Zarathos
Zarathos is a comic character who features in Marvel Comics.
Contents |
Biography
Zarathos
The physical, stone body of the demon Zarathos had lain inert and inanimate beneath the earth for eons until his spirit was summoned by a Native American tribal sorcerer named K'Nutu to help his tribe. Zarathos was then offered a steady supply of souls to consume in exchange for his aid in vanquishing enemies of the sorcerer's tribe, and for offering his might in their service. This alliance proves mutually beneficial, flourishes and a strong cult builds up around Zarathos, which gets the attention of Mephisto, who decided that Zarathos had too much of a following and was depriving him and the other Lords of Hell of souls. Mephisto eventually hatched a plan to defeat Zarathos which was by using a prince looking to save his love from being sacrificed to the demon. Part of this involved taking the soul of the prince who was intended to offer himself in his love's stead with this act weakening Zarathos. This allowed for Mephisto to confront Zarathos directly where he was able to defeats him. Imprisoning his body back in stone, Mephisto then took Zarathos's flame for himself whereupon he would channel it into the possession of hosts that became Ghost Riders in service to the Hell Lord. (Ghost Rider v2 #77)
Overview
Personality and attributes
Mortals came to refer to the entity as the Ghost Rider. (Ghost Rider v2 #77)
The price for calling upon his aid were souls that were consumed by his unholy flame. (Ghost Rider v2 #77)
It was said that Zarathos was too formidable to serve in the mundane role of lackey. (Ghost Rider v2 #77)
Powers and abilities
The belief of his followers was capable of feeding him and making him stronger. (Ghost Rider v2 #77)
At one point, he came to establish the City of Ten Thousand Souls that was built by a Native American tribe who began to worship him in exchange for his aid. (Ghost Rider v2 #77)
Notes
- Zarathos was created by Roy Thomas, Gary Friedrich, and Mike Ploog where he made his first appearance in Marvel Spotlight v1 #5 (August, 1972).
Alternate Versions
- In Speed Demon v1 #1 (1996), an alternate version of Zarathos appeared in the Amalgam Comics reality that was designated as Earth-9602 in the Multiverse. This version was a merger between Marvel Comics Zarathos and DC Comics Etrigan] where he was given the name Etrigan as well. It was shown that Etrigan was a demon, whose first human host was the World War II hero Jay Garrick. Years later, Etrigan was summoned by Merlin who bonded him to Blaze Allen as an enemy of Night Spectre, after that one had stolen Iris Simpson's soul. Together with Allen, Etrigan managed to steal the souls of power before Night Spectre did the same and controlled all the afterlife.
- In Darkdevil v1 #2 (2000), an alternate version of Zarathos appeared in the Marvel Comics 2 reality that was designated as Earth-982 in the Multiverse. Kaine summoned Zarathos in order to save the life of Reilly Tyne who was dying due to the genetic defects from his fathers biology and also attempted to bring back Daredevil who was killed at the hands of the Kingpin. However, Zarathos attempted to take over Tyne's body for his own but the mystical convergence led to Daredevil's soul taking residence in Reilly's body where the two merged to keep their body in check leading to Tyne gaining a demonic appearance of Zarathos along with his powers thus becoming the hero Darkdevil.
- In Infinity Wars: Ghost Panther v1 #1 (2018), an alternate world was created when Gamora using the Infinity Stones used its powers to merge various individuals with one another. On Warp World, Bast was once the goddess of the Wakandans until she turned into the fiery headed demon Zarathos. She came to offer the power of a Ghost Panther to T'Challa in order for him to get revenge for his father.
- In Heroes Reborn v2 #3 (2021), an alternate version of Zarathos appeared in the new Heroes Reborn reality that was designated as Earth-21798 in the Multiverse. Zarathos came to be bonded to Johnny Blaze creating the Ghost Runner who was called the Speedster of Vengeance.
In other media
Films
- In Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance, Zarathos was referenced in the 2012 live-action film where it was revealed that the Ghost Rider was an incarnation of him. During the explanation of his history, it was shown that Zarathos was once the Angel of Justice sent to protect man but was tricked into Hell by the Devil where he was driven insane and corrupted to become the Devil's Spirit of Vengeance. Thus, the mission of Zarathos was twisted from protecting the innocent to punishing the guilty which was why the Ghost RIder's flames were yellow as a sign of his corrupted nature. Mephisto at some point bound the fallen angel to Johnny Blaze to create the Ghost Rider, hoping he could use the Rider to keep his own legions under control and thwart any attempts at a rebellion in Hell. However, Johnny's conscience compelled him to manipulate Zarathos into doing good. Zarathos' search for his original self aided Johnny in this path. Yet, Johnny found it difficult to control Zarathos' lust to punish the guilty. The longer the two remained bound without Zarathos able to take his revenge on Mephisto, the more Zarathos' lust for punishing human sin at any cost became. And the more Zarathos hungered to devour souls, the harder it became for Johnny to control and contain him. Johnny eventually had Zarathos exorcised out of himself, believing it necessary to protect Nadya and Danny from the fallen angel. However, Mephisto returned under the guise of "Roarke." And after he had captured Danny to turn him into the Antichrist, Johnny and Nadya both realized they still needed Zarathos. After defeating the Devil, Zarathos remembered his original mission leading to the angel fully awakening once more allowing the Ghost Rider to manifest blue flames by the end of the movie.
Video games
- In Marvel Heroes, the Flames of Zarathos appeared as an item in the MMORPG video game.
- In Marvel: Avengers Alliance, Zarathos was referenced in the Dossier for Ghost Rider in the Facebook video game.
Appearances
- Marvel Spotlight v1: (1972)
- Ghost Rider v2:
External Links
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