Happy Halloween, henchies! And welcome to another spooktacular List of Six! Who doesn’t love some good, holiday-themed internet nonsense? I know I do! I’ve made it a bit of a habit, and it’s not one I intend to break anytime soon! This year, we’re doing pumpkins!

These things!

And you’re going to have to cut me a little slack, because there just aren’t very many pumpkin characters in comics. I’ve wanted to do pumpkins for awhile, but it’s only with some suspension of disbelief that I’m going to pull this off. I’ve already done skeletons, witches, ghosts, classic movie monsters and Cerberus, the coolest of all mythical beasts. And then I went and wasted cats and bats on non-holiday lists. So we’re going to get a little choosy and go with pumpkins this year!

Join me after the jump for some really great jack o’lanterns!

Honorable Mention: That one single-panel Strong Guy costume

It could work for another superhero!

As we all know, the greatest comic book Halloween story is that one issue of X-Men Unlimited wherein Strong Guy, Multiple Man, Wolfsbane and the Beast battled the Hell Toupee. You know it’s true. Anyway, this issue served as a re-introduction for Strong Guy to get him some press for a comic series that I don’t think ever actually happened. In the middle of the comic, his friends try to get him a new super-suit, resulting in that Halloween-themed garb you see up there! It looks neat, but in no way fits the ongoing character or his adventures. And yes, it’s possible this list only exists so I can show off that single panel of a decades-old comic I loved in my youth!

6. The Great Pumpkin

Poor Linus

Look, the Peanuts are comics. Maybe not superhero comics, but you don’t have superhero comics without Charlie Brown and Linus doing their thing for so many years. Or you probably do, considering superheroes pre-date Peanuts…The point is, there aren’t many classic pumpkin characters, and the Great Pumpkin is as good as it gets! It’s also some elaborate metaphor on faith, which is some pretty heady stuff.

5. Green Goblin

Does he carve the faces himself?

Heeeey, let’s cut me a little more slack, huh? I picked Six as the length of these lists and I’m gonna stick with six. Even if it means choosing the Green Goblin because he uses Pumpkin Bombs as his primary weapon. Why does he use Pumpkin Bombs? I don’t honestly know. Was it ever explained in the comic? Does anybody know? What does a goblin have to do with flaming jack o’lantern heads? I don’t know, I don’t care; he makes the list!

4. Jack Pumpkinhead

Adorable

OK, look, I’m a total fraud. I was just running out of ideas for Halloween lists and pumpkins are cool, and I’m doing what I can to make this work! Jack Pumpkinhead is a character from The Marvelous Land of Oz! That was a novel! And it wasn’t even the first book in the Oz series! What business do I have including him? Sure, there have been plenty of comic book adaptations of Oz. Do those count? There was a cool story in the 90s called simply Oz by Caliber Comics, and he was a main character. He was in Fables for a little bit. And Skottie Young drew the picture you see above for an ongoing Wizard of Oz comic. I’m doing my best here, people!

3. Merv Pumpkinhead

The lips! Where are the lips?!

Oh thank God, an actual comic book character! Merv Pumpkinhead appeared in Neil Gaiman’s Sandman comic in the 90s! He’s Dream’s surly, good-hearted janitor and bus driver. That makes him pretty cool. He even got his own mini-series in 2000 called Merv Pumpkinhead: Agent of DREAM, where he got to be a secret agent! That’s cool! What’s that? He was most likely modeled after Jack Pumpkinhead and might not even be considered his own character? Don’t pull that crap on me! Jack Pumpkinhead never got to be a secret agent!

2. Jack O’Lantern

He’s made it into cartoons!

Alright, we made it! Two actual comic book characters with pumpkins for heads. No more need to stretch the meaning of this list or grasp at straws! Jack O’Lantern is a really cool Spider-Man villain with a flaming jack o’lantern as a head! He’s kind of a low tier guy, and he’s also…sigh…kind of a Green Goblin rip-off. They both fly around on gliders and do crimes. But he’s definitely his own guy. And hopefully there’s an issue out there somewhere where he fights Ghost Rider, because there really should be.

1. Lord Pumpkin

Seems like a sewer kind of guy

Now we’re cooking with pumpkin spice! Lord Pumpkin is a powerful sorcerer and villain from the Malibu Comics Ultraverse. Remember those guys? Probably not. Doesn’t matter. He was brought to life to serve as the toy of a nasty prince, and he eventually rebelled and conquered the kingdom for his own! When he eventually wound up on Earth, he went up against some superheroes and got his butt whooped. All with a jack o’lantern for a head! Most notably, he was chosen as the big bad villain for the Ultraverse animated show! Did you know the Ultraverse had an animated show? I did, but only barely. Doesn’t matter. The list is done. He’s got a pumpkin for a head. It all fits!

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