Ghost Rider vs Thanos: Who Would Win and Why?

One of the strongest villains in the Marvel universe is Thanos who came incredibly close to destroying the entire universe. Like Thanos, Ghost Rider is immortal and has some tremendously powerful attacks. So you wonder who might win in an all-out Ghost Rider vs Thanos?

Although Ghost Rider is certainly a skilled superhero, in a fight with Thanos, it’s quite clear that Thanos would win. The reason for this is that technically, Thanos is immortal. In the comics, he was freed from the dead zone by Death with whom he had a relationship.

This would mean that Ghost Rider’s penance stare simply wouldn’t affect Thanos the same way it would against a regular opponent. In other words, Ghost Rider’s best attack would be wasted on Thanos which would mean he couldn’t defeat him. However, Thanos could beat Ghost Rider due to a number of possibilities.

The first reason is that he is close to being a God. Thanos is an Eternal with the Deviant gene which makes practically God-like. This would mean he could easily kill and defeat the host body of the Ghost Rider. Secondly, there is also a possibility that Thanos could kill The Spirit of Vengeance.

In short, The Spirit of Vengeance is the original soul demon of the Ghost Rider named Zarathos. This transformation was created by Mephisto who also defeated the original, physical version of Zarathos.

Theoretically, due to the sheer power and intelligence of Thanos, it’s possible that he could defeat The Spirit of Vengeance too. If not, then he could at least continuously destroy the host body of Ghost Rider for eternity.

Ghost Rider and His Powers

As mentioned earlier, the history of Ghost Rider is a little complex. Basically, The Spirit of Vengeance can possess one person at a time, so when a host body dies, another one is reborn. The Spirit of Vengeance has lived on earth since ancient times but its most famous host was Johnny Blaze.

Ghost Rider Is Immortal

This means that even if the individual carrying the spirit dies, then Ghost Rider can always return. As you can imagine, killing something that can respawn can quickly become tiresome. Not only is Ghost Rider immortal, but he also has the penance stare attack which is literally deadly.

Ghost Rider Possesses The Penance Stare

The penance stare is an attack where Ghost Rider stares into the soul of his opponent and highlights their sins. Whilst doing this, Ghost Rider can choose to kill the person that he’s staring at. During one Marvel storyline, he even took down the mighty Galactus by using his stare.

Other Ghost Rider powers include superhuman strength and speed, as well as using his hells motorcycle which can be used to teleport and speed away. When combining these skills alongside his immortality and penance stare, it’s clear that Ghost Rider is a fearsome antihero.

Thanos and His Powers

It goes without saying that Thanos is incredibly strong and is not to be messed with. Firstly, he is of the Eternals race which means he’s got superhero abilities, to begin with. Secondly, he’s also inherited the Deviant gene which makes him incredibly intelligent. This means that it’s no surprise that Thanos is a literal genius, scientist, and master of strategy and tactics.

Thanos Is Immortal

Like Ghost Rider, Thanos is also immortal (at least in the comic books anyway) due to his friendship with death. As he is a death worshipper, this also means that Ghost Rider’s penance stare literally won’t work on him either, as Thanos has no soul or conscience. Therefore, if you were to kill Thanos, there’s every possibility that death would happily revive him anyway.

Thanos Can Steal Souls with His Infinity Glove

Although Thanos is naturally gifted in combat due to being an Eternal, he’s also even more powerful when he uses the infinity glove which he obtains in the Marvel movies. This glove allows him to do various attacks such as manipulate time, bend energy, and importantly steal souls. As you may have guessed, this particular ability to steal souls could come in very handy against Ghost Rider during a fight.

Ghost Rider Vs. Thanos: Who Would Win and Why?

Although Ghost Rider would be near impossible to defeat from a regular superhero’s perspective, Thanos is not regular by any means. Perhaps Ghost Rider’s biggest strength is his immortality which would usually put him in good stead.

However, against Thanos, this is compromised with the use of the infinity glove which could potentially banish The Spirit of Vengeance completely.

Not only this but even if Ghost Rider were to kill Thanos (which would be very difficult), there’s a strong possibility that death would simply revitalize him due to their relationship.

Furthermore, due to the sheer power of Thanos, he could potentially destroy all of the humans on planet earth with relative ease which would mean no physical bodies for Ghost Rider to rely on, rendering his powers useless.

Lastly, if you took away their powers of immortality then Thanos would win yet again. The reason for this is that whilst Ghost Rider does have certain powers, Thanos has these powers and even more in his arsenal. In brief, he can do everything that Ghost Rider can plus more due to his supreme genetics and intellect.

Realistically, there is very little chance of Ghost Rider defeating Thanos, although he could potentially kill him if he got lucky and caught him off guard. At the same time, this shouldn’t be used to take anything away from Ghost Rider as he’s still an incredibly powerful superhero in his own right.