Ghoul

Origin

“My name’s Jonathan. I’m from Vermont. I’m a big fan of Tori Amos, and I’m dead” — Ghoul

Johnathon Martin was originally a dedicated student with his sights set on a career in engineering. Unfortunately, he instead wound up being one the many people who contracted the Theta Virus, which granted people superhuman powers but also wound up killing them. In Johnathon’s case, both outcomes occurred; although his life was saved by Dr. Rachel Deming, his body took on the appearance of a corpse and he became something like a zombie – neither truly alive nor dead.

Now known as Ghoul, Johnathon was recruited for Dr. Deming’s Exiles, a team of Theta Virus survivors dedicated to save others who were similarly affected.

Creation

Ghoul was created by Steve Gerber, R.R. Phipps, Dave Olbrich, Chris Ulm, and Tom Mason. He first appeared in 1993’s Exiles #1. After having his body almost completely destroyed, Ghoul reappeared in 1994’s Ultraforce #0 with a considerably altered new appearance.

Powers and Abilities

Ghoul’s main ability is that he’s very hard to kill, as he’s already pretty much dead. He’s therefore virtually immortal, doesn’t feel pain and is immune to disease, poison, and radiation. His undead state makes his body rather fragile, but he can easily reattach any torn off limbs, or can even grow them back given enough time. Once after having been almost completely incinerated, Ghoul was able to put himself back together – although it took him a month to do so.

Ghoul can also communicate with the spirits of the dead, even those who have been dead for tens of thousands of years. He was once able to talk to the spirit of a man he’d just shot and killed, then tortured the spirit as well as assimilated his skills and abilities. In certain cases when someone is doomed to die, Ghoul can receive recurring visions of the impending doom that will befall them.