can someone explain this ghost rider character to me?

[Brickbatstone]

johnny blaze...his half brother, dan ketch...their mother...and now caleb from trails and tears mini has been a ghost rider. what is the connection? does the GR demon possess family members? if so, how did caleb become a GR? and how does vengeance git into all of this?

[The Ray]

johnny blaze...his half brother, dan ketch...their mother...and now caleb from trails and tears mini has been a ghost rider. what is the connection? does the GR demon possess family members? if so, how did caleb become a GR? and how does vengeance git into all of this?

The origin and histories of the Ghost Rider is murky and very undefined, almost by the nature of the character. The first published Ghost Rider was actually a western character that was later named " The Phantom Rider ". He's not important, so we don't talk about him. The next Ghost Rider is Johnny Blaze, who makes a deal with Mephisto to save his foster-father from a [then] incurable blood disease, [later] cancer. It works, but his foster-father dies in a stunt gone horribly arry. Mephisto tries to take his end of the bargin, but his foster-sister Roxanne Simpson banishes Mephisto. Before Mephisto leaves, he binds Johnny's soul to that of the demon Zarathos, becoming the Ghost Rider. Later, John eventually exorcised the demon, trapping it in the soul crystal. The next series was [seemingly] unconnected to the prior one, taking place in New York. This Ghost Rider was Daniel Ketch, a teeanger who--while out at The Cypress Hill Cementary--with his sister, got caught up in a gang war crossfire. His sister was struck and Dan snuck into a abandon auto wrecking yard to get away, finding a bike, which he touched and turned him into the Ghost Rider. It was later revealed that Johnny and Dan were long lost brothers and that their mother, Naomi Kale, sold her soul to Mephisto to ensure that the family curse, the curse of their ancestor Noble Kale, would skip Johnny. Mephisto promise that Johnny wouldn't become the Ghost Rider, but would become "a" Ghost Rider.

By the end of the Ivan Valez Jr run of the title, it was revealed that Dan Ketch version of Ghost Rider was the Marvel version of the Angel of Death, but that was retcon out by Howard Mackie in Peter Parker: Spider-Man #69

The Ghost Rider - Trail of Tears series is, I believe, an out of continuity with no connection to any of the previous Ghost Rider series.

[DeadXMan]

and there's no explanation on why Johnny and big Z were brought back together

[overcomebyfumes]

...so the answer is: no. No-one can explain Ghost Rider.

Ghost Rider continuity is unbelievably convoluted for what essentially is a C-list character.

This is interesting, from Wikipedia - possible real life ancestor for the Ketch clan?

John (Jack) Ketch (died 1686) was an executioner employed by King Charles II. He became famous through the way he performed his duties during the tumults of the 1680s, when he was often mentioned in broadsheet accounts that circulated throughout the Kingdom of England. He is thought to have been appointed in 1663. He executed the death sentences against William Russell, Lord Russell in Lincoln's Inn Fields on July 21, 1683 and James Scott, 1st Duke of Monmouth on July 15, 1685 after the Monmouth Rebellion. He was either very awkward or sadistic with his beheading technique, and his victims were known to have suffered at their deaths.

Ketch's execution of Lord Russell on July 21, 1683 was performed clumsily, and a pamphlet is extant which contains his Apologie, in which he alleges that the prisoner did not "dispose himself as was most suitable" and that he was interrupted while taking aim. On the scaffold (see gallows) on July 15, 1685, the Duke of Monmouth, addressing Ketch, referred to his treatment of Lord Russell, the result being that Ketch was quite unmanned. He had to deal at least five strokes with his axe and finally use a knife to sever Monmouth's head from his shoulders. In 1686, Ketch was deposed and imprisoned at Bridewell. His successor, Paskah Rose, a butcher, was hanged at Tyburn after four months in his office. Ketch was reappointed in his place. He died towards the close of 1686.

As a result, the term Jack Ketch is also used:

as a proverbial name for death or, sometimes, Satan;
as a shorthand for the gallows;
as the name of the hangman in the traditional version of Punch and Judy.
The knot more commonly known as a hangman's knot is also sometimes known as Jack Ketch's knot.

As a figure of death in folklore "Jack Ketch" is also known as "Hanging Jack" and "Mister Graball".


pax.