Cosmic Ghost Rider is a series by Marvel Comics written by Donny Cates with art by Dylan Burnett and Geoffrey Shaw.
Spinning out of the 2018 Thanos series, the series follows a future version of Frank Castle who became the Rider, yet has also gone mad as a loon. Deciding to kill Thanos when he was a baby, when he realizes that the kid isn't evil yet, he decides to raise the kid himself, to, you know, not be a mass-murdering tyrant.
The miniseries was followed by two others in 2019, Revenge of the Cosmic Ghost Rider and Cosmic Ghost Rider Destroys Marvel History. A new series, Cosmic Ghost Rider, launched in March 2023.
Cosmic Ghost Rider provides examples of:
- Back from the Dead: In issue #1, thanks to Odin, who basically kicks him out of Valhalla.
- Been There, Shaped History: The series suggests he's part of a Stable Time Loop set up by Death to ensure Thanos becomes who he is.
- Complaining About Rescues They Don't Like: Odin pulls Castle to Valhalla out of respect for him as a warrior when the Surfer kills him. Castle is pissed that he gets a peaceful afterlife when his family didn’t and calls Odin out on this.
- Shout-Out: #1 opens with a recap of Frank's story seemingly modeled after the Adaptation Distillation opening of All-Star Superman:
Revenge of the Cosmic Ghost Rider provides examples of:
- Been There, Shaped History: It's shown that Castle's become involved in multiple critical moments in superhero history, having taken the The Slow Path. This has the unfortunate effect of making him incapable of doing what he really wants and averting the death of his family because then he'd be unraveling his now highly intertwined history in the Marvel Universe.
- Deal with the Devil: He gives up his own soul to become a Ghost Rider once more to get Cammi's back.
