Line #42 SerialKiller/ComicBooks


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13	* ''ComicBook/{{Batman}}'':
14	** Batman has dealt with many of them, and several members of his {{rogues gallery}} fall into the category from time to time. The most recurring ones are [[Characters/BatmanTheJoker the Joker]] (best described as a serial mass murderer and domestic terrorist) and Victor Zsasz (a straightforward example). But by far the most notable serial killers in Batman history (by virtue of their actions being the main plot of a mini-series) are [[ComicBook/TheLongHalloween Holiday]] and [[ComicBook/DarkVictory the Hangman]].
15	** ''ComicBook/ArkhamAsylumLivingHell'', in addition to regular ''Batman'' villains, introduces Jane Doe, who kills people to take their identity and life, and Doodlebug, who drains people of their blood for [[MadArtist his paintings]] [[spoiler:but also to free several demons trapped beneath Arkham Asylum]].
16	** ''ComicBook/BatmanTheBlackMirror'' adds the son of Commissioner Gordon, James Gordon Jr.
17	* The Penny Murderer from ''ComicBook/BrodysGhost'' is a murderer of young women, whose modus operandi is to strangle them and leave pennies on their foreheads. The series centers around Brody tracking him down and putting an end to his murders, with the ghostly Talia's help.
18	* ''ComicBook/MarshalLaw'' has the Sleepman, who rapes and murders women who cosplay as the superheroine Celeste.
19	* ''ComicBook/{{Foolkiller}}'' is on a mission to do ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin. Although he often falls into VigilanteMan territory, he's not limited to criminals. The character points out frequently that many of the biggest "fools" have the protection of the "letter of the law" if not the "spirit of the law".
20	* Onomatopoeia, a mask-wearing Serial Killer introduced in a ''ComicBook/GreenArrow'' story and later seen in ''Batman: Cacophany'', targets BadassNormal vigilantes. He isn't against killing other people such as prostitutes either. The creepiest element of his character is one shared by more than a few RealLife serial killers: he leads a double life as a loving and seemingly normal family man with a wife and two kids. He handwaves the injuries he gets as sports accidents and has a secret trophy room in his house with the masks of the vigilantes he killed.
21	* ''ComicBook/JohnnyTheHomicidalManiac'' is a serial killer [[VillainProtagonist protagonist]]. Psychologically, he see-saws between being a visionary and a thrill/control killer: On one hand, Johnny is very obviously psychotic, talks with his own furniture, suffers memory loss, and believes there's a thing[[note]]fun fact:It's not a moose![[/note]] living inside one of his walls (it's never consistent which wall), which he needs to paint with fresh blood regularly to keep the thing inside from escaping. On the other hand, [[HeelRealization Johnny is aware he's a psychotic serial killer]] and cherry-picks his targets from perceived {{Asshole Victim}}s (or anybody unfortunate enough to stand close enough to one) and also exhibits a personal enjoyment in murdering people. [[spoiler:Oh yeah, and that thing in the wall? It's real (well, that, or Johnny's psychosis is contagious. And sentient. And able to kill people). It's implied that Johnny was 'chosen' to become the thing's prison guard, with the duty having driven him insane and made him kill people. Then again, his personality doesn't really change all that much from being released from his duty. Senior Diablo notes that Johnny was pretty off to begin with, and being chosen just pushed him over the edge.]]
22	* ''ComicBook/JudgeDredd'': Actually a fairly mundane type of villain in the dystopian urban setting. Recurring bad guy PJ Maybe, a mastermind-level [[TheChessmaster Chessmaster]], is probably the most famous example, but there have been regular serial killers, [[ImAHumanitarian cannibalistic]] serial killers, [[GenuineHumanHide skin-stealing]] serial killers, SnuffFilm serial killers, a [[DepravedDentist dentist]] serial killer, robot-hating serial killers, and a ''[[ExaggeratedTrope serial]]'' serial killer. There was even a secret club of serial killers who tried to set a new record by having all of their members go on a [[SpreeKiller killing spree]] at the same time, unleashing a murder wave in Mega-City One that ended with their leader trying to detonate a nuclear bomb.
23	* In ''ComicBook/LadyRawhide: It Can't Happen Here'', Lady Rawhide battles a serial killer with a similar M.O. to UsefulNotes/JackTheRipper (although the story is set several decades prior to Saucy Jack's reign of terror).
24	* ''ComicBook/ThePunisher'': Frank Castle's characterization varies DependingOnTheWriter, but during Creator/GarthEnnis's run on ''ComicBook/ThePunisherMAX'' he is basically described as a serial killer who kills criminals.
25	** ''ComicBook/ThePunisherBorn'', set during Castle's last tour in UsefulNotes/TheVietnamWar, depicts him as a SociopathicSoldier in love with war to the point of not being able to cope with the fact that the Americans are retreating from UsefulNotes/{{Vietnam}} and [[spoiler:it is revealed that he was committing random murders way before his family's massacre. Finally, he hears a mysterious voice in his head throughout the series, that may or may not be a manifestation of his psychosis...]]
26	* ''ComicBook/TheSandman1989'' has an issue where a bunch of serial killers have a CriminalConvention, in the style of a comic book or sci-fi convention. They advertise it as a convention for the [[{{Pun}} cereal]] industry. [[spoiler:The escaped nightmare who draws the plot's attention there is the Corinthian -- who became one of these for his own amusement in Morpheus' absence. For over half a century.]]
27	** Has a crossover connection to ''ComicBook/{{Hellblazer}}'', where John Constantine was having a run-in with the Cereal Convention's absent guest speaker at the time. ("Anyone seen the Family Man?")
28	** Dog Soup hung a lampshade on this trope, complaining at a panel discussion that female serial killers like herself are stereotyped as either angel-of-mercy nurses or [[BlackWidow black widows]]. "I'm a serial killer and a woman, and I'm proud of it!" Judging by the name, ''she'' is a lot more hands-on about her work.
29	*** Bonus points because she's flanked by a woman in a nurse outfit and a woman tagged as "the grass widow," both of whom are giving her dirty looks as she says this.
30	** The presence of at least two conventioneers who'd written "God" on their name tags, along with the "Religion Panel," may also be a lampshading of the kinds of delusions commonly attributed to serial killers.
31	* ''ComicBook/SinCity'':
32	** Kevin from the comic/film is a particularly disturbing example. He kills and cannibalizes vulnerable hookers. On the side he's also a hit man for the Cardinal.
33	** Roark Junior from the story ''That Yellow Bastard'' is another particularly vile one of these. He rapes little girls and slashes them to ribbons, and particularly enjoys hearing them scream. He's protected by his powerful U.S. Senator father, who makes life hell for anyone who tries to take Junior down.
34	** A serial killer briefly appears in the short story "And Behind Door Number Three?". He was targetting Old Town girls. Things ended very badly for him, to say the least.
35	* One of ComicBook/{{Spawn}}'s early villains, Billy Kincaid, was a particularly vile one of these who targeted children, posing as an ice cream man in a BadHumorTruck to get close to them before kidnapping and murdering them in truly horrific fashion. Back before he became Spawn, Al Simmons had been hired to take the bastard out by the father of his latest victim, but the police got to Billy before Simmons could, and all evidence of his serial killing was systematically destroyed afterward, topped off by Simmons's then-boss Jason Wynn telling him basically to forget about it. When Spawn catches up to Billy following the latter's release from the local mental institution and the murder of two more kids, his end is anything but pretty.
36	* ''ComicBook/SpiderMan'': ComicBook/{{Carnage}} is one of these; his alter ego Cletus Kasady was one even before he came in contact with the symbiote. (He had been convicted of eleven murders, but he bragged of a dozen more that the police couldn't find evidence for.) Early in his villainous career, he would leave the message "Carnage Rules!" written in his victim's blood (or with his own) at the site of each murder.
37	* ''ComicBook/{{Supergirl}}'': In ''ComicBook/ManyHappyReturns'', two different Supergirls faced up to Xenon, a serial killer of Supergirls throughout the Multiverse and Hypertime. It's implied he's already killed a good number of them, and he is shown murdering a slightly South American-esque Supergirl.
38	* ''ComicBook/{{Superman}}'': The storyline ''ComicBook/TheGreatPhantomPeril'' introduces Faora Hu-Ul, a Kryptonian criminal who was sentenced to three hundred Sun-cycles (four hundred twenty years) in the PhantomZone for murdering twenty-three persons.
39	* One story from Creator/AlanMoore's famous run on ''ComicBook/SwampThing'' was told from the perspective of a serial killer who called himself the Bogeyman. His career comes to an abrupt and anticlimactic end when he runs across the eponymous plant-man.
40	** He gets a ContinuityNod in the Sandman story mentioned above.
41	* ''ComicBook/UsagiYojimbo'': The exact term is never used, as the story is set in feudal Japan, but [[AxCrazy Jei]] clearly fits the bill; he is a KnightTemplar who believes he is "[[SinEater the Blade of the Gods]]" and thus it is his divine duty to kill sinners. Unfortunately, his morality is...[[BlueAndOrangeMorality skewed]], and he kills good people just as much as he kills evil people (pretty much every story he's in has at least one death). He's a clear-cut case of the Mission-Based subtype, and eventually the [[ImplacableMan Supernatural]] subtype as well, being [[JokerImmunity the comic's most stubbornly recurring villain]].
42	* ''ComicBook/WonderWoman'':
43	** ''ComicBook/SensationComics'': Dr. Poison is a war criminal who really enjoys finding new ways of painfully killing people, and continues to do so long after Imperial Japan had been defeated.
44	** ''ComicBook/WonderWoman1942'':
45	*** Dr. Psycho fits the Sexual Sadist type, as he loves torturing people both physically and mentally before killing them. He was the first Wonder Woman villain to permanently kill a member of her recurring supporting cast. His ''ComicBook/PostCrisis'' iteration would add cannibalism to the list of things he enjoys doing to his victims.
46	*** ComicBook/{{Cheetah}} (Pris Rich) kills out of anger for perceived slights as part of her seeking power over the world around her and her constant feelings of needing revenge against those who she feels slighted her somehow.
47	* ''ComicBook/YoungJustice'' has Harm, a sociopathic killer whose ambition is to become the world's top murderer.
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Context SerialKiller / ComicBooks