History Main / TheMothman

* ''ComicBook/ThePerhapanauts'': Karlis is a hunched purple mothman who was encountered by the FictionalGovernmentAgency BEDLAM in an early issue and went on to become a reserve teammate and eventual SixthRanger for Blue Group. In the setting, mothmen live in hidden tribes, and Karl was banished from the Par-Ha tribe and later put on trial by an extradimensional Mothman Tribunal after his contact with outsiders.

* ''ComicBook/{{Watchmen}'': Mothman is a minor superhero, who was a member of The Minutemen, until he got scrutinized by the House of Un-American Committee for his connections to left wing activists during his student days, and succumbs to alcoholism and stress, ending up in a mental institution.

The Mothman is a relatively recent addition to [[UrbanLegends popular folklore]], first emerging in 1967 from the association of sightings of a strange WingedHumanoid figure around the city of Point Pleasant, West Virginia with the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silver_Bridge disastrous collapse of a local bridge]] later that year which killed 46 people. In part due to media popularization in the years after the disaster, some came to see a causal link between the sightings of the entity dubbed the Mothman and the collapse.

* In ''ComicBook/TheDepartmentOfTruth'', the Mothman is explored in issue #15 and appears as a physical {{Tulpa}}. The issue reveals that [[spoiler:the titular Department wound up creating the Mothman in their attempt at creating, capturing and reverse engineering a [=UFO=]. This also had the side-effect of causing the Silver Bridge Collapse, due to the Mothman having become seen as a bad omen]].
* In ''ComicBook/ThePerhapanauts'', the recurring character Karl (seen [[https://comicvine.gamespot.com/karl/4005-49995/images/ here]]) is a hunched purple mothman who was encountered by the FictionalGovernmentAgency BEDLAM in an early issue and went on to become a reserve teammate and eventual SixthRanger for Blue Group. In the setting, mothmen live in hidden tribes, and Karl was banished from the Par-Ha tribe and later put on trial by an extradimensional Mothman Tribunal after his contact with outsiders.
* ''ComicBook/SilkHills'' takes place in an [[TownWithADarkSecret Appalachian mining town]] which is partially kept afloat by tourists passing through to check out the Mothman merchandise, and the town has an overall association with the creature. In addition to the local drug of choice being "moth dust," actual sightings of the Mothman in the distance are a common occurrence. [[spoiler:Might have something to do with the Mothman cultists keeping an eye on the surface world, or their sacrificial victims...]]
* In the ''ComicBook/{{Watchmen}'' universe, Mothman is a minor superhero, who was a member of The Minutemen, until he got scriutinized by the House of Un-American Committee for his connections to left wing activists during his student days, and succumbs to alcoholism and stress, ending up in a mental institution.

* The Mothman's legend originates from a series of bizarre incidents in 1967. In the year leading up to the collapse of the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silver_Bridge Silver Bridge]] in Point Pleasant, West Virginia in December 15, 1967, multiple people in the area reported encounters with an indistinct, humanoid or birdlike figure with large wings and glowing eyes, as well as nightmares of drowning people. A [[https://imgur.com/a/F7VG5qR famous picture]] is also often said to show a grainy, indistinct figure resembling a winged humanoid figure perching on the bridge shortly before it collapsed, though in actuality it shows a different bridge (the Ironton-Russel Bridge) shortly before it decayed to the point of having to be demolished (in 2003). While most believe the flying figures were misidentified sandhill cranes or herons -- which can both grow a lot larger than people assume -- the myth gained enough popularity in conspiracy and ufology circles to persist afterwards and eventually make its way into mainstream popular culture.

* Shows up as the BigBad in one scenario of the game ''TabletopGame/Unmatched Adventures: Tales to Amaze''. The players are pulp-themed heroes trying to stop him and his gang of other cryptids from destroying Point Pleasant.

* In ''ComicBook/TheDepartmentOfTruth'', the titular Department wound up creating the Mothman and the Silver Bridge Collapse in their attempt at creating, capturing and reverse engineering a [=UFO=].