8 Superheroes Who Saw The End Of The World

7. Frank Castle - Cosmic Ghost Rider

Cosmic Ghost Rider Destroys Marvel History
Marvel Comics / Gerardo Zaffino

There have been plenty of great Marvel creations over the last decade, and Cosmic Ghost Rider is undoubtedly one of them.

Introduced by writer Donny Cates and artist Geoff Shaw in 2018's Thanos #13, Cosmic Ghost Rider is actually a version of Frank Castle who lived to see the world destroyed by Thanos, as the Mad Titan embarked on a terrifying conquest of the universe virtually unopposed.

Castle eventually perishes as Marvel's heroes defend the Earth, and finds himself in Mephisto's realm. There, he makes a deal with the demon to become the new Ghost Rider, so long as he could get revenge on Thanos.

Tragically, when Castle emerges, he discovers that Thanos is nowhere to be found and that the Earth is pretty much dead. He's forced to roam the planet on his own for years, until eventually Galactus arrives seeking aid against Thanos. Castle explains to the Devourer of Worlds how he was humanity's sole survivor, before offering the Earth up in exchange for a chance to kill Thanos by becoming Galactus' herald.

Galctus imbues Castle with the Power Cosmic, thus transforming him into the Cosmic Ghost Rider. Things go less well from there on in, with Thanos killing Galactus and making Frank his own herald, but of all the characters to have seen the apocalypse, few have done so with as much flare as the former Punisher.

Content Producer/Presenter

WhatCulture's very own resident movie guy, Ewan has been working in the content creation biz for over 10 years now, having started as a freelance contributor to WhatCulture Gaming all the way back in 2015. After graduating with a First-Class Honours in History from Northumbria University in 2017 (where he won a prize for a totally killer dissertation on the Watergate years), Ewan took on the role of Comics Editor at WhatCulture and quickly developed WhatCulture Comics into one of the biggest superhero-focused channels on YouTube. He followed this with a brief hiatus at Screen Rant in 2021, where he worked across the Gaming and Film sections as a writer and editor, before returning to WhatCulture as a Senior Content Producer / Presenter in 2023. He started his own podcast, We Love Dad Movies, in 2022, and has contributed several written pieces to the Eisner-nominated comics website Shelfdust as well. In his current role, Ewan incorporates his love of cinema, comic books, and history into written pieces and video essays for WhatCulture's Film & TV channel, as well as WhatCulture Gaming and WhatCulture Horror, with a particular focus on nineties-era Dad Movies, old school Westerns, and Golden Age Hollywood Noir. John Carpenter is his fave, and he thinks Batman Beyond should never have been cancelled. If that's your vibe, you'll probably like his stuff.