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A surprising Marvel character has been transformed into a deadly new form of pirates — and they should make the leap to other universes.
WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Dark Ages #4 by Tom Taylor, Iban Coello, Brian Reber, and VC’s Joe Sabino, now on sale
The world of Dark Ages has been able to introduce some unexpected tweaks to the twisted reality where technology was wiped out by a powerful Celestial. In the process, they’ve introduced plenty of engaging new threats that should escape into the greater Marvel multiverse.
Dark Ages #4 introduces a genuinely terrifying new variant of the Ghost Riders — the pirate Ghost Raiders. It effectively gives the Marvel Universe their own fearsome force of supernaturally empowered pirates, and they’re intimidating enough to warrant future appearances.
In the world of Dark Ages, the Marvel heroes and villains have attempted to make the best of a world without advanced technology. But there are some chaotic elements that have used the world to their advantage, requiring heroes to become vampire hunters in defense of the innocent. Some of the most fearsome though are a horde of supernaturally empowered pirates who apparently stalk the high seas. While making their way to France, the ship containing the heroes is suddenly attacked by the Ghost Raiders. In this world, a band of adrift pirates made a desperate deal with Mephisto. Sparing their lives, the pirates were each turned into a Ghost Rider-esque figure, gaining fiery skulls and weaponry. The comic has suggested they’ve even killed thousands of people over the years since they were established.
They quickly transformed into the most dangerous force on the open seas, with even the bands of heroes being terrified by the prospect of fighting them. This becomes quickly evident when they attack suddenly, fatally wounding Nick Fury and setting upon the heroes. Nightcrawler warns the crew that they only have a short time to get away from the Ghost Raiders, otherwise their unholy flames burning the ship to ash and kill all the heroes aboard. Even with a host of heroes, the fight is only decided when Fing Fang Foom and Scott Lang enter the fray, using their sudden appearance and massive size to crush the Ghost Raider ship.
But due to their mystical nature, it’s unlikely this was the end for the Ghost Raiders. In fact, it’s likely the Ghost Raiders just go one to hunt and slaughter plenty of other unsuspecting innocents. The idea of a pirate ship full of Ghost Riders is actually a very clever and horrifying one, setting up the Spirit of Vengeance as a force of pure chaos in this world. They aren’t even the only superpowered pirates that have been appearing in Marvel stories recently, with the core X-Men having the very pirate-esque Marauders defending mutants across the world. The fiery pirate ship is another in a long line of impressive rides for the Ghost Riders to utilize — making the raiders a threat even to Omega-Level Mutants. But the Ghost Raiders are a delightfully straightforward threat, and a great terrifying curveball to confront the heroes with.
It’s the kind of concept that the Council of Red — the multiversal Mephisto alliance — could unleash onto entire other realities to cause chaos. It’d be an interesting group to see escape the limits of the Dark Ages reality and confront other bands of heroes across the Marvel multiverse. The Ghost Raiders should become a more reoccurring threat in the future of the Marvel Universe, giving the multiverse a genuinelly fantastic monstrous threat stalking the seas.
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