Powers:
- Incorporeal: Humor is a possessing entity. In his natural state he's less physical than most 'typical' spirits.
- Possession: Humor can grab a host body and take total control. This can ONLY happen if the host has no joy or humor left inside of them and experiences some traumatic event that would cause them to snap. Even in a city as large as New York, there is usually less than a dozen suitable hosts for Humor at any given time.
This act pushes the victim's conscious aside, BUT keeps them aware of everything that goes on. Well, almost. The host spirit does not feel any of the physical pain until Humor leaves. Humor can be forced out through the following ways:- If the host spirit has a genuine laugh. (Humor is helpless to stop this from happening and can sometimes sense the inevitability of such a laugh.)
- If the host is killed. (Specifically, the host has to flat-line; the heart is the seat of Humor. They may be later revived.)
- If Humor gets bored. (He has left when the host body has been arrested.)
- Sense of Humor: (ouch, the pun) Humor knows EXACTLY what will make his host laugh, and in a mockery of his original purpose, will avoid it like the plague. Some versions can sense what his victims will find funny, and Humor loves making them laugh despite the pain and death.
- Weapons Cache: Not a power per-se, but Humor is in full control and knows where any of his previous hosts have hidden weapons or the like. It comes up a lot.
- Hand-to-Hand Expertise: Humor has been described as a virtuoso of martial combat, effortlessly integrating unique elements of his new host into an efficient killing method. Sometimes, Humor doesn't bother to fight to his full potential. After-all, it's just a host body that's dying. All he cares about is who gets hurt and how it makes him laugh.
Genuine laughter will prevent him from taking a host and can drive him out of a host.
Humor has most supernatural hunters and elements as enemies. There are some times when he's been utterly screwed by Fate.
Fundamentally, his host is just a typical mortal.
Publication History:
The Interregnum (Between Golden and Silver ages): Humor's first appearence was in Tales of Horror #3. A horror anthology aimed at adult readers in the 1950's. His story about a deadly laughing force that possessed a humorless recluse was scary enough to be cited as why the "comic's code" was needed.
(s)Laughter: A short six-issue mini series along the same lines, but only about Humor. Humor's nemesis, Cupid, was introduced in the first issue.