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