Marvel Comics’ Ghost Rider has drawn his power from many spirits and demons over the years. Johnny Blaze was bonded to the demon Zarathos for years. Blaze’s brother Danny Ketch gained power from their ancestor Noble Kale. And in the far future, hacker Zero Cochrane became a cybernetic terminator to serve the artificial intelligence the Ghostworks.
In a truly weird twist, however, one version of Ghost Rider gained power from the demons of the DC Comics Universe. While this would have probably never happened under ordinary situations, during the massive Marvel vs. DC crossover event, several characters from both companies ended up merging with each other, including Ghost Rider and a classic DC demonic antihero.
Known as the Age of Amalgam Comics, in this bizarre alternate universe, hybrid Marvel/DC characters like Dark Claw (Wolverine and Batman) and Super Soldier (Superman and Captain America) abounded. When it came time to fuse Ghost Rider to a DC hero, however, Amalgam apparently merged him with the Flash, the Fastest Man Alive. However, this wasn’t the whole story…
Now known as “Speed Demon” this new agent of vengeance is Blaze Allen, a man with invited by the evil “Night Spectre” to help collect powerful souls in a “Soul Race.” When Blaze refused, Night Spectre stole his wife Iris’ soul for his collection. In retaliation, Blaze made a deal with Merlin to bond the demon Etrigan to his own soul and prevent Night Spectre from taking any more souls.
In the mainstream DC Universe, Etrigan is bonded to Jason Blood, a former knight of King Arthur. Aside from making Blood basically immortal, Etrigan could also physically manifest though Blood’s body and showcased superhuman strength, invulnerability, and the ability to shoot flames from his mouth. In the Amalgam Universe, Etrigan made Blaze Alllen inhumanly fast and capable of breathing hellfire from his skull-like face – the better to track down and punish the evil people Night Spectre was also tracking.
One key feature of Etrigan that shared in both of his incarnations was his tendency to speak in rhyme. Called a “Rhyming Demon” in the DC Universe, which actually indicates a high status in Hell, Etrigan’s unique way of speaking gave his brand of justice a distinctive quality. This carried over to his Amalgam counterpart as Speed Demon also threatened his targets with rhyme, spouting such classics like, “There is no trick/For I am most quick/Now stop your churning/For soon you will be burning.”
While he initially appeared to be a solitary demonic speedster, Speed Demon was not alone as he had a nephew, Wally West, who journeyed with him in a traveling carnival. When Wally discovered his uncle’s secret, he also made a pact with Merlin to become a second Speed Demon (this one who rides a motorcycle) and help Blaze take down Night Spectre. In the process, Etrigan reveals he was once Jay Garrick (DC’s original Flash).
In the end, Wally and Blaze form a partnership, although Blaze wonders which demon Wally was bonded with. Considering Wally’s Speed Demon more closely resembles Ghost Rider, it’s very possible this alternate “Kid Flash” became bonded to Marvel’s Zarathos. Before any answers could be given, however, this fun mash-up ended, showing it was only a brief flash-in-the-pan for this strange merging of Ghost Rider, The Flash, and Etrigan the Demon.