Media Essays: DC Heroes Vs. Horror Villains

Written by The Wandering Fox

Well, well, look what we have here? Hello my dear readers, it is the Wandering Fox, out to grab some sweets with the sly art of tricking! Though while I was out on this fine dark evening, I had a curious thought come in my head. We’ve had crossovers here and there. We’ve had Batman, Superman taking on the Xenomorphs and the Predators. Though despite this, I don’t think we’ve ever had a crossover between any horror icons.

Horror foes are just as iconic as the superheroes, from Michael Myers's bodysuit and rubber mask to Jason’s hockey mask or Freddy’s glove or the Lament Configuration the lead cenobite is often tied with. And yet we haven’t had them crossover to meet these heroes? It begs the question: can these heroes handle such monsters like these guys? What would the iconic villains have for the heroes to tangle with?

Its why I’m here. First though let's see who exactly will I be going with?

With DC we have: Batman, Superman, John Constantine, Zatanna.

Then in the horror corner we have: Pinhead, Freddy Krueger and Jason Voorhees!

Well everybody, you oughta place your bets! Who will win and who will lose?

Well up first we have Batman vs Pinhead!

Hellraises in Gotham

Premise: During a night out on patrol, Batman learns the Joker has just robbed an antiques store. The caped crusader is somewhat confused that nobody has been killed and the Joker has just simply stolen a box. Batman traces the Joker’s footsteps and he enters the hideout. To his surprise, he can only find the box. After looking and finding there’s no other traces of Joker, Batman takes it back to the BatCave and tries to figure out what the box is, though he ends up finding its a puzzle box. Curious, Batman ends up doing the puzzle box and it changes shape. The BatCave suddenly opens up a doorway to a dark corridor. Batman tries scanning it but the Bat Computer doesn’t have anything. Batman looks at the box and wonders if Joker disappeared in a corridor. He quickly closes the box and the doorway closes. Batman then realises the box can take on different shapes and he unlocks the Lore Configuration. This brings Pinhead and the Cenobites to him.

They explain Batman solved the Lore Configuration and he desires Knowledge. Batman explains he’s looking for the man who last had the box, the Joker. He wants to know where he is. The Cenobites explain to him the Joker is in the Labyrinth, he solved the Leviathan Configuration. It will grant him power. Batman is angry and tells the Cenobites Joker cannot have power, if he is to return to Earth then he will kill many people. The Cenobites are intrigued by Batman’s desire for justice and thus they let him explore the Labyrinth.

Batman: Who are you? 

Open Throat: Wanderers.

Batman: What do you want?

Pinhead: You solved the box. We have come to grant you your desires. You solved the Lore Configuration! What knowledge do you seek?

Batman: Knowledge? If its knowledge I want then you’re willing to tell me what I want, yes?

Pinhead: Maybe.

Batman: The man who had this before, where is he?

Open Throat: Ah, the smiler.

Batman: You met the Joker. I’ll ask again, where is he?

Open Throat: What is he to you? He solved the Leviathan Configuration, he is not of any concern of yours!

Batman: He’s a dangerous criminal who’s now gained access to a dimension which I’m assuming you came from! I can’t let him seek whatever it is he desired!

Pinhead: Intriguing, man in the mask. And what if he were to have found his desire?

Batman: Then he’s even more of a danger to the people of Gotham than before. The Leviathan Configuration, what does that open?

Open Throat: Power. He desired it.

Batman: Joker desiring power is hardly original but if he were to obtain it then many will be killed! I have to find him now before its too late!

Pinhead looked at Batman curiously.

Pinhead: You have quite the will of doing what you see is right. If this man is as deadly as you say he is then we cannot have him abuse his powers. You’re free to explore our world.

Batman is almost lost inside as he ends up facing his own Hell in the form of his mother and father being murdered as well as Jason Todd being killed, Barbara’s spine being shot, then finally a big pile of bodies of criminals and heroes, with Bruce fearful of becoming a murderer. Batman ends up escaping, knowing well he isn’t to be such a man. This ends up interesting Pinhead.  

Batman finds Joker, who has horribly turned himself in a Cenobite with him connected to Leviathan. The Joker wants to finally dig a smile on Batman’s face and will soon give everybody a smile. Joker then tries to escape back to Gotham but is constantly fought by Batman. Leviathan is annoyed Joker can’t handle his enemy and ends up disconnecting off him, though Joker is still strong. Together, Batman and the Cenobites team up to finally stop Joker, the Cenobites doing enough damage on him that his powers finally weaken, allowing Batman to take him.

However, the Cenobites are keen on keeping Batman, sensing his suffering is incredible. Batman argues they had a deal, though Pinhead says “No deal was made, Bruce”. The Cenobites offer Batman to embrace the pain and find pleasure in it. Batman refuses and fights the Cenobites, who are almost much for him though he just manages to escape them. He escapes back to the BatCave and he closes the box, finally sealing the Cenobites away.

Batman takes Joker to Arkham where he is being induced with a coma drug, his skin is so badly flayed he may need reconstructive surgery. Batman goes back to the BatCave and hides the Lament Configuration away, hoping nobody will ever find it.

This story with Pinhead is a matter of mind vs. mind and willpower. While Pinhead believes there is pleasure in pain, Batman’s will to do good is something Pinhead can’t comprehend, thus we see how the human mind is incredibly strong enough. Batman is also at peak physique and fighting, he can dodge Pinhead’s chains and hooks. The only struggle he would have is while he’s in the Labyrinth, he faces his own Hell, though he overcomes it.

With Joker, I was originally going to have solve the box to have Sensation and it’d be revealed he was becoming annoyed lately with him constantly losing and he didn’t want to lose his smile hence he hoped to smile forever. However, the more I visualised it the more I realised the New52 kinda did this with him cutting his face and sticking it on him, hence instead I thought of him seeking out Power, the Power to make everybody smile.

Superman vs Freddy!

Premise: Clark Kent always saved people. As himself or as Superman, he always saved as many as he could. Either by his voice or his incredible strength he would go and rescue anybody. But one day he ends up hearing a young kid crying for his name. He begs him to save him from his nightmares. Clark can tell its coming from a town called Elm Street. Without thinking twice, Superman flies out to Elm Street but upon arriving he finds the kid is dead. He tries to find anything the killer left behind but there’s no hint of anybody being there killing the kid. The townsfolk even don’t want to tell Superman anything and they urge him to go, telling him they could handle it.

Superman goes back to Metropolis and explains his worries to Lois. Lois looks up Elm Street and learns the town is somewhat haunted with its mysterious deaths of lots of kids. Now knowing there’s more to this Clark chooses to go back. Lois goes with him as she herself is curious as to why they told him to go. Going to Elm Street, Clark and Lois end up investigating and find the local news gazette has been closed for years and the townsfolk are weary around anybody visiting, hence Clark and Lois aren’t treated warmly. The sheriff explains though they’re thankful Superman came there’s little he can do, and if Superman were to know better its to stay away from Elm Street.

Going in at the hotel, Clark is determined to get to the bottom of this and Lois theorises there’s a town secret that's so bad they don’t want it getting out. They go to sleep though while they are, Lois ends up having a dream in which she’s falling from a skyscraper and is then falling on a large claw. Lois wakes up in a sweat though Clark calms her. Its then they spot ambulance lights outside and they look to find a young kid is being taken away. Clark listens and hears they’re taking him to an institute called Westin Hills to go with “the others”. Clark decides to go there while Lois goes to the police station hoping to find an officer willing to talk. Clark goes to Westin Hills, the kid who was taken here is a friend of the kid who died, though they refuse to let him in. Clark uses his X-Ray vision and finds the kids inside are being drugged.

Clark then hears Lois struggling and switches in as Superman, finding she’s struggling with a cop who’s trying to get her in the back of a car. Superman comes down and tells the officer to let her go. Lois explains another officer was going to give her some old stuff of the town’s history only for the sheriff to try forcing her in his car. Superman tells the sheriff he knows he’s hiding something and though he’s not happy with how he’s treating Lois, or how the institute is treating the children, he still wants to help. The sheriff scoffs and says there’s nothing Superman can do here, though Clark is up for it.

Understanding Superman and Lois won’t back off, the sheriff agrees to meet with them the next day to talk. Going back to the hotel, Lois is concerned as to what the drugs are. Clark explains they’re called hypnocile. Going to sleep, Clark has a dream in which he thinks he’s on Kent farm, but upon going in the barn he’s in a boiler room. The boiler room’s tools then suddenly end up flung at him and Clark is unhurt, leaving him wondering what’s going on. However, the boiler room breaks apart and he looks up to see a giant Freddy Krueger. Freddy is stunned it took any of the heroes this long to get him, though he understands the townsfolk have tried to keep him a secret. Clark isn’t afraid of Freddy, who is annoyed not just by this but by having to fight a man, though he figures Lois is his girlfriend.

Freddy gets smug and tells Superman he can’t stop him. No matter what he just comes back. Clark though refuses, he won’t leave until he’s defeated Freddy. Freddy then tries breaking Clark, turning the dream in a nightmare in which he makes Clark think he’s killed everybody he loves. Clark refuses to believe this is real though Freddy tells him it may not be real but its what he’s afraid of. He then conjures up Lois, Ma Kent and Supergirl, asking Superman if he can cope with them dead? Freddy likes to hurt the women. Clark is afraid though tries to tell himself its not real, though he’s horrified as he sees Freddy, in his suit, tearing them to chunks.

Clark wakes up and Lois is there. Clark explains what happened. He needs to know everything else of Freddy. With them meeting the sheriff the next day, Clark and Lois learn of Freddy’s history, how he was a serial killer who killed kids. He escaped justice and the townsfolk, enraged, burned Freddy alive in his boiler room. However, since then Freddy has returned by killing his prey in their dreams. The town has contained Freddy to Elm Street, they’ve tried to kill him repeatedly though he just comes back, hence they’ve tried to hide any trace of him from the next generation of kids. Those who do have nightmares either die or go to Westin Hills.

Clark is disgusted with it all. The town should be free and Freddy should be stopped. He asks how they’ve tried killing him, hence the Sheriff explains they grab him and take him to real world. Knowing what to do, Clark tells Lois to stay out of the hotel. In the night Clark goes to sleep and meets Freddy again. Clark asks him how he can do this, killing anybody for fun is just wrong.

Superman: How can you do this? Killing anybody? Children? What fun is there in any of this?

Freddy: Oh why not? Why is not fun? All the kids are easy pickings! The whores are dumb enough and I just love hearing them cry as I gut them!

Superman: Hm. You honestly see every other child or woman as such? Well you want to know what I see in front of me? A monster. A monster who should’ve been entombed long ago.

Freddy: Heh, I love being a monster! And you might be the Man of Steel but you don’t have it in ya to kill me! I know what yer like! Even if you tried, I’ll just come back again!

Superman: You could. Unless I trapped you.

There's a fight in the dream until Superman then grabs him, waking up in the real world and has brought Freddy out. Freddy does have some enhanced power to knock Superman back though he takes quite a battering from Superman, the fight going outside. The townsfolk are shocked to find Superman fighting Freddy, who tries to kill a bystander only for Superman to save them. He breaks Freddy’s glove and batters him down. Though Freddy gets up, the townsfolk aren’t scared of him now that Superman has just completely knocked him around.

Freddy tries to kill himself to go back to the dream, only for Lois to appear behind him and opens the Phantom Projector, sucking Freddy in the Phantom Zone. Clark had actually had Lois go to the Fortress of Solitude to get it as he knew the only way to stop Freddy was to trap him in a dimension. The townsfolk thank Superman, who helps the kids in Westin Hill walk in Elm Street, free of Freddy.

The story is basically how Superman isn’t just him, he’s Clark Kent, if he can help as either then he will help. Lois in the story is there to also be the woman who stops Freddy. Superman is also a symbol of hope, and the town of Elm Street have been in fear for ages, hence Superman is so angry with what Freddy has done he isn’t going to stop until he’s finally won.

Constantine and Zatanna vs Jason

With Superman having saved Elm Street there’s obviously the Crystal Lake left for our DC heroes in going to and that is Constantine and Zatanna vs Jason!

Zatanna tries to help those who are gifted like her. There's a woman who has been silently reaching out to her through telepathy and she can tell the woman has lots of trauma on her mind. Zatanna has her boyfriend Constantine come with her to interview the woman as she can’t help but think this trauma is much more rooted in the Earth. They visit the woman who is Tina, having lived a life after her fight with Jason and has a family of her own. Tina though is still afraid, afraid of whether her kids will end up going to Crystal Lake and dying. Tina demonstrates her telekinesis and telepathy. With this Zatanna offers her a chance to confront her fear. Tina explains her fear is Crystal Lake, of Jason Voorhees. She has no desire of going back there.

Constantine enquires about Jason, hence Tina explains who he was, the young disfigured boy who was thought to have drowned in Crystal Lake. His mother became a serial killer and after she was killed, Jason took her place. He was killed by Tommy but Tommy then ended up resurrecting him by accident, hence Jason is now undead. Tina last encountered him years ago and he killed her mother, only herself and her boyfriend survived with her resurrecting her dad to defeat him. Since then, Tina hasn’t gone back.

Constantine does some research and finds out Jason has been gone for a while and the town of Crystal Lake are reconstructing new camps and a water park there. He and Zatanna go there and enquire of Jason’s whereabouts. An old man tells them to just stop asking them about Jason, though Zatanna does tell him if Jason still poses a risk, then they must find him. Constantine tries to convince the construction workers to stop and urges him to leave, though they think Jason is gone and they are just carrying on. Annoyed, John explains this to Zatanna hence he and her cast a magic spell to try and trace Jason’s body. They find its out in the lake, hence they choose to go out at night to grab his body and cast it in another dimension. Though while they go out there, they find another boat has just come back. They realise the body is on the other boat hence they go after it. They confront the boat man on the shore and find it's the old man they met earlier.

The old man is Elias, Jason’s father. He is trying to get rid of Jason’s body himself though he wants to have him buried. They argue and during this a lightning bolt summons Jason back. On his feet, Jason injures his father and almost crushes Zatanna’s neck until John sets him on fire, hence Jason retreats in the water to escape. John casts a a spell to heal Zatanna’s throat while tending to Elias’s wounds. John isn’t fixing him up straight away as he wants answers out of him, like why wasn’t he there while Jason was a kid and why does he care now? Elias admits he wasn’t a good hubby to Pamela and looking after a kid wasn’t for him, hence he ditched them, though learning Pamela was the killer had him feel guilty and after Jason was killed in chapter 4 he felt the most he could do was watch over his grave. John angrily lays in on him of how he still let lots of others die.

Zatanna and Constantine track Jason to the other side of the lake where he’s gone after a few of the staff who have been tidying up, he just kills a few of them until Zatanna knocks him back with her magic. John forces the survivors to flee while Zatanna casts as many spells as she can at Jason but he’s incredibly strong he’s almost immune to her spells. John stabs him against a tree though Jason knocks him back and jabs him with a knife. He then grabs a bow and arrow and shoots it at Zatanna, who redirects it back at him and stabs him in the throat. Jason easily breaks it off and darts after Zatanna, who quickly conjures a force field. Jason keeps tearing at the force field until he’s shot by his dad. Jason escapes in the woods while Zatanna and Elias help John.

The cops are called and though they do have a few guns on them, they cant find Jason until they spring a trap of his, leaving a cop hanging upside down while Jason snatches another and drags him underground, killing him. Jason then kills the other cop. In a hut, John has his wounds tended to, with Jason’s father promising it ends tonight. However, after John explains Jason’s blood is the key, Elias knocks him and Zatanna out and locks them in the hut, explaining he’s his dad and he knows how to stop him.

Waking up, Constantine and Zatanna use their magic to track Elias who has gone in the underground labyrinth Jason had made while Jason is still far from him. John tells Zatanna he has to get the blade Jason’s blood is on, hence she goes to try to get to the tunnel and help Elias only for Jason to grab Zatanna from behind and gags her. Zatanna kicks him in the groin though it doesn’t work, hence she’s forced tear his mask off, angering Jason enough in freeing her. Jason reaches for his mask and Zatanna traps him in a magic force field.

Zatanna: You know…I feel sorry for you. Well, not exactly as a whole but I do. You didn’t want any of this in your life. You just wanted to be loved. The only soul who did was your mom. I can’t just let you go though, Jason. You’ve killed so many people. The only thing I can do now is maybe reunite you with your mom.

Elias: Where would they be then? In hell?

Zatanna looks back and finds Elias has his gun out.

Elias: You think I’m letting you send him there? Oh no! I’m not having it!

Zatanna: Elias! I do not know where Jason’s soul will go, but if it means he can find peace as well as letting this lake be in peace then you have to let him go!

Elias: No! I’m ending my boy on my terms!

He tries shooting Zatanna, who ducks, and Jason is shot instead, knocking him out of the force field. Elias shoots Jason constantly though Jason snatches Elias and cuts his chest open. Jason is about to kill Zatanna until Pamela appears. She tells Jason he’s done enough now. All she wants is for him to come home. Jason doesn’t know it's an illusion John has casted with his blood. John hands Zatanna the blood and she uses it to conjure a portal up, sending Jason away in a dimension where his mum is in.

With Crystal Lake free of Jason, Constantine and Zatanna go back to Tina and explain Jason is gone. Though Tina is thankful, she still won’t go back there, as Crystal Lake has many horrible memories. Zatanna confesses to John she could do with a holiday, hence he offers to take her somewhere sandy but has no killers. With a kiss, the story ends.

With this having Jason, I had Tina appear in the story to help set up the fact Jason has fought people like Zatanna and Constantine before. Elias Voorhees is a character who hasn’t exactly appeared in the movies though with Elias being a crap boyfriend and how in different scripts he was always watching Crystal Lake I thought it’d do well to have him here.

I hope you all enjoyed this my dear readers. If you have any crossover ideas you have in mind, do make a post on the blog. For now though I wish you all a fine night of treats!