel Spotlight introduced readers to Johnny Blaze, a daredevil on a motorcycle, who spent his time with his girlfriend, Roxanne, and her father trying to make enough money to get by with death defying tricks.
From comic book creators Roy Thomas, Gary Friedrich, and Mike Ploog, Blaze found himself in a tricky situation of trying to save Roxanne’s father from cancer. Little did he know, Mephisto, one of Marvel’s many devils, appeared before Blaze and promised to save Crash for a price.
Johnny jumped at the chance and just like that, Roxanne’s father was cured, but like so many other deals with the devil, things did not go well.
Crash almost immediately died in a stunt accident, but the deal was still in place.
Blaze feared for his soul but managed to keep it by instead becoming the Spirit of Vengeance, the Ghost Rider.
Now harboring the soul of the demon Zarathos, Blaze used his abilities to fight evil rather than become a pawn for the devil. Originally, Blaze would become the Ghost Rider simply when night fell, which was actually similar to when Bruce Banner would become the Hulk, but this was later changed to have Ghost Rider appear whenever Blaze wanted, or sometimes didn’t. This first issue gives you a nice rundown of who Blaze is, what the Ghost Rider can do, and the trappings of this supernatural lore.
Ghost Rider #1 (1990)
While Johnny Blaze had a long career as the Ghost Rider, and would eventually return to it, in the 1990’s, he was replaced for a younger model.
Danny Ketch would take up the mantle of the Ghost Rider accidentally, not by selling his soul to the devil, but rather by simply touching a motorcycle he wasn’t supposed to.
On a trip to a nearby cemetery, Danny and his sister, Barbara, encountered the ninjas of Deathwatch, a super powered mobster. Barbara was unfortunately killed but Danny managed to become the Ghost Rider, or a new interpretation of the character that wasn’t quite the same as Blaze’s.
Danny Ketch’s initial adventures as the Ghost Rider introduced villains that would make up the regular stable of the character’s rogues gallery: the vampire Blackout, Deathwatch, Madcap, and Lilith to name a few.
Ketch’s Ghost Rider was also the appearance that was used in most media, movies and cartoons alike. This initial series also gave us the most noteworthy of the Ghost Rider’s powers in the Penance Stare, which caused its victims to relive their evil deeds a thousand times over. Ketch’s run as the Ghost Rider, even though Danny hasn’t appeared much in outside media, is still the most iconic.
Midnight Sons
During the 90’s run of the Danny Ketch Ghost Rider saga, a story that created an epic team in the form of the Midnight Sons was formulated.
This storyline brought together both of the Ghost Riders (Johnny and Danny), Blade, Doctor Strange, Morbius the Living Vampire and many others to fight Lilith, the queen of the demons, and her children.
This was the most prominent, and financially successful, supernatural team of heroes that Marvel had seen. Trust me that when I say successful, I mean it as these books were routinely beating the X-Men in terms of sales which, at the time, was almost unprecedented for Marvel.
The Midnight Sons storyline went for quite some time, covering years of arcs that saw the team fighting various threats as well as having a consistently changing roster when certain characters would die.
When I was a kid, these characters made up my favorite team of heroes and though the storylines may not quite hold up in this day and age, they are still worth digging into if you get the chance and want to read a story about Ghost Rider at the very height of his popularity.
Jason Aaron’s Ghost Rider
Following the Midnight Sons, Ghost Rider struggled to find his place in the Marvel Universe — both in his stories and with readers.
When Jason Aaron was given the task of writing the Spirit of Vengeance, he came up with a storyline that incorporated nearly every aspect of the Ghost Rider mythology, while adding his own twist on the lore that ran from issues #25 – 35 (along with the mini-series, “Heaven’s On Fire”.
Johnny Blaze had once again become the Ghost Rider, but was now fighting against his brother Danny and an onslaught of renegade angels. Aaron presented a Ghost Rider story that was fast, frantic, and electrifying as the eccentric adventures of Johnny Blaze under Jason’s pen were legendary for the character.
Luckily, Aaron’s run on Ghost Rider is collected in an omnibus which is readily available for a long afternoon and really shows the writer cutting his teeth on the supernatural hero.
On top of introducing the idea of a generation of Ghost Riders, he also was able to give us a Ghost Rider on a shark! How anyone can not read this after hearing that is beyond me.
All New Ghost Rider
After having Johnny Blaze, Danny Ketch, and even a female Ghost Rider in the form of Alejandra, a new Ghost Rider was decided to be brought to the forefront from comic creators Felipe Smith and Tradd Moore.
Robbie Reyes was a down on his luck teenager, working as a mechanic while spending his night street racing in order to save enough to get him, and his younger brother, out of a bad neighborhood.
After finding an abandoned muscle car, Reyes discovered the car gave him the power of the Ghost Rider and made him the first main Spirit of Vengeance in the Marvel Universe to not ride a motorcycle.
Reyes’ series lasted twelve issues but had a frantic art style and solid writing to propel the character into the spotlight wherein obviously he made for a good addition to the television series Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.
While the series was initially canceled, another with Reyes in the lead is coming down the pike from Marvel comics. Keep an eye out and read any of these stories for a good time with old Skullface.
