Marvel has revealed its awesome new design for Johnny Blaze’s Ghost Rider, shortly after revealing that Ryan Gosling will play the stunt driver-turned-Spirit of Vengeance in the MCU.
An eldritch antihero who wields Hellfire to punish the guilty, Ghost Rider has been part of Marvel lore since 1972. Others such as Robbie Reyes and Danny Ketch have used the codename, but Marvel always eventually returns to the first and greatest, Johnny Blaze.
Now, as Marvel stands on the precipice of a new era for the character, it unveils his most radical redesign of all time – one that notably switches the demonic character’s supernatural allegiance…
Ghost Rider’s Villain Design Debuts Fiery Halo
The new design comes in the recent Marvel Dimensions – an original graphic novel from Alex Ross, Jason Millet, Josh Johnson and Ariana Maher. The story takes place in the In-Verse – an alternate reality where Marvel’s biggest heroes are villains and vice versa.
While the story focuses mostly on the villainous 1st Strike, Exalted and Unknowables (the In-Verse’s Avengers, X-Men and Fantastic Four respectively), a final colossal battle introduces this reality’s variants of many more characters, including Johnny Blaze’s Ghost RIder.
Shown as part of a massive gathering of villains, Johnny Blaze rides his iconic flaming motorcycle, but lacks a flaming skull. Instead, Johnny’s head is ringed by a blazing halo. Blaze also wears an all-black suit with a gap evocative of an absent clerical collar and holds his hand up in a seeming inversion of traditional images of Jesus Christ.
The character’s codename isn’t given in the comic, but with the way that the creative team flips the meaning of each character’s vigilante identity and with Johnny bearing a halo, the angelic ‘Host Rider’ is a likely candidate.
Ghost Rider’s New Design Echoes His ‘King of Hell’ Look
As unique as Marvel’s new Ghost Rider design is, it does bring to mind another iconic look for the character – Johnny’s blazing clown when he briefly replaced Mephisto as King of Hell in 2018 – a result of the Doctor Strange: Damnation event.
While the design started out with candle-like flames, Johnny’s skull gradually sprouted horns as he was corrupted by the role. It was a fantastic look, and accomplished what only the very best superhero redesigns do – make a new look seem like it was always the intended endgame for a character, explaining what Johnny’s flames were always ‘meant’ to become.
This Isn’t The Only 10/10 Modern Redesign for Ghost RIder
As cool as Marvel Dimensions‘ new look for Johnny Blaze is, it’s not the only awesome new look for the character in recent comics. Over in the Ultimate Universe, Ghost Rider became a force of nature with wicked blue flames, a hellfire-infused machine gun and Cerberus the three-headed hellhound as his mount.
Debuting in The Ultimates #21 from Deniz Camp and Pere Pérez, this version of the Spirit of Vengeance was one of Luke Cage’s rebel Avengers in a world controlled by the villainous Maker and his forces, going by the codename ‘Penance’ in reference to the mainstream Ghost Rider’s theoretically powerful but seldom effective Penance Stare.
Marvel Fans Need More In-Verse
From heroic X-Men Sentinels redesigned to look like living castles to a version of Spider-Man who burgles the world’s most powerful superhumans, Marvel Dimensions‘ In-Verse is a total joy, and hopefully a world that will return again and again. Marvel has never had a single, recurring ‘opposite’ universe, but the In-Verse more than fits the bill.
Marvel Dimensions could be just a thrilling one-time visit to an alternate world, but creations like the ‘Host Rider’ show how much promise this sprawling lore has for future narratives. Swapping Ghost Rider’s flaming skull for a fiery halo is a design choice that dares future creators to tease out the villainous variant’s backstory – hopefully, that’s a challenge that gets embraced sooner rather than later.
Marvel Dimensions is available now from Marvel Comics.
- Video Game(s)
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Ghost Rider
- Created by
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Roy Thomas, Gary Friedrich, Mike Ploog
- Latest Film
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Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance
- Movie(s)
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Ghost Rider, Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance
