scans_daily | JMS: Ghost Rider vs. Galactus

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JMS: Ghost Rider vs. Galactus

So, remember that cool scene from the old Fantastic Four cartoon where Ghost Rider effortlessly defeated Galactus? Here's how that goes in the comics, I guess:

So much for 'non-interference'.

Art by Juan Ferreyra

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An evocation of cosmic cycles and a " bigger picture " that's just an excuse for individuals to air out their consciences - fair, but another case of " the art is elevating the story ".

(" individuals airing out their consciences " is a reductive description that can be applied to ultimately any story, but this isn't really doing a great job in making Johnny's insistence anything more than a guy stomping his feet about his specific hang-up.

There are awful effects of Galactus' actions, and Johnny trying to make him feel about them is the point, but feels like these pages're wasting time about it - he's not exactly articulating anything original. It's just " yeah, Spirit of Vengeance, advocating for Vengeance on a Destroyer of Worlds " - readers could probably write the same thing in their head just from reading a synopsis.)

Edited 2025-06-24 18:39 (UTC)

It doesn't matter if you feel guilt or remorse. If you've caused pain and suffering you'll feel it. Actual physical pain.

Not that Galactus hasn't most likely faced such an attack already during his untold eons of existence and shielded his soul. Or maybe it's shielded by default, what with him being one of the cosmic trinity.

Evidently when the multiverse got reset, the Penance Stare was nerfed super-hard.

Dunno if this is even the main universe. Another guy the Penance stare right up burned to a crisp. And Blaze hasn't swollen to Galactus size before either.

I wanted to see Blaze ghost-ride Taa II. :(

He hasn't but Zarathos has gotten really big and Zarathos was the demon that was bonded to him when he was Ghost Rider. ... but he didn't have the Stare. That didn't come until the 90s with Dan Ketch. and at no point was Johnny able to let Zarathos have that much control without him going evil.

Speaking of Ketch, the Ghost Rider LOOKS a lot more like him than it does Blaze, but the motorcycle is more sleek, Johnny style, while Danny drove a friggin tank of a motorcycle.

This feels like a mix of the general idea of Ghost Rider, rather than any actual canon one.

It was made the case not too long ago, starting with this guy called "The Deacon". Massive serial killer who believed he was doing the will of God. Later given holy daggers and a potion to increase his already impressive strength. Ghost Rider tried the stare, but it did nothing because the Deacon didn't consider what he has done to be a sin. ...so Ghost Rider beat him over the head with a Bible instead.

mindsweeper points out below, it has been done before, and more elegantly. Here's the relevant scans_daily post.

At this point I'M damned if I can remember anyonr of note that the Penance Stare DOES work on.

It works on a character if the story doesn't need them to seem impressive by no-selling it.

I think I like the cartoon version more.

Because Ghost Rider road up, gave him the stare, and drove off with little explanation. And Galactus had the voice of Tony Jay, which is awesome.

I didn’t like the cartoon version. I liked Byrne’s original deal using Doctor Strange. I don’t know why they switched it for the cartoon, but Strange made more sense to me.

It was the nineties; a skeleton riding a motorcycle would make for the better action figure. :P

I assume it’s a rights thing. It’s usually a rights thing.

C'mon, Ghost Rider looked so cool doing it. Going on about feeling the pain of a billion, billion souls...the agony of eternal torment. And then drives off, leaving Galactus in mortal hands.

I don't think Strange was available at the time. Took forever for him to show up in Spider-Man and he was like...the third superhero Spider-Man ever teamed up with in comics. Love that issue.

I can see that. However, I see Strange's appearance as cooler. He just elegantly floats in, Reed says that even Strange can't do anything, Strange is like, 'hold my aperitif', does his hand thing, big G screams and goes down hard.

I kinda thought Galactus's whole deal was he did feel remorse for what he did, but he can't stop himself. It's literally his nature. That's the pathos of him.

If you can make him so he's nonchalantly "fish gotta swim, birds gotta fly" about it, he's just a dick. Feeling bad about the people he hurts is what makes him more than, well, a big dumb kaiju the FF have to rules lawyer into defeat.

He did before the universal entities gave him a pep talk about the importance of what he does.

Ah, geez, so we're back to the Penance Stare not working if the target doesn't feel like selling it?

Well, if you just go by Watcher's words in this. Even then you know that it, and everything else you thought you knew about GR, is bound to change when the next writer gets his hands on him.

I mean Zarathos was a lawn ornament, but Blaze was still suddenly, and unexplainably, bonded with him for that Hood story.

Edited 2025-06-25 12:30 (UTC)

Yeah, I'm willing to make an exception for a galactic being beyond all good and evil, but this is getting perilously close to "It only works on the NICE mass-murderers."

The idea that the Penace Stare only works to make you feel bad if you already feel bad about what you do is probabaly the dumbest misunderstanding of a power ever.

It's like Punisher only being able to shoot people after they've already turned their self into the police. It completely misses the point of what it's supposed to be doing.

Galactus felt remorse...for the first few eons. As time went on and Galactus's hunger grew (originally needing to feed every few centuries, now on a constant search for planets), he sort of died inside. It's either deaden his emotions or go mad with grief.

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JMS: Ghost Rider vs. Galactus

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