Ghost Rider's New Forever Penance Power is His Most Brutal Yet
Warning! Spoilers for Avengers Forever #4 by Marvel Comics
In his last stand against an army of Black Skulls from across the Multiverse, Marvel's Ghost Rider just unleashed a seemingly all-new power, sentencing the original villain to a Forever Penance. In Avengers Forever #4 by Marvel Comics, Robbie Reyes uses his powers as the Spirit of Vengeance to keep the villain in a state of Forever Penance as brutal revenge for the evil he enacted on Earth-818.
In the current Avengers Forever storyline from Marvel Comics, Robbie Reyes was teleported to the wasteland reality of Earth-818, where the hero was tortured by the Black Skull, who wanted information on the mysterious Avengers Prime. As he was enduring unfathomable pain at the hands of the villain, Deathlok, who was also being tortured alongside him, informed Ghost Rider that he is the All-Rider, the Multiversal Spirit of Vengeance. And that he's more critical in maintaining cosmic balance across the Multiverse than ever believed before. Now, the All-Rider is starting to come into his own in his newly defined role.
In Avengers Forever #4 by Jason Aaron, Jim Towe, Guru-eFX, and VC's Cory Petit, Ghost Rider joins the fight with the Earth-818 heroes and the Goddesses of Thunder against several variants of the Black Skull from across the Multiverse. After unleashing a powerful attack leading to the variants being sent across the space between universes, Ghost Rider sentences the Earth-818 Black Skull to eternal damnation. Ghost Rider uses the Spirit of Vengeance to incarcerate the Black Skull's symbiote in the trunk of his Hell Charger, while the villain is taken to the heart of the wasteland, where he's left in a state of Forever Penance.
Ghost Rider uses the Forever Penance to strip Black Skull of his symbiote and keep him in a prolonged state of fire burning from his eyes, as he's chained to the ground in the land he used to rule as a dictator. But, the Ghost Rider doesn't stop there as he teams up with Wonder Man to destroy the War Machines left from Black Skull's army, as the duo takes them out and completely frees the planet from its former tyrannical rule.
As the All-Rider, Ghost Rider can do things that seemed impossible before - including controlling a symbiote and trapping the Black Skull in a perpetual state of Forever Penance - even if what that means isn't fully defined. Given his said importance to saving the Multiverse, it appears Ghost Rider's seemingly new power is just the tip of the iceberg of what he's now capable of. Avengers Forever #4 is in comic book stores now.