Actor Brad Wolfe’s life takes a vicious turn when he becomes the fictional character he plays, a serial killer known as Zaniac.
Actor to Serial Killer
When the Dark Dimension’s sorcerer king Dormammu sends a magical creature to possess the kyphotic (hunchback) Tom Malverne, circa the late 19th century, the creature stimulates Malverne’s misogynistic bloodlust to become Jack the Ripper. Malverne eventually perishes, but the creature within him escapes, taking a series of hosts, each adopting the Ripper persona and appearance, and releasing the Ripper creature upon the hosts’ death.
In recent years, a Ripper bonds to Chicago actor Brad Wolfe, playing the fictional Zaniac in a slasher movie directed by Conrad Cronenking and while filming at the Chicago site of the Manhattan Project. Abused by his mother, Wolfe identifies with Zaniac’s background of maternal abuse leading to misogyny, the bloody murders of fourteen cheerleaders and time spent in a mental institution. This bond and an unexpected explosion transforms Wolfe into the serial killer known as Zaniac. and turns the fictitious film into a nightmarish reality.
Ripper Bond
Zaniac possesses superhuman strength—able to lift 75-100 tons—and durability, and can form and hurl radioactive energy knives. Wolfe’s own misogynistic urges are magnified by the Ripper bond. Zaniac prefers to use his “knives of love” against women and the “brute strength of hate” against men.
Upon death, Zaniac releases a swarm of vermin-like creatures that seek out other humans. A bitten victim would become the new Zaniac, while the remaining creatures disintegrate. The Zaniac/Ripper persona controls its host body, retaining some personality traits or desires, but overrides them with the desire to kill women.
Fearless Foes
Wolfe goes up against the Asgardian God of Thunder Thor Odinson, AKA Thor, who protects a friend from Zaniac’s madness. Wolfe loses his life to the mobster’s henchman known as Marcus Kellen.
Friendless
When Wolfe becomes the killer Zaniac, his allies are few and far between.
A Twisted History
While filming the slasher movie, Wolfe, as the knife-wielding Zaniac, chased a woman into a set of bleachers, where a careless passerby’s cigar ignited explosives, causing a blast that released the Manhattan Project’s residual radiation from the ground. Wolfe was mutated into a super-strong form able to create energy knives, and his twisted mind adopted the Zaniac persona. Zaniac mistook the nearest woman, Shawna Lynde—a friend of Don Blake, the mortal guise of Thor Odinson—for his previous target and assaulted her. Thor saved Shawna and later, via Cronenking’s advice, stopped Zaniac from slaughtering the residents of a home for women, the next scene in the script. Confused by Thor’s long hair, marking him as a “pretty-pretty,” and Thor’s masculine strength, Zaniac unleashed a series of knives at Thor, whose hammer reflected them back into Zaniac, the radiation implosion subduing him. Zaniac’s costume was removed and his hands restrained to prevent him from creating knives, and he was imprisoned at Skraggmore Penitentiary.
Another enemy of Thor’s, mobster Andrew “Thug” Thatcher, broke Zaniac out of prison months later, intending to kill Thor’s ex-girlfriend, Jane Foster. Instead, Zaniac murdered Thatcher’s associate Ruby Mortensen, creating a knife with his newly freed hands, but was then shot dead by Thatcher’s henchman Marcus Kellen. Multiple creatures then burst forth from Wolfe’s body; one bit Thatcher, transforming him into a new Zaniac, who maintained the desire to kill Foster. Thatcher murdered Kellen and then Foster, who was pregnant. Justice Peace, a cop from a distant future of Earth-869371, traveled back in time to stop Zaniac from spreading his madness into the future and starting a world war. Justice Peace allied with Thor and traveled back a few hours in time and apparently slew all the creatures escaping from Wolfe’s corpse before another Zaniac could be created, diverging those events to Reality-823019. Thatcher, however, died from a heart attack.
