Origin

Cosmic Ghost Rider was a version of Frank Castle, who was killed in a battle alongside the other heroes of Earth against Thanos. He was given a second chance to live again as the Ghost Rider by Mephisto upon hearing Castle's dying wish to punish Thanos. However, upon his return, Castle finds out that nearly everyone was killed by Thanos, who was nowhere in sight. He was utterly alone until Galactus comes to Earth asking for help from the presumably deceased Mr. Fantastic to defeat Thanos. Castle then makes a deal with Galactus to become Galactus' new herald in exchange for his help.

Centuries afterwards, Castle and Galactus were finally able to confront Thanos in battle, but Galactus is easily defeated and killed by Thanos. Castle begins a new partnership with Thanos when Thanos offers him the chance to punish evil even worse than him.

Creation

Cosmic Ghost Rider debuted in Thanos #13 by Donny Cates and Geoff Shaw

Major Story Arcs

Thanos Wins

Castle is sent to the past by Future King Thanos in order to find and capture his younger self, which was done by incapacitating Thanos with a fragment of the Time Gem and chains made out of the bones of Cyttorak before dragging him into the future. Castle used his Penance stare to show Thanos all the atrocities he has committed and the ones he will commit in the future. During the confrontation between Future King Thanos and The Fallen Surfer, Castle died again as Surfer smashed his head with Mjolnir.

In death, Castle was retrieved by Odin who rewarded him Valhalla due to being a noteworthy warrior. Castle rebelled in Valhalla as he doesn’t believe himself deserving of a noble death, so Odin offered to send him any place or time of his choosing. Castle chooses Titan when Thanos was an infant so he can kill him before turning into a monster. Upon using his Penance Stare on baby Thanos, Frank realized he wasn't evil yet and decided to take him under his wing to change his future. Frank approached Galactus to help raise Thanos as that was the only person he knew in this time period. After reading Frank’s mind, Galactus decides it’s better to kill baby Thanos, but Galactus is interrupted by The Watcher then an alternate universe Cable & Guardians of the Galaxy.

Cable informs Castle that Thanos became much worse under his care and summoned hundreds of alternate heroes in order to kill baby Thanos & Frank. Frank killed most of the heroes until he was knocked out. When he awakens, he saw baby Thanos had killed the remaining ones except Cable. When Castle approached Cable, Cable was shot by a future Thanos wearing Punisher fatigues. Thanos took Castle into the future to show him the world they created; Castle raised Thanos to by an authoritarian dictator of Earth. Witnessing the horror, Castle killed Punisher Thanos and returned baby Thanos to his time, where he was greeted by Death. She said Thanos' adventure with Castle instilled in him the need for death and gave him the qualities suitable to be her avatar.

Punisher Paradox

After returning baby Thanos, Castle was stuck in the past. Despite a warning from Uatu, he decided to stop that particular tragedy from ever happening. He went to his family home pretending to be his Uncle Fredo. While biding his time, he revealed his superpowers to this version of his wife and kids and kept them interested with his various run-ins with Earth’s heroes while he waited through history for this moment. He was also ashamed to find that they were all struggling in ways that Frank never recognized at the time due to his own PTSD.

When this time’s Frank finally came home, he invited his Uncle Fredo out to the garage to share some beers. Unfortunately, this was a ruse. Frank picked up a fight and admitted his Uncle Fredo died in Italy before he was born. While beating each other up, Castle revealed all the secrets he knows about Frank except that he is Frank. He leveraged an adventure during WWII with Captain America to finally get Frank to listen. Welcomed into the family finally, Castle joined his family for their picnic with plans to take out the mobsters that will eventually kill them.

Uatu tried to stop him, having seen the future that saving the Castles will create. Because of the cosmic being Frank Castle becomes, the death of his family became a significant moment in history. After Castle killed the mobsters, Uatu raised them from the dead so that tragedy could still occur and then wiped Cosmic Ghost Rider from everyone’s memory. He was left to rot in The Raft, much like The Sentry was. He helped the New Avengers during the breakout of the Raft, but he refused their invitation to join them. Instead, he bided his time until Nick Fury was going to kill Uatu.

He did it for Fury and then left Earth to explore space.

Final Gauntlet

When Thanos was killed, Castle hunted down his dead body to desecrate him. In the middle of it, he was approached by Starfox, Thanos’ brother, who retrieved Thanos’ Last Will and Testament from inside the corpse. Castle was then invited to the will reading. The hologram of Thanos admitted that he downloaded his consciousness into another body. The group at the meeting decided that they needed to kill whoever that was, and the prevailing guess was Gamora. Unfortunately, The Black Order attacked, scattering many of the cosmic heroes in attendance. Castle eventually fell in with Starfox and the team he assembled to hunt down Gamora, the so-called Dark Guardians

To find Gamora, the Dark Guardians target her ex-boyfriend, Nova. They believed that she would share her location with him. Castle and the Guardians track him down and try to talk some sense into him, after brutally hurting him. They let Nova think he escapes, but they continue to track him to Halfworld, where Gamora was with the current Guardians of the Galaxy protecting her. Ultimately, they beat the Guardians and take Gamora to Starfox as their captive. When they arrive, they are attacked by Hela and the Black Order who determine that Starfox was the real “Final Gauntlet.”

Castle is enslaved by Hela as the Goddess of Death, becoming a member of her Black Order. After they awaken Thanos in Starfox’s body, they travel to Knowhere, where Thanos’ body was reconstituted, so they could move Thanos’ mind back into it. The two Guardians teams combine to take down Hela and her Black Order. Star-Lord takes on Castle, who was weakened by Hela’s control. Star-Lord was able to kill him, sending him to Hell.

Challenge of the Ghost Riders

When Castle got to Hell, it had been taken over by Johnny Blaze, a fellow Ghost Rider. Johnny invited him to participate in the Challenge of the Ghost Riders, a traditional race of the Spirits of Vengeance. However, Blaze really wanted Robbie Reyes to participate, so he trapped Castle in Robbie’s hell-car to screw with Avengers Mountain and keep the Avengers busy so they wouldn’t come to Robbie’s rescue. Once Castle cleared his head, he filled the Avengers in on what happened. He promised to lead them into hell so they could rescue their teammates and he could get back at Blaze for taking advantage of him. After Blaze got away, Castle returned to space because Earth had too many Ghost Riders and smelled too much like Mephisto.

Revenge of the Cosmic Ghost Rider

After going on a killing spree of sinners, Castle was arrested by the Shi’ar and thrown in prison. He was happy to fight all the inmates, but one prisoner fought back so hard the prison ship was destroyed, leaving Castle’s skull floating in space. It was found by pirates scavenging the wrecked prison. He fed on each of the pirates one by one, using their energy to reconstitute his body, except for Cammi, the lone innocent member of their crew. She warned Castle that he just ruined a shipment for the Cosmic King, the gangster trying to take over space in Thanos’ absence.

Castle decides not to wait for the Cosmic King to find him. Using Cammi’s inside knowledge on Cosmic King’s businesses, he decides to take out cartel after cartel, making sure that Cammi never joins in on the killing and stays innocent. The Cosmic King eventually gets sick of waiting and takes the fight to Castle. Castle nearly killed him when Cosmic King offered him back his soul, which Cosmic King had taken from Mephisto. Castle accepted it, losing his Ghost Rider power. He still had his Power Cosmic and still killed the Cosmic King.

Unfortunately, Mephisto showed up looking for the soul as the deal required. Castle refused to give it back up, so he took Cammi’s by force. Protected by the Power Cosmic, Castle jumped into hell after Mephisto. He tried to fight Mephisto, but the only way to really save Cammi was to switch places. He gave Mephisto back his soul, becoming a Ghost Rider once again, and returned Cammi’s soul to her. Once again, Castle was on his own, taking the fight to all the sinners.

Dual Identity

While taking out some smugglers, Castle got too close to a magnetic field and was split in two. Afterward, an amnesiac Castle attempted to retire as the Cosmic Ghost Rider. He settled on a remote planet with a basic job, but bounty hunters came calling anywhere. They were claiming Castle was responsible for acts of violence perpetrated by the other Rider. Castle tried to make his getaway with his coworker, Axelle, but his powers grew unstable. They were forced to stop at a nearby space station.

The space station seemed deserted but was recently attacked by the other Cosmic Ghost Rider. Valkyrie (Jane Foster) was there defending the station and believed Castle was the Rider, but she was convinced by a priest that Castle was a different Rider altogether. With his memories coming back to him, Castle passed out. Believing the other Rider may have passed out too, Valkyrie found him lying in an abandoned cabin. When the Riders woke up, they started fighting for dominance, eventually ending up in open space.

They were interrupted by another bounty hunter, Starstalker. He managed to take the other Rider captive for the Shi’ar, while Castle was sent into another magnetic field. Inside the field, he was reunited with five more versions of himself that got trapped there. Proving to them that they were dying while separated, they volunteered to reunite, but first they would outnumber the other Rider. They tracked him to a Shi’ar armada. Castle decided to crash two of the spaceships together, using the explosion to merge them back together.

Imperial War

Castle was hired by Maximus the Mad to be an enforcer during his machinations to cause the Imperial War. His ultimate plan was found out by Gamora and Darkhawk, so he sent Castle to kill the two former Guardians before he could out the Inhumans role in the plot to disrupt the galactic empires.

Powers and Abilities

As a Ghost Rider and a Herald of Galactus, Frank possesses wide variety of unique and immense powers.

Spirit of Vengeance:

• Immortality: Cosmic Ghost Rider lived millions of years without aging.
• Hellfire Manipulation: Castle is able to manipulate and project hellfire as well as to infuse objects and vehicles with it.
• Meta Possession: As the Cosmic Ghost Rider, Frank possesses the ability to stretch the natural capacity of the ethereal entities to unprecedented limits. Having possessed the whole of Avengers Mountain and assuming control over it's numerous facilities.
• Penance Stare: As a Spirit of Vengeance, Castle can make an individual feel every sin they have committed. He can also imbue it with the Power Cosmic, making it even more powerful.
• Soul Absorption: Can absorb souls to gain additional power.

Power Cosmic

• Cosmic Penance Stare: By infusing his Penance Stare with the Power Cosmic, the Rider can incinerate any sinner he uses it against, regardless of whether or not said sinner feels any remorse.
• Energy Projection: The Rider can fire devastating blasts of cosmic energy from his hands.
• Interstellar Travel:
• Super Strength: The Power Cosmic boost his strength allowing him to contend with beings like Thanos.
• Telekinesis:

Equipment:

• Hell Cycle: Frank uses this bike to travel through the cosmos.
• Chains of Cyttorak: A chain made from the bones of Cyttorak, virtually unbreakable and indestructible, strong enough to restrain Thanos. The chains can also be used a whip. When combined with the Rider's super strength, they are capable of ripping through opponents.
• Time Stone: Possessed a fragment of the time stone which he used to pause time.

Weakness:

• Mental Instability: Frank no long has the competence he once possessed as The Punisher due to spending billions of years alone on a desolate Earth. He is prone to mental fatigue and bouts of insanity.
• Necromancy: As a dead spirit, he is vulnerable to those who have jurisdiction over the dead, such as Hela.

Other Media

Merchandise

• Kotobukiya produced a Cosmic Ghost Rider statue as part of the ARTFX+ line.
• Cosmic Ghost Rider was featured in Funko's Pop! line of bobbleheads.
• Cosmic Ghost Rider was featured in Hasbro's Marvel Legends line as part of the Ultimate Riders series.