Ousted TV personality Jack Ryder hadn't planned on working for a security agency or combating communists. However, writer/artist Steve Ditko and co-scribe Don Segall gave him more than the last laugh as the garishly garbed Creeper, one of DC's quirkiest protagonists.

Ryder had adopted yellow make up, a green wig, and red sheepskin to crash a mobster's costume party and locate the kidnapped Soviet scientist Emil Yatz. Criminal Angel Devlin's gang had abducted Yatz, but Yatz promptly gave Ryder a serum to heal his wounds and boost his energy to superhuman levels. He also implanted a device inside the wound, enabling Ryder's creepy attire to materialize and disappear with the click of another dial.

Yatz was shot dead by the mobsters, but Ryder's odd appearance, disturbing behavior and maniacal laughter helped him to dispense with the criminals and spies. Authorities wrongly branded the Creeper as a crook, even though the underworld had felt his wrath, which he would begin doling out again in his own series two months later.