Today, we try to figure out whether Ghost Rider's Penance Stare would be able to take down Galactus.
In Comic Book Questions Answered, I answer whatever questions you folks might have about comic books (feel free to e-mail questions to me at brianc@cbr.com).
One of the coolest moments in Marvel's Fantastic Four cartoon from the 1990s was when Ghost Rider shows up and basically takes down Galactus right away using his Penance Stare, or, as how fans often describe it, essentially "one punches" him...
This led to Paul Cornish to ask on Twitter, "Is this the only time we've ever seen Ghost Rider use his Penance Stare on Galactus? It seems like a really obvious but cool thing to do. Has this ever happened in the comic?"
Well, simply put, no, Ghost Rider has never used his Penance Stare on Galactus in the comics. So that was a pretty easy answer to the question, right? SO easy that it really wasn't worth writing about it, so I asked Paul if it was okay to adjust it to WOULD Ghost Rider's Penance Stare work on Galactus in the comics and Paul said sure, and, well, this is that!
SHOULD GHOST RIDER'S PENANCE STARE WORK ON GALACTUS?
Recently, I wrote a piece about how Ghost Rider's Penance Stare does not work the way that it is supposed to work.
From Marvel's official website biography of Ghost Rider, the Penance Stare is described as, "His chief weapon is called the Penance Stare, an ability picked up from his brother, Danny Ketch. By gazing into the soul of the guilty, Ghost Rider causes the affected party to relive all the harm they've done to anyone else over the years. This stare leaves its victim permanently catatonic."
People were confused about the Stare, though, and so reader Shaun D. Padden actually wrote in to pose question everyone wanted to know in Ghost Rider #35, "The Ghost Rider's penance gaze, I don't get it. Why would a villain care about the pain inflicted on others? And wouldn't a villain know themselves? I mean isn't that all part of being one of the bad guys? Thus why does this penance gaze have any affect on the Ghost Rider's foes?"
The editor (or perhaps Ghost Rider writer Howard Mackie himself) replied, "That's just it, Shaun. Why would a villain care about the pain inflicted on others? All they want to do is inflict even more pain and suffering. To remedy this situation, Ghost Rider uses his penance stare. His gaze goes down into the villains' psyche and causes them to feel what they done to these people, what it would be like to be the victims, and to have to deal with the pain for the rest of their lives."
And that's the hook, then. You suffer the pain of the victims. It has nothing to do with whether you enjoyed what you did in your life or not, you will still suffer because you'll feel the pain as your victims felt the pain. In other words, even if you're a demon, you'll still be affected by the Penance Stare because it will HURT. It doesn't matter if you have the Power Cosmic, you are still a being.
I can see a good argument being made, though, that purely cosmic beings wouldn't really make sense for the Stare to work on them. For instance, something like Death, the embodiment of death, wouldn't make sense for this to work on them, as they're just part of the very fabric of reality, right? Death is just death. It is inevitable. It is not doing a "bad" thing, so the Penance Stare wouldn't make sense.
The question is, though, whether that applies to Galactus?
REALISTICALLY, THOUGH, WOULD GHOST RIDER'S PENANCE STARE WORK ON GALACTUS?
And I think that we have seen enough in the comics to say that Galactus is not purely a force of nature. He very much IS a being, just one cursed to play his role in the universe. He might just kill to survive, but he knows what he is doing, so the Penance Stare SHOULD work on him, and we have a very good piece of evidence that it WOULD.
In Fantastic Four #243 (by John Byrne), Doctor Strange, the Fantastic Four and the Avengers try to take down Galactus and Doctor Strange casts a spell to force Galactus to face the death he has caused over the years. As you might imagine, that is almost precisely what the Penance Stare does! And sure enough, it messes Galactus up good...
This distracts Galactus long enough for him to lower his guard, allowing Mister Fantastic to slingshot the Thing into him...
leading to one of the most iconic splash pages of the early 1980s...
Reed Richards then points out that Galactus could not handle Strange's spell to the point where he SHUT HIS OWN MIND DOWN to avoid the MADNESS that the spell caused. This allowed Galactus to become so unprotected that the heroes could have chosen to let him die right there, but Reed convinces them that they really need to keep Galactus alive, because he carries out an important part of the cycle of life in the universe...
Still, the fact that Doctor Strange's spell had basically the same effect of Ghost Rider's Penance Stare, and it worked on Galactus is the best proof that we have that yes, Ghost Rider's Penance Stare WOULD work on Galactus, although, again, since no one seems to have Ghost Rider's Penance Stare work on people the way it is supposed to anymore (with multiple characters immune to its effects), I'm sure a writer would come up with a reason why it WOULDN'T work on Galactus, but it really should.
Thanks to Pail for the question! If anyone else has a comic book question, drop me a line at brianc@cbr.com!