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Unlucky 13: Thirteen of the Creepiest Comic Characters

In celebration of the upcoming holiday I wanted to write some spooky features this month. This time we'll be spotlighting some of the creepiest characters in all of comics. Some of these unlucky thirteen have faces only a mother could love, while others have minds no one could love – and there are some puns only I find funny. I have not read all of these characters, most of this list is compiled based on information learned on comicvine and justifiably popular opinion. Evil Ernie Unlucky 13 - Evil Ernie with a disembodied head Evil Ernie was an abused young boy who, in order to save his love, had to destroy the world. Power-wise, as long as Evil Ernie keeps a hold of his pet rat and friend Smiley, he can tap into Lady Death's arcane magic. He's definitely a 'fun' kind of creepy with his undead rocker look and impossible quest of conquering the world. Maybe not so impossible, though, since he conquered less than half of the US and launched several nuclear warheads. And he dated Lady Death. Lady Death – who convinced him to again destroy the world after he died. A relationship made in hell. Creeper Unlucky 13: Creeper #1 cover With a name like the Creeper, you can't go wrong on this list. With an alter-ego as reporter Jack Ryder, who runs a show called "You Are Wrong!", the Creeper (based off the Joker) was Ryder's insane side, with the two often conversing with each other – sometimes out loud, with others questioning both personalities sanity. They couldn't tell from the outfit? Odin Quincannon Unlucky 13: Odin Quincannon from Preacher Possibly the most vile man to walk through the pages of Preacher, Odin is an old pervert and racist – to the point where he assembled his own KKK. The owner of a successful meat processing plant, Odin nearly owned Salvation, Texas and paid off the authorities so he could bring his heinous thoughts to fruition. But he ended up having the worst luck ever when he was struck by lightening before setting off several explosives that he had planted. The lightening burned him and stripped him to his underwear (not a pretty sight). Jesse Custer killed Odin off by snapping his neck shortly afterward. King Shark Unlucky 13: King Shark eating arm Supposedly spawned from a shark god (or possibly just a mutation), Nanaue, aka King Shark, originally terrorized people in Hawaii and is currently a member of the new Suicide Squad, where made a grand first impression by eating someone's arm. Don't invite this guy over for dinner or you could become the main course. He can breathe both under water and on land, and goes into a frenzy when he smells blood – that's when he really gets scary. His razor sharp teeth and claws don't help either. Mephisto Unlucky 13: Mephisto the 'devil' of Marvel Comics What's scarier than the devil? This immensely powerful demon known as Mephisto. Often mistaken for the devil, Mephisto has great intelligence which he uses to his advantage by manipulating people. He can create magical shields, teleport, shape-shift, summon creatures, change size, is indestructible to most attacks, does not need to eat, sleep or breathe and is known as the bastard who broke up Mary Jane and Peter Parker's marriage because he wanted their happiness. While his portrayal in the Ghost Rider movie wasn't creepy, every other Mephisto appearance serves to remind you just why everyone confuses him with the devil. Professor Pyg Unlucky 13: Professor Pyg crucified upside down in Batman and Robin #15 Professor Pyg is the leader of the Circus of Strange, and as a main villain of Damian, died in Batman #666 by being crucified upside down on a cross. He tries to destroy Batman and Robin with the help of Dr. Hurt, but fails. Pyg is an insane scientist who wears a pig mask, mimics pig noises, and enjoys turning people into red kewpie dolls known as "Dollotrons." He attaches their faces to masks and they follow him without complaint for they have no will and follow Pyg's plans to make, he says, "everyone perfect" by turning them into more Dollotrons. Mr. Zsasz Unlucky 13: Mr. Zsasz with his tally marks A psychotic Batman villain (aren't they all?), Mr. Zsasz is a serial killer. With no regard for human life, he has killed many, as evidenced by the tallies he marks his body with – each tally standing for a person he has killed. He cuts these tallies into his body to remind himself that he is human like his victims.  Zsasz believes he is releasing his victims from their 'mortal coils,' declaring that they are 'zombies.' Zsasz enjoys manipulating his victims before killing them and post mortem poses their bodies in lifelike positions. In his first appearance in Batman: Shadow of the Bat #1 Zsasz had already killed 47 people. Violator Unlucky 13: The Clown transforming into Violator Violator is the sadistic eldest brother of five demons. He is Spawn's arch-nemesis who was created by Malebolgia to prepare the Hellspawn to lead his army. To be among humans, Violator transforms into the clown, an appearance not much more appealing than his demonic form. He has an array of powers that differ between his two forms. Violator has super strength, shape-shifting abilities, sharp claws, can grow in size and breathe fire. His clown form also has super strength and shape shifting abilities, but he also has telepathy, can teleport, can make guns jam and make people do things they normally would never do. I don't know which form of Violator is creepier – the fat clown who looks like a pedophile, or his demonic form. Either way, he definitely puts more chills into me than Tim Curry did in IT. The only thing scarier is knowing that there are five others with his blood running through their veins. Vampires of 30 Days of Night Unlucky 13: Vampires from 30 Days of Night Before becoming a hit movie, 30 Days of Night was a comic book series with some of the scariest vampires ever to grace its pages (and no, they DO NOT sparkle). Their leader in the comic, Vincente, was one of the oldest remaining vampires. Arcane Unlucky 13: Anton Arcane from Swamp Thing A huge villain in the already creepy Swamp Thing series written by Alan Moore, Anton Arcane was a scientist who dedicated his life to finding immortality. He tried to create a new body for himself when he neared death by old age, but unfortunately all his creations were failures and became hideous creatures known as the Un-Men. After seemingly dying, Arcane continuously stalked and victimized his niece Abby.  Even after dying for real, Arcane rose through the ranks of hell and became a demon, able to raise the dead. He is considered the embodiment of pure evil – or at least he was until he was converted to Christianity by a priest he met in hell Wait, why was a priest in hell? ...oh. Cenobites Unlucky 13: Cenobites from Hellraiser, including Pinhead The Cenobites were originally created by horror master Clive Barker in his book, The Hellbound Heart. After solving a puzzle box, these humans, after years of torture, became demons. Luckily for us they can only come to Earth through a rupture in time and space. Whenever someone opens the puzzle box, these 'lovely' faces are there to greet and torture the unfortunate person. Some of the Cenobites were always evil, others turned evil and were forced to serve Leviathan. The most famous Cenobite is Pinhead, known for the pins sticking out of his head and made famous in the Hellraiser films and always impressing us in the great new Hellraiser comic series from Boom! Studios. Carnage Unlucky 13: Cletus Kassidy aka Carnage from Spider-man Like Venom, Carnage is a combination of a symbiote and a man, Cletus Kasady. But unlike Venom's counterpart Eddie Brock, Cletus was a serial killer with a history of child abuse. Cletus's insanity was clearly brought to light when, unlike Venom, the two combined forces did not refer to themselves as "us" but instead "I," fully becoming one because of Cletus and the symbiote's combined lust for blood. Alex Merkel Unlucky 13: Alex Merkel from Ragdoll Alex Merkel is another creepy and sad tale. Born beautiful, it is suggested that Merkel suffered sexual abuse at the hands of her father and had an incestuous relationship with her older brother, Peter Merkel Junior, who became the second Ragdoll. After his departure, Alex became convinced that her inner beauty was hiding the ugliness she had inside and sewed her eyes permanently open and stitched red patches on her nose, cheeks and above her eyes. She lived in a crate and gave orders by telephone, donning the name Junior and becoming a mob boss. Her story became less tragic after she began committing rape and mutilation, lost all empathy and became a killer and torturer. All joking aside, most of these villains lost their minds and looks because of terrible experiences in their lives. It really makes you wonder what great things these people could have achieved had they turned to the side of good and avoided the side of evil – most likely they would have been placed on a different list. Your favorite "monster" not on the list?  Talk about them in the comments section below!

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About / Bio
An all-around nerdette, I’m a comic book connoisseur, horror aficionado, video game addict, anime enthusiast and an aspiring novelist/comic book writer. I am the head of the comic book department and the editor-in-chief of Entertainment Fuse. I also write and edit articles for Comic Frontline. I am also an intern at Action Lab Entertainment, a comic book publisher at which I edit comic book scripts, help work on images in solicitations and help with other comic book related project. My own personal website is comicmaven.com.

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