Lord Pumpkin
Lord Pumpkin is a fictional being from Malibu Comics' Ultraverse continuity. He was created and later written by Dan Danko, with additional development by Steve Gerber, Aaron Lopresti, and Gary Martin including his first published appearance, with which Danko was not involved. Lord Pumpkin first appeared in the comic Sludge [1] but he went on to trouble Rune, Night Man and Hardcase. In the Ultraforce animated TV series, he was an enemy of the Ultraforce.
Fictional character biography
Lord Pumpkin originated in one of the many realms existing within the Godwheel, a cosmic artifact of tremendous size. He was created by a wizard to be the playmate of a spoiled-brat prince from a medieval kingdom. However, the prince (who liked to torture animals, among other disturbing things) found great pleasure in tormenting his new "toy," frequently burning him or chopping him up with an axe. The creature finally rebelled, slew the prince, and overthrew the kingdom. Now hungry for new worlds to conquer, the being, now calling himself Lord Pumpkin, set his sights on the Ultraverse's Earth. He felt that the great number of superhumans, or "Ultras," would prove to be an entertaining challenge.
Lord Pumpkin's reign over his kingdom would be cut down when he was destroyed by a force of invading knights. Due to the intervention of a being calling himself Mr. Mischief, Lord Pumpkin and the one surviving knight, Arielle both traveled to Earth. Pumpkin was now a frightened, abused creature, which manifested out a garbage dump and had been sold to a circus. He was now the fall man in a clown-fire-rescue scene. His only friend was a circus boy named Kenny, also abused.
Mr. Mischief appeared again, with a strange candle which altered 'Pumpy', as Kenny called him. Lord Pumpkin awoke and waited for the next routine. The dog he was supposed to jump with, he hurled to its death and the various abusive members of the circus were killed or tortured. Arielle manifested also and managed to seemingly kill the creature. Lord Pumpkin convinced Kenny to eat one of his seeds.
Kenny would later morph into Lord Pumpkin, by eating a pumpkin seed. He battles Warstrike, then becomes involved in the Godwheel incident. During this, he kills Flygirl, who was working with Hardcase.[2]
Powers/Abilities
Lord Pumpkin is a magical being, usually embodied in a scarecrow-like body of straw and twigs, with a pumpkin carved like a jack-o-lantern for a head. Inside his head is a candle, whose ever-lit flame is often mistaken to be his life-force. He can use it to breathe a blast of fire from his mouth.
Lord Pumpkin is an extremely skilled sorcerer, and is also nearly immortal; even if his body is totally destroyed, seeds from his pumpkin head are capable of growing a new body for him, sometimes by taking over and transforming the body of another living being if a seed has been ingested. He is not subject to pain nor disease and needs no air, food nor water.
His only weakness is the fragile materials his body is composed of: dry, flammable straw, and a ripe pumpkin. However, due to his strong magical abilities, attacks rarely get close enough to harm him. He can still be taken by surprise, however.
In other media
Lord Pumpkin appears in two episodes of the Ultraforce animated series. In this continuity, he is defeated by Prototype and again by Prime when both heroes remove the candle in his mouth.