Ghost Rider

Ghost Rider is the name of several fictional, supernatural anti-heroes in the Marvel Comics universe. Ghost Rider is also a 2007 superhero film based on the Johnny Blaze incarnation of the character, as played by Nicolas Cage.

Johnny Blaze, a stunt daredevil, was the son of Barton Blaze and Naomi Kale. He spent his early years in the Quentin Carnival where his parents starred in a stunt show with Craig "Crash" Simpson. Blaze's family had ended when his mother abandoned Barton and Johnny and took the family's two children.
Losing his mother caused Blaze to repress many of his memories of her and his siblings. When his father died in a stunt, Blaze was adopted by Crash and Mona Simpson. The Simpsons helped Blaze by fabricating his past with the hope that it would be less painful than the truth. Now believing that his real mother was Clara Blaze, who had died, Blaze became an enthusiastic member of the Simpson clan, growing closer to their daughter, Roxanne. The two soon became inseparable and, as they grew older their fondness for one another moved beyond familiar.
Blaze would eventually join the Simpsons into their own traveling stunt show — the Crash Simpson Stunt Cycle Extravaganza. Crash had become a real father figure in Blaze's eyes, and on learning of Crash's life-threatening cancer, Blaze turned to the occult. His studies led him to a spell which supposedly could summon Satan himself. Johnny was unaware that he in fact had summoned Mephisto. Desperate to save him, Blaze sold his soul to Mephisto in return for Crash's cancer to be cured.
Crash Simpson's cancer was cured, although Crash died soon after in a stunt trying to jump over 22 cars. Blaze, still at the mercy of Mephisto, believed he would lose his soul to Mephisto until he was saved by Roxanne. Roxanne proclaimed her love for Blaze, and drove Mephisto away with the purity of her emotion.
Blaze was unaware that Mephisto had bonded him with the demon Zarathos as an act of revenge for not being able to obtain Johnny's soul for himself. Johnny was transformed into a Ghost Rider, a leather-clad skeleton, his head cloaked in a sheath of flame, the night after Crash's death. While Johnny still had his soul, he was forced to punish the wicked and evil upon Mephisto's demands whenever needed.
Blaze became a bounty hunter for Mephisto. Whenever he was in the presence of evil he would transform into the Ghost Rider, to exact the devil's revenge, returning the evil to Hell. Blaze was not completely lost in the transformation however, and would also help the innocent when they were in danger.
Eventually, Zarathos would gain control of Johnny Blaze, and the Ghost Rider would become the spirit of Zarathos unleashed. Johnny himself was becoming stronger as well, and the conflicting personalities led to a battle over Blaze's physical body.
Before too long Centurious appeared, stealing Blaze's soul into his soul crystal. Zarathos, weakened from the ordeal used the last of his strength to shatter the crystal, freeing Blaze's soul and many others contained inside of the crystal as well. Before the crystal was reformed, Centurious was absorbed into the crystal. Zarathos followed him into the crystal, freeing Blaze from the curse, restored his soul and ending his time as the Ghost Rider.
He later teamed up with the new Ghost Rider (Daniel Ketch) to form the "Spirits of Vengeance". During this time Blaze would again ride a bike with wheels on fire and would sling a hellfire spitting pump-gun. Their mentor Caretaker would later reveal that they were in fact brothers.
Blaze went back to leading his carnival. Despite it being staffed with many powerful entities, it was nearly destroyed in a demonic attack led by the creature Vengeance. The dead, friend and foe alike, were taken by government forces to be dissected. Blaze, with the help of friends, living and dead, breaks into the facillity and destroys all the bodies.
A later confrontation with the forces of evil would lead to Roxanne's death. Blaze would later hunt down the demons responsible for her death and kill them all.
Starting over, Blaze eventually found a new job as an accountant and a new girlfriend, Chloe. Though free from the curse and with his soul back, Johnny would eventually transform back into Ghost Rider since Zarathos never really left him and had been reconstituting himself from within Blaze.
Johnny Blaze soon found himself constantly pursued by demons of Hell, intent on forcing him to make good on the demonic pact he had made. It was all that the Ghost Rider could do to out-run the evil, but it wasn't enough. Eventually, Johnny was captured and taken to Hell.
The Road to Damnation series, by Garth Ennis & Clayton Crain, finds Johnny Blaze trapped in an endless cycle of torture and escape in the pit. It is here that the angel Malachi appears to the Ghost Rider, offering to free him from Hell with his soul intact, in exchange for hunting down the demon Kazzan who has been unleashed upon the earth.
Malachi tells Blaze that the only way he will be freed from Hell permanently is to beat the Archangel Ruth to Kazzan, in order to stave off the destruction that she will cause should she fight him. Along the way, Blaze meets a demon, Hoss, who is also in pursuit of Kazzan, and offers to help the Ghost Rider since they are after the same goal.
Hoss and Blaze fight with Ruth and she steals his bike, they pursue her in Hoss' Cadillac. When they arrive to where Ruth is Kazzan is already free, thanks to the efforts of a corrupt paraplegic business owner named Earl Gustav. Hoss and Ruth fight while Blaze battles Kazzan, who lets Johnny know he's been duped by Malachi. As this happens Gustav's secretary, Jemima Catmint, makes her boss recite an incantation that sends Kazaan back to Hell. Johnny thinks he's free, but gets shot in the head by a dying priest (whom he had blasted with hellfire earlier) with a holy bullet and is sent back to Hell. He confronts Malachi who reveals that he tricked Johnny. Johnny threatens to kill him, but is prevented from doing so by Ruth, who kills him herself. Hoss appears, and reveals that Kazann and Malachi were actually brothers, who passed information to each other about Heaven and Hell. Once Kazann escaped from Hell, Malachi needed to find someone (Ghost Rider) to get him back before Ruth, in order to prevent Kazann from spilling the beans about Malachi exchanging secrets of Heaven with him while he was being tortured by angels.
In July 2006, a new ongoing monthly series, titled Vicious Cycle began. Written by Daniel Way with art by Mark Texeira and Javier Saltares, the same artistic team from the 1990 series. The storyline takes place after the Ennis miniseries, and features Johnny Blaze finally escaping hell.
Blaze's escape is a plot engineered by Lucifer himself, as when Johnny escapes from Hell the devil comes with him. It is that when Lucifer travelled to the mortal realm his essence shattered and spread to recently deceased people- exactly six hindred and sixty-six of them to be precise-, each one of them resurrected and imbued with a portion of the devil's strength. In order to reform his body each one of the human hosts has to die, but cannot die from suicide as that is a sin and would send the devil back to hell.
Believing Doctor Strange to be Lucifer in disguise, Blaze attacks him, and for the first time he uses the Penance Stare, debilitating Dr. Strange. It is then that the celestial being Numecet appears and reveals the intent of Lucifer to Blaze.
She tells Johnny Blaze that he is stronger than he can comprehend and is a vital part of Lucifer's plans, as he intends for the Ghost Rider to kill each of the possessed. As each one would fall the remaining will become even stronger as the demon's essence is reconstituted; Ghost Rider must be the one to kill them because eventually the bodies will become so powerful that only Ghost Rider could kill them.
Numecet attempts to dissuade Blaze but to no avail. He knows that if he had the ability to cross to the mortal realm with Lucifer, he must have the ability to return with him as well. Resolved, Johnny Blaze sets off to destroy Lucifer; as he leaves, Numecet weeps, her tears reviving the catatonic Doctor Strange.
In Ghost Rider # 12 Johnny Blaze angers the Ghost Rider when he tries to save several people and allows Lucifer to escape. Later after watching a broadcast on T.V. Blaze decides to go to New York and fight the Hulk, against the Ghost Rider's will. The issue ends with Ghost Rider coming to a halt on his motorcycle in front of the Hulk.
In Ghost Rider # 13, after attempting to urge the Hulk to stop, Ghost Rider engages the Hulk. Their battle is monitored by Doctor Strange and Mister Fantastic. Dr. Strange believes that Ghost Rider's mystic power is more than capable of defeating the Hulk, even going as far as to call them "godlike". However, as it is Johnny Blaze, not Ghost Rider, who is engaging the Hulk, the battle is tipped in the Hulk's favor. At the end of the issue, Ghost Rider regains control of the shared body and rides off because, as Dr. Strange says in the end of the issue, Ghost Rider protects only the innocent, which none of the Illuminati are.

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