Nathan Beame (Ghost Rider foe)

NATHAN BEAME

Real Name: Nathan Beame

Identity/Class: Human mutant (or perhaps supernaturally powered);
17th century through modern era

Occupation: Entertainment (playing)

Group Membership: None

Affiliations: Dark Riders;
formerly Catrina

Enemies: Ghost Rider (John Blaze/Zarathos), Woody Guthers

Known Relatives: Anna Beame (mother, deceased), Jonathan Beame (father, deceased)

Aliases: "The Boy who Lived Forever" (title of the comic)

Base of Operations: Formerly Nathan's World

First Appearance: Ghost Rider II#33 (December, 1978)

Powers/Abilities: Nathan has immense psychic powers. He could reanimate and control the dead, create and control complex machinery, prevent himself and others from aging, physically transform others, control minds, levitate, generate winds, etc. His physical body, though unaging, was very weak and had to be kept within a special preservative structure. In recent years he used a clear bubble for such function, and he traveled by levitating the bubble.

Nathan's machinery included an immense airship, skycycle-riding cyborg Dark Riders, power-dampening equipment, and the World, his base of operations.

Height: Approximately 4'5"
Weight: Approximately 60 lbs.
Eyes: Black sclera, red irises
Hair: Red

History:
(Ghost Rider II#34 (fb) - BTS) <17th century> - Anna Beame sensed that the fetus she carried was going to be something special.

(Ghost Rider II#34 (fb)) - The night Nathan was born, "Heaven wept and the wind howled like a lost soul." At the stroke of midnight, he was born, his eyes open and glowing. His mid-wife, Catrina, pushed past Jonathan and ran screaming from the house. Shortly before dawn, the villagers arrived, believing that Anna was a witch and that she had birthed a demon. They overwhelmed Jonathan, rushed into the house, and beat Anna to death; but as they moved towards the infant, Nathan raised his hands, turned their hatred and fear back on him and transformed them all into monstrous form. He then reanimated his mother's corpse and had her carry him outside of their cabin, which burned from the villagers' torches.

(Ghost Rider II#34 (fb)) - Nathan did not age beyond his pre-teen years, and he prevented his father from aging as well; he did his best to maintain his mother, though she did deteriorate to some degree over time. The family wandered, rarely settling in one place for long, shunning civilization. Eventually they headed west. Though Nathan's mind continued to grow in power, his body grew ever weaker. He was eventually forced to confine himself to a contrivance of his own design in order to live. Over time he altered his crude efforts with more advanced technology.

(Ghost Rider II#34 (fb)) - Eventually Nathan designed an immense subterranean base, his World, somewhere in the American Southwest. He populated it with cyborgs of his own design and used it to cloak his existence from all. He further created various machines for his own purpose. Nathan worked to cure his own physical ailment to no avail, and he became less and less humane over time, experimenting on any he encountered.

(Ghost Rider II#34 (fb)) - Prospector Woody Guthers stumbled across Nathan's World and accidentally activated one of his machines, with bathed him in energy and granted him psychic powers, though lesser than Nathan's own powers. Angered, Nathan sent his Dark Riders to capture Woody, who escaped.

(Ghost Rider II#33 - BTS) - Nathan sent his ship in pursuit of Woody, and it dispatched a group of Dark Riders on skycycles after him. Woody was joined in fighting them by the Ghost Rider, but was captured nonetheless. Ghost Rider pursued the Dark Riders into the ship, and one led him to a trap door, and the fall knocked him out.

(Ghost Rider II#33 - BTS) - Nathan had Woody placed in some contraption that neutralized his powers, and he had Johnny Blaze bound in manacles.

(Ghost Rider II#33) - As Blaze awoke, Nathan, told him that he and Woody were now his prisoners, a sentiment his father echoed.

(Ghost Rider II#34) - Nathan taunted Blaze that he would never leave this place. Jonathan tried to take advantage of Nathan's distraction by shooting himself in the head, but Nathan caused the gun to misfire, then sent his ghastly mother to try to embrace him. Turning into Ghost Rider, Blaze broke free and set Anna on fire. When she was unphased, he hurled her flaming body into Nathan's protective sphere, which didn't harm Nathan but did destroy Anna's body. Enraged, Nathan generated a psychic hurricane, but Ghost Rider grabbed Nathan's sphere. Unable to mentally control the Ghost Rider, Nathan sent a large piece of machinery into him knocking him out again.
The ship then returned to Nathan's World.

(Ghost Rider II#34 - BTS) - Nathan had Blaze and Jonathan bound in manacles in a cell within the World. Nathan transformed Woody into a sentient tree.

(Ghost Rider II#34) - Jonathan desperately attacked Blaze, causing him to turn into Ghost Rider so he might stop Nathan. Escaping the cell, Ghost Rider explored the World, encountering the transformed Woody, at which point Nathan confronted him anew. Preferring death over his current existence, Woody caused an oil leak in the chamber, and Blaze set it afire. The fire swiftly spread into the World's oil supply, blowing up the entire facility and apparently slaying Nathan and Woody. Jonathan was left a lifeless skeleton.

Comments: Created by Roger McKenzie and Don Perlin.

The Marvel Comics Index part 9A: X-Men, Ghost Rider, and Champions states Nathan was a mutant born in the 1600s.

Nathan Beame's parents lived in a log cabin, the townsfolk had buckles in their hats, and his family rode a covered wagon.

A flashback that references Nathan cloaking himself, even from those who would help him, showed Professor X and Cyclops, which further indicates to me that Nathan was a mutant, rather than a magically powered being.

Profile by Snood.

CLARIFICATIONS:
The Beames have no KNOWN connections to:

Calvin Beame - astronaut, partner of Richmond Wagner, co-starred on Astro-Nuts, slain by Xemnu after discovering his true nature and attacking him--Marvel Feature I#3

Nathan's Dark Riders have no known connections to:

Dark Rider - from age of wizards, bound demons in order to gain their power for himself, fled into timestream to escape the early race of humanity when it rebelled against and slew the wizards, empowered Cotton Mather in Salem witch trials, allied with him due to fanaticism, sought to absorb powers of Scarlet Witch and Dr. Doom, defeated by they + Vision + Spider-Man + Moondragon--Marvel Team-Up I#42
DARK RIDER - see Team America's Marauder--New Mutants I#5

Woody Guthers has no known connection to:

Woody Guthrie, folk singer, writer of "This Land is Your Land," and father of Arlo Guthrie (writer of Allison's Restaurant and other songs), though Guthrie certainly could have been the inspiration for his name...or not.

Anna Beame

Nathan's mother, she could sense that he was special even in utero. Due to the raging weather during his birth and to his glowing eyes, he was assumed to be a monster, and the villagers killed her for being a witch. Nathan reanimated her to carry him to safety and he preserved her over the subsequent centuries, though she did still slowly decay. Nathan would make her try to act like she was still his mother and Jonathan's wife, which was nightmarish for him. Eventually the Ghost Rider set her on fire and hurled her into Nathan's protective sphere, destroying her. Between that, the subsequent explosion of Nathan's World, and Nathan's apparent death, it can be presumed that she is no more.

--Ghost Rider II#34 (34 (fb), 34

Jonathan Beame

Nathan's father, he was struck from behind and knocked out when an angry mob came to kill Nathan & Anna. Nathan slowed his aging and forced Jonathan to take him and Anna's reanimated corpse as they traveled around, avoiding contact with others. They eventually moved out west, and Nathan built a subterranean base, his World. Jonathan futilely tried to end his own miserable existence and could not do anything to prevent Nathan's descent into madness.

After Ghost Rider arrived, Jonathan tried to shoot himself in the head, but Nathan caused the gun to misfire. Later, Jonathan attacked Blaze, causing him to turn into Ghost Rider and nearly kill him. Ghost Rider recognized he was just bringing Ghost Rider out so he could stop Nathan, and Jonathan was killed when Ghost Rider blew up Nathan's World, leaving behind only a skeleton.

Presumably due to having his youth maintained by Nathan's power, he had the same black sclera and red irises as Nathan.

--Ghost Rider II#33 (34 (fb), 33-34

Dark Riders

Cyborgs created from people captured by Nathan, they had those easy-to-break transparent brain domes, and they carried out Nathan's orders, such as capturing Woody Guthers and battling Ghost Rider

--Ghost Rider II#33

Nathan's ship

An immense airship, Nathan took this out in pursuit of Woody Guthers, then dispatched his Dark Riders from it to capture him. The Riders captured Woody and brought him aboard the ship, and Ghost Rider followed, but Nathan captured him as well, then brought him back to his World.

--Ghost Rider II#33 (34

Woody Guthers

A prospector, he stumbled across Nathan's World and accidentally activated a machine, which bathed him in energy and granted him psychic powers. He escaped Nathan's efforts to capture him, and when he encountered Ghost Rider rampaging in a deserted ghost town, he assumed him to be another of Nathan's creatures and attacked him. When Nathan's Dark Riders attacked, Woody and Ghost Rider battled them, but Woody was knocked out by a blow to the head, taken aboard the ship, and bound in a power-neutralizing apparatus.

Upon returning to Nathan's World, Nathan transformed him into a still sentient tree. Encountering Ghost Rider anew, Woody tried to get Ghost Rider to kill him, but when Nathan showed up again, Woody used his affinity for oil to locate and break open an oil line. Ghost Rider then set the oil on fire, and the subsequent explosion destroyed the World, presumably killing both Woody and Nathan.

Woody possessed psychic powers, primarily telekinesis (usually projecting blasts of force), but also apparently teleportation, and possibly restructuring of matter and transmutation of elements (or perhaps just generation of illusions)

--Ghost Rider II#33 (34 (fb), 33-34

Catrina

Midwife to Anna Beame, she was mortified by Nathan's glowing eyes, and she rushed out of the house.

It would seem likely that her tales of the mutant infant might have led to the villagers seeking his and Anna's death.

--Ghost Rider II#34 (34 (fb)

images: (without ads)
Ghost Rider II#33, p4, panel 4 (Woody, full body)
        p5, panel 4 (Woody face)
        p9 (Nathan's ship)
        p10, panel 2 (Dark Riders, masked)
        p12, panel 6 (Dark Riders, unmasked)
        p17, panel 4 (Nathan, Jonathan)
    #34, p3, panel 6 (Anna, corpse)
        p8, panel 5 (Catrina, infant Nathan, Anna)
        p10 (mutated villagers)
        p14, panel 1 (Woody, tree)

Appearances:
Ghost Rider II#33 (December, 1978) - by Roger McKenzie (script, co-plotter), Don Perlin (co-plotter, artist), Roger Stern (editor)
Ghost Rider II#34 (February, 1979) - by Roger McKenzie (script, co-plotter), Don Perlin (co-plotter, artist), Roger Stern (editor)

Last updated: 09/21/07

Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.

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