Creeper (comics)
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The Creeper is a DC Comics superhero created by Steve Ditko. He first appeared in Showcase #73 (1968).
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[edit] Character history
[edit] Origins
His real name is Jack Ryder, a television news reporter who was demoted due to his outspoken nature. Relegated to network security, he protected a scientist who gave him two devices. One enabled him to instantly heal from any wound and gave enhanced strength and agility, but at the cost of somewhat unbalanced personality. The other enabled him to instantly change into the costume of a green-haired, yellow-skinned, and red-furred wildman; the costume, "imprinted" on the device and thus capable of being summoned and dispelled at will, was originally adopted by Ryder while rescuing the scientist from kidnappers.
Following his debut in Showcase, the Creeper was given his own series Beware the Creeper, written by Dennis O'Neil (and plotted by Ditko for the first issue only), which lasted only six issues. (The storyline begun would be concluded in Super-Team Family #2 in 1975/76).
Apart from issue #7 of First Issue Special (in 1975), and back-up series in Adventure Comics #445-447 (in 1976), World's Finest Comics #249-55 (in 1978-79) and The Flash #318-323 (in 1983), all the Creeper's subsequent appearances have been guest roles. Over the years, the Creeper's personality underwent changes by different writers; at times his deranged behavior was depicted as only an act to frighten criminals, while at other times he seemed genuinely psychotic. DC gave the Creeper another chance in a solo entitled The Creeper, lasting 12 issues including the one millionth, Len Kamisnki focused on the break down of Jack Ryder's sanity as influenced by the Creeper and making many references to the previous continuity.
A subsequent retelling of the Creeper's origin revealed that the scientist surgically implanted the devices (or device, since some accounts claim that it is a single device that can both enhance physical ability and re-create any object whose "imprint" is stored in its circuitry) in order to save Ryder's life after he was attacked and drugged by the criminals he was investigating; because the scientist was unaware of the drugs in Ryder's system, he inadvertently recorded the "imprint" of the drugs at the same time he recorded the "imprint" of the costume. Thus the same device that re-creates Ryder's costume when he becomes the Creeper also re-creates the drugs in his system, explaining the Creeper's odd personality. Apparently, the drugs were so overwhelming that it was impossible to completely cleanse their effect from the Creeper's system, and the Creeper gradually descended into ever more intense irrationality, while Jack Ryder, instantly free of the drugs' influence the second he changed back to normal, suffered no such condition. Eventually, Ryder came to believe that he and the Creeper were two entirely different people instead of two character roles played by the same man; he also held this belief in his Creeper persona, which became increasingly disdainful of "Jack Ryder." The Creeper once regained his rationality while bound by Wonder Woman's magic lasso, but the implications of this have never been explored.
[edit] Fighting Eclipso
The Creeper appeared in the Eclipso: The Darkness Within annuals in 1992, being tricked into taking up one of Eclipso's dark crystals, putting him under Eclipso's control. He was later freed by Bruce Gordon along with all the other enslaved superheroes. The Creeper and Gordon teamed up again in Eclipso's own spin-off series to try and defeat him (The Creeper was chosen to join the Shadow Fighters team because of his dislike for Eclipso following his possession and also because he was mad enough to agree). Despite being caught and escaping once, the Creeper was eventually killed by Eclipso, in issue 13 of the Eclipso series, when the team re-invaded the country Eclipso was ruling. The manner of his death was ironic as he was torn to shreds by laughing Eclipsed hyenas in the building in which the chemicals he was created by were manufactured.
The remains were recovered and there must have been enough left to regenerate, as a Creeper series also launched in 1997. This series strongly indicated that the convoluted Dr. Yatz origin of the Creeper was an implanted memory (or otherwise false), and that the Creeper's actual origins were somehow related to his longtime villain, Proteus. Before this was fully explored, however, the series ceased publication.
[edit] Brave New world
Jack Ryder has recently appeared in the pages of Action Comics as the Daily Planet reporter who took over the demoted Clark Kent's beat.
In the first "One Year Later" Batman story, he shows up as a reporter for a Gotham City television station.
It was recently announced that a new 6-issue Creeper mini-series, written by Steve Niles and drawn by Justiniano, will begin in August 2006. The series will reboot the Creeper's history, with Niles saying "I’m retelling the origin, but it is very close to the original so that The Creeper still fits into the DC Universe in the same way he has for years..." [1] The preview in DCU: Brave New World showed Jack Ryder as the host of a controversial show "You are Wrong!", promising $1,000,000 to the person who catches the Creeper.
In fact this new version of Ryder is the anchorman of a show in which he deliberately antagonizes his guests to raise attentions on hot tematics, like stem cells theraphy and medical nanotech. While searching a scoop on the revolutionary "nanocells" therapy of Doctor Vincent Yatz, a mixture of nanotech and stem cell therapy able to enhance the body regenation at the point of giving a new skin to a badly scarred burn victim, he was caught in an attempt to steal Yatz his newly discovered tech. Unable to escape, Yatz injected into his body the last sample of nanocells, still unstable, in an attempt to keep it safe from the villains. But when they shot Ryder into his head, the regenerative substance interacted with his body chemistry resurrecting him as the Creeper. Ryder dispatched his opponents, discovering that now he's able to call forth his bestial alter-ego at will.
[edit] Powers
The Creeper's powers are physical in nature, as a result of Yatz's invention. He displays virtually superhuman agility and stamina, combined with strength. This enables him to perform amazing feats of acrobatics and leaping. At times this can be compared to another character, Spider-Man, whom Ditko helped Stan Lee to create. He also seems able to climb walls with little or no difficulty. His strength is enough to enable him to throw grown men several feet or jump several feet in the air. His speed and reflexes have also been enhanced greatly. These combined abilities make Creeper a formidable fighter, incorporating brawling techniques with his physical prowess. A signature move is jumping onto the backs of his opponents and throwing them off balance. The Creeper also possesses a superhuman healing factor, which enables him to heal from virtually any wound. Indeed, gunshots and stab wounds have healed in a matter of minutes. It even allowed him to return from death when his body regenerated after being torn apart by Eclipsed hyenas. In the Brave New World relaunch, The Creeper seems to possess two new abilities. One is an apparent intimidation/hypnosis ability as one of the thugs seems to be mesmerized after an encounter with the Creeper. Also, his laugh is depicted as being physically painful to the ears of his victims.
[edit] Alternate versions
The Creeper found a new guise in the early 20th century when the Beware The Creeper series (written by Jason Hall and illustrated by Cliff Chiang) was released under the Vertigo brand. Set in 1920s Paris, and featuring a female Creeper, it was somewhat different to its predecessor.
The Creeper also makes a nigh non-existent appearance in Batman: The Dark Knight Strikes Again wherein he has already been struck fatally when we see him.
In the DC One Million crossover the year is 85,271. On the planet IAI, a being known as "Insanitation" lands on the planet, drawn to a raw force known as "the Creeper". The trail leads to Jack Ryder, who was tired of being a super-hero. Jack and the Creeper became separate parts of each other, actual living beings. After the Creeper side got injured by Insanitation, Jack realized that whether he liked it or not, the Creeper was a part of him. Insanitation could live with this and had the two bodies separte back together, and the Creeper was reborn.
In Amalgam Comics the Creeper is combined with the X-Men character Nightcrawler as the Nightcreeper in JLX. Jack Ryder appears as a Daily Bugle reporter in Spider-Boy and it is hinted in the (fictional) lettercolumn there is a connection between them. Spider-Boy himself uses Professor Yatz' matter transformer to take on the identity of "Pete Ross".
[edit] In other media
Jack Ryder appeared several times in The New Batman Adventures, voiced by Jeff Bennett. A few brief appearances as a news reporter led up to his starring role in the episode "Beware the Creeper".
The animated Creeper had a completely new origin, more straightforward and more closely tied to the Batman continuity: Jack Ryder, anchoring a live TV special on the career of the Joker from the very factory where the Joker had his life-changing encounter with a vat of chemicals, is interrupted by the Joker himself, who doesn't appreciate the attention. The Joker doses Ryder with his trademark lethal laughing gas and then, to distract the newly arrived Batman and Robin, pushes him into the same vat of chemicals. The gas and the chemicals react strangely; Ryder survives, but is transformed into an extraordinarily strong and agile maniac with yellow skin, green hair, and a rictus grin, who helps Batman and Robin apprehend the Joker and his gang, both in revenge for what Joker did, and also because he develops an intense attraction to Harley Quinn. Although his mania is benign (and vaguely reminiscent of Madman) his methods are so extremely wild and frantic that even The Joker begs to be arrested to escape them, saying, about the Creeper: "He's a lunatic!".
At the end of the episode, Ryder is returned to his normal self by a treatment that counteracts the chemicals, in the form of a skin patch; but it is suggested that the treatment is only temporary, and that if Ryder takes the patch off he will soon become the Creeper again. In the final seconds he stares at the patch, saying "A little piece of cotton — hard to believe." The view then changes to outside his apartment with a silhouette of him at the window. There is the sound of paper being torn, followed by the silhouette of Ryder laughing in the manner of the Creeper — the obvious implication being that Ryder was at least willing to return to the form of the Creeper at some point. This is a common sort of ending for a one-off villain in the series; not only is it elusive and thought-provoking, but it is also in the best interests of the writers, as an ambiguous ending leaves the character available for return appearances in future episodes.
This version of the Creeper has made cameos in Justice League Unlimited. The series has a Justice League with about sixty members, including the Creeper. The Creeper yet made another cameo at the ending of an Justice League Unlimited episode, "Destroyer", fighting alongside other Ditko creations against Darkseid's Parademons. He also appeared in a Justice League Unlimited comic book. Batman, having to investigate some people who are even crazier than his rogues gallery, enlists the Creeper to figure out the plan. In an earlier episode, he is shown battling the Ultimen clones.
Hasbro released an action figure of the New Batman Adventures version of the character in the late 1990s.
[edit] External links and references
- The Creeper at Toonopedia
- The Creeper Index
- Creeper rarities Dial B for Blog #251
- The Unofficial Creeper Chronology
- Comics Buyer's Guide Fan Awards
