Danny Ketch

Latest revision as of 07:42, 9 August 2024

Danny Ketch in Ghost Rider: Danny Ketch v1 #1.

Danny Ketch is a male comic superhero who features in Marvel Comics.

Biography

Origin

A Spirit of Vengeance in Ghost Rider v3 #1.

Daniel Ketch was a male human born the son of Barton Blaze and Naomi Kale where he had a sister named Barbara Kale. The children were later given away to a widowed woman named Francis Ketch when they were very young. The two grew up only knowing Mrs. Ketch as their mother, but their biological mom Naomi Kale continued to keep tabs on the kids until her death ten years later. (Ghost Rider v3 #-1)

When on a fifth grade field trip to Manhattan, he was interviewed on television after seeing Spider-Man and the Human Torch driving the Spider-Mobile up walls. (Spider-Man Human Torch v1 #3) Working as a paperboy, the "nice, normal, ordinary" Danny had his photo taken with Phil and Doris Sheldon to mark Phil's decision to retire from photographing superheroes. (Marvels v1 #4)

On Halloween night when they were teenagers, Danny took his sister Barbara to a graveyard to give her the opportunity to take pictures of the grave of Harry Houdini. During this excursion, the siblings stumbled upon a confrontation between two gangs, one led by Deathwatch and the other made up of cronies belonging to the Kingpin. The two gangs began fighting each other, and Barbara cried out, causing Deathwatch to become aware of her presence. Barbara was shot through the chest with an arrow by one of Deathwatch's henchmen, so Danny grabbed his sister's body and ran away to a nearby junkyard. Distressed and covered in his sister's blood, he hid there with his sister's unconscious body from Deathwatch's henchmen until he noticed a pristine motorbike with a glowing gas cap. Inspecting the glowing gas cap, Danny touched it with his blood-stained hand and instantly transformed into Ghost Rider, a Spirit of Vengeance whose mission was to take revenge on those who shed innocent blood. As Ghost Rider, both Daniel's mind and Ghost Rider's mind were in control, resulting in Danny being only somewhat influential in his own actions. Ghost Rider confronted and began to torture the henchmen of Deathwatch, but was interrupted by the arrival of the police. Leaving Barbara's body behind, Ghost Rider escaped the police on his flaming motorbike, which had also been transformed when Danny touched the glowing gas cap. Eventually, Ghost Rider drove into a secluded alleyway where he turned back into Daniel Ketch.( Ghost Rider v3 #1)

Ghost Rider

Blaze hunted down Ghost Rider and tried to kill him multiple times while Ghost Rider kept attempting to escape Blaze and bring Blackout, who was killing multiple people, to justice. Finally, when Blaze watched Ghost Rider save a child in Central Park that Blackout was about to kill, he became less suspicious of Ghost Rider and stopped trying to kill him. He instead decided to observe Daniel to make sure that he was not Zarathos, and he taught Daniel how to fight and protect himself when he was not transformed into Ghost Rider. (Ghost Rider v3 #16)

Having recently deposed his father Mephisto, Blackheart began to attack the Ghost Rider with his own created Spirits of Vengeance. He also mocked Blaze by placing Roxanne's spirit into the Blackrose. Kale was killed by Pao Fu and taken to Blackheart's Hell. While there, Daniel Ketch apparently sacrificed himself to unlock Noble Kale's full power. (Ghost Rider v3 #93) Kale defeated Blackheart and briefly controlled the realm until Mephisto's return. While he ruled Hell, he resurrected Dan Ketch and returned him to Earth. (Ghost Rider Finale v1 #1)

Sometime later when Mephisto reclaimed his realm, Noble Kale returned to Earth and was forced to re-bond to Dan Ketch. Ghost Rider was seen being summoned forth on the streets of New York where his powers were out of control due to lacking a host. He encountered Spider-Man and Ketch, who told him that he was Noble Kale even though Ghost Rider denied this to be the case. In fact, it should have been the case that Kale's soul was trapped in Mephisto's realm. The trio contended with a bomb created by a group of terrorists who wish to incinerate the city. Although Ghost Rider took possession of the bomb, he lacked the strength to contain the impending explosion, and thus Ketch re-joined with him to become Ghost Rider once more, and aided Spider-Man in neutralizing the threat. This Ketch/Kale hybrid version of Ghost Rider eventually became the King of Hell in a brokered arrangement with then-ruler Blackheart. Per the deal, the Ghost Rider could come to Hell and marry two hand-picked demon brides named Pao Fu and the Black Rose with Blackheart agreeing to free the Ketch line from the curse. Noble accepted the terms of the deal where on the night after the dual wedding the Black Rose betrayed Kale and tried to kill him. When she failed, Blackheart revealed that the entire arrangement had been a plan to kill Kale and destroy his soul. Black Rose was revealed to be Roxanne Simpson, the supposedly dead wife of Johnny Blaze. In response, Kale killed Blackheart thus becoming the King of Hell, and learned he was in fact the angel of death. (Spider-Man v1 #93)

Ketch slipped into a coma in the mortal plane and was later revived by his dead mother, Naomi Kale-Blaze, and brother, Johnny Blaze, where he went on to live a seemingly normal life. However, this was not to last as his long-time girlfriend Stacy found out she was pregnant with Danny's child and ran away. (Ghost Rider Finale v1 #1)

Heaven's on Fire

Sometime later, however, Dan had a change of heart and had Noble Kale exercised from his body by the technomancer Mary LeBow, a week after the exorcism Danny attempted to immolate himself in Times Square while begging for the power of the Ghost Rider to 'come back'. (Ghost Rider: Danny Ketch v1 #2) Danny continued to fall into a deep depression, becoming a drunk who fought bar thugs for kicks. He was approached by Mister Eleven, a talking crow that continued to encounter Ketch over and over, giving him 'doses' of the Ghost Rider power he lusted after like an addiction, luring him in with longer and more powerful amounts each time. (Ghost Rider: Danny Ketch v1 #4) Eleven explained to Ketch the true history of the Spirits of Vengeance and how some past Ghost Rider incarnations were unable to cope with such a magnitude of power, going insane and burning out their souls. He also explained that Verminus Rex, from Blackheart's old Spirits of Vengeance, was hunting other Ghost Riders in order to feed his own growing addiction. (Ghost Rider: Danny Ketch v1 #3) After absorbing the spirit from another Ghost Rider that knew of Rex's location, Danny found out where he was hiding and finished him off, absorbing the other spirits Rex had taken in the past. Taking on such an amount of power and finding the Mary's dead body pushed Danny over the edge, causing him to overdose. Zadkiel intervened, offering to take away Danny's pain from the overdose and in return, Danny would gather other Spirits of Vengeance and absorb their essence in order to "save the host's soul". Desperate and with no other option, Ketch agreed, becoming a knight in Zadkiel's service. (Ghost Rider: Danny Ketch v1 #5)

Spirit of Corruption

Whilst tending to a shop, he was met with an astral projection from Johnny Blaze who was now the King of Hell after deposing Mephisto. He asked for Danny to travel to a village in Nicaragua that was home to a former Spirit of Vengeance named Alejandra Jones. She was being targeted by Carnage who wanted to harvest her spine as she had been a former host of a Symbiote. Reluctantly, Ketch agreed and found Alejandra in a battle fight Carnage with Danny intervening to save her. Despite his efforts, he was overpowered and Alejandra was killed with Carnage consuming her spine thus partially inheriting her powers. Ketch was nearly killed until the soul of Alejandra possessed one of the villagers who encouraged the other people of the village to help the Ghost Rider in the fight thus forcing Carnage to flee as he had acquired his goal. Danny then told Alejandra he was sorry for not saving her but she had no regrets as long as the village was saved with her soul going to join the other Spirits of Vengeance. (Absolute Carnage: Symbiote of Vengeance v1 #1)

Aftermath

Captured by Infernal Labs in Ghost Rider v10 #13.

Around 3 months ago, Danny was spending a time at a bar when he was approached by a woman named Dr. Diyu. She was aware of his nature as a Ghost Rider and offered to free him from the Spirit of Corruption inhabiting him. Ketch would ultimately come to accept and would take part in experiments at Infernal Labs. (Ghost Rider v10 #13) During this time, he went through many experiments at severing the Spirit from his body. Unknown to Danny, Infernal Labs were actually contracted by the F.B.I. who had funded the project at creating a controllable demonic weapon that could be deployed against supernatural threats. Dr. Diyu would thus in secret deploy Danny Ketch against various supernatural threats such as demons and vampires. Though, ultimately, she was planning to use Danny to achieve her own secretive goals. (Ghost Rider v10 #14) Her actions would later draw the attention of Johnny Blaze whose Spirit of Vengeance sensed what was happening and tracked the dark signal emanating from Ketch. In response, Dr. Diyu enacted her own plans where she forcibly taking the Spirit of Corruption from Danny in order to inhabit a suit of power armor. This left Ketch dead as he could not survive without the Spirit bonded to him. Diyu then had a portal to Hell open up and journeyed there in the armor as she looked to find her brother who had been condemned there following an altercation with a demon. Johnny Blaze and his companion Talia Warroad came to find the dying Ketch with the Ghost Rider resolving to save Danny by following Diyu into Hell. Within Hell, Dr. Diyu came to find her brother but the Spirit inhabiting her armor came to abandon her. She was then seemingly killed by her demonically corrupted brother alongside the other inhabitants of Hell. Meanwhile, the Ghost Rider would recover the freed Spirit of Corruption and return through the portal back to Earth. This allowed the Spirit of Corruption to re-bond back to Ketch thus saving his life. (Ghost Rider v10 #15)

Overview

Personality and attributes

Powers and abilities

At one point, he had the ability to use his demonic flames to to create a small army of duplicates of himself that could act in his stead. (Ghost Rider v6 #32)

Uniquely, Danny has been seen to be able to control the degree of trauma his Stare inflicts; such as when he freed Wolverine from mind control by making him relive the pain and sorrow he inflicted during a single day of his time as a soldier during World War I. (Spider-Man/Fantastic Four v1 #3)

Upon being the host of the Spirit of Corruption, the entity provided Ketch a vastly different set of abilities that he struggled to control and contain. Unlike the Spirit of Vengeance, this new spirit was desperate to get out in order to feed on corruption. It manifested a rotting carapace over its host and created a sword for its host to wield in battle. The Spirit of Corruption was able to repair injuries to its host body with any wounds simply healing instantly. In contrast, cuts from the sword were known to burn its enemies. (Ghost Rider v9 #5)

At one point, Ketch was looking to free himself from the Spirit of Corruption. This saw him being manipulated to join Infernal Labs that claimed to be a private research group which devoted itself into the study of biology, geology, chemistry and physics of Hell. (Ghost Rider v10 #13) Originally, he had joined them under the promise that they would separate the Spirit that was bonded to him. However, instead, he was outfitted with devices that made him a controllable weapon that could be used by government organizations in secret covert operations. Thus, Ketch could be forcibly turned into the Ghost Rider and dispatched on missions whilst he was remotely controlled from Infernal Labs. (Ghost Rider v10 #14)

Notes

• The Danny Ketch Ghost Rider was created by Howard Mackie and Javier Saltares where he made his first appearance in Ghost Rider v3 #1 (May, 1990).

Alternate Versions

• In Ultimate Comics Ultimates v1 #27 (2013), an alternate version of Danny Ketch resided in the world of Ultimate Marvel set in the reality designated as Earth-1610 in the Multiverse. Danny Ketch was a master spy and one of the many newest recruits of Fury's Howling Commandos in order to battle Reed Richards and his Dark Ultimates, who had violently started remolding the world. The Howling Commandos made their way to the Maker's base, the Aleph-One, where they assisted the Ultimates in the Dark Ultimates' defeat. During Galactus' invasion, the Howling Commandos found themselves fighting the Gah Lak Tus swarm, which was being controlled by M.O.D.O.K., but numerous of its members were merged into it. What was left of the Commandos managed to infiltrate into M.O.D.O.K.'s floating city, which was composed of the swarm, the people infected by it and the rests from Reed Richard's City of Tomorrow. Falcon entered the systems, and discovered a new controller was needed to release the victims of the swarm from it, but the new controller had to be merged with the swarm. Ketch decided to become the controller and free the innocents and his teammates from the swarm. The floating city slowly fell apart, and as its former members fell from the sky, Stature and Falcon caught as many as they could. When M.O.D.O.K. tried to escape along with a rest of the swarm, Danny decided to sacrifice himself and explode the city in order to kill M.O.D.O.K.. Danny's consciousness survived after being transferred into the Gah Lak Tus nanites, and was recovered into a robotic body by the mysterious Agent Coulson, who named him Machine Man. Afterwards, Machine Man joined the Future Foundation.

In other media

Television

• In X-Men, the Danny Ketch Ghost Rider made a non-speaking cameo appearance in the setting of the 1990s animated television series in the season one finale "The Final Decision". He was shown within Gambit's memories that was showing various figures from his past.
• In Fantastic Four, the Danny Ketch Ghost Rider made a brief guest appearance in the setting of the 1990s animated television series in the episode "When Calls Galactus" where he was voiced by actor Richard Grieco.
• In The Incredible Hulk, the Danny Ketch Ghost Rider made a brief guest appearance in the setting of the 1990s animated television series in the episode "Innocent Blood" where he was voiced again by actor Richard Grieco

Films

• In Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance, Danny Ketch appeared in the 2011 live-action film where he was portrayed by actor Fergus Riordan. Danny was shown as a child who was the daughter of Nadya Ketch who made a deal with the Devil where she bartered her soul in exchange for having a son.

Video games

• In Venom/Spider-Man: Separation Anxiety, the Danny Ketch Ghost Rider appeared as a guest support character in the setting of the video game.
• In Marvel: Ultimate Alliance, Danny Ketch appeared as an alternate skin for Ghost Rider in the video game.

Appearances

• Ghost Rider v3: (1990)
• Spider-Man/Fantastic Four v1:
• Ghost Rider: Danny Ketch v1:
• Absolute Carnage: Symbiote of Vengeance v1:
• Ghost Rider v9:

External Links

• Marvel Database Entry
• Wikipedia Entry

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