LUCRE

Real Name: Lucre Shreckenadder

Identity/Class: Human magic and technology user

Occupation: Horror Movie Director, inventor of the Nightmare Chairs and owner of Club Fear and the Lucre Films studio

Group Membership: None

Affiliations: Exile, Edvard Haberdash (Nightmare), Roxanne

Enemies: See affiliations (everybody turned against him at some point)

Known Relatives: Exile (twin brother), his unnamed mother

Aliases: None

Base of Operations: Realm of Exiles
formerly: Club Fear on Coney Island

First Appearance: Nightmare#1 (December, 1994)

Powers/Abilities: None. He was a master of horror and loved everything that was terrifying. He knew much about the occult and tried to combine it with his knowledge about technology. He invented a virtual reality booth called Nightmare Chair to take fear to the next stage and make the terror he produced real.

History:

(Nightmare#1 (fb) ): Mrs. Shreckenadder knew that she was pregnant with twins and bought a stroller for twins.

(Nightmare#2 (fb) ): Lucre shared the womb of his mother with his twin brother.

(Nightmare#4 (fb) ): Lucre continued to share the womb with his brother after his twin died. Together they spun in a state of permanent birth trauma. They were both insane with pain.

(Nightmare#1-2 (fb) ): Lucre was born and raised as the son of Mr. and Mrs. Shreckenadder at a Carnival. He developed a love-hate relationship with horror. Over the years he collected many terrifying items. He also had a strange affection for duality which never came to his own attention. Because of his relationship to horror he became a horror movie director. He opened his own studio and lived next to it in an old opera house where he also stored his collection. He became very successful in the business with his outlandish horror films thanks to Roxanne who starred in many of them as Taran Tula.

(Nightmare#1) - Lucre was filming another movie with Roxanne as Taran Tula and was angry with her because she had just ruined a shot by joking around. He took her to his office to speak with her. He told her that she could be exchanged anytime. Lucre got even more angry with Roxanne when she asked him if he had a twin after she saw a picture of Lucre's mother with a stroller for twins. Lucre was left alone by her afterwards. The next night Lucre felt that someone was watching him in his dream. He fell into a dry womb and heard his brother talk to him. Lucre woke up and couldn't believe that he had a brother.

(Nightmare#2) - The next day Lucre met Edvard Haberdash, the new boyfriend of Roxanne. Lucre showed Edvard his collection of mystic items. They talked about Roxanne and other things. Lucre also explained that he was drawn to terrifying things because he was raised in a carnival. Edvard pointed out a strange attraction to duality in Lucre's collection and Lucre changed the topic. He showed Edvard the Nightmare Chair and Edvard saw the potential in this technology. Later that night Lucre had a nightmare again. He walked across the carnival monsters to a mirror and saw his twin, Exile, in it. Exile attached himself to Lucre and explained his plans. After the dream Lucre was inspired again and knew exactly what the Nightmare Chair needed to work. He now knew that the fears of those who entered would be the power source of it. He wasn't sure if the knowledge he got from his dream was opening a door to somewhere and he didn't care. He was ready to build Club Fear.

(Nightmare#2 - BTS) - Lucre added an antenna on the Nightmare Chair. He ordered the constuction of a couple of Nightmare Chairs and changed his home into Club Fear.

(Nightmare#3) - Lucre fell asleep in a Nightmare Chair and met his brother, Exile, in his dream. The expert for virtual reality woke him up and they talked about the changes to the design of the Nightmare Chair. The expert wanted to know the reason for the antenna, but Lucre didn't know what it did and only knew that it had to be there. The grand opening of Club Fear was a success. Lucre watched his guests leave Club Fear satisfied with fear and he loved it. Roxanne asked Lucre for help because Edvard had begun to scare her. Lucre didn't help her because he thought that she got what she deserved. Edvard came to Lucre and offered him his help in making Club Fear an ever bigger success and Lucre agreed to the alliance. The next day they met to finish the deal to become partners. Lucre continued to enjoy the success and the groupies and once again took a nap in the Nightmare Chair.

(Nightmare#4) - With Edvard's improvements the Nightmare Chair became even better and Lucre loved it. His club was hit and he made millions with it. Lucre went with Edvard to the original Nightmare Chair and offered to let him use it, because his brother, Exile, had told him to bring Nightmare to the chair. Both tried to get the other one into the chair and in the end Lucre went to film another scene with Roxanne and Edvard went with him. Lucre wasn't too happy with Roxanne's performance once again and humiliated her. She left and Lucre asked Edvard to bring her back. Lucre filmed how Edvard pushed Roxanne into the Nightmare Chair as well as the following fight against the fear assassins of Exile. Lucre went to sit in the chair after Edvard told him how enlightening it was. The chair connected Lucre to his brother Exile and he lost his soul. The body of Lucre got frozen in fear and became a part of the displayed items in Club Fear. His soul was now in the possession of Exile and imprisoned in the Realm of Exiles.

Comments: Created by Ann Nocenti, Joe Bennett and Mike Witherby.

The definition of Shreckenadder to quote Lucre himself is: "Horror at the end of the desert". Funny!

Thanks to NexusOfNightmares for pointing out that Club Fear was actually mentioned in Doctor Strange, Sorcerer Supreme#79.

Profile by Markus Raymond

Clarifications: Lucre Shreckenadder has no known connections to:

• Luc - former prisoner of Dermafree-Mystique#17
• Shreck - Terror of Earth-88194--St. George#2
• Shreck, Dheilius - the Last Disciple of Thanos of Earth-829--Hercules II#3
• anyone else with a similar name

Club Fear has no known connection to:

• Club Noir - front for Jason Tso' gang--Web of Scarlet Spider#1
• Club Ultimate - place where Rick Jones imposter played--Alias#7
• Fear - husband of Desire--Thor I#323
• Fear Bugs 2099 - creatures of asteroid JM881--Punisher 2099#25/3
• Fear Eaters - extraterrestrial entities--Marvel Comics Presents I#1/4
• Fearful Eliza - torture device of Inanna's bailiff--Hellstorm: Prince of Lies#15
• Fear Lords - alliance of demons--Doctor Strange, Sorcerer Supreme#31/2
• Fear Machine - of Jarella's World--Incredible Hulk II#156
• Fearmaster - aka. Atalon of Earth-691--Amazing Adventures II#27
• Fearmaster 2099 - head of Cyber-Nostra--Punisher 2099#2
• Fearsome Fist of Farallah - power item which empowered Carnivore--Iron Man III#22
• Fearsome Foursome - band of FF enemies--Fantastic Four I#377
• Mister Fear - aka. Zoltan Drago--Daredevil I#6
• Mister Fear - aka. Machinesmith--Daredevil I#54
• Mister Fear - aka. Larry Cranston--Daredevil I#91
• Mister Fear, aka. Alan Fagan--Marvel Team-Up I#92
• any other fear character or club

The Nightmare Chairs have no known connection to:

• Chairman - Spider-Man foe--Hostess Twinkies Cakes advertisement
• Chairman 2099 - or the Ratpack 2099--X-Men 2099#2
• Chairman Kang - Council of Cross-Time Kangs--Avengers I#293
• Chair-Thing - chair animated by Kidney Lady--Howard the Duck II#1
• Nightmare - Topaz's soul mutated by Dr. Glitternight--Werewolf by Night I#27
• Nightmare Box - item used by Thog--Man-Thing I#20
• Nightmare Killer - of New Universe--Star Brand#16/2
• Nightmare House - of Earth-Nightside--Nightside#1
• Nightmare Robot from Outer Space - aka. Orogo--Journey into Mystery I#57
• Nightmerica - the Wright-Armstrong base--Hulk: Nightmerica#1
• anyone else with a similar name

Club Fear

Originally it was the home of Lucre, but after a nightmare he knew that it had to be more. He renamed it Club Fear and made it a place for all those people who craved for the ultimate horror. Thanks to the technology of the Nightmare Chairs it became a huge success and all costumers left the club in total fear. Aside from the Nightmare Chair a huge model collection of Lucre's horror characters could be seen in Club Fear. Edvard Haberdash a.k.a. Nightmare, the partner of Lucre, became the owner of Club Fear after Lucre's soul was snatched by Exile. Club Fear continued to be a success under his control.

Nightmare kept control over his realm from Club Fear.

--Nightmare#3 (Nightmare#3-4, [Doctor Strange, Sorcerer Supreme#79], Over the Edge#7

Nightmare Chair

The Nightmare Chair was a virtual reality booth designed to make people's terrors real. Lucre added an antenna to the design of his VR specialist which connected the Nightmare Chairs to Exile's tower and the Dreamland portal in the Realm of Nightmare. The Nightmare Chairs went into production and they became the money maker of Club Fear. For Exile the Nightmare Chair became a way to send his demonic assassins into human hosts on Earth. Lucre used the original Nightmare Chair himself when he believed the lies of Edvard and as a result lost his soul to Exile. Edvard continued to use the Nightmare Chairs as the main attraction of Club Fear.

--Nightmare#2 (Nightmare#2-4, Over the Edge#7

images:
Nightmare#1, p29, pan4 (Lucre falling)
Nightmare#3, p16, pan4 (Lucre head shot)
Nightmare#4, p1, pan1 (Club Fear)
Nightmare#4, p30, pan5 (Nightmare Chair)

Appearances:
Nightmare#1-4 (December, 1994 - March, 1995) - Ann Noventi (writer), Joe Bennett (pencils), Mike Witherby (inks), Chris Cooper (editor)
Doctor Strange, Sorcerer Supreme#79 (July, 1995) - David Quinn (writer), Evan Skolnick (script), Marie Severin (pencils), Art Nichols & Don Hudson (inks), Marie Javins (editor)
Over the Edge#7 (May, 1996) - John Rozum (writer), Stephen Jones (pencils), Mike Witherby & Ralph Cabrera (inks), James Felder (editor)