Universe
Marvel Universe

Real Name
Variable

Aliases
Zaniac, Mad Slayer, Red Slayer of White Chapel, Redjac, Saucy Jack, Vampire Man, White Chapel Killer

Identity
Secret

Citizenship
U.K. (19th century)

Place of Birth
Presumably London, England

First Appearance
All-Select Comics #7 (1945)

In the late 19th century, the Dark Dimension's sorcerer king Dormammu indulged his own necromantic needs and pleasures by sending a magical creature to possess the kyphotic (hunchback) Tom Malverne, who resented normal people. The creature stimulated Malverne's bloodlust, and he located a vampire coven who offered to vampirize him if he would drink human blood before the New Year; death was the penalty for failure. Granted normal form by the creature while carrying out his assaults, Malverne slaughtered at least five prostitutes in White Chapel, London, from August to December, 1888, each killing more gruesome than the last. Malverne became legendary as Jack the Ripper.

At the height of his spree, he was pulled forward in time to the 1940s by the sorcerer Terdu to battle Captain America, and in recent years, by the Deviant Zakka's time machine. Nonetheless, despite his bloodthirst, Malverne was unable to consume human blood, and on December 31, the vampires slew him. They buried his body in a grave marked "Jack the Ripper," and Malverne's spirit, though sent to Hell, haunted those who visited it. But the creature within Malverne escaped, taking new hosts over the years, all adopting the Ripper persona and appearance when in action. One of these, a surgeon, slew several victims in the USA at the turn of the century before being killed in a cave-in. Another was pulled forward in time by a malfunctioning energy device to the year 2311 AD in the potential future of Earth-Interface (Earth-7592), where he slew over two dozen victims, including a vampire, before returning home. Yet another possessed psychiatrist Dr. John Carmody in Chicago in the 1970s. Literally dozens of people have been implicated as Jack the Ripper.

The ancient megalomaniac known as Fu Manchu had intimate knowledge of Jack the Ripper or a successor, and may even have employed him somehow. Fu Manchu somehow imprinted the Ripper persona on his daughter's lover Phillip, who became his Mad Slayer. Chicago actor Brad Wolfe was bonded to a creature and transformed by radiation into the superhuman slasher the Zaniac before being subdued by Thor. At some point, a Ripper spirit escaped and was captured by the Predator, a demonic creature within the Darkforce Dimension pocket accessed by the vigilante Cloak. The Predator once unleashed the Ripper back on Earth, though Cloak recaptured him. The Zaniac was later killed, unleashing dozens of parasitic "Ripper" creatures; however, time was reversed and apparently all of the creatures were slain by Thor and Justice Peace, a cop from a future plagued by a Ripper. It remains to be seen whether other Rippers survive, but the saga of Jack the Ripper may never die.