Dr Death is a much more historic character in the DC Universe than most fans (and us) would've given him credit for. Appearing in Detective Comics #29 in July 1939, he was a mad scientist and usually credited as being the first real supervillain Batman ever faced! Well, in the New 52 continuity he's technically the second villain, but you know what we mean. In the few previous incarnations, his modus operandi involved poison gas and biological weapons, but the character never really made too much of an impression, remaining an obscure footnote in Bat-history. Zero Year's vision of the character is quite the departure from before, however. Now he is Dr Karl Helfern, a disgruntled scientist who worked for Wayne Enterprises and developed a serum that caused uncontrollable bone growth. He is monstrously skeletal in appearance, with inhumanly large teeth, bulbous eyes and grotesque bones randomly protruding and jutting out at horrific angles. The image of Dr Death and of the poor souls who he tests his serum on gave Greg Capullo free reign to bring back some of the hideous verve he brought to his work on Spawn. The guy draws great monsters. Some panels are so hideous, it actually makes the reader want to look away. We reckon Capullo would see that as a job well done in this instance!
