One of the best Marvel comic book characters, the Cosmic Ghost Rider compares favourably to the Avengers and X-Men. Only Ghost Rider is capable of defeating Thanos and serving as his son’s father at the same time.
There are many superheroes from Marvel who can charm their way into your heart, but none quite like Ghost Rider. As a result, fans are probably desperately waiting for the Marvel Cinematic Universe to intervene and give Ghost Rider the solo movie or trilogy he so richly deserves. This is especially true given the limitless potential of alternate dimensions and timelines.
The Ghost Rider has gone a long way, and his tale is one of the Marvel Universe’s most intriguing and exciting so yet. From his initial appearance in comic books to his origin story to striking agreements with not just one, but three terrible beings, the Ghost Rider has come a long way. Shall we get started?
Comic Ghost Rider’s Tragic Origin
He is the one and only Ghost Rider, the black right hand of The Final King, the spirit of vengeance born of hellfire and brimstone, a former Galactus herald, imbued with unfathomable cosmic power. In Thanos #13, he first appears as a visitor from the future who stops his bike in front of Thanos’s throne and casually offers to accompany him.
He even refers to Thanos as a friend, which of course, Thanos declines to do. No One is relieved when Ghost Rider connects the chain to his bike and removes Thanos from Chitauri Prime rather than engaging in combat with him because doing so could alter the course of time. Instead, Ghost Rider locks him up and says that he possesses a piece of the time stone.
He then uses Power Cosmic to charge the Time Stone, which allows him to open a time gate and go millions of years in the future even if it is not as strong as it once was. With that, Ghost Rider and Thanos make their way to Earth in the future and it is revealed that in some timeline, Thanos has won, and he is the Final King.
While this comic issue was focused on Thanos, it introduced us to one of the more interesting characters in Marvel, his powers, and his personality. As we move along to Thanos #16, we learn a little about Frank Castle, or as he is more popularly known as The Punisher. Frank Castle’s wife and children were shot before his eyes which eventually led him to become The Punisher, but this comic issue deals with the devil instead.
As Thanos slaughters the Earth’s mightiest heroes, Frank is the one last standing, but after being heavily wounded, he lays there dying and there is only one thought on his mind, that he would do absolutely anything to punish Thanos, and to his wish, the universe responded. This led to Frank signing his first demonic deal with Mephisto, and then from being The Punisher, he became the Ghost Rider.
However, nothing was left of the world, nothing to avenge, and no one to punish, so the Ghost Rider roamed unknowingly as days turned into years, and decades turned to centuries, and he began to lose his mind, and that is when Galactus arrived. For once, Galactus wasn’t there for destruction, instead, he was there to seek protection, he needed help. Ghost Rider and Galactus get to talking, from introductions to realizing that they both wanted one thing, to kill Thanos.
He makes another deal, in turn for Galactus to make Frank his herald and bestowing him with cosmic powers, Frank would let Galactus eat Earth after Thanos was killed, and that’s how Frank became Ghost Rider, Herald of Galactus. Together, he roared across the cosmos on a quest to kill Thanos and stop him from annihilating everything in existence.
Eventually, when Ghost Rider does come to face with Thanos, he is offered to join Thanos and fight by his side instead of against him, which leads to his third and final deal with the devil, making him Ghost Rider, Black Right Hand of the Mad King Thanos. However, serving Thanos eventually led to his death, but that surely wasn’t the last of him. After his appearance in this issue, Ghost Rider gets his solo issues, hence continuing his journey.
Cosmic Ghost Rider #1 talks about Frank Castle’s journey so far, from becoming a soldier to his family dying, to Thanos’s reign of terror, to making deals with Mephisto, Galactus, and Thanos, which led to him dying, again. Now, Frank Castle has made his way into Valhalla, the Asgardian heaven where people who die in battle, continue to rest in paradise for the rest of eternity. On arrival, he is mocked by a God for being a mortal, and Frank doesn’t hesitate to put up a good fight.
When asked who taught him how to fight, his response is – Thanos, the Devil, and the United States Marine Corps. Later, as Frank admires the beauty of Valhalla, he is interrupted by Odin himself, who questions Frank about his fight with Koldaxe the Grave, and then asks Frank to be honest with him, about why he hates Valhalla when Odin tore apart every fabric of space to retrieve him and bring him here.
This leads to Frank’s little outburst about how despite fighting alongside Thanos, despite making deals with the devils, he still gets a reward when it was his time to be punished. When Odin realizes that Frank doesn’t want to be there, he offers to send him back, to any time and any place but warms him about how the powers that he will return to him are not fit for the mind of a mortal, not even Frank.
Before Frank can turn down his offer, Odin announces that it wasn’t a choice, and as the process begins, Frank, now the Ghost Rider, says he knows exactly where he wants to go, back to where all went wrong, to Titan. As Ghost Rider lands on Titan, the planet where Thanos was born, he wonders how Thanos became what he became, who let that happen?
And in a world where time travel is that advanced, why did no one go back in time and kill him when he was a baby? And that is exactly what Ghost Rider tries to do, but soon realizes that the baby isn’t Thanos yet, not the evil one. When he realizes that he can’t kill him or leave him, he chains him up to his body and takes him away on his bike.
From there, we move on to Cosmic Ghost Rider #2, which begins on the planet Markus-Centauri and there are two things Frank needs you to know about this planet. One, they have killer happy hour at the bars, and two, everything and everyone on the planet is about ten minutes away from dying.
Frank and baby Thanos sit in the bar, drinking beer as Frank tries and tells him about why he got him here, until the manager comes by, letting them know that babies weren’t allowed in here, and before the manager can throw Frank, baby Thanos attacks him with a glass bottle. Before a fight can ensue, Galactus presents himself on the planet, answering the question of why this planet was about to be destroyed.
Frank makes his way to Galactus, initiating a casual conversation, but only manages to anger a hungry Galactus. Using his cosmic powers, Galactus dives into Frank’s mind, searching for answers. With that, Galactus realizes that Frank and he spent decades hunting Thanos together were allies, and orders him to hand Thanos over to him so he can kill him. Frank however wants to rehabilitate Thanos instead, change his destiny.
Before the conversation can move forward, Thanos calls out to a sky baby, who is The Watcher. He tells Frank that he cannot change Thanos’s destiny, but Frank doesn’t listen as he announces that he will raise Thanos on his own, to which The Watcher explains that by making this choice, Frank has created a timeline where The Punisher raises Thanos as a child. With a loud boom, Frank along with baby Thanos is confronted by Nathan Summers, along with the Guardians of the Galaxy, who have come from the future.
The third issue is Cosmic Ghost Rider #3, and it begins with Ghost Rider and baby Thanos escaping from the Guardians of the Galaxy, who aren’t pleased with Frank’s new parental role. Thanos even suggests killing them but you can tell that Frank is trying hard to be violent in front of this baby, trying to raise him right. Captain Marvel slows them down with the shield, and they begin to introduce themselves all over again.
We have Kamala Khan as Captain Marvel, then there’s Iron Groot who is a weird mix of Rocket, Groot, and a tech suit, along with Jubilee and Cable aka Nathan Summers. All of them very reasonably ask him for Thanos and make everything right, as none of them want this situation to get any uglier. But before anything can happen, Galactus intervenes and kills everyone but Cable survives.
Cable uses Hank Pym’s creation and turns him into a miniature-sized Galactus, trapping him, but before that he announces that he will return someday. Soon after that, an angry and infuriated Ghost Rider hands baby Thanos to The Watcher and begins this fight against Cable and all the people that he continued bringing along with him.
As they continue fighting, Ghost Rider is almost losing a battle as some of the strongest superheroes like She-Hulk, Scarlet Witch and many others get together, baby Thanos intervenes and helps Ghost Rider. Before Cable dies, he tries his best to warn him that raising Thanos will not end well for him or the world, but he doesn’t listen. The comic ends with a grown-up Thanos entering the scene, who looks incredibly huge and strong with a weapon in his hand, as he says – hey dad! Sorry, I’m late.
The fourth issue, Cosmic Ghost Rider #4, begins with a grown-up Thanos, baby Thanos, and Ghost Rider all in the same place, and baby Thanos isn’t very pleased with him as grown-up Thanos introduces himself as The Punisher and tells them that they are running out of time and must enter the portal while they can. Shockingly enough, on the other side of the portal was a beautiful land, one with no crime, and where families can stay safe and together, watching their children grow. Thanos claims that this was the work of Frank and Thanos.
Thanos then takes him to his grave which reads “Castle” with an infinity symbol. As Thanos begins to tell him about how he died, Frank stops him, realizing he didn’t want to know how he died. However, soon enough, Frank sees smoke from the other side, and that’s when he sees the other side of this world, complete terror.
Thanos explains that this is where he outcast the people who didn’t want peace, the ones who wanted crime and terror. Frank is upset with this, telling him that this isn’t what he does, it isn’t what he stood for, but Thanos defends himself by saying that he is punishing those who have done wrong and that this is his destiny. He says that Frank raised him to not kill anyone so this was the only option he had, to leave them to die because they were incapable of peace.
After a spat, Thanos shows them who they are protecting as Frank realizes that in a peaceful house, he and his wife are living together, and Thanos explains that this time around when people came to kill Frank’s family, Thanos protected them. Frank is enraged as he turns into Ghost Rider, refusing to believe that any of this was real and that in every timeline, every dimension, Thanos was the reason for Frank’s downfall, but not anymore. Before Ghost Rider can pull the trigger on baby Thanos, grown-up Thanos stops him, beating him as he says that there is still a place for him here, as his herald.
The final issue, Cosmic Ghost Rider #5 is the battle between Thanos and Ghost Rider. Frank recollects all his memories, all the deals he made, all the people he killed, and says that he has learned one thing which is that it is okay to make mistakes, as long as you only make them once.
With that, he channels his cosmic powers, giving Thanos a powerful blow as he has a heart-to-heart with baby Thanos, letting him know that he doesn’t have to be anything he doesn’t want to be. Thus begins the final battle between the father and son.
Thanos tells him that this has happened before, and Frank lost, and it will happen again if it has to. This is when we see Ghost Rider at his strongest, and all this while he had been holding back from his strongest form, trying his best to be a good person, but none of that mattered, he had to put an end to this, and so he does and lets the people know that they are now free.
Frank along with baby Thanos leaves that timeline through the portal that they came through, destroying that timeline. We then travel to Titan, hundreds of years ago, as he returns baby Thanos to where he belonged, accepting his fate because the last thing he wants to do is kill a baby.
On his way out, a mysterious woman thanks Frank, telling him that someone had to teach him to kill. With that Frank rides away on his bike, wondering if there is any hope of redemption for someone like him, and there was only one way to find out. The comic ends with the tagline that Ghost Rider will return in Guardians of the Galaxy #1.
Things You Need to Know About the Cosmic Ghost Rider
Johnny Blaze will always be the character who actually got Ghost Rider to life, he is the original one, however, the Marvel comics, especially the five-part series based on the Cosmic Ghost Rider are based on The Punisher, Frank Castle as we have discussed in the video before, nonetheless, let’s not forget the existence of Johnny Blaze.
When Frank transformed into the Ghost Rider, his powers were limitless, and to date, no one truly knows the extent of his powers and what he is capable of, maybe because he never truly got the opportunity to showcase and explore them. While Ghost Rider has fought several people in this timeline, one of the best ones was him versus Silver Surfer, who once served Galactus and was ready to get his revenge from Frank Castle, which he was successful with, often raising the question of who is stronger, Silver Surfer or Ghost Rider? While it isn’t often specified, Ghost Rider has a temper along with a very sarcastic sense of humor, which makes his character all the more loveable and entertaining.
What Makes Cosmic Ghost Rider So Powerful?
There is no doubt that Ghost Rider is one of the strongest characters in the Marvel comics because he made deals with Mephisto, Galactus, and Thanos over decades, harnessing cosmic powers which could never be matched. Some of his powers included hellfire manipulation, which means he can manipulate and project hellfire, while also having the ability to unleash hellfire blasts that could incinerate everything and everyone around him. Much like other superheroes, he also possessed superhuman strength and durability.
One of his powers that separates him from others is the penance stare, which means he can stare into someone’s eyes, making them feel and see every bit of pain that they have inflicted on someone in their entire lifetime. He has lived for over a million years, making him immortal, and the one time he died and went to Valhalla, Odin sent him right back to where he wanted to go. He also can stretch the natural capacity of the ghostly entities to unprecedented limits since he was the herald of Galactus, which came with a different set of cosmic powers, which included interstellar travel, energy projection, and telekinesis.
There is a reason Ghost Rider is so popular amongst comic book fans because he isn’t just strong, charming, and funny, but he is also constantly trying to do the right thing. He knows his flaws, he knows his fate, and he knows how the world is doomed but that doesn’t stop him from trying, even if it means babysitting someone who will go on to become an annihilator and the reason for his death. Frank Castle is more often known as The Punisher, but him taking on the mantel of Ghost Rider makes for one of the best story arcs, one that everyone wishes will be adapted to live-action eventually.