Warning: Contains SPOILERS for Ghost Rider: Final Vengeance #3! The Spirit of Vengeance recently abandoned Johnny Blaze in lieu of another host more accepting of the Ghost Rider’s demonic influence, though that shouldn’t imply that Blaze is now powerless. In fact, Ghost Rider just gave Johnny the upgrade of a lifetime, something that’s proven true with Blaze’s new design and powers. And, interestingly enough, this isn’t the first time Blaze has been a genuine badass without Ghost Rider, giving fans reason to believe that his new form is far from the extent of his recent upgrade.

In Ghost Rider: Final Vengeance #3 by Benjamin Percy and Danny Kim, Ghost Rider’s new host, the Hood, is using the power of the Spirit of Vengeance to dismantle every crime syndicate in Chicago. However, he’s not doing so to make them pay for their sins, but rather to take over the city’s criminal underworld himself. Meanwhile, Johnny Blaze is recovering from the perilous situation Ghost Rider left him in when the spirit exited his body, one he only survived thanks to the help of his friend, the Night Magician Zeb.

In the first issue of this series, Blaze (when he was still bonded to Ghost Rider) was riding toward a giant spider-demon. However, the Spirit of Vengeance left Blaze’s body right as he challenged the creature, leaving him to die. Thankfully, Zeb saved his life – though their problems weren’t over just yet. When Ghost Rider left Johnny, orders came from Mephisto himself to kill Blaze, and every demon on Earth was obliged to follow that command. However, even though Ghost Rider was gone, a piece of its essence remained inside Johnny, which Blaze had just learned how to tap into.

Johnny Blaze Wields Hellfire Without Ghost Rider in Epic Marvel Comics Upgrade

As Blaze and Zeb were surrounded by demon-possessed wolves in the South Dakota wilderness, Zeb unleashes the full might of his magical abilities while Johnny was all but helpless. While fully recovered from his encounter with the demon-spider thanks to Zeb’s elixirs, Johnny was still just a human. However, right before the wolves attack, Zeb tells Blaze that Ghost Rider left a residue inside Johnny’s body which could grant him access to hellfire. After these wolves attacked, Blaze was able to unlock that power given the stress of the situation, officially claiming this badass upgrade.

Blaze channeled the hellfire that surged within his body through the shotgun he kept on his motorcycle, killing every wolf with a single shot each. Once the wolves were taken care of, the issue ends with teasing a final confrontation between Blaze and the Hood, which will allow Blaze to not only seek his own vengeance against Ghost Rider for leaving him to die, but also prove that he doesn’t need the Spirit of Vengeance to be a powerful hero in his own right.

While the future conflict between Blaze and Ghost Rider is an exciting aspect of Johnny’s hellfire upgrade, perhaps the coolest part of it is the most obvious: Blaze has access to hellfire without Ghost Rider. Johnny always had to relinquish control of his body to the Spirit of Vengeance to become the antihero Ghost Rider, but now, Johnny’s in full control. Only time will tell if Blaze’s upgrade will match the power of his former counterpart, but even if he comes up short, the visual of Johnny Blaze wielding hellfire is awesome enough on its own.

Final Vengeance Isn’t the First Time Blaze Manipulates Hellfire Without Ghost Rider

Ghost Rider/Blaze: Spirits of Vengeance by Howard Mackie and Adam Kubert

While Final Vengeance does mark the first time Blaze is able to conjure hellfire without Ghost Rider, it’s not the first time he’s been able to manipulate it solo (especially with a ‘hellfire shotgun’). The first time readers saw Blaze acting as a badass antihero separate from Ghost Rider was in Ghost Rider/Blaze: Spirits of Vengeance. In that ‘90s storyline, Ghost Rider had a body of his own, which allowed the two to team-up and fight evil, as opposed to Johnny constantly having to give the Rider control of his body to do so.

In order to keep up with Ghost Rider and be an effective partner, Johnny was given a shotgun capable of shooting hellfire which Ghost Rider would reload for him whenever he needed it. This falls in-line perfectly with what readers are seeing from Johnny’s upgrade in Ghost Rider: Final Vengeance, with the only difference being the key aspect that makes Johnny’s current transformation way better than his depiction in Spirits of Vengeance: both versions have hellfire shotguns, but Final Vengeance sees Blaze charging it with hellfire himself.

Not only is Blaze capable of powering his own hellfire shotgun without Ghost Rider in the current canon, but this storyline is crafting a narrative that could lead to Blaze actually using it against Ghost Rider, as opposed to using it to have his back during any given mission in Spirits of Vengeance. The difference between these two storylines highlights how Final Vengeance’s Johnny Blaze is more self-sufficient than his Spirits of Vengeance counterpart, though the similarities could reveal what will happen next in the current storyline.

Spirits of Vengeance May Have Spoiled Blaze’s Next Ghost Rider Upgrade: Cyborg Form

Ghost Rider/Blaze: Spirits of Vengeance #15 by Howard Mackie, Mike Manley, and Tom Palmer

Johnny Blaze’s current story arc is reminiscent of Ghost Rider/Blaze: Spirits of Vengeance, which means Blaze may be on the same trajectory as his ‘90s counterpart. If that’s the case, then fans may be seeing Blaze getting another major upgrade in the near future: his cyborg form. In Ghost Rider/Blaze: Spirits of Vengeance #15, Blaze is converted to a cyborg while battling Lilith’s army of demons, which allowed him to be a better partner to Ghost Rider, as he could do more than fire blasts of hellfire through his enchanted shotgun, but actually had superhuman enhancements himself.

Perhaps the hellfire residuals Ghost Rider left within Johnny Blaze’s body won’t be enough to defeat the Hood, making it necessary for Blaze to seek other forms of physical enhancement through a cybernetic upgrade. This wouldn’t be the first time Ghost Rider lore has merged demonic sorcery with high technology in recent years (as shown by Danny Ketch in Ghost Rider #12), so the idea isn’t ludicrous. Plus, since a similar version of Blaze had already made that transformation in the ‘90s, the stage has been set for the character to do the same thing again in the current canon.

While Johnny Blaze’s new upgrade is similar to the version of the character from Spirits of Vengeance, there are enough differences to keep fans guessing as to where the Final Vengeance storyline will go next (with the prospect of Blaze becoming a cyborg admittedly unlikely). And that anticipation is exactly what’s so exciting about Ghost Rider’s current era, though arguably not as exciting as the pure awesomeness that came with simply seeing Johnny Blaze wield this epic upgrade – complete with his badass hellfire form – on-panel for the first time.

Ghost Rider: Final Vengeance #3 by Marvel Comics is available now.