Before the chopper-riding Ghost Rider, before the hot-rod-roading Ghost Rider, there was The Spirit of Vengeance who roamed the Old West. The ghost that walked among men, took the sins of criminals and jammed them down their throats, there-in Marvel's Old West-was Carter Slade, today's Z-Lister and the original Ghost Rider. Or, The Phantom Rider!
Created by Gary Friedrich, Roy Thomas and Dick Ayers in "Tim Holt #11" in 1949, Carter Slade was based off another non-Marvel Ghost Rider known as Rex Fury who had also been created by Dick Ayers. When Ayers joined Marvel he joined with the rights to the name and a new Ghost Rider-who's appearance and western setting were identical to the last-was given a solo title at Marvel. When the more modern Johnny Blaze version of Ghost Rider was created in the 1970's, Carter Slade's alter ego was renamed first to Night Rider-which had unfortunately been a reference to members of The Klu Klux Klan-and then later to The Phantom Rider. When Slade's original publishing company AC Comics reprinted their old comics in the 80's, their version of Ghost Rider was renamed The Haunted Horsemen as Marvel then owned the title.
On to the actual character, Carter Slade was a simple man of the Old West who befriended a Native American medicine-man named Flaming Star. Star gave Carter a haunting white costume and a white horse so that Carter could wave criminals of the West away as "The Ghost Rider". In the 70's, Johnny Blaze/Ghost Rider travelled back in time and met Carter and Flaming Star, it is believed the "Ghost Rider" name was thought of by Carter after meeting Johnny. Time travel, everyone. After Carter died he was forever referred to as "The Phantom Rider" and his spirit would return to possess the body of his descendent Hamilton Slade, who would become The Phantom Rider to assist Johnny now and again.
Lincoln Slade-another of Carter's descendants and another Phantom Rider-met The West Coast Avengers during one their time traveling adventures and fell in love with Bobbi Morse/Mockingbird. Lincoln drugged Mockingbird and hypnotized her into being his lover. Again, some Marvel Comics events of rape that nobody raised an eyebrow to. After being freed by her friends, Mockingbird allowed Lincoln to fall to his death, but his spirit would come back to haunt Mockingbird by possessing the body of Hamilton Slade. With both Carter and Lincoln's spirits inside Hamilton-a former archeologist who discovered his ancestor's Phantom Rider garb and used it himself-he used an exorcism to banish Lincoln and keep Carter inside his body.
Another descendent was James Taylor Slade, or J.T. Using the name Hellfire, J.T. was a member of Nick Fury's super-secret awesome hardcore super-team called The Secret Warriors. However after many missions with the team, J.T. revealed he was a double agent for HYDRA and Nick Fury let him fall to his death like his ancestor Lincoln.
Jamie Slade was the daughter of Hamilton who became possessed by Lincoln's spirit and forced to be The Phantom Rider. With Mockingbird and Hawkeye's help, Hamilton was able to use an exorcism to banish Lincoln again, but Jamie continued to be the evil Phantom Rider, resulting in her defeat and arrest.
I've always had an interest in the Ghost Rider mantle-obviously as Robbie Reyes is one of my favorite comic book characters. The thing about Carter Slade I like is that not only did Marvel not shy away from continuing the character's legacy both via namesake and bloodline, but also because the bloodline was never a heroic one. Most of Slade's descendants turned out evil which I think says a lot about The Phantom/Ghost Rider name, that as anti-hero as it seems there will always be a streak of evil running through its history. I've said before how I'd like Robbie's Ghost Rider to get a "Fast & The Furious" meets paranormal "Mad Max" Netflix series in the future. But if Marvel finds Robbie too new-for whatever stupid reason-I'd like a Western Marvel Netflix series starring Carter Slade. That way you can establish The Ghost Rider legacy being in the cinematic universe the whole time while also touching upon an unused genre. I hope the best for The Ghost Rider Legacy. Like, I don't know, BRINGING ALL-NEW GHOST RIDER BACK, ARE YOU KIDDING ME MARVEL!?
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