Terrifying Comic Book Monsters That Deserve Their Own Video Games

To be a Monster, with a capital ‘M,’ in a comic book, you really have to bring it. You’re competing with insane super villains, equally insane superheroes, and a whole bunch of assorted sociopaths, psychos, and ne’er do wells. How do you look scary next to this charming bunch?

Comic book monsters have to be exceptionally twisted in order to stand out. Because of this, they’re usually cast as the side characters and rarely as the lead. To be the lead, one needs vulnerability—it’s rare that something big and frightening can be relatable.

Similarly, whenever video game designers create comic book games, they go with the typical, relatable, easily recognizable choices for their leads. Superman. Batman. Spider-Man. Wolverine. But just in case a developer gets a little daring, here are some Terrifying Comic Book Monsters That Deserve Their Own Video Games. Why not go with a main character that’s twisted inside and ugly on the outside?

Debut issue: The Amazing Spider-Man #101

Year: 1971

Special abilities: Vampirism, flight, hypnotism, healing abilities

Poor Dr. Morbius. All he was trying to do was cure his fatal blood disease. I guess he succeeded, but he replaced it with something far worse: He became a pseudo-vampire with an unquenchable lust for blood, and that put him directly in the crosshairs of Spider-Man. Morbius would later become a complex character, even forming an alliance with Spidey during the Maximum Carnage events, but he still drifts between good and bad, depending on who’s writing the storyline. Imagine Morbius in a third person, hack ‘n’ slash video game with RPG elements—perhaps he’s able to upgrade his vampire powers over the course of the game. Think of something like Jedi Academy, but with less lightsabers and more blood.

Debut issue: House of Secrets #92

Year: 1971

Special abilities: Superhuman strength, regeneration, control and inhabitation of plants

Here’s another guy who looks a lot worse than he really is. The original storyline goes as follows: Alex Olsen was a scientist, but when his lab exploded and contaminated him with chemicals, he became Swamp Thing, hell-bent on avenging his transformation and finding a cure. Swamp Thing epitomizes that classic comic book juxtaposition—a monster with a hard exterior but a soft interior. A video game was last attempted on the NES in 1992, and it was…well, it wasn’t good. A new video game could be an origin story set in the Louisiana Bayou—maybe an HD beat-‘em-up side-scroller, with different combo attacks and swamp-special moves. Each of the levels could end with a boss fight against one of the Un-Men, and the final level could be an epic boss fight against Dr. Arcane himself.

Debut issue: Superman: The Man of Steel #17

Year: 1992

Special abilities: Superhuman strength, superhuman speed, superhuman endurance, healing factor

There’s never been a comic book villain who had such an immediate, catastrophic impact upon his debut. It made headlines back in the early ’90s—Doomsday was here, and Superman was going to die. And, boy, was that an understatement. The confrontation was extremely bloody and painful; Superman looked like he had been through the meat grinder by the time he breathed his last breath. Doomsday’s never been much of a threat since then, and a video game could remind us all why we feared him so much to begin with. Imagine a massive, third person remake of Rampage, with Doomsday laying waste to Coast City, Gotham City, and the rest of the DC Universe, before finally taking down Metropolis and the Last Son of Krypton.

Debut issue: Detective Comics #400

Year: 1970

Special abilities: Echolocation, flight, superhuman strength

Dr. Kirk Langstrom (what is it about insane doctors in the DC Universe?) developed a serum that transformed him into Man-Bat whenever he drank it. The Man-Bat character has been given small, playable roles in the Lego Batman series, but we think that he’s cool enough to carry his own title. Remember Alucard from the Castlevania franchise and how he could switch between his vampire and human forms? What if Man-Bat had the same sort of deal? He could either complete his levels/missions as Kirk Langstrom, which would require a bit more cunning and strategy, or he could complete his missions as Man-Bat, which would be a bit more ‘smash and grab.’

Debut issue: Dime Press #4

Year: 1993

Special abilities: Superhuman strength, healing factor, right hand of doom

Just as with Swamp Thing, a Hellboy video game has been attempted—twice actually—and the results have been poor. The latest effort was Hellboy: The Science of Evil in 2008. Although the developers had a good idea—co-op multiplayer beat-‘em-up—the delivery was both repetitive and tedious, requiring the player to do little more than mash a single button in order to progress. Surely, a massive demon from the depths of Hell deserves a better, more current generation treatment. Create cooler enemies, flashier moves, and more precise camera angles, and we’ll have the type of Hellboy video game that fans deserve.

Debut issue: All-American Comics #61

Year: 1944

Special abilities: Superhuman strength, indestructibility, immortality

SOLOMON GRUNDY… BORN ON A MONDAY… Gotham’s favorite superzombie has been resurrecting and dominating for over 70 years, but he achieved new mainstream success with the release of Arkham City in 2011. Grundy squared off against Batman in an epic, terrifying boss battle. Since then, Grundy has been included in Injustice: Gods Among Us (with Fred Tatasciore reprising his voiceover), but we’ve had enough of these part-time appearances. We want the big lug to get a feature spot. Maybe an open sandbox game where, instead of dying, you just get stronger and more massive? It would be low on intellect but high on destruction and pure fun—kind of like Grundy himself.

Debut issue: Batman & Dracula: Red Rain

Year: 1991

Special abilities: Vampirism, superhuman strength, flight

This is off-the-wall storytelling at its very best. For those of you who haven’t been initiated into the joys of Vampire Batman, here’s the deal: Batman gets bitten by a vampire, and armed with his new powers, squares off against Dracula, eventually impaling him on a tree. Later storylines have him draining Joker of his blood, and decapitating the Penguin, the Riddler, Scarecrow, and Poison Ivy. We would love a standalone game, in the vein of the Arkham game franchise, but we’d settle for a DLC character in Arkham Knight, complete with vampire abilities and unlimited flight.

Debut issue: The Amazing Spider-Man #361

Year: 1992

Special abilities: Enhanced strength, shape-shifting, regeneration

The last time we saw Carnage as the main attraction in a video game, he was the main (non-playable) antagonist in Maximum Carnage for the Super Nintendo and the Genesis. To be honest, we don’t know what a game starring Carnage as the playable protagonist would look like. He is, after all, a murderous, remorseless psychopath who takes glee in suffering. But we do know that Spider-Man’s most dangerous villain deserves a little more play—not to mention his demented ‘family’: Doppelganger, Shriek, Demogoblin, and Carrion. Plus, we can’t forget those trademark special attacks, where Carnage’s limbs stretch into 30-foot blades. They would look incredible in HD.

Debut issue: Captain America #272

Year: 1982

Special abilities: Superhuman strength, superhuman speed, heightened senses, sharp teeth and claws, control over rats and dogs

More than roaches, waterbugs, or even mice, ask any homeowner what their worst nightmare is and the answer will inevitably be rats—especially the enormous rats of New York City, which can grow to the size of small house cats. Vermin, therefore, is every urban dweller’s bad dream—a filthy genetic experiment gone bad that kidnaps and eats people beneath the city streets. Again, it’s hard to build a video game around a degenerate like this, but hear us out. A lot of video games have portrayed New York City from above ground, but no video game has ever explored the underground labyrinth of New York’s sewers and subway stations. Imagine stealth killing from the shadows, peeking above ground during the night, and then hiding underground when the police come. It could make for an incredible—if immoral—stealth game.

Debut issue: Nick’s Fury’s Howling Commandos #1

Year: 2005

Special abilities: Varied supernatural powers

The video game almost writes itself, doesn’t it? In 2005, Marvel debuted a new superhero team that included (but was not limited to) a Frankenstein monster, a mummy, a werewolf, a vampire, a half gorilla, and a zombie. It ran for six issues and less than a calendar year, but maybe this band of misfits could find new popularity amongst gamers. We’re thinking of a game like Marvel: Ultimate Alliance—a top-down action title with lots of mayhem action and character-specific attacks—the more gimmicky ‘mummy moves’ and ‘werewolf moves,’ the better.

Debut issue: The Incredible Hulk #1

Year: 1962

Special abilities: Superhuman strength and invulnerability

Hulk’s only an honorable mention because he’s already had several video games that feature him. But the last good one was back in 2005—it was called The Incredible Hulk: Ultimate Destruction, and it was the first superhero game that made you feel powerful. It featured a fully destructible environment as well. You could level an entire block with a single move. That was close to 10 years and two console generations ago. Just imagine what they could do with today’s graphics and processing power. Bigger world. Bigger explosions. Bigger Hulk Smashes? Oh man.

So, there you go. Those are just a few of the scary monsters that deserve their moment in the sun (as long as it doesn’t burn them). To any game developers reading this: Feel free to steal any (read: all) of these ideas. Don’t get us wrong—Spider-Man is great and all, but we want something with a little more teeth and a little more claw.