Origin
Centuries ago on Earth-88194 (Also known as Shadowline) the man who was to become Terror Inc. was a brave knight during the middle-ages. He had a wife he loved and was respected by his people but also feared. However, during one of his crusades, this man killed a gruesome demon. By slaying this demon, he was cursed. He soon found out his flesh began to rot, and spikes grew out of his face similar to ones on the demon. His wife and loved ones became terrified of him. For this, he took the name Schreck (German for “fright”). He left his family to wander the earth. It was at this time that he found out that he could assimilate body-parts into to his own body if the need arose. He would therefore tear off body-parts of enemies or deceased persons.
Creation
Schreck was created by D. G. Chichester, Margaret Clark, and Klaus Janson and first appeared in St. George issue #2 (1988) from Marvel’s EPIC line, part of the Shadowline Saga.
Character Evolution
As a part of the Shadowline Saga, Schreck belonged to a world without superheroes, despite his resemblance to the supernatural detectives that often rub elbows with the capes and costumes bunch. According to Dan Chester, creator of the Shadowline Saga, Marvel requested use of Schreck to be used as a vehicle to re-introduce horror characters from the 1970s.
Although that plan never panned out, Terror still made his Marvel debut in Daredevil (1964) #305. This led into a spinoff of Terror touring the Marvel universe as a soldier of fortune and private investigator. Unfortunately, that series would end 2 issues shy of its original planned run. Terror would be put on the back burner until a variant version appeared in a Marvel Team-Up arc.
Two years after the MTU appearance, he would receive a Marvel MAX miniseries, which also received a sequel, that were not canonical to the 616 Universe. Details of his origin were changed and elaborated on, and by the time Terror showed up as a member of Deadpool’s Mercs for Money, some of those details had been made canon in the Marvel Universe proper.
Major Story Arcs
Shadowline
Before his appearance grew too poor, Schreck became the squire to a man calling himself Draghignazzo. Draghignazzo was no mere mortal. He was able to heal, but fatal wounds took centuries of rest. During one of these hibernations, Schreck struck out on his own, becoming a black knight and fighting alongside a brave woman, Talita, who he fell in love with. When she was slain on the battlefield, Schreck collected her left hand and had it mystically encased in armor so that it would never rot while attached to him.
Fast forward to the 1980s, Schreck is still alive and working as an enforcer for the Ravenscore crime family. He has an on-going feud with the heroic knight of the Order of St. George, Michael Devlin. He tracked him to Nicaragua, where he tried to crucify Devlin. Devlin got free and tossed Schreck into a piranha infested lake.
His skeleton was found by fisherman, who hoped to grab his gold fillings, but the curse kept him alive, even as a skeleton. He was able to rebuild his body from the pieces of the fisherman.
Fear is His Business
Terror’s first gig on Earth-616 was to give an upstart Las Vegas crime family an edge in the division of Kingpin’s crime ring. Terror would sneak around and spy on the various criminals negotiating their piece. He gets some info on a possible Hand attack on the Circus-Circus Hotel and Casino. He passes it on to Daredevil, in exchange for his partnership if Terror ever decides to work in New York among the superheroes.
With that, Terror was officially open for business in the Marvel universe. People in his employ include:
- Alexis Primo – his personal assistant
- Brunhilda – his personal tailor
- Rekrab – his consultant on all things supernatural
- Boneyard – his personal source of specialty black market body parts
Terror took on a number of cases that caused him to team up and clash with Marvel superheroes:
- He teamed up with Wolverine and Jubilee to take on eco-terrorists
- He competed with The Punisher over who gets to kill Piranha Jones
- He was hired to find a mystical item for Priapus, who was trying to increase his power, but Terror ultimately joined Silver Sable and Luke Cage in defeating him
- Terror also seeks out Ghost Rider to experience the Penance Stare and ensure his reunion with his dead soulmate in the afterlife.
Mercs for Money
At the height of his popularity, Deadpool hired a number of mercenaries, including Terror, to dress in his uniform to help him with the new influx of missions. He called them the Mercs for Money. When he was first considering it, he was already on another case retrieving a prized possession from an occultist. That occultist shot Terror with a bazooka, knocking off his armored hand, which inadvertently cost Terror the memories of his wife, the best thing that ever happened to him.
Deadpool funneled most of the revenue they brought in to the Avengers Unity Squad, which he was funding for Captain America. Like his fellow teammates, this upset Terror that he wasn’t being paid properly and that many of their missions were non-paying hero gigs. Despite his public outrage, he did personally answer one letter from an abused child to beat up his dad. After his teammate, Madcap, drove Deadpool fans crazy in an attempt to ruin Deadpool’s reputation, Deadpool dropped the requirement to wear his uniform. They started working more as a team rather than going out on individual missions.
Quitting the Mercs for Money
Team morale in the Merc for Money was at an all time low when the Celestial Destructor attacked. The Mercs were assigned to crowd control, but when the Avengers were successful in ending the threat, Deadpool did not let them tag along to the victory party at Stark Tower. They considered taking the team from Deadpool and going independent.
With no way of funding a separate endeavor, the team decides to rob a bank, specifically the one Deadpool uses for his finances so that they would only be taking what is owed to them. Deadpool was ahead of them thanks to the precognitive abilities of The Profiler, a nuhuman who caused a second Civil War among the Avengers.
In light of Deadpool thwarting their bank robbery, Terror said he was quitting but ended up staying on for one more mission: rescue Negasonic Teenage Warhead. When Deadpool takes the wrong kind of risks to save her, Terror and the rest of the team finally walk away for good, leaving Deadpool high and dry.
Character Profile
- Height: 6’2″ typically
- Weight: 170 lbs typically
- Eye Color: Variable
- Hair Color: None
- Citizenship: Unknown
- Place of Birth: Unknown
- Marital Status: Widower
- Occupation: Mercenary, owner of Terror, Inc; formerly mob enforcer, knight, squire
- Known Relatives: Talita (lover)
- Distinguishing Features: Green, decaying skin, 6 quills sticking out of his neck/face area, 3 on each side. His left hand is commonly encased in armor.
Powers and Abilities
Matter Absorption: Terror Inc. has the ability to replace body parts with parts or organs taken from others, a process which he must continuously do since he is constantly decaying. Any body part he assimilates will immediately start to decay.
- Memory and Power Absorption: He also gains memories and eventual skills or super-powers from any body part he assimilates. It is not necessary that the body parts he assimilates be human, he could add wings or a tail to his body if he wanted. Terror has even replaced his head with another persons to gain their knowledge and memories.
- Spikes: The spikes on his cheeks are part of the curse of the demon he slayed. If removed they will grow back.
Immortality: Since his body is dead he does not require to eat, sleep or breathe and doesn’t feel pain. He can continue to function even if he is reduced to a skeletal state, or to just his head. He can even survive without a body at all. In his MAX series he was dismembered and dunked in acid but survived as a black ooze that was able to inhabit other bodies.
Expert Talents: Since being alive several centuries, Terror has acquired all sorts of skills and is an excellent marksman and detective. He is also proficient with most conventional weapons.
Other Versions
Earth-6215
On Earth-6215 Terror Inc. is a member of the League of Losers, a group of superhumans that were never extensively discussed in the history books of the future. This allowed them to evade a time-travelling villain from the future, who was prepared for the most powerful and popular of present-day superhumans.
This version of Terror would steal the arm of recently deceased Araña and, with it, her ability to materialize a blue armor from a mystical tattoo.
Marvel MAX
The story begins in the year 455 B.C, showing the finest warriors sacking Rome. Raping, burning, pillaging, doing however they pleased for two “glorious weeks”. But eventually, these weeks had to end, seeing as how the king had been talked into signing a peace treaty by the pope, so the warriors packed there belongings and traveled home. But in the end, the peace treaty seemed to be little more than a trick, the Romans wanted revenge and they were willing to turn to witchcraft to get that revenge….or perhaps the Pope called in a favor. Regardless of how, the warriors village was attacked by a Mare. The first night it was freed, half of the village was slaughtered, the second night…a man loses his wife and sheep…The next day, the same man who lost his wife and his sheep leads whatever left on the village into battle, but in the end, Terror’s the one who puts the final nail in the mare’s coffin.
He was a hero….women loved him, men envyed him but there was a price…..
After about a week people noticed his smell, he was decaying, like a dead body. He was falling apart piece by piece everyday before his own eyes. Not but a month later, the village ran him out. For days he wandered the lands, feasting on woodland creatures just to stay alive, eventually, his limbs started to slowly fall off. The Curse kept him alive but with this curse he knew it wasn’t going to be long before he was just a pile of rot.
“The only way to go on was to acquire new parts. Wherever and whenever I could find them. My Body excreted some sort of fluid which practically melted the limbs right on. My body literally had a taste for new parts. I needed them like a junkie.”
With each new part, The warrior would absorb a piece of the previous owners essence which is why he hated using Animal Parts. During this time, the villagers took to calling him “Shreck” which meant “Fright”.
After years of living life like this, Shreck met a man named Draghignazzo, the most powerful Shadow Knight the world had ever seen. Shreck became his loyal squire and for countless years to come, Draghignazzo and Shreck pillaged and burned anything that got in there way, but on one fateful day, an army ganged up on them and Draghignazzo fell. Shreck buried his body at his request under three mystic seals, where he could begin a long healing process. The only other person who could understand his pain was Talita, Draghignazzo’s wife. And so Terror (as he is now called) and Talita gathered her husbands soldiers and took nigh unholy revenge on those who opposed them. For ten years, they swam in blood and for ten more, Everyone had peace. There was no war, the crops were fruitful, the people sang songs and eventually….Terror and Talita fell madly in love but it ended soon enough. Everyone wasn’t happy……the rich land owners, they were mad so twenty five thousand of the worst cutthroats, thieves, mercenaries, and born killers gathered into one spot.
During this battle, Talita knew they had already lost so in the heat of battle she plead to him to cleave her parts. Burying her, he put the mystic seals from her husbands grave into hers and placed her to sleep. Using her leg and arm as parts, it wasn’t long before her leg began to tear, No way would he lose the arm. Searching out for a witch in the lowlands of where he lived, the witch’s husband (a blacksmith) constructed an encasing for him and the Witch did her magic and Terror felt…. whole once more.
Ultimate Terror
Terror, named Terry Schreck, is a New York cop who is on the same trail of a superhuman drug ring that the All-New Ultimates are on. While busting it up, he came face-to-face with Styx, who left Terry deformed by his corrosive touch. He died at the hospital but then mysteriously awoke and wandered into the city as the undead. The Ultimates found him wandering around the sewers and took him to his old partner’s home.
There, he started training, getting used to his new status quo. When his cop buddies were suspended for aggression towards the superhuman gangs, he rallied them together as Terror, Inc, a very short-lived vigilante squad.
Earth-2099
Terror’s immortality allows him to make it to the year 2099, the version of 2099 that was rebooted in the early 2020s. In this 2099, he pretends to run a Kill Room to bring in undesirable tourists looking to kill for money and then kill them to stockpile on body parts. His stockpile also includes preserved items from present day heroes, including the heart of Beta Ray Bill which allows him to wield Stormbreaker. Spider-Man mistakes him for genuinely running a kill room but doesn’t care for the truth much either.
Other Media
Merchandise
- A Terror figure was included as part of a Marvel Legends fan poll, but was not chosen and thus never entered proper production.
- Terror was featured in Funko’s Pop! line of bobbleheads.
- Terror was featured in the HeroClix figure game.
- Terror was featured in Hasbro’s Marvel Universe line as part of the Deadpool’s Rainbow Squad box set.
- Terror was featured in Hasbro’s Marvel Legends line as a Marvel Unlimited exclusive. The figure was a repaint of a prior Deadpool toy, with the idea being that it was Terror in his Mercs for Money uniform.