The Creeper #1

The Creeper #1
ASS. Just ASS.
Ugh. As if the folks at DC felt that the origin of the Creeper was too out of date (it wasn't, by the way, and I hope this "update" gets thrown out,) they give us another origin - which is so much more ridiculous and unbelievable than the last that I can't understand it. Sure the previous origin was somewhat convoluted due to numerous retellings, but it always remained essentially the same: Jack Ryder, demoted to network security for being too inflammatory, was investigating some mobsters - trying to get his job as an investigative reporter back - who had kidnapped a scientist. Ryder freed the scientist, but upon his discovery by the mobsters, they pumped him full of hallucinogens, shot him, and left him for dead. Hoping to save him, the scientist injected Ryder with a device that would give him enhanced physical strength and allow himself to change at will into a costumed template stored in the device's circuitry. Unfortunately, the scientist was unaware that Jack was doped up at the time and therefore, the effect of the drugs was imprinted on the device as well, resulting in the maniacal Creeper personality. Okay, so that origin is a bit out there. Much later, it was hinted at that this origin may have been falsely implanted, but the Creeper's 1997 series was cancelled before this possibility could be fully explored.
(My favorite origin is actually that from Batman: The Animated Series, wherein Jack Ryder is doing a retrospective on the origin of the Joker from inside the selfsame factory wherein the Joker had been transformed. The Joker attacks, doses Ryder with his gas, and then dumps him in a vat of chemicals. The interaction between the chemicals and the gas produces a strange reaction which transforms Ryder into the Creeper - a condition which can only be reversed medically, through the use of a transdermal patch.)
In this new origin, it is strongly implied that Jack Ryder has NOT been the Creeper all this time, thus writing out of continuity the myriad Creeper appearances throughout the DCU, in which he played important roles in the Crisis on Infinite Earths, the vanquishing of Eclipso, and has, in fact, aided the Justice League on numerous occasions. Apparently that has all been erased in the history of New Earth. This time around, Jack Ryder is a television talk-show host along the lines of those that proliferated at the end of the 1990's, similar to Bill O'Reilly, Rush Limbaugh, and other hosts who refused to let their guests get a word in edgewise, making fun of their points of view rather than legitimately challenging them to explain themselves. Jack fancies himself an investigative reporter as well, so he sneaks into a medical research lab which happens to be under attack from mobsters. The scientist he tries to protect injects him with the last dose of a mysteriously zombifying drug after which he is subsequently shot and tossed off an oceanside cliff. The interaction of the drug and the salt-water(?!) makes him radically change appearance. Apparently it makes his clothes change appearance as well. Don't ask. It gives him metahuman strength and agility and a cackling laugh which has the power to make men go insane from irritation. Again, don't ask. Jack Ryder also discovers that he can change back and forth from the Creeper at will.
Who thought this was a good idea? In what parallel universe does this make more sense? Sure, I understand that the Creeper origin was weird and kooky, but that was part of its charm, and changing it to something that is as ridiculous as this, while at the same time erasing the Creeper's previous DCU appearances from continuity is utterly ridiculous. So, ASS, yeah, I can't see myself wanting to read another issue of this series, which will hopefully be forgotten as soon as it ends. It's a shame, really, because the last few times the Creeper was used in the DCU, among them in Superman: Metropolis (which series has also apparently been removed from continuity - an unmerged, living Sledge appeared in Villains United #3; and Lena Luthor has not been seen since), he was written very well, as a character with positive possibilities for use elsewhere within the DCU. As he is being written in this series, I don't want to see him around anywhere, ever again, and thus the Creeper may end up being relegated to the dustbins of the DC Universe, something which he does not deserve, and we will be the poorer for it.

I am very disappointed, as I thought that the Creeper feature in Brave New World actually had potential. I thought it was definitely OKAY, but that it could have been better if it could have been longer. As a teaser alone it was great, but if this was what it was teasing at? Ugh. Horrrifying.