Death Battle Analysis: Ghost Rider

Well it's finally here, Comic Books aren’t exactly my strong suit in terms of ease of research, but I really wanted to make this blog. So after 2 years of research, reading every single Ghost Rider Comic from 1972-2021, it's finally here. A Full, Definitive Analysis of Heaven’s Greatest Weapon, The Spirit of Vengeance, The Brimstone Biker, the one, the only GHOST RIDER!

Background:

It’s said that The West was built on Legends, Tall Tales that help us make sense of things too great, or too terrifying to believe….This is the Legend of The Ghost Rider. 

Johnathon Blaze was born in Waukegan, Illinois as the son of famous Motorcycle Stuntman, Barton Blaze, and Naomi Kale, the descendant of a long line of witches and sorcerers dating back to the colonization of America. 

Orphaned at a young age, Johnny was adopted by his father’s stunt show partner, Crash Simpson, and raised as part of his family, working as a Carny in their traveling Carnival.

Due to his Heritage, Johnny took an interest in both Motorcycle stunts and studying the Occult. The latter of which sparked greatly when his adopted Mother died in a motorcycle accident, causing Johnny to search for a way to bring her back or at least talk to her, but this ultimately failed.

She also, with her dying breath, made Johnny swear off performing for Crash’s show, believing Motorcycles were dangerous, which he accepted in her honor.

But riding was in his blood, despite being Honorbound to not perform in Crash’s show, he continued to train his motorcycle skills in his freetime, becoming the Best motorcycle stuntman in the world, but completely behind the scenes.

Tragedy struck again years later, when Crash got diagnosed with Cancer, being given only one month to live. Not wanting to lose ANOTHER Parental figure, and more so, knowing that because of his promise, Crash’s beloved stunt show would die with him, Johnny became desperate to do anything he could to prevent this.

Gathering up all his old books on The Occult, Johnny performed a ritual to summon forth The Devil, offering up his eternal soul in exchange for curing Crash’s cancer. This plea was answered by Mephisto, one of the most powerful Hell-Lords, who, seeing the value of Johnny’s pure soul with high magic power, agreed to his terms and Cured Crash.

Only for Crash to then Immediately die in a stunt gone wrong the following day. An accident implied to be Mephisto’s doing to speed along obtaining Johnny’s soul, and also cause he’s a big evil jerk.

That night, Mephisto came to Johnny and attempted to take his soul as promised. But when he attempted to take it, someone interfered. 

The evil Dark Angel, Zadkiel, seeing the latent power possessed by Blaze, decided to save him as a part of his master plan to one day take over Heaven.

Zadkiel made Johnny into a Spirit of Vengeance, an extremely powerful Heavenly warrior bonded to a human, which have existed since mankind first began, to fight the forces of hell and defend the innocent. He did this by bonding Johnny, body and soul, to Mephisto’s most feared enemy, a celestial entity named Zarathos.

Before the time of Man, Zarathos was the powerful Arch-Angel of Justice, above all but the elder gods of old, but after seeing the true wickedness of evil, his own desires to take vengeance on those wrongdoers overwhelmed his psyche, and drove him Mad.

Zarathos fell to Earth and laid dormant for thousands of years before being discovered, awakening with no memories and not overly happy. Believing himself to be a Demon, Zarathos conquered the planet and engrossed so much power, it eclipsed that of Mephisto, and threatened his realm.

But through Trickery and Deceit, Mephisto managed to weaken and defeat him, sealing him away in his realm for all these years. Now that he was free and Bonded with Johnny, Mephisto was forced to retreat and forgo his claim to Johnny’s soul.

Beings of Heaven and Hell are unable to exist within our universe without taking a mortal host, so together these two became the New Spirit of Vengeance, which the newspapers would dub, ‘The Ghost Rider.’

These two really didn’t get along at first, Johnny thinking Zarathos was a brutal monster that kept messing up his life, while Zarathos thought Johnny was weak and soft, inconsequential to his goals of reeking vengeance on the wicked.

But after working together for so long and saving each other countless times, they eventually became friends that could depend on one another. Johnny helped Zarathos remember his true Angelic heritage and become a better person, and started up his own motorcycle stunt show, became a television stuntman, and eventually bought the old carnival that Crash was working at and took over management.

All while traveling the U.S and beyond, dealing justice as Marvel Earth’s most terrifying looking superhero. Together they have defeated some of the most powerful Hell lords like Blackheart, Lilith, Lucifer and he that helped Mephisto stop Zarathos in the past, Centurious. They found the other spirits of vengeance, thwarted Zadkiel’s Heaven takeover plan, and of course saved millions of people as Superheros.

Most recently they even stormed into and Conquered all of Mephisto’s realm, defeating and capturing Mephisto and becoming the new King of Hell, keeping the world safe from demons from the inside.

Personalities:

Johnny is an extremely charming, friendly and genuine person, who lives for adventure without any fear. He’s very confident and relaxed when around new people or places, the kind of guy who will walk right up to a total stranger and start a friendly conversation. Blaze likes to travel around and see the sights, eat at roadside diners, and entertain people with his Motorcycle stunts across the country. He is humble, polite and almost never holds a grudge, constantly wanting to help those in need get into a better situation, to the point of hiring ex-cons to his circus, or saving those that personally hate his guts. It was these traits that allowed him to eventually calm and befriend the violent and unstable Zarathos, who literally everyone else had written off as a monster. Johnny helped teach Zarathos forgiveness, and that the point of their job was not to punish the wicked, but to protect the virtuous, letting him remember the angel he once was. Because of this Zarathos has become very attached to Blaze (metaphorically in addition to literally), thus he's protective of him and becomes extremely agitated if they are separated, lashing out at anything that moves, wanting his friend back. The two have their faults, they can both be a bit stubborn or brash, sometimes even prideful, but together, they have used their powers to become a true superhero, leader of the Spirits of Vengeance, and protector of Earth from the forces of Hell. A common misconception about Ghost Rider is that he is at his most powerful when Zarathos is allowed to take full control, but really, it is when the two are in sync with each other that they are truly unstoppable.

Intellect & Skill:

For a guy who made a deal with the Devil, Johnny is one incredibly intelligent hombre. As a natural Gearhead and Carny, Johnny has expert mechanical knowledge, especially with Motorcycles. He once worked on a bike that an auto shop couldn’t salvage after working on for 2 days, and completely fixed it in less than 2 minutes. He also has an incredible way of reading people, to the point that he could instantly tell a demon was someone he had fought before despite having a completely different body. Johnny is extremely clever and quick thinking, he can call The Devil on his bluffs, tricked a Witch with petrification powers into trapping herself, pulled a Danny Phantom and realized that Ghosts can't physically harm the living, and even Immediately figured out a workaround to harming the Demon, Girth, despite his Passive Forced Empathy powers. In one instance, Ghost Rider was hunting down all the Avatars of Lucifer loose on Earth, but with each one he killed, the rest got stronger due to their power being distributed among less bodies. Lucifer bragged that once there was only one Left he’d never beat him, so Ghost Rider Crippled and Lobotomized one of these Avatars, leaving it undetectable, but keeping it Alive. When the final Battle came, Lucifer believed himself at full power, but was only at half strength, and Ghost Rider obliterated him. Also, when Johnny became King of Hell, thanks to how fast time moves in Hell compared to here, Johnny casually has hundreds of thousands if not more years of experience fighting powerful demons and maintaining the throne.

But even WITH all that Experience in mind, it still doesn’t explain Johnny’s absolutely Insane levels of skill. But I know better than to question That, especially when on a Motorcycle. Johnny is the literal best Motorcycle stuntman in the world, to the point where his stunts Blatantly and Constantly, Defy The Laws of Physics. And his skill in a fight is no less impressive, Johnny is a master Hand-to-Hand combatant in the art of good old American Street Fighting, and has even trained other Ghost Rider’s how to throw punches and fight. For a period of 7 years, Johnny Blaze was actually separated from Zarathos, and didn’t have access to his Ghost Rider powers. I want you to keep that in mind, every feat of skill I am about to say was accomplished by Johnny, as an ordinary human, starting NOW. Johnny fought off an entire clan of ninja assassins with shadow manipulation powers. He easily defeated a Powerful member of The Hidden who had trained since Birth specifically to fight him, escaped from a cult of vampires and punched out their leader, and single handedly held off an entire legion of Black Ops soldiers while carrying his unconscious brother. Johnny was able to battle the old Ghost Rider villain, Steel Vengeance, defeated a demon relevant to the Dan Ketch Ghost Rider via sheer determination, immediately killed multiple villains who were straight up defeating the Dan Ketch Ghost Rider, and actually managed to Punch Mephisto in the Face. Probably most impressive is the time Skinner, a demon outright superior to the Dan Ketch Ghost Rider’s arch enemy, Blackout, decided to Hunt Johnny most Dangerous Game style, Johnny just left the city to keep the people safe, and waited in the opened for a 1v1 fight, which he Won,

Lastly we have to talk about Johnny’s Magic. Johnny is a complete master of Occult Magic, whose power alone is enough to take on powerful demons like Baal, who is strong enough to take on the Acasual Forces of the Universe. Johnny has instantly mastered a spell that a 1000 year old sorcerer needed to consult a book to preform, immediately figured out how Thor’s enchanted hammer worked, and was once Body Swapped with Doctor Strange, causing Zarathos to freak out, and despite not knowing any of Strange’s magic, managed to improvise enough to Hold Zarathos off. Johnny is also a pure incorruptible soul who in his own words, would sit in hell for eternity just so spare one poor bastard the same fate.

Powers:

As a descendant of the Kale family of Sorcerers and a full Fledged Spirit of Vengeance, Johnny Blaze’s magical power is completely off the charts. That isn’t even the half of it, Johnny Blaze, even without Zarathos, is the Focal Point of All Magic in the Marvel Universe, and alone, is easily in the top most potent sorcerers in all of Marvel, to the point Doctor Strange has said that, should anything happen to him, Johnny Blaze will be the next Sorcerer Supreme. With the addition of Zarathos, Johnny’s Magic can straight up override the magic of the most powerful Wizards on the planet. 

Also, as all the Spirits Of Vengeance have the same abilities, any power used by other Ghost Riders, like his younger brother, Danny, or his pseudo apprentice, Alejandra, is something he can do as well. So needless to say he's got a few tricks up his sleeve.

• Hellfire:

Ghost Rider’s Primary ability is to control and manipulate Hellfire, able to Shoot it from his hands, breathe it from his mouth, make omnidirectional blasts, unleash it as a tornado, rain it down from the sky like a meteor shower, surround himself in an aura of it and generally control it in any conceivable way. He can melt the surrounding  area, generate explosions, toss Hell-Fireballs that he can detonate via thought, and his control is so precise, he can disintegrate all the metal in the surrounding area, including those on someone's person, without harming a single living thing if he so chooses. 

These Magical Flames exist throughout Johnny’s entire bloodstream even when in his human state, meaning he can always call it forth, even if separated from Zarathos. This internal Hellfire protects him from harm. It has prevented him from being frozen by a literal truckload of Liquid Nitrogen, Nullified the advanced Matter Manipulation of the Skin Bender and roasted her hand for trying, and even allowed him to Wield the Sword of Uriel, a Holy weapon used by an Archangel that Mephisto is afraid to fight, which normally consumes anyone else that touches it, erasing them from existence.

Offensively, Hellfire can burn through most Earthly materials with ease, with only Holy Artifacts being the exception, and roast some of the most powerful villains in his rogues gallery, but the real plus is that the flames magically exist on the Physical, Astral AND Mental Planes. Because of this, the flames cannot be put out by any Earthly means due to being intangible, and do not require Oxygen. Hellfire can bypass someone's physical durability and target their soul, burning, damaging or completely destroying it. It can phase through the armor of powerful characters like Iron Man, and destroy all manner of intangible entities he comes across, like Ghosts or Astral Projections. Beyond this, Hellfire can also attack someone's very mind and deal permanent damage to their psyche. The Avengers described the mental strain of Hellfire to be the most horrifying experience they ever went through, and that's saying something. Mental Hellfire can place someone into a coma, make them relive the most suffering they went through in life, have someone go fully catatonic, or burn their mind to nothing completely.

Additionally, Hellfire is a very potent Anti-Magic weapon, capable of erasing and destroying other magical enchantments. Any Creature of Magical Origin can be destroyed by Hellfire, this even includes The Soulless Ones, warriors of Mephisto who do not have Souls, and therefore should have been immune, yet wound up being disintegrated. Hellfire can potentially contaminate one's spirit, and bypass virtually any Magical defense. Not only was it able to break through a magic barrier put up by Doctor Strange, but was able to phase through Doctor Doom’s Armor and hurt him. Doom’s Armor for the record, is not only super broken and protected by dozens of enchantments to guard against virtually anything, but actually Seals his body in another dimension where he doesn’t age, feel or need to sleep and eat, and this was still able to get past this, find his body and hurt him. But there is Plenty more Hellfire can do, for example:

• Hellfire Regeneration:

Hellfire offers insane regeneration properties to those that use it, a Ghost Rider in particular cannot die through natural means, he doesn't age, need to breathe or get tired, and Hellfire can even heal all his injuries when he’s Johnny Blaze. As the Ghost Rider, he is practically immune to physical damage. He can rebuild lost limbs, shrug off impalement from Adamantium, pull himself back together from pieces, reform himself from liquid, and once regenerated his head so fast, it didn’t even interrupt his speech. But that’s all childs play, Hellfire can let him come back even if every aspect of his physical form is completely eradicated, which would be Low Godly Regeneration, meaning nothing you do to his body will even slow him down.

• Hellfire Absorption:

In addition to Regeneration, Ghost Rider can also absorb Hellfire from the surrounding environment, to grow stronger and cut down on collateral damage. He can quickly drain all the Hellfire out of Demonic Entities, completely destroying them.

• Hellfire Constructs:

Hellfire can be used to create flame constructs of any object the Ghost Rider imagines, and will function exactly like the real thing, only amped in power and speed. Hellfire Constructs are solid to Ghost Rider and other magical beings, but intangible to everything else and cannot be destroyed by physical blows. In addition to making vehicles, Ghost Rider can also pull a Kuwabara and create a Hellfire sword; make a Hellfire shield that can reflect powerful magic attacks, and even create Hellfire Elementals. One time he even misdirected a detective by making a Hellfire construct of The Ghost Rider riding away, while he was Johnny Blaze.

• Hellfire Duplication:

This can be taken further via Hellfire Duplication. Ghost Rider, Danny Ketch, displayed the ability to make copies of himself entirely out of Hellfire. He can make at least 4 of these Avatars at once. They are remotely controlled by the original and are exactly equal to the Ghost Rider that created them in stats and abilities.

• Hellfire Infusion:

Another well known Hellfire property, one which the movies REALLY love to play with, is its ability to be infused within Earthly objects. Any Weapon or Vehicle that the Ghost Rider uses becomes Infused with Hellfire, turning it into a significantly more powerful and badass looking machine. Infusing items with Hellfire enables Johnny to control them with his mind, even things as large as an entire Japanese Bullet Train, making it drive off the tracks with no ill effect. Vehicles infused with it become far faster, more durable, and capable of defying the laws of physics. Similarly, Items infused with Hellfire become Far Deadlier, able to illuminate all the surroundings, shoot or cut through nearly anything, and of course, unleash Hellfire onto things.

Also, Hellfire infusion only applies when Ghost Rider is in control of said Vehicle or Weapon, if he is not, they go back to being normal and therefore cannot be used against him.

• Hellfire Teleportation:

Lastly, Hellfire can be used for teleportation. Ghost Riders can teleport themself and others via a blue fire engulfing their bodies. The range on this is vast enough to go to other dimensions.

• Penance Stare:

Now here we get to what is probably the most infamous and iconic ability in Ghost Rider’s entire arsenal, The Penance Stare. By looking into your eyes, The Penance Stare can make you feel and experience all the pain and suffering you’ve inflicted on others throughout your life. This includes any suffering, be it physical pains, or mental ones like sadness, humiliation or fear. The experience is described as having the Wrath of God rattling around inside your head, it’s effects can be permanent and forever curse someone's life. When used on someone truly deserving, such as a murderer or criminal, the effects will be massively torturous and potentially fatal. It makes being Burned Alive feel lovely by comparison, and has caused victims to become Mad or Suicidal just to escape from the torment. It has Killed invulnerable beings that are immune to pain with a single glance, it can even completely disintegrated angels when their sins are numerous enough, and even more terrifying, Ghost Rider can increase this pain 1000 fold if he wants. 

Resisting the Penance Stare is a very difficult task, the First Time Johnny ever used it, it was still potent enough to nearly Kill Doctor Strange, despite the many magical defences he puts onto his body and mind. It’s also not limited to eye contact, but by The Ghost Rider’s field of vision, Johnny was once able to use The Penance Stare to attack everyone in Mojo’s evil city at once in a vast Area of Effect Attack. The Alejandra Jones Ghost Rider was able to fire Penance Projectiles, which can lock onto individuals and deal the same effect on contact.

The Penance Stare is so dangerous, it’s even a threat to the owner of the power itself. When Ghost Rider got his powers absorbed by Blade, The Penance Stare ability itself reacted to Blade’s sins, burning him from the inside out with Penance 100 times more potent than normal, and defeating him. The Penance Stare can only be used by someone who is Pure, which Johnny qualifies for, not because he's better than a normal person, but because Zarathos constantly is eating his sins as they accumulate. Johnny can even shrug off the Penance Stare of another Ghost Rider like nothing.

The Penance Stare also has potent mental and spiritual properties, it knows the past and the recesses of one's subconscious. It can personally trap someone in their past, drowning them in their indiscretions. Ghost Rider can use it to learn all he needs to know about his foe; force someone to tell the truth; destroy all manner of illusions to see what is real; and even share memories with others. Because of this, Ghost Rider’s Penance Stare can even affect those who have never done wrong by tapping into the sins of their Past Lives, so don’t think Frisk is getting away with it just because he reset the game. And if ALL that doesn’t work, The Penance Stare can also, Resurrect all your Past Victims from the Dead, Stat Boosted to your level, to Tear you Limb from Limb, poetic justice style.

• Damnation Stare:

A much more recent power Johnny acquired, the Damnation Stare differs from the Penance Stare in that it looks deep into the recesses of one’s soul and judges them as being good or evil. If they are good or redeemed, they will be forgiven and the Stare will have no effect, but should they be evil or wicked, The Damnation Stare will Damn them, killing them and sealing their soul in the 9th Circle of Hell, frozen for all time.

• Super Senses:

Due to their job of tracking down the wicked and the guilty, Spirits of Vengeance come equipped with some of the most impressive super senses I have ever encountered. Ghost Rider is able to see Invisible beings like Sue Storm, follow a trail of invisible radiation spikes, and is the sole person who could see the villain Snowblind in his Whitefield of blinding light, much to his shock. Ghost Rider can also detect if he's being observed even when it's from another dimension, and was able to immediately tell that he was in a room in the Sanctum Sanctorum, despite Strange projecting a pocket dimension of a snowy mountain around them. His sense of smell can detect the blood of the innocent, or the scent of evil, and other spirits of vengeance have displayed being able to hear the inaudible cry of Souls in peril from a very far off distance. Beyond our meager senses though, Ghost Rider has something more, a Spirit Sense so to speak, which allows him to detect far more metaphysical things. With this, Ghost Rider is able to sense Sin, Fear, Corruption, Demonic Presences, and the Pain of Others, as well as instantly discern if someone is a good person, and read their history to know who and what someone is. With these potent Super Senses, Ghost Rider was able to track The Anti-Christ across the entire continental United State’s, quickly hunt down and kill all the Avatar’s of Lucifer on Earth….all Six-Hundred and Sixty Six of them, and sense and travel directly to Adam who was in the middle of nowhere on the other side of the planet.

• Chain Manipulation:

Another iconic ability is Ghost Rider’s affinity for Chains! He is able to summon Chains out of spatial portals, or breathe huge streams of them out of his mouth, and he literally Never runs out of them, possessing an endless supply. Ghost Rider’s chains are infused with Hellfire, allowing them to regenerate from damage, hit and restrain intangible entities and move according to Ghost Rider’s thoughts. Johnny uses these Chains as blunt whips or grappling hooks, he also can spin them so fast they can burn tunnels into objects, pour more Hellfire into them to turn them into polearm weapons, and even turn the individual links into shurikens and launch them as a projectile attack, which can explode on contact. The Chains also seal the demonic power of those bound within them, not even Mephisto can escape when wrapped thoroughly enough. 

• Soul Manipulation:

I’ve already discussed several of his Astral abilities above, so to quickly go over the rest of them, Ghost Rider’s body is extremely hazardous to Souls, to the point that a Sliver of Zarathos’ rib was once sharpened into a blade, and became one of the most powerful anti-soul weapons in the entire Marvel universe, capable of even destroying the soul of a normal Spirit of Vengeance, a feat not even Mephisto can accomplish by his own admission. Ghost Rider can Physically grab and hit intangible ghosts, nearly Destroyed Doctor Strange’s astral form with his sheer presence, and can straight up consume the souls of his enemies, leaving only a husk. He also has the ability to Astral Project his own soul, to communicate with or spy on people even from other Dimensions. Zarathos can even do this to talk to people while Johnny isn’t transformed.

• Flight:

Since discovering his Angel origins, Ghost Rider can sprout Angel wings from his back and fly through the air uninhibited, he recently also gained the ability to levitate in addition to that, so his aerial movement covers all the bases.

• Energy Manipulation:

The Ghost Rider also has potent Energy projection and absorption abilities that allow him to do things like generate omnidirectional energy shockwaves from his body. But much more useful is his ability to drain energy out of foes, leaving nothing left of them and making himself more powerful. This has allowed him to turn the tables on Demons who try to drain his energy, and even drain all the powers out of weaker Spirits of Vengeance in an instant. He can also use transmutation to completely rearrange something's molecular structure using magic, turning people into objects is an instant kill.

• Electrokinesis:

Ghost Rider is able to summon forth or generate powerful blasts of Lightning, capable of Eradicating powerful Demons in a single shot, or even create entire storms. When he went up against The Huntsman, a villain who had the power of all the Greeco-Roman Gods, he was hit by a Thunderfire attack made with the power of Zues and Pluto, absorbed it, and gained the ability to blast and Electric-Flame projectile called The Hellfire Bolt.

• Elemental Manipulation:

He also possesses more general control over the elements, like air water and earth. Zarathos has said he has complete control over all elements, able to manipulate smoke, breathe a dark mist, summon forth powerful plant beasts and use Umbrakinesis strong enough to restrain Doctor Strange indefinitely.

• Spatial Manipulation:

Ghost Rider’s possess the ability to Create Magical Portals to instantly travel around. These portals enable Ghost Rider to travel across space, into other Dimensions and even to other Planes of Existence. He can travel two and from the afterlife at will, seal enemies into dimensional rifts, and was able to instantly come back from Doctor Strange trying to seal him in Hades. According to the Angel Zadkiel, Ghost Rider’s spatial manipulation is SO Powerful, he could literally drop the entire Afterlife down on top of the Universe.

• Time Manipulation:

Thought you could still escape him through time, didya? Well that's not going to work, as Ghost Rider’s also possess the ability to physically time travel into the past and future at their leisure. Johnny Blaze is a more powerful sorcerer than his mother, Naomi Kale, who can casually pull others through time. He even could score hits on the powerful spacetime traversing demon, Baal, without his Ghost Rider Powers. As the Ghost Rider, he was still able to move when banished to a dimension where time itself Did Not Exist, and escaped. He constantly walks uninhibited in dimensions where Time constantly distorts, and the Frank Castle Ghost Rider was even able to mess with the history of Marvel without himself being changed.

• Mind Manipulation:

Ghost Rider has said he is capable of breaking someone Body and Mind, and oh boy did he mean it. Johnny has a wide array of potent mental powers to pull from, he is able to project a fear aura off his body, making foes so afraid they would jump into fire just to get away from him. He could telepathically communicate with his girlfriend while she was in Hell, induce Paralysis onto Daredevil, and learn information about surrounding people with Zarathos’ clairvoyance. He’s been able to Mind Control an entire Cult of people at once, and freed an even larger group of people from the Mind Control of The Orb, erasing their memories. Related to this is Johnny’s Illusion abilities, he's able to cast clever disguises or create massive realistic illusions complete with sound that, are so lifelike, not even Spider-Man’s Spider Sense can tell they aren’t real. Ghost Rider also has the psychic power of Telekinesis, which allows him to manipulate objects around him with mental force, he can fling objects with enough force to Impale through the Devil, and instantly build new weapons and equipment from surrounding material. But even more impressive than these mental abilities is just how high his mental defenses are. Even as Johnny Blaze, he was super casually able to shrug off mind control attempts from Dr. Druid, and resisted Gazer using Guilt Manipulation to try and make him kill himself, plus, if someone does have mental abilities strong enough to affect Johnny, The Ghost Rider Transformation will automatically happen as a defense. This allowed him to shrug off the mental dominance of Kid, and the song of the Sirens of Kronos. Ghost Rider has numerous times resisted the Mind Control of The Orb, to the point The Orb himself admits he cannot mind control him, was the sole member of The Champions that resisted Mind Control from Doctor Doom when he tried to take over the world, and did this so casually he didn’t know Doom tried until he saw his teammates acting strange, and was the only person able to break free from the Mind Control of Mojo, which was SO advanced, it effortlessly took control of Scarlet Witch, Doctor Strange, Man-Thing and Thor. Also, when he went after Dusk, the platonic concept of Madness, who rules over a dimension that drives anyone who enters completely insane, Ghost Rider was able to ride through there for 1,000 Days with no effect. Beyond all this however is Johnny’s sheer fearlessness.

Johnny is considered fearless for the death defying stunts he pulls on his Bike, but those people have no idea the full extent of it. When Ghost Rider was sent to conquer Hell, it was actually said, he was the only one who could do it, not because of how powerful he is, but because he’s the only one who could get around it’s defense. You see, the Throne of Hell is guarded by a room that Contains the Worst Fear of whoever steps in, this cannot be resisted, even by the most powerful Demons, Angels and Spirits of Vengeance, and yet when he reached it, he turned back into Johnny Blaze, and stepped right through…..and there was Nothing. Johnny truly doesn’t have an ounce of fear in his being, and it’s allowed him to shrug off fear attacks from powerful characters like Inferno or Phobius like nothing at all.

• Divine Tongue:

Zarathos knows an ancient language spoken by divine beings which can warp the minds of any mortal that hears it and change them to act certain ways. He was able to convince Spider-Man he was deathly ill and his brain gave him all the symptoms, and Blackout was able to turn all of New York City into a savage frenzy of violence right out of the ending of Kingsman, just by repeating one of these words on the Radio.

• Possession:

Ghost Rider has advanced possession abilities, not only able to possess people himself, but enable others to do so. Zarathos was able to escape The Soul Crystal by secretly possessing his nemesis Centurious to hitch a ride. Other Ghost Riders have even showcased the ability to possess artificially intelligent machines, even from other points in spacetime.

• Dream Manipulation:

Even Zarathos alone has the power to travel into the mind or dreams of people and interact with their subconscious. Together as the Ghost Rider, they are able to travel into people’s dreams and do battle with their mental body, Freddy Kruegar style. They even once directly drove into the collective subconscious of man to travel into Nightmare’s dream realm and fight him. He also has extremely strong Dream Manipulation resistance, even as Johnny Blaze he was able to escape an Endless Dream Trap made by Nightmare himself.

• Size Manipulation:

An ability that I’ve seen several people say he got recently, but he's actually had since the early 80’s, is Size Manipulation. Ghost Rider is able to manipulate his size at will, able to match even the demon, Mephisto in terms of scale. This allowed him to immediately unshrink himself back to regular size when Adam tried to shrink him down to nothing. Also, one time he MAYBE grew to the size of a planet? But it could also just be a stylistic thing, was weird.

• Insect Manipulation:

Ghost Riders can generate and control large swarms of magic Locusts. These little buggers are powerful enough to completely eat away one of Mephisto’s strongest demons in seconds, and flood an entire stronghold at once.

• Death Manipulation:

Spirits of Vengeance are Angelic entities described as controlling death and entropy for the universe. This Death Manipulation ability was strong enough to Kill Blackheart, Mephisto’s son, who at the time had killed his father and taken his throne.

• Necromancy:

After becoming The King of Hell, Johnny gained power over the Dead. He can magically resurrect any being in Hell and force them to fight for his side, Including Dead Celestial Beings that could fight All the Avengers At once.

• Exorcism:

Johnny is able to straight up punch people and objects that are possessed by demons and knock said demon out of them, effectively Exorcising them with his fist on contact. Spirits of Vengeance are able to shrug off powerful Exorcisms from even extremely powerful sorcerers like Damion Hellstorm. Johnny has even personally resisted a full spiritual Exorcism from the villain Centurious. But after becoming King of Hell, Johnny’s Exorcism powers increased so high he now CAN depower a weaker Spirit of Vengeance.

• Conceptual Manipulation:

Ghost Rider has consistently been able to fight conceptual beings like Dusk, the Platonic concept of Madness, who he fought in his own insanity realm. Dusk is a being on par with Nightmare who maintains the dream realm, which are higher dimensional universes. Johnny in particular also physically beat up The Spirit of Corruption, who is established to be a higher plane entity impervious to physical attack.

• Resistances:

Now to go over what things Ghost Rider is resistant too, not covered above. Ghost Rider was able to resist Oblivion Manipulation from Deathurge, was completely immune to the Death Hax touch of Deathstalker, and powered through the Suicide aura of Wallow and disintigrated him. He was one of the few beings unable to be possessed by Darklove, and wasn’t able to be absorbed by a glutton demon, in fact even if he IS absorbed, it's a REALLY bad idea, as he will remain conscious and eventually rend you from within. He fought a witch who could turn people to stone on contact or decay them to dust, yet neither power did anything to him. He was immune to all the Hax abilities of the legion of Vengeance, like plagues, darkness, smoke and radiation and claimed Nothing in Doctor Strange’s arsenal could hurt him. He’s even endured being Warped across the multiverse, and fought Zadkiel after he’d become a reality warping God Entity. Also he Can’t get Drunk.

• Immortality:

Spirits of Vengeance are ageless, immortal entities that it is said only God can create, and only God can truly kill. Even if that is hyperbole, it is nearly impossible to Kill Johnny because of how he is set up. Since Johnny sold his soul to Hell, that is where he is bound to go when he dies, but because Zarathos is an Angel, Hell actually has no power over him and cannot keep him there. So even if Johnny somehow gets killed, he can literally just make a portal out of Hell and be alive again, similar to the 8th sense from Saint Seiya.

• Spiritual Manipulation:

Here we get to one more really broken ability, Spiritual Manipulation! Ghost Rider is not only able to hit Spiritual Plane Entities, but train other heros, to do so as well. When used on physical beings, Johnny can literally consume all the sins out of someone, or produce Chains that exist on the spiritual plane that can eradicate the sins out of multiple targets at once. Wiping away someone's sins turns them into an emotionless, desireless, zombie-like husk. This power could even be extended over the entire country of Nicaragua!

• Summoning:

This is technically outside help, but since becoming the leader of The Spirits of Vengeance, Ghost Rider can also summon an army of Ghost Riders to his side.

Weapons & Equipment:

Hellcycle:

What’s a Ghost Rider without their Ride? The Hellcycle is Johnny Blaze’s suped up, and extremely durable Skull Cycle, which he uses for stunts, infused with Hellfire making it Far Faster, Tougher, and more METAL! It is able to melt through cars on contact, instantly regenerate itself from scraps, move 100% silently if he so chooses, and is All Terrain….I mean Literally Actually All-Terrain, this thing can drive across water, over lava, straight up walls, atop ceilings and rooftops, through the sky, into outer space, and of course across time, dimensions, dreams etc, if you can imagine it, it can drive there. He can also summon the Cycle to him from anywhere, control its every action with his mind even when not riding it, and it alone is powerful enough to suck the souls out of everyone in New York.

 

Outfit:

Ghost Rider’s Leather Outfit is resistant to Hellfire, meaning they don't burn up and can even block Hellfire Attacks, in addition to looking awesome. Zarathos actually took such a liking to it that The Ghost Rider will wear this outfit, even if Johnny Blaze was wearing something else before he transformed.

Hellfire Shotgun:

Lastly, there's Johnny’s trusty Hellfire infused Shotgun. This beauty has an infinite supply of Hellfire ammunition that can nullify the regeneration of even other Ghost Riders, and conveniently, can only be used by him.

Feats:

Strength:

• When fighting The Hunter he casually busted apart an entire Mountain of Ice.

• Physically pulled down an entire jumbo jet.

• Can tear apart reinforced security doors, or speeding cars.

• Dropped an entire Skyscraper onto the Hulk.

• Can break through powerful Mystic Barriers, including those immune to any natural force.

• He has beat the F*ck out of The Enforcer, who has gone on record saying he's one of the most dangerous men alive.

• Was able to battle and defeat his 5 most powerful enemies of the 70’s at the same time.

• He completely obliterated Man-Thing when he tried to fight him, and even defeated him when he had a Werewolf and Vampire backing him up.

• When the X-Men member, Rogue, tried to absorb his powers, it overloaded her and she had to beg him to take it back.

• Fought Jack-O-Lantern when he became one of the Avatars of Lucifer, and performed a Mortal Kombat Fatality on him.

• Disintegrated Wallow.

• Fought against a City Busting Demon

• Slayed a Native American Mythological Monster.

• Overpowered an Angel.

• Fought against Roman Gods who could end the Universe with The Champions.

• Took down all Zadkiel’s minions in a single blast.

• Has fought off Hyde, who regularly fights the likes of Hercules, Thor and The Hulk.

• Has restrained Hercules, and taken down an ArchDemon above Hercules and The Thing together.

• Got into a back alley fight with Abomination.

• Numerous times he's defeated groups of superheroes, like Tigra, Iron-Man and Cap, and took out Iceman, Angel and Black Widow with just one casual hit.

• He also went up against The Human Torch, no-selling his fire and defeating him, forever proving he’s the more powerful fire based hero named Johnny.

• Now to stop playing around and get to some serious stuff, even back in the 70’s Ghost Rider was able to match Damien Hellstorm, and Damien at the time was powerful enough to Destroy a Bridge that Literally Supports All of Hell. Hell is described as a Celestial plane, much bigger than our own and capable of containing far more powerful entities, destroying it threatens all of existence.

• The Spirits of Vengeance were able to instantly stop an army of Demons led by the Anti-Christ.

• Ghost Rider has implied he can Kick Doctor Strange’s Ass and has been described by Dormmamu to be the perfect pawn to kill Strange. How accurate is this? Incredibly. As a matter of fact, Doctor Strange and Ghost Rider have directly fought each other 4 separate times throughout their histories and in every single one of them, Ghost Rider very clearly won, and in 3 of them, almost killed him.

• 70’s: (1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6) (7)

• 90’s (technically Ketch Ghost Rider): (1) (2) (3)

• 00’s: (1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6) (7) (8) (9) (10) (11) (12) (13)

• 10’s: (1) (2) (3) (4) (5)

Ghost Rider has even outright tanked the power of The Vishanti Strange draws his power from, and Defeated Strange when he had all the Nightstalkers backing him up. Strange is one of the most powerful characters in Marvel, capable of taking on low multiverse scale threats.

• Just by flexing his power, Ghost Rider made an enormous blast with his sheer Aura that Threatened and Burned World War Hulk, the strongest version of The Hulk, who is above Doctor Strange, and equal to Sentry.

• Centurious states that he could kill Mephisto with his power.

• Ghost Rider has also been stated to be capable of reducing cities to rubble, ending the world and threatening all of existence.

• Has matched Thor in a beam struggle, and knocked him flat.

• Ghost Rider’s also gone against Thor when he's backed up by many Avenger’s, including other heavy hitters, like Doctor Strange and Scarlet Witch, at the same time.

• In a Weakened state and without a host, Zarathos has fought Mephisto head to head, and was a direct threat to his realm. With a Host who is weaker than Johnny, Ghost Rider directly defeated Mephisto, In his Own Realm. Even outside of his universe, when fighting comparable Demons, Mephisto’s power is enough to threaten three entire universes simultaneously. Inside his realm however, Mephisto gets a massive power increase, to the point of being able to go head to head against Galactus, not only did that threaten the universe, but when Galactus was at a similar level of hunger, he fought Odin, and managed to win in a close fight. Odin is so powerful that in his battle with Surtur, he shook all Nine realms of Yggdrasil, and would have destroyed them, and keep in mind each of these realms is confirmed to be its own universe. 

• One person who is confirmed to be more powerful than Odin is Dormammu, the ruler of the Dark Universe, not only could Johnny defeat one of his Avatars, but Doctor Strange once managed to Defeat Dormammu in an all out fight, by absorbing and using Ghost Rider’s power (1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6) (7) (8) (9), with his consent of course, probably mad Dormammu uses the same look.

• He has Defeated Nightmare before, even in his own realm, and was stated by Doctor Doom to be the perfect counter to Nightmare’s abilities.

• Some Angels are terrified of him, and that makes sense given he was even able to overpower the ArchAngel, Uriel.

• He also lead an army of Ghost Riders to absolutely SQUASH the Dark Angel Zadkiel and his forces, and that guy was so powerful he was able to siege heaven, subjugate all the souls in Purgatory and could warp reality to his whim. (1) (2) (3) (4)

• Blackout, The Dan Ketch Ghost Rider’s arch nemesis, states that Johnny is the most powerful Ghost Rider, which Johnny immediately proves right by stomping his ass. This is a guy Dan was not able to stop in a 94 issue series.

• Has directly overpowered the Dan Ketch Ghost Rider in a fight, and did the same thing to the Robbie Reyes Ghost Rider, the latter of which believed himself strong enough to punch out a celestial.

• According to The Caretaker, it took a man with the power of ALL the other Spirits of Vengeance to defeat Zarathos, and even he, died in the process. While The Caretaker was lying about a lot of what he said here, this ended up being proven true, as Johnny was able to fight on par with the Danny Ketch Ghost Rider, after Danny had been manipulated into absorbing the power of literally every other Spirit of Vengeance on Earth. (1) (2) (3) (4) (5)

• Spirits of Vengeance are Heaven’s Most Powerful Weapons, Doctor Strange has described the full extent of Ghost Riders’s power as Unimaginable, Boundless and Godlike.

• In an extremely weakened state he made the dimensional boundaries of the universe quake with his presence.

• The power of the Spirits of Vengeance was felt throughout all of 616, including Mephisto’s Realm, and Asgard.

• Lastly, according to Blackheart, Johnny’s passive energy is enough to Destroy FOUR Parallel Universes.

Durability:

• Ghost Rider is consistently Bullet Proof, and was so as early as his 3rd appearance.

• He's even tanked a shot from an Anti-Demon Rifle, and destroyed it.

• Once he effortlessly absorbed a Dynamite Explosion that would have Killed the Night Rider (who used to be called Ghost Rider, but they rebranded him). This is one of many explosions he's taken, including this one that obliterated an entire Mountain.

• He can also tank terminal velocity falls like nothing, one time even impacting the ground so hard it made this Massive ripple across the Atlantic Ocean.

• Ghost Rider’s can also tank their own power, The Nobel Kale Ghost Rider was unable to kill himself, claiming it's impossible.

• Ghost Rider has tanked a Repulsor Blast from Iron Man, and a Full Powered magical beam from Doctor Doom and was still completely fine.

• Shrugged off Doctor Strange’s Flames of Faltine, which burn you Forever, and has even claimed Strange is powerless to Stop him, and Strange Agreed.

• Time and Time again he has shrugged off attacks from some of Marvel Earth’s Heavy Hitters, including Hercules, The Thing, and The Incredible Hulk.

• He even endured a full beat down from World War Hulk, Explicitly without Zarathos helping him.

• One time he even intercepted and blocked the Judas Silver Missile, designed to kill divine entities, with his body, and it did absolutely nothing to him.

Speed:

• His Ghost Rider transformation is stated to take less than a Microsecond.

• Can easily keep up with Doctor Strange. Doctor Strange has been able to catch The Silver Surfer before, who is so fast he can travel galactic distances in one panel, and once crossed the universe in a single minute, the latter of which would be 26 Quintillion times the speed of light.

• Spun his Cycle in place so fast it melted the street.

• Casually races other Ghost Riders across Vast Dimensions.

• Can Dodge Sniper shots and Catch Bullets in his Teeth.

• Fought and killed the villain, Null the Living Darkness. Null is the collective unconscious and combined power of the S’Raphh, a race of aliens from a millennia ago, each of which were fast enough to physically fly to the edges of the universe, in a time frame that couldn’t be more than a couple months, given how Null himself claims to be untold ages old. This would easily put them Quadrillions of times the Speed of light, and since Null has the power of all of them, he and by extension Ghost Rider should scale massively above.

• Is directly stated to be faster than the most powerful ArchAngels and Demons, not to mention he directly fought and defeated Mephisto. As said earlier, in his own realm, Mephisto is comparable to Odin, and Odin is REALLY Fast. Odin once flew across the universe in a few minutes, Telekinetically sent Thor to Earth at speed calced at over 837 Quintillion times the speed of light, and once pulled dozens of planets from the edge of the universe to his location in a split second, which would be over 1 Sextillion times the speed of light.

• Drove faster than an Explosion.

• He was able to move so fast he appeared Omnipresent across the Desert.

• Directly Outraced Thor’s Hammer, Mjolnir, and could perceive slight shifts in its movement. Thor’s Hammer is widely known to travel even faster than He can, and Thor is so fast he flew to the other side of the observable universe in only a few minutes, which was calced at 5 Quadrillion times the speed of light.

• Can easily dodge Laser fire from The Orb.

• Dodged a motorcycle charge from Cosmic Ghost Rider, who has directly fought Thanos.

• In his race with Robbie, he drove halfway out of Hell before he realized Robbie hadn’t started and he was talking to himself.

• Can blitz The Gladiator, who is as fast as Iron Man.

• Is the 3 time Champion of the annual Killiseum Hell Race where he races against all the other Ghost Riders.

General:

• Intentionally let himself get killed, so he could steal Mephisto’s position and leave him helpless, saving the entire population of Las Vegas and all The Avengers in doing so.

• Copied Thor’s Hammer Throw technique.

• Was asked to wager the outcome of the universe on a single Motorcycle race around the world, responded ‘see ya at the finish line, bitch’ like a boss.

• Went up against an entire City of people, a powerful demon and Satan himself, after being temporarily robbed of his superhuman abilities, and still came out on top.

• Turned his head into a cosmic explosion somehow.

• Even as Johnny Blaze he could deflect lasers back to sender.

• Beat the shit out of the powerful Demon, Inferno, after losing access to his superhuman abilities.

• Made himself a makeshift Mjolnir and got into a badass Hammer Fight with Thor.

• Is SUCH a High-Willpowered, Stubborn Badass, that even while Dying, Drained of All Strength, Blind, Deaf and Barely Able to Move, Still managed to defeat his old Foe, Centurious, and Save himself with his final breath.

Weaknesses:

Naturally with all this power and abilities, Ghost Rider has very little in terms of what he is actually weak too. Most of the things shown to affect him in the comics are things that he Has really good resistance to, so to affect him they logically must be So potent that it would be next to impossible to replicate. The most common thing that people point to for a weakness is Holy Weaponry, and yes, he is weak to that as it nullifies his regeneration, but it has to be Holy to a Modern Religion, such as Christianity, Judaism, Buddhism etc, as Ancient ones like Greek, Norse and Egyptian Mythology have not worked. Even then, Holy Weapons are not as effective as you might think, here’s Johnny being impaled through the chest by a gigantic holy sword wielded by a man with the Strength of Samson, and he still managed to shrug that off and win the fight. By far the MOST Consistent thing to mess with the Ghost Rider is cutting off access to his powers, via either Power Draining, Power Absorption or separating Johnny from Zarathos. Yet he has a few defenses against this, such as The Penance Stare burning alive anyone that takes it, Zarathos autonomously wanting to return to Johnny, and Johnny’s own magic. But that's still easier to get by than some of the other defenses he's got.

Summary:

Advantages:

• Low Multiversal+ DC and Durability.

• MFTL+ (Quintillions, likely much higher in Hell)

• High Intelligence with likely over a Million years of experience.

• God Like Skill in fighting and Magic.

• Limitless Stamina.

• Can breathe without Oxygen and self sustain.

• Pyrokinesis.

• Penance Stare.

• Damnation Stare.

• Astral Fire.

• Low Godly Regeneration.

• Chain Manipulation.

• Fragokinesis.

• Soul Manipulation.

• Spiritual Manipulation.

• MASSIVE Super Senses.

• Mental Destruction.

• Hellfire Constructs.

• Portal Creation.

• Dimensional Travel.

• Dimensional Spatial Manipulation.

• Can Exorcise possessed things on contact.

• Astral Projection.

• Transmutation.

• Mind Control/Manipulation. 

• Illusions.

• Energy Shockwaves.

• Energy Draining.

• Gravity Manipulation.

• Death Manipulation.

• Anti-Magic.

• Anti-Intangibility.

• Anti-Logia.

• Potent Necromancy.

• Power over Dead Celestials.

• Meteor Manipulation.

• Memory Manipulation.

• Perception Manipulation.

• Fear Aura.

• Possession.

• Clairvoyance.

• Flight.

• Telekinesis.

• Telepathy.

• Limited Technopathy.

• Time Manipulation.

• Levitation.

• Size Manipulation.

• Electrokinesis.

• Hydrokinesis.

• Geokinesis.

• Aerokinesis.

• Umbrakinesis.

• Plant Manipulation.

• Smoke Manipulation.

• Storm Creation.

• Insect Generation & Manipulation.

• Can Trap Foes in a Time Loop.

• Can Destroy Illusions.

• Hellfire Absorption.

• Hellfire Infusion.

• Duplication.

• Teleportation.

• Regeneration Nullification.

• Sealing.

• Paralysis Inducement.

• Truth Inducement.

• Banishment. (to Hell)

• Dream/Consciousness Manipulation & Travel.

• Can hit Conceptual Entities.

• Self Resurrection.

• Penance Stare Resistance.

• Fear Resistance.

• Mind Manipulation Resistance.

• Insanity Resistance.

• Possession Resistance.

• Freezing Resistance.

• Disease Resistance.

• Matter Manipulation Resistance.

• Existence Erasure Resistance.

• Sealing/BFR Resistance.

• Soul Hax Resistance.

• Absorption Resistance.

• Energy Draining Resistance.

• Aging Resistance.

• Dream Manipulation Resistance.

• Radiation Resistance.

• Time Manipulation Resistance.

• Death Hax Resistance.

• Decay Resistance.

• Size Manipulation Resistance.

• Exorcism Resistance.

• Transmutation Resistance.

• Reality Warping Resistance.

• Can summon an Army of Spirits of Vengeance.

• Massive Willpower.

Disadvantages:

• Can have his power stolen.

• Weak to Holy Weaponry.

• Brashness.

Recommended Opponent:

Phoenix Ikki:

I really think Phoenix Ikki from the Saint Seiya series would be perfect. Both of these two are considered the deadliest warrior of the respective God they work for, both of them are heavily associated with Hell, both of them are known for their fire and nightmare powers, both have a younger brother they are protective of, and honestly, both are super broken characters in a series FULL of super broken characters and it’d be cool to see how either could win.

Next Time: