The Wrong Side: The Punisher vs. Ghost Rider

CBR

By Brian Cronin

Published Nov 29, 2015

In their latest spotlight on "bad" superhero fights, CSBG looks at how the Punisher once took Ghost Rider out with his own chains!

In this feature, I examine comic book fights that were particularly notable in the wrong side winning (or at least that the fight wasn't won the "right" way). This really isn't a big deal, of course, as it doesn't really matter if the "wrong" person won a fight. But it's fun to talk about!

If you want to suggest a fight for future inclusion in this feature, drop me a line at bcronin@comicbookresources.com. Don't suggest a fight in the comments!

Reader John C. has made the suggestions for the last two weeks, so I figured I might as well go 3-3 with his suggestions. So today we go with his suggestion for the time that the Punisher defeated Ghost Rider with Ghost Rider's own chains...

As always, the first page spotlights their power levels and the second page examines the fight itself.

And as always, the first question we need to ask is...

How did these people do when they fought Spider-Man?

The original supernatural Ghost Rider really didn't fight Spider-Man much. They met each other a number of times, but they were all team-ups.

Their only slight fights came in Marvel Team-Up #58 (by Chris Claremont, Sal Buscema and Pablo Marcos), where Spider-Man tries to keep Ghost Rider from using his hellfire on the Trapster and fails completely...

And when Ghost Rider is brainwashed in Marvel Team-Up #91 (by Steven Grant, Pat Broderick and Bruce Patterson), where Ghost Rider acquits himself pretty well against Spidey...

Right from the get go, the Punisher has done pretty well against Spider-Man, going back all the way to his debut in Amazing Spider-Man #129 (by Gerry Conway, Ross Andru and Frank Giacoia), but while he does well, it is still pretty clear he's not on Spidey's power level...

So how did the Punisher do against Ghost Rider? Find out on the next page!

The hook of the last arc of the most recent volume of Thunderbolts was that the Punisher was hunting down his former teammates in the group. In Thunderbolts #29 (by Ben Acker and Ben Blacker and artists Kim Jacinto and Israel Silva), the Punisher spends a ton of time researching how to defeat the Ghost Rider, including getting his hands on a special mystical sword.

I wouldn't really mind if the Punisher had acquired some special weapon that could defeat Johnny Blaze, the Ghost Rider. That would have been fair enough to me. This, however, is not that.

As seen here, the special sword DOESN'T work...