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Werewolf By Night has officially joined the MCU as part of his eponymous streaming special, the first full-fledged foray into Marvel Studios' burgeoning horror wing.
What's more, when it comes to Marvel Horror characters, Werewolf By Night is just the tip of the iceberg himself in his own Disney Plus streaming special, which also includes Man-Thing and Elsa Bloodstone in prominent roles.
Article continues belowFrankencastle
Meet Frankencastle - AKA that time the Punisher got murdered, chopped up, and Frankensteined back together, literally.
The Punisher is a problematic character in 2022 - there's no getting around the controversies about misuse of his symbol, and the presence of brutal gun violence in most of his stories.
So unless you want to make him a super-angel demon hunter on Earth (like his late '90s Marvel Knights reboot), and we don't recommend it, you've got another good option to change the game while still keeping Frank Castle on the table by changing him into Frankencastle.
What's the deal with Frankencastle? Well, exactly what we said at the top. Frank Castle is killed, dismembered, reassembled, and revived as a living monster (more or less like Mary Shelley's classic tale of Frankenstein and his creation) who hunts down bigger, badder monsters.
It's hard to superhero-ize a guy like Punisher for the MCU the way She-Hulk lightened up Daredevil. But Frankencastle could provide a fun and slightly twisted way to bring him into the burgeoning Marvel Horror wing as a slayer of fictional monsters rather than a killer of human ones.
Devil-Slayer
Devil-Slayer may not come to mind for most modern Marvel fans, but for those who grew up on the stories of the weird and wild '70s, he's a cult favorite. Formerly a marine known as Eric Payne, the Devil-Slayer was imbued with psychic powers by a cabal of demon worshippers known as the Cult of the Harvester of Eyes. Horror, indeed.
Payne later joined the Defenders, fighting alongside Gargoyle (another horror character on this list). Though his heyday faded with the '70s, Devil Slayer has remained a staple of Marvel Comics with recurring if somewhat sporadic appearances as a supporting character.
He even has a connection to Man-Thing (also on this list), through whose connection to the Nexus of All Realities Devil-Slayer experienced visions of a multitude of worlds - meaning he might be a perfect character to help bridge the gap between the MCU's Multiverse phase and its burgeoning horror wing.
Kid Kaiju
Giant monsters have been a part of pop culture horror stories since King Kong, Godzilla, and the Blob became hallmarks of the genre on film - and Marvel Comics is no different. In the late '50s, prior to the start of the Marvel Universe, Stan Lee and Jack Kirby made their name as the creators of lurid, exciting sci-fi horror stories featuring giant monsters such as Fin Fang Foom, Googam Son of Goom, and the Gorgilla.
Over the decades, some of those monsters have been grandfathered into the Marvel Universe, and a few years ago Marvel celebrated the concept with the creation of Kid Kaiju, a young hero with the power to communicate with and command the Marvel Monsters.
So just to be clear, there's a kid in the Marvel Universe whose power is that he can command Kaiju. In the era of Pacific Rim and Jurassic World, that sounds like the makings of a blockbuster movie to us.
Dracula
Yep. Dracula. The actual, literal Dracula (or at least the Marvel Comics version of the public domain character).
In the '70s, when changes to the Comics Code Authority allowed more open depictions of horror concepts in comic books, Marvel relied heavily on Dracula as the anchor of their supernatural horror wing - even crossing him over with characters such as the X-Men, Moon Knight, and of course Blade the vampire hunter, who actually made his debut in the long-running title Tomb of Dracula.
Maybe it might seem a bit silly to bring the most famous vampire in literature into the MCU, but who better to be an adversary for someone like Blade, or perhaps a supernatural hero team up? Dracula is such a lynchpin of classic Marvel horror, there's something to the idea of Marvel's version of him coming to the screen.
Sleepwalker
Sleepwalker was a hit character in the early '90s, but since then, he's become relatively obscure in the Marvel Universe. But for fans who remember him, his adventures had a major impact. Sleepwalker is just one of a whole group of alien-like beings who police the world of dreams, taking on nightmares and villains in the psychic realm.
Sleepwalker is a psychedelic high-concept horror fantasy in which the lines between the waking world and the dream world are blurred - something like Marvel's more superhero-focused version of the Sandman.
And as a bonus, the MCU may have already been laying the groundwork for Sleepwalker, with Loki mentioning a group like the TVA that polices dreams, and the concept of 'dreamwalking' coming into Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness.
Magik
Magik of the X-Men did appear in the ill-fated and little-watched New Mutants film, but as with probably just about all of the Fox X-Men movie characters, we're expecting the MCU will give her a total makeover if they bring her back. And bring her back they should - with a focus on her comic book backstory and her burgeoning place as one of the most powerful mages in Marvel Comics.
Not only does Magik have the power to teleport through the harrowing dimension of Limbo (seen in the MCU already in the Loki streaming series), she's also such a powerful magic user that she's even been a candidate to take over for Doctor Strange as Sorcerer Supreme - a title she actually held in an alt-future.
Give us a downright scary Magik whose second nature as the demonic Darkchilde is on display, and you've got a totally unique mutant for the MCU, with possible connections to Doctor Strange himself.
The Gargoyle
Maybe you haven't heard of Gargoyle, but in the '70s and '80s, he was one of Marvel's premiere horror characters as a member of the Defenders and the star of his own nightmare-fueled solo limited series.
Gargoyle is actually an elderly man named Isaac Christian who made a deal with demons for power and prosperity - with his wish being granted in classic Monkey's Paw fashion when the demons turned his body into that of the monstrous Gargoyle. Though he started out as a villain fighting the Defenders, he quickly joined up with them, seeking a way to return to his human form.
Imagine something like David Cronenberg's The Fly, but with an old man turning into a demonic creature, longing for his humanity - that's the horror potential in the Gargoyle.
Nightmare
Nightmare is 0-for-2 in terms of chances to make it into the MCU, with the villain long rumored for possible inclusion in both the first Doctor Strange movie and Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. But Nightmare was passed over both times, leaving one of Strange's oldest and most powerful foes in the lurch
However, there's a lot more to Nightmare than just his rivalry with Doctor Strange, and he's had showdowns with plenty of Marvel heroes - including a notable story in which he matched wits with Kid Loki.
Nightmare is one of the Fear Lords in Marvel Comics, beings who embody the concept of terror itself. And with a name like Nightmare, you can imagine what aspect of fear comes under his purview - meaning that there are few other characters, hero or villain, who have as much direct connection to the theme of 'horror' in the Marvel Universe.
Terror, Inc.
Terror, Inc. is actually the name of a comic title featuring a super weird superhero named Terror, who is basically an eternal zombie who can detach and control parts of his body - and who can replace his body parts with parts of other beings.
He uses this ability as a private investigator and crimefighter, thanks to the other property of his bizarre powerset, which tells him the history of whatever formerly living thing he took the body part from - a pretty handy power when you're solving murders.
Terror is a cult classic Marvel hero who was originally intended as a way to bring back characters like Werewolf By Night and Morbius for a new wave of Marvel Horror. That plan didn't work out in comics, but Terror could be a perfect addition to the MCU.
Think X-Files meets iZombie set in the Marvel Universe, and you'll see the possibilities.
Mephisto
If you're an MCU fan, you've undoubtedly heard of Mephisto by now, as the devilish manipulator is one of the most called-for and requested Marvel supervillains yet to be adapted into the MCU.
There's not much to say about Mephisto that hasn't been said - but we'll reiterate that not only is Mephisto an important character in Marvel Comics lore as its closest analog to the Christian devil, he's also currently facing off with the Avengers in the lead up to the story that's being billed as the "biggest Avengers epic ever."
In other words, there are few Marvel horror characters as connected to the Marvel Universe as Mephisto - and the MCU horror wing just wouldn't be the same without him.
