Misplaced Pages

#159840

121-397: On Earth-Two , a criminal called "Ghost" fights Hawkman and Hawkgirl , claiming to be an actual ghost. Hawkman refuses to believe it and the couple's investigation seems to support that. In their next encounter, it is confirmed that Ghost is a mundane criminal named James "Jim" Craddock who used tricks and gadgets to appear to be a ghost. In Post-Crisis continuity, James "Jim" Craddock is

242-429: A " shared universe " among several characters during the 1940s. By the 1950s, as the popularity of superheroes was waning, comics shifted to horror, westerns and war. Batman, Superman and Wonder Woman were among the few DC continued to publish. Beginning in the early 1960s, the popularity of superheroes began to grow. DC introduced more modern versions of its heroes. For example, Hawkman was an alien policeman instead of

363-504: A Zombie (1943) and Plan 9 from Outer Space (1959). Frankenstein by Mary Shelley , while not a zombie novel per se , foreshadows many 20th century ideas about zombies in that the resurrection of the dead is portrayed as a scientific process rather than a mystical one and that the resurrected dead are degraded and more violent than their living selves. Frankenstein , published in 1818, has its roots in European folklore, whose tales of

484-509: A complete reboot of the concept, with superheroes only just now appearing, similar to the "young hero" concept for the New 52 continuity, and with revamped costume designs. In Earth 2 , Superman , Batman , Wonder Woman , and Catwoman seemingly gave their lives in order to repel the Apokoliptan invasion, leaving behind a world with no heroes. Supergirl and Robin (Helena Wayne) end up stranded in

605-463: A dead person can be zombified by a small child. It is said that the spell can be broken by a powerful enough sangoma . It is also believed in some areas of South Africa that witches can zombify a person by killing and possessing the victim's body to force it into slave labor. After rail lines were built to transport migrant workers, stories emerged about "witch trains". These trains appeared ordinary, but were staffed by zombified workers controlled by

726-665: A descendant of the Royal House of England, who decapitates him. Vanquished, he disappears. Gentleman Ghost is one of the villains sent to retrieve the Get Out of Hell Free card from the Secret Six . In 2011, The New 52 rebooted the DC universe. Gentleman Ghost is still a thief and is not a ghost like his Earth-Two counterpart. In his first appearance, he steals the Mortis Orb, which can resurrect

847-407: A fictional world in earlier Barry Allen stories. Superman was introduced in the 1930s and was the archetype for the modern superhero, and so is depicted in stories set on Earth-Two as the first major reliable costumed superhero on that world, discounting earlier part-time heroes and "mystery men" such as Doctor Occult (who first appeared in 1935). Most of the following costumed mystery men history

968-526: A form much as it was prior to "The New 52". Gentleman Ghost joins Amanda Waller 's Suicide Squad Black to fight Sebastian Faust after he steals several artifacts in A.R.G.U.S. storage. In the pages of " The New Golden Age ", Gentleman Ghost obtains a special sphere to summon an army of zombies. He fights the Justice Society until Icicle unknowingly uses his ice attack on the sphere, which ends up summoning Surtur to Earth. Legionnaire (revealed to be

1089-541: A ghost, he battles those on JSA, hoping for the prophecy to come true. When the rightful time arrives, the Ghost gains the additional power of summoning vengeful ghosts from the JSA's past, like someone Scott killed with an electrical accident, although this is a fake, and other highwaymen. His plan is foiled by Stargirl , who, as a virgin girl, is impervious to ghostly attacks, an army of ghostly nobles who attack his army, and Wildcat ,

1210-468: A ghost-like "paradise dimension" tangential to the new universe. Following the end of the known Multiverse, more alternate realities were discovered. Even though Earth-Three was destroyed in the Anti-Monitor 's anti-matter wave attacks, a new Crime Syndicate (called the "Crime Syndicate of Amerika") developed in the antimatter universe of Qward , which was very different in background and power base from

1331-468: A girl and his love for human flesh, and Michele Soavi's Dellamorte Dellamore (1994) (released as Cemetery Man in the U.S.). In 1980s Hong Kong cinema , the Chinese jiangshi , a zombie-like creature dating back to Qing dynasty era jiangshi fiction of the 18th and 19th centuries, were featured in a wave of jiangshi films , popularised by Mr. Vampire (1985). Hong Kong jiangshi films were popular in

SECTION 10

#1732858273160

1452-466: A modest success, nearly outstripping Romero's Day of the Dead for box office returns. After the mid-1980s, the subgenre was mostly relegated to the underground. Notable entries include director Peter Jackson 's ultra-gory film Braindead (1992) (released as Dead Alive in the U.S.), Bob Balaban 's comic 1993 film My Boyfriend's Back , where a self-aware high-school boy returns to profess his love for

1573-454: A new Superman ( Val-Zod , a Kryptonian and a childhood friend of Power Girl's who had been imprisoned by Terry Sloan). Towards the end of the series, Darkseid launches a second invasion of Earth, which is depicted in both Earth 2 and the weekly series Earth 2: World's End . Another weekly series, The New 52: Futures End , depicts a possible future in which refugees from a destroyed Earth 2 come to Earth 0 and prompt society to fracture. Over

1694-576: A new group of heroes ("Wonders") who try and fail to save the Earth from Darkseid's second invasion attempt. This Earth's Supergirl and Robin were transported to Prime Earth during the war, where they assumed the identities of Power Girl and the Huntress ; they later relocate to Earth-2 in Earth-2: World's End Following the destruction of Earth-2 by Darkseid, the assembled heroes restart human civilization on

1815-670: A new planet in Earth-2: Society (2015–2017). They eventually reboot the world's history, resulting in a dieselpunk world where the Ultra-Humanite suppressed the Wonders until the survivors from before the reboot re-emerged. This Earth is the current Earth 2 of the modern Multiverse, as confirmed in Dark Crisis: Big Bang . Zombie A zombie ( Haitian French : zombi ; Haitian Creole : zonbi ; Kikongo : zumbi )

1936-418: A poor mother, young Jim Craddock slips into a life of crime, making contacts with the supernatural. After a gypsy prophesies that he will be able to transcend death and return to life fighting and killing his enemies on English soil, his villainous career is put to an end when he is captured and sentenced to death by hanging after being tricked by a woman he is trying to seduce who summons Redcoats. Returning as

2057-506: A powerful and frequently fatal neurotoxin found in the flesh of the pufferfish (family Tetraodontidae). The second powder consists of deliriant drugs such as datura . Together these powders were said to induce a deathlike state, in which the will of the victim would be entirely subjected to that of the bokor. Davis also popularized the story of Clairvius Narcisse , who was claimed to have succumbed to this practice. The most ethically questioned and least scientifically explored ingredient of

2178-503: A reincarnated Egyptian prince. Older versions of DC characters were assigned to an "alternative reality" Earth that existed within its own fictional "universe" and could communicate with the Earth of the current, revised versions of those characters. Alternative-reality Earths had been used in DC stories before, but were usually not referred to after that particular story. Most of these alternative Earths were usually so vastly different that no one would confuse that Earth and its history with

2299-427: A slave after death, as a zombie. A zombie could also be saved by feeding them salt . English professor Amy Wilentz has written that the modern concept of Zombies was strongly influenced by Haitian slavery . Slave drivers on the plantations, who were usually slaves themselves and sometimes voodoo priests, used the fear of zombification to discourage slaves from committing suicide. While most scholars have associated

2420-478: A son, Hal (the third Air Wave). The history of Earth-Two is slightly different from both real world history and the history of other versions of Earth from DC Comics stories. For example in classic Earth-Two stories, by the 1970s, Quebec is shown to be an independent nation autonomous from Canada . South Africa abolished apartheid sooner than in the real world. The fictional countries of Dukalia, Luxor, Napkan, Nastonia, Oxnalia, Thornia and others existed on

2541-707: A state of catatonia . Roland Littlewood , professor of anthropology and psychiatry, published a study supporting a social explanation of the zombie phenomenon in the medical journal The Lancet in 1997. The social explanation sees observed cases of people identified as zombies as a culture-bound syndrome , with a particular cultural form of adoption practiced in Haiti that unites the homeless and mentally ill with grieving families who see them as their "returned" lost loved ones, as Littlewood summarizes his findings in an article in Times Higher Education : I came to

SECTION 20

#1732858273160

2662-422: A state of pharmacologically induced trance for many years. Symptoms of TTX poisoning range from numbness and nausea to paralysis — particularly of the muscles of the diaphragm — unconsciousness, and death, but do not include a stiffened gait or a deathlike trance. According to psychologist Terence Hines , the scientific community dismisses tetrodotoxin as the cause of this state, and Davis' assessment of

2783-495: A story titled "Earth 2 Chapter One: Golden Age", in which the New Earth Power Girl arrives on post- Crisis Earth-2. Thinking that she has returned home to her long destroyed pre- Crisis Earth-Two. Power Girl crash lands and unconscious, on the closest parallel of the 52 Multiverse, the post- Crisis Earth-2, which appears similar to the pre- Crisis Earth-Two. She is found by the post- Crisis Earth-2 Huntress, who thinks she

2904-543: A time in which the Superman of Earth-Two was at a similar age to the then-present-day Superman of Earth-One. In the 1980s DC published All-Star Squadron , which covered the war time history of various superheroes during World War II. Infinity, Inc. , a group made up of the children and heirs of the Justice Society, was introduced in All-Star Squadron #25 (September 1983). There was an eponymous comics series starring

3025-511: A vampire story, had a great impact on the zombie genre by way of George A. Romero . The novel and its 1964 film adaptation, The Last Man on Earth , which concern a lone human survivor waging war against a world of vampires, would by Romero's own admission greatly influence his 1968 low-budget film Night of the Living Dead , a work that was more influential on the concept of zombies than any literary or cinematic work before it. The monsters in

3146-517: A wave of low-budget Asian zombie films such as the zombie comedy Bio Zombie (1998) and action film Versus (2000), and then a new wave of popular Western zombie films in the early 2000s, the Resident Evil and House of the Dead films, the 2004 Dawn of the Dead remake , and the British zombie comedy Shaun of the Dead (2004). The " zombie apocalypse " concept, in which the civilized world

3267-512: A weakening of scientific laws within Earth-Two's universe. Because Earth-Two as presented did not match up with the actual comics of DC's Golden Age, other alternative Earths were used to explain the discrepancies. Earth-Two-A (also known as Alternate Earth-Two) was where Clark Kent worked for the Daily Planet under editor Parry White in the 1940s and 1950s (on regular Earth-Two Kent worked for

3388-471: A witch. The trains would abduct a person boarding at night, and the person would then either be zombified or beaten and thrown from the train a distance away from the original location. Several decades after Hurston's work, Wade Davis , a Harvard ethnobotanist , presented a pharmacological case for zombies in a 1983 article in the Journal of Ethnopharmacology , and later in two popular books: The Serpent and

3509-428: A younger Mordru wanting to avoid the path of evil) borrows some of Hawkman's lifeforce and uses it to revive Gentleman Ghost causing Surtur to explode and the zombies to disappear. The Gentleman Ghost of Earth-Two relies on various devices to simulate ghost-like capabilities for his criminal capers. Jim Craddock is a ghost who can become invisible and intangible, teleport, and freeze people with his touch. However, he

3630-581: A younger version of Alan Scott, the Golden Age Green Lantern, who leads the Wonders; Superman is succeeded by Val-Zod, a black-skinned Kryptonian pacifist; Aquawoman (Marella) is the Queen of Atlantis; Terry Sloan, formerly known as Mr. 8, is a universe-hopping villain; and Oliver Queen is the Red Arrow. The ensuing Earth-2 (2012–2015) and Earth-2: World's End (2014–2015) stories depict the formation of

3751-447: A zombie astral to enhance his spiritual power. A zombie astral can also be sealed inside a specially decorated bottle by a bokor and sold to a client to bring luck, healing, or business success. It is believed that God eventually will reclaim the zombie's soul, so the zombie is a temporary spiritual entity. The two types of zombie reflect soul dualism , a belief of Bakongo religion and Haitian voodoo . Each type of legendary zombie

Gentleman Ghost - Misplaced Pages Continue

3872-483: A zombie, since they "knew" that they were dead and had no other role to play in the Haitian society. Societal reinforcement of the belief was hypothesized by Davis to confirm for the zombie individual the zombie state, and such individuals were known to hang around in graveyards, exhibiting attitudes of low affect . Davis's claim has been criticized, particularly the suggestion that Haitian witch doctors can keep "zombies" in

3993-402: Is a mythological undead corporeal revenant created through the reanimation of a corpse . In modern popular culture, zombies are most commonly found in horror genre works. The term comes from Haitian folklore , in which a zombie is a dead body reanimated through various methods, most commonly magical practices in religions like Vodou . Modern media depictions of the reanimation of

4114-475: Is an animated corpse raised by magical means, such as witchcraft . The English word "zombie" is first recorded in 1819, in a history of Brazil by the poet Robert Southey , in the form of "zombi", actually referring to the Afro-Brazilian rebel leader named Zumbi and the etymology of his name in "nzambi". The Oxford English Dictionary gives the origin of the word as Central African and compares it to

4235-562: Is based on the Earth-Two Superman's initial appearance, where these previously independent operating heroes begin to reliably interact. In order to distinguish him from the later primary version of the character, this Superman was called "Kal-L", using the spelling of Superman's Kryptonian name in his early appearances. He was specifically introduced as an Earth-Two character in Justice League of America #73 (1969). Most superheroes from

4356-651: Is brought low by a global zombie infestation, has since become a staple of modern zombie media, seen in such media as The Walking Dead franchise . The late 2000s and 2010s saw the humanization and romanticization of the zombie archetype , with the zombies increasingly portrayed as friends and love interests for humans. Notable examples of the latter include movies Warm Bodies and Zombies , novels American Gods by Neil Gaiman , Generation Dead by Daniel Waters, and Bone Song by John Meaney , animated movie Corpse Bride , TV series iZombie and Santa Clarita Diet , manga series Sankarea: Undying Love , and

4477-447: Is dead as well. The JSI interrogate Power Girl for information on the post- Crisis Earth-2 Superman's whereabouts. The post- Crisis Earth-2 Power Girl assumes that the Superman the New Earth Power Girl said was dead was the post- Crisis Earth-2 Superman (rather than Kal-L who was killed by Superboy-Prime ) and that the New Earth Power Girl had killed him. The Justice Society of New Earth arrives to stop her torture. Starman reveals that

4598-400: Is depicted in the follow-on series Earth 2: Society (August 2015 – March 2017). It also debuts versions of Hourman and Mist . The final arc of the series recreates Earth 2 again making it appear similar to their universe's first Earth through use of an Amazon artifact known as Pandora's Casket by Ultra-Humanite . This Earth has had no history of Wonders with Ultra-Humanite controlling

4719-452: Is explained as existing in the multiverse too. A number of characters, heroes and villains, had counterparts on both Earth-One and Two. Generally speaking, the older Earth-Two versions were phased out or incorporated into their younger, Earth-One versions following Crisis on Infinite Earths . Several others were rebooted almost entirely, with their new versions having nothing in common with the old ones. For instance, Jim Corrigan of Earth-Two

4840-457: Is her long-missing best friend, the Power Girl native to this world. In this new reality, the Justice Society of America has merged with Infinity, Inc. and is now known as Justice Society Infinity. Initially, Power Girl believes she has returned home, until the missing post- Crisis Earth-2 Power Girl reappears and declares that the other Power Girl is an impostor, and has caused the disappearance of

4961-485: Is more, if science ever gets to the bottom of Vodou in Haiti and Africa, it will be found that some important medical secrets, still unknown to medical science, give it its power, rather than gestures of ceremony." A Central African origin for the Haitian zombie has been postulated based on two etymologies in the Kongo language , nzambi ("god") and zumbi ("fetish"). This root helps form the names of several deities, including

Gentleman Ghost - Misplaced Pages Continue

5082-534: Is therefore missing one half of its soul (the flesh or the spirit). The zombie belief has its roots in traditions brought to Haiti by enslaved Africans and their subsequent experiences in the New World. It was thought that the voodoo deity Baron Samedi would gather them from their grave to bring them to a heavenly afterlife in Africa (" Guinea "), unless they had offended him in some way, in which case they would be forever

5203-510: Is vulnerable to Nth metal, which has anti-magic properties. Earth-Two Earth-Two (also Earth 2 ) is a setting for stories (a " fictional universe ") appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics . First appearing in The Flash #123 (1961), Earth-Two was created to explain differences between the original Golden Age and then-current Silver Age versions of characters such as

5324-469: The Chicago Sun-Times chided theater owners and parents who allowed children access to the film. "I don't think the younger kids really knew what hit them", complained Ebert, "They were used to going to movies, sure, and they'd seen some horror movies before, sure, but this was something else." According to Ebert, the film affected the audience immediately: The kids in the audience were stunned. There

5445-481: The Convergence miniseries. Over the course of the series, Batman dies and Dick Grayson, inspired by his Batman counterparts from other worlds, takes up the mantle from Thomas Wayne. Ultimately, the planet Telos is terraformed into a new Earth-like planet and sent to the Earth 2 dimension as a new home for its refugees. The heroes' fraught attempts at forming a new society, rapidly augmented by Terry Sloan's technology,

5566-636: The Epic of Gilgamesh . One of the first books to expose Western culture to the concept of the voodoo zombie was The Magic Island (1929) by W. B. Seabrook . This is the sensationalized account of a narrator who encounters voodoo cults in Haiti and their resurrected thralls. Time commented that the book "introduced 'zombi' into U.S. speech". Zombies have a complex literary heritage, with antecedents ranging from Richard Matheson and H. P. Lovecraft to Mary Shelley 's Frankenstein drawing on European folklore of

5687-565: The Cosmic Treadmill as shown in Justice Society (vol. 3) #11) and Monarch selected Jay Garrick of this Earth (amongst others) in a Multiversal arena tournament . Based on comments by 52 co-writer Grant Morrison , this alternate universe is not the pre- Crisis Earth-Two. This separation between the pre- Crisis Earth-Two and post- Crisis Earth-2 is formally established in Justice Society of America (vol. 3) Annual #1 (2008), with

5808-529: The DC Multiverse , were merged into one in the 1985 miniseries Crisis on Infinite Earths . Characters from DC Comics were originally suggestive of each existing in their own world, as superheroes never encountered each other. This was soon changed with alliances being formed between certain protagonists. Several publications, including All Star Comics (publishing tales of the Justice Society of America ), Leading Comics and other comic books introduced

5929-598: The Daily Star , his editor was George Taylor, and Perry White was a reporter). Earth-Two-B (also Earth-Forty-Six ) is a world referenced but not described in the Crisis on Infinite Earths: Absolute Edition . Earth-E ( Earth-216 ) is the world where the Super-Sons adventures happened and was used to explain 1950s Batman and Superman stories that didn't fit with either Earth-One or Earth-Two history. Mark Gruenwald assigned it to

6050-621: The English-speaking Caribbean , considered to be of the same etymology; in the French West Indies also, local "zombies" are recognized, but these are of a more general spirit nature. The idea of physical zombie-like creatures is present in some South African cultures, where they are called xidachane in Sotho / Tsonga and maduxwane in Venda . In some communities, it is believed that

6171-417: The Kongo words " nzambi " (god) and " zumbi " (fetish). A Kimbundu -to-Portuguese dictionary from 1903 defines the related word nzumbi as soul, while a later Kimbundu–Portuguese dictionary defines it as being a "spirit that is supposed to wander the earth to torment the living". How the creatures in contemporary zombie films came to be called "zombies" is not fully clear. The film Night of

SECTION 50

#1732858273160

6292-465: The United States and encounters the gunslingers Nighthawk and Cinnamon . The hot-headed Nighthawk lynches Craddock after wrongly assuming that he sexually assaulted Cinnamon. However, Craddock eludes death to rise again as a ghost. The Gentleman Ghost learns that he must wander the earth until the spirit of his killer moves on to the next plane of existence . Nighthawk and Cinnamon turn out to be

6413-421: The United States occupation of Haiti (1915–1934), when a number of case histories of purported "zombies" began to emerge. The first popular book covering the topic was William Seabrook 's The Magic Island (1929). Seabrooke cited Article 246 of the Haitian criminal code , which was passed in 1864, asserting that it was an official recognition of zombies. This passage was later used in promotional materials for

6534-562: The reincarnations of Ancient Egyptian royalty Prince Khufu and Chay-Ara: their souls (due to their exposure to the Thanagarian Nth metal) can never truly pass on. Both are eventually resurrected as Hawkman and Hawkgirl , and the Gentleman Ghost becomes their recurring nemesis during the 1940s. Craddock over the decades menaces other heroes, including Batman , Atom , Flash , The New Teen Titans , Max Mercury and Stargirl , but

6655-453: The 1920s and early 1930s, Lovecraft wrote several novellae that explored the undead theme. " Cool Air ", " In the Vault " and " The Outsider " all deal with the undead, but Lovecraft's " Herbert West–Reanimator " (1921) "helped define zombies in popular culture". This series of short stories featured Herbert West , a mad scientist , who attempts to revive human corpses, with mixed results. Notably,

6776-445: The 1932 film White Zombie . Also shall be qualified as attempted murder the employment which may be made by any person of substances which, without causing actual death, produce a lethargic coma more or less prolonged. If, after the administering of such substances, the person has been buried, the act shall be considered murder no matter what result follows. In 1937, while researching folklore in Haiti, Zora Neale Hurston encountered

6897-399: The 1951–1960 period of those books. New 52 Earth 2 : Following the events of " Flashpoint ", the setting was revised, and was now identified as "Earth 2 " (instead of "Earth Two" or "Earth-Two"). While it still houses a team of superheroes , its membership is younger than before. Earth 2 also has a tragic backstory, having been invaded by an alien horde from Apokolips five years prior to

7018-600: The Atom ( Al Pratt , now nuclear-powered), the Sandman (Wesley Dodds), Mister Miracle , and Big Barda . In addition, the heroes of the Earth get supported by the World Army . Villains include Solomon Grundy, a now-villainous Terry Sloan , Wotan , Steppenwolf and what was thought to be a surviving, Darkseid-brainwashed Superman, which turned out to be a very powerful but genetically unstable Bizarro -type clone. Writer James Robinson left

7139-951: The Axis side in WW2 (though most of these disappeared when the US entered the war). Unlike other DC Comics depictions of Atlantis, the Atlantean countries of Poseidonis and Tritonis were ruled by a queen, not a king (along with its inhabitants displaying surface dweller features and no capacity for underwater survival, as the Atlantis continent had been raised). In addition, masked crimefighters are introduced decades earlier than in other universes later identified within DC Comics, and these participated in such historic conflicts as World War II. Franklin Delano Roosevelt founded both

7260-531: The Cosmic Treadmill used by Barry Allen to open a portal to New Earth. The Power Girl of New Earth returns home, followed by the Justice Society Infinity, who kidnap her and take her back to post- Crisis Earth-2. During the confrontation, Green Lantern and Jade are initially confused when they see each other, as the post- Crisis Earth-2 Jade's father, Alan Scott, is dead, and New Earth's Jade

7381-489: The Dead (1978) and The Return of the Living Dead (1985)—the latter of which introduced the concept of zombies that eat brains—as well as Michael Jackson 's music video Thriller (1983), the genre waned for some years. The mid-1990s saw the introduction of Resident Evil and The House of the Dead , two break-out successes of video games featuring zombie enemies which would later go on to become highly influential and well-known. These games were initially followed by

SECTION 60

#1732858273160

7502-607: The Dead (1978), including once in dialog. According to Romero, film critics were influential in associating the term "zombie" to his creatures, and especially the French magazine Cahiers du Cinéma . He eventually accepted this linkage, even though he remained convinced at the time that "zombies" corresponded to the undead slaves of Haitian voodoo as depicted in White Zombie with Bela Lugosi . Zombies are featured widely in Haitian rural folklore as dead persons physically revived by

7623-525: The Dead films and the 2004 Dawn of the Dead remake. These films also adopted an action approach to the zombie concept, which was also influenced by the Resident Evil and House of the Dead video games. Films featuring zombies have been a part of cinema since the 1930s. White Zombie (directed by Victor Halperin in 1932) and I Walked with a Zombie (directed by Jacques Tourneur ; 1943) were early examples. With George A. Romero 's Night of

7744-454: The Earth-2 concept has been revived and is covered in two series; Worlds' Finest , which focuses on the adventures of the Huntress and Power Girl on New Earth written by Paul Levitz , and Earth 2 , originally written by James Robinson and then by Tom Taylor , which features the formation of the Justice Society. James Robinson, the original writer of Earth 2, describes the new Earth 2 as

7865-547: The Far East from the mid-1980s to the early 1990s. Prior to the 1990s, there were not many Japanese films related to what may be considered in the West as a zombie film. Early films such as The Discarnates (1988) feature little gore and no cannibalism, but it is about the dead returning to life looking for love rather than a story of apocalyptic destruction. One of the earliest Japanese zombie films with considerable gore and violence

7986-483: The Flash , and how the current ( Earth-One ) versions could appear in stories alongside earlier versions of the same character concepts. Earth-Two includes DC Golden Age heroes, including the Justice Society of America , whose careers began at the dawn of World War II , concurrently with their first appearances in comics. Earth-Two, along with the four other surviving Earths (Earth-One, Earth-Four , Earth-S , and Earth-X ) of

8107-453: The Golden Age later followed this trend of operating publicly, while wearing distinctive costuming and interacting in a largely shared universe. The primary characters of Superman and Batman still largely worked independent of team environments. In the 1970s, as the now annual team up between the Justice League of America and the Justice Society of America had proven popular, DC published

8228-464: The Haitian zombie with African cultures, a connection has also been suggested to the island's indigenous Taíno people , partly based on an early account of native shamanist practices written by Ramón Pané  [ es ] , a monk of the Hieronymite religious order and companion of Christopher Columbus . The Haitian zombie phenomenon first attracted widespread international attention during

8349-532: The Justice Society of America and the All-Star Squadron . Other events taking place decades earlier include the destruction of Krypton and the advent of advanced technology such as interstellar transportation and time travel. Thousands of years ago, the Guardians of Earth-One's Universe expelled the vast majority of magic from their universe, sending it to Earth-Two. This resulted in a predominance of magic and

8470-618: The Kongo creator deity Nzambi Mpungu and the Louisiana serpent deity Li Grand Zombi (a local version of the Haitian Damballa ), but it is in fact a generic word for a divine spirit. The common African conception of beings under these names is more similar to the incorporeal "zombie astral", as in the Kongo Nkisi spirits. A related, but also often incorporeal, undead being is the jumbee of

8591-412: The Living Dead (1968) made no spoken reference to its undead antagonists as "zombies", describing them instead as " ghouls " (though ghouls, which derive from Arabic folklore, are demons, not undead). Although George A. Romero used the term "ghoul" in his original scripts, in later interviews he used the term "zombie". The word "zombie" is used exclusively by Romero in his script for his sequel Dawn of

8712-403: The Living Dead (1968), the zombie trope began to be increasingly linked to consumerism and consumer culture. Today, zombie films are released with such regularity (at least 50 films were released in 2014 alone) that they constitute a separate subgenre of horror film. Voodoo-related zombie themes have also appeared in espionage or adventure-themed works outside the horror genre. For example,

8833-456: The Living Dead began the shift away from Haitian dark magic, though did not give scientific explanations for zombie origins. A more decisive shift towards scientific themes came with the Resident Evil video game series in the late 1990s, which gave more realistic scientific explanations for zombie origins while drawing on modern science and technology, such as biological weaponry , genetic manipulation , and parasitic symbiosis . This became

8954-509: The Midnight Shift apprehends him, he reveals his new origins. Craddock was a philanderer and drew the ire of a witch, who cursed him, granting his abilities but forcing him to commit criminal acts. He believed the curse would be lifted once the witch died. It was not and he found himself to be immortal and having been turned into a ghost. In 2016, DC Comics implemented DC Rebirth another relaunch of its books which restored its continuity to

9075-588: The Multiverse, which was Earth 2, explaining the recurrent tragedies faced by this world in comparison to others. In the end, Darkseid is successful, and the Earth is destroyed, and attempts to take Earth 2's refugees to Earth 0 are prevented by a time traveling Tim Drake in Futures End . Just as the world ends, several of the Wonders are sent to the planet Telos by Brainiac , where they confront their counterparts from various parallel worlds, both present and extinct, in

9196-508: The Rainbow (1985) and Passage of Darkness: The Ethnobiology of the Haitian Zombie (1988). Davis traveled to Haiti in 1982 and, as a result of his investigations, claimed that a living person can be turned into a zombie by two special powders being introduced into the bloodstream (usually through a wound). The first, French: coup de poudre ("powder strike"), includes tetrodotoxin (TTX),

9317-591: The Zombies (1966). Romero was also inspired by Richard Matheson 's novel I Am Legend (1954), along with its film adaptation, The Last Man on Earth (1964). The modern conception of the zombie owes itself almost entirely to George A. Romero 's 1968 film Night of the Living Dead . In his films, Romero "bred the zombie with the vampire, and what he got was the hybrid vigour of a ghoulish plague monster". This entailed an apocalyptic vision of monsters that have come to be known as Romero zombies . Roger Ebert of

9438-421: The act of necromancy of a bokor , a sorcerer or witch. The bokor is opposed by the houngan (priest) and the mambo (priestess) of the formal voodoo religion. A zombie remains under the control of the bokor as a personal slave, having no will of its own. The Haitian tradition also includes an incorporeal type of zombie, the "zombie astral ", which is a part of the human soul . A bokor can capture

9559-478: The case of a woman who appeared in a village. A family claimed that she was Felicia Felix-Mentor, a relative, who had died and been buried in 1907 at the age of 29. The woman was examined by a doctor; X-rays indicated that she did not have a leg fracture that Felix-Mentor was known to have had. Hurston pursued rumors that affected persons were given a powerful psychoactive drug , but she was unable to locate individuals willing to offer much information. She wrote: "What

9680-505: The conclusion that although it is unlikely that there is a single explanation for all cases where zombies are recognised by locals in Haiti, the mistaken identification of a wandering mentally ill stranger by bereaved relatives is the most likely explanation in many cases. People with a chronic schizophrenic illness, brain damage or learning disability are not uncommon in rural Haiti, and they would be particularly likely to be identified as zombies. Pulliam and Fonseca (2014) and Walz (2006) trace

9801-519: The course of the series, several new characters are introduced, such as Yolanda Montez , an Avatar of the Red who is a counterpart of Alan Scott; a second Red Arrow, an Earth 2 equivalent of Oliver Queen ; Ted Grant , a former boxer; and Dick Grayson , a journalist who goes on a mission to find his son after his wife Barbara Gordon is killed during the invasion. Others change alignment; Wonder Woman and Steppenwolf's daughter Fury sides with Mister Miracle and

9922-417: The dead often do not involve magic but rather science fictional methods such as fungi , radiation , gases , diseases , plants , bacteria , viruses , etc. The English word "zombie" was first recorded in 1819 in a history of Brazil by the poet Robert Southey , in the form of "zombi". Dictionaries trace the word's origin to African languages, relating to words connected to gods, ghosts and souls. One of

10043-448: The dead. Hawkman deduces that Gentleman Ghost is Jim Craddock (whom he knew in a previous incarnation). Gentleman Ghost talks to Hawkman because the Nth metal drew him to the Mortis Orb. He plans to take Hawkman to the orb, but the latter refuses. Gentleman Ghost sends more apparitions after Hawkman, who flees. Gentleman Ghost later appears to Hawkman again, saying that the warlock's spell rendered

10164-536: The early 1950s EC Comics , which George A. Romero would later claim as an influence. The comics, including Tales from the Crypt , The Vault of Horror and Weird Science , featured avenging undead in the Gothic tradition quite regularly, including adaptations of Lovecraft's stories, which included "In the Vault", "Cool Air" and "Herbert West–Reanimator". Richard Matheson 's 1954 novel I Am Legend , although classified as

10285-472: The film and its sequels, such as Dawn of the Dead (1978) and Day of the Dead (1985), as well as the many zombie films it inspired, such as The Return of the Living Dead (1985) and Zombi 2 (1979), are usually hungry for human flesh, although Return of the Living Dead introduced the popular concept of zombies eating human brains. There has been an evolution in the zombie archetype from supernatural to scientific themes. I Am Legend and Night of

10406-400: The first books to expose Western culture to the concept of the voodoo zombie was W. B. Seabrook 's The Magic Island (1929), the account of a narrator who encounters voodoo cults in Haiti and their resurrected thralls. A new version of the zombie, distinct from that described in Haitian folklore, emerged in popular culture during the latter half of the 20th century. This interpretation of

10527-536: The group, which ran from March 1984 through June 1988. Crisis on Infinite Earths (1985–1986) was an effort by DC Comics to clean up their continuity, resulting in the multiple universes combining into one. Since then, a handful of characters originating from Earth-Two have consistently remained part of the merged Earth, including Power Girl , Jay Garrick , and Alan Scott . Superman and Lois Lane from Earth-Two (along with Superboy from Earth Prime , and Alexander Luthor Jr. from Earth-Three ) were transported into

10648-504: The late 1970s. The mid-1980s produced few zombie films of note. Perhaps the most notable entry, the Evil Dead trilogy, while highly influential, are not technically zombie films, but films about demonic possession , despite the presence of the undead. 1985's Re-Animator , loosely based on the Lovecraft story, stood out in the genre, achieving nearly unanimous critical acclaim and becoming

10769-436: The light novel Is This a Zombie? In this context, zombies are often seen as stand-ins for discriminated groups struggling for equality, and the human–zombie romantic relationship is interpreted as a metaphor for sexual liberation and taboo breaking (given that zombies are subject to wild desires and free from social conventions). In Haitian folklore , a zombie ( Haitian French : zombi , Haitian Creole : zonbi )

10890-530: The mainstream universe towards the end of the invasion. When the Earth-2 Solomon Grundy threatens the world, three new heroes team up to defeat him: the Flash (Jay Garrick), Hawkgirl ( Kendra Saunders ), and Green Lantern (Alan Scott). In later issues, Mister Terrific (Michael Holt) from the mainstream universe joins the team. Other heroes who have made appearances include Dr. Fate (Khalid Ben-Hassin),

11011-415: The nature of the reports of Haitian zombies is viewed as overly credulous. Scottish psychiatrist R. D. Laing highlighted the link between social and cultural expectations and compulsion, in the context of schizophrenia and other mental illness, suggesting that schizogenesis may account for some of the psychological aspects of zombification. Particularly, this suggests cases where schizophrenia manifests

11132-506: The orb inert years before, but the Nth Metal broke the spell causing the orb to regain its power. Gentleman Ghost takes the orb, saying that he will use it to transcend death and resurrect himself through the life-force of every man, woman, and child nearby. Then, he disappears and the zombies attacking Hawkman fall apart. Gentleman Ghost begins fully harnessing the orb’s power, creating a portal from which Julius Gates comes out. Gates (demanding

11253-539: The orb) grabs Craddock, while Hawkman takes the orb from him. The portal vanishes with Craddock and Gates inside causing them both to disappear along with the apparitions and zombies. Hawkman drops the Mortis Orb somewhere in Antarctica to keep it from falling into the wrong hands again. Craddock later takes up residence in Duskhaven, a New Hampshire town out of which he operates while robbing wealthy socialites of Gotham. When

11374-537: The original Jonny Quest series (1964) and the James Bond novel Live and Let Die as well as its film adaptation both feature Caribbean villains who falsely claim the voodoo power of zombification to keep others in fear of them. Romero's modern zombie archetype in Night of the Living Dead was influenced by several earlier zombie-themed films, including White Zombie , Revolt of the Zombies (1936) and The Plague of

11495-496: The other heroes after Big Barda reveals her loyalty to Darkseid. Huntress and Power Girl return to Earth 2 as well to take part in a mad scramble to save the Earth and then later, to save its people along with a computerized record of human culture and life on Earth created by Bruce Wayne. In Earth 2: World's End #11, it is revealed that Highfather made a deal with Darkseid that he would not interfere with Darkseid's plans for conquest so long as Darkseid only preyed upon one Earth of

11616-485: The player. Later the same year, Sega 's arcade shooter The House of the Dead introduced running human zombies, who run towards the player and can also jump and swim. The running human zombies introduced in The House of the Dead video games became the basis for the "fast zombies" that became popular in zombie films during the early 21st century, starting with 28 Days Later (2002), the Resident Evil and House of

11737-408: The post- Crisis Earth-2 Superman. This turn of events results in the post- Crisis Earth-2 Power Girl and the Justice Society Infinity to go after the New Earth Power Girl. The Power Girl of New Earth recruits the post- Crisis Earth-2 Michael Holt, who is a physics professor and father and has never become a costumed hero, to help her return to her source Earth. Holt constructs a device similar to

11858-441: The powders is part of a recently buried child's brain. The process described by Davis was an initial state of deathlike suspended animation , followed by re-awakening — typically after being buried — into a psychotic state. The psychosis induced by the drug and psychological trauma was hypothesised by Davis to reinforce culturally learned beliefs and to cause the individual to reconstruct their identity as that of

11979-705: The pre- Crisis Earth-Three group, though same in the number of members. After the Kingdom event , Hypertime and divergent realities were revealed, but never supposed to be accessed, as stated in the Zero Hour event. They were later revealed when a directly-parallel Flash ( Walter West aka the "Dark Flash") entered the mainstream DC Universe and threatened to destroy it. These alternate realities are usually addressed as "Elsewhere" and "Elseworld" stories. Kal-L, Lois Lane-Kent, Superboy-Prime , and Alexander Luthor Jr. returned during Infinite Crisis . Unknown to Kal-L, Luthor's plan

12100-469: The re-creation of the Multiverse led to the creation of a Power Girl and Superman native to this new universe, post- Crisis Earth-2 and that the post- Crisis Earth-2 Superman is still alive. The Power Girl of New Earth then returns home along with her Justice Society but with no apology from her counterpart nor from the post- Crisis Earth-2 Huntress for their actions against her. In September 2011, The New 52 rebooted DC's continuity. In this new timeline,

12221-613: The realigned world is called "New Earth". In the final issue of the 52 weekly series, it is revealed that fifty-two duplicate worlds have been created and all but New Earth have been altered from the original incarnation. The post- Crisis Earth-2 made its first appearance in a single panel of 52 Week 52 where it resembled the pre- Crisis Earth-Two, where a newspaper article says that this world's Superman and Power Girl are missing. The Flashes of New Earth ( Jay Garrick and Wally West ) briefly glimpsed this world with Robin (Dick Grayson) and Huntress in action (during their travel with

12342-422: The reboot, ahead of Darkseid 's attempted invasion of Prime Earth. In the process, this reality's Superman of Earth-Two , Batman of Earth-Two and Wonder Woman of Earth-Two all died, while its Supergirl and post-Flashpoint Robin of Earth-Two ( Helena Wayne ) were swept through a dimensional warp to Prime Earth where they became known as Power Girl and Huntress . Other notable character differences include

12463-430: The resurrected dead are uncontrollable, mostly mute, primitive and extremely violent; though they are not referred to as zombies, their portrayal was prescient, anticipating the modern conception of zombies by several decades. Edgar Rice Burroughs similarly depicted animated corpses in the second book of his Venus series , again without using the terms "zombie" or "undead". Avenging zombies would feature prominently in

12584-435: The series with issue #16 and Tom Taylor became the new writer at #17. Other new characters introduced as the series progresses include a female Red Tornado (an android with the consciousness of Lois Lane that was uploaded into it by Sam Lane and Robotman ), a hyper-intelligent knowledge-assimilator known as Accountable ( Jimmy Olsen ), a new Batman ( Thomas Wayne using Miraclo), a new version of Aquawoman (Marella), and

12705-573: The so-called real Earth. That would change when the existence of another reliable Earth was established in a story titled " Flash of Two Worlds " in which Barry Allen , the modern Flash later referred to as the Flash of Earth-One (the setting of the Silver Age stories) first travels to another Earth, accidentally vibrating at just the right speed to appear on Earth-Two, where he meets Jay Garrick, his Earth-Two counterpart. He claims Gardner Fox's dreams were tuned into Earth-Two, explaining their depiction as

12826-403: The son of an English gentleman who abandoned both him and his mother, forcing them into poverty. Craddock grows up to become a notorious highwayman and robber who terrorizes England in the 19th century under the name "Gentleman Jim", after a prophecy from a Romani said he would be a highwayman. He encounters the ghosts of other highwaymen, and Dick Turpin leaves him a horse. He journeys to

12947-555: The standard approach for explaining zombie origins in popular fiction that followed Resident Evil . There has also been shift towards an action approach, which has led to another evolution of the zombie archietype, the "fast zombie" or running zombie. In contrast to Romero's classic slow zombies, "fast zombies" can run, are more aggressive and are often more intelligent. This type of zombie has origins in 1990s Japanese horror video games. In 1996, Capcom 's survival horror video game Resident Evil featured zombie dogs that run towards

13068-629: The then present day adventures of the Justice Society in the revived All-Star Comics with issue #58, resuming the numbering from the series' original run. The story continued in Adventure Comics #461–466, which featured the death of the Earth-Two Batman in issue #462. Mr and Mrs Superman , a feature in Superman Family (1974–1982), featured stories of the adventures of married Superman and Lois Lane of Earth-Two. These stories were set at

13189-405: The undead. Victor Halperin directed White Zombie (1932), a horror film starring Bela Lugosi . Here zombies are depicted as mindless, unthinking henchmen under the spell of an evil magician. Zombies, often still using this voodoo-inspired rationale, were initially uncommon in cinema, but their appearances continued sporadically through the 1930s to the 1960s, with films including I Walked with

13310-535: The vengeful dead also informed the evolution of the modern conception of the vampire . Later notable 19th century stories about the avenging undead included Ambrose Bierce 's " The Death of Halpin Frayser " and various Gothic Romanticism tales by Edgar Allan Poe . Though their works could not be properly considered zombie fiction, the supernatural tales of Bierce and Poe would prove influential on later writers such as H. P. Lovecraft , by Lovecraft's own admission. In

13431-623: The vengeful ghost always returns to his main foes, the Hawks, sometimes as a foe and sometimes as a friend. Gentleman Ghost later appears as a member of the Injustice Society . During the Infinite Crisis storyline, he joins Alexander Luthor Jr. 's Secret Society of Super Villains . He fights Alan Scott and places him in a coma. His origin is explored and altered in the pages of JSA #82-87 (2006). The natural son of an abusive father and

13552-420: The world behind the scenes. Following Ultra-Humanite's defeat, the Wonders becomes the world's new defenders and hopes that this Earth is the Earth they can protect. At the end of Doomsday Clock #12 (December 2019), Doctor Manhattan reverses the actions that created the "New 52" universe, restoring Alan Scott and the Justice Society's original full histories as before "Flashpoint", and the original Earth-Two

13673-474: The zombie lineage back to ancient Mesopotamia . In the Descent of Ishtar , the goddess Ishtar threatens: If you do not open the gate for me to come in, I shall smash the door and shatter the bolt, I shall smash the doorpost and overturn the doors, I shall raise up the dead and they shall eat the living: And the dead shall outnumber the living! She repeats this same threat in a slightly modified form in

13794-448: The zombie revival of the 2000s. The 1981 film Hell of the Living Dead referenced a mutagenic gas as a source of zombie contagion: an idea also used in Dan O'Bannon 's 1985 film Return of the Living Dead . Return of the Living Dead featured zombies that hungered specifically for human brains. Zombie films in the 1980s and 1990s were not as commercially successful as Dawn of the Dead in

13915-400: The zombie, as an undead person that attacks and eats the flesh of living people, is drawn largely from George A. Romero 's film Night of the Living Dead (1968), which was partly inspired by Richard Matheson 's novel I Am Legend (1954). The word zombie is not used in Night of the Living Dead , but was applied later by fans. Following the release of such zombie films as Dawn of

14036-492: Was Battle Girl: The Living Dead in Tokyo Bay (1991). According to Kim Newman in the book Nightmare Movies (2011), the "zombie revival began in the Far East" during the late 1990s, largely inspired by two Japanese zombie games released in 1996: Capcom 's Resident Evil , which started the Resident Evil video game series that went on to sell 24 million copies worldwide by 2006, and Sega 's arcade shooter House of

14157-585: Was a murdered police detective who served as the human host for the Spectre , while his Earth-One counterpart was a Metropolis police officer who often assisted Daily Planet cub reporter Jimmy Olsen and superhero Black Lightning . Many characters would often travel from one Earth to the other and interact with its natives or even immigrate. For example, Larry Jordan, the first Air Wave and native of Earth-Two, traveled to Earth-One under yet-unexplained circumstances, married Helen (the second Air Wave) and raised

14278-568: Was almost complete silence. The movie had stopped being delightfully scary about halfway through, and had become unexpectedly terrifying. There was a little girl across the aisle from me, maybe nine years old, who was sitting very still in her seat and crying. Romero's reinvention of zombies is notable in terms of its thematics; he used zombies not just for their own sake, but as a vehicle "to criticize real-world social ills—such as government ineptitude, bioengineering, slavery, greed and exploitation—while indulging our post-apocalyptic fantasies". Night

14399-449: Was the first of six films in Romero's Living Dead series . Its first sequel, Dawn of the Dead , was released in 1978. Lucio Fulci 's Zombi 2 was released just months after Dawn of the Dead as an ersatz sequel ( Dawn of the Dead was released in several other countries as Zombi or Zombie ). Dawn of the Dead was the most commercially successful zombie film for decades, up until

14520-418: Was the only returning world that was devoid of most people, except the Justice Society, Kal-L, and his wife Lois Kent. This world was a copy, new and recently manufactured by Alexander Luthor Jr. of pre- Crisis Earth-Three, instead of resurrected. This copy Earth-Two was recombined with the primary Earth to form the primary DC reality termed as "New Earth". At the end of the Infinite Crisis limited series,

14641-494: Was to resurrect the pre- Crisis Multiverse. He wanted to mix and match elements from each reality to create a "perfect world". The fallout of the conflict brought the short-lived return of an Earth-Two copy and the deaths of Kal-L, Lois Lane-Kent and Luthor Jr. of Earth-Two. It is unclear what happened to the aged Diana Trevor, the Earth-Two Wonder Woman , though she faded from her ghostly existence. Inexplicably, Earth-Two

#159840