Ghost Rider (Johnathon Blaze) is a fictional character appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. He is the second Marvel character to use the name Ghost Rider, following Carter Slade (the Western comics hero later known as the Phantom Rider) and preceding Daniel Ketch, Alejandra Jones, and Robbie Reyes. The character's story begins when motorcycle stuntman Johnny Blaze becomes bound to the Spirit of Vengeance Zarathos after making a deal with Mephisto to spare his surrogate father. With his supernatural powers, Johnny seeks vengeance as the "Ghost Rider". The character has been featured in various media adaptations, such as television series, feature films, and video games. Johnny Blaze was portrayed by Nicolas Cage in the films Ghost Rider (2007) and Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance (2011), and by Tom McComas in the fourth season of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) television series Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (2017). Publication history Following the western comics character who originally used the name, the first superhero Ghost Rider, Johnny Blaze, debuted in Marvel Spotlight #5 (August 1972), created by writer Gary Friedrich, Marvel Comics editor-in-chief Roy Thomas, and artist Mike Ploog, with the name Johnny Blaze coming from Stan Lee.<ref>Spirit of Vengeance: The Making of 'Ghost Rider</ref> After a seven-issue tryout run in Marvel Spotlight, the character received a self-titled Ghost Rider series in 1973, with penciller Jim Mooney handling most of the first nine issues. Several different creative teams mixed-and-matched until penciller Don Perlin began a long stint with issue #26, eventually joined by writer Michael Fleisher through issue #58. Thomas, Marvel's editor-in-chief at the time, described the character's genesis: Friedrich on the above, in 2001: Ploog recalled, in a 2008 interview: Tony Isabella wrote a two-year story arc in which Blaze occasionally encountered an unnamed character referred to as "the Friend" who helped Blaze stay protected from Satan. Isabella said that with editorial approval he'd introduced the character, who "looked sort of like a hippie Jesus Christ and that's exactly who He was, though I never actually called Him that...." At the story arc's climax, Isabella had planned that Blaze "accepts Jesus Christ into his life. This gives him the strength to overcome Satan, though with more pyrotechnics than most of us can muster. He retains the Ghost Rider powers he had been given by Satan, but they are his to use as his new faith directs him." However, Isabella said,