Phantom Rider
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The Phantom Rider is a fictional character, a cowboy in the Marvel Comics universe. He was initially called the Ghost Rider, but after the appearance of subsequent Ghost Riders in the 1970s, the character's name was changed, first to the Night Rider and later to the Phantom Rider. No less than five men have worn the Phantom Rider's mask; four of them were active in the Wild West, and last is active in the modern day.
Carter Slade, the first to wear the mask, was a cowboy who first appeared in Ghost Rider (1967 series) #1, and as a gunfighter battled evil while dressed in a luminescent white costume, complete with a mask and the requisite white hat. He received his outfit and his white horse from a Native American medicine man. Slade was never called the Phantom Rider in his original appearances; his original adventures called him the "Ghost Rider", and later reprints renamed him the "Night Rider" to avoid confusion with Marvel's other Ghost Rider. It wasn't until after Carter Slade's death that the name "Phantom Rider" was given to the character, as the term "Night Rider" has connotations with the Ku Klux Klan, and retroactive stories have had Slade called the "Phantom Rider".
After Carter's death in Western Gunfighters (1970 series) #7, his sidekick Jamie Jacobs became the second Phantom Rider but was promptly killed in action, after which Carter's brother, U.S. Marshall Lincoln Slade, became the third Phantom Rider. Lincoln was driven mad, to the point that he used a potion to control and raped the time traveling Avenger Mockingbird. Once the potion wore off, she fought and defeated him, but in the course of the battle he fell to his death from a cliff.
In the miniseries Blaze of Glory, the African American gunslinger Reno Jones used the Ghost Rider identity briefly in a battle with the Klan-affiliated mercenaries called the Nightriders. Jones had been half of the team called the Gunhawks, along with his former friend, Kid Cassidy, who Jones had believed dead. Cassidy was revealed to be alive and the leader of the Nightriders, and was killed.
In the modern day, Lincoln Slade's distant descendant Hamilton Slade received the Phantom Rider's equipment and became a costumed adventurer, as seen in Ghost Rider volume 2 #56. He was possessed for a time by his ancestor's ghost, but was freed with the assistance of the West Coast Avengers. Carter Slade's ghost is now the spirit that guides him. He has since become involved with the superhero team called The Rangers.
Bibliography of Ghost Rider/Night Rider/Phantom Rider titles
- Ghost Rider (1967 series) #1-7 (February 1967 - October 1967)
- Night Rider (1974 series) #1-6 (reprints of the original series)
- The Original Ghost Rider (1992 series) #3-20 (new backup stories in a reprint series; #1-2 contained only reprints)