WARNING: The following article contains spoilers for Avengers #28 by Jason Aaron, Ed McGuinness, Mark Morales, Jason Keith, Erick Arciniega, and VC's Cory Petit, on sale now.
Ghost Rider and the Silver Surfer are both intrinsically linked to their respective means of transportation around the Marvel Universe. However, those two heroes don't have a ton in common outside of the importance of their rides in their respective histories. The Silver Surfer is usually found in space, having cosmic exploits with other aliens, where Ghost Rider tends to have more earthbound adventures with supernatural creatures.
The hellish powers of Ghost Rider make him a formidable opponent for any adversary, especially since Robbie Reyes has come into his own as the Spirit of Vengeance. But Silver Surfer wields the Power Cosmic, which was bestowed on him by one of the most powerful beings in the universe, Galactus.
With that in mind, it seems like the Surfer would have the edge in any confrontation between the two, but that's not what happened in Avengers #28. After the Surfer blasts Ghost Rider with a hearty dose of the power cosmic, Ghost Rider astonishes the Surfer by hijacking his surfboard and taking it for a brief joyride.
Given the respective ways that Robbie and the Surfer's powers work, it's not entirely clear how this happens. The Silver Surfer’s surfboard is inextricably linked with the character, it's presence is even called out by his name. The Surfer has had the board ever since Galactus transformed Norrin Radd into a Herald of Galactus and endowed him with the Power Cosmic, making him the Sky-Rider of the Spaceways to help him satisfy his never-ending hunger.
As Dan Slott and Mike Allred's Silver Surfer made abundantly clear, the Silver Surfer's board seems to be a sentient entity that answers to the Surfer's command. In that book, the Surfer’s friend Dawn Greenwood developed a friendship with the board independent of its owner, and even unintentionally gave it a nickname when she misheard a cry of “To me, my board!” as “Toomie, my board.”
Even before the Rider's joyride, the Surfer’s board has been known to take other folks for a ride before. The aforementioned Dawn Greenwood was able to ride the board when the Surfer wasn’t present on a few occasions, and she and the Surfer’s friend Alicia Masters were both able to communicate with the board and direct its navigation. Dawn and Alicia are close to the Surfer, so it’s not surprising that the sentient surfboard would allow them to ride it.
However, in Avengers #28 there’s no reason to think the board would “want” Ghost Rider to commandeer it, as it has been a few times in the past.
There is also precedent for the Surfer having his board taken away by those who would do him harm. Perhaps the most famous example of this is Stan Lee and Jack Kirby's Fantastic Four #57, where Doctor Doom used a device to siphon the Power Cosmic off of the Surfer and give it to himself. A memorable splash panel presents the image of Doctor Doom flying on the silver surfboard, and it was such an impressive moment that it was even adapted to film in Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer.
In Jeph Loeb and Ed McGuinness' Hulk #12, the Red Hulk found himself pitted against the Silver Surfer in a fight arranged by the Grandmaster and the Collector. The Red Hulk used his power to absorb radiation and, like Doom, drained the Surfer and took on the Power Cosmic. He also got a dramatic splash panel, in which he’s barreling through space on the surfboard while wielding the axe of Terrax, another former herald of Galactus.
From these examples, it appears that riding the board requires either having a friendly relationship with the Surfer, or stealing his power. But neither of these applies to Ghost Rider in Avengers #28. Silver Surfer barely knows Robbie Reyes, and Robbie doesn't seem like he's not strong enough to take the Power Cosmic -- just moments earlier, he was surprised to find that he could survive in space without oxygen.
The explanation may be that Ghost Rider’s dark supernatural powers allow him to subvert any “rules” that would prevent others from stealing the board. Marvel's Ghost Riders can usually take control of any kind of transportation with their supernatural powers. Past Ghost Riders have used their powers to possess motorcycles, and Robbie uses his to possess a muscle car. We’ve also seen the Ghost Rider of 1,000,000 B.C. using the power on a wooly mammoth. Since Robbie has already taken control of a Celestial's armor in Avengers, it’s not outside the realm of comic book logic to assume that a Ghost Rider could control the Surfer's surfboard, perhaps overriding its sentience in the same way it did to the wooly mammoth.
Regardless of how it happened, the Ghost Rider's joyride on the Silver Surfer's surfboard is a sight to behold. Even if it only lasted a few moments before the Surfer summoned his board back to him, it's still one of the many remarkable feats in Robbie's early career as a superhero.