BARTON BLAZE

Real Name: Barton Blaze

Identity/Class: Human (Pre-modern era)

Occupation: Daredevil motorcyclist at the Quentin Carnival

Group Membership: The Quentin Carnival (Crash Simpson, others)

Affiliations: John Blaze, Naomi Kale, Crash Simpson

Enemies: None

Known Relatives: Naomi Kale (wife, deceased), John Blaze (Ghost Rider, son), Craig Blaze (grandson), Emma Blaze (granddaughter), Andrew Kale (nephew), Jennifer Kale (niece), Joshua Kale (father-in-law, deceased), Illyana Kale, Noble Kale, Destin Kale and Magdalena (wife's ancestors), extended posthumous family members by later family marriages (see comments)

Aliases: None

Base of Operations: Mobile wherever the Quentin Carnival stopped to perform

First Appearance: Marvel Spotlight I#5 (August, 1972)

Powers/Abilities: Barton Blaze had no superhuman powers but was an extremely skilled daredevil motorcyclist.

Height: 5'10" (by approximation)
Weight: 160 lbs. (by approximation)
Eyes: Unrevealed (see comments)
Hair: Blonde

History:

(Ghost Rider II#68 (fb) - BTS) - Barton Blaze was a motorcycle stunt rider and became the star performer of Crash Simpson's Daredevil Cycle Show.

(Ghost Rider III#14 (fb)) - Barton Blaze took his son Johnny on the road with Crash Simpson's Daredevil Cycle Show. Watching his father perform proved to be one of the happiest memories that Johnny had and Johnny began to think of his father as invincible.

(Ghost Rider VI#22 (fb)) - Upon arriving in a "hole-in-the-wall" town, Barton and the Quentin Carnival found a dead man lying on the ground. Rather than risk getting the police involved and hurting the Carnival's business, Barton Blaze, Crash Simpson and a few other carnival workers carried the dead man away and buried him, unaware that young Johnny Blaze had picked up an occult book that had fallen from the dead man's jacket.

(Marvel Spotlight I#5 (fb)/Ghost Rider VI#5 (fb)/Ghost Rider III#-1 (fb) - BTS) - When his son Johnny was six years old, Barton Blaze died attempting to perform the death-defying motorcycle stunt of jumping 10 gas tankers for the Crash Simpson Daredevil Cycle Show at the Quentin Carnival, unware that Johnny had witnessed the event.

(Ghost Rider III#-1 (fb) - BTS) - Feeling as if she had betrayed Barton and knowing of her family curse as hosts for the Spirit of Vengeance Noble Kale, Naomi abandoned her children in an effort to push them all as far away from her cursed bloodline as possible.

(Ghost Rider II#68 (fb) - BTS) - The day after Barton Blaze's funeral, Crash Simpson sat Johnny Blaze down and offered to take him in as part of the Simpsons family rather than have Johnny go to an orphanage, an offer Johnny accepted.

(Marvel Spotlight I#6 (fb) - BTS) - With Barton dead, Johnny Blaze was raised by Crash Simpson.

(Ghost Rider III#-1 (fb) - BTS) - Four years following Barton's death, his son Johnny had taken to wearing a "Barton Blaze: Hellfire on Wheels" leather jacket in Barton's honor. When Naomi secretly visited the Quentin Carnival to check on Johnny, she commented to herself on his resemblance to Barton and saw him being picked on by two local teens for wearing a Barton Blaze jacket. When asked if he knew Barton by the teens, Johnny replied he had never heard of him.

(Marvel Spotlight I#6 - BTS) - Years later, after Johnny Blaze had been transformed into the Ghost Rider, he related his father's death, his being raised by Crash Simpson and his origin as Ghost Rider to motorcycle gang leader Curly Samuels.

(Ghost Rider II#68 - BTS) - Venturing into a Catholic church for sanctuary on a stormy night, Johnny Blaze went to a confessional with the apparent pastor present (knowing full well that it was actually a man who had murdered the actual pastor and assumed his clothing to rob the church), remarking on Barton's death, his life with Crash Simpson and his origin as Ghost Rider.

(Ghost Rider II#78 - BTS) - While under the influence of the demon Nightmare, Johnny Blaze dreamed of being taken to a graveyard where the corpses of Barton Blaze and "Clara Blaze" spoke to him. Within the nightmare, Johnny experienced a vision of Barton Blaze asking him for a race and Johnny agreed, wishing to talk to his father. The nightmarish Barton instead called Johnny a washout before transforming into the taunting form of Ghost Rider.

(Ghost Rider III#14 - BTS) - After learning of a new Ghost Rider, Johnny Blaze confronted him and attempted to destroy him, thinking back on his early life with Barton and the Daredevil Cycle Show and how destroying this new Ghost Rider might exorcise all of the tragedy Johnny had suffered in his life.

(Damnation: Ghost Rider-Johnny Blaze#1 - BTS) - While trapped in Mephisto's Hell realm, Johnny Blaze thought about he was just the son of Barton, a "hick carny" as Johnny put it, and that there wasn't much he feared.

Comments: Created by Gary Friedrich and Mike Ploog.

Barton Blaze's hair color was only seen in visions (such as Ghost Rider II#78) or color-tinted flashbacks but without further images of Barton, we can only assume that his hair color was indeed blonde as visions have shown.

A flashback in Ghost Rider VI#5 shows Naomi Kale leaving the Quentin Carnival with her two children Dan and Barbara the day following Barton's death but that seems to at least slightly contradict 90s Ghost Rider issues in which Johnny Blaze seemingly first "meets" Dan Ketch and then the two don't even realize they are siblings until much later. The timeframe of the Ghost Rider VI#5 flashback seems to be in error, as Ghost Rider III#-1 shows Naomi mentioning to Crash Simpsons that she had heard Barton had died, suggesting she was not there when he died. So either Barton didn't immediately die from his crash wounds and Naomi left the next day while Barton might have still been hospitalized, finding out later that Barton did die, or she left Barton and the Carnival with Dan and Barbara prior to Barton's death, presumably before Dan and Barbara were even born, which would explain why Johnny Blaze did not seem to know he had a brother until much later. Naomi also mentions in Ghost Rider III#-1 that the two Ketch children (Dan and Barbara) did not seem to take after "Antonio," suggesting that Barton was not the father to Dan and Barbara, whose father was named "Antonio." This statement further seems to discredit the Ghost Rider VI#5 flashback, therefore, I did not include Dan and Barbara Ketch under Barton's relatives.

Naomi Kale, Barton Blaze's wife, was called Clara Blaze in the Ghost Rider II#78 nightmare sequence in which Johnny Blaze had a nightmare involving the corpses of "Clara" and Barton. Either she changed her name to Clara at some point or that name was simply a dream of Johnny's.

I chose not to list Roxanne Simpson or her relatives in Barton's relatives section, as Johnny Blaze married Roxanne well after Barton had died so they would not have been his relatives during Barton's lifetime.

Barton Blaze's appearances in Mythos: Ghost Rider#1 (March, 2007) were originally included in this profile but since many of the other Mythos one-shots were revealed to have occurred in alternate realities, it seems likely that the Mythos: Ghost Rider one-shot also occurred in an alternate reality, as some of the information contradicted the original comics. Therefore, I have removed information regarding the Mythos: Ghost Rider appearance from this profile.

Profile by Proto-Man.

CLARIFICATIONS:
Barton Blaze has no KNOWN connections to:

images: (without ads)
Ghost Rider VI#5, p6, pan3 (Barton Blaze in Quentin Carnival uniform, main image)
Ghost Rider III#14, p13, pan1 (younger Barton Blaze)

Appearances:
Marvel Spotlight I#5 (August, 1972) - Gary Friedrich (writer), Mike Ploog (art), Stan Lee (editor)
Marvel Spotlight I#6 (October, 1972) - Gary Friedrich (writer), Mike Ploog (pencils), Frank Monte (inks), Roy Thomas (editor)
Ghost Rider II#68 (May, 1982) - Roger Stern (writer), Bob Budiansky (pencils), Josef Rubinstein (inks), Tom DeFalco (editor)
Ghost Rider II#78 (March, 1983) - J.M. DeMatteis (writer), Bob Budiansky (pencils), Kevin Dzuban (inks), Tom DeFalco (editor)
Ghost Rider III#14 (June, 1991) - Howard Mackie (writer), Mark Texeira (art), Bobbie Chase (editor)
Ghost Rider III#-1 (July, 1997) - Ivan Velez, Jr. (writer), Javier Saltares (pencils), Keith Aiken (inks), Tom Brevoort (editor)
Ghost Rider VI#5 (January, 2007) - Daniel Way (writer), Javier Saltares (breakdowns), Mark Texeira (finishes), Axel Alonso (editor)
Ghost Rider VI#22 (June, 2008) - Jason Aaron (writer), Roland Boschi (art), Aubrey Sitterson (editor)
Damnation: Johnny Blaze-Ghost Rider#1 (May, 2018) - Christopher Sebela (writer), Phil Noto (art), Kathleen Wisneski (editor)

Originally posted: 01/24/2015
Last updated: 01/10/2019

Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.

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