A demonic being who tortures and devours souls, Zarathos first appeared in Marvel Spotlight #5 (August 1972) and was created by writers Roy Thomas and Gary Friedrich and artist Mike Ploog.

2) #77, the physical stone body of the demon Zarathos had lain inert and inanimate beneath the Earth for eons until his spirit was summoned by a Native American tribal sorcerer named K'Nutu to help his tribe.

[2] Zarathos is then forced to serve Mephisto for many centuries in the Netherworld, an extra-dimensional land of the dead sometimes called "Hell", though still powerful enough to avoid total confinement.

Mephisto sends his unruly vassal back to Earth on occasion, binding him to human hosts and allowing him to ravage souls (albeit on a smaller scale).

In modern times, Zarathos is bound to Johnny Blaze; the combined Blaze/Zarathos entity manifests as a leather-clad flaming skeletal wraith known as the Ghost Rider, ultimately serving the side of "good" while still using hellish means, which earns the Ghost Rider a reputation of fear and Johnny Blaze a never-ending sense of guilt.

Zarathos feels cheated out of his revenge against Centurious, but with the help of the now-dying Sin-Eater, the demon manages to transfer his essence into the crystal.

He briefly joins forces with the demon mother Lilith (not to be confused with the daughter of Dracula, who has the same name),[volume & issue needed] but soon leaves her after he realized she was just using him to bring her the Medallion of Power.

[volume & issue needed] Another reason he left her was because she duped him into joining her forces (his memory was so bad at the time that Lilith actually convinced him that he was her son).

[volume & issue needed] Zarathos is continuously shown to be able to challenge Mephisto in both Earthly and magical combat.

When at full strength, Zarathos has exhibited influence over certain Earthly elements; he is able to conjure thunderstorms to incinerate his opponents with bolts of lightning, as well as rupture the ground either to trap his victims in hard rock or to impale them with spiked stalagmites.