Ghost Rider

The original Ghost Rider was a cowboy who first appeared in Ghost Rider (1967 series) #1, and as a gunfighter battled evil while dressed in a luminescent white costume, complete with a mask and the requisite white hat. After the appearance of subsequent Ghost Riders, this character's name was changed to the Phantom Rider. No less than five men had worn the Phantom Rider's mask, one of whom is active in the modern day.

The second Ghost Rider first appeared in Marvel Spotlight volume 1 #15. John Blaze, a motorcycle stunt performer in a traveling circus, sold his soul to the demon Mephisto to save his brother Barton's life. He was bound with the demon Zarathos, and transformed into a flaming, leather-clad skeleton, and his bike's wheels were cloaked in a sheath of flame. This Ghost Rider's career ended when Zarathos fled Blaze's body in Ghost Rider (1973 series) #81.

The third, and most prolific, Ghost Rider first appeared in Ghost Rider (1990 series) #1. Dan Ketch and his sister Barbara were attacked by ninja gangsters. They fled, but Barbara was wounded, so they hid in a garbage dump. Ketch found a motorcycle bearing a mystical sigil; upon touching the sigil he was transformed into the Ghost Rider. This Ghost Rider was nearly identical to the previous, though his costume and bike had undergone a more modernized tailoring. He defeated the gangsters and eventually killed their employer, Deathwatch, but was unable to save Barbara, who died.

It was later revealed that Dan Ketch and John Blaze were long-lost brothers, and that their family were the inheritors of a mystical curse related to the Spirits of Vengeance. Ketch eventually died, but the Spirit of Vengeance that had been bound to him through the bike's talisman lived on. Still later, Blaze became the Ghost Rider again through unrevealed circumstances, reappearing in Ghost Rider (2001 series) #1.

A Ghost Rider movie has been announced for 2006 starring Nicolas Cage as the fiery biker, John Blaze.

Other uses

Bibliography of Ghost Rider titles