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"They call me... 'Yellow-Skinned Wacky Man!'
But I prefer 'the Creeper'.
"[1]

The Creeper, real name Jack Ryder, was formerly a news anchorman before his confrontation with The Joker, and later became a superhero and member of the Justice League.

History[]

"Breaking news... and if you break it, you have to pay for it!"[1]

Jack Ryder

Jack Ryder.

Jack Ryder was the co-anchor of Summer Gleeson's "Gotham Insider", covering and reporting various stories in Gotham. When he did an exposé on the Joker, the Clown Prince of Crime showed up and dosed Ryder and the crew with laughing gas. He then threw Ryder into the same vat of chemicals that transformed him.

The chemicals, mixed with the Joker's toxin, triggered a mutation in Ryder. His body became bright yellow with green hair, and dramatically enhanced his strength and agility. Furthermore, he developed an energetically maniacal personality that still is conscientious to a degree; for instance, he wildly caused a disturbance in a used clothing store looking for a costume, but also properly paid for his goods. While interrogating the Joker's henchmen, one of them spoke out against him, and called him a "creep", which inspired him to call himself "the Creeper". Having used Jack Ryder's credit card to buy his costume, Batman deduced the wild man's identity. Seeking revenge against the Joker and suddenly smitten with Harley Quinn, he pursued them relentlessly, with terrifyingly wild enthusiasm. While the Creeper did not kill anyone, his methods were so frenetically deranged that the Joker eventually begged to be arrested, fearfully screeching to Batman, "He's a lunatic!"

After an exhausting chase, Batman arrested the criminals and injected the Creeper with an antidote to the Joker venom. While it successfully repressed the Creeper persona and physically changed him back into Ryder, the cure was not permanent. However, Batman was able to create antidote skin patches to keep the Creeper subdued. Ryder, who actually liked his alternate form, could simply remove the patch and transform into the Creeper again.[1]

Although crazy and created by the same chemicals as the Joker, the Creeper was essentially moral and heroic at heart, and later joined the expanded Justice League to protect the world from evil.

Powers and abilities[]

Before being mutated and transformed into the Creeper, Jack Ryder was a normal man who was devoted to his work as news anchorman and his successful career at the media world, without any special ability.

After being mutated, the Creeper had superhuman strength, agility, senses and healing. He also developed an unusually high sense of his surroundings, being able to sense incoming enemies from behind and retaliate without turning around, including with a man like Batman, who was highly adept at stealth. He was also very resilient, as seen when Harley dropped a statue on him and the Joker later tried to exterminate him with a dose of nitroglycerin, causing little to no effect, causing him to acquire the strange ability to cheat death.

Background information[]

Creeper (BTAS Design)

Bruce Timm's original design for The Creeper.

Plans to include the Creeper in the DCAU were originally made during the initial run of Batman: The Animated Series, with Alan Burnett having given an interview to Comics Scene's October 1992 issue that they were trying to develop a story with the Creeper "right now". "We figure it'll look flashy to have a yellow guy jumping around this Dark Deco City."[2] While the crew made an attempt to include him in the second season, according to Bruce Timm, he and the writers never got to make an episode with his inclusion because none of the proposed ideas convinced them,[3] and ultimately it was felt that a single episode wouldn't be enough to handle the Creeper's origin as well as a plot involving Batman.[4] Nevertheless, the Creeper ended up being used in The New Batman Adventures.

Appearances[]

The New Batman Adventures

Justice League Unlimited

References[]

  1. 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 Gerber, Steve (writer) & Fogel, Rich (story) & Riba, Dan (director) (November 7, 1998). "Beware the Creeper". The New Batman Adventures. Episode 10 (airdate). Episode 23 (production). Season 2. Kids WB!.
  2. "Animated Knights" by Pat Jankiewicz - Comics Scene Magazine #29 (October 1992)
  3. Yeah, the Creeper show just didn't gel that first time around. We went back and forth on it, and a number of writers took a stab at it. It just never got to a point where we all felt happy with it, so we just dropped it.

    Bruce Timm, Modern Masters, pg. 46

  4. "Things to Come Second Season" by Robert T. Garcia - Cinefantastique Vol. 24 #6/Vol. 25 #1 (February 1994)

External links[]


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