These 7 Comic Characters Are So Creepy They’ll Make Your Skin Crawl

Ever since their conception, comic books have always been a great market for horror stories. Dating back to ’50s with EC Comics being the pioneers or horror comics, they usually led to pulpy horror shorts. As time has gone on, their impact slowly crept into superhero comics and it was a perfect match. As the line between horror elements and superheroes has only grown, now there are characters straight from the nightmare realm. Whether it’s a standard serial killer in the hero of your choice’s city or an eldritch being, these characters are the ones we remember. If these characters don’t make your skin crawl, well, it’s on too tight.

Admittedly, a lot of these options are Batman villains, but not without good reason. He’s been around for so long, and with the theory of Gotham being cursed, it makes perfect sense. That and it’s harder to imagine a lot of the less gloomy superheroes with spooky rogues, if we’re being honest. I can’t imagine the Flash fighting off some of these guys, but you never know. Either way, we hope you enjoy these picks as they will tear your soul apart.

1) Mr. Bloom

First appearing in the pages of Batman by Scott Snyder in 2015, we have Mr. Bloom. What appeared to be a new up-and-coming drug dealer in Gotham ended up being a shape-changing Lovecraftian beast. If there was any essence of a person inside of Bloom, it’s long gone for whatever he is now. Spreading his drugs around the people of Gotham, he was a formidable foe for Jim Gordon, who was operating as Batman at the time.

Towards the end of the arc, Bruce did return as Batman and stop Bloom, however, he hasn’t come back a lot since then. With his most recent appearances in the Red Hood spinoff, it’s a surprise Bloom hasn’t returned to the main Batman title. Perhaps that’s for the best, but there’s always a layer of untapped potential for Bloom. One can hope he can return from comic book limbo, but only time will tell.

2) The Shadow King

Once known as Amahl Farouk, the Shadow King was a telepathic mutant. Stalking a young Ororo Munroe, aka Stor,m in the streets of Cairo, Farouk would ultimately come to meet his match battling another psychic, Charles Xavier. The two battled psychically and ended with Farouk’s death, or so we thought. Farouk’s mind stayed in the astral plane and manifested into the Shadow King.

Now, as the Shadow King, he retained his power of telepathy as well as gaining possession abilities. He literally transcended his human form and became a nightmare for many. After possessing others to get back to fighting Xavier and Storm decades later, he became one of the best foes of the X-Men. While not the most frequent of their foes, he’s always used very creepily, and that’s how we like it.

3) The Corinthian

With the best smile in comics, we have The Corinthian. A literal walking nightmare from the dream realm known as the Dream, the Corinthian was created. Appearing early on as a semi-prominent antagonist in The Sandman, the Corinthian would hunt down men and kill them, taking their eyes as a prize, which led him to become a legend among the serial killer community. After that story, he’d return much later on the side of good.

Corinthian may be one of the most popular side characters from The Sandman and had a solo series. With a handful of appearances along with his leading role, he’s left quite a mark on the readers of the series. James Tynion IV made him a more intriguing character in the pages of the two solo series and gave him some of the best storylines to work with. While we may never get that third and final miniseries, The Corinthian will haunt us forever.

4) The Wound Man

Reminiscent of a Cenobite from Hellraiser, we have The Wound Man. Appearing rather recently from Batman: Dark Patterns, the Wound Man amazed long-time Batman fans. With this horrifying design and all of the objects sticking out of him connected to major arteries, he was quite the foe. With only three appearances as of now and hopefully not too many in the future, the Wound Man has one of the grossest designs of any Batman villain.

With a tragic backstory of losing all feeling in his body due to chemical exposure, he tortured himself into becoming the Wound Man to feel something after the death of his wife. Now hunting down the Gotham developers who poisoned his land, he became somewhat of a ghost for a small Gotham neighborhood. Hopefully, if we ever see him again, it would be as an even more paranormal figure; his story in the incredible Batman: Dark Patterns will be remembered for a long time.

5) Dr. Destiny

Making the leap from the regular DC universe to The Sandman we have this take on Dr. Destiny. In possession of the powerful Dreamstone, John Dee used it for his own purposes. Turning the world into his own twisted nightmare for 24 hours gave us the best depiction of the character. With his haunting new look not too dissimilar from a zombie, Dr. Destiny made it big with this appearance.

While this interpretation wouldn’t last for long with Dr. Destiny, it has gone on to be a fan favorite for years. With the drastic redesign here and the incredible art by Sam Keith and inks by Malcolm Jones III, issue #6 remains fantastic. A lot can be said about the series itself now, especially with the news of its author, The Sandman‘s legacy with horror will always be a strong point.

6) Professor Pyg

Our final creeper from Gotham is Professor Pyg. Based on Pygmalion, his falling for a statue of his deceased mother, as well as having a penchant for “fixing” people, earns Pyg this spot. Whether it’s his kidnapping or torturing people into being his version of perfect, Pyg has managed to creep readers out for almost two decades now. He has returned a few times as a Batman villain and has become popular, also in part due to the video game Batman: Arkham Knight.

With the design and the unsettling pig mask he uses, it’s no wonder he’s creeped us out for so long now. While on a real-world scale, Mr. Zsasz may be scarier as he’s a tad more “normal” for lack of a better term, Pyg feels a lot more similar to Leatherface from The Texas Chain Saw Massacre with most of his look. Minus the human face mask and chainsaw, of course. Pyg will remain terrifying for decades to come.

7) Beta/The Whisperers

The Walking Dead has always been a horror comic with a lot of human drama and horrifying people. The Governor and Negan come to mind as cruel villains, but none have been as scary as the Whisperers and their leader, Beta. A group of outsiders who skin the Walkers of their flesh and make costumes of it to blend into the hordes was one of the more scary elements of the comic. Making it seem like the Walkers had evolved, it was actually just some of the most deranged individuals.

After the demise of their leader Alpha, Beta led the group with a bigger element of horror. Towering at a massive seven feet tall and built like a basketball player, Beta managed to be the last person you’d want to come across. Taking the methods of staying as a Whisperer, the most serious Beta takes our final spot as the creepiest member of that group and the comic as a whole. I know I’d be terrified of a seven-foot-tall whispering zombie pulling a kitchen knife on me.

Who else makes your skin crawl? Let us know down in the comments.