Who the Clix? is a series of articles featuring information on comic book characters that have been made into figures for the popular tabletop game Heroclix. These articles are meant to help Heroclix players learn more about the characters behind their favorite pieces.
Why do these new characters have to have such painful origins? Like the youngest Ghost Rider: Robbie Reyes
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Appearances in Heroclix: Wheels of Vengeance, Avengers Forever, Avengers – Fantastic Four: Empyre, Fantastic Four, Captain America and the Avengers
First Appearance: All-New Ghost Rider #1 (March 2014)
Team Affiliations: Avengers
Powers/Abilities: Proficient hand-to-hand combatant; Highly experienced driver; Superhuman conditioning; Enhanced senses; Fury empowerment; Immunity to fire; Demonic transfusion; Immortality; Penance stare; Teleportation; Magic immunity; Knowledge of the occult; Supernatural awareness; Invulnerability; Resurrection
Created by: Felipe Smith – Tradd Moore
Robbie Reyes is a normal high school student that works part time at an auto body shop to help support himself and his developmentally disabled brother Gabe. Robbie is desperate to get himself and his brother away from their violent neighborhood in East Los Angeles and enters a street race in hopes of winning enough money to do just that. He “borrows” a 1969 Dodge Charger from the shop for the race and is gunned down by a group of mercenaries attempting to retrieve pills from the trunk that can transform people into superhumans. Mysteriously, Robbie is resurrected as a Ghost Rider and drives off in the Charger, which is also transformed by hellfire.
After some time, Robbie learns that there’s a spirit bound to the car named Eli Morrow. He tells Robbie that Eli had been killed by gang members and wants to help the young man clean up his neighborhood. In reality, Eli is Robbie’s estranged uncle, a Satan worshiping serial killer who pushed Robbie’s mother down stairs when she was pregnant with Gabe and kidnapped and murdered at least thirty-seven people in ritualistic sacrifice before being fatally shot by police. Eli does help Robbie enough that they catch the attention of Johnny Blaze who travels to meet the new Rider and eventually uses the Penance Stare on Eli’s soul.
Together, Robbie and Eli are able to take on Mr. Hyde’s criminal empire. Eventually, their spirits bond with Robbie agreeing to kill but only to kill people with evil souls. Eli does not stop trying to corrupt his nephew’s soul, however, even when they encounter other heroes like Hawkeye and Gwenpool.
At one point, Robbie awakens in South Africa with no clue of how he got there. He is attacked by Star Brand and accidentally kills the hero with his Penance Stare. This is also the first time Robbie learns that he can use the Penance Stare. Soon after, Robbie is recruited to a new team of Avengers to combat a Celestial threat and also meets Odin. Robbie teams up with a Deathlok from another dimension to form a Multiversal Avengers to battle the Multiversal Masters of Evil. Robbie seemingly sacrifices his life in the final battle against the Masters of Evil but in reality is trapped in an endless abyss, rebuilding the Hellcharger so that he can return home.
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