The origin stories for The Creeper have changed over the years in DC Comics. The Bronze Age depicted him as having his powers via surgically implanted gadgets, in contrast to the Silver Age’s depiction of him as a divisive host who was dismissed and then saved by Dr. Yatz and his serum.
The Modern Age, on the other hand, delved further into the consequences that Jack Ryder, or the Creeper, had to endure as a result of being in the wrong place at the wrong time. He did not get any assistance from Dr. Yatz either.
Don Segall and Steve Ditko came up with the design for the character. He first appeared in Showcase, Volume 73. The Creeper saw additional reboots after the Modern Age as well. But as of right now, the genesis of the Creeper is the same as it was in the Modern Age.
He resembled the Joker in certain ways, albeit in a more heroic fashion. Jack Ryder maintained his composure even though The Creeper frequently veered off course. He was scary, yet he put these qualities to good use.
We will delve further into The Creeper’s origins, both in the cartoon and in the Modern Age, in today’s film.
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The Creeper’s Tragic Origin In The New Batman Adventures!
The New Batman Adventures, a 1997 animated series, debuted The Creeper in its second season. The protagonist, sometimes known as Jack Ryder, first becomes well-known as a news anchor and reporter. But when the Joker, the clown prince of crime, enters his life, everything changes.
In the episode, Jack Ryder co-anchors a live television special called Summer Gleeson’s ‘Gotham Insider’. He is seen doing an exposé on the Joker and his life while broadcasting from the Ace Chemical Plant. But the Joker, who had actually turned into the clown on this very day seven years ago, wants to have the last laugh.
And so, he crashes the party to pay himself a tribute as he doses Jack Ryder and his crew with his laughing gas. He then throws Ryder into the chemical vat that he had fallen into, giving this character somewhat of a Jokeresqué origin story due to the re-enactment… and for every time Ryder tries to get out of the vat, the Joker pushes him further back in.
Batman and Robin arrive to the scene immediately after finding out about the Joker. But the Joker uses an exploding cigar to make Ryder’s chemical vat explode, and ultimately, he manages to flush the chemicals to the sewer to divert Batman’s attention towards saving Ryder, allowing him to escape.
Ryder is believed to be dead, but that’s not really the case. Just like the Joker, even he goes through a peculiar bodily reaction or rather, mutation, more so because of the presence of the laughing gas. Instead of getting white skin, his complexion turns bright yellow. His hair turns green and he develops a fixed grimace on his face. His physical stats also skyrocket, making him a lot stronger and agiler.
His personality gets more maniacal as he begins to seek revenge on the Joker while wanting to be a crime fighter. He soon crashes a thrift shop and assembles a strange costume, which becomes a new thing for Batman and Alfred to supervise. They do not know who the Creeper truly is, but when he makes a purchase with Jack Ryder’s credit card, Batman understands that something suspicious is up in the air.
So, with a new maniac out on the streets, the Joker is unhappy because he wants to be one of his kind. Meanwhile, his ally Harley Quinn prepares a surprise for Joker’s birthday. However, she is soon treated like garbage once again and sent to investigate the clown’s impersonator.
At the same time, Ryder gets in touch with Joker’s henchmen to find him. He is called a creep by one of the henchmen, which causes him to take upon the moniker of ‘The Creeper’. Soon after, he stumbles across a moping Harley, who he immediately smites him. He talks to her to learn about two things – one, the Joker’s whereabouts, and two, her phone number.
Harley runs away while the Creeper pursues her. In some time, she attacks him, but his body doesn’t seem to take any damage. But he keeps following her and eventually finds the Joker’s den. As the Joker causes an explosion while fighting him, Batman and Robin begin to pursue Joker and Harley Quinn as well.
The Creeper goes after the criminal duo and his manic behavior scares the Joker too, so much so that he calls him a lunatic while clutching onto Batman’s cape. Soon, Batman and Robin apprehend Joker and Harley and use a sedative on the Creeper.
The sedative changes him back to Jack Ryder, but it does not reverse the effects of the reaction. By this time, it is clear that the Creeper and Jack Ryder are very different from each other, just like two different entities sharing the same body. This phenomenon is made a lot more apparent in the comics, which we will talk about soon.
Batman later develops an antidote patch to keep the Creeper subdued within Ryder. He applies it on Ryder and tells him that the patch needs to stay on his skin if he wants to continue with his career as a news anchor. But after the Bat leaves, Ryder ponders over the situation and soon, tears the fabric off his skin.
As the Creeper, Ryder still had his morals set with a heroic heart. Later, he became a part of the extended Justice League.
Mind-blowing Story Arc Of The Creeper
In 2006, a comic series explored the Creeper as a character, giving him a fleshed-out origin story for the Modern Age of DC Comics, with themes that were a lot more mature than his cartoon counterpart.
Written by Steve Niles while Justiniano worked as the artist, the volume had six issues.
The first issue, known as ‘Beware The Creeper’, opens with Jack Ryder hosting his controversial left-wing television show. This television show is different compared to that of his cartoon counterpart’s and is known as ‘You Are Wrong’. In this issue, he is seen supporting the experiments of Doctor Yatz, a man who is being criticized for his practice of artificially creating smart skin. This smart skin can regenerate tissue and heal burn victims, which many consider to be man trying to tamper with nature.
Ryder supports Doctor Yatz and his innovation while being completely unaware of the true intentions of the doctor. He wants a scoop on the doctor unveiling his new artificial nanotechnology. But he accidentally arrives to the venue earlier than necessary, which exposes a new series of events.
A man named Hagop Hewsen and his men are trying to take Doctor Yatz’s sample away while holding him as their prisoner. The doctor has allegedly created his technology to heal burn wounds… but turns out, he does not want to share it with anyone. He wants to monopolize the profits.
With Ryder present there, he becomes a part of the conflict but manages to save himself with his self-defense training. Soon, he takes Doctor Yatz as his prisoner as he tries to leave the building. At the same time, a ninety percent burn victim named Gavin is seen having a terrible time dealing with the after effects of the doctor’s serum.
Doctor Yatz had only one sample left, which he ends up using on Jack Ryder to prevent Hewsen and his mob men from getting their hands on it. Soon, Gavin turns into a huge monstrous creature and breaks out of his cell. Everyone in the room evacuates the place immediately.
Hewsen and his men take the doctor and Ryder to their estate. However, they shoot Ryder and throw his body off a nearby cliff. Surprisingly, Ryder does not die and instead, the panel shows us images of something with bright yellow-green skin with a red cape-like thing.
Ryder’s body has actually regenerated the dead tissue and it has now transformed. He soon finds Hewsen’s men and takes on all of them with his new powers and transformed body. They do not recognize him at first but are shocked when the body turns into Jack Ryder’s. He switches into being the Creeper again and leaves them a warning as he says ‘Tell them, the Creeper will be watching.’
In the second issue known as ‘The Creeping Terror’, Jack Ryder deals with the second conscious present in his head now – the conscious of the Creeper. He speaks to him, almost like he is speaking to himself. But the Creeper wants to find Hewsen once again and beat him to a pulp. Meanwhile, Gavin is now a mindless, monstrous creature who feeds on the skin of people. He finds Hewsen and kills him first while The Creeper has an encounter with Batman and the Axe-Man.
The Creeper fights the Axe-Man after Batman leaves and Axe-Man believes that the Creeper is a criminal. However, his ways are rough, and unlike Batman, who apprehends the criminals, Axe-Man kills them. But he is unable to kill the Creeper because of his miraculously durable body.
After fighting off Axe-Man, The Creeper goes to Hewsen’s house, only to find that he is dead. But he learns from his father Bolo Hewsen about the monster attack. He also learns about Doctor Yatz using abnormal amounts of money from Hewsen’s funding for soil growth for his nano-cell skin technology. Before thinking about the doctor, the Creeper sets forth to deal with the monster at play.
The third issue opens with Gavin’s monster finding The Creeper instead of it being the other way round. He tries to have his skin but does not like the taste of the Creeper. The two of them fight while Batman investigates The Creeper using the blood found on Axe-Man’s axe. From his research, it is clear that there are two blood samples in one body. While one belongs to Jack Ryder, the other does not have a match.
The Creeper tries his best to fight off Gavin but he is not strong enough. The issue also develops his relationship with Jack Ryder and ultimately, they lose the fight. However, they soon find themselves on a beach with the sand full of Gavin’s footprints.
The fourth issue known as ‘The Island Of Misfit Souls’ kicks off with the Joker entering the storyline. He finds Bolo Hewsen and throws him out of an eighty-story building. With Jack Ryder absent from work, his ex-girlfriend Vera Sweet fills in for him. Meanwhile, The Creeper and Jack Ryder want to find Doctor Yatz because he is the one who is responsible for these events. They head towards a long-abandoned prison known as the Gotham Tombs, as they try to find the doctor, because it had become a den for some of Gotham’s best criminal minds.
Unfortunately, Gavin finds them and attacks them again, and this time he is bigger. The Creeper fights back but he is, or rather, they are, no match for Gavin. There is also a lot of emphasis between the two having their inner dialogues and The Creeper asserting a more collectivist outlook on Ryder’s behalf. With them sharing the same body, Ryder now has to focus on the ‘we’ instead of the ‘me’.
Anyway, they lose the fight against Gavin again. Meanwhile, Hagop Hewsen returns as a zombie (like Jack Ryder) and tries to take away Vera, that is Jack’s ex-girlfriend, hoping that it will bring Jack to him. But things do not go that far as Batman arrives on time and beats them up. He also intimidates them into revealing the details of the situation. Around this time, Batman learns about Doctor Yatz being the culprit and operating from Gotham Tombs.
On the other hand, the Creeper, who seems to have lost his consciousness after the fight, wakes up along with Jack Ryder. But they are restrained and a captive of Doctor Yatz, who is working alongside the Joker. However, Batman, is not too far behind.
The fifth issue, ‘Welcome To Creepsville’ begins with Batman catching up to the Creeper, Ryder, Doctor Yatz, and the Joker in the Gotham Tombs. He goes against the Joker in a fight and obviously dominates, that is until the doctor sticks a serum in the Dark Knight to knock him out.
While the Joker and the Doctor leave, the Joker tells the Creeper about the serum that turned him into the creature having some Joker Venom in it. They also learn about being restrained to something that drains them off their life. Gavin is being restrained beside them as well. After the Doctor and the Joker leave, the Creeper switches to Jack Ryder, whose body is smaller. So, it becomes easy for them to escape the restraint.
Batman regains his consciousness too and has a dialogue with Ryder. While Batman decides to pursue the criminals, the Creeper decides to stay back at the tombs to find some information. They later free Gavin instead of letting him die and then come across several zombified creatures coming to attack them. The Creeper tries his best to fight them off but there’s not much he can do here.
The sixth issue ‘To Creep Or Not To Creep’ begins with The Creeper falling to the zombies. But soon, Gavin arrives to save them as he now believes the Creeper to be a friend. Thanks to Gavin, Ryder and the Creeper survive and the zombies are thrown into the water. But due to the mines planted in them, the water is soon ridden with explosions. At the same time, Gavin begins to crave skin once again, which means the Creeper cannot have the abomination as an ally. They throw the creature into the explosion and kill off Gavin once and for all. Batman swoops in and gives the Creeper a lift.
This time, Batman brings more clarity to the situation. He talks about how the serum definitely does have Joker Venom, which can damage Jack Ryder’s psyche. And for that, he has an antidote to reverse his condition and destroy the Creeper’s cells. However, the Creeper takes over Ryder’s body and he is not super cool with being discarded.
Jack Ryder returns to his job and broadcasts about Doctor Yatz being a lunatic criminal who is on the run. Soon, they get tipped off about the man’s whereabouts. Doctor Yatz is arrested but his face seems to look too much like the Joker’s, proving that the Joker has definitely done something with this man since the clown prince of crime is not the most reliable partner to have.
Meanwhile, Jack Ryder ponders over what he should do with the antidote. When Vera enters the room, she finds Ryder to be missing while we get to see the vial of the antidote broken and in the trash.
Interesting Facts About The Creeper
During one instance, the Creeper was taken to the asylum and diagnosed with having bipolar disorder. But throughout everything, he was always on the side of the heroes.
However, he was more of an individualist than a team player. His eccentricity and unreliability made it harder for him to be in a team, even when he was in the Justice League International.
He had found a real team in the Outsiders, which had been created by Batman via instructions to Alfred while playing dead. However, The Creeper left the team soon after he learned that he would not be cured.
For the most part, The Creeper had a duality to him. However, in a separate plotline, we got a lot more than we bargained for. In the distant future on 85, 271, a planet IAI resident named RYDR (which plays of the surname Ryder) developed his other persona, the Creeper. However, RYDR had transformed into this entity.
Meanwhile, in the present, Ryder and the Creeper had finally split into two separate entities – physically.
The Creeper entity from the future did not stop at splitting, however… and each of these new entities had different personalities, kind of like M. Night Shyamalan’s Split, but on extreme steroids. When things got out of hand, the Creeper from the future reached out to the present-day Ryder and asked him to fuse with the present-day Creeper once again, since not doing so would destroy the fabric of the Universe.
Ultimately, Ryder and the present-day Creeper pulled all the fragments together while the future Creeper killed the fragment of the Creeper that was focused on self-loathing.
What Makes The Creeper So Powerful?
He might have not been as strong as the abomination that is Gavin, but he did hold on his own for a while. Other than that, he is a pretty formidable opponent to go against.
Thanks to his Creeper form, Ryder’s physical body transforms into one that is a lot stronger, lot more agile, and definitely a lot more durable. His stamina, reflexes, and speed also increase exponentially.
On the off chance where his durability and agility fail him, the Creeper is still good to go because of his superb healing abilities. He can heal any wound, be it a terrible stab or a gunshot. And it only takes a few minutes for him to do so.
It is revealed that his laugh is a painful one to hear. It has knocked out opponents and caused them to surrender. He also excels at hypnosis.
When it comes to acrobatics, he can rival the likes of Spider-Man and Nightwing.
The Creeper is definitely an interesting character when it comes to being diabolical. It is common to find villains going through such situations, Norman Osborn’s Green Goblin being the first one who comes to mind. But with an antagonistic character design and a manic personality, The Creeper and Jack Ryder collaborate to act as heroes, which is a refreshing spin on the trope of duality.