Ghost Rider: Marvel Introduces Spirit of Vengeance’s Wildest Villain Yet

Given his role as Marvel’s most iconic horror character, Ghost Rider has had a rather bizarre rogue’s gallery since his inception. Now, 50 years after the character first entered Marvel canon, the Spirit of Vengeance has found himself facing off against what may be his wildest villain yet. Full spoilers up ahead for Ghost Rider #7, now available in comic stores.

With the help of Wolverine, Johnny Blaze has managed to exorcise the demon plaguing his body. Now expelled from a physical form, the aforementioned shadow demon manages to craft his own body out of a grotesque mass of organic body pieces and vehicle parts. Yeah, it’s exactly as wild as it sounds. Furthermore, Exhaust is able to craft a legion of demons by expelling…well…exhaust into the mouths of others. Once done, things get real Alien, real fast as mini-Exhaust demons burst out of the chest of the possessed.

Where’s Ghost Rider heading in his latest story?

Since it’s the character’s 50th anniversary, writer Benjamin Percy and artist Cory Smith wanted to take the character back to his roots by paying an homage to all of the creators that have worked on books starring the character before.

“For the 50th anniversary of Ghost Rider, I wanted to do something epic, so I dreamed up an issue that channeled and celebrated the wild legacy of all the creators and stories who came before me,” Ghost Rider writer Benjamin Percy told ComicBook.com via email earlier this year.

“I did so by interweaving a larger story — about Johnny Blaze in the present– with smaller stories that spotlight Danny, the Midnight Sons, Ghost Rider 2099, and more, so many and so much more, including never-before-seen iterations of the Spirit of Vengeance. We’ll travel to the far past and the near future, and the frame for all of this involves a new, haunting character known as Necro the Tattooist,” Percy added. “He brings to the surface the secrets we carry beneath our skin. Juan Jose Ryp is the artist assigned to this special anniversary issue, and he is especially brilliant at conjuring beautiful nightmares. Brace yourself: this issue will leave its burnt-rubber mark on you.”