10 Scariest Superhero Horror Stories In DC Comics History
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The comic book medium is predominantly associated with tales involving superheroes such as Batman, Superman, and Wonder Woman, for instance. However, there is also a subset of the industry that is largely dominated by horror stories that also boast a relatively wide influence on pop culture.
DC Comics, being one of the most famous publishers in the world, is a leading example of a company that specializes in scaring audiences in addition to its more traditional epics following costumed crimefighters. Yet, every once in a while, these two worlds collide, resulting in stories that see the bravest of heroes facing their greatest fears or, even worse, becoming their greatest fears.
Out of all of DC Comics' classic superhero characters, the one with the closest ties to the horror genre is easily Batman. Not only does the Dark Knight boast the most frightening rogues' gallery, but his choice of aesthetic calls to mind one of the most enduring creatures of horror storytelling: the vampire. It was only fitting that he would at some point trade fists with the most famous bloodsucker of them all.
Writer Doug Moench and artist Kelley Jones' Batman & Dracula: Red Rain pits Bruce Wayne against the Count himself, and even sees him succumb to his bite, only to use his new abilities as a genuine creature of the night against his new enemy. In addition to being the first in a trilogy of one-shots, the graphic novel would not be the last effort to explore this gothic match-up, nor was it the first. A now-lost unofficial Batman movie shot in 1964 called Batman Dracula is pop art icon Andy Warhol's take on the idea.
With Absolute Wonder Woman , writer Kelly Thompson and artist Hayden Sherman reinterpret the Amazonian warrior princess as a Hell-raised witch who uses dark magic to protect the innocent. However, years earlier, the Justice Leaguer would embrace her spell-casting side to the detriment of herself and others.
In author James Tynion IV's Wonder Woman & the Justice League Dark: The Witching Hour , Diana, having recently taken up the responsibility of leading the group of vigilantes with supernatural specialties , suddenly becomes their greatest foil when an ancient evil that has long been brewing inside fully consumes her. Seeing the purest sector of DC's Holy Trinity on a demonic downward spiral makes for a truly nightmarish experience.
Even when Jerry Siegel and Bernard Baily first introduced him during DC's Golden Age in 1940, The Spectre was always a dark character , being the vengeful spirit of a slain police officer. However, the anti-hero had never embraced his macabre mantra quite so boldly and explicitly until more than three decades later.
Writer Michael Fleisher and artist Jim Aparo's Adventure Comics #431 brought in an iteration of The Spectre who expanded upon his ability to punish his enemies with the power of his imagination. He would go so far as to manifest an oversized pair of scissors with which to chop them in half, cause their skin to melt away until all that is left is a skeleton, and more brutal attacks that make this otherwise heroic figure a definitive symbol of horror in the DC lexicon.
The connection between Swamp Thing and the horror genre has always been clear, having debuted in the creepy anthology series House of Secrets in 1971 and later adapted into a film by The Last House on the Left creator Wes Craven in 1982. However, the moment that saw the beastly superhero's story at its scariest was when it took a turn from blatant body horror to something more frighteningly complex.
"The Anatomy Lesson" is considered the most unsettling and definitive issue of writer Alan Moore and artists Stephen Bissette and John Totleben's The Saga of Swamp Thing , as it reveals that the eponymous creature is not a mutated Dr. Alec Holland , but nothing more than sentient vegetative matter that merely absorbed the scientist's memories at the moment of his death. It is an essential example of existential dread, not just in comic book fiction, but in horror fiction in general.
It is rarely addressed enough what a depressing life Bruce Wayne must lead, tormented by tragic memories of his childhood that he has no choice but to channel into a nightly pursuit of justice. After nearly nine decades since the iconic character's debut, it almost seems as if there is no end in sight to this dreadfully dangerous existence.
That is precisely the thesis of writer Roberto Becchioni and artist Gigi Cavenago's segment in the horror anthology one-shot, DC's Zatannic Panic! #1 . "Ouroboros: A Palindromic Batman Story" posits the idea that the Dark Knight's seemingly endless crusade against crime is part of an ancient curse that leaves him destined to repeat his agonizing existence as a haunted vigilante forever, just like a snake (or, in this case, a bat) eating its own tail.
Some superhero concepts do not seem particularly disturbing until they are given more thought, which is exactly why Spider-Man's transformation into a half-man, half-arachnid hybrid made Peter Parker a perfect candidate for Marvel's horror imprint, Midnight . An essential DC equivalent, however, might be Shazam: a young boy who magically becomes a grown man with godlike abilities.
However, Weston Ochse and Howard Chaykin envision an even darker take on the character for their segment of DC House of Horror #1 , "The Possession of Billy Batson." It reinvents Billy's transformation into the DC superhero once called Captain Marvel as a matter of demonic possession, which he is pervasively manipulated into succumbing to by calling out the entity's name.
Years before Marvel Comics debuted the Midnight Universe, it introduced a reality in which many of its most famous heroes struggled to survive an apocalyptic event involving flesh-eating reanimated corpses, some of which were once Avengers themselves. It was only a matter of time before this series, fittingly titled Marvel Zombies , would inspire a DC Comics equivalent.
Dark Knights of Steel creator Tom Taylor is the brains behind DCeased , which was originally a six-issue miniseries, later expanded upon with sequels and spin-offs, set in a world infected by a zombie-like virus originating from a corrupted version of the Anti-Life Equation. The writer really makes the story stand out from its similar contemporaries by leaning hard into the characters' painful discoveries that their colleagues and loved ones have become mindless harbingers of doom.
DCeased is not the first time that the publisher tried its hand at placing its most famous characters in a story that George A. Romero could have come up with. In fact, some might argue that the honor of being DC's best zombie story still belongs to Blackest Night .
The crossover event, anchored by writer Geoff Johns and artist Ivan Reis' eponymous centerpiece miniseries, pits Earth's Green Lantern, Hal Jordan, against the evil Black Lantern Corps. As stated in the long-feared prophecy, it consists of several deceased beings who wield special rings that have the power to resurrect the dead as grotesque, flesh-eating creatures.
With the exception of the Arrowverse's monstrous reimagining of the villainous speedster, Zoom , The Flash is a prime example of a DC hero who, in any iteration, is not an ideal candidate for a horror story. However, writer Alex Paknadel and artist Daniel Bayliss figured out a way to slow down the fastest man alive in a most disturbing and revolting fashion.
In the two-part Barry Allen-led installment of DC's Knight Terrors event, which subjected various superhero characters to terrifying dreams, the speedster is convinced that he must travel back in time to save an injured Wally West, but repeatedly fails. Much to his horror, each subsequent trip through the Speed Force worsens his sudden metamorphosis into a hound-like creature. Luckily, Barry finds himself back to normal when he wakes up, but only to discover this monster has made its way into his reality.
Batman has encountered his fair share of freaky threats of an otherworldly phenomenon, but the criminal cases he faces on a regular basis are frightening enough. Just imagine what it would be like if he found himself locked inside the same place as all of the most disturbing foes he ever put away.
Such is the plot of writer Grant Morrison's widely acclaimed and influential Batman graphic novel , Arkham Asylum: A Serious House on Serious Earth , which was indeed the inspiration for the bestselling Arkham video game franchise. However, those otherwise entertaining games do not hold a candle to Dave McKean's haunting artwork, which makes a convincing case for this truly being the ultimate horror story led by the Dark Knight.