Sunday Splash Page #116

"You Aren't Supposed to Mention She Shaved," in Creeper #4, by Len Kaminski (writer), Shawn Martinbrough (penciler), Sal Buscema (inker), Sherri van Valkenburgh (colorist), John E. Workman Jr. (letterer) 

Another late '90s DC series, Creeper ran for 12 issues, if you count the DC One Million tie-in that also served as the last issue. Kaminski makes a number of changes from Ditko's version of Jack Ryder and the Creeper (although maybe someone else made them in the couple of decades in between Ditko's last work on the character).

Ryder is closer to a shock jock provocateur journalist, albeit one with a knack for finding interesting stories. More critically, the bizarre behavior the Creeper exhibits isn't an act any longer, as he's now some alternate personality, or some aspect of madness that lurks within Ryder the experiments he underwent gave a way to surface. One that runs in the family, since the skeletal version up there is some remnant of his deceased mother's mental illness.

Yeah, I don't know either.

While revising that aspect of the character, along with a healing factor and the idea that his laugh actually causing a reaction in the brain similar to fingernails on the chalkboard, Kamisnki revises the origin entirely while bringing Proteus back into the mix. The origin as present in Showcase, has the "by the seat of your pants" energy of the era. Where things keep happening at a fast enough clip that the momentum keeps you from contemplating things like why the scientist has expertise in two such disparate fields, or why a costume shop only has a box of scraps available. That's not acceptable in the Nineties, so now that version is an attempt by Ryder's psyche to fashion what actually happened into a more palatable memory.

Eh, I don't know. It works for this series, where Kaminski focuses a lot on the relationship between Ryder and the Creeper, their differing perceptions of things, and how each of them needs some of what the other brings. Most of the issues are done-in-ones about Ryder pursuing a story, and needing the Creeper either for fisticuffs or because his madness perceives something Ryder missed. Except the longer it goes, the more Ryder feels himself losing whatever tenuous control of the situation he has, feeling more reliant on the Creeper. Which pushes him to try and control the Creeper any way possible. Which goes about as well as you'd expect.

Shawn Martinbrough draws most of the series, with Sal Buscema. His Creeper is more wild and rabid. This angular, almost skeletal appearance, overly large smile contrasted with a hunched over posture and with scraggly hair. Ryder's almost rigid by contrast. Broader body, solid, restrained. The guy trying to hold back a tide of something and feeling the toll, going by the lines on his face and the deep shadows. The shadows make for a stark contrast between light and dark, the two halves of Ryder in opposition to each other, even when they're ostensibly working together. The Creeper is planning things, but Ryder doesn't know what until after the fact. He just has to roll with it.