Robbie Reyes

Ghost Rider --- Spirit of Vengeance, reckless driver, and the only character anyone's talked about on this season of Agents of SHIELD --- is back in his own comic thanks to Felipe Smith, Danilo Beyruth, and Tradd Moore, and we have an unlettered first look at the new series, courtesy of Marvel.

Marvel’s ‘Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.’ finally brings Ghost Rider into the fold with Season 4’s “Let Me Stand Next to Your Fire,” but did Robbie Reyes’ spooky mission get any clearer with the introduction of Uncle Eli? And what in the world do Life Model Decoys have to do with any of this? Find out in our full review of tonight’s latest ‘Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.’!

Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. has typically stuck with pared-down versions of its most outlandish comic characters, something the upcoming inclusion of Gabriel Luna’s Ghost Rider has built-in. As such, our first look at the new spirit of vengeance is neither spirit, nor vengeance-seeking, but sure looks like Gabriel Luna!

Last month, Marvel announced a whole slew of titles that fall under the new Marvel Now banner, but it seems one of them may have slipped through the cracks. Today, the publisher has announced a new ongoing Ghost Rider title once again starring Robbie Reyes as the flame-headed vengeance seeking anti-hero.

Since the dawn of the Silver Age, legacy characters have been a staple of superhero fiction, and having a new character step into a well loved role can open up new opportunities for writers and artists to tell different kinds of stories. In The Replacements, we’ll look back at the notable and not-so-notable heroes and villains to assume some of the most iconic mantles in the superhero genre. The original Ghost Rider was a cowboy named Carter Slade who was prophesied to fight injustice in the wild west along with his bright white stallion, Banshee. The concept of what a Ghost Rider is has deviated considerably since then, taking on a much more supernatural tone, with some of that mythos folded into Slade's own story. Today we're going to look at the men and women who took up the name and curse of the Ghost Rider.

Ghost Rider, the daredevil stuntman with a skeleton head made of fire, debuted in Marvel Comics on this day in 1972, and despite being one of the most definitively '70s Marvel concepts, along with Power Man and Iron Fist, the character has retained a lasting appeal and remains endlessly fun.

Felipe Smith lived the dream of a thousand starry-eyed DeviantArtists when, in 2008, his nerd-skewering masterpiece Peepo Choo debuted at Kodansha-owned manga magazine Morning 2. When asked about what went into accomplishing this feat — becoming fluent in Japanese, keeping pace with the manga industry’s rigorous schedule, being an American noticed by the manga industry at all — Smith is all shrugs and smiles. His work spans the globe, he’s completely reinvigorated Marvel’s Ghost Rider, and, as friends pop by his booth, he slides smoothly in and out of the three languages he speaks, but you know, no biggie. Smith takes it all in his stride. Peepo Choo, a gleefully lurid tale of cultural fetishization, yakuza, teenage boys, and gravure idols, lies far afield from Ghost Rider in terms of content. But Smith’s zingy, earnest voice unites the two works, and it is this voice that makes Smith such an exciting creator with such a tantalizingly unpredictable future. ComicsAlliance sat down with him at San Diego Comic-Con to discuss living and working in Japan, nerd culture around the world, and what Robbie Reyes brings to the superhero table.