From giant eyes to monsters of all kinds, here are the strangest villains Johnny Blaze had to encounter.
Johnny Blaze, or the Ghost Rider, has been a part of the Marvel Universe since his first appearance in Marvel Spotlight #5 when he was created by Roy Thomas, Mike Ploog, and Gary Friedrich. Blaze has gone through a lot in his travels over the years, discovering a brother and undergoing many costume design changes. But, one constant that has been in his life was the many ghoulish creatures he has battled against.
For a character with a flaming skull as a head, it only makes sense Blaze would fight some of the strangest villains the Marvel Universe. Whether it's the supernatural Nazi scientists or master criminals, readers have always enjoyed the ongoing and one-shot villains of Johnny Blaze.
After being injured due to a race with Johnny Blaze's mentor, Crash Simpson, Drake Shannon returned as the bike-riding criminal known as the Orb. With a large eyeball mask that is able to hypnotize people and fire a laser, Drake Shannon first appeared in Marvel Team-Up #15 in 1973 and was a thorn in Johnny's side ever since.
However, after years of fighting against Johnny Blaze for revenge and the rights to his stunt show, the Orb mantle would be taken up by someone who actually has a giant eye. This new Orb would join the ranks of other old villains and fight for the evil angel Zadkiel.
Big Wheel made his first appearance in The Amazing Spider-Man #183 in 1978, but he battled against Johnny Blaze in Ghost Rider: Heaven's On Fire #3. Jackson Weele came to be this bizarre supervillain when he hired fellow Spider-Man foe the Tinkerer to build the Big Wheel so he can get revenge on the Rocket Racer for blackmailing him.
Equipped with guns and mechanical arms, the original Big Wheel machine resembled a large doomsday Ferris wheel, and it was strange and destructive in equal measure. When he was brought together with Trull and Blackout, the design of the wheel changed slightly, but it was still no match for Blaze's hellfire bike.
First appearing in Werewolf By Night #9 from 1973, Tatterdemalion stalked the cursed Jack Russell through the city sewers. Tatterdemalion was once a tap dancer for the movies before he lost it all, leading to a mental breakdown and a life of crime.
Johnny Blaze battled this bizarre foe when he was in Las Vegas to perform a stunt show, and Tatterdemalion's hatred of wealth caused chaos. After stealing a car, Tatterdemalion crashes, and the villain seemingly died—but, like most comic storylines, all was not as it seemed. He recently made a cameo appearance in Hulu's animated comedy series M.O.D.O.K. which was based on the Marvel comic villain.
One of the more secretive villains in Marvel's history, the Manticore first crossed Ghost Rider's path in Ghost Rider #27 from 1977 when he was stalking Clint "Hawkeye" Barton of the mighty Avengers.
Using a high-tech eco-skeleton provided to him by Brand Industries, Manticore sought out Hellcat's costume for the organization. Barton was able to take down the criminal, and it was then revealed that the man beneath the strange suit was a bilateral amputee who used the battle-suits mechanical legs as a replacement. The character still was not given any proper backstory and remains a mystery to this day.
The modern-day version of the Circus of Crime first appeared in The Incredible Hulk #3 from 1962, but the team has since changed over the many years they have been active in the underworld community. Johnny Blaze first fought with the Circus of Crime in Ghost Rider #72 from 1973 when they began to sabotage Johnny's beloved Quentin Carnival.
The Circus of Crime is an almost humorous-looking group with members like Strong Man, Cannonball, Live Wire, and Fire Eater. By the time Blaze shows up in issue #73, there is a large fight pitting Johnny's good carnies against the evil criminals for the sake of the Quentin Carnival.
This one-shot villain first appeared in Ghost Rider #35 from 2009. Looking to be almost a spoof on Japanese anime characters like Sailor Moon, the Skin-Bender terrorizes a village by using her powers to contort the bodies of its residents into any form or organism she desires. This grotesquely visual power is what makes Skin-Bender such a strange yet captivating villain for Johnny.
Unable to morph Blaze, the Skin-Bender eventually falls in love with the Ghost Rider, finding his flames beautiful. Blaze ignites the monster and tosses her into the ocean where she is later caught in a fishing net, beggining her assault all over again.
Appearing in the very first issue of Blaze in 1994, Icebox Bob was the ghost of an executed serial killer who haunted Johnny and his loved ones. Bob was able to possess the living from his pocket dimension and use his favorite weapons, an icepick and a pair of metal tongues, to murder his victims. At one point, he even rode the very electric chair that killed him like a gothic wheelchair.
Besides possession, Bob was also able to pull people into his dimension and trap them there. A noteworthy example was when Icebox stole Blaze's kids, Emma and Craig, kept them trapped in a cage, and forced Johnny to search for them.
In another tale from Johnny's Quentin Carnival, Freakmaster first made trouble in the pages of Ghost Rider #70 when he sent this army of "freaks" to the Carnival, but he was not revealed fully until issue #79. Though not resembling the members of his army in terms of appearance, Freakmaster is the son of two circus members who died from ongoing abuse from their former boss later revealed to be the owner of the Quentin Carnival, Ralph Quentin.
Freakmaster created his own traveling show, gaining a fortune to build a paradise for himself and his troop. But, Johnny Blaze stumbled across his plans to morph all the employees of Quentin Carnival into mutants under his control in order to finally have his revenge for the death of his parents.
Though only appearing in issues #33 and #34 of Ghost Rider, Nathan Beame may be one of the most powerful and smartest Marvel characters Blaze had faced up to that point. Using his psychic powers and heightened intellect that seemingly gave him immortality, Nathan kept his family alive since the time his mother was first attacked by a group of Puritans. Keeping his body from aging in a specially designed bubble, Nathan created an army of cyborgs, a spaceship, and a laboratory.
But, what truly made Nathan one of the creepiest monsters Blaze faced, was how he reanimated his dead mother and kept both his parents as prisoners while threatening to telekinetically force his father to shoot himself if he disobeyed. Luckily, Blaze was able to blow up Nathan's compound and put him and his parents to rest.
In the pages of the often forgotten team, The Champions #14, Johnny Blaze and Black Widow first encountered the supervillain Swarm. Once a Nazi scientist, Fritz von Meyer came across what he believed to be radioactive bees and attempted to take them under his control. Unfortunately, they turned on him, ripped his body apart, and absorbed his consciousness. This led him to become a living embodiment of the swarm.
Besides having control over a massive colony of bees, Swarm also created enormous mechanical bees to attack Blaze and the rest of the Champions. The team was able to first defeat him, but Swarm managed to return to the spotlight to pester comic book heroes such as Spider-Man.
