Ghost Rider

Ghost Rider is the name of several fictional, supernatural anti-heroes in the Marvel Comics universe. Marvel had previously used the name for a Western character whose name was later changed to Night Rider and subsequently to Phantom Rider. more...

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The first supernatural Ghost Rider is stunt motorcyclist Johnny Blaze, who, in order to save the life of his mentor, agreed to give his soul to Satan (later revealed to be Mephisto). Instead his soul was bonded with the entity called Zarathos. When emitting Zarathos’ powers, Blaze's head became a flaming skull and he wielded a fiery motorcycle and trademark blasts of hellfire from his skeletal hands. He starred in an eponymous series from 1973-1983.

The subsequent Ghost Rider series (1990-98) featured Daniel Ketch as a new Ghost Rider. After his sister was injured by gangsters, Ketch came in contact with a motorcycle which had somehow been mystically enchanted to contain the essence of a "Spirit of Vengeance." This spirit had originally been a Puritan man named Noble Kale, an ancestor of both Blaze and Ketch. Johnny Blaze reappeared in this series as a supporting character and was revealed to be Ketch’s brother.

Johnny Blaze

Following the western comics character to originally use the name, this Ghost Rider first appeared in Marvel Spotlight vol. 1, #5 (Aug. 1972), created by writers Roy Thomas and Gary Friedrich and artist Mike Ploog.

The original Ghost Rider, a man named Noble Kale, was transformed into the Spirit of Vengeance - the Ghost Rider of the 18th century. Mephisto, who was granting aid to Kale's father, the local town pastor, to keep the town prosperous, under the pretext that they were being shown favor from God, had had his eye on Noble Kale, a genuinely good and pure hearted man. The truth was discovered by Magdelena, Noble's wife. As she was being burned at the stake, she called down vengeful creatures called the Furies (who may or may not be the Furies of Greek mythology) to take vengeance on Pastor Kale. Unfortunately, they wanted to then eradicate all traces of the Kale bloodline. Their first victim was not Pastor Kale, but rather his youngest son Dante. Turning again to Mephisto for aid, The Ghost Rider was created from Pastor Kale's eldest son, Noble, intially to be a demon new to the services of Mephisto's particular realm of Hell. Rather than take human life, the now altered Noble Kale ran himself through, when he was offered up his own son for his first meal. Mephisto attempted to claim Kale's soul, only to be stopped by the angel Uriel. The two reached an accord, and recreated Kale as the new Spirit of Vengeance known as the Ghost Rider. Mephisto, though unable to directly harm any of the bloodline of the Rider, was able to lay a curse on them, making Kale only able to exist in the real world by possessing the bodies of his descendants. Mephisto kept an eye on Noble and the Kale clan from then on watching as Kale manifested in the firstborn of every generation of the Kales. Sometime during the next hundred years or so, a group called The Blood got involved with the newly created Spirit of Vengeance, and shattered a medallion which bore the brand of Vengeance, and implanted it into descendants of the Blaze bloodline.

Read more at Wikipedia.org