GHOST RIDER (DANNY KETCH)

 

GHOST RIDER II

 

Real Name: Daniel Ketch

First Appearance: Ghost Rider (Vol. 1) #1, May 1990

History/Powers: Daniel "Danny" Ketch is Johnny Blaze's younger brother, and his time as the Ghost Rider is intrinsically tied to Noble Kale. During the time of the Puritans in the New England colonies of America, a man named Noble Kale was transformed into a Spirit of Vengeance by forces beyond his control. A direct ancestor of John Blaze and Danny Ketch, he was supposedly part of the same bloodline that contained the Medallion of Power, which was proven to be a ruse. Allegedly, his origin is that Mephisto was banned from claiming Kale's soul by an angel, and so they were forced to reach common ground. Kale would have his memories stripped from him, and serve as a Ghost Rider, rising up to enact vengeance whenever innocent blood was spilled. His presence would manifest itself each generation through the medallion shards of his bloodline, allowing him to take as a host body the firstborn of the generation, be they male or female. Thus Kale was denied entry into either Heaven or Hell, the guilty were punished, and Mephisto could lay claim on the souls of those evildoers who suffered under the Ghost Rider's wrath, as well as enjoying the curse Noble's presence placed on the family Kale.

Noble Kale's soul was bonded to the specific Spirit of Vengeance he served as a host for while alive, and the Kale Spirit of Vengeance did possess one of his descendants with each generation. In the generation immediately prior to the current one, where a woman named Naomi Kale was a Ghost Rider and Noble's host body, and the mother of John, Barbara, and Daniel. With her husband (and father to her children) Barton Blaze dead and her life apparently ruined by the circumstances of her curse, Naomi left one son (John Blaze) in the care of her late husband's best friend, Crash Simpson, and her other children were adopted by a family in Brooklyn (thus Barbara and Dan Ketch). In order to end the cursed continuation of Noble Kale's presence, Naomi performed a mystical ceremony which would block the firstborn of the next generation, her son Johnny, from harboring Noble's spirit. Finishing the ceremony and getting into a conflict with Mephisto, Naomi died of a long-suffering illness she had. Thus, Johnny Blaze was shielded from the Kale Spirit of Vengeance (although nothing prevented him from becoming another Ghost Rider, as seen), and the curse leapfrogged to the second-born, Barbara Ketch.

As adults, Dan and his sister Barbara stumbled onto an exchange between two criminal parties, and Barbara was near-fatally shot by a crossbow bolt while they were escaping. Dan and the badly-wounded Barbara hid in a junkyard right next to Naomi Kale's old motorcycle. The motorcycle's gas-cap began to glow and -- his hands covered with Barbara's innocent blood -- Dan touched the cap and unleashed the Noble Kale version of Ghost Rider once again. It must be pointed out here that, as the third-born of the generation, Dan would not have any medallion shard tied to his life essence, and thus should've been incapable of channeling Noble Kale, or any Spirit of Vengeance for that matter. It was supposedly the blood of his sister, who should have possessed the other Kale-bloodline shard, that allowed Dan to become a Ghost Rider. Considering later revelations, the same logic applies, except that there are no medallions shards and Barbara's blood merely conducted the curse of the Kale Spirit of Vengeance, nothing more.

Whenever innocent blood was shed in his vicinity, the gas cap would begin to glow and Dan would transform into Ghost Rider by touching it. The motorcycle, even in its normal state, did not require gas or maintenance and could drive itself to Dan's location if necessary, in order to initiate the change. Over time, Dan learned to initiate the change at will, summoning the motorcycle to him consciously, or even transform without the motorcycle, as the Midnight Sons' symbol burned out of his palms with hellfire. Once transformed, Ghost Rider possessed superhuman strength, reflexes, tireless stamina, and considerable coping ability when it comes to physical harm. Not only was this Ghost Rider 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, but the Kale Ghost Rider did not employ it as an offensive weapon. Instead, he punished the guilty with his penance stare: By getting someone to look into his empty eye sockets, Ghost Rider 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 Ghost Rider to perceive all these wrongdoings as they were relived by his victim, enabling him to gauge their guilt or innocence of various specific crimes.

He used a length of mystical chain which could be employed for various purposes. It responded to his thoughts, lashed at opponents or wrapping around them as a restraint. The chain could magically extend itself to various lengths, and sections of it could be detached, thus letting him bind an opponent while still having a chain to use. He could straighten the chain and use it as a spear, and later would make it into a scythe by forging a blade of hellfire on one end. The chain links could also detach and be fired as a spray of projectiles, either to inflict blunt force or be mystical altered to possess razor sharp tips. After striking a target, the links returned to him and re-forged into a single length of chain. Transforming along with Ketch, the now flaming motorcycle could reach speeds of over 250 mph, and drop a battering ram before its front wheel to smash through barriers. It enabled him to drive straight up or across 90 degree inclines, over water, or even upside down.

Initially, the Kale Ghost Rider was amnesiac again (as he became with each new host he assumed), capable of thinking about nothing but his quest for vengeance. After Dan was mortally wounded by Blackout, Ghost Rider was forced to remain active for weeks without changing back. This helped break down his mental barriers, allowing his personality to reassert itself, although his true memories still didn't resurface. After learning about the Medallion of Power, Dan and Ghost Rider simply assumed that the Ghost Rider's personality was that of the Spirit of Vengeance Dan was channeling. It would be many more months before Ghost Rider learned of his history as Noble Kale. Briefly, Noble was separated from Dan and re-assumed a human form, taking over Blackheart's corner of Hell. However, the Spirit of Vengeance needed a physical host to support its power, not just a spiritual one, and so Noble Kale was forced to recombine with Dan Ketch. Years later, Dan Ketch forcibly exorcised Noble Kale and the Spirit of Vengeance from his body, and neither have appeared since.

Later, Dan Ketch suffered miserably after exorcising Noble Kale from his body, falling into a state of drunken depression and self-destruction. At his weakest, he was manipulated by the archangel named Zadkiel into becoming his agent on Earth, as the treacherous archangel made plans to assault Heaven itself, and he needed the power of the Spirits of Vengeance behind him. Dan was given limited doses of Spirit power, letting him transform for only a few minutes at a time, to revive his addiction and make him hungry for more. Then, Zadkiel deceived him into thinking that the Spirits of Vengeance ultimately consumed their hosts, funneling too much energy through an all-too human frame so that the host's soul dissolved and was cost its place in the afterlife. With Zadkiel's lies and his own addiction to convince him he was doing the right thing, Dan was manipulated into becoming a Spirit vampire, leeching the power from other Spirits of Vengeance around the globe. Supposedly, he was "saving" the hosts from eventually losing their souls to the Spirit power. In order to keep his own soul safe, Dan willingly gave it over to Zadkiel for "safekeeping", thus making him that much easier for the archangel to control. Over time, Dan consolidated the power of all the Earthly Spirits of Vengeance into his own body, demonstrating incredible strength and power, and new abilities like creating free-acting hellfire duplicates of himself, or flying using angelic wings of fire. During this time, his hellfire often burned with blue flame instead of orange. Once he was successful, however, Zadkiel stripped Dan of the Spirits' power and cast him back down to Earth, with only the residual power of one Spirit of Vengeance still in his system.

MASTER PANDEMONIUM

 

MASTER PANDEMONIUM

Real Name: Martin Preston

First Appearance: Avengers West Coast (Vol. 2) #4, January 1986

Powers: Martin Preston was a rich and successful Hollywood actor who lost his right arm in a drunken car accident. The demon lord Mephisto was alerted to Preston’s screams of agony and offered to restore Preston’s arm in exchange for his soul. In agreement, Mephisto summoned a lesser demon, wrenched off its arm, and magically attached it to Preston’s shoulder stump. Preston lost consciousness during the process and was insensate when Mephisto severed his uninsured left arm and replaced it with a demon’s arm as well. As Master Pandemonium, his body is a living "abode for demons".

Pandemonium could summon any and all of these demons at will, causing them to detach from his body, carrying out his will while leaving him missing arms or legs until the demons rejoined with him. While his limbs were in place, Master Pandemonium possessed the same supernatural strength (Class 10) as his demonic counterparts did when separated from him.

His missing soul was manifested as a hole on his stomach in the shape of an inverted pentagram. Someone's fist or any other physical attack would pass right through this hole, and it could also be used as a gateway to summon an endless horde of demons called the Rakasha, in addition to Pandemonium's main four demonic servants. He can also levitate, project concussive blasts or streams of mystical flame from his mouth, and absorb heat and flame to make him virtually immune to such attacks. With the Amulet of Azmodeus, he was also capable of summoning a bird-like demon of the same name as his familiar, and of teleporting himself and others.

Martin Preston is a talented actor with knowledge of demon lore and certain rites of magic.

HELLSTORM

 

HELLSTORM

Real Name: Daimon Hellstrom

First Appearance: Ghost Rider (Vol. 2) #1, September 1973

Powers: Known as both "Hellstorm" or the "Son of Satan", Daimon Hellstrom is the child of a mortal woman and one of the many Hell-Lords of the nether dimensions, known either as Satan or Marduk Kurios. Daimon possesses both a human soul and a "Darksoul", representative of his father's taint and power. Though his strength and endurance are heightened slightly by the Darksoul, his primary ability is the generation of soulfire, a mystical and spiritual energy that takes the form of normal-looking flame. He can produce soulfire as a source of light or heat, blast through solid barriers, heal wounds and other injuries, or assault opponents physically and metaphysically, striking directly at their souls to cause pain, unholy terror, unconsciousness, etc. He often uses a trident made of netheranium to gather and focus his soulfire in blast form. The netheranium was a psycho-sensitive metal, making it capable of sensing various kinds of mystical energy, and protected against attacks of the same.

Initially, Daimon's Darksoul would become active at night, consuming him in soulfire to reform his clothing into his Son of Satan robes and altering his personality to make him colder and more manic. He would soon learn to integrate his two halves, but maintained the ability to summon and displace his costume at will, day or night. The Son of Satan lost his powers for a time after the Darksoul was removed from his body, but his mystical potential began to return slowly on its own, and he first adopted the name Hellstorm in this period. Daimon began to die without his Darksoul, though, and it was returned to him through an arcane ritual, and his "human side" was rather weakened by the incident. After killing his father in battle, Hellstorm was anointed with the black halo and became ruler of his father's nether-dimension of "Hell", with all the power that came with it. Hellstorm's soulfire is now dramatically more potent, and he can summon and dispatch his trident with a gesture, even recreating a new one to serve as the symbol of his power if the previous one is destroyed.

Hellstorm is able to use his extra-dimensional access to Hell to travel to and from that dimension at will, as well as between different points on Earth. He can sense electrical energy in his surroundings and manipulate it to a certain degree, causing mechanical systems to turn on or off, or explode by causing a power surge to shoot through them. Daimon also possesses certain telepathic abilities, allowing him to read certain surface level thoughts from other people. If he is in a hurry, Hellstorm can forcibly compel someone to reveal everything they know to him, although this process tends to permanently unhinge his victims, leaving them manic and more than a little insane afterwards. His power is now tied to the realm of Hell, making his energies wax and wane depending on the number of dead souls under his care, and the number of living souls who worship or fear him.

Daimon Hellstrom has an advanced degree in demonology. His expertise in demonology is entirely self-taught, and he is a highly experienced exorcist with knowledge of mystic rites.

GHOST RIDER (JOHNNY BLAZE)

 

GHOST RIDER

 

Real Name: Johnathon Barton Blaze

First Appearance: Marvel Spotlight (Vol. 1) #5, May 1972

Powers: The Spirits of Vengeance are aspects of the Judeo-Christian God's Divine Wrath, living spiritual weapons which act as angelic parasites to bond with human hosts. Designed to assume the shape of iconic forms, the Spirits of Vengeance manifest physically as the legendary or revered aspects of a given culture. For example: It manifests Hindu avatars in India, a shrouded figure with a knife on the streets of London, or a lone biker riding the backroads of America. The known “flaming skull” motif which tied the Spirits together was deliberate misdirection, allowing God to exercise vengeance unreported and unrecorded as most people (including the hosts) believed the Spirits to be demonic in origin. The archangel Zadkiel was placed in charge this divine covert operation and guided the Spirits to their hosts, while employing a series of agents known as Caretakers to prevent the hosts from learning the true nature of the Spirits of Vengeance.

Johnny Blaze was originally a baseline human with no superhuman powers who was working as a stunt cyclist in a carnival ran by his stepfather, Crash Simpson. After Crash developed a terminal illness, Johnny used a dark tome to summon the demon-lord Mephisto, trading his soul to Mephisto to save Crash's life. While Mephisto did save Crash's life from his injuries, Simpson died of a completely unrelated event not days later, thus rendering Johnny's sacrifice painfully moot. As Mephisto came to claim Johnny's soul, his stepsister/future wife Roxanne Simpson intervened and, through the power of her Christian faith, disrupted Mephisto's plans. However, Mephisto succeeded in appearing to graft the essence of the demonic entity Zarathos to Blaze’s body. At first, Johnny was unaware of a separate consciousness dwelling within him, and later came to believe it to be a sinister aspect of his own psyche. Initially, the demonic form manifested at nightfall, mystically burning Blaze’s flesh to become a fiery skeletal being. Initially riding conventional motorcycles and later learning how to shape his hellfire into supernatural flame-cycles, the composite Blaze/demon entity became publicly known as the Ghost Rider.

Though the Ghost Rider was originally a Mephisto-created demon form which Johnny Blaze happened to gain control over, it should be noted that any narrative (with the exception of the Judeo-Christian beginning) concerning the origins of the Spirits of Vengeance are false. Any connection they have to Zarathos and the “Medallion of Power” have been proven false. Furthermore, Roxanne Simpson's intervention allowed Johnny to remain human and on Earth during the day and he reverted to the Ghost Rider at night, but still in control of his own actions. When Johnny forfeited his soul to Mephisto, it was later established that Roxanne made an arrangement with the archangel Zadkiel. Mephisto had been trying to claim Johnny's soul and it was actually Zadkiel who stepped in and transformed Johnny into the Ghost Rider, gaining himself a new weapon while preventing Mephisto from ever truly holding Johnny in Hell, since he was now bonded to the essence of Heaven.

In any case, while transformed Johnny was nothing but a living skeleton, aglow with hellfire, and wearing a biker's outfit. He possessed Class 5 strength, superhuman endurance, reflexes, and was virtually impervious to physical injury thanks to Mephisto, who "gifted" Johnny with immortality so that he could only die while battling Mephisto or his minions, keeping his soul from being claimed in any other manner. 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. The Ghost Rider also possessed a mystical Penance Stare that forces his victims to experience a lifetime of pain, sorrow, and guilt of their own misdeeds all at once, often leaving them in a catatonic state. He learned to summon a flaming motorcycle into existence at will as well. This hellfire bike was composed of a Nether metal and radiated heat and flame, moved in complete silence (since it had no actual engine), and was able to perform miraculous stunts like driving straight up or alongside vertical inclines at more than 300 mph.

Later, after being tricked by the Devil into believing his soul was safe, Johnny would no longer change into Ghost Rider at night, but instead would do so in times of danger when Johnny Blaze alone would not be able to overcome the peril. He also lost his immortality and flaming motorcycle at this point, though, and so had a custom-built Skull Cycle made for him, specifically to withstand abnormal levels of impact and damage. The Ghost Rider himself still maintained superhuman durability without his immortality, able to withstand five story falls and be completely unaffected by bullets or laser weapons.

Later on, the Ghost Rider truly did assert himself, and denied the Mephisto's right to his soul. He still transformed in times of danger, his hellfire became significantly more powerful and could now recreate a hellfire Skull Cycle. Over time, Johnny's control over his powers expanded, and he became capable of triggering the transformation into Ghost Rider at will. He also learned how to use his hellfire to cast visual illusions, or shape his hellfire into rings of flame, animated fire demons, or solid ramps for transportation. Blaze began to lose control of the Ghost Rider personality, however. He had frequently used deceit on criminals, playing up his demonic appearance with mad cackling and colorful theatrical language. Johnny became less empathetic and quicker to anger as Ghost Rider, and eventually his personality dropped away completely. The Ghost Rider now acted much like a demonic seeker of vengeance mentally separate from its host body. This version of Ghost Rider dropped the Skull Cycle and hellfire manipulating tricks, recreating its own uniquely designed hellfire cycles to ride on. Eventually, Zarathos supposedly resurfaced completely and took full control over the Ghost Rider body. It became a constant battle of wills between John Blaze and Zarathos for control of their shared body, until Blaze ultimately managed to excise Zarathos out of his system, trapping Zarathos in a soul crystal with his nemesis Centurious the Soulless Man, freeing himself from the Ghost Rider. It should be noted, however, that the angelic revelations about Ghost Rider’s origin call into question whether Zarathos ever truly existed or whether he was something else entirely.

Dan Ketch, Johnny's younger brother, became the next Ghost Rider and Johnny came to New York to investigate the appearance of the new Ghost Rider. During their first encounter, Johnny made contact with this Rider's hellfire, which gave him hellfire powers, since Blazepresumably merely carried residual heavenly power from his time as a Spirit of Vengeance. Blaze could now channel hellfire through his body and into objects he touched, such as charging a dagger or a lamp’s glow with the fiery energy. Mostly though, he focused it through his shotgun as flaming, explosive blasts. He could also summon a flaming motorcycle to ride by firing a blast of hellfire into a normal motorcycle, completely reworking the bike into a demon ride. Briefly, Johnny’s body was severely damaged by agents of Centurious, causing the hellfire in his system to burn out uncontrollably from his skin. He was forced to wear a second skin of armor plating to contain his excess energy as his body healed, covering his chest, arms, and the left side of his face.

Blaze’s cybernetic armor was composed of lightweight modularly high carbon organic steel-like meshing with healing properties, protecting Blaze’s damaged body from high impact while continually healing his injuries. The armor’s mystical properties that contained the hellfire in Blaze’s body at the time. During this time, Blaze carried a modified Toz-194 12-gauge double-handed pump action shotgun capable of projecting hellfire blasts and normal shotgun rounds. The hellfire blasts could imbue objects (including motorcycles) with hellfire to increase performance and to cause various forms of damage such as force impact, fiery explosions, or burning the souls of those who’ve harmed innocents.

Later, Blaze was retaken by the Ghost Rider curse and drawn into Hell for months. He eventually returned to Earth with the power to transform into a Spirit of Vengeance at will, becoming a Ghost Rider that more closely resembled Dan Ketch's variation. As the Rider, Johnny possesses superhuman strength, endurance, and durability again, and a detachable length of chain he can use as a weapon. He can also expel hellfire streams from his throat cavity, eyes or hands, or spew mystical chains to ensnare and tangle his opponents. Blazecan also use the penance stare. His flaming motorcycle now transformed back and forth along with him. As his battles with Mephisto and the forces of Zadkiel continued, Johnny began to cede control of the Ghost Rider to the Spirit of Vengeance he was a host for. The human host had always acted as a circuit breaker for the Spirits, and left unchecked, the Spirit of Vengeance was exponentially more powerful than when Johnny was as Ghost Rider. Ghost Rider could now match the Hulk in terms of sheer strength, regenerate entire body parts within seconds using "hellfire", charge everyday objects like sword with the mystical power of its flames, sense the presence of other Spirits as well as the sins of man, and even call down a rain of fire from heaven. The Ghost Rider's mystical flame could be magically selective as well, leaving a man untouched by the flames while incinerating his clothes and explosively burning down an entire building around him.

Johnny Blaze is a skilled stuntman and expert cyclist capable of seemingly impossible stunts, including riding a motorcycle on a tightrope. He is an excellent marksman, has limited knowledge of the occult and is capable of casting minor spells such as binding and summoning spells. In his earlier adventures, Blaze wore a one-piece racing suit made of Kevlar, a light, strong para-armid synthetic fiber, to maximize protection and durability against fire and damage. It had an internal nylon mesh for improving breathing and reducing perspiration.

MEPHISTO

 

MEPHISTO

Real Name: Unrevealed. "Mephisto," which is short for "Mephistopheles," is a name given him by human beings who mistakenly believed him to be a legendary devil.

First Appearance: The Silver Surfer (Vol. 1) #3, December 1968

Powers: Mephisto possesses vast supernatural power, which is apparently inherent within him. He can use this magical energy for various effects, among which are the augmentation of his own physical strength, levitation, teleportation, the projection of mystical energy as force blasts, invisibility, matter manipulation, image projection, size transformation of his body or other objects or beings, the creation of temporary inter-dimensional apertures, and so on. There seems to be no single feat beyond Mephisto's capabilities, with two exceptions: The subjugation of any sentient being's will to his own without that being's deliberate submission, and the "reading" of a sentient being's thoughts.

Mephisto also possesses certain powers enabling him to capture and detain the astral bodies (sheaths of the soul) of recently deceased human beings. Mephisto does not have jurisdiction over all the souls of humanity's recently deceased. It is not yet known what the prerequisite conditions are for him to be able to manipulate a human soul, nor are the precise means by which he accomplishes the feat known. Apparently, these conditions require that the human being in question willingly agree to submit to Mephisto's will. It is not known how a human being may free himself from bondage to Mephisto (although Johnny Blaze apparently did), nor whether Mephisto will forever retain control of the souls he has obtained. Nor is it known whether or not Mephisto "feeds" on the psychic energies of such souls as other demons do.

Apparently, Mephisto can entrap a living human being within his realm through sheer physical force, even if the person did not submit his or her will to him. The woman named Topaz was thus entrapped until her escape. As a demon, Mephisto is functionally immortal and beyond such human needs as food, air, and sleep. His body appears to be composed of some supernatural substance that is more durable and resilient than human flesh and tissue.

Among the demons of various extra-dimensional netherworlds adjacent to Earth, Mephisto has few rivals in terms of personal power and scope of influence. Only Thog and Satannish come close. Mephisto's power seems to be connected to his extra-dimensional domain and diminishes over time spent away from it. Therefore, he usually sends demonic agents to do his bidding.