Unleashing Your Closet Republican: Creeper #3 (Cover Date December 2006)

President Gerald Ford and the Creeper: Separated at Birth?
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Characters

Major Heroes: The Creeper
Minor Heroes: Batman, Vera

Major Villains: Gavin

P'Shat

Batman sneeks into the Gotham police station to determine who captured Axeman for him. It was the Creeper, and Axeman was surprised that he withstood a hatchet to the chest. Batman steals the hatchet, and a DNA test shows red and green blood fighting for dominance. The green blood is unidentified, but the red blood is clearly shown to be Jack Ryder's.

Meanwhile, the Creeper is fighting Gavin, the mutated boy who continues to consume skin to grow larger and more mutinous. Gavin tries to eat the Creeper, but finds his yellow skin unpalatable. Jack convinces the Creeper not to kill the boy, so that they can try to track him back to Dr. Yatz. The Creeper turns back into Jack, but Gavin attacks him again, and the Creeper won't take over until Jack admits that he needs him. The Creeper, however, is knocked out and thrown into the river.

At Jack's office, his ex Vera convinces their boss to run a "Best Of" week until Jack can be found. Later, Vera breaks into Jack's apartment, and finds what she believes is hair from a redhead. Awaking on the coast, Jack and the Creeper decide to follow two sets of tracks into the distance.

Drash

So, I had found the first two issues of Creeper interesting enough. Jack Ryder is an "Incredible Hulk" type character, in that he changes between small, white, weak, and relatively "mild-mannered" and big, green, strong, and relatively wild. There are certainly differences. Primarily, that both personalities are present all the time -- when he is Jack, the Creeper is always talking to him, critiquing his decisions, and vice versa when he's the Creeper. Also, he can change back and forth "at will", (but only if both personalities agree to the change.)

But in Issue #3 there was something else. Something that maybe was there before but I didn't notice (I'll have to go back and check), or that maybe wasn't intended and I read into it (but with Jack Ryder's job as a liberal talk show host, it seems unlikely), and it was really only something that was there for a frame or two, but it suddenly made the whole series much more interesting.

Jack: Take it easy on the kid, Creeper. He's as much a victim of Doc Yatz as we are.
Creeper: Victim? Everybody's a victim these days. Boo-freakin'-hoo!

And it hits me. The Creeper is a Conservative! What better "dark side" is there that could emerge from a famed outspoken Liberal!

There are many stories about strong/weak (Captain Marvel), good/ evil (Supergirl), or restrained/aggressive (the Hulk) living in a single body, but where are the stories about the character who switches at will between Democrat and Republican? That makes for good drama, and I hope we see more of it in the second half of the mini-series.