How Fast Is Ghost Rider (& Hellcycle) Compared To Other Fast Characters?

Ghost Riders – that is, every version of the Spirit of Vengeance – is an extremely powerful being that is essentially godlike. But did you know that Ghost Rider isn’t just one of the most powerful individual characters in comics – he just might be one of the fastest, too? But, just how fast can Ghost Rider go?

Let’s take a look at top speed feats from Johnny Blaze and his Hellcycle, and from Robbie Reyes and his Hell Charger, and compare their speeds to some of the other superfast characters, both from Marvel and DC Comics.

How fast is Ghost Rider with his Hellcycle?

Throughout the centuries, there have been many versions and iterations of Ghost Riders. The Spirit of Vengeance in the Middle Ages rode a chariot set ablaze, the newest one rides in a fiery Dodge Charger, whereas the most recognizable versions of the character featured a flaming motorcycle, also known as the Hellcycle.

We’ll focus on the two most popular Ghost Riders in the comics to determine their speed – Johnny Blaze and his Hellcyle, and Robbie Reyes in his Hell Charger. Let’s start with Johnny, the original Ghost Rider. He might not have been the first, but he’s certainly the most famous.

While Johnny Blaze rides his Hellcycle, he can reach astonishing speeds and achieve incredible features. He can travel across galaxies and even dimensions, whereas his bike can ride any surface, including vertical walls, bodies of water, and any other surface you may think of. But how fast can the Hellcyclle go?

Well, Marvel never gave us a clear-cut answer, but we can somewhat conclude for ourselves by looking at some of his most incredible features. The first one that’s brought up most frequently is that one time when Johnny Blaze outpaced Thor’s Mjolnir thrown at full speed by the God of Thunder himself.

In ‘Avengers’ #214 from 1963, Thor and Ghost Rider have a quarrel, during which the God of Thunder hurls Mjolnir at his foe. However, it never connects, as Ghost Rider starts riding away from the hammer at tremendous speeds. He is able to easily outpace Mjolnir on his Hellcycle, and then catch on to him to lead him back to Thor.

Now, Thor is known for being one of the fastest characters out there, capable of hurling Mjolnir through space and traveling through galaxies at speeds well beyond the speed of light, transcending time and space.

Within the confines of an atmosphere, though, the God of Thunder – and Mjolnir, for that matter – usually travels at about the speed of sound, or roughly 767 mph. They can theoretically both go faster but tend not to while on Earth. Knowing that, Mjolnir must’ve traveled only at around that speed when hurled at Ghost Rider, making it easy for him to outpace.

It certainly means that Ghost Rider and his Hellcycle are fast, but there’s no real evidence that they could reach speeds that transcend the speed of light. We do know that he can go much, much faster than Mach 1. One of the best numbers that Marvel gave us about Ghost Rider’s speed actually came in Wolverine #36.

Logan sits on Ghost Rider’s bike to hastily take them both from Pennsylvania to Utah, and says: ‘I choose nine G’s and a thousand degrees.’

This would indicate that the Hellcycle accelerates at nine times the pace of gravity itself, translating to just a bit below 200 mph per second. If you take the border-to-border distance from Pennsylvania to Utah at around 2000 miles, and an estimated time for the two to complete the trip around 5-6 seconds, it’d put Ghost Rider’s top speed at right around 10000 mph.

Take that with a grain of salt though, as we don’t know clearly how long it took them, nor exactly what the total distance was, so this is more of an assumption than a clear-cut fact. We also don’t know if that’s even Ghost Rider’s top speed – perhaps if the journey was longer, the Spirit of Vengeance could keep accelerating at the same rate to a much greater speed.

In the end, there’s not a clear number attached to Ghost Rider and his Hellcycle when it comes to their top speed, but we can all agree that he certainly belongs to those top tiers of speedsters when compared to other characters.

How fast is Ghost Rider with his Hell Charger?

Robbie Reyes is the newest Ghost Rider who first appeared in 2014. He was a caring, hard-working teenager when he became the Spirit of Vengeance, but Robbie still leaned towards the path of good more. Instead of the Hellcycle, Reyes rides a modified 1969 Dodge Charger from Hell as his vehicle of choice.

Now, his top speed was made clearly higher than Johnny Blaze’s – at least evidence-wise. Like the Hellcycle, the Hell Charger could rival the Silver Surfer in a race in ‘Avengers’ Vol. 8 #27-28. To put that in perspective, Silver Surfer can easily travel faster than light – and Robbie could keep up with him.

But then, in ‘Avengers’ #50, something very interesting happened – or, was said. Deathlok claimed that the Hell Charger – along with Robbie Reyes, of course – can actually reach speeds higher than ‘anything in any universe’ when pushed to its limits.

That’s a very interesting claim, seeing that Robbie is an All-Rider – meaning, he can imbue any vehicle or form of transport with the same properties of his Hell Charger. Reyes once used the body of a dead Celestial as a vehicle, for instance.

If the Hell Charger is really faster than anything in Marvel’s known multiverse, then Ghost Rider could theoretically be faster than any character you can think of. 

The thing is, we never saw Robbie Reyes and the Hell Charger reach those kinds of speeds. We saw them teleport, though, but that’s not the same thing as actually traveling that fast. In fact, there have been instances when the Hell Charcger seemingly reached its limits.

Therefore, just like with Johnny Blaze, take those claims of Robbie’s speed with a grain of salt. We know he can go as fast as the Silver Surfer, but we never saw him actually go beyond that.

Is Ghost Rider faster than Thor?

To break the myth once and for all – the fact that Johnny Blaze could outrun Mjolnir hurled at him by Thor doesn’t mean that Ghost Rider is actually faster than Thor. The God of Thunder can travel at several times the speed of light, but on Earth, both he and Mjolnir usually remain at (or slightly above) Mach 1 (the speed of sound).

If that’s the case, the only thing that Ghost Rider outpacing Mjolnir means is that he can travel at above Mach 1 speeds. It doesn’t prove he could actually beat Thor in a race.

Is Ghost Rider faster than the Silver Surfer?

If you take Deathlok’s words literally, then the Hell Charger is faster than ‘anything or anyone in any known universe’ – including the Silver Surfer. The reality is, again, that we don’t really have proof that it’s true.

We did get somewhat of a race between the Surfer and the Rider, where the Spirit of Vengeance could keep up with the Herald of Galactus. That said, the Silver Surfer probably didn’t go at his top speed – which was proven to be several times faster than the speed of light, too.

You could argue that Robbie Reyes is close to the Silver Surfer in terms of speed – even equal in some cases – but not actually faster. That is until Deathlok’s words are proven.

Is Ghost Rider faster than Quicksilver?

This is the question Marvel fans always ask when comparing the top speeds of characters – because Quicksilver is the most well-known speedster in Marvel Comics. Again, there’s a case to be made for Ghost Rider, but Quicksilver has features that the Spirit of Vengeance never really achieved.

He could go so fast that he transcends time and space – so no matter how fast Ghost Rider can really get, he could only match Quicksilver when at his most powerful, but never be faster.

Is Ghost Rider faster than the Flash?

Deathlok said – faster than ‘anything or anyone in any universe,’ right? Does that include the DC universe, where the Flash reigns supreme as the fastest character?

The guy can perceive events shorter than an attosecond. His connection and mastery of the Speed Force essentially make the Flash’s speed unlimited. If you’re wondering if Ghost Rider is faster than the Flash, the answer, to me, is always quite simple – nobody is faster than the Flash.

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