Ghost Rider VS Lobo

Ghost Rider VS Lobo is the 113th episode of Death Battle featuring Ghost Rider from Marvel Comics and Lobo from DC Comics in a battle between anti-hero bikers. Ghost Rider was voiced by Steven Kelly and Lobo was voiced by Jason Marnocha.

Description
The Spirit of Vengeance vs The Main Man. Which one of them will collect the bounty on their heads?

Interlude
(*Cues: Wiz & Boomstick - Brandon Yates*)

Wiz: Whether it be justice, vengeance, or the thrill of the kill, bounty hunting isn't for the faint of heart.

Boomstick: Especially when your usual targets are superheroes.

Wiz: The Ghost Rider, Marvel's relentless spirit of vengeance.

'''Boomstick: And Lobo, the Spacehogging main man of DC Comics. He's Wiz and I'm Boomstick.'''

Wiz: And it's our job to analyze their weapons, armor, and skills to find out who would win... a Death Battle.

Ghost Rider
Wiz: Even at a young age, Johnny Blaze lived life on the edge. Son to an accomplished cyclist Barton Blaze, he was sadly witnessed to his father's death in a stunt gone wrong.

'''Boomstick: But he got adopted by another stuntman, Crash Bandicoo- uh sorry, I mean Crash Simpson. It's no surprise that Johnny became a stunt performer himself, until Crash's wife died in a stunt gone wrong.'''

Wiz: Only now apparently aware that motorcycles can be dangerous, Johnny swore to never perform again.

'''Boomstick: And then Crash got cancer. Damn, even I don't have parent issues this bad.'''

Wiz: Completely devastated, Johnny refused to let Crash die. Willing to risk it all, he turned to the one person who could fix everything.

Boomstick: Everyone's favorite problem-solver, Satan!

(A circular window opens and Squirrely the Squirrel pops up.)

Squirrely: Hail Satan.

Wiz: This was Mephistopheles, one of the many lords of Hell who happened to have a special interest in Johnny's family line. To save Crash's life, he caught a deal with the devil, curing the cancer at the cost of selling his soul. The deal succeeded, and Crash was healed. But, then he died in, well, a stunt gone wrong.

'''Boomstick: I mean, he's a stuntman who's name is Crash. Should've seen it coming. And after all that, Johnny got stuck being Mephisto's b*tch for eternity.'''

Wiz: Mephisto even sandwiched him together with a demonic spirit of vengeance named Zarathos.

'''Boomstick: Zarathos. Ask your doctor if it's right for you... or your exorcist.'''

Wiz: Long ago, Zarathos was a powerful demon who threatened Mephisto's realm. Eventually, Mephisto defeated him, forcing him to eternal servitude.

Boomstick: And with their power combined, Johnny and Zarathos roamed the world, punishing the wicked as the embodiment of a death metal album cover, the Ghost Rider.

(We see Johnny transform into the Ghost Rider.)

'''Boomstick: Aaagh! Oh god, that's terrifying!'''

Wiz: Well, sure, his visage instills fear onto many-

'''Boomstick: What, no! Ghost Rider looks awesome! I'm talking about Nick Cage.'''

(We see Cage’s depiction of Johnny continuing his demonic laugh.)

Wiz: Agreed. Anyway, as the Ghost Rider, he became one of the universe's greatest threats. He has superhuman strength and speed, and his skeletal body can regenerate from practically any amount of damage.

Popup: Daniel Ketch, another Ghost Rider, has regenerated his entire body from nothing but hellfire, proving complete immunity from physical damage.

'''Boomstick: And if Blaze's last name wasn't obvious enough, he can shoot fire! Oh, but not just any fire, hellfire. The best kind of fire.'''

Wiz: The kind that's infused with magic that burns not just your flesh, but bypasses conventional defenses to attack your very soul. He can throw fireballs, raise walls of flame, rain fire from the sky, and even conjure weapons and objects out of thin air such as a demonic shotgun and an infinite strain of chains.

'''Boomstick: And his badass ride, the Hellcycle! This baby can look however Johnny wants but he usually summons it as a Panhead Chopper. '''

(We cut to Wiz and Boomstick)

Boomstick: It can respond to Johnny's thoughts, scale walls and even outrace Thor's hammer, Mjolnir.

Wiz: The same hammer that crossed the galaxy and back in a single minute.

Boomstick: Y'know, I lit my chopper on fire once.

Wiz: I didn't know you had a motorcycle.

'''Boomstick: Well, yeah, but... until the fire.'''

Wiz: Uh... oh.

'''Boomstick: Rest in peace, Roadhog. Least you went out in a blaze of glory like Bon Jovi said.'''

Wiz: But while his hellfire and chains are vicious weapons in their right, they're often used to ensnare the Ghost Rider's victims as he goes in for a truly diabolical kill. Or should I say "a penance."

'''Boomstick: The penance stare is basically hell's time out corner of pain. Ghost Rider isn't angry, just disappointed and he wants you to think about what you done and it to hurt. A lot.'''

Wiz: Under the penance stare, the Ghost Rider forces you to relive all the pain and misery you've inflicted on others throughout your entire life. No indiscretion no matter how minor is safe from the Ghost Rider's gaze.

Boomstick: So that time I put ground laxatives in my fourth-grade math teacher's coffee and gave her the shits, does that mean the stare would give my soul the shits too?

Wiz: Not literally, but you would experience the anger, humiliation, and the butt cramps.

Boomstick: So, basically eternal damnation, got it.

Wiz: But should your sins be so numerous and terrible, the penance stare could even obliterate your soul. Leaving you, an empty husk.

'''Boomstick: The stare doesn't work on everyone though, you might survive if you're blind, don't have a soul, draw power from pain, or if you're a weirdo like Thanos who gets off on that shit. Still, Ghost Rider's grabbag of powers let him tear up some of the biggest assholes of the world and even some of the good guys, like Hulk, Thor, and Doctor Strange.'''

''Ghost Rider: Sorry. All outta mercy...''

(He proceeds to use his chains on Gressil, burning him alive and reducing him to dust.)

Lobo
Wiz: Let's turn the clocks back to a distant era of sin and debauchery.

Boomstick: The 1990s.

Wiz: Inspired by the financial success of Watchmen and The Dark Knight Returns, comic writers started churning out grim and gritty superheroes by the dozen, like Cable, Azrael and Overkill.

'''Boomstick: Yeah, they were badass lookin’... at first. But I mean, what's even happening here? (Captain America’s Heroes Reborn design is shown)'''

Wiz: It got so absurd that someone needed to knock these roided-out monstrosities down a peg.

'''Boomstick: The world needed a hero. No, a parody.'''

Wiz: Enter the planet Czarnia. Once the brightest beacon of peace and happiness in the universe, until its inhabitants were annihilated by a biological catastrophe, leaving only one survivor. The last son of Czarnia; Lobo.

'''Boomstick: The one that killed all the rest of them. A guy whose name literally translates in Czarnian to "He who devours your entrails and thoroughly enjoys it." What?! Awesome! Why wasn't I named that?'''

Wiz: Lobo is so unimaginably evil, that his birth caused the midwife who delivered him to go insane. The first Czarnian to do so in ten thousand years.

'''Boomstick: Some even think that Czarnia was so perfect and good, the universe made Lobo to balance things out. Hey, didn't you say the same thing about me when we first met, Wiz?'''

Wiz: That I did. Simply put, Lobo was...unique and desired to be even more so. Thus, he insured he was the only Czarnian alive in the universe.

''Lobo: I fragged the rest of the planet for my high school science project. Gave myself an A.''

Boomstick: Yeah, he's definitely insane...ly awesome!

Wiz: Lobo left the desecrated corpse of his former home to become a bounty hunter. Probably because it's the only profession that legally allows him to murder.

'''Boomstick: Ah, don't worry, he'll murder you illegally too. Lobo doesn't discriminate. He even has a special gender-neutral insult and the name of my next motorcycle; Bastich.'''

(Sunny Jim fires a bazooka at Lobo and totals the Spacehog behind him)

''Lobo: My bike! Fraggin’ Bastich!''

Boomstick: Anyway, Lobo's bagged some pretty crazy bounties across the universe, including Santa Claus, two near-omnipotent dwarf gods, and even things that don't exist, apparently.

Wiz: And Lobo's Czarnian physiology is just as absurd to match. He possesses god-like strength, speed, and invulnerability. So much so that he can tear through hordes of superheroes like nothing. Should he somehow suffer damage, he also has an impressive healing factor.

Boomstick: He's like if Superman and Deadpool had a baby, which is a lot more terrifying when I say it out loud.

Lobo: See, someone’s payin’ me a heap of cash for your carcass, and the Main Man always delivers...

Death Battle
The camera starts off overlooking the desert, as we see Lobo strap an alien to his space-hog with his chains, before abrubtly noticing a figure riding a motorcycle in the distance.

Lobo: What the frag?

(*Cues: Ride into Hell - Brandon Yates featuring Jonny Atma*)

The figure reveals itself to be the Ghost Rider who proceeds to stop his hellcycle and speak to Lobo.

''Ghost Rider: Lobo of Czarnia, your sins are innumerable. I am here to --''

Lobo ignores this warning and carelessly runs Ghost Rider over, giving his adversary a middle finger, and smashing his hellcycle into pieces. However, both the cycle and Ghost Rider regenerate in a blaze of hellfire before engaging in a chase after the Main Man.

Ghost Rider begins the fight firing volleys of fireballs at Lobo, with one of them incinerating the Czarnian’s bounty. Lobo becomes enraged and swiftly drifts his spacehog to face Ghost Rider, all the while swinging his chain in fury.

Lobo: I’m gonna skull-frag ya!

Ghost Rider summons his own chain in response, dragging it along the rough sand before the two cyclists repeatedly clash their weapons. Lobo gains the upper-hand as his hook shatters his opponent’s blazing chain.

KO!

Results
'''Boomstick: Damn! That was toasty! Wonder what ghost Lobo taste like.'''

Wiz: Bein so absurdly powerful, Lobo definitely held a massive physical advantage over the Ghost Rider.

'''Boomstick: Yeah yeah, that was obvious. Skullhead took down a skyscraper while Lobo dragged around a freaking sun! But Ghost Rider survived some really incredible things, almost as incredible as these new shirts from Store.Roosterteeth.com-'''

(Wiz slaps Boomstick)

Wiz: Time and place, Boomstick.

Boomstick: Ah, come on we gotta eat!

Wiz: Even World War Hulk couldn’t finish him off! And Lobo didn’t typically carry any holy weapons, meaning he didn’t have a way to truly kill the Ghost Rider.

'''Boomstick: Yeah, but who needs holy weapons when you’re strong enough to crush a whole city? Couldn’t he just overpower Johnny?'''

Wiz: Good question, however, do you recall how powerful Zarathos was? Zarathos was an equal threat to Mephisto, whose battles tore apart the universe. Once Ghost Rider revealed his true power, Lobo’s physical advantage hardly mattered anymore.

'''Boomstick: But hey, the Main Man was super smart, and could probably figure out Ghost Riders weakness. But how is he gonna escape to find a holy weapon somewhere when the Hellcycle outraced Mjolnir?'''

Wiz: Wich once crossed the Milky Way and back in under a minute, a feat more than one hundred billion times faster than light, more than capable of keeping up with the Space Hog.

'''Boomstick: They were both as unkillable as you can get. But since Lobo was banned from the afterlife, how could he ever loose?'''

Wiz: This is where the fine print matters. Death was banned from reaping Lobo’s soul, but this didn’t mean the soul itself couldn’t be destroyed. This is where our research surprised us the most, it turns out the Ghost Rider had three different methods of specifically targeting Lobo’s soul.

Boomstick: His Hellfire could hurt the soul directly, and since it ignores normal defences Lobo couldn’t really stop it.

Wiz: With trillions of murders in Lobo’s hands, the Penance Stare could wield extraordinary power against him. And while Lobo had a high pain tolerance, he did not enjoy fatalistic agony and unending torture so much that he would survive all of that at once.

'''Boomstick: Even if he did, Zarathos could just gobble up his soul for a quick snack. The end, easy as that.'''

Wiz: Lobo was undeniably a difficult opponent to take on, but the Ghost Riders cosmic might, unholy invulnerability and soulvrending powers gave him the perfect tools to take out the Main Man.

'''Boomstick: That poor bastich didn't stand a ghost of a chance! Ah-hah sorry, I know that's a "Lobo".'''

(Wiz facepalms)

Wiz: The winner is Ghost Rider.

Original Track
The track for this fight is "Ride Into Hell" by Brandon Yates, featuring Jonny Atma. It is a heavy metal-inspired piece, playing off of the combatants' biker motifs. i

The track's title is in reference to the fact that both Ghost Rider and Lobo are bikers. The "Hell" part references Zarathos being from hell. It could also be referencing Johnny's deal with Mephisto, a being from hell, as well as the fact that Lobo (ironically) has been banned from Hell.

The cover image features a pair of handlebars (likely from Lobo's Spacehog, due to the placing of the skull matching) with Zarathos' skull in the center. It also features a flaming chain wrapped around the handlebars, the iconic weapon of Ghost Rider (though it could likely be Lobo's as well).

Trivia

 * The connections for Ghost Rider and Lobo is that they are bikers who are nigh-invincible anti-heroes. Both are also chain-users and are known for their violent methods. In addition, both are known to often fight the forces of Hell.
 * This is the 17th Marvel VS DC themed episode in the series, after Rogue VS Wonder Woman, Batman VS Spider-Man, Batman VS Captain America, Deadpool VS Deathstroke, Iron Man VS Lex Luthor, Green Arrow VS Hawkeye, Flash VS Quicksilver, Hulk VS Doomsday, Venom VS Bane, Thor VS Wonder Woman, Batman Beyond VS Spider-Man 2099, Black Panther VS Batman, Doctor Strange VS Doctor Fate, Nightwing VS Daredevil, Thanos VS Darkseid, Aquaman VS Namor and Captain Marvel VS Shazam.
 * This is the 8th time Marvel wins against DC, after Rogue VS Wonder Woman, Batman VS Spider-Man, Deadpool VS Deathstroke, Iron Man VS Lex Luthor, Green Arrow VS Hawkeye, Venom VS Bane, and Black Panther VS Batman.
 * This is also Marvel's first victory against DC since Black Panther VS Batman, which premiered at the start of Season 5, over a year since this episode's release.
 * This is the seventh Anti-Heroes themed episode, after Kratos VS Spawn, Vegeta VS Shadow, Ragna VS Sol Badguy, Wolverine VS Raiden, Mewtwo VS Shadow and Wario VS King Dedede.
 * This is the second Death Battle to have Boomstick mention an original actor of the character, Nicholas Cage from the films Ghost Rider and Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance. Previously, Boomstick mentioned Terminator's actor Arnold Schwarzenegger.
 * The fight location is the same one featured in Jotaro VS Kenshiro and in Doctor Strange VS Doctor Fate.
 * As of this episode, DC’s DEATH BATTLE win streak has ended after seven episodes: Raven VS Twilight Sparkle, Doctor Strange VS Doctor Fate, Nightwing VS Daredevil, Thanos VS Darkseid, Aquaman VS Namor, Captain Marvel VS Shazam, and Ben 10 VS Green Lantern.