Unless the government opened your head up and removed it, you have a skull. So does the guy next to you on the bus, the woman riding the elevator with you, and the kid who serves you coffee at Starbucks. In fact, skulls are a common trait shared by all living humans. So then why are they so damn scary?
Take the skin off a head and it immediately gets freaky-looking, which is why it works as such a great intimidator in comic books. Your character needs to be scary right away? Give him the ol' Skull Face (which, surprisingly, doesn't have an entry in Urban Dictionary). Frank Castle knew that skulls were scary, so he put one on his shirt. Who else went with the skull? These 10 heroes and villains!
10) Reaper
Reapers generally rock the skulls, and
Batman comics didn't disappoint. They gave us TWO Reapers for the price of one! (Not really, you have to buy both issues.) The first one was a concentration camp survivor seeking revenge. He died, but showed up recently after being cryogenically frozen. The better-known Reaper showed up in
Batman: Year Two as the son of Wayne-killing criminal Joe Chill. You might recognize the costume design from the film
Batman: Mask of the Phantasm.
9) Fantomah
Golden Age and gorgeous. Yup, that describes this skull-woman. Fantomah was a creation of comic legend Fletcher Hanks back in 1940. She had all sorts of magical powers (never really defined, she could do almost anything Fletcher could think up) but to use them, her pretty face would turn into a blue skull. On the whole, I'd think it would derail a first date, but not a second or third. Fantomah's considered one of the first superheroines, and it's a shame she hasn't made more appearances recently (outside of Tim Seeley's
Hack/Slash), since she's public domain and dressed in a pretty modern tank top.
8) Mr. Bones
Not many heroes in the DCU have been saddled with a backstory and personality as inconvenient as Mr. Bones. First off, he's part of a medical experiment by a deranged gynecologist named "Dr. Love." This experiment made his skin and organs invisible, so he looks like a skeleton. And he has a cyanide touch and super strength. Then, he was a villain for a while and talked only in very awkward rhyming couplets. And he smoked all the time. Then he became a hero and worked with Infinity, Inc, then the Department of Extranormal Affairs, becoming a regional director. Complicated backstory aside, it's always a joy to see him show up.
7) Dr. Destiny
There's "nuts" and then there's "Dr. Destiny nuts." The guy's been a persistent JLA foe for decades by controlling the dreams of his victims. He even went as far as killing people in the
JLA cartoon, and that almost never happens in children's TV. Destiny's best appearance has to be his short stint early on in Gaiman's
Sandman, where he slowly tortures a diner full of hostages over 24 hours.
6) Atomic Skull
The first Atomic Skull in the 1970s shared an origin with so many villains of the time, as a scientific experiment gone wrong. He had a good run of it, battling Superman and later showing up in
Birds of Prey. The second version, from the '90s, is way more fun and it's a shame he doesn't show up more. He thinks he's the hero in a 1930s action serial! He talks like he's a matinee idol and hallucinates Superman is his nemesis, Dr. Electron. He really needs to show up more, because that's just a fun character quirk that hasn't been exploited enough.
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