Daniel Ketch (Earth-616)

Early Years[]

Daniel "Danny" Ketch and his sister Barbara were born to Barton Blaze and Naomi Kale, but were given away to a widowed woman named Francis Ketch when they were very young. The two grew up only knowing Mrs. Ketch as their mother, but their biological mom, Naomi Kale, continued to keep tabs on the kids until her death ten years later.^[12]

When on a fifth grade field trip to Manhattan, he was interviewed on television after seeing Spider-Man and the Human Torch driving the Spider-Mobile up walls.^[13] Working as a paperboy, the "nice, normal, ordinary" Danny had his photo taken with Phil and Doris Sheldon to mark Phil's decision to retire from photographing superheroes.^[14]

Ghost Rider[]

On Halloween night when they were teenagers, Danny took his sister Barbara to a graveyard to give her the opportunity to take pictures of the grave of Harry Houdini. During this excursion, the siblings stumbled upon a confrontation between two gangs, one led by Deathwatch and the other made up of cronies belonging to the Kingpin. The two gangs began fighting each other, and Barbara cried out, causing Deathwatch to become aware of her presence. Barbara was shot through the chest with an arrow by one of Deathwatch's henchmen, so Danny grabbed his sister's body and ran away to a nearby junkyard. Distressed and covered in his sister's blood, he hid there with his sister's unconscious body from Deathwatch's henchmen until he noticed a pristine motorbike with a glowing gas cap.^[15] Inspecting the glowing gas cap, Danny touched it with his blood-stained hand and instantly transformed into Ghost Rider, a Spirit of Vengeance whose mission was to take revenge on those who shed innocent blood. As Ghost Rider, both Daniel's mind and Ghost Rider's mind were in control, resulting in Danny being only somewhat influential in his own actions.

Ghost Rider confronted and began to torture the henchmen of Deathwatch, but was interrupted by the arrival of the police. Leaving Barbara's body behind, Ghost Rider escaped the police on his flaming motorbike, which had also been transformed when Danny touched the glowing gas cap. Eventually, Ghost Rider drove into a secluded alleyway where he turned back into Daniel Ketch.^[15] Barbara's unconscious body was taken to a hospital by the cops, but not much time later she was killed by Blackout, who had learned Daniel's secret identity and sought revenge on Ghost Rider for burning his face (an injury Blackout actually had himself to blame for).^[16] Dan's good friend Jack D'Auria was also eventually caught up in the conflict against Deathwatch's men, where he helped Ghost Rider fight them.^[17]

Early Career[]

After the Fantastic Four mysteriously disappeared, Ketch, Wolverine, Hulk, and Spider-Man joined forces to replace them until the four were rescued and a Skrull plot was exposed.^[18] Ketch also briefly teamed with Wolverine and Punisher while investigating one of Blackheart's schemes.^[19]

Johnny Blaze traveled from the West Coast to confront this new Ghost Rider thinking the evil spirit Zarathos had returned.^[20] Blaze hunted down Ghost Rider and tried to kill him multiple times while Ghost Rider kept attempting to escape Blaze and bring Blackout, who was killing multiple people, to justice. Finally, when Blaze watched Ghost Rider save a child in Central Park that Blackout was about to kill, he became less suspicious of Ghost Rider and stopped trying to kill him. He instead decided to observe Daniel to make sure that he wasn't Zarathos, and he taught Daniel how to fight and protect himself when he wasn't transformed into Ghost Rider.^[21]

It was later revealed for certain that this incarnation of Ghost Rider was not Zarathos, and that Blaze and Ketch were brothers. The family had been separated by the Blood to limit the chances of the Spirits of Vengeance forming, but Mephisto's manipulations forced them to use the powers.^[22]

The two worked together to fight Zarathos and Lilith as part of the Midnight Sons. Danny Ketch seemed to die at the hands of Blackout,^[23] but the Spirit of Vengeance to which he had been bound through the bike's talisman lived on. During this time Dan's only existence remained stuck in a void and would only be able to communicate with the Ghost Rider Spirit via the spirit world.^[24]

Dan also had problems with his girlfriend, Stacy, who joined a task force that was designed to confront superhuman criminals and vigilantes. As the Ghost Rider, he was briefly captured, but escaped before S.H.I.E.L.D. could examine the nature of his powers.^[25]

Noble Kale[]

After an attack by a mad Vengeance revealed some dark memories, Ketch consulted with Doctor Strange. It was revealed that the Ghost Rider form was actually an ancestor, Noble Kale, who had become a Spirit of Vengeance with the help of the angel Uriel. Their use of motorcycles was due to Naomi placing her medallion on her own motorcycle. This also meant Ketch and Blaze were distantly related to sorceress Jennifer Kale. This knowledge seemed to increase the power of the Ghost Rider, although he also became more distant and angry. The revelations also awakened the Furies, who had been dispatched to destroy Kale and his descendants. Jennifer sent out a mystic distress signal, which was answered by Valkyrie. Together they managed to hold off the Furies until Jennifer was able to call the spirit of Naomi to force the Furies to abandon their attack.^[26]

Having recently deposed his father Mephisto, Blackheart began to attack the Ghost Rider with his own created Spirits of Vengeance. He also mocked Blaze by placing Roxanne's spirit into the Blackrose. Kale was killed by Pao Fu and taken to Blackheart's Hell. While there, Daniel Ketch apparently sacrificed himself to unlock Noble Kale's full power.^[27] Kale defeated Blackheart and briefly controlled the realm until Mephisto's return. While he ruled Hell, he resurrected Dan Ketch and returned him to Earth.^[6] Sometime later, when Mephisto reclaimed his realm, Noble Kale returned to Earth and was forced to re-bond to Dan Ketch.^[28]

Danny slipped into a coma in the mortal plane and was later revived by his dead mother and brother, and went on to live a seemingly normal life. However, this was not to last; his longtime girlfriend Stacy found out she was pregnant with Danny's child and ran away.^[6]

Zadkiel[]

Sometime later, however, Dan had a change of heart and had Noble Kale exercised from his body by the technomancer Mary LeBow, a week after the exorcism Danny attempted to immolate himself in Times Square while begging for the power of the Ghost Rider to 'come back'.^[8] Danny continued to fall into a deep depression, becoming a drunk who fought bar thugs for kicks. He was approached by Mister Eleven, a talking crow that continued to encounter Ketch over and over, giving him 'doses' of the Ghost Rider power he lusted after like an addiction, luring him in with longer and more powerful amounts each time.^[29][30]

Eleven explained to Ketch the true history of the Spirits of Vengeance and how some past Ghost Rider incarnations were unable to cope with such a magnitude of power, going insane and burning out their souls. He also explained that Verminus Rex, from Blackheart's old Spirits of Vengeance, was hunting other Ghost Riders in order to feed his own growing addiction.^[10] After absorbing the spirit from another Ghost Rider that knew of Rex's location, Danny found out where he was hiding and finished him off, absorbing the other spirits Rex had taken in the past. Taking on such an amount of power and finding the Mary's dead body pushed Danny over the edge, causing him to overdose. Zadkiel intervened, offering to take away Danny's pain from the overdose and in return, Danny would gather other Spirits of Vengeance and absorb their essence in order to "save the host's soul". Desperate and with no other option, Ketch agreed, becoming a knight in Zadkiel's service.^[31]

Danny was next seen in the shadows speaking on the phone with the head nurse hunting Johnny Blaze, the sign of Zadkiel on his hand. Ketch then encountered Lucas Collier, the young boy Blaze was trying to save, and seemingly convinced the boy to kill himself.^[32]

The Last Stand of the Spirits of Vengeance[]

Daniel Ketch set off on his new mission: To collect the powers of all the Ghost Riders for the angel Zadkiel to prevent the corruption of the powers within their human hosts. Zadkiel had other motives he kept to himself--that he needed the powers of the Riders to tear down the walls of New Jerusalem and wage war on Heaven.

Danny's first task was to destroy any evidence of his own history by attacking Caretaker and destroying his archives. Johnny Blaze and Caretaker's granddaughter, Sister Sara arrived to speak with Caretaker before he died, but were too late to catch Danny.^[33]

In Tibet, with Chinese soldiers harassing a village, a peasant entered on a donkey. After a few exchange of words and an order to kill given by the General, the peasant changed and killed the General's men while his back was turned. When the General turned back he saw the Ghost Rider and received the penance stare for his trouble. After the attack the Rider went back to his sanctuary where he was visited by Danny Ketch. A short while later Sara and Johnny Blaze arrived at the sanctuary to find out how to get back at Zadkiel. After entering, they found the peasant and donkey burned to husks from Ketch leeching the Ghost Rider power.^[34]

That night, the two were visited by Ketch and began a battle with a show of power. When Blaze used the penance stare on his brother, he saw exactly what had transpired. Ketch had murdered the hosts of numerous riders for their powers. During a show of pity for the fallen, Ketch was able to return the stare on Blaze, and temporarily broke his brother's spirit. Before Ketch was able to take the power of Zarathos, he was stopped by the new caretaker, Sister Sara. She rescued Blaze and they went to a safehouse where they were visited by two more Ghost Riders, the Muslim Molek and the Chinese Bai Gu Jing, who were aware of Zadkiel and Ketch's plan.^[35]

When Blaze's team arrived in Japan, they learned Ketch had already taken the power of the Rider, Yoshio Kannabe. After the conquest, Ketch had another talk with Zadkiel via a communications link. During the conversation, Zadkiel massacred the squad of the Asura Angels who guard the gates of Heaven. Zadkiel told Ketch to wait to attack the Riders until the last ones were together. After leaving Japan, Blaze's team journeyed to the City of the Skulls in the Congo where the last stand would be made. There they met the Lords of the Congo, the Ghost Riders, Baron Skullfire and Marinette Bwa Chech, and their Phantom Riders.^[36]

As the Ghost Riders and their forces readied for battle, Blaze had his eyes opened back up by kids going to fight. He quickly snapped out of his depression and joined the others for the final battle. During the course of the battle Baron Skullfire died and the spirit was transferred to one of the Phantom Riders, after which Ketch created hellfire avatars of himself to take all the powers. A wager was then made by Blaze and Ketch on a race between the brothers around the world for the fates of the powers. As he was about to win, Blaze was injured by former deputy Kowalski, whom he had previously subjected to the Penance Stare, using a Hellfire Shotgun whom Zadkiel had made sure was lying in wait. Danny Ketch was now able to take the Rider from Johnny and take them to Zadkiel. The sound of the gates falling was enough to be felt by Spider-Man's senses, and loud enough to be heard by people everywhere including Hell and Asgard. When an injured Blaze returned to the City of the Skulls, Ketch fell from the sky and revealed that he'd learned that Zadkiel had used him as a weapon, and that the battle for Heaven had already been decided.^[37]

Heaven's on Fire[]

After the battle with Zadkiel and his Black Host, Ketch parted ways with Blaze and Sara, taking to the open road on his motorcycle and reminiscing about being Zadkiel's puppet. Now, he simply waited for the end of the world to come. He came across a blown-up gas station, destroyed by the demonically-possessed Highwayman. He attempted to pass by it but his bike refused to budge however, and Ketch was forcibly turned into the Ghost Rider. Danny found the Highwayman further up the road, having finished slaughtering a bus full of UFO watchers and hippies to feed the demons in his semi-truck. Ghost Rider faced off with the Highwayman, eventually tearing his head off in a high-speed chase. The decapitated head attempted to crawl away, sprouting arachnid legs and cursing the Ghost Rider. Ketch picked it up and set it ablaze with a spew of hellfire. He transformed back into Danny Ketch and rode off, reflecting on how close he was to being rid of this life as the Ghost Rider.^[7]

Following Danny's encounter with the Highwayman he teamed up with Blaze for a final assault on Zadkiel. The two brothers worked together with the new Caretaker Sara, Daimon Hellstrom and Jaine Cutter to discover a portal into Heaven, learned of through Danny's selling of his soul to the devil. Once there they took the fight to Zadkiel only to be initially beaten by the mad angel. On the verge of giving up Blaze realized how to call upon the spirits of the previously fallen Spirits of Vengeance for aid. Ketch and Blaze, together with all of the Spirits of Vengeance from human history, defeated Zadkiel and restored balance to earth. Ketch's whereabouts following the defeat of Zadkiel are unknown.^[38]

Absolute Carnage[]

After Daniel was about to drink again, Johnny, now the new King of Hell, convinced Daniel to go help another fellow Spirit of Vengeance, Alejandra Jones. In his Ghost Rider form, he arrived at Alejandra's village where he found her battling Dark Carnage. He tried to help her, but Carnage eventually killed her, after ripping and devouring her spine. Ketch tried to get revenge, but Carnage got empowered by Jones' Spirit of Vengeance, and battled Ketch. Thankfully, Alejandra, possessing the body of a village girl, Imara, and the other villagers, helped Ketch in fight, while Carnage's cult got their leader. Afterwards, Ketch apologized to Alejandra, but she thanked him for protecting her village before returning to hell. Ketch them promised to the village to come to protect them in need before leaving.^[39]

Spirit of Corruption[]

As Johnny Blaze began capturing demons roaming the Earth, he tried to recruit the help of his brother, but Ketch refused and tried to convince Johnny that his position as the King of Hell was corrupting his soul.^[40] However, Blaze stripped Ketch of his Spirit of Vengeance and threw him off the Manhattan Bridge.^[41] Luckily, he got saved from drowning by Caretaker Sara. He at first refused to help Blaze to come to his senses, but after being convinced by the spirit of his mother to go help his brother, he accepted to go to Limbo, and take Belasco's Necrosis. After the battle between Ketch and the Necrosis, Belasco turned Ketch into his Spirit of Corruption.^[42] After returning to his dimension, he instantly regretted this decision and tried to walk away. However, Lilith sent Jack O'Lantern to attack Danny, the supervillain-turned-demon informing him of an upcoming war and causing Ketch to realize that he needed to save Johnny.^[43]

He then visited his mother's grave and had another argument with Sara over the situation, correctly accusing her of having planned for him to become the Spirit of Corruption. Before preparing to go after Johnny, he was attacked by Punisher and Wolverine, who still believed him to be a Ghost Rider, but he easily stopped them.^[44] Danny eventually reached his brother while he was facing Doctor Strange, Ketch managed to stab Johnny with his blade, consuming his corruption. With his brother finally in control again, Johnny thanked Ketch and took Mephisto to his next location.^[45] During a Symbiote Invasion on Earth, Ketch, now going by the alias of Death Rider, catched up to his brother once again to help him fight an army of symbiotes and demons. He brought Blackheart with him so he could help him put Mephisto back in his throne to put a stop to Lilith. Ketch managed to convince his brother to let Mephisto reclaim his throne, while the two stayed on Earth to fight the symbiote army.^[2]

Wanting to be freed from the Spirit of Corruption, Danny went to the Infernal Labs. Dr. Diyu proceeded to extract the Spirit from his body, intending to use it in her plan to save her brother from Hell, but because the two had been together for so long Danny began dying after being separated. His brother Johnny and his own companion Talia Warroad came to find him, and seeing that he was dying Johnny went after Diyu. He was successful in retrieving the Spirit of Corruption and bringing it back to Danny, saving his life and waking him back up.^[46]

This Ghost Rider was cursed from the bloodline of Noble Kale. As the Ghost Rider, Ketch possessed a variety of supernatural powers.

Ghost Rider Transformation: Ketch possessed the supernatural ability to transform into the Ghost Rider at will, initially due to being indwelled by his ancestor Noble Kale, who had been turned into a Spirit of Vengeance by the Medallion of Power. However, Ketch and Kale have been shown separately in their Ghost Rider forms, indicating that Ketch's powers now come from a different Spirit of Vengeance.^[47] Originally, he would have to touch the gas cap of his motorcycle -- actually the Medallion of Power -- to transform. Later, he would automatically transform at night or in the presence of evil. Eventually, however, he gained control over his transformations and could transform through an act of will or when innocent blood is spilled.

• Superhuman Strength: As Ghost Rider, Ketch possessed superhuman strength sufficient to lift about 10 tons.^[48]
• Superhuman Stamina: The mystical energy that empowers Ghost Rider prevents his muscles from producing fatigue toxins during physical activities. As a result, while transformed into Ghost Rider, Ketch possessed limitless superhuman stamina in all physical activities.
• Superhuman Durability: While transformed into Ghost Rider, Ketch's body was highly resistant to physical injury. He was capable of withstanding great impact forces, temperature and pressure extremes, powerful energy blasts, high caliber bullets, and falls from great heights without sustaining injury.
• Regenerative Healing Factor: Despite his high resistance to damage and harm while he was transformed into Ghost Rider, Ketch could still sustain any damage and/or harm. however, the mystical energies of the Ghost Rider enabled him to rapidly heal any damage and/or harm rapidly faster, greater and better than any ordinary human being is capable of. his regenerative powers are powerful and rapid they allow him to regenerate in a matter of moments/seconds depending on the damage and/or harm.
• Hellfire Manipulation: As Ghost Rider, Ketch possessed the ability to generate, control, and project mystical fire, or "hellfire" at will. Hellfire is an empyreal and supernatural flame that burns the soul of a person and can be used to burn their physical body. He could utilize this fire in various ways, including projecting it from his eyes, hands, mouth, or even channel it from his body into other weapons like his shotgun, form walls of hellfire, and even create a motorcycle completely out of hellfire.
  • Hellfire Clones: Ketch has used his demonic flames to create a small army of duplicates in the past in order to aid in his ventures of ending the Ghost Rider line.^[49]
• Mystical Chain Projection: As Ghost Rider, Ketch wielded a mystical chain that was capable of growing in length, cutting through almost anything, and transforming into other weapons. He could also spew and project chains from his mouth or chest at will.
• Penance Stare: As Ghost Rider, Ketch possessed the supernatural ability to cause any individual who stares into his eyes to see and feel every bit of pain they have ever inflicted on anyone in their entire lifetime.
• External Force Immunity: Recently, as Ghost Rider, Ketch has demonstrated immunity to any kind of force that can affect his body and everything he has, and may go through a force field without being affected.

Skilled Motorcyclist: Ketch himself was a skilled motorcyclist.

Formidable Hand-to-Hand Combatant: As Ghost Rider, was a formidable combatant as a result of his powers, though he had no formal training.

Heightened Senses: After being imbued with the Spirit of Corruption, Danny was able to operate while his helmet covered his eyes.

• Penance Stare Limitations: The Penance Stare can't affect victims if they are blind, on drugs, have no soul, or are bonded to symbiotes. Using the Penance Stare on anyone who is blind, on drugs, has no soul, or is bonded to a symbiote will incapacitate him, at times rendering him unconscious or in a death-like state. The same thing happens if he uses the Penance Stare on someone or something with more than two eyes. The Penance Stare also seems to have little effect on those who are mentally unstable, such as Madcap and Carnage.
• Ghost Rider Addiction: Danny became addicted to the power of the Ghost Rider, making him easily manipulated when offered access to the power again.^[51][52]

• Alcoholism: Danny began drinking a lot of alcohol due to the accumulation of traumatic events in his life.^[53]

Ghost Rider's Chain: Had a variety of mystical abilities and responded to Ghost Rider's mental commands.

Motorcycle: While Danny was Ghost Rider, his motorcycle transformed with hellfire wheels and could travel across water or up walls, and can be commanded remotely.

• The American band Suicide wrote a song in tribute to the Ghost Rider character. It has since been covered by several bands [1] Vocalist Alan Vega has also gone on to say that the name Suicide was inspired by the Ghost Rider comic book titled Satan Suicide, a favorite of his.