Johnny Blaze (Ghost Rider)

Johnny Blaze also known as the Ghost Rider is one of the major characters from the Marvel comics.

Johnny Blaze, a motorcycle stuntman, became bound to the Spirit of Vengeance known as Zarathos after making a deal with Mephisto to spare the life of his surrogate father. With the power to control hellfire and to inflict pain on those he deems evil with his Penance Stare, Johnny seeks vengeance as Ghost Rider.

Appearance
Johnny Blaze is a caucasian american man with reddish blonde hair and blue eyes. He stands 5'10" tall and weighs 180 lbs. Johnny typically wears black clothing, consisting of a black leather biker's jacket, black jeans, and black boots, sometimes with a set of fingerless or full gloves.

When transformed into the Ghost Rider, Johnny Blaze becomes a skeleton covered in orange Hellfire; his clothing remains unchanged during the transformation, and covers up any of his flaming skeleton with the exception of whatever it didn't cover up in human form, such as the head and hands; however, he is sometimes seen with flames around his boots when powered up, which spreads and applies itself to his entire body in moments of highly agitated power levels. His height increases to 6'2", and his weight is increased to 220 lbs in Ghost Rider form.

Personality
Johnny Blaze was once a thrillseeker, eagerly participating in his family's stunt carnival and growing to love the risk of the activities performed for the sake of entertainment. Though young and reckless, he cared deeply for those close to him, most especially for Roxanne.

However, Blaze's life would continually take turns for the worst, eventually culminating into making him a very broken man by the time he reached adulthood. The loss of his original family, including his birth mother taking his siblings away from him, would have an enormous impact on his heart despite the memory being repressed. He experienced further loss when he was just a young teenager, losing his adoptive mother Mona Simpson when one of his stunt crashes resulted in her fatal injuries.

Despite the enormous love he felt for his adoptive father, Johnny would come to odds with him after swearing to never perform for the carnival again due to the loss of Mona. Crash would become disappointed with Johnny, accusing him of cowardice; however, Johnny later decided to practice on his own, breaking the promise of his mother in an attempt to impress his father and return to his life of thrill-seeking.

Perhaps Johnny's greatest sense of loss came when his father developed cancer. Feeling conflict and despair when pressured by Crash and Roxanne to continue the show after the passing, Johnny desperately sought out mystical help to return his father to full health. Almost immediately after supposedly having some form of hope again when Crash was cured, he witnessed his horrific death, losing another close family member. It was only thanks to Roxanne's love for Johnny that his soul wasn't then claimed by Mephisto.

After he became the Ghost Rider, Johnny was confronted by Crash again, who had eagerly accepted Mephisto's offer to betray Johnny in exchange for another life. This brought him down more, though was rebounded when Crash repented for his decision and helped Johnny return to Earth to protect Roxanne.

After Roxanne seemingly abandoned Johnny, and learning much of the origin and nature of his Ghost Rider powers, Johnny became depressed and believed himself a danger to someone he loved, someone who perhaps did not love him back even if he was able to protect her from himself. This made him a lonely man, wandering the Earth in seclusion and occasionally facing criminals, evil worshippers, and demons with his powers.

Losing his Humanity
Over time, Johnny Blaze has slowly lost touch of himself, making him more and more vulnerable to takeover by the demon Zarathos within him. If he doesn't do something to alter his course, eventually Zarathos could fully possess his body and destroy it when releasing its full power in the physical world, sending his soul straight to hell where he will be finally claimed by Mephisto for eternity.

Paraphernalia
Medallion of Power: Johnny has a piece of the medallion of power, when the piece is activated it unlocks the power of the Ghost Rider [Zarathos] inside him but with Johnny's mother cast spells to stop him being bond to Noble, so Zarathos was bonded to him instead. This gives the Johnny the ability to transform into a mystic being which appears as a flaming skeleton dressed as a motorcyclist, and provides him with superhuman strength, speed, stamina, and durability.

Penance  Stare:  As the Ghost Rider, Johnny recently has gained powers that are similar if not the same as Danny Ketch, but probably his most notable is the use of the "Penance Stare" — the ability to cause others to experience a level of emotional pain equivalent to that which they have caused others as a result of illegal or immoral activities. When in close combat, he locks eyes with his victim and makes them feel all the pain that that person has ever inflicted on anyone in their lifetime. However, this has several weaknesses: If high on drugs like cocaine, or if the person is blind, or if eye contact cannot be made due to the victim having more than two eyes, then Ghost Rider's Penance Stare cannot function. Another example of a weakness was when an attempt to use the Penance Stare on the symbiotic being known as Venom resulted in Ghost Rider being knocked unconscious.

Chains:  As the Ghost Rider, Johnny uses a length of heavy chain approximately 3 feet long which possesses magical properties. For instance, when it is thrown it is able to separate into individual links which behave like shuriken, later reintegrating and returning to the Ghost Rider's hand. The chain can grow in length, is supernaturally strong, and can transform into other weapons such as a spear. He can also spin it fast to be used as a drill.

Motorcycle: The common theme of the Ghost Rider is When riding their bikes, the vehicles can travel faster than conventional motorcycles and can maneuver impossible feats such as riding straight up a vertical surface or across water. When empowered, the host undergoes a more radical transformation. It changes from a conventional looking motorcycle to one that appears both powerful and high-tech. Along with flaming wheels, the bike includes a shield-like battering ram on the front. Like the Blaze/Zarathos version, this Ghost Rider's bike was capable of incredible stunts, such as driving up sheer walls, across water, and in at least two known instances, through the very air itself. Ghost Rider also created two other bikes that he could utilize in the same manner as the one he normally rode, one out of necessity when Blackheart stole the original in a crossover graphic novel that brought together Ghost Rider, Wolverine, and the Punisher, and again in the regular series as a spare in case something made him unable to get to his regular cycle. The latter would wind up in the hands of Johnny Blaze. Ghost Rider can also give his fiery ability to his motorcycle and other vehicles.

Hellfire: After two years in Hell, John had learned a few tricks such as spitting fire and vomiting his chain. He possessed complete control over Hellfire and normal fire, he can generate and project hellfire in massive amounts and manipulate it in anyway he likes, an good example of this is when Danny raises a wall of hellfire. Ghost Rider also had the ability to destroy the undead, and Noble Kale is Marvel's incarnation of the Angel of Death/Judgment, which detailed the supposed origins of the Noble Kale version of the Ghost Rider.

Blaze and Zarathos often battle for dominance and control over their shared body. Kale had a compassionate side and while there were times that he seemed tempted to simply take over completely, he refused to do so, though he felt anger at condemning Daniel to only being able to live his life out half the time, while he dominated the other half. Kale and Ketch, like Blaze and Zarathos, could sometimes communicate through dreams, and in at least one issue communicated via messages written on a mirror in lipstick.

Hellfire Shotgun:  At one point, Blaze carried a Hellfire Shotgun which allowed him access to his Hellfire powers without turning into Ghost Rider. Originally, it was just a regular shotgun until it was transformed during a confrontation between Blaze and Ghost Rider (Ketch). The Hellfire Shotgun was unlike any ordinary weapon because it never ran out of ammunition and could be fired repeatedly for an indeterminate amount of time.

Trivia

 * Johnny hates Daredevil because he believes himself more suitable for that alias.


 * Johnny Blaze's birthday for this universe is listed as February 16, 2007, the same date that the Ghost Rider film was released.
 * Though the spiked jacket and chain is unique to Danny Ketch, Johnny Blaze will eventually adapt these to his character as depicted in later comic books.