- For other meanings, see creeper.
The Creeper is a DC Comics superhero created by Steve Ditko. He first appeared in Showcase #73 (1968).
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 alter his appearance at will. His usual appearance is that of a green-haired, yellow-skinned, and red-furred wildman, a costume he originally adopted while rescuing the scientist from kidnappers.
Following his debut in Showcase, the Creeper was given his own series Beware the Creeper, written by Ditko and Dennis O'Neil, which lasted only six issues. Apart from brief series in Adventure Comics (in 1978-1979) and as a back-up feature in The Flash (in 1983), all the Creeper's subsequent appearances have been guest roles. A Creeper series also launched in 1997.
In other media
Jack Ryder appeared several times in Batman: The Animated Series, 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 tranformed into an extraordinarily strong and agile grinning maniac with yellow skin and green hair, who helps Batman and Robin apprehend the Joker and his gang. Although his mania is benign, his methods are so extremely wild and frantic that even The Joker begs to be arrested to escape them. 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.
This version of the Creeper has made cameos in Justice League Unlimited. The series has a Justice League with around fifty members, including the Creeper.
External links and references
