Marvel Introducing New Ghost Rider

The Marvel Universe is about to get a new Ghost Rider. Monday, the House of Ideas teased the arrival of a new Ghost Rider series and with it, a new character becoming the Spirit of Vengeance. Despite the character having an ongoing series active at this very moment, Marvel is rebooting it with a new #1 issue come March.

Benjamin Percy will continue writing the series as Marvel newcomer Danny Kim will take over art duties from the committee of artists that have worked on the current ongoing. Cory Smith has handled art duties on the majority of the issues in the title, with fill-in artists including Geoff Shaw, Carlos Nieto, and others. All the covers of the current run have been illustrated by Bjorn Barens, who will depart the series and open space up for Juan Ferreya.

“Everything in Ghost Rider is always Mephisto, Mephisto, Mephisto. Readers get numb to it. I felt the same way about Sabretooth in Wolverine: he’s the big bad and creators always rush the clash between the two. So in that title, we took Sabretooth off the table completely by tossing him in the pit of Krakoa,” Percy told Marvel.com earlier this year. “The idea was, to build up his off-stage mythology, so that when Wolverine and he finally duked it out, it would be especially meaningful. What have I done in the meantime? Built up other baddies who don’t see the spotlight as much, like Omega Red and Mikhail Rasputin.”

He added, “We’re doing something similar in Ghost Rider. Of course Johnny will eventually battle Mephisto, but let’s give some other nasties a turn! When I read Brisson’s run, I felt like Blackheart naturally would have been deeply covetous of Johnny’s time as the king of Hell, so he’d be aiming to take Blaze off his throne and toss him in the dungeon, so to speak.Where’s Ghost Rider heading in his latest story?”

Ghost Rider #20 is set to enter comic shops this Wednesday, November 15th while the current series ends in December’s Ghost Rider #21.