The Creeper: Guide & History

To better familiarize new comic book readers with the eight person team that is the Outsiders I thought I would do a guide for each character.  The first character up is the Creeper, which may seem a rather odd choice to some of the older Outsiders readers, but trust me when I say his history is a lot more convoluted (four different origin stories) than many of the other members so I thought I would get him out of the way first.

The Creeper AKA Jack Ryder has been around since the early 1970’s and was created by Steve Ditko. He had a six issue series, plotted by Steve Ditko, but written by Denny O’Neil and several appearances in Showcase. During this time period his origin was much simpler when compared to several of the later retcons he got throughout the next three decades. A newsman, Jack Ryder faked his way into a costume party held by a local crime boss who had captured renowned Professor Yatz. He was caught early in the evening, his drink drugged, and then taken out back to be shot by one of the crime boss’ thugs. Instead of dying though he was used as a means of hiding the Professor Yatz’s devices by Yatz himself. In true comic book fashion these devices just happened to enhance his strength, agility and healing factor as well as imprinting the costume he wore at the party into his genetic make up, which somehow allowed him to switch back and forth between a costumed identity and a civilian identity with the flick of a button.

He became a backup feature in several comics and was known for his use of insanity as a means of frightening his villains. In the eighties he was given a rebooted origin that suggested his psychotic means of scaring criminals was more of a result of the drugs from his drink at the party being imprinted on his DNA as well as his costume, meaning that any time he turned into the Creeper the drugs would affect his psychosis. An interesting origin, but one paid little heed to over the years. The Creeper made an appearance in a few early issues of Giffen and DeMatteis’ JLI and then the short lived Eclipso series.

In this series he, Bruce Gordon (the original host of Eclipso) and Bruce Gordon’s wife, Mona, were out to stop Eclipso in South America. In the end the Creeper temporarily died after being torn apart by Eclipso Hyenas (I’m not making his up. Keith Giffen wrote the series.)

In 1997 Len Kaminski was tapped to write a Creeper series. It has never been specifically stated that the reason for this was because of Kaminski’s work in Venom at the time, but I would like to point out that there are strong similarities between what Kaminski was doing with Venom and what he did with Creeper, namely the duality between the civilian identity and his struggle with the other person living within him.

This time in DC history was one that seemed to be trying for new ideas. Series like Chase and Chronos were coming out and Superman got a new costume and powers. With The Creeper series they went for a more psychological bent than the typical superhero book. The first issue even starts with Jack Ryder in a mental hospital trying to remember the events from his past, ie his supposed death in the Eclipso series, his origin, his childhood, etc..

In the course of this book Jack Ryder is let out of the asylum, gets hired by news magazine and begins writing stories while traveling around the country, which kept him from ever getting a real supporting cast. What was most interesting about this series was that it was strongly hinted that The Creeper persona was an outgrowth of a familial pattern of madness he shared with his mother and experimentation by Proteus, his former arch nemesis from the original six issue run in the 70’s. Before the story could be brought to its end though DC pulled the plug as it had done with Chase and Chronos and the Creeper went back to making the rare guest appearance.

The Creeper did make a couple television appearances during this time period, once in Batman: The Animated Series, in which his origin was once again redone. This time he was knocked into the same chemical concoction The Joker had been and as a result became The Creeper. During the episode he developed a crush on Harley Quinn, which was not returned, but he did save the day in the end. Later he would make a few appearances in Justice League Unlimited as well as an issue of their comic in which he and Batman are forced to team up together in an effort to stop The Mad Men.

Following Infinite Crisis Jack made a couple background appearances in James Robinson’s Batman storyline, Face the Face. Steve Niles was given a six issue series in which to give The Creeper a completely new origin, only he had to somehow make all the prior origins and characterizations work together, not just the comic book origins either, but the animated series as well. Surprisingly, Niles made it work, but the story felt a little too stretched. Afterwards The Creeper went into hiding yet again until an appearance in yet another Eclipso storyline that ran as a backup in Countdown to Mystery.  Keith Giffen later did an eight issue series entitled Reign in Hell, in which it was said that the Creeper is actually a demonic entity that bonded to Jack Ryder.  Little has been said about this particular event since then and now our hero is in the Outsiders, where he has been revealed to be the son of Ted Grant and Kara Starr.

Just kidding on that last bit.

So tell me, which origin do you prefer?

Recommended Reading:

Most of the older Creeper stories are out of print and back issues can be expensive. However, it appears that DC is putting out a Showcase of these back issues later this month, at least that’s what Amazon shows.  There are others who say it might not come out at all this year, but will be moved back to next year instead.  We’ll just have to wait and see

The Creeper #1-12 by Len Kaminski. This run is relatively easy to find in used comic bins/dollar bins. It’s an intriguing story that was put to death much too early.

Metropolis #1-12 by Chuck Austen Great story and great characterization of both Jack and The Creeper. The weird artwork enhances the oddity of The Creeper and takes Jack Ryder’s to a tacky new level in terms of clothing choice.

The Creeper #1-6 by Steve Niles Also easily found in dollar bins. Not nearly as interesting as Kaminski’s run, but it has some nice action scenes including one of The Creeper fighting off an army of Creeper rejects.