Ghost Rider is a fictional character first published in Marvel Comics.
Background (Marvel Comics)[]
Johnny Blaze was a young man who was orphaned when his father, Barton Blaze, the star of the "Crash Simpsons Daredevil Cycle" Show, died performing a dangerous maneuver. Adopted by Crash Simpson, one of his father's companions, the young man quickly mastered the tricks of the business. When he discovered that his adoptive father was dying of a rare blood disease, Blaze finally found the opportunity to use his fascination with the occult. Playing with forces hidden beyond the bonds of human understanding, Blaze recreated an ancient ritual and sold his soul to a demon for a miracle cure for his father.
Then Simpson was cured but found his death some time later attempting the most ambitious stunt of his career (just like his father). Having tricked Blaze into losing his soul, the Demon materialized to claim the debt. But Crash's daughter, Roxxane Simpson, drove the demon from the mortal plane by reciting a vanishing spell that she had searched for in one of Blaze's books.
Unable to take possession of Blaze's soul, Mephisto transferred the soul of the demon Zarathos to Blaze's body. Thereafter, the mix of spirits would manifest each night in the form of the Ghost Rider, who used his demonic powers to create a demonic-looking motorcycle. At first, Blaze dominated the Ghost Rider's personality, and after a few months, his automatic nightly transformations ended. He then he became Ghost Rider whenever he felt evil in his vicinity, avenging innocent lives that had been harmed by evil. But the more Blaze became Ghost Rider, the stronger the demon became.
Blaze was condemned to lead a double life. For years, he and Zarathos fought to control the entity composed of him. The entire time, Blaze was struggling to prevent his second Satanic personality from controlling him. Eventually, Zarathos was exorcised from Johnny Blaze's body, and the human half of the Ghost Rider eventually got a peaceful existence.
Years later, Blaze found himself yearning for the thrill of his old life, a part of himself yearning for the Ghost Rider and his adventures together. Then an older and wiser Johnny Blaze made a deal with the Spirit of Vengeance. And so the Ghost Rider roams the highways of America, punishing people who have done wrong to others.
Plot (Ghost Rider 2007)[]
Johnny Blaze was a young motorcycle racer whose father suffered from lung cancer. Back then, Mephistopheles, the incarnation of Lucifer, offers him a deal: he will cure his father's cancer in exchange for his soul. After careful thought, young Johnny accepts the deal, and is forced to sign a mysterious contract with his own blood, once signed, Mephisto stares at him and Blaze falls unconscious. The next day, Johnny wakes up in his room, just like any normal day. But this time he is surprised to see that his father was calmly walking around the house, claiming to feel much better. Johnny prefers not to comment to his father that in a way, he had sold his soul to the devil himself, because he thought he had made the right decision.
Decision that would mark the rest of his life.[]
That day, his father had planned to do a dangerous new maneuver that no one else had tried. The moment came, and Barton Blaze accomplished the feat. Unfortunately, an inexplicable failure in the motorcycle's mechanism caused it to crash dramatically to the ground after completing its stunt.
Johnny immediately ran to help his father, although he did not react, despite attempts by the emergency team. Amid all the chaos on stage, Johnny catches a glimpse of the terrible silhouette of Mephistopheles in the distance, and then reflects on his agreement with him. Mephisto would cure his father's cancer, although he knew very well that he still would not be able to deliver death on that tragic day.
Later, Johnny falls into a severe case of depression, and is forced to abandon his old life there, even leaving his current girlfriend, Roxanne, alone.
Years later, and become a world-renowned acrobat, Johnny meets his ex-girlfriend Roxanne in one of his shows. In addition, now Mephistopheles goes to him to ask him to eliminate his son Blackheart, the demon prince of hell along with the three fallen angels, known as: "The hidden ones", since they were hiding in the 3 remaining elements, earth, air and water. .
They had a plan to find the lost city contract, Saint Vengeance. Place where Mephisto made false promises to each and every one of the inhabitants, the town was finally corroded by greed, and ended up drowning in his own blood.
In response, Mephistopheles forces Blaze to become the new Phantom Avenger and offers him his soul in exchange for defeating Blackheart and his minions. Blaze is driven straight to the station on his "first ride", where he transforms into the Ghost Rider and a battle with the fallen angels ensues. That night, The Avenger was driving through the streets of the dark city, punishing all the guilty in his path. His new instinct guides him to the local cemetery, exactly where the grave of his father was, all this before the first rays of the sun touched the face of the earth. When falling asleep on the grass, Johnny can see an older man, who seemed to be the caretaker of the cemetery, he surely saw everything that happened, but he acts with suspicious normality, even making some sarcastic comments, before Johnny lost consciousness.
The next day, Johnny is lying inside the nearby monastery, there the caretaker offers to inform him about everything that happened the night before, the caretaker seems to know a lot about the subject, and is surprised to learn that Mephisto had sent him to kill him. Blackheart. As a last piece of advice, the caretaker asks him to stay away from his loved ones, as Blackheart could use them against him at any time. It is then that Johnny prepares to return with his team and friends to reconsider.
When he gets home, Blaze finds Roxanne, who asks him for an explanation about the events that have occurred constantly. Johnny decides to reveal that he: "He sold his soul to the Devil." Unconvinced (even though Johnny had been honest), she turns away from her in disbelief at her. By ensuring that Roxanne leaves safely, Johnny is caught up in the police for all the damage he had caused while the Avenger took hold of him, as well as being blamed for the murders Blackheart had done in his quest to dominate San Venganza.
Johnny is unjustly imprisoned, and after being beaten by the inmates of the place, he can no longer control the avenger, who returns to seize him, and flees from the police until they are out of sight.
Blaze returns to the Caretaker to ask for advice and more information about his unfortunate case. The caretaker confesses to him about his predecessor, Carter Slade, a Texas ranger who was forced to accept the deal with Mephisto to save himself, he was present when the contract for Saint Vengeance was signed, and managed to snatch it from the Devil himself, to hide it in an unknown place to the face.
Blaze returns home to find that Blackheart has killed her friend Mack of hers and has already taken Roxanne hostage to her, threatening to kill her if Blaze does not get the contract and hand it over to him.
The Ghost Rider[]
Blaze goes back to the caretaker and gets the contract. The caretaker reveals to be Carter Slade. Slade tells Blaze that he is more powerful than his predecessors since he sold his soul for love rather than greed. Slade leads Blaze to St. Vengeance, then gives Blaze a lever-action shotgun before disappearing.
After killing one of the fallen angels, Blaze gives the contract to Blackhearth He quickly transforms into Ghost Rider in an effort to subdue Blackheart, but dawn arrives and he is rendered powerless. Blackheart uses the contract to absorb the thousand cursed souls in his body. He attempts to kill Blaze, but is distracted when Simpson uses Blaze's shotgun to separate them. After Blaze tries to kill Blackheart with the shotgun, but this time Blackheart forgot that he had absorbed 1000 souls. 1000 souls to burn. It is then that the avenger uses his most powerful weapon, called: "Look of punishment", where the victim was made to suffer all the pain that she had caused to the innocent.
Mephisto appears and returns to Blaze his soul, offering to retrieve the curse from the Ghost Rider. Determined not to make another deal; Blaze, saying that he will use his power against him, and against all harm that comes to the innocent. Enraged at being robbed of the power, Mephistopheles agrees to make Blaze pay, but Blaze tells Mephistopheles that he is not afraid. Mephistopheles then disappears, taking Blackheart's body with him. Later, Simpson tells Blaze that he got the second chance from him before sharing a final kiss with him. Blaze then rides the motorcycle away from him, becoming the Ghost Rider.