This episode is brought to you by Patreon, specifically the Comic-Pop Patreon. Go to patreon.com.com.com and find out more about how you can keep the lights on here at Comic-Pop. And don't worry, we've got plenty of fun rewards, including early access to videos and weekly updates about what's happening here at the studio. That's patreon.com.com.
Alright, let's get on with the show. Waiting down upon the underworld to smash ganglin, come a friend of the unfortunate enemy of criminal. In a serious, powerful character, a problem to the police, but a good state of law. Hello everybody, and welcome to a veritable, spooktacular episode of the Elsworld Exchange.
I am scary-sal, and I'm joined by Jumpin' Joel. I don't know. It's every year I see everyone change their Twitter's around to be Halloween themed, and I always think about doing it, and then I never do it. No, and I'm never going to.
That's just not gonna happen. But I thought, would it be fun to do like a kind of 31 days of Halloween, but for the Elsworld Exchange? So every week, we're gonna do another Halloween-themed episode that is tailored to some aspect of heat culture or comics or something. You'll enjoy it.
As you can see, I've doled up the set a little bit, made it a little more spooky and so forth. So, yeah, just settle in for a regular episode that is kind of themed and the cover has a jack-o'-lantern on it. That's gonna be the only difference between everything. So, today we're gonna talk about spooky superheroes.
These are superheroes that are scary. Not the villains. It's easy to do the villains. You know, like, oh, the Joker.
He's scary. He's a clown. What else? But Land will probably do that for the next week.
But for now- The Goblin is a goblin. Right. Goblins. I guess really it should be like Halloween- like super villains that would get away with being out on Halloween or something.
I don't know. They all basically wear Halloween costumes. Yeah, yeah, it's true. But I mean, like, you know, Green Goblin, he's got a purse or a candy bag and all kinds of other people.
You know, like a carnage is scary. But yeah, so we're gonna talk about spooky superheroes. These are characters that are supposed to do good who are also terrifying. And probably would do more harm than good if they ever actually got out into the open.
It's perfectly timed too, not just because of Halloween, but also Justice League Dark is beginning its big crossover, the witching hour this week as well, which is all horror themed. That's true. If I had my druthers, I would have encouraged Tiffany to be on this episode because she, of course, has a big affinity for horror and horror characters. But I think since we're just talking about superheroes, it's okay to miss her out on this one, but we'll be sure to have her on for the next one.
So, we each have our own little list of characters. I'm sure it's gonna be a lot of crossover because- There are too too many horror themed or scary, like genuinely frightening superheroes. But I will say there are more than a few. And when I started, I was like, I don't know, this one.
You know, and then I was like, oh crap, I have 11. Like, who would have thought that? Before we jump into our list, I will address the super chat because we will be doing this. Every two or three superheroes will mention- we'll jump into the super chats.
But Mr. Giggle saying the dynamic duo was returnable, thank you very much, Mr. Giggle. And Cam saying, Penance was sort of scary.
Anybody remember him? I found him hilarious. And I mean, he funded mercilessly, actually, just as a quick tangent about Penance. I remember when we did, I think episode three or four or whatever, a back issue is Civil War.
And we were like, and I'm like, Penance is so stupid. He's so melodramatic and so lame. He has a spike for every soul that was killed in the massacre. They all go inward.
He can only feel pain. He uses powers. He's like, don't call me Bobby anymore on Penance. And that suiting up scenery is alone in an alley with this lowly old Jewish poor man who's just trying to make costumes.
He's like, what are you doing? You can pretty much hear the Lincoln Park on the air. Right, just so silly and dumb. And I was like, this guy is trying too hard.
It's so dumb. And then I remember like, we had very few comments back then. I remember someone jumping in and just being like, you know, I was a soldier and I believe that Penance is a real like, he's like my avatar. I've been through hell and back and I'm like, Oh, crap.
I didn't realize Penance was so serious. I'll write, I'll dial back my penance aid because I've been laughing at Penance since 2006. I'm not going to judge you, but maybe pick a better avatar. Maybe a character had some legs and wasn't forgotten about no band.
Yeah, but then like the history caught up with me and everyone makes my penance. True. No one took him seriously. He was an outlier.
That was not like the voice for a voiceless amount of like throngs of penance fans. He was an outlier. He had no idea he was talking about penance sucks. And I'll stand by it until the day I die.
I'm going to pour the very least until the day where a costume that stabs me so that I can truly feel it again. But yeah, so that was my little side about Penance. But I don't think Penance is scary. I think he's a dumbass.
So let's not talk about Penance. Unless it's on your list, in which case, please jump in. No, no, no, I didn't put Penance on the list. Yeah, so scary superheroes.
What do you got, man? Who's your go to? Your first one? You're like, Oh, dude.
Well, I mean, he's the guy you picked for the cover of this one and it's hard not to deny Ghost Rider is scary. His whole thing is that he literally scares the crap out of you and makes you relive all your sins with the penance. Literally scares you to death. That's his schtick is frightening people until they die.
And for Halloween, he is a spooky, spooky skeleton. Yeah, no, his visage is all over everyone's doorsteps and Halloween bags and whatnot. At least once a year, everyone wants to be Ghost Rider. It's true.
Yeah, he's he actually he's screwed that line of being awesome and badass, but also spooky and scary. He is a literal ghost rider. He's depending on which version you pick. He's a demon.
So it's not just like because it's funny 364 days out of the year. The dude is just a cool tattoo. But once a year, he gets to be like the Halloween avatar and it really does. If only he could get like some kind of only like a theme in some way, you know, like maybe change his head to a pumpkin or something.
Well, then he's just Jack-a-lantern. Oh, yeah, but Jack-a-lantern sucks because Jack-a-lantern all the Jack-a-lantern suck. There's like five. There's like five.
I remember like when Jack-a-lantern came on the scene, I was like, are you trying to recreate with the magic of Hobgoblin? We are the Who's the Jack-a-lantern. The Jack-a-lantern is just a wannabe goblin who instead of using a goblin glider has a goblin glider-esque version of, okay, we're going far. We're reaching deep.
When I was a kid, there were these like, if you were too chicken-shitten afraid to use a pogo stick, there was this thing. It was a bouncy ball that had a plastic ring around it. Try and protect you, yes, I remember this. You didn't get mad air anyway.
I don't remember what it was called. I'm sure the chat will help me out if they were to look up like nostalgia and not pogo stick. But this thing is exactly what Jack-a-lantern bounced around on. I remember he was supposed to be a spinning top of you might be right.
He literally bounced. Like I remember him like bouncing off of rooftops and whatnot and I was like, is this just that thing that my sister has? Hey everyone, I'm Jason Macondale. I'll be a hobgoblin at some point.
Right, yeah, exactly. I'll graduate from...well, that's the thing when you go to goblin school. You start as a jack-a-lantern and you can only go up to goblin from there. Unless you're great goblin, which case nothing can save you, you're totally...
We don't talk about you anymore. No, no. Did one word day write Kanye? Who's to say?
As I recall, they didn't. I think somebody referenced him after that. It was like, what are you doing? That was a perfect opportunity.
Making a deal with the devil to trade your old wife, your old mom, your mom allegory characters life for your marriage will not only allow people to not remember who you are anymore, but you'll also get your web shooters. And random characters that dog will come back to life. And oh yeah, also your ex-girlfriend didn't sleep with normalize. That doesn't matter at that point.
You might as well just make it all work. Should bring it back to the devil there. That's another thing about Ghost Rider that makes him a horror character. So many of his stories are benched in the occult in demonology and everything like that.
Totally. Oh, and every character surrounding him. Ghost Rider carries with him a burden of spooky characters that are kind of spooky. I mean, like the Midnight Sons derived from Ghost Rider in his popularity, Morbius the Living Vampire, who I consider more of an anti-hero and moonlighting as a superhero.
But he's more like a villain that just like for the 90s, everyone was an anti-hero. So there was nothing we could do with him. Absolutely. I mean, you do a whole thing just there on the Marvel monsters.
You mentioned Morbius, then you got your werewolf buying 90s and everything. Your Frankencastles. Yeah. I mean, yes, Frankencastles is a great Halloween book.
If you ever want to read that, it's got horror. It's got the Punisher. It has monsters. Yeah, there's a creature for the Black Lagoon type character, but yeah, werewolf by night.
Straight up werewolf. It's a werewolf. I mean, they can't do more with him, especially when werewolves were so popular there. When Twilight was in Vogue and all these other new horror series were in Vogue that they were never like, hey, let's dust off werewolf buying night and give him a new thing.
No, it's true. Do you consider Dr. Strange as part of the Midnight Sun to be kind of like a spooky superhero? Some stories definitely are, especially like during those last couple of runs where they went all like Kaz, Nikor, and everything.
That's true. I think if you were not in the occult, he would definitely be spooky. I think like Spider-Man when he shows up at his house is always like, it's place is weird. Yeah, everything's like you got books with mouths, you have living ghosts running around, you're dealing in magic in the occult.
You probably have a couple of beakers and Bunsen burners full of like souls or eyes of Newton, whatnot. Very positive. He's not like a carnival barking side street magician, but like he's not a conjurer of cheap tricks. It's true, but I will say to a layman like myself, to the Punisher, to Spider-Man, I think he seems kind of spooky.
Yeah, that's Dr. Strange definitely. A spooky superhero. He lives in that rent-controlled house that you know is probably great.
Exactly. Yeah, you know every real estate agent is just champing up the pits and wait for him. Every superhero fight, like it's Dr. Strange and the fight will die.
Where's that story? The Crooked Real Estate agents are like, yes, Dr. Strange, I want your house. I mean, what's that basically just the end of Sea Grandpire?
Yeah, I guess so. That was the one. I skipped that one, but yeah, it basically came down to what we want your house. But I'm talking like I want your house like turning into condos.
Yeah, exactly. I want your house. Oh my God. Wouldn't it be funny?
That's like a great arc. It's just Dr. Strange gets his house taken out from under him. They convert it into condos, like they just straight up turning into condos and they're all haunted.
Of course. Why would they? Because they just steamroll the whole thing and strangers that ask him, they like, Hey, hat in hand, like, look Steve, I know we like really screwed you over, but like we have a real problem here. We've got possessions and demons and like the wolves in this particular apartment bleeding.
Every condo is the Amityville horror up in there. Can you do something? Yeah, exactly. And then Strange is like, all right.
And then he cons the conners and like he says that they also like converts it into back into the house. So, you know, you upset the apple cart, but it's Marvel's. You can't do it too bad. He gets the house back at the end of the arc.
That sounds like a very constant thing to do is what that is. Oh, but you signed on the dotted line. So I get my house back. Exactly.
Like, yeah, Dr. Strange, like now that you took it taken my house. Like I have to pay for rent and I have to like, I'm basically like a ghostbuster now. And you're gonna have to like pay through the ass.
Like, and so, you know, yeah. And so he signs up a contract. Oh, he gets like, he gets like Johnny Blaze and like Matt Murdock because Johnny Blige, to help him draft the contract because like, you know, Johnny Blaze is probably an expert at contract law by now. But also, Matt Murdock is like, oh, this is positively Machiavelli and I love it.
I'm totally on board. It's great to say I'm the devil too. I'm not a literal devil. Oh my God.
The devil drafts the contract. Oh my God. Sign on the dotted line. And his shadow is being cast in the background, but it's like, Daredevil's shadow.
So it's got a little orange. Exactly. Oh my God. No, that's that's too good.
We own that. Yeah. Original idea. Do not steal.
Yeah. That's going to be stolen. And they're written by some shitty writer like Dennis Hopeless will come back for a tongue in arc and he'll be like, I did it. Her.
But yeah, so you mentioned Constantine. Smooky Superhero in a big bad way. He's not even really superhero, but he's spooky. Oh, he's very spooky.
Everything that happens to him is spooky. His life is a haunting every day of the week. Yeah, it's true. And I don't know if I count these characters, but like the endless are spooky.
Like like, more, more fiest and death are spooky and weird. They're very inhuman, aren't they? They're very otherworldly. Yes.
Yes. Well, that's the whole point of their character. But yeah. Yeah, I don't really consider Constantine really a superhero, but he rides that line.
Yeah, Constantine, I think always implies that thing too, where it's like, oh, you know, the greatest monster is man and the greatest horror is just living. I've got lung cancer. You want to know what's really scary. Dying unloved and having screwed over all your friends.
I'm like, yeah, your, your horror is both literal and existential. Yeah, it's true. Who else do we have on our list of horror superheroes? One guy who came back just recently and I think it's probably the scariest redesign he ever got.
Boston brand, the Dead Man. Yeah, definitely. He's a literal ghost. Yeah, a ghost who fights crime and can only do so by possessing people.
Yeah, that's horrifying. Particularly the most recent Batman damn version where like his hood, his muscles and everything. Like it's costume is like hard of him. And that decision to make him like when he invades people's bodies, it makes them like, wretch and horrible.
Like they feel like they're dying. Yeah, because he's pretty gross in real life too. Yeah, no, I think that's dope. Yeah, good call, Dead Man.
Good deep dive. Plus, he's got some nice occult stuff too with, you know, like Nanda Parrbat. No one dies in Nanda Parrbat. That's some cool shit.
Oh, totally. I mean, I guess we're because we I don't want to go too far into the indie scene, but Hellboy is on. Got to mention Hellboy. He's got a new movie coming out.
We saw that new image just recently. Yeah, basically son of the devil. And he's a big demon man who does good, but he's horrifying. And of course he works in the occult.
And so like he's always surrounded by the supernatural and the horror anyway. It'd be weird if Hellboy was like punching Dr. Rock to post or something. Yeah, Hellboy too.
I always enjoy because it always kind of dips its foot. And especially that last movie they did Golden Army. It always dips a toe into horror comedy and horror absurdity, which I think is a little bit more. Yeah, yeah, yeah, it's true.
Maniola really really likes that wheelhouse. That's definitely speaks to his strengths, I think. Like amazing screw on head man. And really all the other characters that Hellboy has spawned because it's not just him.
It's Abe Sapien, it's lobster Johnson. Oh, yeah. I know his whole horde are part of the like would would fall into this category though. The further in we get into Hellboy's inner circle, the less superhero we get.
Very much so you get like brainwashed Nazi angels, you get like weird sadomasochist soldiers and everything like that. Right, like is Abe Sapien a superhero? Like just because he's a fish man? I don't think so.
Jumping into the Super Chat before we transition to the next one. Comic Goblin, good morning from Japan fellas beating up at the time for the show makes night shift a lot easier. Honestly, I find Dr. Manhattan cool and horrifying.
He really is. Yeah, he should be. Because Dr. Manhattan is an allegory for like the nuclear fear for like that prop, like the cold war mentality.
So like you should that feeling of discomfort and horror is not only like justified, but it's also like something that your parents might have felt. Yes, he's also unto a god and completely neurotic, which is also a warbox. Exactly. God has this many years.
Someone with that much power shouldn't have that many issues. No, yeah, exactly. Like man, God should be nothing like man or he would be a psycho. Yeah, which Manhattan kind of is.
He's just like book you. I'm going to Mars. Yeah, Jack Ingram within the last week. I have binge read all three volumes of Dougins, Guardians of the Galaxy and Fiddiety Countdown, Endtions and Fiddie Wars.
What books have you binge to get caught up with a story you wanted to read? Like it's 52. Secret Wars, the new one. Yep, there's a good one.
I got all of Shattered Grid Power Rangers. I still need to finish. I read Halfway, then stopped and I got to start from the beginning again to remember everything that's happening. Totally.
I also got a great deal on the last couple Aquaman Trades that I wanted to familiarize myself with because the new Kelly Sooticonic stuff is starting soon, even though I'm sure it won't reference any of that. Again, she's doing a complete fresh start, but I'm a weird completionist and I like to know these things. Yeah, exactly. When one more question here, read Nest times four.
Hey, Silent Joel, kind of depolble. How about trauma from the Avengers Initiative? Literally turns into your worst nightmare. Man, I remember trauma.
I forgot about Terrence, poor Terrence, man. I loved the initiative. I thought it was such a great idea to move them. It was propelling Marvel Universe forward, literally embodying the concept that Stanley had set in place of Excelsior, onward and upward.
Make some new characters. Give us characters. I loved Cloud Nine and Hardball and those characters. I like the idea of trauma, though.
I don't think we really explored him too deeply, unfortunately. I count him because he dabbles in nightmares at his wheelhouse, but I find Moon Knight more terrifying than trauma. Moon Knight is interesting too, because Moon Knight, especially in the last little bit where they have moved him from less of a vigilante direction to more of a horror direction, he is the sub-genre of the psychological horror. He's like, Shutter Island and shit all the time.
Exactly. No. It's funny, because even if you go back to the Charlie Houston run, which is one of my favorites, and we covered him back issues and everything, which is why it's fresh in my mind. But he's a scary dude.
He's out of his mind. He's hyper-violent. He dresses like the Avatar of God of the Moon, which probably doesn't even exist. He has all these horrible weaponry and he's got an inner circle of friends who are all happy and eager to lie for him.
His greatest nemesis, Bushman is a horror character in himself. That, of course, the Moon and iconography with horror and death and fear and stuff like that. Plus the fact that the dude was inexorably tied to people like Jack Hart and all the other characters who are horror-themed. Moon Knight is always part of that.
Even the Warren Ellis run did some kind of like really cool with Mr. Knight, made him like dark and scary. I'm always going back to that dream episode where there's that dead person in the floor where it's freaking unbelievable, but also definitely demonstrably horror-themed. Oh yeah.
Who else you got? Here, I mean look at the list here. Hey, here's a more obscure one that I don't think ever gets mentioned enough, and I always think he's a character I wish Marvel would do more with. Damien Helsstrom, the son of Satan.
Right? Literally son of Satan. Helsstrom. It's funny.
Helsstrom. I have a very passing familiarity with him. I remember him. I hated his design.
I'm like shirtless underwear model with a pentagram on his chest. I'm all about the look. If that costume doesn't grab me, that's probably why I always reference sleepwalker whenever I get it. He just looks so cool.
I don't care if I've never read more than three issues in succession because it's so boring. But Helsstrom for me, he looks annoying and he's so like... His design's gotten better. His narrative, his voice is all over the place.
No one knows how to write him. Is he a hero? Is he a villain? Is he both?
He goes back and forth so many times it's ridiculous. I mean, look at what was it when Bendis wrote him. Whenever Bendis would refer to him or have him show up. He was always this obstinate snarky douche.
I know that's like Bendis and it's like, oh, which character you're referring to? Har har har har. But at the same time, that's the Avengers reading crowd familiar with Helsstrom probably. And that's not enough.
Also, so his name is Damien Helsstrom. But we call him Helsstrom. Unless we call him Helsstrom sometimes. Which we have.
He's a mess. It's the fact that no one's really cared to really take this character. This is my project for this year. I'm going to make this character relevant.
That would be a great idea. And I think it would have been great to do it on the cusp of Halloween season. Would have been nice now is the time for a mini series. Totally.
But good call on Helsstrom. Who else you got? Who else do I got here? I mean, you know, keeping it in the hellish space as we are.
Ettrig in the demon, gone gone the flesh of man unleashed the demon Ettrig in. Hey, a literal demon. Or three in lore. Oh, yeah.
I guess it's a good guy. I mean, Jason Blood is a good guy. Ettrig in. It depends what day you catch him on.
It's true. Well, I'm not even saying that he's a bad guy because he's a demon. It's more like I've never actually seen him do anything heroic. No, it's true.
But it's yeah, he's definitely a horror themed character. I mean, like yellow, big yellow, scary demon in booties. How could he get some body horror with him too? Usually in the transformation when blood twists and you know moves around and everything.
And the demon literally pops out of his body. You can really like I'm surprised that I haven't seen him transform quite a bit. I don't get to see too much like American werewolf in London kind of like body horror transformation effects like really go for broke. You're an artist.
You want to draw this stuff. You learned anatomy. Unless you're a life. But like get into there.
Make him like break bones in order to form into it. I guess the idea is he's not really transforming into him as much as he's like swabbing places. Like Shazam because hey, wouldn't that be a fun new 52 way to deal with Shazam? It's like Billy Basson like gross.
He asked for or what's it called or Shazam like blast out of him in some way like really just water it up. All of that kind of turns into the now past Norm Ray Fogels prime character. Oh, is that what prime was about? Oh my God.
Prime was yeah. Prime was a weird thing. A little boy becomes a big hulking Superman. But like he has to blast out of prime.
He has to climb out of the body of prime every time. Sometimes a girl is prime too. It's weird. A little less said about prime better.
It's more just an opportunity for me to say that like Norm Ray Fogels is a great artist and I miss him terribly. Why was he ever? So yeah jumping back in the super chats really quick. Let's see.
Cam, Cloke is pretty scary. Dude's got a demon dimension inside of him. Dude, more than that. He's got a demon inside of him.
If you've ever watched our cloak and dagger episode of back issues which I know you didn't because you watched that episode. I did. Thank you very much. Larry Strowman and the gang give you the origins of the dark dimension.
It's a dimension that is like if hell has levels, one of them is Cloke's dimension and in it they keep a demon named the Predator. He looks like the cool Predator and not the Predator from the terrible movie he was in. But the Predator is this stupid demon who feeds on light energy. And so he needs dagger to feed him every so often or else he'll like, pardon me, take over.
Yeah. Hey, sneeze on street. But yeah, I don't know what he'll do, but he's a nice nightmare and a stupid character. It was a great opportunity to kill him off and then just make it be like the cloak has to be cloak and you don't have to do that.
You don't have to overcomplicate it. But yes, there is a literal demon inside of cloak and cloak in of itself should be a scary character. Yeah, he can make you disappear and no one will ever find you again. And if you're in the dark dimension without cloak or without dagger, rather, you will die.
Like your light energy will be drained from him mostly because of the Predator because he feeds on it. I always thought that they really needed to like marvel, maxify cloak and dagger. Like I always thought that there was a really solid like super adult pitch for cloak and dagger where it's like, yeah, we go after the guys who aren't quite supervillains but the people who need to disappear because they're that bad. Yeah, like a cloak and dagger, either like vigilantes or like shield agents or not even shield.
Like the CIA, like an actual government body who's like, no, screw shield. You want like, you want your criminal past to go away, you want like room and board, you want food and like a life, work for us, we'll send you like all kinds of different countries and you'll dump undesirables into your dark dimension. Is that what it is? Should they get out?
No? Okay. Yeah, you're hired. Well, whatever you want.
Exactly. That's pretty cool. I mean, it's a cool story. I think it's horrible in Machiavelli, but I think it's a really cool idea.
Yeah, cloak scary. Yeah, I propose scary Marvel characters because we haven't mentioned enough of those who's a great Marvel character. We didn't mention when we're talking about the Midnight Sun's and other horror characters. Man thing.
All things burn that know what's that thing again? All the no fear will burn at the man things touch. Yeah, or the touch the man thing. Man thing, proto swamp thing who was also scary will get to him later.
But like, man thing scary. He has no, so I think at least looks like a guy. Yeah, that he was human once upon a time. Man thing never looks like it was human.
No, it's a horrible monster thing. And incidentally, any time anybody wants to use Man thing, unless they're all starting to turn into a goddamn joke. A dad joke, which, anyway, don't read the R.L. Stine Man thing series.
It is a travesty. But yeah, like, if you ever don't rent the Lionsgate Man thing movie is terrible. But it's a horror movie. And it's mostly about like this weird stupid horror element.
But it's a horror movie. They immediately went to horror because that's what Man thing is a horror character. Yeah, it has to be. He burns people who deserve to be burned.
He is a conduit through like another world, or to a, you know, to another dimension, to a horrible demon as a legend. I get the feeling you're not keeping up with Jim's of champions, but he actually used Man thing just recently to great effect. That's awesome. Good use him.
He's this great force in the Marvel universe that you could pull out. You could drop him. You could pull him out of the drop of hat and offend nobody. Yeah.
I mean, like no one's using him. It was a great story because it's like, Hey, all you kids, you're feeling a lot of emotions and a lot of fear right now. Oh, no, you summoned Man thing to you. Hey, remember how you said you were dead to emotions and how you dumped everything that happened to you during Tom King's vision run?
Touch now you remember it all. Oh, that's awesome. I'm the man that my powers work on robots too, because even Synthoids know me. My powers were on robots.
Who knew? Yeah, he didn't know. And now they've all been sucked into man things dimension. Don't come to the over overlaids for every reason.
No, never go there. Um, Tevius Volkis says Marvel zombies from Ultimate Fantastic Four. Yeah, the Marvel zombies are a straight up horror show. Literally.
Yeah, they're so horrible that Disney won't let them write about them anymore. Hey, if you love horrible acts of cannibalism. Yeah, go no further than the Marvel zombies. But I think I knew Zombie thing.
I think I remember reading in the solicitations. It's like none of the heroes you know, but they're like, inventing a new hero for the Marvel zombies universe. I'm sure. I mean, they do that every, every, every subsequent after Marvel zombies too, which just kept going further and further and further.
Like, Magic Machine Man fights them in the regular universe and stuff. It's all right. Hey, speaking of zombies, we're also super here. Here's some shit nobody remembers from DCU era.
Jimmy Paul Miadhi's G.I. Zombie. No, I do not remember G.I. Zombie.
Oh, G.I. Zombie. I think G.I. Zombie is actually a reference to like an old World War II DC character they did.
But man, he was fun and interesting and funny. And it was like the X-Files where it's like he's a zombie and he cannot die. He's been around since World War II and they team him up with his own agent, Scully, a government agent together. And together, they infiltrate like in the first arc and only arc and only lasted an arc.
They infiltrate like a homegrown terror cell of like guys making fertilizer ball hums. Oh, nice. And like G.I. Zombie is able to speak to them on their level.
It's really solid. And they're a, they're a smoking man. They're like guy who's their handler and everything is a guy called Grave Digger. And Grave Digger literally was a World War II DC hero.
Okay, cool. Yeah. So G.I. Zombie, you can probably get it for a penny.
Jolf says it's cool. There you go. Good. Good reference, by the way.
You got it like, yeah. There are a lot of like hidden gems in those long boxes and you'll never know unless you try them out. I think those videos are gone now, but I spoke very highly of G.I.Z. Will I am Golden, Black Hand and Blue Devil?
I guess. Black Hand more than Blue Devil. He's not scary. He's just a dope.
It costs me. Tariff Death for me. The Scariest Character is the Spectre because he's literally God's Wrath incarnate. Yes, he is.
And he's also a ghost and there's been more than one. Right. Exactly. Now the Spectre is supposed to be scary.
I mean, every incarnation of him, I remember that short animated feature about him that's attached to one of those DC movies. Great stuff. No, he's his roots in horror comics and I don't even know if he even needs to be God's Wrath. I like the idea that he thinks he's God's Wrath.
This is like, omnipotent being that like, is only in check because he thinks that he's doing the will of God himself. That's a really cool concept. Plus it's like he's tied to a noir beat cop and the Spectre can be and oftentimes is really, really cool and could definitely lend himself to a great horror series. Most definitely.
Spectre is Phantom Stranger Scary? No. He's mysterious. But he's not scary.
Yeah, like he's as scary as the question. And I guess the question would be scary if you don't like vigilantes who chase after conspiracy theories, but that's the case that I guess Batman is scary too. I don't know, man. You've seen conspiracy theorists in 2018.
They scare the fucking shit out of me. That's fair. I mean, like definitely following the breadcrumbs leads to a life of confusion and the rest of us kind of go like, what are you doing? Which again makes me wonder in this day and age, you mean to tell me no one has a pitch for the question?
I'm shocked. Black label motherfucker. I have to assume that he's just, it's because he's a Charlton character and it's some kind of weird problem. DC was like, we're an interconnect universe.
We're totally fine. They were fine. Like 60 years. Not out of nowhere.
All of a sudden, everything they have just doesn't fucking work anymore. Well, I told you my pitch. I don't think we'll do it now. But when doomsday clock is done, I thought they should reconvene the Minuteman as a DC team, but make it Black Canary and the Quest Jyn and Blue Beetle all together on one team.
That's fantastic idea. I'll never do it, but... No. No, they won't.
Grievous, she's got a throwin' man thing. Dude literally has to be scary for him to be effective. Yeah. Agreed.
His thing is basically, for a man thing, I guess we can talk about Swamp Thing. Yes, Swamp Thing. He is scary. His world is scary and on arcane and like everything.
His best stories and his best eras are all horror stories. It's true. No, he is the best link to Lovecraftian-type DC universe, Vertigo-type stories. You gotta go back further.
Usually the green thing and him being in the DC universe, he's a lot more friendly and a lot more relatable. I was a superhero. The day that they established he wasn't actually Alekala and that opened up things big time for Swamp Thing. In a big way.
Yeah. And made it really cool and made him a much more potentially frightening character. And even now in Justice League Dark, they're showing to remind us how powerful he is that he can grow to Kaiju-sized when he wants. Yeah, which is cool.
Which could be upside down man, the new horror character that James Tynan invented. He is awesome. That is a great idea. Check out our episode of Off the Rack to catch Tiffany talking more about that.
Is she excited for Witching Hour? I think so. Definitely she recommended it in our bi-section of the show. Nice.
I'm happy because I get to read Wonder Woman again. I stopped for so long. She's super cool. They made some cool ideas with her.
It's a good time to hop back in too because G Will Wilson is going to be taking over the book after Witching Hour. Great idea. The Jackal Sackle. What do you think of the Shadow King?
Shadow King's a villain. He's not going to be really referenced in this episode but could be scary. I've never known him outside of two stories. To be relevant in any way.
I mean he can fuck with your mind. He can manipulate you. He looks like a monster. Yeah.
In every respect he is a scary character. But I don't really find him interesting anyway. Except for when the Shadow King is also Aubrey Plaza in which case I feel complicated emotions. I know.
That's the best use that character in 20 years. It really fucking is. I couldn't believe it when that was the twist. Yeah.
Tristan Levesque. Kiss Psycho Circus's Elders are kind of scary. Yeah. I guess that's true.
I don't really. I'm not a Kiss fan. I like Kiss kind of. Will I am Golden Dusselem and Grundy does sound like Grundy Count as scary.
Yeah. He's a zombie. I don't know if I would call him scary because most of the time he's shown to be pretty dumb muscle. Yes.
I don't find him scary. Thank the Super Friends for making him dumb. Like really dumb. But even when he's a formidable threat.
He's got a silly ass rhyme. He's slow moving. You know, he is, if you find like slow moving dim witted easily dupeable zombies scary. I suppose he could be terrifying.
Plus he got episodes like Justice League 2 in his relationship with a woman that simplifies him and actually makes you feel sad for him. Yes. Yeah. The more the human eye is going to the way less scary he gets.
But if you were to bump into him in the graveyard or dark alley or something. He'd be terrifying. Tariff Death also going to add Doctor Fate for the psychological aspect. Yeah.
He's scary because he's also like always a bad guy. Yeah. Again. I'm all about order.
But sometimes that pendulum can swing back the other way. Exactly. Getting into other superheroes who are scary. You know who's really scary because of how like real he is but also he counts because he's also a vampire.
Preachers Cassidy. Yeah. Yeah. That's a pretty good one.
I was hesitant to use him because spoilers for Preacher. He's not really a hero. No. But he's painted as one.
So I guess he kind of counts. But like, by the way, I'm still calling this one day Cassidy will remember the Suicide Squad. Or the very least Jesse Custer will. And he's like he's got a remnant of the word left.
But they've referenced them. They've referenced the Saint of Killers. But anyway, yeah. I think he's scary because he represents like how good people can turn bad and how like how effective liars are.
He's scary because like people are scary. Yes. Very much so. He represents some of the worst in humanity.
Exactly. Do you find Raven of the Titans scary? I think she can be. When she gets all trigon down.
She gets four eyes and the horns and everything and loses control. That's scary. Totally. I think she thinks she's scarier than she is.
Particularly the Marvel of Manera. I never found her scary. I didn't think she was spooky in any way. She can be played to be spooky and scary.
But like, I don't think they've ever really done it well without her being like also a victim. Also too. I mean, if you have a thing for goth girls, she's just not spooky at all. You're just right into it.
All right. Yeah. Crazy horns for eyes. I'm into it.
Yeah. Tails for my own Z was Malice scarier than a Logan that has lost it. Which Malice are we talking about? I don't know.
And you know, is Logan scary? I guess. Yeah. Wolverine can be scary.
I'm sure if you heard him like scream his head off and brandishing knives that came out of his forearms. And just smashing everything up and describing it. I mean, on that note, I mean, the Punisher is scary in his own time just for the levels of brutality that he's willing to go to. I mean, he might as well be a slasher villain for criminal.
That's totally true. No, the Punisher is definitely, he should be scary. I mean, like he's as scary as the boondocksings are when at the end of that movie when they're like interviewing regular people and they're like, this is terrifying. What are you talking about?