LORD PUMPKIN

Real Name: Lord Pumpkin

Identity/Class: Extradimensional (Godwheel/Ultraverse)

Occupation: Former tyrant, crime lord

Group Membership: Formerly the Pumpkin Legion; the Squash Group, Inc.

Affiliations: crow, William Fulmer, Kenny, T. Margulies, Mr. Mischief, Col. Roberto Rinaldo, Rivermen, Roger Sutton, Randall Templeton, an unnamed nun
    formerly led a gang in the South Bronx (Cha-Cha, Fancy, Lucky, Pistol, Shades, Sparky, Tabitha);
    formerly Argus, Dr. Costanzo, Dr. Giles Gittelsohn, NecroMantra, Primevil, the Tradesmen, the girl from the Godwheel farm, the royal guard of his castle on the Godwheel;
    merged with: Argus, Kenny, rat

Enemies: Argus, Arielle and her knights, Bill and his circus (including a number of clowns, such as Shemp and Spunky), Bloodstorm, Boneyard, Cayman, Dr. Costanzo, Dragon Fang, Feline, Flygirl, Russ & Ruth Green, Hardcase, Kenny's mother, Lukasz, Mangle, John Paul Marcello and his men, Mr. Mischief, Morten, NecroMantra, the Night Man, Pressure, Prime, Col. Roberto Rinaldo, Shelley Rogers, Rune, Vittorio Sabatini, secret weapon (Miss Chiu),  Sludge, squash creature, Warstrike, Wong Ten Yu; the prince, king, and queen from the Godwheel; the girl and her parents of the Godwheel farm;
    Loki and Thor of Earth-616

Known Relatives: Unnamed wizard (creator)

Aliases: The friend, Gourd, Hellspawn, King of Fear, King of Hate, Lord of the Pumpkins, Lord Squash, the Pump, Mr. Laird Pump, the Pumpkin-legion, Pumpkin King, the Pumpkin Lord, Pumpy, Squash, Straw

Base of Operations: Currently unknown;
    formerly Col. Roberto Rinaldo's island compound, off the coast of Brazil;
    formerly a field on the Godwheel;
    formerly Vahdala;
    formerly a church in California(?);
    formerly an East Coast traveling circus;
    formerly the closed Majestic Theatre, South Bronx, New York;
    formerly an unnamed kingdom on the Godwheel;
    The Ultraverse

First Appearance: Sludge#3 (December, 1993)

Powers/Abilities: Lord Pumpkin is a magical life-form. He typically uses a scarecrow-like body, with a real pumpkin for a head. His form can be torn to pieces rather easily in some circumstances, but it can often roll with and recover from other forms of blunt trauma without injury; similarly, bullets and knives pass harmless through his form, unless they are used to cut one piece of his body from another. He is not pained from injury to his body, but he can be limited by having limbs severed. He can sew his body back together and regain full function. His body is exquisitely sensitive to flame. His pumpkin is highly susceptible to trauma, but when he is energized, frontal assaults usually fail to reach him. He does not need to eat, drink, breathe, etc.

    Lord Pumpkin draws his power from the candle within his pumpkin-head; it also sometimes symbolizes his life force. It grants him the ability to fire devastating blasts of energy from his mouth, able to instantly incinerate a human, and they can harm even beings as powerful as Prime or Hardcase. In some cases he has affected magical transformations in others, mutating them into hideous freaks. With the candle lit, he sometimes demonstrates superhuman strength, but even without it, he is a savage, treacherous, and murderous combatant.

    Even after being destroyed, Lord Pumpkin will regenerate. At one point he even formed hundreds of miniature versions of himself. Those who consume any of his pumpkin material typically mutate into a pumpkin-like creature which might eventually become a new incarnation of himself.

    Lord Pumpkin has used a magical egg to observe and hear events from a distance, though he apparently could not transmit his own images or sounds through these eggs.

    Lord Pumpkin was served by a number of monstrous creatures of uncertain origin.

    Lord Pumpkin briefly possessed the Roc's Egg, which allowed him to manipulate earth and rock, and the Infinity Power Gem of Earth-616, which granted him virtually unlimited power; he used the latter to form a suit of armor.

History:
(Prime I#12/Ultraverse Premiere#3/3 // NecroMantra/Lord Pumpkin#3 (fb)) - Long ago in a land far away (the Godwheel, actually), there existed the most beautiful of kingdoms. The wise and benevolent king and the beautiful queen were loved by all, but their son--the young prince and the heir the kingdom--was a sadistic little punk who one day blinded one of the servants. The King went to the court magician and bade him create a playmate for the prince--someone possessing the required understanding and patience for the boy. From straw, wood, twine, and a pumpkin, the magician created Lord Pumpkin, a friend for the prince, giving him arms to hug the prince, a brain to teach him, a mouth to sing to him, and an eternally burning magic candle to guide the prince when it was dark, keep him warm from the winter chill, and give him hope in the depths of the night.
    The prince took out his dark aggressions on his new friend, riding him, beating him with sticks, hacking him with axes, and much more. Eventually, however, Lord Pumpkin decided he would play no more, and he slew the prince and hurled his body at the feet of his parents. The king sent his soldiers after Pumpkin, who slew the soldiers and then the king and the queen as well. Lord Pumpkin saved the wizard and conquered the rest of the kingdom, eventually finding a group of knights who chose to serve him (rather than die at his hands), and all those remaining loyal to the former king were slain.

(NecroMantra/Lord Pumpkin#3 (fb)) - The wizard was kept hanging in manacles in Lord Pumpkin's castle's dungeon.

(Prime I#12/Ultraverse Premiere#3/3 (fb)) - The kingdom degenerated into the most hideous one ever as Lord Pumpkin brought sorrow to a new one. He ruled with a cruel and brutal hand and all knew his word was law. Eventually, Pumpkin used a scrying crystal to observe Earth. Intrigued with the superhumans he observed there, he plotted to explore and conquer it.

(Godwheel#0 (fb) - BTS) - Lord Pumpkin encountered Boneyard (who had a slightly different appearance than his 1990s one). The specific details are lacking, but (as Lord Pumpkin saw it) Boneyard betrayed Lord Pumpkin and thought him dead.

(Sludge#3 (fb) - BTS) - Lord Pumpkin replaced an unknown number of straw bodies after they were destroyed.

(Sludge#3 (fb) - BTS // NecroMantra/Lord Pumpkin#3 (fb)) - Lord Pumpkin led an army of Rivermen (monstrous amphibious creatures), left the Godwheel, and came to Earth, establishing himself as a crimelord in the South Bronx. He sold the drug Zuke, derived from the magical Zuke plants he cultivated. Lord Pumpkin came to be served by a number of criminals, and he became the rival of crime lord John Paul Marcello. In addition, Lord Pumpkin started the legitimate business known as the Squash Group, Inc.

(Lord Pumpkin#0 - BTS) -  A group of rebel knights stormed Lord Pumpkin's castle, overpowering his guards, though Arielle was mortally wounded as well by her evil father, whom she slew. They were most frustrated to learn that Lord Pumpkin was nowhere to be found. The enigmatic Mr. Mischief offered to save Arielle and to deliver Lord Pumpkin at the cost of the other rebels' souls. Arielle's head knight agreed--despite her protests, and all of the remaining knights were sucked into Arielle's sword, restoring her life and opening a portal to Earth.

(Sludge#3) - While most of the people of the city were driven temporarily mad by the energies released from the Entity on the Moon, the young Pistol reported to Lord Pumpkin, revealing the nature of Sludge, who had been "puttin' the snuff on Marcello's men," and had been cast into the harbor by the maddened people after being defeated by Marcello's agent Bloodstorm. Lord Pumpkin sent his Rivermen to locate Sludge and bring him back to his base, the Majestic Theatre, hoping to recruit Sludge to his side. Sludge attempted to attack Lord Pumpkin, but after being blasted, he realized that Lord Pumpkin could kill him--which was exactly what Sludge wanted. Sludge continued his assault, but Lord Pumpkin's Rivermen held him back, and Lord Pumpkin explained to Sludge that he would indeed kill him, but only if he earned his death.
    Just then, Marcello's men burst into Lord Pumpkin's base via their War Machine tank, slaughtering several of Lord Pumpkin's men and Rivermen. After briefly reveling in the show of violence, Lord Pumpkin blasted the War Machine, destroying it, but it blew up and killed most others present. Lord Pumpkin, Sludge, and Pistol survived, and Lord Pumpkin reiterated his offer to kill Sludge after he had served him for a time. As Sludge considered refusing the offer, one of Marcello's men crawled from the wreckage and began firing on them. Sludge slew their attacker, but then left, not wishing to serve the vile Lord Pumpkin.

(Sludge#5) - Lord Pumpkin watched with glee via his magic egg as Sludge sought a way to kill himself.

(Sludge#6) - Lord Pumpkin's agent Tabitha made Zuke deliveries and received payments from attorney Roger Sutton, account executive William Fulmer, and investment banker Randall Templeton, but she was ambushed by agents of Marcello, who slew her and dumped her outside the Majestic Theatre. Lord Pumpkin--who considered Tabitha his favorite courier and hoped that their relationship might someday transcend business--was enraged and promised to punish her killer. Lord Pumpkin sent Pistol and the rest of his men to hit the streets and find out who killed Tabitha. After they left he praised Tabitha's strong and brave spirit, saying she had served him well, and that she would serve him once more in death: "Life is sweet, and memories fleet--and the Zuke Plants always need something to eat. Good night, dearest Tabitha."

    Lord Pumpkin perhaps had his men bomb a ship of the Playgo America Corporation, the legitimate front for the Dragon Fang criminal group, causing the leader of the Dragon Fang, Wong Ten Yu, to arrange a meeting with John Paul Marcello. Lord Pumpkin learned of this meeting from Pistol, and Sludge confronted him as he prepared to secretly observe the meeting. Yu and Marcello proposed an alliance to take down Lord Pumpkin, who inspired Sludge to attack Marcello. As Sludge approached, Marcello mistook him for an agent of the Dragon Fang, and the two crime lords held each other at gunpoint while Sludge slaughtered their men. Wanting the crime lords to know what it meant to be his enemy, Lord Pumpkin then appeared and blew up their cars and several of their men with an energy blast. When Sludge insisted that Lord Pumpkin pay him via killing him, Lord Pumpkin refused, telling Sludge that he had only made a small down payment on his service. Lord Pumpkin then commanded Sludge to return to the sewer, threatening him with immense pain without killing him.

(Sludge#7) - Lord Pumpkin sent Pistol to hire T. Margulies, attorney at law, as his agent. After Pistol did so successfully, Lord Pumpkin showed Pistol his Zuke Garden--and the monsters harvesting it, telling Pistol that he would be in charge of distribution of the newer and smaller version, Zuke Buds, and would earn a substantial portion of the profits. He told the young Pistol that he wanted to give him all of the advantages, because Pistol was born with so few.   
    Meanwhile, the injured Wong Ten Yu met with Vittorio Sabatini (Marcello's right-hand-man), sharing with him a sample of Zuke to analyze in return for eliminating Lord Pumpkin. Sabatini hired Bloodstorm to kill Lord Pumpkin, but Lord Pumpkin heard of this via his magic egg and his agent Cha-Cha. Not wishing to miss the visit from Bloodstorm by slaying Sabatini, Lord Pumpkin responded by sending Sludge to slay Marcello, promising Sludge another installment towards his death. Sludge confronted and slew Marcello, as well as any of his men who got in his way.
    In addition, people began to take the Zuke Buds, which sent them into a violent frenzy, resisting even bullet wounds and punching their fists through their victims.

(Sludge#8) - The Squash Group, Inc. began acquiring major holdings in New York's real estate at an astonishing rate. Later, Lord Pumpkin watched via his magic egg as Sabatini paid Bloodstorm to kill Lord Pumpkin. When Pistol offered to kill Bloodstorm for him, Lord Pumpkin told him he didn't want to risk his life because he reminded him of another lad he once knew...long, long, ago...and oh so far away...!
    Lord Pumpkin then appeared before Sludge, offering him another installment towards his death if he slew Bloodstorm. Lord Pumpkin explained the Zuke to Sludge so he would know what the war was all about, at the same time watching Bloodstorm's progress via his magic egg. Bloodstorm slew some of Lord Pumpkin's guards and Rivermen as he forced his way into his base. Lord Pumpkin had placed a replica in his seat, and he then ambushed Bloodstorm after he "killed" the replica. Lord Pumpkin blasted Bloodstorm through a wall, and Pistol shot him through his hand, after which Sludge jammed a bunch of Zuke Buds into his mouth. Bloodstorm began to transform from the Zuke Buds, but Sludge's hand was also affected by the Buds, and it turned back to normal.

(Sludge#9) - Lord Pumpkin further tormented Bloodstorm, jamming a few full-sized Zuke down his throat. Bloodstorm broke free and rushed Lord Pumpkin, who simply rendered him unconscious with a touch. Lord Pumpkin then offered to turn Sludge back to normal if he returned Bloodstorm to Vittorio Sabatini. The mercenary slaughtered many of Sabatini's men before being shot and killed by the remaining gangsters, but gas was released from his bullet wounds that killed even more of them. One of Lord Pumpkin's Rivermen overheard Wong Ten Yu plotting to assassinate Lord Pumpkin and kidnapped reporter Shelley Rogers, who had also overheard the plot. The Dragon Fang began taking out Lord Pumpkin's street pushers and their customers, his uptown Zuke couriers, and his enforcers. Narrowly escaping death, Pistol ran to Lord Pumpkin, who seemed unconcerned, remarking that Wong Ten Yu wanted him to impel him to precipitous action, acting rashly and leaving him open to an assault from the Dragon Fang's secret weapon (the cyborgized Ms. Chiu). Lord Pumpkin tried unsuccessfully to pry the nature of this weapon from Shelley Rogers. Lord Pumpkin then appeared before Sludge promising him the final installment of his fate--all the Zuke he wanted--if he could protect him from the secret weapon.
    Soon enough, the secret weapon, a female cyborg constructed by Playgo America, arrived, making short work of Lord Pumpkin's assassins. Lord Pumpkin struck the cyborg with an energy blast, melting her guns, but leaving her otherwise unharmed. Pistol and Sludge attacked the cyborg, badly injuring it, but when Lord Pumpkin approached she fired an energy beam that cut him in half at the waist. Lord Pumpkin assured his attacker that this was not his first body, nor would it be his last. "I am as infinite as chaos! As eternal as the fires of hate that burn at the core of the universe! I am..."   
    And the cyborg targeted a second blast that went right through his mouth and extinguished the candle burning within him. Lord Pumpkin collapsed to the ground, his inert pumpkin head rolling across the ground. Pistol grabbed the pumpkin, escaping with it as the secret weapon blew up Lord Pumpkin's base.
    Several days later, Pistol still watched over the rotten pumpkin, but he eventually realized Pump wasn't coming back to him, and he cast the pumpkin in the trash.

(Lord Pumpkin#0) -  Lord Pumpkin was reborn in the decaying refuse of a Bleak County, New Jersey landfill, but his memory had faded, and he was without his Candle of Power.

(Lord Pumpkin#0 (fb) - BTS) - The weakened and amnesiac Lord Pumpkin was sold into the service of Bill, an East Coast circus owner.

(Lord Pumpkin#0) -  Lord Pumpkin became the fall guy for a group of sadistic clowns in Bill's circus. Each night, they tormented him, dropping him from great heights, setting him on fire, etc. After the shows, the ultra-phobic Bill--who had purchased a number of ultras to keep in his freakshow--would beat Pump with a stick. Only the young boy Kenny befriended the lonely Pump, but even his mother, an angry dwarf woman, hated "that Oz reject" and eventually went to ask Bill to destroy it once and for all.

    Kenny was desperate to save Pump, and he accepted the magic candle from Mr. Mischief as a gift to Lord Pumpkin. As soon as he received the candle, a sinister change came over Pump; that night, he played out his role in the circus once again, but this time he brutally slaughtered the clowns who had tormented him. Not content with their deaths, Lord Pumpkin mutated Bill and the rest of the circus folk who had tormented him, putting them on display in a freak show.
    Soon thereafter, Arielle arrived on Earth, and Mr. Mischief led her to Lord Pumpkin. Pump sent his mutated agents after her, but as soon as her blood struck her sword, all of her loyal knights were released, and they fought off Pump's agents. Arielle herself attacked Lord Pumpkin, who mocked her attacks until she thrust her sword into his pumpkin head, mortally wounding him. Though Arielle and her knights were pulled back to the Godwheel, her mission had been accomplished. Kenny rushed in just then to find Pump dying, and Pump--playing the innocent friend Kenny had known--asked him to take his candle and keep it with him always. Pump also gave Kenny one of his pumpkin  seeds, telling him to eat it if he really wanted them to be together: "As long as it's inside you, we'll always be together."
    Kenny ate the seed.

(Warstrike: Prelude to Godwheel#1/Giant-Size Warstrike#1 (fb) - BTS) - Kenny fled the circus and began to take on pumpkinesque characteristics, and he entered the care of a nun in a California(?) church. Doctors examined him, to no avail. Kenny kept the candle with him all the while. The nun observed that--though it burned non-stop for the three weeks he was in their care--the candle never went out. During this time Kenny grew increasingly worse.

(Warstrike: Prelude to Godwheel#1/Giant-Size Warstrike#1) - Two months after Lord Pumpkin's death, the nun tried to get Warstrike to use his healing power to help Kenny. Within seconds, however, Kenny transformed fully into the new Lord Pumpkin. He attacked Warstrike and was beaten back, but then Pump grabbed his candle and placed it in his mouth; he unleashed blast after blast at Warstrike, who dodged them all. Impressed, Lord Pumpkin offered Warstrike a bargain, but Warstrike managed to knock him to the ground and stuff his gun into the pumpkin's mouth. The two then vanished from Earth...

(Godwheel#0) - After defeating Rune, Argus (a god of Vahdala) summoned a number of beings of power from Earth to assist in his location of the components of the Crucible of Life (the Crystal Crown, the Roc's Egg, and the Windsword), which would restore his own fading power: Boneyard, Cayman, Feline, Flygirl, Hardcase, Lord Pumpkin, Lukasz, NecroMantra, Pressure, Warstrike, and Prime (though it was actually just an inert Prime skin). Lord Pumpkin and Warstrike briefly teamed up against their mutual enemy, Boneyard, until Hardcase--in an effort to stop the conflicts so that they could figure out what was going on--punched out Lord Pumpkin, smashing him flat against a wall. Eventually Argus immobilized all of his guests and analyzed them for their potential value to him. Argus recognized Lord Pumpkin's power, but also realized he might not be trustworthy. NecroMantra met his approval, and he freed her, after which she agreed to serve Argus if he let her slay the rest of those he had summoned.

(Godwheel#1) - Argus commanded NecroMantra to choose two allies so that the Crucible could be properly used, and she chose Lord Pumpkin and Primevil, whom she created from the inert Prime skin. However, the other Ultras then broke free and escaped, though the recovered Rune ambushed and then impersonated Pressure to infiltrate their number.

(Godwheel#2) - Argus dispatched Lord Pumpkin to the region of the Godwheel known as the Wold--a source of magic--to recover the portion of the Roc's Egg. Before he could grab it he was tackled and punched by Hardcase, but as Flygirl attempted to steal the Roc's Egg while they fought, Lord Pumpkin saw her, blasting her from the sky and causing her to apparently fall to her death. Stunned by this, Hardcase fell victim to one of Pump's blasts as well, allowing Lord Pumpkin to steal the Egg and use it to bind Hardcase in rock. Lord Pumpkin plotted to betray Argus by obtaining the other parts of the Crucible for himself, but Argus recognized this, teleported Pump back to Vahdala, claimed the Roc's Egg, and then smashed Lord Pumpkin's head with a simple sideswipe of his hand.

(Godwheel#3) - Unbeknownst to Argus, a pumpkin batch grew beside and from the seeds of the fallen Lord Pumpkin. Tendrils from the patch reached up, snatched, and consumed Morten, the winged pet of Argus' jester, Iago.

(NecroMantra/Lord Pumpkin#1 (fb) - BTS) - Hundreds of miniature Pumpkin Legions grew from the pumpkin patch, but only one of them could think and act freely. He commanded the others.

(Godwheel#3) - Eventually all of the components of the Crucible of Life were restored to their places, but as NecroMantra tried to steal its power for herself, the Pumpkin Legions swarmed over the field around Crucible, as well as over the heroes. When the field opened, Argus rushed in and claimed the Crucible's power, but was merged with the pumpkins into a monstrous hybrid-creature. The maddened Argus opened a portal to another dimension in hopes of summoning other gods to assist him. His portal opened into the Asgard associated with Earth-616, intended to bring in Loki, but he was instead rewarded with a crushing blow from Mjolnir, the Hammer of Thor. As Thor led the other heroes to overcome Argus, Loki secretly emerged from the portal to Asgard. Thor opened yet another portal, to which he sent the Crystal Crown, and then closed it down after the Argus-pumpkin followed the Crown through the portal.

(NecroMantra/Lord Pumpkin#1 (fb) - BTS) - On Vahdala, one of the surviving tiny Pumpkin Legionnaires spent days trying to locate the Candle of Power. During the same time, a rat that had consumed one of the seeds was transformed into a rat-pumpkin hybrid, and it, too, sought the Candle.

(NecroMantra/Lord Pumpkin#1) - The Pumpkoid located the Candle only seconds before the rat-pumpkin hybrid did, and the two struggled until the Pumpkoid managed to claim the Candle and destroy his attacker. After passing the broken Crystal Crown and Windsword, Lord Pumkin found the Roc's Egg, which he tried to use to restore himself to full size. As he did, however, all of Vahdala was transformed by Loki. Lord Pumpkin commanded the Egg to transport him to the architect of the transformation, but Loki quickly impressed upon Pumpkin which of the two had the power. Lord Pumpkin offered a deal to Loki, the Roc's Egg so he could travel anywhere within the Ultraverse, in exchange for Loki restoring Lord Pumpkin to what he once was. Loki did so, but he chose a different "once" than Lord Pumpkin had intended: Lord Pumpkin found himself a helpless scarecrow tied to a cross in a field.

(NecroMantra/Lord Pumpkin#2) - The helpless Lord Pumpkin befriended the lonely young girl who lived in the house by the field, eventually convincing her to cut him down, in exchange for his promise to always remain her friend and to never leave her. As soon as he was free, however, he revealed his true nature, terrifying the young girl and stealing her teddy bear, Mr. Muffin, which contained the Candle of Power. Lord Pumpkin followed the girl back to her house, and slew her mother, and then her father (though not before the father cut him in half at the waist with a scythe). A talking crow then confronted Lord Pumpkin, questioning his violent nature, motives, and desires. Lord Pumpkin--by promising not to hurt the girl--convinced the crow to obtain the hook needle so he could sew himself back up, but no sooner had he done so than he murdered the little girl. Pump then snatched the crow from the air and threatened to kill him, too, but the crow persuaded him not to by piquing his interest in where the crow came from, how it could talk, or why it saved them.
    Lord Pumpkin and the crow left to find the wizard that had created Lord Pumpkin.

(NecroMantra/Lord Pumpkin#3) - Lord Pumpkin returned to his former castle, slaying all he encountered, despite the crow's arguments. As they traveled, Lord Pumpkin revealed his past, though the crow declined to share its own tale. As they approached the castle, Lord Pumpkin prepared to rush into it, but the crow cautioned him to use stealth, as the castle was now in the hands of another. Via a secret passage, Lord Pumpkin made his way into the castle's lower levels, slaying guards he found there. One of the guards revealed that the wizard had suffered some unspecified fate, and that Queen Marinna now sat on the throne.

(NecroMantra/Lord Pumpkin#4) - Lord Pumpkin entered the castle, slaying his former guards and threatening to slay the queen. He went on to confront Captain Bjork, forcing him to renew his vows of loyalty, gather the soldiers, and slay all who would stand against him. Lord Pumpkin finally confronted Marinna, who revealed herself as NecroMantra. The two fought savagely, with Lord Pumpkin slaying the loyal queen's guard, but NecroMantra absorbed their life forces and increased her power. The fight continued, back and forth, until one of the mysterious tradesmen teleported Lord Pumpkin away, offering him the Infinity Power Gem to regain his throne and defeat the usurper if he would turn NecroMantra over to the Tradesmen. Enhanced by the Power Gem, Lord Pumpkin returned to the castle and led an army against NecroMantra's forces. Lord Pumpkin forged for himself a suit of powerful armor and attacked NecroMantra himself, but she managed a spell that increased the armor's strength, turning it into a prison. However, the Tradesmen then arrived and claimed NecroMantra. The seemingly all-powerful Lord Pumpkin then vanquished all resistance, but then the small girl (who had freed Lord Pumpkin from his bonds and had been slain in return) then appeared. A magical creation of Loki, the girl resisted the Gem's power and tore it from Lord Pumpkin's mouth.
    The next dark night, the inert Lord Pumpkin was again bound to a cross in a field, while a crow flew overhead. A woman who looked to be NecroMantra took a necklace from (or placed a necklace in, it's hard to tell) Lord Pumpkin's mouth. While the young girl and her teddy bear prepared a tea party.

(Black September Infinity - BTS) - Nemesis used the combined power of the Infinity Gems to alter reality throughout the Ultraverse.

(Night Man II#3) - Traveling to the Godwheel in pursuit of demons, the Night Man encountered Lord Pumpkin tied to cross in the field. He told the Night Man that the demons had bound him there and that he could lead Night Man to the demons. As soon as the Night Man cut him free, Lord Pumpkin leapt down, replaced his candle of power, and attacked him. Due to being recently imbued with magic by Earth-616's Loki, the Night Man proved immune to Pump's energy blasts, so Lord Pumpkin summoned an army of knights to fight him. After the Night Man had defeated them, Lord Pumpkin attacked again, but the Night Man managed to snare the candle from his mouth and toss it into the field. As Lord Pumpkin went after it, the Night Man returned to his Earth.
    There the Night Man encountered his old foe Mangle, and he became bewildered as the battle almost exactly paralleled the battle with Lord Pumpkin, right down to the words each opponent spoke.

(Night Man II#4) - The Night Man electrocuted Mangle and returned through the portal to the Godwheel and confronted Lord Pumpkin, who told him who the Ultraverse's Earth had split into two separate realities, which threatened to unravel both. Night Man lassoed Lord Pumpkin's head and arm and then pummeled him, but Mangle followed Night Man through the portal and disrupted the fight, allowing Lord Pumpkin to get free. However, some sort of freaky cosmic connection between the histories of Lord Pumpkin and Mangle (as if they were "parallel expressions of a single impulse") caused their energies to intertwine, entrapping both and then dispersing the molecules and energies of both.
    The crow clarified the above information, noting that it itself was the Godwheel's counterpart of the Night Man. He further commented that Lord Pumpkin and Mangle's energies would settle down in time and they would reconstitute in their appropriate realms with no more fear of an event such as this.

(Prime II#14 (fb) - BTS) - According to Col. Roberto Rinaldo, there had once been a powerful spirit that wreaked havoc in his native Latin American town.

(Prime II#14 (fb) - BTS) - Antique traders in Pakistan came into possession of an ancient Pumpkin, which was in perfect condition despite the fact that it should have decomposed about a thousand years ago. The wealthy, eccentric, megalomaniac Col. Rinaldo obtained the Pumpkin, and he put his top scientist, Dr. Costanzo in charge of tapping into the relic's power via Project Pumpkin. However, Dr. Costanzo teamed with Dr. Giles Gittelsohn to topple the mad would-be dictator, allowing Gittelsohn access to the project and enabling him to sabotage it, altering data, etc.

(Prime II#15 (fb) - BTS) - When they first began to cultivate the Pumpkin, Costanzo and Gittelsohn tried cross pollinating other forms of vegetation into the same chamber in hopes of improving the survival instincts of the pumpkin, which is typically a fairly weak breed. Rinaldo was set on creating an invincible vegetable army that he could grow at will.
    When Costanzo added seeds from a squash (a much more aggressive species of plant), it quickly began to overtake the pumpkin, so they had to remove the squash seeds and plants.

(Prime II#13 - BTS) - Rinaldo's scientists reported serious difficulties with the hydroponic project they had started last month. Rinaldo's girlfriend, Carmilla, received the message and deliberately failed to report it to Rinaldo.

(Prime II#14 (fb) - BTS) - Lord Pumpkin was eventually restored to life and full power, now possessing greatly superhuman strength and durability.

(Prime II#14) - The problems at Project Pumpkin continued to worsen, and vines spread throughout Dr. Costanzo's laboratory and then into the rest of Col. Rinaldo's compound. Later, as Prime attempted to take down Rinaldo, the Colonel ordered Lord Pumpkin to slay the hero, but Lord Pumpkin merely bound Prime with vines and then used other vines to slay Rinaldo. Lord Pumpkin then revealed his existence to Prime.

(Prime II#15) - Lord Pumpkin demonstrated his newfound strength, pummeling Prime and then sending his vines to strangle Prime's mother, Ruth Green. With the threat of his mother's death, Prime backed down, turning back into Kevin Green. Lord Pumpkin had Kevin and his father, Russ Green, locked up in the brig while he formulated a plan...to take over the world!
    Meanwhile, in an effort to destroy Lord Pumpkin, Dr. Costanzo returned to his lab and used the Pumpkin Project to cultivate a squash creature, and this creature attacked Lord Pumpkin. With the Pump's control distracted, Kevin turned back into Prime, freed his family, took Costanzo, and escaped. As the two mad vegetable men battled, the compound exploded.

Comments: Created by Dan Danko, Steve Gerber, Aaron Lopresti, and Gary Martin.

    According to coctoasten (which, I believe was the false last name Chevy Chase came up with in Fletch):

Lord Pumpkin was not created by Steve Gerber. Dan Danko is the creator and LP came to appear in Sludge via Aaron Lopresti. Prior to his Sludge appearance, LP was a character write-up that existed as a part of Danko's contribution at the original Ultraverse founders' meeting. Lopresti was intrigued by the character and contacted Malibu about doing the visual design and bringing him into Sludge as a villain. Coincidentally, at this same time, a Malibu staff artist also came across the character description and created his own visual. While Lopresti's is the version that eventually saw print, the other artist shared co-design credit with Lopresti.

    Also, the candle is often mistaken as LP's life force, which it is not. LP is able to exist without it, as in Lord Pumpkin #0 or LP/Necromantra. In some stories the candle was extinguished when LP "died," but it was intended more symbolically.

    Gerber rocks. Actually, for the most part, Lord Pumpkin was a pretty cool character in all of his appearances, though the post-Black September Prime issues were his weak point.

    According to the crow, Lord Pumpkin was consumed with self-loathing, and he hated people for being everything he was not, for being human.

Profile by Snood.

CLARIFICATIONS:
No known connection to:

• PUMPKIN - --New Warriors Annual#1/5
• Straw Man - Fearlord, magical warden, centuries old, lives within dimension accessed by painting which is painted over a picture of Kalumai--Dead of Night#11, Dr. Strange III#38
• Squash of the Microverse - Little D’s Den O’ Thieves--Micronauts I#53
• JACK O'LANTERN (Jason Macendale) - who went on to become the Hobgoblin--Machine Man I#19
• JACK O'LANTERN - better known as MAD JACK, an identity apparently shared between Danny Berkhart (Mysterio) and Maguire Beck—Spectacular Spider-Man II#241
• Jack O'Lantern ( ) - Skeleton Crew, costume and abilities patterned after Macendale, employed by Golembuski—Captain America I#396
• It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown...

No one else in the profile has any connection to anyone outside of the Ultraverse unless specifically referenced as such.

images:
Sludge#3, p15, panel 3 (with blue cape)
Sludge#6 cover (face with gun)
Ultraverse Premiere#3/3, p3
Lord Pumpkin#0 cover
        p11, panel 4 (clown)
        p28 (with circus folk)
Warstrike: Prelude to Godwheel#1/Giant-Size Warstrike#1, p30, panel 2 (Kenny-pumpkin)
Godwheel#3, p19, panel 4 (Pumpkoids)
        p22, panel 1 (Argus-pumpkin)
NecroMantra/Lord Pumpkin#1, p4, panel 1 (hybrid-rat & miniature Pumpkin)
    #4, p23, panel 1 (Power Gem armor)

Prime I#12/Ultraverse Premiere#3 (May, 1994) - Norm Breyfogle (writer/artist), Hank Kanalz (editor)
Sludge#6 (March 1994) - Aaron Lopresti (writer/pencils), Gary Martin (inks), Steve Gerber (editor)
Sludge#6-8 (March, June-July, 1994) - Steve Gerber (writer), Aaron Lopresti (pencils), Gary Martin (inks), Chris Ulm (editor)
Sludge#9 (September, 1994) - Steve Gerber (writer), Robb Phipps (pencils), Jeff Whiting, Dave Simons & Bruce McCorkle (inks), Roland Mann & Phil Crain (editors)
Warstrike: Prelude to Godwheel#1/Giant-Size Warstrike#1 (December, 1994) - Dan Danko (writer), Keith Conroy (pencils), Larry Welch (inks), Roland Mann (editor)
Godwheel#0-3 (January-February, 1995)
Lord Pumpkin#0 (February, 1995) - Dan Danko (writer), Aaron Lopresti & Gary Martin (pencils), Gary Martin (inks), Roland Mann (editor)
NecroMantra/Lord Pumpkin#1-2 (April-May, 1995) - Dan Danko (writer), Kyle Hotz (pencils), Pav Kovacic (inks)
Necromantra/Lord Pumpkin#3 (June, 1995) - Dan Danko (writer), Jeff Lafferty (pencils), Pav Kovacic (inks)
Necromantra/Lord Pumpkin#4 (July, 1995) - Mike Barr & Dan Danko (writers), Jeff Lafferty (pencils), Pav Kovacic (inks)