Warning! Spoilers for Avengers Assemble Alpha #1 ahead!
One of the scariest powers in the Marvel Universe is Avengers can use it in a unique way.
In writer Jason Aaron's current Avengers comics, all of existence is under threat from a variant of Doctor Doom calling himself Doom Supreme. He has traveled the multiverse looking for other villains to his multiversal Masters of Evil. They have then gone from universe to universe, conquering them all, before setting their sights on the 616 universe. To stop them, a mysterious individual called Avenger Prime has created a multiversal group of Avengers, who must assemble to do battle in the prehistoric age of Earth-616.
In Avengers Assemble Alpha #1 by Jason Aaron, Bryan Hitch, Andrew Currie, and Alex Sinclair, the mainstream Avengers travel back to this era to assist in the battle. They immediately encounter the prehistoric version of Avengers, which includes Odin, Agamotto, and Moon Knight among others. The two groups immediately have tension and a battle breaks out. The first Ghost Rider, who rides a mammoth, engages both Captain America and Namor. Ghost Rider himself fights Captain America while his mammoth takes Namor in his grasp and uses the Penance Stare on him.
Ghost Rider's Powers Transfers To His Ride
This is a very unique moment as Ghost Rider doesn't use the Penance Stare directly. Instead, he imbues the mammoth with his powers and the animal is able to use the ability itself. This is huge because modern versions of Ghost Rider aren't able to accomplish this. Other Ghost Riders like Danny Ketch and Johnny Blaze each rode motorcycles while Robbie Reyes drove a car. All of these vehicles are inanimate objects. They aren't alive let alone have eyes that are able to stare into an individual and activate the Penance Stare. The fact that this Ghost Rider's ride is alive opens up a whole new set of abilities that more Ghost Rider's should try to access.
A good example is the Phantom Rider from Marvel's Wild West age. This is a version of Ghost Rider who rides a horse. Just like the mammoth, the horse is alive and certainly has eyes. So perhaps Phantom Rider is able to have his horse use the Penance Stare just like the mammoth does. In fact, this logic can pretty much be applied to any rider before the industrial revolution. Before there were cars and other motorized vehicles on the road, any Ghost Rider had to have ridden some sort of creature. So this is an ability that the prehistoric Avengers version of Ghost Rider unlocked and should definitely have more uses in future comics.
Avengers Assemble Alpha #1 is now available from Marvel Comics
