Beware the Creeper!

I added this Creeper action figure to my collection a few months back and am just now finally posting about it! Yay procrastination!

I remember when this figure came out, he was pretty much a shelf warmer and an aberration in the Batman Animated mythos. His inclusion in the show and toyline just seemed odd to me.

I read somewhere at the time that the Creeper was going to be a regularly occurring character as the show evolved into The New Batman Adventures, but that idea was scrapped and Creeper was just given one episode (or maybe it was a two parter?)

Regardless, The New Batman Adventures made the character of The Creeper out to be a sort of 'good guy' version of the Joker, with a similar origin etc., and even a crush on Harley Quinn.

I was none too impressed by his appearance on the cartoon, so I never felt the need to buy the action figure. I specifically recall a lone Creeper action figure hanging on the K-Mart clearance aisle for what seemed like (and probably was) years.

Then a few months back I was watching the BBC documentary 'In search of Steve Ditko' about the the odd and elusive creator of The Creeper as well as The Question, Hawk and Dove and many others (most notably the co-creator of Spider-Man.) I became fascinated and read a bit more about Ditko and his creations and discovered that the real origin of The Creeper is far more interesting and fun than falling into a vat of acid and coming out with discolored skin and a perma-grin. I decided to add him to my collection in one form or another, and of the few Creeper action figures available the New Batman Adventures version just looked the most, well, fun!

So I tracked him down for a great price on eBay (what, there's not a huge secondary Creeper market? No way!) and he's now mine!

Creeper came with a pretty nicely designed accessory. It may be a bit odd and cumbersome, but it's both action oriented and relevant to the character. As Jack Ryder, the Creeper is actually a hard hitting no nonsense reporter, and so he comes with a TV camera and boom mic.

The camera has a slide that can be positioned to show Ryder...

...or Creeper. Silly but fun if you imagine playing out an interview with one or the other.

The camera shifts into a cumbersome 'gun' and the mic can be shot like a rocket. Again, silly, but at least the Creeper didn't come with a day-glo jet pack or street luge. The designers tried and succeeded in making the toy's accessories relevant and for that they deserve our applause.

Sadly, Creeper did not come with an 'Applause' sign.

Lame.