Daniel Ketch (Earth-616)

### Early Years

**Daniel "Danny" Ketch** and his sister Barbara were born to Barton Blaze and Naomi Kale, but were given away to a widowed woman named Francis Ketch when they were very young. The two grew up only knowing Mrs. Ketch as their mother, but their biological mom, Naomi Kale, continued to keep tabs on the kids until her death ten years later.

When on a fifth grade field trip to Manhattan, he was interviewed on television after seeing Spider-Man and the Human Torch driving the Spider-Mobile up walls.Working as a paperboy, the "nice, normal, ordinary" Danny had his photo taken with Phil and Doris Sheldon to mark Phil's decision to retire from photographing superheroes.

### Ghost Rider

On Halloween night when they were teenagers, Danny took his sister Barbara to a graveyard to give her the opportunity to take pictures of the grave of Harry Houdini. During this excursion, the siblings stumbled upon a confrontation between two gangs, one led by Deathwatch and the other made up of cronies belonging to the Kingpin. The two gangs began fighting each other, and Barbara cried out, causing Deathwatch to become aware of her presence. Barbara was shot through the chest with an arrow by one of Deathwatch's henchmen, so Danny grabbed his sister's body and ran away to a nearby junkyard. Distressed and covered in his sister's blood, he hid there with his sister's unconscious body from Deathwatch's henchmen until he noticed a pristine motorbike with a glowing gas cap. Inspecting the glowing gas cap, Danny touched it with his blood-stained hand and instantly transformed into Ghost Rider, a Spirit of Vengeance whose mission was to take revenge on those who shed innocent blood. As Ghost Rider, both Daniel's mind and Ghost Rider's mind were in control, resulting in Danny being only somewhat influential in his own actions.

Ghost Rider confronted and began to torture the henchmen of Deathwatch, but was interrupted by the arrival of the police. Leaving Barbara's body behind, Ghost Rider escaped the police on his flaming motorbike, which had also been transformed when Danny touched the glowing gas cap. Eventually, Ghost Rider drove into a secluded alleyway where he turned back into Daniel Ketch. Barbara's unconscious body was taken to a hospital by the cops, but not much time later she was killed by Blackout, who had learned Daniel's secret identity and sought revenge on Ghost Rider for burning his face (an injury Blackout actually had himself to blame for). Dan's good friend Jack D'Auria was also eventually caught up in the conflict against Deathwatch's men, where he helped Ghost Rider fight them.

### Early Career

After the Fantastic Four mysteriously disappeared, Ketch, Wolverine, Hulk and Spider-Man joined forces to replace them until the four were rescued and a Skrull plot was exposed. Ketch also briefly teamed with Wolverine and Punisher while investigating one of Blackheart's schemes.

Johnny Blaze traveled from the West Coast to confront this new Ghost Rider thinking the evil spirit Zarathos had returned. Blaze hunted down Ghost Rider and tried to kill him multiple times while Ghost Rider kept attempting to escape Blaze and bring Blackout, who was killing multiple people, to justice. Finally, when Blaze watched Ghost Rider save a child in Central Park that Blackout was about to kill, he became less suspicious of Ghost Rider and stopped trying to kill him. He instead decided to observe Daniel to make sure that he wasn't Zarathos, and he taught Daniel how to fight and protect himself when he wasn't transformed into Ghost Rider.

It was later revealed for certain that this incarnation of Ghost Rider was not Zarathos, and that Blaze and Ketch were brothers. The family had been separated by the Blood to limit the chances of the Spirits of Vengeance forming, but Mephisto's manipulations forced them to use the powers.

The two worked together to fight Zarathos and Lilith as part of the Midnight Sons. Danny Ketch seemed to die by the hands of Blackout, but the Spirit of Vengeance to which he had been bound through the bike's talisman lived on. During this time Dan's only existence remained stuck in a void and would only be able to communicate with the Ghost Rider Spirit via the spirit world.

Dan also had problems with his girlfriend, Stacy, who joined a task force that was designed to confront superhuman criminals and vigilantes. As the Ghost Rider, he was briefly captured, but escaped before S.H.I.E.L.D. could examine the nature of his powers.