Number 2
Real Name: Johnathan 'Johnny' Blaze
Alias: Ghost Rider
Team Affiliation: None
Current Status: Active
Abilities: Superhuman strength, agility, durability, stamina, invulnerability to heat and fire, ability to project regular fire and hellfire, ability to travel along any surface, penance stare, wields enchanted chain, hellfire bike, hellfire shotgun
First Appearance: Marvel Spotlight #5 (Aug 1972)
Johnny Blaze was a stunt motorcycle rider in a traveling circus. When he learned that his adoptive father, Crash Simpson, was dying of cancer, he made a deal with the Devil to save Crash from the disease. Instead, the Devil took Crash in a motorbike accident, and claimed Johnny's soul for his own. He become bonded with the spirit of Zarathos, an avenging demon, and began working as the Ghost Rider, the devil's bounty hunter, taking the guilty to Hell.
Constantly stuck between the forces of Heaven and of Hell, Johnny Blaze and the Ghost Rider make an amazing team. The dynamic between the two is the main crux of the comics, as sharing a body is problematic at best. The Ghost Rider series is constantly undergoing retcons, but this dynamic always remains. The comics are multi-layered and there is always a balance between Johnny, and his struggles as the Ghost Rider.
Ghost Rider: Trials and Tribulations by Jason Aaron
