The Ghost Rider, Heaven's greatest weapon, focal point of all magic in the universe, leader of the spirits of vengeance, and until recently, the king of Hell in Marvel Comics.
DC Comics Hell, the mirror of Heaven within the Sphere of the Gods, a conceptual realm formed by the infinite souls of the damned, a domain given by the Presence to his outcast son Lucifer.
If the Ghost Rider were to find himself within DC Comics, would he be able to take control of its arguably stronger Hell as he did Marvel's?
I think the first point to begin with is comparing raw power. How does Johnny's power compare to the Demons of DC Hell?
Beginning with Ghost Rider, his presence even when heavily weakened was enough to make the dimensional barriers of the universe quake
and his passive power was stated to be able to destroy four parallel universes
However these are the feats of Johnny's passive power. Ghost Rider has a history of easily defeating Dr. Strange and comparing massively favorably compared to him with Dr. Strange calling his power boundless, unimaginable and godlike
Even the power of the Gods known as the Vishanti whom Dr. Strange draws his sorcery was tanked by Ghost Rider
even before getting a host, Zarathos was able to contend with Mephisto and threatened his realm
Johnny and Zarathos' union as the Ghost Rider has defeated Mephisto in his own realm. This Mephisto is strong enough to battle the multiversal abstraction Galactus
Such is the power and immortality of the Ghost Rider that some say that they can threaten all of existence and that none but God can destroy them
To compare with Demons in DC it's important to first differentiate what a demon truly is, vs its emanation. Hell in DC is a platonic archetypal world from the Sphere of the Gods, a realm of archetypal intellects
Existing outside mortal dimensions of space and time in a conceptual space, the beings of the Sphere of the Gods in their true forms are called "godheads", and they emanate a lower aspect into each of the infinite universes, called an "emanation"
Even the worlds themselves have emanations which is why something like the DCAU can have its own Apokalips unaffected by changes to the comic Apokalips. Hell is the dark mirror of Heaven, a realm of perfectly impure mind, where each soul forms their own reality of torment, an infinite, infinitely expanding realm of horrors
The emanation of a demon need not be of any particular strength, Batman has defeated a small demon before without much effort for instance
However the godhead of a Demon is a conceptual being far larger then mortal universes to the point mortal universes are like bubbles on the world of New Genesis.
and to even interact with the mortal universes requires shrinking down massively using Boom Tubes.
Souls in DC are strong enough to form their own afterlife, their own universe around them.
These souls are used as nothing but food, currency, or building material for Demons whose Godheads are clearly vastly more powerful. Another example of this is when the Demon Choronzon, a duke demon stronger then most (High Duke of the Eighth Circle), but not vastly powerful in the Demonic Hierarchy engaged Dream of the Endless in a reality game where they shifted between forms and Choronzon took the form of Anti-Life, the end of universes, only to be defeated when Dream became "Hope."
As the dark at the end of everything, and the end of "universes" this is easily a multiversal feat of some description. Highly powerful Demon Lords like Neron are even stronger and can do battle with the wrath of God, the Spectre
The Spectre is able to do battle with infinitely powerful beings able to recreate the infinite multiverse at will like Parallel Hal Jordan
Technically Hell has also once contained the great Lucifer Morningstar as well however he doesn't currently reside in Hell and he's also fairly apathetic, letting the political power in Hell shift around without getting involved just to entertain himself.
So it's not like he would intervene to stop Ghost Rider anyway. That said obviously Lucifer is stronger to the point of saying he could destroy any of them, perhaps all of them, without much effort and is stated by Dream to be perhaps the second strongest being in creation after his creator the Presence
So how does Ghost Rider compare with the DC Demonic Hierarchy in terms of raw power?
Honestly it's kind of hard to say as you can pretty fairly highball or lowball either to be stronger. If you consider Johnny "only" low multiversal and each Demon is a multiversal abstract force for whom universal-creating souls are fodder used for food and currency, his power would not rank particularly highly in the DC Hellish hierarchy. On the other chand if you scale GR based on him being able to threaten all of existence and scale most demons to finite multiversal you could argue he's stronger then every demon sans Lucifer. So here's roughly how strong I would think they are relatively. You're free to have a different interpretation but this is my best one:
In the conceptual hierarchy every Demon ranks somewhat, scaling above human souls and mortal universes putting them roughly on the level of GR's passive power or the general magic of Dr. Strange. Being able to threaten Mephisto's realm puts the pure spirit Zarathos on the same range as Galactus, the concept of the balance of life and death which probably is similar in conceptual power as the darkness at the end of everything, suggesting that Zarathos power alone would be rivaling that of a High Duke of Hell. The arch-dukes in general form the top tier of Hell. While Ghost Rider's raw power does not seem to be consistently on the level of the strongest top tiers of Hell that he can threaten structures that maintain existence suggest he would be rivaling that level of hierarchy, and he would also be more then durable enough to withstand strikes from most of them due to his immortality outstretching even his attack potency, able to be warped across the multiverse
fighting Godlike reality-warping threats and the like. In this way he has a similar immortality to The Spectre which is oddly fitting given their characters.
What also helps is that Ghost Rider can take advantage of probably the second biggest weakness to DC Demons which is holy weapons and powers. Holy powers are so effective against DC Comics Demons that even the great Lucifer Morningstar was hurt by Etrigan shooting a cross into his back.
Zarathos is an Angel, an entity of Heaven and such is anathema to Hell
As such overall I think Ghost Rider's power would be above the Dukes of Hell, though not on the level on the levels of the Trimuverate but he can brawl them as he is particularly hard to destroy even for them and his holy nature would weaken their durability signifigantly.
I don't think speed will be too much of an important point in this battle as Hell is a spaceless timeless metaphysical realm, however if the fight ends up crossing into the physical realms, it might prove an advantage. So how do the two's speed compare?
The emanations of Demons need not have any particular speed but Hell Lords are capable of battling the Spectre. In one particular encounter Shathan the Dictator of Dis, the capital of Hell, battled Spectre when Spectre shoots his fist off at the demon which traveled around the whole universe to hit Shathan in the back of the head
Speeds calced at over 6.3 quintillion times the speed of light.
Ghost Rider even when casual can easily match the likes of Marvel Heralds like Dr. Strange and Silver Surfer who can reach speeds of high quadrillions to low quintillions of times the speed of light.
However this was a feat done by a casual Ghost Rider. His full speed is likely far higher, with characters like Galactus, Mephisto, and Odin, characters Ghost Rider scales too, usually being considered higher into the quintillions to sometimes even sextillions of times the speed of light with things like Odin summoning chunks of distant planets to his location from the edge of space to his position in a split second.
This would suggest if Johnny manuevered the fight to enter the mortal universes at any point, he would either be at least comparable or have a notable speed advantage against most of the Hell Lords, however there is one notable exception.
The Demon Neron siphoned the speed from the Flash, gaining similar level of power with the speedforce, a plan he manufactured hoping to use the speedforce to enter and take control of Heaven.
Given he was planning to use this power to travel an infinite conceptual distance from Hell to Heaven, Neron would likely have the advantage in speed if the two were too fight in a mortal realm.
So with the general power and speed covered, we can go into more general traits about this particular matchup. First let's tackle what might be the obvious question: can Ghost Rider enter DC Hell and affect the people there? The answer is yes. Ghost Rider can travel into higher planes of reality
was able to escape from a dimension where time does not exist
Was able to fight Dusk, the platonic concept of Madness, affecting it normally
While DC Hell has a lot of properties that difficult to enter, Ghost Rider would pretty clearly be able to drive into it and affect those within it.
DC Hell is also however a massively inhospitable place to survive within. When Superman's senses were exposed to Hell, he could see the infinite suffering of those within, hate, fear, and despair, driving him to a sorrow that nearly drove him mad
Hell was an experience that frightened even Green Lantern Hal Jordan, "the man without fear"
However while the effects of Hell are psychologically extreme, the Ghost Rider is uniquely suited to withstanding them. Not only was Ghost Rider the king of his own Hell for a truly immense amount of time, with a hundred years passing in seconds on Earth
giving him presumably some resistance to Hellish torments, but Johnny is truly fearless to the point that when approaching the Throne of Hell guarded by the worst fear of whomever sees it, something that affects even the strongest of angels and demons Johnny found it was nothing
as Johnny truly fears nothing and with the added experience would likely be able to withstand the psychological torment of Hell's existence even more then Green Lantern. This is especially true given their characters as Hal is characteristically arrogant and brash, and before going there didn't even believe in Hell so was much more shocked at his ultimate powerlessness. While also brash, Johnny is known for his relaxed and adventurous nature and the infiniteness of Hell would be far less effecting on him.
But what of the madness inducing sorrow and despair? Johnny is a noble individual and could be effected like Superman. Well, Superman was affected because his "perfect senses" could literally see the infinite torment of Hell at once and I don't know if Ghost Rider's senses would do that. Also Ghost Rider has withstood the suicide aura of Wallow showing resistance to supernaturally induced sorrow
and has such a strong resistance to madness that he rode through Dusk's madness-causing dimension for 1,000 days without issue
Overall Ghost Rider is uniquely well equipped to deal with the psychological-spiritual corrupting tormenting nature of DC Hell and would easily be able to tank being there.
So I'm going to be going over the strongest denizens of DC's Hell and how well I think the Ghost Rider would be able to combat them. For the most part I'm only going to be comparing him to the strongest beings of Hell, as most of the demons are not strong enough to really be a viable threat as anything more than a distraction against the real demons. I don't think Blathoxi, Lord of Flatulence
is going to be particularly relevant here, even if he unironically scales to low multiversal for treating souls like humans do coin. Most demons are only about as strong as Ghost Rider's passive presence and so I don't feel the need to mention... with the exception of Brandor, because I couldn't NOT mention it.
Brandor is a Demon Motorcycle Rider, king of the pitriders and the "head honcho on the highway to Hell"
Etrigan pretty easily beat him and then stole his bike to make "Toast Rider"
Even if GR did agree to a motorcycle race, Johnny has vastly better motorcycle feats including doing literally physics-defying tricks
Johnny obviously casually beats Brandor in a motorcycle race or a fight, but it was too thematic and relevant to not mention. Possibly he could wager on the race to get Brandor's service or information from him.
DC's Demon Hierarchy has at the top the archdukes ruled traditionally ruled by three demons known as the Triumverate. Being part of the Triumverate doesn't neccesarily make you more powerful, it's a title more than anything, but obviously demons only allow someone to rule over them with very good reason and becoming a Triumverate is one of the most impressive feats a Demon can have in DC Comics. Basically Triumverate members are those with the highest combined power, intellect, and political influence. There have been 4 Triumverates with a combined 9 or 10 members. In Reign of Hell three demons were collectively in control of all of Hell and while they never shared power as they were engaged in civil war, they can be viewed as a fifth unofficial triumverate putting the number to 12 or 13. It is these Triumverate Demons and another roughly dozen very powerful demons relevant to them that form the top tiers of the DC Demon Hierarchy and would be the biggest obstacles to Ghost Rider taking over Hell. I'll be going through them from roughly weakest in raw power to strongest in raw power, though their haxes and intellects will vary.
Firstly there is Nytemayr, Lord of the Forbidden Zone, believed by some to be the eviliest of all
Nytemayr has a very powerful technique, The Sphere of 1,000 Nightmares, trapping an opponent in a bubble of their worst nightmares to fight against what is not real until they die which trapped Etrigan and Lobo
However not only does the power of holy goodness protect from this, but Johnny has resisted a very similar attack when trapped in an endless dream trap made by Nightmare
The Many-Angled Ones are Demons of Forbidden Science, architects of Hell's geography who stole the Sacred Geography of the Angels and twisted it to their maddening unnatural angles
They are extra-dimensional entities
and can consume billions of souls at once, terraforming the Earth
However Ghost Rider was able to defeat Zadkiel, the Dark Angel
Zadkiel was able to control all the souls of Purgatory and warp reality, basically doing what the Many-Angled Ones did but on a much higher scale
Marvel concepts like Dusk are also higher dimensional entities
So Ghost Rider's ability to hit Dusk normally suggests he would also be able to do so to the Many-Angled ones.
A particularly potent Archduke of Hell was the Demon Asteroth, known for his ambition. Asteroth became a powerful wizard by drinking the blood of Merlin and absorbing his life essence for three years
Asteroth's magic is strong enough to let him go toe to toe with Lobo and Etrigan, and most potent he knows of a forbidden ritual that can let drain all the power of an enemy
This would very likely work against Ghost Rider as power draining is something that usually works against him, however absorbing the life essence of Ghost Rider may allow Ghost Rider to rend Asteroth from the inside
Merlin was also able to defeat the Power-Draining Ritual of Asteroth by directing the energy in motion to Etrigan something I think Johnny would likely be able to do, as he already has done something similar reversing the energy-draining of a demon
Asteroth was also able to split Etrigan and Jason Blood into two seperate entities
Unlike Jason and Etrigan however, Johnny and Zarathos are in harmony with each other and could simply re-fuse if they chose. This could maybe make Johnny temporarily vulnerable, but even by himself, Johnny is a massively powerful entity, able to defeat Dan Ketch Ghost Rider level enemies consistently through sheer will and skill
and is a master of occult magic
to the point that Dr. Strange has stated Johnny is next to be Sorcerer Supreme if he were to fall. As such I'm pretty sure Johnny could hold his own if he was de-fused with Zarathos from Asteroth long enough for them to rejoin together.
Asteroth can also take on a battle form where he grows giant and made of hellfire
but um, this would be a pretty stupid move against someone who can control Hellfire freely.
Another Archduke is Morax, the Bull-Beast of Stygia
Both he and Asteroth agree Morax would win a direct confrontation between them
However Morax doesn't really have notable powers, he'd mostly be a mild physical threat to Ghost Rider. Triskele, Wyrm Queen of Succubus is similar. She's even stronger than Morax as she was able to slay an Archangel
while none of Etrigan's forces, Morax included, had even a chance of defeating the archangel Karrien
This also suggests Triskele would be around the tier of the generals of the Triumverate of power signifigant to that tier, as Asmodel, a fallen archangel was of that rank, obviously before he became the Spectre,
Asmodel had, although it's unlikely he still can, the ability to use the light of Heaven, a hax light power that ignores physical durability and which drives mad anyone who sees it save those with pure souls
Even if he can still use it however, it would not work on Johnny for he is a pure incorruptible soul
Asmodel also has the ability to cause people to explode
It would be an NLF to suggest he could use this on someone as strong as Ghost Rider when he's only ever done it to normal humans, but even if he did Ghost Rider's regen allows him to regenerate from having every part of his physical form destroyed
The prior mentioned demon Chronozon I believe would be around here being the captain of the Triumverate member Beezlebub's horde
As mentioned earlier, Chronozon has the power to turn into anti-life, the dark at the end of everything, the end of universes, gods, worlds, everything.
This power I believe would be a credible threat to Ghost Rider. Ghost Rider does have some ability to manipulate this concept, the beast of judgement, the death of all
However Chronozon's Anti-Life Form is on a scale beyond the universal scale Ghost Rider has shown so while he may be able to control Chronozon, it is a viable threat.
Asmodeus would likely be superior to even this, for he served as partner to Beezlebub in their attempt to reclaim Hell in Lucifer's name, while Chronozon was a subordinate to Beezlebub.
Similar, if not superior in rank to Asmodel is Lilith, Mother of Atrocities and Lord of Heretics who appears to be second in command to Neron.
She is the lord of all dark magic and was able to recall all dark magic and all creatures of infernal origin like vampires, werewolves, ghouls, dark alter egos, etc. to serve Neron's war effort
However Ghost Rider is extremely resistant to magic, with Zarathos spirit being able to override the magic of the strongest wizards in the world
and who claimed to be immune even to the magical arsenal of Dr. Strange, master of all magic (black magic included)
Lilith is strong enough to physically tear the flesh from Belial's face with her teeth suggesting she's physically strong enough to be a credible threat to Ghost Rider
It's unclear if this Lilith is the same as the Lilith in Lucifer, first woman (the wiki lists them as the same), but if so Lilith is wise enough that even Lucifer respects her counsel
and can travel between the worlds, even to the void beyond creation
though I don't believe she could use this for BFR as it seems to take an extended period, and Ghost Rider can create portals to the afterlife at will
The Demons Aym and Createis are likely of power relevant to Ghost Rider as while nothing is known about them, they were invoked to give Sabbac power alongside extremely powerful demons such as Beezlebub, Belilal, Asmodeus, and "Satan"
However now we move into the real big names; the triumverate members, the lords of Hell. First there's the half-demon Lady Blaze part of the unofficial fifth triumverate that attempted to usurp Hell from Neron with her brother Satanus.
Lady Blaze is for a Triumverate member not hugely powerful, only about as strong as the demons mentioned above. She is strong enough to have considerable power to a rookie Dr. Fate
which is actually pretty impressive as Dr. Fate even as a rookie has to have the power to battle the Lords of Chaos. She was able to contend with her father the Wizard Shazam and was a threat to the Rock of Eternity
The Rock of Eternity being the Empyrean point of the multiverse whose power could seal even the strongest lord of order Mordru
However Lady Blaze does not focus on raw power. Blaze is the ultimate temptress, holding full sway in her own domain with those who stay there being drained of their power and eventually falling under her control
She is a seductress and her kiss condemns one to her domain forever
Blaze's domain draining Johnny of power would likely be a signifignat threat so long as he's there as power-draining tends to work against Ghost Rider.
Lady Blaze has more abilities. She can distort space and reality
She once almost encompassed the physical world, absorbing it into her domain where she commands reality
Lady Blaze might use that to try and coerce and threaten Ghost Rider by threatening the physical realm. However Ghost Rider could counter with at least equal, possibly higher spatial manipulation as he has strong enough spatial manipulation to be able to drop the entire afterlife upon the universe and could consequently hold back her realm from engulfing the physical world.
Lady Blaze, as her name suggests, can control the Hellfire, using it as a weapon and even conjuring it in the mortal realm from Hell to create a sunlight to burn a vampire
However this would be counterproductive to use against the Ghost Rider as everything about him down to his coat are immune to hellfire
and he can absorb Hellfire from his surroundings to make himself stronger, meaning this attack would only make him stronger if Blaze tried to use it
If anything this may help initially counter Blaze's domain draining GR of power since he can draw power from the Hellfire within, although Blaze can warp the surroundings if she realizes that's happening.
Blaze was able to seal off a building from reality and could unseal her three half-brothers (Sin, Terror, and Wickedness) from the Rock of Eternity
However Ghost Rider was able to resist the sealing power of Dr. Strange far above Blaze's feats
Blaze's sorcery can distort even the senses of Superman
However Johnny doesn't just rely on the 5 senses of human enhanced but he has a sixth spirit sense
which would allow him to easily sense the cosmic evil of Blaze just as it allowed him to sense and travel to Adam who was on the other side of the world
and was able to tell he was in the Sanctum Sanctorum despite Strange projecting a dimension around them
Blaze can summon the darkness within someone to envelop and contain them, even working on the pure Superman
However this would not work on Ghost Rider as he is constantly enveloped in Hellfire, even being able to summon it as Johnny, which burns away enchantments and can hit the spiritual
meaning it should just burn off the darkness layer.
Lady Blaze can forcefully fuse people, as she fused her demon army into one massive demon that was a threat to her brother
and was able to transmute a computer into a demonic crystal orb
However Ghost Rider's hellfire also allows him to resist the matter manipulation of people like the Skin Bender
Blaze was able to power-drain her brother Satanus
This might be dangerous although as mentioned earlier Ghost Rider's essence will burn her from within if she tries.
Blaze is also a manipulator as befitting her title as the ultimate temptress. She augments this with her cosmic awareness, there is little in Hell she and her brother are unaware off
and she can gaze into the other realms at will
She was even able to outwit everyone and become the Empress of Hell until the end of the Post-Crisis period.
Johnny probably can resist Blaze's typical temptations, as he was able to defeat the deceptions of the Marvel Devil.
Given that Blaze is attracted to pure souls hoping to tempt them, she has a tendency to flirt with superheroes
and Johnny is an attractive man with a pure soul he may actually be able to temporarilly ally with her.
I believe the demon Negal, ruler of Charn, is roughly equal to the Lady Blaze in raw power, performing similarly against an early Dr. Fate
Negal is the "devourer of souls"
This would likely not work against Ghost Rider as even Mephisto can not destroy the soul of a Spirit of Vengeance
Negal can attack someone by throwing human suffering at them forcing to experience the pure suffering extracted from human experience
this form of counciousness manipulation may or may not work on Ghost Rider depending on how close a power you think you need to resist to be able to withstand, but he has more than enough willpower to endure as even when dying, drained of all strength, blind, deaf, and barely able to move he was able to still keep going and defeat his enemy Centurious
Negal was also able to trap Dr. Fate in a Hell Dimension where he was attacked by zombie duplicates of the Justice Society of America, Fate's old friends
However Negal's powers only work on those who self-despise, and he can not can crush the Heroic Spirit, the Ideal
Negal has an even more broken power however, he can destroy the concept of a person, erasing them from every reality
This would also be nullified by the Heroic Spirit or Ideal but if he targets someone who also is the concept of "Ghost Rider" but lacks the power of Johnny's ideal it would affect every "Ghost Rider." This requires some mild prep but if it goes through it should actually work on Ghost Rider. Johnny has resisted existence erasure before but nothing on the extent of multiversal conceptual erasure. Stopping this would basically require Ghost Rider recognizing Negal's threat before Negal does or at least before he does and can use his erasure on one of the lesser spirits of vengeance, which is not unlikely given Ghost Rider's way better information gathering abilities and Johnny's ability to summon them to him at will.
For the sake of the record, Negal's powers and limits are kinda unclear. The storyline of Dr. Fate vs Negal was written by Steve Gerber for the first 7 of 8 issues. However he tragically passed before the eighth issue was written so there's 4 endings for the 8th issue, written by 4 different writers as different tributes to Gerber, any of which could be canon. The information about Negal erasing Fate on a multiversal scale and being unable to affect the heroic spirit or ideal comes from the second ending, which I'm assuming is one of four things that could have happened.
Stronger than them is Etrigan of the Fourth Triumverate. You might be surprised to see Etrigan here, but the Etrigan normally seen interacting with Superman and Wonder Woman and the like are actually Etrigan's emanation not his Godhead.
Etrigan the demon is a powerhouse who made all of Hell fear him as he traveled through it
and has fought Lobo on a numerous occasions who was the sealed beast that it took all of Hell to capture initially
cementing Etrigan as pretty clearly a top tier demon. This is consistent with Etrigan being the leader of Neron's forces in the Reign in Hell civil war
Truthfully as the two are compared a bit and because the feats seem roughly in the same range I was using Godhead Etrigan's power level as a reference for how strong Ghost Rider would be in terms of raw power.
If the two are indeed around the same strength level I think Ghost Rider would pretty clearly win a confrontation. Not only is he holy, Etrigan's weakness, but while Etrigan has a pretty good arsenal of abilities Johnny can do basically all the same things and better. It doesn't help that pretty much all of Etrigan's abilities are magic which Johnny's hellfire passive melts away
Etrigan can BFR enemies in spacetime
Not only can Ghost Rider resist, he could just come back via interdimensional portals and time travel
Etrigan has spirit manipulation
Johnny's chains however can easily hit spirits that Etrigan set upon him
Etrigan also needs to return to the fires of Hell to recharge so it's very possible that Ghost Rider could drain the hellfire from Etrigan in order to depower him. There's also the small little point that Johnny and Zarathos are actually working together while Jason Blood and Etrigan do not get along and Ghost Rider could use his mind manipulation to increase the mental conflict between them.
A demon of roughly similar strength to Etrigan is his old enemy Baal-Satyr, the two implied to be somewhat relative
Baal-Satyr is an ethereal demon, a prince of darkness. I don't know if this means he would become conceptually intangible in Hell
Baal-Satyr can control mist and can use it choke people as he tried to do to Wonder Woman
However Ghost Rider can control smoke and mist and should likely be able to control him in his ethereal state
Moreover Baal-Satyr is weak to water which dissolves him
Ghost Rider as a master of all the elements could just hit Baal-Satyr with a water attack when he learns of this
Stronger than Etrigan are Belial, prince of deceit, of the Third Triumverate and Ran Va Daath, the serpent queen, of the Fourth Triumverate, Etrigan's father and mother.
Belial and Ran Va Daarth are consistently about equal, the two having warred against each other many times
Belial is strong enough to battle his son while Etrigan was wearing the Crown of Thorns that made Jason Blood equal to Etrigan
which could mean Belial and Ran Va Daath are about twice as strong as Godhead Etrigan, and in this case around twice Ghost Rider's strength.
Not much is known about Ran Va Daath but she was able to create sleeping draughts
However even if they were able to get that in Ghost Rider's body, the hellfire naturally coursing in his blood would simply undo its magic passively
More is known about Belial, eldest son of Trigon, prince of deceit. He is one of the most learned Demons of Hell who uses intellect and dark magic to make up for his lack of raw power compared to other Lords of Hell
He was able to bestow evil wisdom upon Sabbac to counter Shazam's wisdom of Solomon
Belial is lord of the darkflame
a flame that required Raven to use her soul self to protect the Titans from.
Johnny's Hellfire should easily be able to clash with and block the Ebonflame as it resides on the astral plane naturally
Belial also created a Hell Zone on Earth that overtime massively amped his power, making him the strongest demon in Hell and a threat to all existence.
While the Hell Zone extended over the entirety of Death Valley, Ghost Rider could purify it if need be as his spiritual manipulation has extended over the entire nation of Nicaragua before
Belial has another trait that makes him particularly hard to kill, that being his higher dimensional nature that allows him to and his brothers to exist in an omni-dimensional space where millions of universes collided through them.
While Johnny can affect higher dimensional beings, this may make it hard to affect Belial in a raw power way, especially coupled with his family's seeming totally immunity to pain, however he actually has an ideal way to exploit Belial. Belial was defeated by the Phantom Stranger simply giving him the pieces of silver the Phantom Stranger always carries which crushed Belial in his heart just from the sheer guilt and suffering and sorrow they carried
Ghost Rider's famous Penance Stare doesn't just make one feel the physical pain one has inflicted but also the emotional and mental pains; the sorrow and guilt and has killed beings who was immune to pain
If Ghost Rider used the Penance Stare on Belial I don't think it would destroy him from physical agony but would tear his psyche to shreds from the infinite treacheries the Prince of Deceit has wrought whose sorrow he would be forced to bear all at once.
Stronger still than their family is the silent watchmen of the infinite pit, called Apollyon the destroyer, known more commonly as Abaddon, fallen Angel of the Abyss, of the fourth Triumverate. His eternal vigilance and guardianship of the abyss is moved neither by force nor wit
Ran Va Daarth warns Etrigan of Abaddon, and Belial commends Etrigan for allying with a power like him in his attempt to usurp the Triumverate of Hell.
Abaddon is known for attacking by summoning the infinite hoards of horrific demon bugs capable of quickly overwhelming and threatening Etrigan
Ghost Rider actually has the very specific ability to manipulate demonic insects and so could simply will them away from him
Which brings up Beelzebub, lord of flies, of the Second and Third Triumverates. Beelzebub is a demon powerful enough that he believed Etrigan alone was no threat to him, and required Etrigan and Abaddon to work together to defeat him
Beelzebub believed he and Asmodeus could take over Hell in Lucifer's name
Beelzebub is noted to have position due to his immense age giving him immense political influence, for he has existed since death began and shall likely persist to the end of the universe, yet he also boasts immense power and intellect for a demon as well.
Beelzebub has even claimed that he is stronger than the Roman Pantheon
If he's speaking truthfully, which he may not be, this is an absolutely immense feat as Jupiter along with Odin and Zeus split the power of the Source
Beelzebub has dominion over Death and Decomposition, born at the same time as Death and existing until the end of time itself.
While Beelzebub's death manipulation should pretty easily scale to his subordinate Chronozon who can change into Anti-Life, I don't think it would work on Ghost Rider. Beelzebub's death manipulation seems to be about organic death, decay, decontamination. Spirits of Vengeance like Ghost Rider are immortal ageless entities that only God is stated to be able to kill and who as mentioned earlier can control death.
Beezlebub was able to grant black magic that could rust away an opposing armies weapons
so Beezlebub might try to rust away Ghost Rider's weapons and vehicle but this would also not work as Ghost Rider infuses his equipment with Hellfire that would burn away the black magic
Beelzebub was able to create a seal on his territority that required Etrigan and Abaddon to join power to break
In a fight with Beelzebub and other demons this might be a problem, creating a forcefield GR would have trouble breaking that said one on one Ghost Rider has literally infinite stamina and could outlast Beelzebub's seal and if Ghost Rider really needed to get through it he could create at least 4 copies of himself out of Hellfire with his exact stats to destroy it together
Beezlebub in particular seems to like swarm in numbers, summoning massive hoards of demon flies to devour opponents and whose plans involve spreading evil through the mortal realm via having demons infiltrate human society and create demon-human hybrids that Beelzebub can use for his purposes like a fly laying its eggs in decaying organic material
Ghost Rider can counter this not really with one ability but through a combination of several partial counters. As mentioned above he can create up to four copies of himself, and as the leader of the Spirits of Vengeance can summon an army of them himself
He can use energy or hellfire in an omnidirectional wave
which can hit large number of Beezlebub's minions or use his chains to keep them at bay
Beezlebub's half-demon hoard are also mortal meaning the Divine Tongue should work on them, an ancient language that compel the minds of mortals, including a whole city
Beelzebub has a danger sense, much like a fly
This would be mildly annoying as Beelzebub would pretty much immediately know the threat posed by the Ghost Rider but basically just means Beelzebub would be prepared for a dangerous threat.
Beelzebub could also for some reason grant Sabbac fire powers.
As mentioned before this wouldn't really do anything to Ghost Rider.
An interesting denizen of Hell is Baal. In DC Gods, even dark gods and Demons are completely distinct entities. Demons are denizens of the conceptual afterlife realm of Hell warping it and it warping them into sharing an infernal state. Gods on the other hand are personifications of forces of nature born in the dreaming and go to the dreaming again to die. Baal is an entity that is both a God and a Demon, one of the old gods lost to Hell warped by its nature and never reaching the Dreaming to die.
As gods power depends on their followers, Baal is normally not very powerful for a demon but after a particular ritual was done, Baal temporarily regained his full power that allowed him to tank Etrigan's power and claimed nothing in Earth, Heaven or Hell could stop him
Baal can not be harmed normally even then, as Baal's flesh hides his true divine essence, intangible even in the conceptual realm
This would make Baal at his peak vastly difficult for Ghost Rider to beat normally. Baal is a storm god, the thundering destroyer who attacks with divine lightning
Ghost Rider actually would be able to counter this as he battled the Huntsman who had the power of the Greco-Roman Pantheon and gained the ability to control the divine lightning
meaning that Ghost Rider may able to simply take Baal's lightning and fire it back at him in an almost identical fashion. This may still not be able to affect Baal's true self but Baal has a particular weakness. Baal is one of the old gods and is weakened and can be physically beaten in the presence of modern technology made of iron.
But it's not like Ghost Rider takes modern technology around with him everywh...
oh, right.
Given Baal's tendency to focus only on what's right in front of him, and Ghost Rider's ability to control the Hellcycle with his mind he could appear before Baal and while he's distracted simply command the Hellcycle to slice through Baal from behind.
Beyond even Baal are the infinitely power demons on the level of the Spectre and whose powers can control the entirety of the infinite conceptual realm of Hell. First of those is Azmodeus, Dread Demon of ultimate evil, Spectre's opposite
Azmodeus is a reality-warper to match the Spectre and in their battle not just reality, but dreams, possibility itself was threatened
While Ghost Rider can likely still hurt Azmodeus via Azmodeus' holy weakness Ghost Rider would need to be extremely careful as a single strike from Azmodeus would be a threat to Ghost Rider.
Azmodeus was able to drain away the energy of The Spectre and seal him inside Jim Corrigan
However this seal could be released by powerful mystic energy
As Johnny is the focal point of all Magic in the Marvel Universe, his passive presence may be enough to break Zarathos free if Azmodeus tried to seal Zarathos inside Johnny in a similar fashion.
Azmodeus was able to construct metaphysical bullets made of Spectre's own doubt to harm him
However Johnny Blaze is generally a confident man full of hope who is not prone to self-doubt and which Azmodeus would unlikely be able to use his own emotions against him.
Azmodeus regularly possesses mortals, acting as a dark mirror to Spectre's union with a mortal soul
Ghost Rider can sense demonic presences however
and can use his exorcism powers, even through punching, to force Azmodeus out into the open
Azmodeus regularly deals by taking peoples shadows, parts of their soul
Even by himself Johnny was able to fight an entire clan of shadow-manipulating ninjas.
Azmodeus was able to bind The Spectre in chains of fire that even he could not escape when the Spectre was distracted
However while Ghost Rider might not be able to break the chains, even with his torso and legs constrained he can still use the Penance Stare, and in fact if Azmodeus succeeds in binding Ghost Rider, he likely would believe he's succeeded giving Ghost Rider a particularly good chance to use it
particularly because Azmodeus is bound by his pride and hatred.
Azmodeus can summon the spirits of hatred to battle
Ghost Rider could counter with his aforementioned spiritual manipulation or by summoning the other spirits of vengeance. Ghost Rider's spiritual manipulation can wipe clean ones sins, ridding one of all hatred along with other emotions destroying the spirits of hatred
Azmodeus carries no real power himself, his power is entirely the power of the souls he collected and freeing them would defeat Azmodeus
That said I don't know if Ghost Rider has strong enough soul manipulation to do this quickly. A sliver of Zarathos rib once became one of the most powerful anti-soul weapons in the Marvel Universe
but it's a bit hard to compare. In their first confrontation, Spectre defeated Azmodeus by draining him of all his energy and BFR-ing to a non-space, non-time where he would be unable to gather energy from anything.
Something Ghost Rider may be able to replicate via draining Azmodeus of his energy and sealing him in a dimensional rift
Azmodeus also has another interesting weakness Ghost Rider could manipulate. When Spectre battled Azmodeus, Madame Xanadu assisted by repeatedly summoning Azmodeus to the physical realm, splitting Azmodeus attention into two places at once so he could not focus.
If Ghost Rider used clones to fight Azmodeus directly and repeatedly summon him into one of the mortal universes, he could perform similarly
Vastly stronger than Azmodeus is Shathan, Dictator of Dis (Capital of Hell), whom Azmodeus is naught but a familiar off
Shathan is the Dictator of Dis, a city that serves as capital of Hell, a metaphysical universe onto itself, a nether universe formed as the inverse of the Big Bang, where he is supreme.
Even outside his domain, Shathan is equal to Spectre
Shathan would be an immense power and if Shathan drew Ghost Rider into Dis, I think he would be able to quickly defeat Ghost Rider via reality-warping. He could try to do this via his metaphysical magnetism which can draw someone to a metaphysical realm of his choosing
but while anywhere in conventional spacetime is unsafe from Shathan's supernatural magnetism, the same can't be said of the other metaphysical realms. In particular the Dreaming seems particularly difficult for the Demons to gain access too, and Ghost Rider could use the Hellcycle to drive into the dreaming to be avoid being sucked into Dis.
Shathan can try to use his Trans-Time Telepathy to affect Ghost Rider before he does so, or even affect Johnny before he becomes the Ghost Rider
however spirits of vengeance are acausal beings unaffected by changes to the past.
Shathan is a particularly hard enemy to beat as he is said to exist so long as belief in him does, and even when Spectre sent him into the Big Bang and Shathan had his essence spread out across the universe, he was able to reform eventually
However Ghost Rider actually has the perfect counter to Shathan. The way Spectre eventually defeated Shathan was by forcing him to feel all the pain he had inflicted upon others.
....I believe Ghost Rider can do this as well 😋
So long as Shathan doesn't simply pull Ghost Rider into Dis and wipe him from existence, Ghost Rider's penance stare should one-shot the Dictator of Dis just as Spectre was able to with an identical attack type.
Vastly stronger than Shathan is Lord Satanus, brother of Lady Blaze, members of the unofficial fifth triumverate who usurped Hell from Neron. Satanus is so immensely powerful that upon killing Neron, Satanus remade all of Hell in his image
The conceptual reality of Hell consists of infinite Hells, in infinite realities of which the prior mentioned Dis is only a single one. Satanus exists in all of them.
Satanus has a lot of feats of cosmic awareness to the point that nothing in Hell escapes the gaze of Blaze and Satanus and it is implied he considers himself omniscient in his realm
He could also sense general information about people even from other dimensions, suggesting he would quickly know about the Ghost Rider
Ghost Rider can somewhat do the same as he can detect he's being observed from another dimension
and can sense information about a person's history by looking at them
that said Satanus' cosmic awareness does seem a bit stronger.
Satanus would likely after gaining information on Ghost Rider's physiology would try to channel holy energy through a Church Bell to create a holy sonic attack like he did against Blaze's demon, something he can do as a half-demon
This is technically a weakness of Ghost Rider although something he could probably withstand as he has withstood stronger holy attacks before such as being impaled by a giant holy sword
as such Ghost Rider would probably be able to endure the attack though it would do some damage.
Satanus created a magical disease called DMN that turned humans into demons and later reversed the effects to turn the demons of Hell into humans, removing Neron's power base and giving him the advantage in their fight.
Obviously the reversed form wouldn't do anything to Ghost Rider as he's not a demon and the former would only work on Johnny if he was untransformed if at all, and might not work even then.
Satanus was able to casually shatter an attacker's sanity without even moving
However Ghost Rider was able to fight Madness in his own Insanity Realm and so this likely would not work
He was able to make Adversary simply disappear before bringing him back
However Ghost Rider was able to resist the oblivion manipulation of Deathurge and so could avoid being erased
Satanus can manipulate minds although rather than the mental domination some Demons do, Satanus puts very subtle subconcious thoughts in the minds of others through telepathy so as to make the target think they came up with an idea he wanted them to think
While this arguably wouldn't be resisted by normal mental resistance, Johnny has resisted the thought-altering song of the Sirens before
plus in general I don't think this type of manipulation would work very well against an enemy with two minds.
Along with his telepathy, Satanus has telekinesis
Ghost Rider can counter with his own telekinesis that honestly just has better feats like impaling the Devil
Satanus can dimensionally BFR, even sending a building through dimensions into a neutral battle zone
As mentioned before Ghost Rider can pretty easily resist BFR and can travel through dimensions himself.
Satanus can create dark chains to bind the spirit of his opponent
This is actually just like a dark equivalent to Ghost Rider's own spiritual chains
I have to imagine that this is a neutral point as both could counter each others spirit chains. That said if these are the same as Ghost Rider's usual chains he definitely has a lot more control over them.
Satanus can create an illusion of never-ending enemies to endlessly distract his enemies
However not only does Ghost Rider have enhanced senses his hellfire burns away illusions
Lord Satanus was able to absorb the soul of Metropolis, becoming it and spiritually corrupting the entire city
Superman's purity was holding that darkness back but only for a small section and that was the extremely high moral purity of Superman's soul
This level of soul absorption, corruption, and spiritual manipulation would probably be some level of threat although given his exorcism, soul and spiritual manipulation I think Ghost Rider would be able to at least somewhat counter it.
Lord Satanus also has his own realm, the Earth's dark realm where he is even stronger
but unlike Shathan he doesn't really have a good way of getting Ghost Rider into that realm outside of just blasting him there and if he gets a clean attack in like that it doesn't really matter. I imagine he could drag an innocent civilian Ghost Rider cares about in to lure him there but I don't imagine Satanus would really want to do that if he doesn't have too, as it would probably make him seem weak to have to drag an enemy into his own dimension. Satanus would most likely want to just challenge Ghost Rider directly. Plus there are ways Ghost Rider could counter tactically with sending in clones. Ghost Rider seems to be a tactically superior fighter to Satanus such as immediatly figuring out a way around Girth's passive hax
Lord Satanus and Lady Blaze during the Reign in Hell story arc strove to take power from the demon Neron after he became Emperor of Hell after the fall of the fourth triumverate, the three forming the unofficial fifth triumverate. Neron, he whose name is translated from the number 666, was a demon that required both Blaze and Satanus to battle. He's strong enough in raw power that even when Blaze gave Satanus her power, Neron was winning against Satanus without using his full power.
While Neron controlled Hell, the provinces of Hell were Neron's will given form and function, which makes sense as when Satanus beat Hell he remade Hell in his image
Neron the Howling One has an immense amount of feats and powers, including most of the abilities mentioned prior.
Neron is the darkness of man's mind given breathe and form
While Ghost Rider can fight conceptual enemies, if Johnny harbors any darkness within his mind then to fight Neron becomes a fruitless battle as Neron would exist as part of Johnny's own darkness. It's unclear if having a pure soul grants resistance to this.
Neron is invisible to all those except who he chooses, including technology
However not only can Ghost Rider use mystical senses to detect him but he can see invisible things
Neron has immersion and simply appeared in a television
Ghost Rider might be able to come back from immersion if he can portal from the Dreaming to the mundane realm but this is probably a threat to him.
Neron erased Deadman's memories of him
Ghost Rider would be able to tank this as he resisted the mental powers of Dr. Doom which includes memory manipulation
Neron was able to defuse Jim Corrigan and The Spectre
This would be a pretty big threat. Ghost Rider can mess around fighting demons like Astaroth but against Neron any moment of weakness is a major threat.
Neron has the ability to create false copies of things, like the Moon, and changes to it effect the original like a voodoo doll
This could be a pretty annoying ability for Ghost Rider to deal with. That said voodoo is presumably one of the arts of mysticism that Dr. Strange has mastered that Ghost Rider can resist so he may be able to resist it.
It's a plot point in Reign in Hell that Satanus' army were defeating Neron's army because they had free will, something Neron can take and give at will.
This is a pretty insane feat of mental-conceptual manipulation as he can control his literally infinite minions at once.
However he was not able to use this to control his opposition, presumably because Satanus had given them the power of Hope that let Superman escape when Neron had trapped him in a void ridding him of all memories, personality, and feelings.
Because of this I think Ghost Rider could be able to resist Neron's mind manipulation and BFR techniques as Johnny is propelled by the power of hope, saying he's not afraid of anything anymore because he's the kid of a hick carney ending up tied to the saddle of a monster and gone up against the worst, where even the thought of being damned does not hurt his soul anymore
This may even given Johnny the ability to burn Neron away. Neron is unable to resist making a deal but a soul given truly altruistically like Shazam gave to save the Justice League burns him, a soul willing to believe in the good of a world that seemed to be nothing but corrupt
This fits Johnny's character to a t, the person who would willingly consign himself to Hell to save just one person from going to Hell, who was willing to believe in the seemingly insane spirit of vengeance Zarathos
Neron would be an overbearing force to go up for the Ghost Rider against with infinite power and hax but Neron represents the cynical totalitarian bleak world that Ghost Rider irreverently spits in the face off. It's very in-character for Neron, not used to being actually threatened and focused on capturing pure souls, to want to make a deal for Johnny's soul but Johnny to give it altruistically to save others, burning Neron away.
So of the Demons that would actually try to stop Johnny the last to mention are the first, second, and third of the fallen. Despite arguably being stronger then Neron, the second and third are much less threats.
The first, second, and third of the Fallen are primordial demons, the literal first three to fall, from the Hellblazer series, enemies of John Constantine and collectively the first triumverate. They interact with the other demons pretty rarely meaning scaling them is a bit tricky. The three seem to be roughly as strong as each other, though as the First points out later they have different weaknesses
The three took back control of Hell when Lucifer abdicated, and while Neron is subject to the laws of Hell
the First of the Fallen is very clearly not which may suggest he's stronger
Admittingly it's pretty vague and you could put them anywhere in this power ranking but they should be at least somewhere in the list mentioned as they were able to form a Triumverate taking over Hell requiring some level of power.
The third of the fallen has the least information about it, it is the ever-shifting lord of a billion faces, a bunch of goo that constantly shifts forms to appear as it pleases
The Third doesn't really use this for stealth and even if it did it would be pretty easy for Ghost Rider to see right through it. The Third only really has one notable ability and to be fair it's a pretty good one. The Third's true form seen in limbo is nothingness
which presumably makes it quite difficult to kill since how do you kill nothing? How do you erase nothing or even really effect it?
I do think Ghost Rider's soul manipulation would probably work. Nothingness doesn't have a soul but his soul manipulation worked on Mephisto's Soulless ones who also don't have souls
That's really it for the Third.
The Second of the Fallen has more info mostly because supplementary material strongly implies the second is also Azazel of the Second Triumverate.
Azazel is the abomination, the demon lord of chaos and primordial darkness, second in infernal politics after Lucifer, speaking to his influence.
Azazel used to be the angel Azazel the Sin-Eater who consumed the sins of humanity so they would remain in perfect state. But as Azazel ate he grew hungrier and fell when he began to tempt humanity to sin so he could eat their sins
Azazel as a demon kept his conceptual spiritual consumption. He can engulf the souls of even conceptual souls in the afterlife and demons godheads by engulfing them in his darkness, consuming them,
This power is so potent he believed he could consume the soul of Dream of the Endless, something Dream agreed was a possibility outside the Heart of the Dreaming.
Ghost Rider can avoid this by keeping at range from Azazel but it is a threat, if Azazel engulfs Ghost Rider he would be able to consume Johnny and Zarathos' souls.
Azazel has another really strong ability. When Azazel is killed he can pass everything about him unto the person that killed him, meaning to kill Azazel is to BECOME Azazel.
Fortunately there's a way around this. Both the First of the Fallen and Dream beat Azazel by sealing him, and the First also beat the Third this way, sealing him stating he could do this because they, unlike him, were "Devils" and weak in ways he was not.
Ghost Rider more recently got the ability "Damnation Stare" where the wicked are sealed in the 9th Circle of Hell eternally
With this Ghost Rider could likely beat both the Second and the Third at once.
The First of the Fallen is more well known. He is known by many names: The Adversary, The Serpent in the Garden, Old Nick, but perhaps most as....Satan
Satan has, while probably not as powerful an arsenal as someone like Neron, his old bag of tricks.
He is able to kill powerful entities with just a touch
However Ghost Rider was able to tank the very similar power of Deathstalker
was able to reverse age Nergal the demon into a mortal, reverting him 10,000 years in a second
Zarathos is an ageless spirit from before the time of man (millions of years)
so even if it worked, which is fairly unlikely, it would take over 8 minutes to even begin to threaten Zarathos' existence.
Satan was able to force a man to kill himself
As mentioned earlier, Ghost Rider resisted the suicide aura of Wallow
