DC Comics helped define the concept of a superhero, with characters like Superman and Wonder Woman standing as beautiful paragons of righteousness and shining as beacons of hope. However, the DC Universe is far more complicated than that, as sometimes monsters are required to fight even worse monsters and abominations that threaten innocent lives. Several superheroes in DC Comics can be classified as monsters not just by their appearances, but also by their backgrounds and sometimes savage or otherworldly natures. And while they rarely enjoy public praise, these monster superheroes play a vital role in protecting the world from vicious and cruel supernatural threats.
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DC Comics is no stranger to terrifying beasts, but sometimes these monsters reject their basic instincts and instead become superheroes. In fact, the very first project of James Gunn’s new DCU, Creature Commandoes, celebrated DC’s more bizarre and inhuman heroes.
7) The Bride
The star of the critically acclaimed DCU animated series Creature Commandoes, the Bride is a government-sanctioned agent and monster. Based on the iconic Universal monster of the same name, the Bride was created by Victor Frankenstein to be a mate for his Monster. In the DC version, the Bride and the Monster, renamed Frankenstein, married and had a happy relationship until the grief of their son’s supposed death broke them apart. Like her ex-husband, the Bride is a superhumanly strong, reanimated patchwork amalgamation of numerous corpses. Unlike Frankenstein, the Bride also possesses an extra pair of arms so that she can wield four guns at once. Now, having lived for centuries, the Bride is a skilled member of the Creature Commandoes, a covert team of monsters that works for the secret organization S.H.A.D.E. to defend the world from terrorism and supernatural beasts. And while being a force for good, the Bride is still an efficient killer.
6) I, Vampire
Even though most vampires are sadistic villains who feast on the blood of the innocent, Andrew Bennett, aka I, Vampire, fights to protect humans from members of his kind. Born during the late 16th century, Bennett was attacked and killed by a vampire and then was reborn as a creature of the night. Miraculously and unlike his vampiric kin, Bennett managed to retain his humanity and sanity. He refuses to drink innocent blood and instead primarily relies on animal blood. Bennett has all the powers of a classic vampire, including enhanced strength and speed, razor-sharp fangs and claws, immortality, regeneration, hypnosis, and the ability to transform into a bat, a wolf, or a cloud of mist. Using these vampiric powers, Bennett became DC Comics’ premier vampire hunter, and he’s killed scores of these undead monsters over the centuries. He was even forced to battle his ex-lover, Mary, who succumbed to the dark instincts caused by vampirism. Bennett may be a monster, but his heart and mind remain human.
5) Blue Devil
A stuntman and special effects technician Daniel Cassidy became defined by what started as a silly demon costume. Cassidy was wearing a Blue Devil costume for a movie when a real demon called Nebiros attacked him. The demon caused Cassidy to merge with his devil suit. In response to this transformation, Cassidy took on the Blue Devil identity and became a reluctant superhero. His new powers included enhanced strength, and he obtained a high-tech trident that shoots lasers. However, Cassidy’s transformation did not end there. He received a hellish upgrade when he was killed in action and transformed into a real demon. Blue Devil’s demonic physiology grants him superhuman strength, durability, and stamina, but at the expense of possessing a fatal aversion to holy objects. Blue Devil also obtained a new and improved weapon, the Trident of Lucifer, which can shoot hellfire. With his demonic powers, Blue Devil has become a core member of the supernatural team Shadowpact.
4) Frankenstein
DC Comics has its own version of Mary Shelley’s iconic reanimated monster. As in Mary Shelley’s novel, Doctor Victor Frankenstein created life in the form of a large humanoid assembled from an assortment of body parts. Initially imprisoned and tortured by Victor, the monster eventually escaped and killed his creator. Taking the name of the doctor, Frankenstein has lived for hundreds of years and has fought in several major wars, including World War II and the Vietnam War, as an agent of S.H.A.D.E., a counter terrorism organization. This group’s primary agents are the Creature Commandoes, with Frankenstein as their fearless leader. Frankenstein possesses immense strength, a potent healing factor, and a mastery of the broadsword. Frankenstein has also been a member of other supernatural teams, including the Seven Soldiers of Victory and Justice League Dark. Whether it be humans or demons, this modernized version of one of history’s greatest monsters will cut down anyone who gets in his way.
3) Deadman
Ghosts are among the oldest and most widespread kind of monsters the world has known and Boston Brand, aka Deadman, is the greatest of all the phantom superheroes. Originally a circus trapeze artist, Brand, called the Hook, was killed by a sniper while performing a trick in front of a packed audience. However, death wasn’t the end of Brand’s story. The Hindu goddess Rama Kushna turned him into a ghost to allow Brand, as Deadman, to find his killer and bring him to justice. Even after avenging his own death, Deadman continued to be a hero for both the living and the dead. Deadman has all the powers of a ghost, including invisibility, intangibility, flight, and the ability to possess humans, allowing him to interact with the land of the living. Given his spectral nature, Deadman is a founding and long-standing member of Justice League Dark. Deadman shows that not even death can stop some people from becoming heroes.
2) Etrigan
Long ago, during the age of Camelot, the demon Etrigan was a powerful servant of the wizard Merlin. When Etrigan proved to be too uncontrollable, Merlin bonded him with a knight named Jason Blood. This unholy symbiosis has allowed Blood to live for thousands of years and fight all manner of supernatural monsters. To combat these cruel beasts, Jason Blood chants, “Gone, gone the form of man, rise the demon Etrigan!” which allows the demon to take control of him. Etrigan is a powerful fire-breathing demon who endlessly speaks in rhymes. He is essentially a monster forced to do good. His demonic impulse is to burn everything in his path, but he is reluctantly restrained in the amount of chaos and violence he can unleash. Still, when Etrigan fights the forces of evil, he’s unleased to go all out with his hellish savagery. Blood and Etrigan are a classic example of a monster who can appear as an intelligent and sophisticated human, but who has two conflicting natures and can transform into a mighty and frightful beast with a separate, far more feral personality.
1) Swamp Thing
Swamp Thing is the primary defender of the natural world in DC Comics, who more than lives up to his name. Swamp Thing originally believed himself to be Alec Holland, a human scientist who, after a lab accident in the Louisiana swamplands, was transformed into a monster made entirely of plants. However, Swamp Thing eventually discovered that he’s far less human than he once believed. Instead, he is the product of the swamp’s flora absorbing the memories of the real Alec Holland, who died in the accident. Swamp Thing is the avatar of the Green, the mystical hivemind that connects all plant life in the multiverse. Given his true nature, Swamp Thing is far more connected to flora and is often mistrustful of humans. Still, Swamp Thing will unleash the full force of nature’s wrath to preserve the Earth and its inhabitants from those who seek to destroy it. Swamp Thing is DC’s strongest and most complex monster. His upcoming DCU film will undoubtedly further explore themes of identity and humanity which are at the heart of the Swamp Thing comics.
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