VENGEANCE

 

VENGEANCE

Real Name: Michael Badilino

First Appearance: Ghost Rider (Vol. 3) #21, January 1992 (as Badilino); Ghost Rider & Blaze: Spirits of Vengeance (Vol. 1) #9, April 1993 (as Vengeance)

Powers: Michael Badilino was originally a baseline human with no superhuman powers. His family had been victims of the Zarathos-controlled Ghost Rider from the last days of Johnny Blaze's first reign as its host. Michael survived the death of his parents and sister. As an adult, Badilino became a police officer offered up his soul to Mephisto in a bizarre re-enactment of Johnny Blaze's deal in order to gain revenge on the Ghost Rider who killed his family. Mephisto bonded him as a host for one of the Spirits of Vengeance. Calling himself Vengeance, Michael was roughly twice as strong as Noble Kale-controlled Ghost Rider. He possessed many of the same qualities as the other Riders.

As Vengeance, Badilino can transform into his supernatural form at will, in which state he possessed superhuman Class 20 strength, reflexes, tireless stamina, and considerable coping ability when it comes to physical harm. Not only was Vengeance superhumanly durable, his hellfire could regenerate any damage done to his bones and form. Once, he was even reduced to a pile of ash, yet a flash of hellfire reconstructed him within minutes. He was covered with hellfire like his predecessor and possessed the same penance stare: By getting someone to look into his empty eye sockets, Vengeance could force them to experience all the physical and psychological suffering they had caused in their lifetimes, an overwhelming and horrific experience for most criminals. The penance stare had the added side effect of allowing Vengeance to perceive all these wrongdoings as they were relived by his victim, enabling him to gauge their guilt or innocence of various specific crimes. By projecting his hellfire as energy blasts, he could cause physical damage to inanimate objects and burn his opponents, either physically or leaving their flesh cool but assaulting their souls with intense pain and torment. He learned to summon a flaming motorcycle into existence at will as well. This hellfire bike radiated heat and flame, moved in complete silence (since it had no real engine), and was able to perform miraculous stunts like driving straight up or alongside vertical inclines at more than 300 mph. Vengeance could also extend and fire razor sharp spikes from his biker jacket, and could unravel lengths of bone chain from his forearms.

Michael Badilino was an officer in the United States Marines and has considerable military training having served in Special Forces. A former Lieutenant with the New York City Police Department, he was commanding officer of its Paranormal Law Enforcement Unit prior to his demonic transformation.