Ghost Rider's penance stare runs the gauntlet

A) T-800 (not sure if the stare can affect artificial beings)

B) Data (with emotions)

C) Jabba the Hutt

D) Yoda

E) Mars Attacks! alien

F) Independence Day alien

G) Wesker

H) Hancock

I) Neo (Matrix powers)

J) Freddy Krueger (Dream powers)

K) Silver Surfer

L) Djinn

M) Genie (unbound)

N) Fully-fed Galactus

O) Pre-retcon Molecule Man

A) dunno

B) dunno

C) leaves him an obese drooling mess

D) should be fine

E) yes

F) yes

G) maybe

H) maybe

I) maybe

J) yes

K) yes

L) dunno

M) dunno

N) no

O) yes

Posting this here.

Here he uses it on Blade with the power of the Darkhold. That little book that contains C'thons power. The Eldar god that created Dark Magic.

" Blades experience is no different from the countless others who have felt the pain they have inflicted."

"No different, but a hundredfold more severe."

"Every cell in his body explodes with the pain that he has inflicted upon his recent victims."

"He relieves their deaths a thousand times in the span of a microsecond."

"The Experience threatens to shatter his mind."

Here he uses it without trouble on Madcap, a Psychopath being with a insanity stare. Thats how crazy and moraless this guys is. Works on him fine.

Works just fine on Dr. freaking Strange who has the great TP feats and sound mind of any character.

The Only time it has failed is when used on Souless people, people empowered by suffering, or people that are stated immune to it via divine intervention.

Fails on souless people.

Fails on Blackheart because he is a Hell Lord who is empowered by death and pain.

Gallery

Fails on the Deacon, because he had a special stated plot device protection from it by the Angel Zadkiel.

The Penance Stare has also shown to be able to affect a whole city currently in comics.

No eye contact required.

Penance Stare is no joke.

Should work fine for most

I guess the T-800 and Data would be unaffected, since they don't have souls. Not sure if Neo in the Matrix has a soul. Presumably, his avatar does not. I don't know if the others have souls, but I think it's safe to say that Hancock, Wesker, and Molecule Man do have them.

Could someone try to answer in a little detail (instead of just writing "yes" or "no," responses whose meanings I'm not entirely sure of)?

Technically no character has a soul unless the series establishes the existence of souls. There is no rule saying someone needs a soul to be alive, so having a soul is just something extra a series adds on to its character.

So Matrix, Independence Day, Hancock, and Terminator are out. I'm not sure if Star Wars has a soul or not, but if not then Jabba and Yoda wouldn't be affected by the Penance stare.

A) T-800: no

B) Data: who?

C) Jabba the Hutt: yes

D) Yoda: yes

E) Mars Attacks! alien: yes

F) Independence Day alien: yes

G) Wesker: yes

H) Hancock: yes

I) Neo: maybe

J) Freddy Krueger: maybe

K) Silver Surfer: yes

L) Djinn: who?

M) Genie: who?

N) Fully-fed Galactus: no

O) Pre-retcon Molecule Man: no

I think it's better to say that it's unknown if Character X has a soul, unless the series definitively establishes, one way or another, whether he does or not.

I just assumed that the human characters had souls, since this is what people generally believe to be true in real life.

Stops at L

I'm not trying to get in to a theological debate or anything, but it is impossible to know whether souls are real or not. But souls aren't a universal concept.

Most fictions (movies, books, comics, manga, video games) don't even dwell into theology or have a concept of the after life. So hence they have no concept of "soul".

The strange one makes sense since writers have been nerfing him a lot

Aliens would be problematic depending on their morality, just like venom

@security_guard: I agree that it is not possible (at least, not with our current abilities) to prove that souls truly exist. But neither is it possible to prove that our past memories are real, or for an individual to prove that humans around him can think and feel as he does. Some "facts" are actually beliefs, and nobody is ever questioned or put down for having them.

It is telling that most people in the world believe in an afterlife. Like logic, this (and the existence of God) could be a properly basic belief. But anyway, I digress.

Just because something isn't mentioned explicitly in a work of fiction doesn't necessarily mean that it doesn't exist. It could just be that the writer has not yet chosen to reveal such a thing. Until a statement is made either way, you cannot just assume that absence of evidence means that there is evidence of absence.

@vivide:

The strange one?

@johnnyz256: dr strange, after the Ditko years he's been constantly watered down

Oh yeah I get your point and all, but the point I'm trying to make is that the soul is an established concept rather than a universal concept.

It is universal that all people have physical bodies, so any character can be assumed to be able to take physical damage, unless proven otherwise.

But the existence of a soul is something that has to be established by the author. If the author doesn't establish a soul/afterlife/deity or whatever, then no such thing exists.

In fiction only the things established by the author exist.

Just because the author hasn't definitively stated in a comic/TV show/etc., "Souls exist," for example, doesn't mean that deep down, the author doesn't fully intend there to be souls, an afterlife, etc., in that universe.

We'll have to agree to disagree.