Fantastic Four (2025) # 13

Cover Date: April 2026; On Sale Date: February 2026

Writer: Ryan North; Artist: Andrea Sorrentino; Letterer: VC's Joe Caramagna; Colorist: Edgar Delgado; Editor: Tom Brevoort; Editor-in-Chief: C.B. Cebulski; Cover Artist: Andrea Sorrentino

The Ghost Rider crashes the wall of home of Nicholas Scratch, supernatural enemy of the Fantastic Four, and confronts him about his recent moves against the famous superhero family. Despite the Ghost Rider's uncharacteristic speech patterns, Scratch ultimately believes him when the Rider threatens him with the Penance Stare. Scratch swears to leave the Fantastic Four alone, and the Rider says that if he goes back on his word he will return to burn the villain's soul. Later, after the Ghost Rider is far enough away, he reveals himself to actually be Johnny Storm, the Human Torch, with his sister Susan Storm, the Invisible Woman, riding on the motorcycle behind him.

Earlier in the day, at the farm that the Fantastic Four are currently calling home, Johnny went over his plan with Sue to team-up to intimidate Nicholas Scratch into leaving them alone. With his flame powers and his sister's ability to turn his skin invisible, he believes that they could convincingly imitate the Ghost Rider, who would be sufficiently scary enough to make Scratch back off. Later, realizing how successful their plan was, Johnny convinces Sue to help him keep up the ruse while they visit other enemies of the Fantastic Four. Everything goes perfectly until they breach the lair of the Wizard, who calls their bluff and arrogantly believes that he would be able to withstand the Penance Stare. The Wizard quickly deduces that the Ghost Rider is actually the Storm siblings in disguise, and subdues them both with power dampening collars before rendering them unconscious.

When the siblings wake up, they find themselves chained to chairs in front of a video camera, where the Wizard is planning to stream their murders online. Before he can kill them, the Ghost Rider bursts into the room on his motorcycle and threatens the Wizard, scaring him into submission. The Thing then punches the Wizard, knocking him unconscious. The Ghost Rider is revealed to be the shape-shifting Skrull teenager Nicki, with Mr. Fantastic using his stretching abilities to make his arms look like chains. Having seen the Wizard's livestream, Mr. Fantastic decided that they too could replicate the Ghost Rider and did so to rescue their teammates. As they're leaving, Johnny Storm continues to want to use the Ghost Rider ruse against their enemies, until the real Ghost Rider arrives and shows that he is not amused and will be watching Storm. Johnny agrees to not use the Ghost Rider's identity anymore, but then immediately starts brainstorming ways to pretend to be other heroes like Wolverine, despite his teammates' protests for him to stop.

Oh Johnny Storm, you loveable scamp

THE ROADMAP

Ghost Rider last appeared in Spirits of Violence (2025) # 5.

Ghost Rider and the Human Torch had an unpleasant interaction in Fantastic Four (2022) Annual # 1 when they were manipulated into fighting one another by Agatha Harkness.

CHAIN REACTION

Ghost Rider appears, but not really, in an issue of the Fantastic Four that was an absolute delight to read.

I'm not a fan of the Fantastic Four. I've never been able to get interested in them as characters, no matter who the creative team has been, and the only time in recent years that I've been willing to pick up an issue of their comic is the odd guest appearance of a character I do like. So when I saw Ghost Rider on the cover of this issue, I was interested but my expectations were fairly low. 

I love it when I'm pleasantly surprised.

Don't get me wrong, this comic didn't magically make me want to read more about the Fantastic Four, because it emphatically did not. However, what it did accomplish was telling a story that I thoroughly enjoyed despite not caring about the characters one bit. It's light-hearted and fun, adjectives that don't really get thrown around much on this blog since Ghost Rider is not typically a light-hearted character, and I am really glad I picked it up. The plan that the Storm siblings use to scare their enemies is actually a really clever idea and Ryan North goes a long way to selling it not just as a plot for this issue but as something that the Human Torch would naturally develop on his own based on his personality. Everything makes sense in this comic, from the way the characters react to things to the way each layer of subterfuge actually works.  North strikes me as a writer that likely puts a lot of thought into how his stories work, though I admit I'm basing it solely on this issue as I don't think I've ever read another comic written by him.

I also greatly appreciate that Ghost Rider is treated as a BIG DAMN DEAL in this universe. The Fantastic Four are all about science, and though they do occasionally wander into supernatural or magical stories that's not their typical wheelhouse. So having the Storms use Ghost Rider as the heavy to scare their enemies into submission is wonderful, because it allows the characters to play in a realm that's not their natural habitat. Ghost Rider's appearance at the very end is a nice comedic touch as well, showing the potential repercussions of Johnny Storm's actions. And like I said before, it's all done in such a fun way that the spirit and charm of the story sells every part of it. I'm sure this isn't really a major part of North's Fantastic Four run and is simply a silly side story, but it straddles the tone of both the FF and Ghost Rider perfectly.

Of course, the artwork is a huge part of what makes this story work so well. Andrea Sorrentino is an artist that only works for me on certain types of comics; when he was on Green Arrow with Jeff Lemire a decade back it was an amazing collaboration, but when he was on the Secret Empire event for Marvel it didn't fit the tone of the story at all. Normally, Sorrentino would not work on Fantastic Four, which is typically a series that relies on bright colors and straight-forward (if sometimes psychedelic) line work. However, using Sorrentino on THIS issue as a contrast between the worlds of the FF and Ghost Rider was an inspired choice. Sorrentino's art is beautiful in this comic, and his Ghost Rider is perfection. I would love to see him on a proper Ghost Rider series, because this was almost a tease of what he could do with the character. He doesn't go quite as crazy with the panel layouts as he had in other comics he's drawn, which was appreciated, because sometimes he struggles with clarity.  This comic, though, is stunning.

I didn't think I would likely this issue, honestly, I was all set for disappointment. However, I'm happy to be proven wrong and I highly recommend it to Ghost Rider fans.  Great comic. 

Intimidation!