OOOoooOOoooooOOOoOooh!!!!!!!!! G-g-g-ghosts! Yep, it's time to talk about ghosts! Look, I planned this list out back in October but there are exactly TWO months where talkin' "˜bout ghosts is cool. Number one is October, but number two is December. Because Christmas Ghosts are totally a thing! Usually they're of the past, present, or future, but whatever. It's time for Christmas ghosts, so pull your sheets over your head and settle in for the night, because it's about to get super spooky in here.
Source: casper.wikia.com
10. Casper
Look, you should be ashamed of yourself if you didn't see this entry coming. Come on!
No, he didn't first appear in comics, but he's had a long and powerful history in comics, as well. Casper first appeared in a children's book by Seymour Reit and Joe Oriolo before he was transferred to animation in 1945. In 1952, he began appearing in a Harvey Comics series, which was so popular that Harvey bought the rights to Casper outright seven years later. From that point on, Casper was a dual feature in comics and cartoons and even a film or two. These non-comics things aren't the best-est, but the comics are fun.
Seriously, though, Casper's Haunted Christmas is terrible. But his comic book career has been long lasting and incredibly successful. He's easily the most profitable comic book ghost.
And he’s totally the ghost of Richie Rich. I'm fully copping to believing that fan theory.
Source: horrorhomework.com
9. Bode Locke
SHUT UP, HE COUNTS!! Out of body experience ghosts typically don't, but he does. Because he got stuck out there.
Bode is the youngest member of the Locke Family. When he arrived, he pretty quickly found the Ghost Key. Using it on the back door caused his body to collapse and crumple to the ground as soon as he passed through it. His spirit came out, allowing him to see and hear things he had no other way of knowing.
He enjoyed doing this regularly until the villainous Dodge (posing as Zack) threw his body through the ghost door and claimed it for himself. This left Bode trapped as a ghost while Dodge ran rampant in his body. He managed to talk to Rufus Whedon, who helped the rest of the Lockes. And then Bode's body died.
Fortunately, he came back, but he was a literal ghost for a time, so on the list he goes.
Source: comicvine.gamespot.com
8. Black Pirate
Let's talk Jon Valor. He was a pirate! A white pirate. He just wore black. Very confusing. I mean most dudes with Black in their name are seventies heroes without a sense of subtlety. They stopped doing that in the eighties or so. Good joke about it in Sleeper, though.
Sorry, got distracted. Valor was a privateer who moonlighted as a pirate. He did pirate stuff. At some point in his pirate-ing, he was abducted by the Lord of Time to attack a thing called the Eternity Brain.
The combined might of the Justice League of America and the Justice Society of America saved him and allowed the Pirate to head back home. There, he was framed for his son's murder and hanged.
He cursed the town he was hanged in, proclaiming that no one who died in the town would be able to pass on until his name was cleared. That town would eventually become Opal City, where he would return as a ghost to help Jack Knight, who eventually cleared his name, allowing him and every other ghost of Opal City to pass on to the afterlife.
Source: comicsalliance.com
7. The Gay Ghost
Obvious joke is obvious and I'm not making it.
The Gay Ghost was a back-up character in Sensation Comics in the early forties. He was an Earl in 18th century Ireland, until he was murdered by footpads (an olde term for street criminals that I love and will totally use forever now). He became a ghost, but only under the condition that he was bound to his castle until his true love, Deborah Wallace, visited him. In 1941, Deborah's last surviving descendant visited the castle, freeing the Gay Ghost at last. She brought along her fiancé, Charles Collins. As soon as the Ghost was freed, Charles was killed by Nazis, letting Gay Ghost take over his body.
He kicks a bunch of butt and fights Nazis throughout the forties. He later appears in Grant Morrison's amazing Animal Man run as a denizen of Limbo, which is where unused comic book characters go. He only appears to explain that he does not want to be brought back, since the meaning of his name has changed since the forties.
I legit can't believe I got through this whole thing without making a dumb joke.
I'm getting myself a cookie for that.
Source: darkhorizons.com
6. Brother Voodoo
This cookie is delicious. And Brother Voodoo's pretty sweet too!
Jericho Drumm was a Haitian-born psychologist operating in the United States. He returned to Haiti to find that his twin brother Daniel had been mortally wounded by a voodoo priestess. Daniel died in Jericho's arms and sent his brother to visit his mentor, Papa Jambo. Jericho trained with Jambo until Jambo could raise Daniel's spirit from the dead and bond it to Jericho's body. Together they were"¦Brother Voodoo!!! He spent some time working with S.H.I.E.L.D. and Doctor Strange before he was captured and replaced with a Skrull sleeper agent.
He was eventually rescued after Black Panther uncovered the Skrull ploy. He joined up with the New Avengers, and became Stephen Strange's successor as the new sorcerer supreme, aka Doctor Voodoo. Then he died, like you do. And came back, like you do. He has since found himself a place on Steve Rogers's Uncanny Avengers team.
But yeah, Daniel the ghost and Jericho the resurrected now have a place on this list!
Source: blumhouse.com
5. The Crypt Keeper
Tales from the Crypt is one of the most influential and successful horror comics of all time. And the Crypt Keeper is up there in the pantheon of iconic horror hosts. Near the top, in fact.
Cryptie is the most memorable of EC's three main horror hosts by a long shot. The Vault-Keeper is fun and the Old Witch is well designed, but neither of them hold a slowly burning candle in a long dark hallway to our boy, the Crypt Keeper. Honestly, he's way more memorable from the television show that bears the name of his comic book, but his actual comic book appearances are instant classics.
The perfect blend of sarcastically funny and hauntingly creepy, Cryptie tells his stories with a sense of charm and wit unseen in other horror hosts. All of his appearances are personality-loaded as hell.
He is a pretty solidly great little ghostie, and one we won't soon forget.
Source: dccomics.com
4. Deadman
Boston Brand was a death-defying circus aerialist. Then he stopped being able to defy death. Because someone shot him. And he died.
In fact, he was murdered, by a mysterious man with a hook for a hand. His spirit was then introduced to Rama Kushna, a Hindu god who gave him the power to posses any human being, a power he used to solve crimes. He bounced around for a while, always trying to find who killed him, which he eventually did. After all that time, he came back to life!!!!! Oh I'm sorry, let me start over, his body came back to life!!!!!!! As a Black Lantern murder zombie. Who was trying to murder a lot of people.
So Boston had to fight himself to keep others safe. At the end of the event, he was one of a small group of heroes and villains brought back from the dead. For real this time. He came back and spent a lot of time trying to figure out the purpose of the widespread resurrection. He eventually did, but was killed in the process.
But he had completed a long and fulfilling character arc and"”NEW 52 REBOOT! LOL JK ABOUT ALL THOSE ARCS, BECAUSE THEY DO NOT MATTER NOW THAT WE ARE STARTING FROM SCRATCH. So yeah, Boston's back to being a ghost trying to solve his own murder. It's fine. It's a start.
Source: Stephenwrhodes.wordpress.com
3. Anderson
Kick ass, take names, be a ghost: That's how Anderson Lake rolled.
When master thief Jackson Winters was stuck deep in prison, Marcus Schrecken had to get him out. So he sent Anderson to break him out. She served as Schrecken's personal body guard and then got put on Winters' team to rob the Trask Mansion. And they did rob the Trask Mansion. Of course, what they were stealing was a ghost. And in the process, Anderson was killed. Quite painfully, too, in fact.
But you know what they say, a good hired murderer never stays down for long. And she didn't; she came back as a spooky spooky ghost. And she decided to haunt the hell out of Winters, who she rightfully blamed for her death. She also served as his ghostly bodyguard, under the rationale that she wanted to ensure that his death would be as painful as he deserved.
Fun!
Source: comicvine.gamespot.com
2. Gentleman Ghost
Oh, God, I love it SO MUCH!!!!!!! Gentleman Ghost is like my legit favorite DC villain! HE IS A GHOST WITH A MONOCLE AND A TOP HAT, AND HOW DARE YOU NOT LOVE THAT!!!!!
I've kinda talked about Gentleman Ghost before, so let's play "how do I write this entry without repeating jokes"! Jim Craddock was a robber in nineteenth century London, until he decided to give the United States a shot. Heh, shot. But after arriving in America, he bumps into wild west gunslingers Nighthawk and Cinnamon, who promptly bump him off. Unfortunately for Craddock, he found himself cursed by a woman of Romanian decent.
She explained that he could never move on from this plane of existence until his killers did the same. Unfortunately his killers wound up trapped in a cycle of constant reincarnation as Hawkman and Hawkgirl. So, yeah, he's gotta stick around. So he figured why not be a supervillain?
Good plan, bro, you rock that monocle.
Source: dccomics.com
1. The Spectre
If Twilight Zone twist endings were a weaponizable force, The Spectre would wield that force. The dude was legit impressive.
Jim Corrigan was a detective in the "˜40s, until he ran afoul of a mob boss and wound up dead. But when Corrigan ascended to heaven, he couldn't get in. Why? Because he was pissed the hell off. SO pissed off, in fact, that the Archangel Michael took notice and gave Jim another chance. He was bonded to God's spirit of vengeance as The Spectre. So he just went around finding evildoers and graphically murder-torturing them. Fun comics.
By the late forties, he was paired with a wacky partner named Percival Popp. When he came back in the "˜70s, it was in the critically acclaimed and criminally under-read Adventure Comics run. Michael Fleisher and Jim Aparo brought Jimmy back to his roots as a one-man Twilight Zone. Seriously, those are some A+ comics. Eventually, though, Corrigan found peace and was able to relinquish his role as The Spectre for good.
Good for him!
And there we go, my picks for the Ghost-es with the most-est. The most respectable specters. The third ghost puns of third ghost puns. Disagree? Have your own pick for the best comic book ghost? Let me know down in the comments. Just don't invoke any mysterious deities down there, or you might find yourself well and truly haunted. You know, by g-g-g-g-ghosts!
