JACK SERIOUS
Real Name: John Cereus
Identity/Class: Human mutate
Occupation: Patient at Crossmore Prison for the
Criminally Insane;
formerly Chief of Staff of Dorkham
Asylum;
formerly psychology professor at Goth University
Group Membership: None
Affiliations: Foolkiller
(Kurt Gerhardt), Professor
Hugo
Oddt, Dr. Ella Whitby (loose);
formerly Dr. Timothy Hayes
Enemies: Deadpool, Blaire Hayes, Dr. Timothy Hayes, Nosferata (Purple Hayes), She-Hulk (Jennifer Walters), inmates at Dorkham Asylum (Big Al G'houl, Dogwoman, Slimeface, Three-Face, others)
Known Relatives: None
Aliases: The Serious One
Base of Operations: Crossmore Prison for the
Criminally Insane, England, UK;
formerly Dorkham
Asylum, Visigoth, Massachusetts, USA
First Appearance: Sensational She-Hulk I#19 (September, 1990)
Powers/Abilities: Cereus' unusual appearance is a result of exposure to his Serious Gas and a crowd of mind-condensed people for a full week. He is a trained psychologist with several degress. As Chief of Staff of Dorkham Asylum, he used Serious Gas, a hallucinogen, to kill crowds of people. He also once controlled the inmates of Dorkham Asylum, although they turned on him when given the chance.
Height: 5'9" (by
approximation)
Weight: Unrevealed
Eyes: Amber (see comments)
Hair: Green
History:
(Sensational She-Hulk I#20 (fb)) - In 1969, Dr. John
Cereus was a psychologist who opposed the mind-expanding philosophy of
Dr. Timothy Hayes and others. He thought to condense the minds so as to
not allow room for suffering to fit in , and to re-conceptualize the
self as disposable ingredients in the industrial process. He conducted
an experiment involving packing 100 naked people in a vat meant to hold
90, and exposing them to his mind-condensing vapor, Serious Gas. As a
result of a faulty welding, he fell down into the vat, where he was
trapped for one full week.
His appearance was altered, as was his sanity. Most
of the hundred experimental subjects ended up as inmates at Dorkham
Asylum, where he became Chief of Staff. Angered at his inability to
achieve stardom for his theories, he stalked and killed Timothy Hayes
and his wife, right in front of their daughter Purple. Over the next
several years, he altered his gas and began to use it kill crowds of
people at restaurants, gas stations, liquor stores, and a newsstand.
(Sensational She-Hulk I#19) - When She-Hulk and Nosferata, the now-adult
Purple Hayes, interrupted the arrival of a truckload of his Serious Gas,
he vowed revenge. He sent Three Face to exposing She-hulk to the gas.
When she wasn't killed, but just immobilized and euphoric, he had her
brought in for experimentation.
(Sensational She-Hulk I#20) - When he found he couldn't get a blood sample due to her tough skin, he decided to kill her via electrocution. Nosferata arrived in time to save her. When Nosferata learned that Serious had been the one that killed her parents, he fled, only to fall victim to another faulty welding. He fell to the ground floor of the asylum, where the inmates brutally attacked him, almost killing him.
(Deadpool IV#40 (fb) - BTS) - Cereus had his practitioner's license revoked for mass murder and was incarcerated in Crossmore Prison for the Criminally Insane in England, falling under the care of the eccentric psychologist, Dr. Ella Whitby.
(Deadpool IV#40) - Cereus noted Deadpool's arrival as a patient at Crossmore, but was told by Whitby to go back to his therapy, solving a puzzle with an image of his gas victims. Later, Deadpool discovered he was free to wander around with the other inmates and he brutally attacked them, sending all ten involved to the hospital.
(Deadpool IV#41) - Whitby felt that Cereus was interrupting her discussion with Deadpool and so she had him forcibly removed to an isolation pod.
(Deadpool IV#42) - Later, Cereus stood by when Gerhardt (formerly the Foolkiller) attacked the unconscious Deadpool, but moved back to his cell when he saw Deadpool's brutal retaliation.
Comments: Created by Steve Gerber (writer), Bryan Hitch (pencils) and Jim Sanders III (inks).
What clued Nosferata in on Jack being her parents' killer was when Serious captured her, and planning to shoot her, he said, "Does Satan dance the Funky Chicken 'neath the Harvest Moon?" When questioned on it, he said, "Nothing important...just something I said in an alley 21 years ago and haven't repeated until now." She remembered the quote.
Anyway, this character was pretty much a
"Timeslip"...What if Steve Gerber had created the Joker.
His eyes were blue in his original
appearance, but amber when he returned. Perhaps his condition is
ongoing. - Loki
Profile by Snood. Updated &
expanded by Grendel Prime. Main image cleaned up and completed by
Loki.
CLARIFICATIONS :
Jack Serious has no known connections to:
images: (without ads)
Sensational She-Hulk I#20, p10, pan1 (main image, with some
modifications to fill in parts of him that were obscured or off panel)
Deadpool IV#40, p13, pan2 (headshot)
Appearances:
Sensational She-Hulk I#19-20 (September-October, 1990) - Steve
Gerber (writer), Bryan Hitch (pencils), Jim Sanders III (inks),
Bobbie Chase (editor)
Deadpool IV#40-42 (September-October, 2011) - Daniel Way (writer), Carlo
Barberi (pencils), Walden Wong (inks), Jordan D. White (editor)
First Posted: 09/06/2001
Last updated: 10/20/2026
Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.
Non-Marvel
Copyright info
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