Countdown to Halloween Day 24 -- 10 Comic Book Horror Teams

If there's one motto that most comic book writers live by, it's that "More is more." So, what's better than a single horror-themed character?  A team of horror-themed characters, of course.

Night Shift -- The Night Shift was the first group that came to mind when I came up with this topic. They were a group of oddball villains recruited by The Shroud, a hero who pretended to be a villain who prayed on other villains. Eventually the group caught wise to the Shroud's M.O. and struck out on their own. Not all of the team were horror-based, but the majority were: Digger, The Brothers Grimm, Dansen Macabre, The Hangman, and Werewolf by Night. One of the things I've always liked about The Night Shift was that much of their membership was comprised of characters who had appeared in the old Spider-Woman series, during the days when it read more like a horror comic than a super-hero one.

Creature Commandos -- First appearing in DC's Weird War Tales, the Commandos were a group of soldiers recruited into Project M., an army program designed to strike fear into the enemies' hearts by turning the recruits into facsimiles of archetypal horrors. Their ranks included a vampire, werewolf, Frankenstein monster, and gorgon. There have been a couple of  iterations of this concept over the years, but it's the original group I'm most familiar with.

Legion of Monsters --  The first version of the Legion of Monsters -- Ghost Rider, Man-Thing, Morbius the Living Vampire, and Werewolf by Night -- was one of those non-teams that pop up in comics now and then, wherein the characters would get drawn together every once in a while to defeat a foe, but who wouldn't really consider themselves a team, so the name was more of a branding tool than anything else. The more recent version substituted The Living Mummy and Manphibian for Ghost Rider, and were formed with the goal of protecting other "monsters" like themselves.

Creeper and His Spirit Squad -- Another non-team, this one only appeared once, in Blue Devil Summer Fun Special #1 to stop Felix Faust from bringing the demon Nebiros to Earth.  Brought together by professional mystic meddlers Phantom Stranger and Madame Xanadu, the group included Blue Devil, Man-Bat, The Creeper, Black Orchid, and Etrigan the Demon.  At the end of the adventure, Creeper suggested they stay together as a team, and suggested "Creeper and His Spirit Squad" as a name; sadly, nobody jumped at the offer.

Nick Fury's Howling Commandos --With a name that's a play on the original "Sgt. Fury and His Howling Commandos" war comics, this short lived group was a supernaturally themed espionage squad whose members included a werewolf, vampire, mummy, Frankenstein monster, and a zombie.

Shadowpact -- Shadowpact was a team comprised of various mystically powered DC characters, and while I have tried to avoid putting teams on this list whose characters were merely supernatural, there are enough characters in the Shadowpact who have some sort of demonic or black magic component in their roots (Blue Devil, Enchantress, Nightshade), that I feel there inclusion is warranted here.

Scare Tactics -- The only team on the list containing no pre-existing characters, Scare Tactics was a rock-and-roll band whose members were all supernatural creatures:  a werewolf, a vampire, a lizard man, and a mutant.

Midnight Sons--  Originally, the name Midnight Sons was applied to a group of 90s horror themed comic book characters  from Marvel who were brought together to ride on Ghost Rider's coattails for sales defeat Lillith, Mother of Demons.  The group included Ghost Rider, Johnny Blaze, The Nightstalkers, Morbius the Living Vampire, and the Darkhold Redeemers. More recently, the name was recycled with a different group of supernatural heroes who were recruited to stop an interdimensional zombie invasion in Marvel Zombies 4. This team included Man-Thing, Daimon Hellstrom, Jennifer Kale, Morbius, and, once again, Werewolf by Night..

The Headmen -- One of the stranger things to come out of Steve Gerber's run on The Defenders -- and trust me, that's saying something -- The Headmen might not seem very horror-oriented at first glance, but 3/4 of the team were actually characters recycled from old Marvel horror anthology stories.

Justice League Dark -- As part of DC's New 52 initiative, many of the supernatural characters who had been plucked from the main DC continuity and placed solely in the Vertigo imprint were brought back into the mainstream fold.  Justice League Dark became a housing place for several of them, such as Black Orchid, Shade the Changing Man, and John Constantine, as well as other,non-Vertigo characters like Deadman and Zatanna. 

Countdown to Halloween Day 23 -- Favorite horror themed superheroes

If you can name a popular genre or sub genre, odds are good that at some point it has been mashed up with the superhero genre. Horror is no exception; below are some of my favorite superheroes who have some sort of horror theme to them. I tried to be somewhat limiting on my definition of superhero, which is why you won't see Hellboy or Swamp Thing listed.  So, in no particular order:

The Demon – Some might quibble about calling Etrigan the Demon a superhero, but I think he fits into the general superhero mold: he has a colorful outfits he transforms back and forth between a a super-powered and civilian identity, he has often teamed up with the likes of Superman or Batman, and, most importantly, has gotten into fights with other superheroes over a misunderstanding before eventually teaming up to fight the real bad guy.  If that last bit doesn't scream "superhero," what does? Granted, the level of Etrigan's heroism has varied over the years, but ultimately in my mind he will always be a demonic power for good.

Blue Devil – Originally, Blue Devil was horrific in appearance but not in reality: a stuntman who created an exoskeleton for our a devilishly themed movie, and then was permanently bonded to the suit by an encounter with a real demon. I was a big fan of Blue Devil's solo series back in the 80s, which was filled with weirdness and humor.  Blue Devil eventually sold his soul to Neron for fame during the Underworld Unleashed storyline and subsequently became a true demon.

Ghost Rider – Probably the most recognizable of the Horror-themed heroes due to his iconic blazing skull, I've always been more partial to the original Johnny Blaze incarnation than the 90s reboot, if for no other reason that the original was part of the 2nd oddest super-hero team of the 70s, The Champions.

Gargoyle – The hero known as Gargoyle was originally a senior citizen named Isaac Christians who made a deal with a group of demons known as The Six-Fingered Hand to save his home town, and in turn had his mind and soul trapped inside a demonic body as their servant. After rebelling against the Hand, Christians became a member of one of my favorite superhero teams, The Defenders (a.k.a the #1 oddest super-hero team of 70s). I always enjoyed the incongruity between his outward appearance and his cheery disposition.

Daimon Hellstrom, Son of Satan – The Defenders were often a home to the offbeat heroes with a mystical bent, and Daimon Hellstrom was one of the more prominent one for several years. Son of a demon claiming to be Satan -- although the actual identity of which demon fathered him has been retconned a few times -- Hellstrom rebelled against his father's evil ways and sought to do good in the world. Of course, during the grim'n'gritty 90s, that aspect of his personality went awry as he fell prey to his demonic roots for a time, becoming much more of an anti-hero.

The Confessor – A character from Kurt Busiek's Astro City series, The Confessor initially appeared to be just a religious themed vigilante, but was eventually revealed to be a former priest afflicted with vampirism who wore a cross on his costume because the constant pain it caused him helped keep his bloodlust in check. 

Madman – While not overtly Horror themed at first glance, the hero known as Madman  is actually a reanimated corpse named -- are you ready? -- Frank Einstein . . . named after Frank Sinatra and Albert Einstein, of course. 

The Spectre – The ghost of a murdered police office, The Spectre started out in the 1940s as a supernatural crimefighter with a penchant for bloody justice, but his deadly inclinations drifted away gradually until he became a more standard supernatural superhero.  But in the 70s  his bloodlust returned with a vengeance, which The Spectre killing criminals in inventively gruesome ways -- most often by transforming them into inanimate objects (glass, wax candles, etc) and then demolishing them.  After a return to a less murderous incarnation during the 80s, John Ostrander's take on the character fully established him as The Wrath of God permanently bonded with a human soul, and used the character's vengeful ways to explore questions of morality . . . while still maintaining a gruesomely horror-tinged tone.

Deadman -- The ghost of murdered trapeze artist Boston Brand was forced to roam the Earth trying to locate his killer, frequently aiding those in need with his power to possess people. 

Magik -- The younger sister of the X-man known as Colossus, Illyana Rasputin spent the bulk of her young life trapped in the demonic realm of Limbo, where she learned to become a powerful sorceress in order to battle the lord of Limbo, Belasco.  However, in defeating Belasco and usurping his place as Limbo's ruler, Illyana delved into black magic.  After returning to Earth, she became a member of the New Mutants and struggled to keep her darker impulses under control, a struggle which eventually resulted in her transformation into the Darkchylde and unleashing Hell (or, more accurately, Limbo) on Earth.  She eventually sacrificed herself, and, as this is the comic book world, would later be resurrected, albeit minus quite a bit of her humanity.

Countdown to Halloween Day 22 -- Favorite Horror-Themed Comic Book Crossover Events

For the next seven days we're going to be focusing on Horror in comic books.  Kicking it off is a list of some of my favorite comic book crossover events with Horror-themed plots. . . which is actually a pretty skimpy list, all things considered.


4. Blackest Night -- DC's story about about a force resurrecting various heroes and villains and equipping them with power rings a la Green Lantern had its detractors to be sure, and like many comic crossovers, several books suffered from a lack of editorial cohesion, but when the writers were able to play up the inner turmoil of heroes having to fight loved ones or face their past mistakes, the event clicked.

3. Underworld Unleashed -- This event's focus was a demon named Neron who began making all sorts of Faustian bargains with heroes and villains as part of a plan to take over the world.  Although I wasn't a fan of one of the big plot points of the series -- namely Blue Devil being responsible for the death of nearly the entire supporting cast of his old series -- the event's gimmick of boosting or transforming the abilities of a wide range of villains made for an interesting read.

2. Rise of the Midnight Sons -- While I didn't follow a lot of Marvel's Midnight Sons imprint of Horror themed comics, I was taken with the crossover event that kicked off the brand by teaming up Ghost Rider, Blade, Morbius the Living Vampire, and others against Lillith, Mother Demons and her demon brood, the Lilin.

1. Inferno -- Probably my favorite of the early X-book crossovers, Inferno featured a New York overrun with demonic forces which possessed heroes, villains, and mailboxes alike.  I especially enjoyed the Excalibur portion of the story which had the team get trapped in a series of Horror movie parodies. 

Honorable Mention:  Infestation -- While I haven't had a chance to read any of IDW's crossover event about dimension hopping zombies, the fact that the core titles involved were Transformers, Ghostbusters, G.I. Joe, and Star Trek makes me very intrigued.

Countdown to Halloween Day 21 -- Favorite Candy (Chocolate Division)

Allergy meds are making me a bit foggy, so coming up with an in-depth list is out of the question right now.  Instead:  a list of my favorite chocolate-based candies.

10. Nestle Crunch
9. York Peppermint Pattie
8. Hershey's Bar
7. Hershey's Kisses


6. 3 Musketeers

5. M&Ms (Plain)
4. M&Ms (peanut)
3. Reese's Peanut Butter Cups

2. Kit-Kat
1. Twix

Countdown to Halloween Day 20 -- 5 Memorable Horror Movie Watching Experiences

Occasionally, my thoughts and feelings about a film are inextricably linked to my experience viewing them; here are a few of the most prominent horror movie examples.


Friday the 13th Pts. 1& 2 -- I was probably 7 or 8 at the time I saw my first Friday the 13th film. My parents were out on the town on one Friday the 13th evening, and my uncle was taking care of me. This was during the brief period of time that we actually had a cable channel that was willing to go far enough outside of town to reach our farm, and since It (the capital I is no mistake, the name of the channel was It) was showing the first two films in the series that night, my uncle decided to take my two slightly older cousins and myself over to my house to watch them. Of course, the house was locked, and I was too young to have a key (although, to be honest, by the time the house burned down before my junior year of college I still didn't have a key), and so we were forced to find a way to open the never-used door to my bedroom just enough for scrawny me to slip in and unlock the back door. We got that TV on just in time to find out who the killer was in pt.1 and were halfway through pt.2 when mom and dad got home. 

Halloween III: Season of the Witch -- Largely decried as the worst of the Halloween franchise, Season of the Witch is probably the horror movie that freaked me out more than any other film I've seen, but that's largely situational.  I was probably in 6th or 7th grade at the time, and was staying up late to watch it on TV. Or, rather, I was trying to stay up late, but wound up dozing off.  I happened to wake up right at this sequence.  While it probably wouldn't have bothered me at all any other time, I was still half-asleep and unsure if I was really awake or still dreaming, and wound up incorporating the scene into my dreams as I dozed off again; in my mind, that sequence is about 1000 times more disturbing.

Nightmare on Elm Street -- This one is memorable largely because of when I didn't watch it.  My dad and his cousin had rented it when it first came out, and watched it while I was asleep.  When I noticed it sitting by the VCR the next day and wanted to watch it, my dad wouldn't let me -- the first and only time he'd vetoed a horror movie.  He said that it had gotten to both of the adults, so he was worried it would really freak me out.  Instead, he just related the whole story to me.  And then, just a week or two later, I was over at someone else's house and they had rented it so I got to see it after all; however, since I already knew the whole story, I was ready for every jolt.

Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors -- The only one of these stories that's not connected to my original viewing of the film.  Instead, this experience happened one Halloween season when my friend Rebel Monkey and I were having a Nightmare on Elm Street marathon.  As the films progressively slid down the "tongue in cheek" slope into utter ridiculousness we would increasingly turn to MST3K style commenting.  But the highlight of all of them was the so-bad-she's-funny actress who played the character Taryn; just watching her own special brand of over-acting made the movie worthwhile. At one point one of the other actors accidentally calls her "Turn," a scene which we reran several times trying to make sure we heard what we thought we heard. A few weeks later, when a group of us went to see the local production of Jekyll and Hyde: The Musical, we both noticed one particularly strikingly scenery-chewer, prompting us to look at each other and exclaim "It's Turn!"

13 Ghosts -- After seeing the 2001 remake of 13 Ghosts, the same group of friends who'd gone to see the Jekyll and Hyde musical got together to watch a DVD of the original 1960 film.  The DVD turned out to have the 3D version of the film but of course did not come equipped with any 3D glasses. Not to be deterred, we set about trying to construct our own makeshift 3D glasses out of saran wrap and some red and blue markers. The results were surprisingly effective, if slightly nauseating -- not because of the visuals, mind you, but because of the overpowering marker stench.

Countdown to Halloween Day 19 -- 10 Favorite Horror Directors

My favorite horror directors, in no particular order 

• David Cronenberg -- Although I've enjoyed Cronenberg's more recent forays into other genres, I do miss his old school body horror films.  The Fly, The Brood, Rabid, Shivers, and Videodrome all feature some wonderfully disturbing sequences.  And we can't forget Scanners and its infamous exploding head.
• John Carpenter -- Carpenter is responsible for Halloween and The Thing, two of my all time favorite movies, as well as several other entertaining horror flicks like The Fog and Prince of Darkness; we'll all just pretend that Vampire$  didn't happen, okay?
• Peter Jackson -- Before he achieved mainstream success, Jackson's early work was very horror driven, although filtered through a Kiwi's twisted sense of humor. Dead Alive, The Frighteners, and the apropriately named Bad Taste made me a fan of Jackson's long before he brought Middle Earth to life.
• George Romero -- At times it's tempting to write Romero off as a one-trick pony, since his name is so closely associated with zombies, but he has several other entertaining horror films under his belt, including The Crazies, Monkey Shines, Creepshow, and the excellent Martin.
• Frank Henenlotter -- Not as well known outside horror fans as most of the others on the list, Henenlotter's work is darkly comic, occasionally perverse, and frequently twisted. Basket Case is my favorite of his films, but both Bad Biology and Brain Damage have a lot to recommend them too.
• Stuart Gordon -- He'd make this list for his Lovecraft adaptations (Re-Animator, From Beyond, Dagon) alone; the super-creepy Dolls is just icing on the cake
   
• Wes Craven -- Craven is a bit hit or miss with me, but when he hits -- Nightmare on Elm Street, Scream, The people Under the Stairs -- he hits big
  
• Guillermo del Toro --  I've been a fan of del Toro since Mimic, and most everything of his I've seen since (Cronos, The Devil's Backbone, Pan's Labyrinth) has cemented my admiration.  Plus, he brought Hellboy to the big screen.
• Sam Raimi -- Raimi's horror output may be relatively small (Evil Dead trilogy and Drag Me to Hell), but the quality trumps the low quantity.
• Steven Miner -- I was having a hard time rounding out my list to 10, since several of the directors I'd like to have listed haven't had enough horror films under their belt to warrant their inclusion. But, while scouring lists of my favorite horror films looking for patterns I discovered Steven Miner, director of Friday the 13th Pt 2 & 3, as well as two of my favorite horror comedies:  House and Lake Placid. Throw in guilty plesaure Warlock, and you have the perfect placeholder until Sean Gunn or Drew Goddard finally get around to making some more horror

Countdown to Halloween Day 18 -- 13 Favorite Horror Novels

13. Agyar by Steven Brust -- Very interesting vampire novel in which the word "vampire" is never actually used. Told from the P.O.V. of a very unreliable narrator, the book leaves a lot of gaps for the reader to fill in, which I really enjoyed. It’s always nice when an author respects his audience's intelligence.

12.  The Ruins by Scott Smith -- Smith makes his four main characters embody the horror film victim archetypes -- jokester, slut, preppie, final girl -- and even goes so far as to have the jokester character point this out at one point, but by having the narration live heavily inside the heads of the characters, we are given much more insight into their motivations, which helps subvert the tropes.

11. Harbor by John Ajvide Lindqvist -- If he hadn't slipped my mind yesterday, I probably would have included Lindqvist in my favorite horror writer list; this story of an isolated island and the dark magic lurking there reminds me of Stephen King at his best.

10. Queen of the Damned by Anne Rice-- For me, the third book in Rice's Vampire Chronicles is a quantum leap in quality over the first two (which I enjoyed), followed by a geometric decrease in quality in the fourth (which I loathed tremendously). 

9. It by Stephen King -- Notable to me as (a) the first book I ever read over 1,000 pages long and (b) one of the first books I ever read that managed to evoke a visceral feeling of disgust -- but, y'know, in a good way. 

8.Summer of Night by Dan Simmons -- This story of a group of sixth graders fighting against the forces of evil in a small Illinois town in the summer of 1960 almost feels like Simmons doing a King homage, and doing it incredibly well.  I was very invested in the main characters, and the deaths really go to me; that's a good horror novel right there.

7.Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson -- An excellent haunted house story.  Do not judge it by the horrible 1999 film adaptation; this book is all about psychological terror, not gruesome spectacle.

6.Heart Shaped Box by Joe Hill -- Hill's debut novel about an aging rocker whose collection of macabre artifacts leads to a dangerous haunting did great justice to his literary heritage as Stephen King's son. 

5. Ghost Story by Peter Straub -- This is one that I chose to read initially because I loved the film adaptation, only to discover that the book is significantly different -- shocking, I know.  By far my favorite of Straub's books.

4. The Stand by Stephen King -- One of the few non-Dark-Tower King novels I've read multiple times, which is saying something considering the size of this thing.  Of course, one of those times was the original, abridged version, but still . . .

3.Let the Right One In by John Ajvide Lindqvist -- That's right, another book by Lindqvist; told you he should have been on yesterday's list.  And while his Harbor felt very King-esque, this vampire novel which inspired an excellent film adaptation has a voice all of its own.

2. Anno Dracula by Kim Newman -- Can't say enough good things about Newman's vampiric alternate history novel; the numerous cameos from various historical and literary characters (much like Alan Moore's League of Extraordinary Gentleman) only adds to my love.

1. The Shining by Stephen King --It's been a few years since I've re-read King's take early take on a haunted mansion; I think I'm overdue to visit the Overlook again.