10 Comic Book Characters Who Are Better Off Dead

Johann Kraus was born in 1946 and by age ten was already seeing figures that no one else could see. He taught himself to communicate with the dead and release his own ectoplasm from his body. Kraus was exposed to occult studies at a young age and continued his skills, so, by 1971, he opened a small office in Munich and became a well-respected medium.

In Chengdu, China in February 2002, the government seized a warehouse filled with mystical artifacts. A thief opened a box with a Jade figure inside, releasing a massive amount of psychic energy that killed everyone within a hundred miles and sent a shockwave through the ethereal plane. At that same moment, a deceased Chinese boy reached out to Johann while he was conducting a séance for the family of Heinrich Wagner. The shockwave from Chengdu went through the boy, then through Johann. It killed the entire Wagner family and destroyed Kraus’ body.

Knowing that his ectoplasmic form would dissipate without help, Johann reached out to the most knowledgeable paranormal minds on the planet, the Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defence. They originally kept Johann in a glass tube but eventually developed a more mobile containment suit. Finding his abilities even more heightened and no longer needing to eat or sleep without a body, Kraus became a tireless and indispensable part of the B.P.R.D.