The Creep in Creepshow has been branching out to other holidays outside of Halloween, so why not superheroes? Super Creepshow Special #1 is out this week, further expanding the horror anthology with an entirely different flavor of horror. The one-shot features superhero stories you don’t often see unless the ideas crop up in a random indie superhero comic, making this a tasty treat for longtime fans of superheroes and their many tropes.
Kicking off the fun is Pye Parr’s excellent Dark Knight Returns homage cover featuring the Creep jumping through a lightning-soaked sky. The Creep is prevalent in all of the tales in this collection, opening and closing each with a great pun or barbed joke that’ll please Creep fans.
The first story, “Funeral for a Fiend,” is written by Dan Watters with art by Carmine Di Giandomenico, focusing on a character similar to Superman who has recently passed away. The alien from another world was powerful and had equally powerful friends, but also left behind a wife who knows deep down he’ll come back. This leads to her worrying after months that maybe he’s trapped in a special coffin, which is what sets the true horror of this tale in motion.
A lot of thought is put into how a body like Superman’s would decompose, and even what might not. From eyes opening to the bloat caused by remnant flight powers, it’s some horrific stuff that’s not hard to believe. The final horror is also quite clever, and it sparks an idea I’m not sure anyone has broached with Superman or any other superhero.
Paired with Di Giandomenico’s art, this tale could have easily been a DC Comics horror tale, save for the slight changes to costumes and powers of the super friends.
She’s a little too certain. Credit: Skybound
Next up is “Grave Ghost: Reborn,” written by Ryan Stegman with art by Riley Rossmo. This is a story that opens with ’90s superhero action, opening on a rooftop. Soon, we learn a prominent gun-toting hero has died, but his body can regenerate. The horror is what he discovers 30 years later, with a twist that feels as connected to heroes as to the growing capitalist and corporatist nature of superheroes in this day and age. It’s a clever look at superheroes in more ways than one, even if it’s fairly surface-level stuff.
Rossmo does exceptional work, especially a full-page splash of a body being rebuilt over time. Little details in the backgrounds help sell the futuristic city with fun, but simple costumes that only Rossmo could sell. The visuals really intensify with a grotesque villain that regenerates into a larger and more animal-like creature.
Closing out the one-shot is “Growing Pains” by Ed Brisson and Andrei Bressan in a tale that takes a look at a superpowered science experiment gone wrong. Brisson keeps you inside the main character’s head as he obsesses over the revenge he thinks he deserves after his ex left him. It’s all about proving his experiments will one day work, even if they will transform his body and boost his rage.
One in superhero form, Brisson and Bressan send this beast into the city, where he does tons of damage. One gripe here, though, is that there’s nobody around, which had me questioning if any of it was real. The smashing looks cool, at least.
The beauty of this tale comes later, when we see what happens to a body hulked out as those powers wither away. It’s an idea that’ll make you think twice about Hulk’s abilities over at Marvel.
Super Creepshow Special #1 is a grisly and clever experiment, proving Creepshow can bring its signature brand of horror to any genre. With standout art, a range of inventive premises, and just enough gruesome detail to unsettle, the one-shot is both a treat for horror fans and a refreshing break from standard capes-and-tights storytelling. It doesn’t reinvent superheroes, but it does remind us how terrifying their powers and legacies can become when filtered through Creepshow’s twisted lens.
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