#258: Warlock (Stanley Zerko)

     I want to apologize ahead of time for the overall, how you say, occult quality of the following character. I'll just go ahead and put that rad son of a virgin down there on stakeout, for all the religious guys and gals out there. You know, to misdirect them bad vibes. Now, without further ado ... Warlock! A bit of secret JC-Verse history for you. *ahem* An extremely long time ago, JC-Earth was

scattered with thousands upon millions of powerful runes, each imbeded with a mystic and often deadly incantation. Who knows who put these runes there in the first place (demons, aliens, a ridiculously overzealous group of wizard tag artists), but tons of non-human groups over the years have utilized them for varying purposes. Humans, however . . . have basically been blind-as-bats to their existence. That is, until one single human wasn't. And that human just so happened to be certifiably insane. (10 points to the universe for more good, old-fashioned cruel irony.) Having earned himself a stay at the Talia Teecas State Bedlam for the Unhinged, Stanley Zerko had experienced so many dark, borderline-demonic visions over the years that, for all we know, he could've been seeing the runes all along. But what we know for sure is that on August 2nd of 2015, at precisely 10:26 am, he woke up with the ability to activate them. And with that, crud hit the fan. Deeming himself Warlock, the madman magus used the incantations to bust out of Teecas State, leaving a flurry of destruction in his wake and fleeing in the frenzy. He was eventually tracked down and placed in a high-security prison by U.N.D.E.R.O.O., but that didn't stop the tale of his rampage from spreading--or from inspiring a gaggle of scientific minds and certified loons alike to research runology in hopes of copying him. I reckon it would probably be best if we just leave those runes to the fairies. (More on that with my next character. Bum . . . bum . . . BUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUM.)

(Credit to the classic Golden Age Joker for inspiring the general art style I drew this fellow in.)