WARNING: The following contains major spoilers for Savage Avengers #21 by Gerry Duggan, Patch Zircher, Java Tartaglia and VC's Travis Lanham, on sale now.

The Ghost Rider is one of the most ferocious forces of nature in the Marvel Universe, and Johnny Blaze has rarely met a foe that he couldn't face head-on. Quite literally, the Ghost Rider's most powerful attack, the Penance Stare, revolves around eye contact.

Of course, there are some who his Penance Stare cannot harm, and Conan the Barbarian just added himself to that list in Savage Avengers #21.

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After meeting with Emma Frost at the Hellfire Club Mansion, Conan bumps into Ghost Rider, who's investigating a mass possession. Smelling the influence of Kulan Gath on Conan's symbiote, Ghost Rider immediately unleashes a brutal assault on his target. When Conan proves more than capable of holding his ground, Johnny Blaze lets loose his Penance Stare to finish the fight. Unfortunately, things don't go as planned, and Johnny Blaze is hit with the attack's painful feedback thanks to Conan's own symbiotic powers.

Ghost Rider's Penance Stare has long been his most iconic and unstoppable power. This attack causes those who are caught in its gaze to live through every ounce of pain they have ever inflicted on another. It has even been used to render Ghost Rider's victims completely catatonic. Of course, not everyone is so concerned with what they have done in the past or who they have harmed, such as Cletus Kasady, as seen in 2019's Absolute Carnage: Symbiote of Vengeance #1 by Ed Brisson and Juan Frigeri.

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Thunderbolts Ghost Rider Penance Stare on Venom

Cletus Kasady would naturally have some amount of immunity to the Penance Stare, but his symbiote bond made him truly immune. As Carnage points out, this is something that he should have remembered from already having tried to use the attack on Venom during the events of 1993's Ghost Rider/Blaze: Spirits of Vengeance #6 by Howard Mackie and Adam Kubert. Not only are the symbiotes immune to the effects of the Penance Stare, but trying to use it on one causes Ghost Rider immense pain, all of this leaves Conan with another edge over his opponents, thanks to the symbiote from the Savage Land.

It's hard to imagine just what Conan would have gone through had the Penance Stare actually worked on him. Considering everything that he has done both in the present and in the past during his own Hyborian Age, it's easy to think that the Cimmerian would be completely obliterated by the weight of all of the pain and suffering that he has wrought upon the world. But through his connection to the symbiote, Conan is spared the suffering that he's spread and Ghost Rider learns, yet again, why symbiotes are some of the most resilient creatures in the Marvel Universe.

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