Whether you're fighting zombies or trying to play a civil game of Mario Party, those who hunt beasts are likely to become beasts themselves. Transforming from a normal fleshy form to monstrous reflection of one's former self is a staple of comics – it's kinda the Hulk's whole premise for one, and Dr. Jekyll/Mr. Hyde is both a Marvel and a DC super-villain. Since we're still in a Halloweenie mood, we've scoured our long boxes to find 20 characters who perform a Transylvania Twist of their own to turn into great and terrible beasts. To qualify for this listicle, characters in question had to have a monstrous alternate form, no matter the means of transmogrification.
To clarify, we're specifically choosing monstrous alternate forms of comic characters, as opposed to just "super forms" of characters. Think Goku turning into the gigantic monkey Ozaru form, as opposed to going Super Saiyan in Dragonball Z. For you non-anime normies, think Sonic The Hedgehog transforming into a Were-Hog (which is not a man-pig, but like a wolf-hedgehog?) as opposed to going Super Sonic. Entries are arbitrarily ranked based on implied power level, creativity of the monster form and as always, overall dopeness. Incidentally, we are super-aware that 25% of this listicle is comprised of abominable Batmen. Evidently, when you're the most popular superhero with no powers, the quickest and/or easiest way to write a Batman story is to give him monster powers.
20 TITAN VENOM JOKER
For the entirety of Batman: Arkham Asylum, you've been bat-clawing your way through wave after wave of costumed criminals and legitimate mental patients just to get a shot at The Joker. To pump up for this final boss battle, Joker doses himself with Titan Venom, growing muscles that burst from his flesh, protruding bones and an inexplicable mohawk as he becomes Super-Joker.
So, we admit that Titan-Joker ranks so low because hulking out isn't the Joker's style. In fact, Joker literally throws henchmen at Batman during the fight, reflecting Joker's typical "mastermind villain" nature. On the plus side, the Titan Venom proves to be terminal for Joker, setting the stage for one of the best Batman stories ever in Batman: Arkham City.
19 SPIDER-MAN GOES FULL MAN-SPIDER
After being forcibly Frenched by the Spider Queen, Peter Parker begins to feel funny in Spectacular Spider-Man #15-16. As he grows compound eyes, additional limbs and hair in all of the wrong places, Spider-Man realizes that Peter Parker is slowly departing as the Spider Queen's infection takes hold, ultimately turning Spider-Man into a gigantic spider.
Sure, this isn't the first time that Peter turned into an arachnid abomination. What's different now however is that the spider that was once Peter Parker is pregnant...with Peter Parker. Peter emerges from the husk of his spider body, now sporting organic web shooters. Why? Because cinematic Spider-Man had just premiered rocking organic web shooters, so comic Spidey had to thematically match as well.
18 THE BAT-MAN
During a carriage ride home, Bruce Wayne loses his parents to highwaymen in 1994's Batman: Castle of The Bat. Devoting himself to medicine and seeking vengeance without breaking the Hippocratic Oath, Dr. Bruce Wayne transplants his father's brain into a patchwork body. To compensate for his father/son's nyctophobia, Bruce injects his creation with the "biological energy" of a bat, turning his corpse-golem into a literal Bat-Man. Also, Bruce dresses Bat-Man in a bat-suit because whatever.
Since his final thoughts involved being shot by a highwayman, Bat-Man prowls roads, ripping the limbs off of thieves. Due to severe brain damage however, Bat-Man can only utter out a "Son?" before he is crushed by an exploding laboratory.
17 DEDD-PUUL
Traversing around Transylvania, Deadpool is captured by cliché mad scientist Victor Vandoom (no relation to Dr. Doom) who injects Deadpool with a monster serum, transforming him into Dedd-puul – "The Mercenary that walked like a man!" – in 2007's U.S.Avengers #4. Now only able to say variations of "Blergh!", Dedd-puul has enough monstrous strength to go toe-to-toe with the government-issued Red Hulk.
After taking some gamma-powered punches to the face, Deadpool's healing factor kicks in, running the monster juice out of his system. Now able to speak English again, Deadpool teams up with Red Hulk to fight American Kaiju, who is basically Godzilla dressed as Captain America.
16 CAPWOLF
After failing to convert Wolverine, Dr. Nightshade uses her lycanthropy mutagen to turn Captain America into a blonde werewolf in 1992's Captain America #402. Due to the super soldier serum, Capwolf has more "stupendous strength" than the average werewolf, albeit Capwolf suffers from a reduced intellect, sensitivity to sunlight and having to learn how to speak with a wolf head.
Why is Dr. Nightshade so obsessed with making werewolves? Because her master, Druid, wants to utilize the moonstone of Moon Wolf and the blood of Dr. Druid (different Druid) in a ritual to become Starwolf, a cosmic werewolf that can control (most) werewolves. So yeah, becoming the Starwolf is useless in like, literally every other scenario beyond this precise one.
15 WOLVERINE GOES FERAL
After having his adamantium forcibly removed by Magneto, Wolverine gets his adamantium forcibly replaced by Genesis in Wolverine #100, with art by Adam Kubert. Wolverine rejects the bonding process however, causing the adamantium to burst out like a grenade. Genesis notes that Wolverine's primary mutation has accelerated, rendering Logan feral. "Feral," as in Wolverine tactfully utilizes the severed parts of Apocalypse's henchmen in guerrilla combat.
For Wolverine #101 however, the art is done by Val Semeiks and Chris Hunt, who drew Wolverine with no nose and bushy forearms. When his intelligence and nose inexplicably return, Wolverine rocks a bandana over his face like Dumb Donald. Then in Wolverine #111, Wolverine's feral form just sorta ends. We're not being glib; Logan suddenly gets handsome again.
14 THE SCAREBEAST
Feeling disrespected by his new employer The Penguin, Scarecrow is dosed by his lab assistant with a new fear toxin concoction, mutating Scarecrow's body into monstrous proportions to become The Scarebeast in 2004's "Batman: As The Crow Flies" (Batman #626-630) by Judd Winick, Dustin Nguyen and Richard Friend. As demonstrated by rampaging through Penguin henchmen, The Scarebeast has ludicrous strength, feels no pain and apparently feeds off of fear.
Scarebeast's most impressive ability however is his fright gas breath weapon, which still works on a Batman inoculated with antitoxins, causing Batman to flee from the brawl in fear. For round two, Batman dons Bat-Armor before ramming the beast with the Bat-Plane, allowing Alfred to tranquilize The Scarebeast with a sniper rifle.
13 VAMPIRE BATMAN
To combat Dracula, Batman turns into a vampire in Batman & Dracula: Red Rain. Vampire Batman has increased strength, inexplicable bat-wings, an impractically long cape and a bloodlust that can be satiated by cuddling with Cat-Woman, who is a were-cat. Vampire Batman was also immune to crosses and holy water, only to lose them by draining The Joker in Batman: Bloodstorm.
Now evil, Batman commands Alfred and Commissioner Gordon to stake him, forgetting to mention that he also needed to be decapitated. So, when Alfred removes the stake in Batman: Crimson Mist, Vampire Batman returns as a skeleton in a bat-suit. Now able to turn into a mist of blood and a Man-Bat, Batman goes on a Rogues' Gallery feeding frenzy.
12 MARVEL ZOMBIES
After bringing a virus to Earth to thin out Homo Sapiens, Magneto accidentally creates a zombie apocalypse in Marvel Zombies: Dead Days by Robert Kirkman and Sean Phillips. What sets the Marvel zombies apart from typical zombies however is that the former still retain their intelligence and superpowers. Though their inhuman hunger causes them to lose control, the zombies return to their senses once fed.
Furthermore, destroying the brain doesn't always work in dispatching a Marvel zombie, demonstrated by Colonel America still functioning after having the top of his head sliced off by Magneto. Likewise, the zombies sometimes gain abilities from their meals, like the Silver Surfer's power cosmic, or Galactus' wardrobe when they reduce The Devourer of Worlds to a gigantic skeleton.
11 FRANKEN-CASTLE
After a dramatic knife fight in the rain, Daken chops up Frank Castle into meat cubes, kicking his remains off of a rooftop and into a nearby dumpster. Fortunately for Franky, a group of Molemen find Castle's remains, bringing them to the underground Monster Metropolis. Frank Castle is brought back to life by Morbius The Living Vampire as [audible sigh] Franken-Castle in 2009's Punisher #11 by Rick Remender, Tony Moore and Dave Wilkins.
Reanimated to protect the monster community – the most discriminated group in comics – Franky is powered by pills that keep his mind intact. Ridiculous as it all may sound, "Punisher: Franken-Castle" is surprisingly compelling. Also, Frank wields a minigun while riding a dragon before fighting Nazi zombies.
10 VENOMVERSE
Venomverse by Cullen Bunn, Iban Coello and Matt Yackey is exactly what it sounds like: Spider-Verse, but with Venom. Pulled into a parallel universe by a Symbiote Dr. Strange, Eddie Brock fights for the survival of his species alongside Venomized versions of Marvel's greatest heroes against the Poisons, adorable little monsters looking to assimilate symbiotes.
In addition to the cool Venomized redesigns of Marvel characters, whenever a Poison takes over a character, they are transformed into these chitinous and angular redesigns that beautifully contrasts the flowing nature of the Venomized heroes. Our favorite "Poisoned characters" would have to be the minimalistic Poisoned Bullseye, as well as Poisoned Dr. Doom, whose face now resembles an eldritch horror.
9 THE DARKCHILDE
After selling her soul to the devilish Belascho, The X-Men's Magik loses her humanity, gradually growing horns, a tail and goat ankles as she becomes The Darkchild [sic] in 2007's New X-Men #37. Learning demonic magic in Limbo, Darkchild can convert souls into soul weapons, as well as teleport in and out of Limbo.
Most notably however, in 2010's New Mutants #17 by Zeb Wells, Dave Wilkins and Leonard Kirk, Magik/Darkchild/Darkchilde reveals that she can speak demon while leading a rescue mission in Limbo. Despite being written in arcane characters, demonic dialogue can be easily deciphered. While most of this dialogue is too risqué for us to print here, we do learn that Darkchilde's dinosaur steed is named Porkchop.
8 FROG THOR
What? Frogs appear in the Dungeons & Dragons Monster Manual (Fifth Edition), so they totally qualify as monsters. Anyway, in 1986's Thor #364 – "Possibly the most unusual Thor story ever published!" – Loki turns Thor into a frog. Since he is a football-sized "enchanted frog," Thor Frog is more powerful than any mortal frog, able to leap higher and defeat NYC rats with kicks.
Fluent in beast vernacular, Thor learns from the frog Puddlegulp of the war between frogs and rats. Serving as the Keanu Reeves of frogs, Thor leads the army to avenge the frog king and prevent the rats from poisoning the reservoir. Lifting Mjölnir, frog Thor turns into a 6'6" frogman (frog-god?) to whoop Loki. It's pretty great.
7 THAT ONE TIME RED HULK HAD THE SPIRIT OF VENGEANCE AND THE VENOM SYMBIOTE
Blackheart has literally brought Hell to Earth in Venom: Circle of Four. Fighting the forces of Hell individually, Red Hulk, X-23, Ghost Rider and Agent Venom all fall to Blackheart's forces. Since one can't like, double-die in Hell however, our anti-heroes get a do-over courtesy of Blackheart's daddy and the king of the underworld, Mephisto.
For round two, Flash Thompson lends Red Hulk the Venom symbiote before Red Hulk absorbs the Spirit of Vengeance, emerging on a flaming motorcycle trike as a ten foot tall hulking red Venom. This amalgam-hero bellows "Wwe am smmashh for venggeance," before smacking around Blackheart. The only downside to this Anti-Hero Voltron is that they couldn't figure out how to incorporate X-23.
6 THE DOOM THAT CAME TO GOTHAM
Batman: The Doom That Came To Gotham is a Lovecraftian reimagining of the Batman mythos by Mike Mignola. Everything is steeped in cosmic horror, from Batman using guns to Poison Ivy being a plant monster. Apparently, Gotham is so terrible because of the otherworldly influence of a cosmic beast. Half of Two-Face for instance is a tentacled horror that grows into a portal to a cosmic nightmare dimension, which Batman walks through to stop Ra's al Ghul from summoning his eldritch god, Iog-Sotha.
During the fight, Ra's commands Iog-Sotha to attack Batman, successfully destroying Bruce Wayne. Batman remains however, now a literal Batman, or "Man-Bat," if you will. In summation, Batman: The Doom That Came To Gotham is Hellboy playing Batman.
5 MISTER MXYZPTLK'S TRUE FORM
In the climax of Superman: Whatever Happened to The Man of Tomorrow? Mr. Mxyzptlk reveals himself as the mastermind behind the onslaught of villains besieging the Fortress of Solitude. Wait, the most powerful member of Superman's Rogues' Gallery is a silly Silver Age villain? Mr. Mxyzptlk answers our question with an even better question: "Did you honestly believe a fifth-dimensional sorcerer would resemble a funny little man in a derby hat?"
Revealing his true form, Mr. Mxyzptlk's dimensions are impossible to comprehend, leaving even professional journalist Lois Lane lost for words. Our eyes see Mxyzptlk as a purple biped with an elongated face and an ectoplasm shell, which is somewhat disappointing. Regardless, Superman breaks his non-lethality vow to vanquish the fifth-dimensional horror.
4 THE DEVASTATOR
In the most realistic Batman vs. Superman fight ever, a Superman disinterested in humanity has wiped out all of Earth -1, heat-visioning off Batman's arm before chasing him down in Dark Knights Batman: The Devastator. Heartbroken, Batman infects himself with a specialized version of the Doomsday Virus, mutating into a Batman/Doomsday hybrid known as The Devastator.
Tearfully telling Superman that he loved him, Bat-Doom pulls Big Blue into kissing range, exhaling a kryptonite-laced cloud that causes jagged bones to fatally burst out of Superman. Unlike your typical Doomsday, Batman designed his "Doomsday Effect" to inoculate others against Superman, instead of sapping life force. Mind you, here "inoculate" means "turn everything within The Devastator's vicinity into a super strong bony monster."
3 HELLBOY'S FINAL FORM
The bulk of Hellboy comics revolve around Hellboy denying his true purpose of becoming the ender of worlds. Once Hellboy goes to Hell in Hellboy in Hell however, Hellboy realizes that the only way to escape the Home For Infinite Losers is to embrace his destiny as The Beast of Apocalypse.
Strolling along the mountains, Hellboy's true form is a colossal, flame-breathing winged demon. Heck, Hellboy is now powerful enough to punch-out the biblical Leviathan and reduce the Behemoth to ashes. Hellboy leads the former slaves of Hell to Pandemonium, ripping apart Beelzebub and his devilish princes. Victorious, the slaves return to Hellboy's maw, as Hellboy snaps off his horns with a thunderous boom, blinding the last remaining demon of Hell.
2 THE BATMAN WHO LAUGHS
Pushed to his breaking point, the Batman of Earth -22 fatally throttles the Joker with a satisfying snap. Joker gets the last laugh however, as his final breath releases a cloud of nanotoxins that had been laying dormant around his heart, only activated upon necrosis. The toxin slowly rewires Batman's brain chemistry, turning him into The Batman Who Laughs.
Considered "the perfect weapon" by Barbatos, TBWL has Batman's intellect mixed with Joker's morality, enabling him to conquer his world: "armies of villains, alien tyrants, the wrath of God -- they were all just problems to solve." To outsmart The Batman Who Laughs, Batman has to do the one thing any Batman would never imagine doing: teaming up with The Joker for a two on one brawl.
1 SUPERMAN: DOOMED
After being ripped in two by Superman, Doomsday unleashes a cloud of Doomsday spores, which Superman intentionally inhales. Now infected, Superman gives into his rage as the spores take hold, essentially becoming Doomsday in a Superman suit. Dubbed "Superdoom" by Lex Luthor, Superdoom is as terrible as his moniker. See, Clark inherited The Doomsday Effect: a negative energy field that saps the life-force of everything nearby to strengthen himself. Likewise, kryptonite only makes Superdoom stronger, as it prevents Clark from controlling the monster.
Furthermore, Superdoom wrecks Brainiac's planet-sized mothership with only punches. When granted Brainiac's psionic energy of seven billion lifeforms, Superdoom-iac rewrites reality, summoning a supermassive black hole to destroy Brainiac, in addition to tearing the infection from Superman's body.