From Earth TRN666, the Cosmic Ghost Rider is a character that some of you may no absolutely
nothing about, aside from the fact that he looks really damn cool.
Well, first appearing in Thanos Vol 2 issue 13 of early 2018, Cosmic Ghost Rider, otherwise
known as The Rider, had a fairly interesting run in this universe, and an equally interesting
origin story.
So today, we’re diving into this intriguing figure with our list of the top 10 cosmic
ghost rider shocking facts.
Also, heads up, major spoiler alert for the Cosmic Ghost Rider series; you’ve been warned!
But before we dive into our list, just wanna give a major shout out to our sponsor for
this video, Virtual Villagers Origins 2!
It’s the latest installment of the Virtual Villagers game series, where you help your
villagers survive on their island and solve puzzles, along with crafting, farming and
building a thriving village, right in your pocket!
It’s a real time simulation game where villagers are stranded on an island, and must explore
it, harvest crops, repair buildings and populate the island in order to survive.
It’s unlike other sim games; if you don’t take care of your villagers, they’ll die.
If you’re a fan of the series, you’ll love this one for it’s brand new crafting
features, and all of the new puzzles you’ll have to solve throughout the game as you progress.
So head on over to the app store, google play or Facebook and download it today!
It’s a blast.
And now, let’s move onto our list!
10 An Amalgamation One may initially think that the Cosmic Ghost
Rider is simply just as alternate version of Johnny Blaze of Danny Ketch, the most popular
characters to have taken on the Ghost rider mantle.
In actuality, the man behind the burning skull is actually Frank Castle.
His life up until the event that turned him into the cosmic ghost rider is seemingly the
same as Frank Castle of Earth 616.
But his origin story is a mix between the Punisher’s and the Ghost Rider mythos, as
we’ll learn in our next number- 9 His origin
The Rider’s origin story came several issues after his first appearance in Thanos vol 2
issue 16.
We find out that during Earth’s last stand against Thanos, Frank Castle, as the Punisher,
was involved in that battle, but was knocked out by the debris of a building that the Hulk
was thrown into.
Castle died, and his soul went to Hell.
That’s when he encountered Mephisto.
Unwilling to let go of his grudge against Thanos for slaughtering everyone on Earth,
he made a deal with Mephisto, which turned him into Ghost Rider, and subsequently sent
him back to Earth.
But by the time he returned, it was too late.
Everything on the planet was abolished.
And Thanos was long gone.
Now, as Ghost Rider, Castle would spend years and years roaming the Earth, a planet filled
with death and decay, now as an immortal.
It was a lonely existence.
Even Mephisto himself began to ignore him.
Castle started to go insane because of it.
8 Galactus Luckily for Castle, he wouldn’t be alone
for much longer.
Unannounced one day, Galactus arrived on Earth, badly injured from fighting Thanos, looking
to recruit the help of anyone still left alive.
He had no idea that Thanos had already eliminated all life on Earth, so when he ran into only
Castle, he was surprised.
But Frank took this as an opportunity.
The Ghost rider offered to give Galactus the planet in exchange for his help to take down
Thanos.
Galactus accepted, and made Ghost Rider his new herald, endowing him with the power cosmic
to transform him into the Cosmic Ghost Rider.
The two would then set out on a journey over the next several centuries to prevent Thanos
from achieving his goal of annihilating every living being in the universe.
7 The Return of Thanos Thanos would eventually catch up to them though,
putting their crusade to an end by killing Galactus.
He beheaded the Great Devourer, and, seeing the abilities that Castle had as the Cosmic
Ghost rider, offered him the chance to be his herald of sorts; an offer to see more
evil than ever imagined in his lifetime, and Punish it.
At a loss, Castle agreed, and became one of Thanos’ servants.
6 Baby Thanos Turns out besmirching evil wasn’t the only
thing that ended up being on Castle’s agenda.
Thanos had a plan, and needed him in order to execute it.
Thanos, now going by the name King Thanos, made Castle use the Time Stone in order to
drag a younger version of the mad titan into the future.
King Thanos believed that by having the help of a younger version of himself, he could
impress Lady Death and finally win her love by killing one of the most difficult and powerful
individuals left in the universe; the Fallen One, who once was known as the Silver Surfer
and has served Galactus long before the Cosmic Ghost Rider did.
But turns out Thanos wasn’t filling Castle in on the full plan; he didn’t actually
need his younger self in order to defeat the Fallen One.
Instead, King Thanos planned on killing his younger self in order to impress Death and
ensure that he would be with her forever.
Talk about masochistic.
This plan would be interrupted by the Fallen One, but more on that later.
5 The Hell Cycle The Hell Cycle is the product of the Spirit
of Vegeance; the power that Castle was given when he became Ghost Rider.
But after he was endowed with the power cosmic as Galactus’ new herald, his hell cycle
got a bit of an upgrade.
Think of it kind of like Silver surfer’s surfboard, except, well, a motorcycle, obviously.
In addition to his now cosmic hell cycle, Castle’s firearms and chains got an upgrade
when he went cosmic, too.
They’re forged from the bones of Cyttorak, and are pretty much indestructible; not even
Thanos could break them, as seen in Thanos issue 13 vol 2.
4 His Powers The Cosmic Ghost Rider’s powers are made
up of two main abilities; the Spirit of Vengeance, a power that Ghost Rider fans should be no
stranger to, and the Power Cosmic, something that those familiar with the Silver surfer
or Galactus definitely know a thing or two about.
The Spirit of Vengeance, which was granted to Castle after he made his deal with Mephisto,
allows him to have superhuman strength and durability, and of course, to manipulate and
project hellfire, which also extends to infusing objects with it, like his Hell Cycle.
The Rider has also depicted the ability to unleash omnidirectional hellfire blasts that
can incinerate pretty much everything around him.
Castle also inherits the Penance Stare ability from the Spirit of Vengeance, which is an
ability that can incapacitate victims in close combat when locking eyes with them.
It induces self mortification that exposes the victim to every negative action, behviour,
feeling and sensation, aka sins of the past, that they’ve committed; an ability that
can only be used to avenge the innocent.
Fun fact, the Punisher in his regular form is immune to Penance Stare, since he has no
guilt for the murders he has committed.
Moving on to the Power Cosmic now.
Endowed with the Power cosmic, like all other heralds of Galactus’ in the past, allows
Castle to travel interstellar distances, project energy, and infuse his Penance Stare with
the power cosmic that allows him to incinerate any sinner he comes across.
Intense, isn’t it.
There’s a whole lot else the Power cosmic can do, too, but those additional details
were never fully depicted in the series the Rider appeared in.
Now, what about his weaknesses?
Well, that brings us to our next number, 3 His Death
The Rider met his untimely end when the Fallen One, the Earth TRN666 version of Silver Surfer,
used Mjolnir to smash Rider to bits while King Thanos was trying to execute his plan,
and his younger self.
For context, this Norrin Rad was hunted down by Thanos when he was Galactus’ herald.
During one encounter, Surfer teleported Galactus to safety, and somehow managed to evade Thanos
himself.
But Galactus believed him to be dead, and centuries later, Surfer witnessed Galactus’
death via the Mad Titan.
So in order to take Thanos on, he decided to make himself worthy of carrying Mjolnir,
spending a millenia doing so.
He would become jet black thanks to having been imbued with Black Matter.
He too would die the same issue as The Rider, at the hands of the Twin Titans.
Unlike the Fallen One, this wasn’t the end of the Rider though-
2 Valhalla Here’s where things get interesting yet
again.
After he’s killed by the Fallen One, Frank was retrieved from his now dead timeline by
Odin of an alternate reality, and rewarded with Valhalla, as seen in Thanos Annual vol
2 issue 1.
But, as you can imagine, Valhalla didn’t really bode well with Castle.
Odin saw this, and decided to return his powers to him, along with sending him back to whatever
time and place he desired.
So what does Frank decide to do?
He gets Odin to send him back to the day that Thanos was born, with the intention of killing
the Mad titan in order to prevent him from growing up and causing all of the destruction
that his future self would bring upon the universe.
Frank arrives to that time period, finds the baby version of Thanos, and uses his Penance
Stare on the child, only to discover something really interesting; Thanos, at this point,
was not evil.
That brings us to our final number- 1 He Raised the Mad Titan
Upon discovering that the baby Thanos didn’t have any evil within him, Castle had a change
of heart, and decided to change his plans, too.
Enter Cosmic Ghost rider issue 1, released in the later half of 2018.
Cosmic Ghost Rider decides to take this young Thanos under his wing, so to speak, in hopes
of changing his future.
Knowing what is to happen next in this timeline, Castle goes to see Galactus, and tries to
convince him to aid him; Galactus refuses though after looking through Frank’s memories
and seeing his past and all of the events that occurred.
So Frank, pissed off at Galactus, decides he’ll just raise Thanos on his own, which
alters the timeline in a drastic way; The Guardians of the Galaxy try to prevent this,
but Frank ends up killing them alongside baby Thanos.
That’s when he’s greeted by future Thanos, who has now become the Punisher himself, and
promises his father figure that there’s still a place for him as his herald.
Eventually, by issue, this future Punisher Thanos meets his untimely end by Frank’s
hand.
And what happens to baby Thanos?
Frank returns him to his original place in the timeline.
When the child asks him “then won’t this timeline die?”
Frank responds, yeah, yeah it will.
But at least they’ll die with hope.
There we have it friends!
Have you read the Cosmic Ghost Rider series?
What did you think of it?
Let us know in those comments below!
And before you go, make sure you check out the link in our video description for more
on our awesome sponsor for this video, Virtual Villagers, Origins 2!
It’s available for download today!
If you dug this video, spread the love!
Hit that like button!
And be sure to subscribe to top 10 nerd for more lists just like this one.
In the meantime, thanks for tuning in!
I’ll catch you all in the next video!