Colonel Whiteshroud

Origin

Colonel Whiteshroud fought in WWII as a member of the British Army in Africa, most notably against Rommel, the Desert Fox.The exact details of his past are unknown, but presumably Whiteshroud has a long history of fighting monsters throughout the world. After some years he established the Monster Hunters Club to draw others like himself together in order to pool resources and share expertise - as well as the occasional story.

Creation

Colonel Whiteshroud was originally created by writer Nicola Cuti and artist Joe Staton, first appearing in issue #1 of the 1975 Monster Hunters comic series. He acted as a narrator for many of the stories featured in the series, and on occasion acted as a participant in the stories.

Major Story Arcs

Introduction

One evening, Colonel Whiteshroud gave a tour of the Monster Hunters Club to the alluring Countess Von Bludd. He explained to her how the club hunted various monsters, whether human, animal, or even something altogether unknown. As the Countess noted that Whiteshroud didn't seem to have any defenses lying around to deal with vampires, she leaned in to bite the Colonel's neck, only to find he was prepared with a leather collar hidden under his turtleneck to deter her fangs. The Countess assumed the Colonel would now stake her for being a monster, but he instead escorted her home to her coffin before sunrise, to which the Countess remarked that it was a shame Whiteshroud was not a monster instead of a monster hunter.

The Boar's Head Beast

Following a rash of murders in the town of Boar's Head, Colonel Whiteshroud was called in to aid in Inspector John Clive's investigations. Inspector Clive had called for Whiteshroud because the murders were the work of a monster: a beast with a boar's head, a lion's body, tentacles growing from its back, and eyes that glowed like beacons. No sooner had Inspector Clive filled Whiteshroud in on the situation when the beast tried to attack another potential victim: the young Doreen Pervis. Clive opened fire on it, but bullets seemed to do nothing. The beast soon disappeared along with Doreen, and so Whiteshroud suggested they should investigate for traces of the beast. In an old, abandoned church they discovered Doreen trying to banish the beast using magic rituals. She had discovered writings in the church that told of a demon beast sleeping under Boar's Head and had toyed with forces beyond her control, causing the beast to rampage and murder at random.

It turns out the beast had been using tunnels underneath the town to move out of sight and then entered and exited town through its many dry wells. Whiteshroud soon came up with a plan: all the wells except one were capped off so that the beast could only use that one, while Doreen would try to control the creature as best she could. That night, the beast surfaced again but would not obey Doreen's commands. It chased after her, only for it to be led right into Whiteshroud's trap: several high-intensity spotlights. As soon as the lights were switched on, the beast froze and crumbled into dust. Whiteshroud had correctly deduced that the beast was sensitive to light, as it would only surface during foggy nights or nights were there was no moon to light the sky.

The Hour of the Werewolf

Colonel Whiteshroud was approached by Cloris Montigue, a young woman who stood to inherit several thousands of dollars from her late uncle, and who feared for her life because one of her relatives that would be coming to the reading of the will suffered from the curse of the werewolf. She hoped that Whiteshroud could discover the werewolf's identity and destroy the creature before it could wreak havoc. Preparing himself, Whiteshroud came to Montigue Manor to attend the reading of the will. Any of the attending relatives were potential suspects, as were the servants, the estate's gamekeeper, and the lawyer.

Shortly after arriving at the estate, Whiteshroud found that the case containing most of his werewolf countermeasures was missing. That night, Whiteshroud was attacked by the werewolf. He was able to defend himself with a silver-tipped knife that he had hidden in his cane, but the werewolf was too strong and Whiteshroud ended up losing his knife. He was thankfully saved by the gamekeeper who scared the werewolf off with his shotgun. The werewolf returned soon however to attack one of the relatives, Miss Chin Lee. Whiteshroud and the gamekeeper were able to save her, but the werewolf escaped and its identity was still unknown. With his silver knife lost, Whiteshroud phoned his associate, Baron Weirwulf, for his insights on the situation. Weirwulf reminded the Colonel of a hidden bit of silver that Whiteshroud could still use.

After his phone-call, Whiteshroud was approached by the family lawyer who had found a letter from the late Uncle Montigue, in which he confessed that he was the family werewolf. This was perplexing, as he had been entombed in the family crypt. Whiteshroud therefore went with Cloris and the lawyer to investigate the crypt. They discovered it to be empty, but Whiteshroud knew that the uncle couldn't be the werewolf, as he had been embalmed and could not have risen from the dead. It turned out that the lawyer had actually been the werewolf all along, and Cloris shot him with Whiteshroud's pistol when he attacked. As it turns out, Whiteshroud had been able to make a silver bullet by having one of the Montigues, a dentist, remove some of the silver fillings from Whiteshroud's teeth. Whiteshroud had also been able to figure out that the lawyer was the culprit beforehand because he was the only one who had not commented on the silver pentagram tattoo that Whiteshroud had on his hand. As the future victim of a werewolf would manifest a silver pentagram on their hand, Whiteshroud knew that only the true werewolf would not comment on his peculiar tattoo.

Manta!

When Whiteshroud's friend, Lee Driscol, told him about a dead monster that had washed up on a Long Island beach, he was initially wary of it, but became interested in seeing it for himself when Lee described the monster further. Within hours, Whiteshroud was in Long Island, looking at an enormous creature of at least sixty feet across. It resembled a manta ray, except for three long tentacles on its head. Sally Billings, owner of a local clam bar, then came to see if the men would like to dine at her establishment. Suddenly however, Sally was lifted up by one of the manta's tentacles! Whiteshroud opened fire on the creature and saved Sally. He surmised that the manta had already been dead, but its simple brain was still sending out rudimentary commands to its limbs. They then went to Sally's for dinner. Manta was on the menu (not from the monster manta though).

The following morning, Whiteshroud and Lee rented some scuba gear so they could see if there were any more mantas like the one on the beach. Sally offered to give the monster hunters a ride in her boat. Whiteshroud deduced where the manta might have come from based on eyewitness reports and tide flow. Once at their destination, Whiteshroud and Lee dove into the water in order to see where these manta had come from, and perhaps even how they had come to be. They found an underwater cavern from which they saw two mantas leave, and so they foolhardily went inside. There they found a bizarre metallic sphere of unknown origin. As they investigated, a manta appeared, with both Whiteshroud and Lee virtually defenseless against it. The sphere then suddenly seemed to mentally transmit a message to the men and explained that the sphere was a spaceship that had crashed to Earth and into its ocean. Unable to repair their ship in such an environment, the aliens inside the ship transferred their minds into the mantas to make the repairs, unintentionally a manta to run amok and wash up on Long Beach. The aliens regretted causing any trouble, and swore to right their wrongs when they departed, claiming that all would be well once Whiteshroud and Lee went back to their ship. Honoring their word, all was well when the men made it back to the ship; the giant mantas went back to the sea depths from which they came, and the aliens went back to the stars where they belonged.

Powers & Abilities

Colonel Whiteshroud is an experienced soldier of many years. Even in his advanced age, he is still a competent fighter. His years of experience have also taught him to always be prepared, and so he never pursues a monster without being sure he is properly armed and educated for said monster. He has shown to be capable with both firearms and more conventional weaponry like swords.

Whiteshroud employs numerous ingenious items to catch potential monsters unaware, such as a leather collar to fend off vampire bites, a hidden silver-tipped knife in his cane, and also a silver pentagram tattoo on the palm of his hand to distract werewolves from their potential victims.