Creeper

CREEPER

Real Name: Madeline Benoir

Class: Human

Occupation: Vigilante, playwright, seamstress

Group Affiliation: None

Known Relatives: Judith Benoir (sister, deceased), unnamed parents (deceased)

Aliases: None

Base of Operations: Paris, France, 1920s era

First Appearance: Beware the Creeper II #1 (June, 2003)

Powers: Creeper was an acrobatic fighter with a talent for causing chaotic spectacles.

History: (Beware the Creeper II #1, 2) - Madeline and her twin Judith lived through WWI, but their parents died in an airstrike. As adults Madeline became a playwright and Judith a painter, but while Judith pursued a purely bohemian lifestyle, Madeline kept a job as a seamstress to pay for their apartment. Madeline's work became more surreal under the influence of Andre Breton, and although her sister appreciated her work, she wished she'd keep her head out of the clouds. Judith was seeing Inspector Ric Allain, who Madeline also harbored feelings for, and was fending off the advances of wealthy Mathieu Arbogast, who wanted to possess her. Judity convinced Maddy to allow herself a little fun, and attend a surrealist party, where they hobnobbed with Man Ray and Ernest Hemingway. Judith returned to their apartment by herself, and was ambushed by Mathieu, who savaged her. Judith died in Maddy's arms, and Maddy snapped, losing the sister she'd taken care of their entire adult life. she dressed herself up as the nightmarish Creeper, based on the last painting Judith did, and began torment Mathieu. Maddy kept her own civilian identity, but also assumed Judith's and kept up her relationship with the surrealists. As the Creeper she stole the Abrogast family jewels and tossed them into a river. The Abrogasts had a lavish party on Bastille Day, and she slipped ipecac into their food. As the elite of Paris started vomiting she danced across their dining table and told them she'd made them as sick as they'd made Paris. The surrealists began to think of Creeper as the living embodiment of their movement. Creeper abducted the unloved infant child of Mathieu.

(Beware the Creeper II #3-5) - Creeper desecrated the statue of Joan of Arc, and left the infant Abrogast in the statue's arms. Mathieu's mother Madame Abrogast had ties to politicians and law enforcement, and tried threatening them to apprehend the Creeper. The surrealists began tacking up artwork and posters featuring the Creeper around Paris. Creeper interrupted a magic performance by Luigi Zatara, and Mathieu, under the impression that Judith was alive, suspected her of being the Creeper and confronted Maddy. Allain kept him from attacking her, and went to visit the Eiffel Tower with Naddy. They kissed, but Maddy said he was still in love with her sister, and was probably pretending she was Judith when they kissed. Allain suspected Judith was the Creeper as well, and when he visited Cafe de la Rotunde, a bar the Benoirs hung out at he saw her Creeper painting on display. The police tried to corner Creeper at a burlesque performance, but half the partygoers were dressed as Creeper and she slipped away. On the way out she saw Mathieu, and bashed him in the head with a Champaign bottle. Posing as Judith she slipped into Allain's apartment and they made love. He said he'd fallen in love with her from the letters she'd sent him during WWI. Maddy was actually the one who wrote the letters for Judith, and after an argument where Allain told "Judith" he knew she was the Creeper she left him. Creeper crashed a train into the International Decorative Arts Exposition, saying it was not art, that she was the new art. She set a blaze, and Collette, a young girl who idolized Judith, was badly burned. Creeper was in shock over the consequences of her actions, and left her dying friend on the doorstep of the Rotunde. Abrogast murdered a prostitute, venting his rage on Judith, and left the Creeper's calling card at the crime scene. With Collette's death the public turned against the Creeper, and the surrealists excommunicated her. Maddy was filled with self-loathing, and projected some of her hate onto her late sister. Maddy talked to Hemingway at the Rotunde, and alluded to her identity as the Creeper, saying she'd written a fiction that had acquired a life of its own, and finished her story in a way she despised. Creeper stabbed and abducted Mathieu, and told Inspector Allain to meet her on top of the Eiffel Tower. She revealed herself as Maddy to him, and told him how Mathieu created the Creeper when he killed her sister. She grabbed Matthieu, sending both of them plummeting from the tower.

Comments: Created by Jason Hall & Cliff Chiang.