JACK SERIOUS
Real Name: John Cereus
Identity/Class: Human mutate
Occupation:
Patient at Crossmore Prison for the Criminally Insane;
formerly Chief of Staff of Dorkham
Asylum;
formerly psychology professor
at Goth University
Group Membership: None
Affiliations:
Foolkiller
(Kurt Gerhardt), Professor
Hugo Oddt, Dr. Ella Whitby (loose);
formerly Dr. Timothy Hayes
Enemies: Deadpool, Blaire Hayes, Dr. Timothy Hayes, Nosferata (Purple Hayes), She-Hulk (Jennifer Walters), inmates at Dorkham Asylum (Big Al G'houl, Dogwoman, Slimeface, Three-Face, others)
Known Relatives: None
Aliases: The Serious One
Base of Operations:
Crossmore Prison for the Criminally Insane, England, UK;
formerly Dorkham
Asylum, Visigoth, Massachusetts, USA
First Appearance: Sensational She-Hulk I#19 (September, 1990)
Powers/Abilities: Cereus' unusual appearance is a result of exposure to his Serious Gas and a crowd of mind-condensed people for a full week. He is a trained psychologist with several degress. As Chief of Staff of Dorkham Asylum, he used Serious Gas, a hallucinogen, to kill crowds of people. He also once controlled the inmates of Dorkham Asylum, although they turned on him when given the chance.
Height:
5'9" (by approximation)
Weight:
Unrevealed
Eyes: Amber
Hair: Green
History:
(Sensational She-Hulk I#20 (fb)) -
In 1969, Dr. John Cereus was a psychologist who opposed the
mind-expanding philosophy of Dr. Timothy Hayes and others. He thought
to condense the minds so as to not allow room for suffering to fit in ,
and to re-conceptualize the self as disposable ingredients in the
industrial process. He conducted an experiment involving packing 100
naked people in a vat meant to hold 90, and exposing them
to his mind-condensing vapor, Serious Gas. As a result of a faulty
welding, he fell down into the vat, where he was trapped for one full
week.
His appearance was altered, as was his
sanity. Most of the hundred
experimental subjects ended up as inmates at Dorkham Asylum, where he
became Chief of Staff. Angered at his inability to achieve stardom for
his theories, he stalked and killed Timothy Hayes and his wife, right
in front of their daughter Purple. Over the next several years, he
altered his gas and began to use it kill crowds of people at
restaurants, gas stations, liquor stores, and a newsstand.
(Sensational She-Hulk I#19) - When She-Hulk and Nosferata, the
now-adult Purple Hayes, interrupted
the arrival of a truckload of his Serious Gas, he vowed revenge. He
sent Three Face to exposing She-hulk to the gas. When she wasn't
killed, but just immobilized and euphoric, he had her brought in for
experimentation.
(Sensational She-Hulk I#20) - When he found he couldn't get a blood sample due to her tough skin, he decided to kill her via electrocution. Nosferata arrived in time to save her. When Nosferata learned that Serious had been the one that killed her parents, he fled, only to fall victim to another faulty welding. He fell to the ground floor of the asylum, where the inmates brutally attacked him, almost killing him.
(Deadpool IV#40 (fb) - BTS) - Cereus had his practitioner's license revoked for mass murder and was incarcerated in Crossmore Prison for the Criminally Insane in England, falling under the care of the eccentric psychologist, Dr. Ella Whitby.
(Deadpool IV#40) - Cereus noted Deadpool's arrival as a patient at Crossmore, but was told by Whitby to go back to his therapy, solving a puzzle with an image of his gas victims. Later, Deadpool discovered he was free to wander around with the other inmates and he brutally attacked them, sending all ten involved to the hospital.
(Deadpool IV#41) - Whitby felt that Cereus was interrupting her discussion with Deadpool and so she had him forcibly removed to an isolation pod.
(Deadpool IV#42) - Later, Cereus stood by when Gerhardt (formerly the Foolkiller) attacked the unconscious Deadpool, but moved back to his cell when he saw Deadpool's brutal retaliation.
Comments: Created by Steve Gerber (writer), Bryan Hitch (pencils) and Jim Sanders III (inks).
What clued Nosferata in on Jack being her parents' killer was when Serious captured her, and planning to shoot her, he said, "Does Satan dance the Funky Chicken 'neath the Harvest Moon?" When questioned on it, he said, "Nothing important...just something I said in an alley 21 years ago and haven't repeated until now." She remembered the quote.
Anyway, this character was pretty much a "Timeslip"...What if Steve Gerber had created the Joker.
Profile by Snood. Updated & expanded by Grendel Prime.
CLARIFICATIONS
:
Jack Serious has no known connections to:
images:
(without ads)
Sensational She-Hulk I#20, p10, pan1 (main image)
Deadpool IV#40, p13, pan2 (headshot)
Appearances:
Sensational She-Hulk I#19-20
(September-October, 1990) - Steve Gerber
(writer), Bryan
Hitch (pencils), Jim Sanders III (inks), Bobbie Chase (editor)
Deadpool IV#40-42 (September-October, 2011) - Daniel Way (writer), Carlo Barberi (pencils), Walden Wong (inks),
Jordan D. White (editor)
Last updated: 04/27/14
Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.
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