History BodyHorror / TheDCU

** The Joker in ''VideoGame/BatmanArkhamCity'' certainly counts, as he is covered in a giant red rash due to [[spoiler:the Titan he injected himself with in ''VideoGame/BatmanArkhamAsylum'']] poisoning him. [[spoiler:The Joker hallucination in ''Arkham Knight'' starts out this way, with the twist that the rash slowly gets ''better'' over the course of the game, as each time Batman gets fear-gassed by Scarecrow, the Joker personality is able to exert more and more control. By the end of the game, he is as squeaky clean as he was in ''Asylum''.]]

** Poison Ivy makes a habit of creating [[PlantPerson plant creatures that can pass for human]]. These often reveal themselves to be horrifying monsters. In "[[Recap/TheAdventuresOfBatmanAndRobinE5HouseAndGarden House & Garden]]", Poison Ivy appeared to have reformed, marrying a college professor and becoming stepmother to his two sons. However, it turns out that the professor and his children are clones made from plant matter, and they only stay "human" for three days before turning into something that looks like ComicBook/SwampThing after a lawnmower accident. On another occasion, Ivy rips the skin off of the upper torso of one of these creatures like it's a shirt, revealing the green flesh underneath. This is enough to cause onlooker Robin to start to heave (he's saved from actual puking by Batgirl).

** In the episode "[[Recap/TeenTitansS3E9TheBeastWithin The Beast Within]]", Beast Boy is infected with a virus that turns him into a werewolf-like monster. When he transforms for the first time, he reacts like it's very painful.

* ''ComicBook/AnimalMan''
** In Creator/GrantMorrison's first story arc for ''ComicBook/AnimalMan'', the super-powered (and temporarily insane) NatureHero B'wana Beast, in a series of failed attempts to rescue his kidnapped ape friend Djuba, uses his telekinetic helmet to fuse various animals together (including a homeless man and a rat). When Djuba dies from laboratory smallpox inoculation, B'wana Beast avenges her by [[spoiler: fusing her body with that of Dr. Myers, the scientist responsible. The lab technicians, not recognizing their supervisor, prepare to do ape surgery without anesthesia while their fully aware victim, attempting to stop them, can only grunt "Ma urrs! Ma urrs!"]]

** The ''ComicBook/New52'' rendition of the Joker has a fellow villain [[TearOffYourFace slice all of the flesh off his face]]... then the Joker reattaches the skin to his face with straps sewn into the skin.

** ''ComicBook/BatmanDamned'': Usually, ComicBook/{{Deadman}}'s design is just a red-suit with a high-collar. Here, it's designed to look like muscly sinew without skin.
*** DemonicPossession by Deadman turns the possessed person's eyes red, their skin blue and causes their veins to bulge as though they are being choked to death. It feels as pleasant as it sounds, the experience compared to food poisoning and Deadman's spirit ejected as quickly as it occurs from the strain.
*** When Harley sexually assaults Batman, she unbuttons her shirt, [[spoiler:revealing that she has a full-torso, crudely stitched Y-shaped incision as if she'd been autopsied]].
* ''ComicBook/TheFlash'': In ''ComicBook/TheTrialOfTheFlash'', Big Sir mutilates Flash's face with an energy mace, distorting it beyond recognition. When a couple of kids unmask the Flash, they scream in terror and run away.

* ''ComicBook/PoisonIvy2022'': Ivy's lamia spores cause anyone they infect to sprout fungi from their bodies, killing them instantly. As they die, their bodies become compost and the art really sells how unsettling the transformation is to see. The spores also have an effect on Ivy, causing protrusions that resemble dead leaves to grow on her skin and she has to shave them off frequently.

* ''ComicBook/StaticSeasonOne'': The more unfortunate victims of the Big Bang can be seen having their ''faces melt off''. [[spoiler: And that's not even getting into Adam Evans' condition, being [[AndIMustScream perpetually spread out like a chewed piece of gum, unable to do anything except futilely plead for help.]]]]

** ''Adventures of Superman #466'': [[TheFantasticFaux Four NASA shuttle crew members encounter a type of radiation and suffer bodily mutations]]. One of them, as an example, has his body reformed into a mass of rock only with pieces of the shuttle mixed in. The pain drives him to commit suicide by way of an MRI machine, which rips him apart.
** ''ComicBook/Superboy1994'': After Agenda's experiments on him cause his body to start breaking down Superboy's skin starts bubbling and sloughing off.
** ''ComicBook/Supergirl1982'': One of ComicBook/{{Supergirl}}'s college teachers undergoes an experiment which turns him into a repulsive mutated creature: his body is huge and hairless, his eyes are two large, red balls without pupils, his limbs are ridiculously long and thin and his feet have only two fingers each.
** ''ComicBook/TheSupergirlFromKrypton2004'' sees Superman fly to the edge of Creation fighting Darkseid and, lo, they beheld... an infinitely vast wall of living, breathing, '''screaming''' flesh and faces that act as the "wall" between Creation and the nothingness beyond, the Source Wall. Its current form is apparently made of everyone who's ever tried and failed to pass through it and discover the secrets hidden on its other side.
** In ''ComicBook/WhoIsSuperwoman'', the body of the titular villain becomes hideously stretched out and deformed before falling apart and exploding when her {{Magitek}} super-suit gets ripped apart.

** Though later {{retcon}}ned into "[[TomatoInTheMirror a plant who thought it was Alec Holland]]", the original story was a man turning into a strange [[PlantPerson plant monster]], incapable of even speech, and having to try and cope with it.
** Later on, around ''ComicBook/BrightestDay'' and the ''ComicBook/New52'' reboot, Alec was brought back from the dead, and it turned out that the plant that thought it was Alec was an accident -- Alec himself was supposed to have become Swamp Thing. And since Alec was back and the plant was out of the picture, Alec found himself targeted for the transformation...

* Creator/TangentComics: In the FullyAbsorbedFinale crossover series ''Tangent: Superman's Reign'', the Clayface of the Tangent universe is still a shapeshifter like the one in the standard DC Universe, but has the default form of a huge behemoth with skin slowly melting off the body and portions of the musculature exposed.

** Diana has been reverted to clay on a couple of occasions, which generally starts with her skin hardening and her hands getting shattered.

** Joker's blood also infected several people in ''VideoGame/BatmanArkhamKnight'', bleaching their skin, turning their hair green, and giving them the same nasty "rash" Joker had, as well as giving them a fragment of Joker's personality but that's another story.

* ''WesternAnimation/BatmanTheAnimatedSeries'':
** Kirk Langstrom [[OneWingedAngel turning into Man-Bat]] in "[[Recap/BatmanTheAnimatedSeriesE1OnLeatherWings On Leather Wings]]".
** In "[[Recap/BatmanTheAnimatedSeriesE21FeatOfClayPart2 Feat of Clay, Part 2]]", Clayface suffocates Batman with an attack lifted frame-for-frame from ''Manga/{{Akira}}''. (Creator/TMSEntertainment worked both on ''Akira'' and this episode.) Near the end, confronted with images of his acting roles, he starts morphing involuntarily in a SuperpowerMeltdown scene which can only be described as a cross between [[Manga/{{Akira}} Tetsuo's final mutation]] and [[Film/Terminator2JudgmentDay T-1000-in-the-smelter]].
** In "[[Recap/BatmanTheAnimatedSeriesE39HeartOfSteelPart2 Heart of Steel, Part 2]]", an android contorts his limbs horribly in order to chase Batman down an elevator shaft. The commentary mentions that this was an homage to ''Legend of the Overfiend''.
** Poison Ivy makes a habit of creating [[PlantPerson plant creatures that can pass for human]]. These often reveal themselves to be horrifying monsters. In "[[Recap/TheAdventuresOfBatmanAndRobinE5HouseAndGarden House & Garden]]", Poison Ivy appeared to have reformed, marrying a college professor and becoming stepmother to his two sons. However, it turns out that the professor and his children are clones made from plant matter, and they only stay "human" for three days before turning into something that looks like ComicBook/SwampThing after a lawnmower accident. On another occasion, Ivy rips the skin off of the upper torso of one of these creatures like it's a shirt, revealing the green flesh underneath. This is enough to cause onlooker Robin to start to heave (he's saved from actual puking by Batgirl).
** At the end of "[[Recap/TheAdventuresOfBatmanAndRobinE10Bane Bane]]", the titular muscleman [[PhlebotinumOverdose gets a little too much Venom]]. His appearance in ''Film/BatmanAndRobin'' absolutely ''pales'' in comparison.
** Two-Face isn't just scarred on the left side of his head, but also has scarring on at least his arm.

** DependingOnTheArtist, as well as in ''WesternAnimation/BatmanTheAnimatedSeries'' and the ''VideoGame/BatmanArkhamSeries'', [[Characters/BatmanTwoFace Two-Face]]'s scarring isn't just limited to his face, but also involves his left arm. [[spoiler:In ''VideoGame/BatmanArkhamKnight'', a hallucination of the Joker wonders if this included ''everything''.]]

* ''Film/BatmanAndRobin'' featured a painful transformation scene of the villain Bane, who grows ungodly huge muscles by having "Gatorade" pumped directly into his skull. This was intended as a family-friendly film.

** At the end of "[[Recap/TheAdventuresOfBatmanAndRobinE10Bane Bane]]", the titular muscleman gets a little ''[[GrowingMusclesSequence too]]'' much [[PsychoSerum Venom]]. His appearance in ''Film/BatmanAndRobin'' absolutely ''pales'' in comparison.

** [Clayface III must stay in a containment suit because [[TouchOfDeath his touch disintegrates any living thing he touches]]. ''ComicBook/ArkhamAsylumASeriousHouseOnSeriousEarth'' depicts him as naked, gaunt, and with yellow, flaking skin.

** The “Rotworld” arc for the New52 features horrifying creatures of “the Rot”. These creatures can devour peoples insides and take the person’s form by wearing their skin. Also, the longer they wear that skin, the more that form deteriorates, until the form doesn’t even look remotely human anymore.

** [[Characters/BatmanClayface Clayface]] III must stay in a containment suit because [[TouchOfDeath his touch disintegrates any living thing he touches]]. ''ComicBook/ArkhamAsylumASeriousHouseOnSeriousEarth'' depicts him as naked, gaunt, and with yellow, flaking skin.

** The ''ComicBook/New52'' rendition of [[Characters/BatmanTheJoker the Joker]] has a fellow villain [[TearOffYourFace slice all of the flesh off his face]]... then the Joker reattaches the skin to his face with straps sewn into the skin.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheBatman'': Clayface I's couple of minutes of screen time in ''[[https://batman.fandom.com/wiki/The_Batman_Episode_1.13:_The_Clayface_of_Tragedy The Clay Face of Tragedy" combine this with]] TearJerker.
* ''WesternAnimation/BatmanTheAnimatedSeries''
** "On Leather Wings". Kirk Langstrom [[OneWingedAngel turning into Man-Bat]].
** What happened in Clayface's introductory episode. Near the end, confronted with images of his acting roles, he starts morphing involuntarily in a SuperpowerMeltdown scene which can only be described as a cross between [[Manga/{{Akira}} Tetsuo's final mutation]] and [[Film/Terminator2JudgmentDay T-1000-in-the-smelter]].
*** And before that, he'd been suffocating Batman with an attack that was lifted frame-for-frame from ''Akira''. Creator/TMSEntertainment worked both on ''Akira'' and this episode.
** Poison Ivy, who made a habit of creating plant creatures that could pass for human. These often revealed themselves to be horrifying monsters. The best example of a horrific transformation is where Ivy rips the skin off of the upper torso of one of these creatures like it was a shirt, revealing the green flesh underneath. This is enough to cause onlooker Robin to start to heave (he's saved from actual puking by Batgirl).
*** "House and Garden", where Poison Ivy has appeared to reform and married a college professor and his two sons... only, it turns out the professor and his children are clones made from plant matter. And they only stay "human" for three days before turning into something that looks like Comicbook/SwampThing after a lawnmower accident.
** At the end of "Bane," the titular muscleman gets a little ''too'' much Venom. His appearance in ''Film/BatmanAndRobin'' absolutely ''pales'' in comparison.

* ''WesternAnimation/BatmanBeyond''
** Inque, a shape-shifting mutant who provides plenty of ''canon'' {{fetish}}es for the technician who releases her from a cryogenics facility. She dupes him in the nastiest way imaginable. She also likes to engage in OrificeInvasion and at one point tries to suffocate the protagonist by forcing herself down his throat.
** In one episode, an android contorts his limbs horribly in order to chase Batman down an elevator shaft. The commentary mentions that this was an homage to ''Legend of the Overfiend''.
** "Splicers" is about this new fad of people (mostly teenagers) getting some animal genetics mixed with their body so they look like human/animal hybrids, including a bull, a snake, and a big cat ([[UsefulNotes/FurryFandom sounds really familiar for some reason]]). Even Terry [=McGinnis=] involuntarily becomes an actual batman until he got better. However, the ''really'' bad part is when, after splicing becomes illegal since it makes people more aggressive, Batman goes to confront the guy who invented the process, who then turns himself into some weird [[NinjaPirateZombieRobot Hawk-tiger-snake thing]] he calls a "true Chimera" and after knocking away Terry's gun filled with mutagen cure-all, Terry starts sticking the villain with multiple syringes. The villain then transforms into a disgusting creature that is even today one of the most disturbing things ever [[WhatDoYouMeanItsForKids put into a kid's show.]] Unless you want to possibly be scared witless and lose some sleep, TakeOurWordForIt. [[http://i.imgur.com/hU4mOgV.jpg Otherwise...]]

** Jackson Chappell, who is rendered an obscenely muscled but brain-dead vegetable after an overdose of steroid patches. He didn't look so good before that, though; like his charge and employer Bane, the overdose seemed like it was about to tear his muscles ''through'' his skin. And speaking of Bane, he wasn't doing too well in the episode either, going in the opposite direction entirely: He seemed to have lost the entirety of his musculature to venom abuse and age, leaving him a bag of squalid, semi-catatonic skin and bones.
** The dog fighting club whose owner is using steroids on the dogs. The first test subject is... a bit overdone.
** "Earth Mover" featured a rotting, ''living'' corpse, who was buried alive with a radioactive chemical that fused his body into the surrounding dirt.
** There's also [[http://vignette2.wikia.nocookie.net/dcanimated/images/f/f9/Magma.png/revision/latest?cb=20080930072351 Magma]], one of the Terrific Trio from "Heros". Imagine Clayface made of magma and you got the idea.
** Big Time from "Big Time" and "Betrayal" was at first a big-mouth teen before mutating into a grey, hulking brute.
** Terry's arch-nemesis from the first season, [[http://vignette1.wikia.nocookie.net/dcanimated/images/a/ac/Blight.png/revision/latest?cb=20150111155444 Blight]]. After getting radiation treatment from his own nerve gas, he turned into a living blight emitting radiation that ruined anything (or anyone) he touched. He looks like a blackened skeleton surrounded by a green glow in the shape of a man. He had fake skin that [[http://vignette2.wikia.nocookie.net/dcanimated/images/3/31/Powers_shedding.png/revision/latest?cb=20150111155447 eroded away]] when he got angry and let out excess radiation. Over time, the radiation ate away at his sanity and caused him to eventually lose his mind and fully assume the role of Blight.
* In ''WesternAnimation/JusticeLeague'' [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PYVS01MI2ZE Brainiac morphs Lex Luthor's body]] into some bizarre hybrid of biology and technology. Not to mention revealing itself involved ''tearing its way out of his body'', somehow bloodlessly but still ripping holes in his torso and entirely destroying his limbs.
** There's also an earlier scene in the same episode where Supergirl kills Galatea by... smashing a giant freaking power cable from the Watchtower's main reactor into her stomach, [[HighVoltageDeath right as it's being turned on]]. As Supergirl and an injured Steel limp away, you see Galatea twitching, her skin grey and a massive scar on her stomach. It's not ''entirely'' certain that killed her, but that might only make things worse.
* In the ''WesternAnimation/LegionOfSuperHeroes '' cartoon, Timber Wolf undergoes a forced transformation into a werewolf-man, which also gives him superpowers (at least one instance showed his ''spine'' starting to protrude from his back and his feet normally has 5 toes but when he's in his feral form they're down to 3). The others experience some form of this, such as Bouncing Boy being ''splattered against a wall'' (don't worry, he lives) and them being transformed magically into monsters by evil wizard Mordru.
* In an episode of ''WesternAnimation/StaticShock'' ("Junior"), the attention-seeking son of wealthy Edwin Alva uses gas from the Big Bang to grant himself various superpowers so that he will gain attention from his dad as a supervillain. At the end of the episode, all of the containers for the gas pop at once, which causes him to transform unpredictably -- the final form he takes is some sort of horrible, one-eyed, tentacley ''thing'', but shortly afterwards reverts to normal and turns to stone, which only makes Alva's earlier remark about wanting a statue creepier.
* In an episode of ''WesternAnimation/TeenTitans'', Beast Boy is infected with a virus that turns him into a werewolf-like monster. When he transforms for the first time, he reacts like it's very painful.
** When Red Star transforms involuntarily. Every molecule of his body going from solid to liquid to gas to plasma in a nanosecond.

* Doppelganger, a villainess introduced in Issue 1 of ''ComicBook/GreenArrow: The Midas Touch'' (Volume 5 of his solo line and the first of the ''ComicBook/New52'' reboot), is presumably a shapeshifter. Within panels of her first appearance, she [[HulkingOut hulks out]], [[GrowingMusclesSequence bulking up]] and [[ClothingDamage shredding a good portion of her]] [[LittleBlackDress slinky black dress]]. Any {{fanservice}} [[AmazonianBeauty this might have been played for]] [[FanDisservice is immediately thrown out the window]] as she not only grows [[MultiArmedAndDangerous an extra set of arms]], but ''[[MultipleHeadCase a second face]]'' -- still stuck to the first one as if it were a {{conjoined twin|s}} -- and [[http://static.comicvine.com/uploads/scale_small/10/107028/1998771-doppelganger.jpg breaks out into warts.]] Appropriately so, Ollie quips that she's making him nauseated and her accomplice Supercharge refers to her as a freak when Dynamix (the third member of their villainous trio) wonders where she's been taken after they've all been incarcerated.

* ''ComicBook/AnimalMan’’

* In Creator/GrantMorrison's first story arc for ''ComicBook/AnimalMan'', the super-powered (and temporarily insane) NatureHero B'wana Beast, in a series of failed attempts to rescue his kidnapped ape friend Djuba, uses his telekinetic helmet to fuse various animals together (including a homeless man and a rat). When Djuba dies from laboratory smallpox inoculation, B'wana Beast avenges her by [[spoiler: fusing her body with that of Dr. Myers, the scientist responsible. The lab technicians, not recognizing their supervisor, prepare to do ape surgery without anesthesia while their fully aware victim, attempting to stop them, can only grunt "Ma urrs! Ma urrs!"]]

** What happened in Clayface II's introductory episode. Near the end, confronted with images of his acting roles, he starts morphing involuntarily in a SuperpowerMeltdown scene which can only be described as a cross between [[Manga/{{Akira}} Tetsuo's final mutation]] and [[Film/Terminator2JudgmentDay T-1000-in-the-smelter]].

* ''Franchise/{{Batman}}'':
** Clayface III must stay in a containment suit because his touch disintegrates any living thing he touches. ''ComicBook/ArkhamAsylumASeriousHouseOnSeriousEarth'' depicts him as naked, gaunt, and with yellow, flaking skin.
** The Corrosive Man's skin releases acid and ''he can feel every bit of it''.
** DependingOnTheArtist, as well as in ''WesternAnimation/BatmanTheAnimatedSeries'' and the ''VideoGame/BatmanArkhamSeries'', Two-Face's scarring isn't just limited to his face, but also involves his left arm. [[spoiler:In ''[[VideoGame/BatmanArkhamKnight Arkham Knight]]'', a hallucination of the Joker wonders if this included ''everything''.]]
** The ComicBook/New52 rendition of ComicBook/TheJoker has a fellow villain slice all of the flesh off his face... then the Joker reattaches the skin to his face with straps sewn into the skin.

** ''ComicBook/BatmanDamned'': Usually, Deadman's design is just a red-suit with a high-collar. Here, it's designed to look like muscly sinew without skin.

*** When Harley sexually assaults Batman, she unbuttons her shirt, [[spoiler: revealing she has a full-torso, crudely-stitched Y-shaped incision as if she'd been autopsied.]]
* ''Franchise/TheFlash'': In ''ComicBook/TheTrialOfTheFlash'', Big Sir mutilates Flash's face with an energy mace, distorting it beyond recognition. When a couple of kids unmask the Flash, they scream in terror and run away.
* Doppelganger, a villainess introduced in Issue 1 of ''ComicBook/GreenArrow: The Midas Touch'' (Volume 5 of his solo line and the first of the ''ComicBook/New52'' reboot), is presumably a shapeshifter. Within panels of her first appearance, she [[HulkingOut hulks out]], [[GrowingMusclesSequence bulking up]] and [[ClothingDamage shredding a good portion of her]] [[LittleBlackDress slinky black dress]]. Any {{fanservice}} [[AmazonianBeauty this might have been played for]] [[FanDisservice is immediately thrown out the window]] as she not only grows [[MultiArmedAndDangerous an extra set of arms]], but ''[[MultipleHeadCase a second face]]''--still stuck to the first one as if it were a {{conjoined twin|s}}-- and [[http://static.comicvine.com/uploads/scale_small/10/107028/1998771-doppelganger.jpg breaks out into warts.]] Appropriately so, Ollie quips that she's making him nauseated and her accomplice Supercharge refers to her as a freak when Dynamix (the third member of their villainous trio) wonders where she's been taken after they've all been incarcerated.
* ''Franchise/JusticeLeagueOfAmerica'':
** Dr. Destiny was afflicted with this during the late 1980s and early 1990s (mostly notably his appearances in ''ComicBook/TheSandman'' and ''ComicBook/ArkhamAsylumASeriousHouseOnSeriousEarth'') extending the original rationale for the SkullForAHead ([[FacialHorror his face shriveling as a result of]] [[CannotDream the League ridding him of his ability to dream]]) to his whole body becoming emaciated. Creator/GrantMorrison, the writer of ''Arkham Asylum'', even stated in their notes they never bought the classic [[Franchise/MastersOfTheUniverse Skeletor]]-esque look.

* The original ''ComicBook/OmegaMen'' series had Kalista get mind-raped by an organism which did so by stealing her shape and memories, leaving her an unrecognisable blob. While this is happening, she starts losing her shape, then her features, then her ability to perceive things, then the ability to ''think''. It's horrifying, and it doesn't help that she begs for it to stop the entire time.

* The Basilik's cult cyber-zombie virus from ''ComicBook/SuicideSquad'' (the New 52, volume 4). One unfortunately cursed woman was turned into a giant, tentacled blob and thankfully killed (as she requested).
* ''Franchise/{{Superman}}'':
** ''Adventures of Superman #466'': Four NASA shuttle crew members encounter a type of radiation and suffer bodily mutations. One of them, as an example, has his body reformed into a mass of rock (a la ComicBook/FantasticFour's the Thing) only with pieces of the shuttle mixed in. The pain drives him to commit suicide by way of an MRI machine, which rips him apart.

** ''ComicBook/TheSupergirlFromKrypton2004'' saw Superman fly to the edge of Creation fighting Darkseid and, lo, they beheld... an infinitely vast wall of living, breathing, '''screaming''' flesh and faces that act as the "wall" between Creation and the nothingness beyond, the Source Wall. Its current form is apparently made of everyone who's ever tried and failed to pass through it and discover the secrets hidden on its other side.

** Though later retconned into "a plant who thought it was Alec Holland", the original story was a man turning into a strange plant monster, incapable of even speech, and having to try and cope with it.
** Later on, around ''ComicBook/BrightestDay'' and the New 52 reboot, Alec was brought back from the dead, and it turned out that the plant that thought it was Alec was an accident - Alec himself was supposed to have become Swamp Thing. And since Alec was back and the plant was out of the picture, Alec found himself targeted for the transformation...
* ''ComicBook/TalesFromTheDarkMultiverse''

* ''Franchise/WonderWoman'':

** Clayface III must stay in a containment suit because his touch disintegrates any living thing he touches. ''ComicBook/ArkhamAsylumASeriousHouseOnSeriousEarth'' depicts him as naked, gaunt, and with yellow, flaking skim.

** Clayface III must stay in a containment suit because his touch disintegrates any living thing he touches.

** ''ComicBook/RobinSeries'': The {{unwitting test subject}}s of Strader Pharmaceuticals' debilitating PsychoSerum start looking more and more monstrous with each appearance. Eventually their bodies start liquefying around their veins while they're fighting the mercenaries Strader sent to [[DeadlyEuphemism clean up]] their mess.

** ''Adventures of Superman #466'', the story that introduced Hank "Cyborg" Henshaw, is loaded with body horror. Four NASA shuttle crew members encounter a type of radiation and suffer bodily mutations. One of them, as an example, has his body reformed into a mass of rock (a la ComicBook/FantasticFour's the Thing) only with pieces of the shuttle mixed in. The pain drives him to commit suicide by way of an MRI machine, which rips him apart.

** In [[ComicBook/Supergirl1982 a classic issue]] of ''ComicBook/{{Supergirl}}'', one of her teachers undergoes an experiment which turns him into a repulsive mutated creature: his body is huge and hairless, his eyes are two large, red balls without pupils, his limbs are ridiculously long and thin and his feet have only two fingers each.

* ComicBook/SwampThing:
** Though later retconned into "a plant who thought it was Alec Holland" (surprisingly similar to the Nazi Bee Swarm thanks to a certain infamous memory experiment involving flatworms that wasn't debunked till much later) the original story was a man turning into a strange plant monster, incapable of even speech, and having to try and cope with it.

* In Creator/GrantMorrison's first story arc for ''Comicbook/AnimalMan'', the super-powered (and temporarily insane) NatureHero B'wana Beast, in a series of failed attempts to rescue his kidnapped ape friend Djuba, uses his telekinetic helmet to fuse various animals together (including a homeless man and a rat). When Djuba dies from laboratory smallpox inoculation, B'wana Beast avenges her by [[spoiler: fusing her body with that of Dr. Myers, the scientist responsible. The lab technicians, not recognizing their supervisor, prepare to do ape surgery without anesthesia while their fully aware victim, attempting to stop them, can only grunt "Ma urrs! Ma urrs!"]]

** Some Batman's villains have this as their schtick, most notably Clayface III, who must stay in a containment suit because his touch disintegrates any living thing he touches, and The Corrosive Man, whose skin releases acid and ''he can feel every bit of it''.

* Doppelganger, a villainess introduced in Issue 1 of ''ComicBook/GreenArrow: The Midas Touch'' (Volume 5 of his solo line and the first of the ComicBook/{{New 52}} reboot), is presumably a shapeshifter. Within panels of her first appearance, she [[HulkingOut hulks out]], [[GrowingMusclesSequence bulking up]] and [[ClothingDamage shredding a good portion of her]] [[LittleBlackDress slinky black dress]]. Any {{fanservice}} [[AmazonianBeauty this might have been played for]] [[FanDisservice is immediately thrown out the window]] as she not only grows [[MultiArmedAndDangerous an extra set of arms]], but ''[[MultipleHeadCase a second face]]''--still stuck to the first one as if it were a {{conjoined twin|s}}-- and [[http://static.comicvine.com/uploads/scale_small/10/107028/1998771-doppelganger.jpg breaks out into warts.]] Appropriately so, Ollie quips that she's making him nauseated and her accomplice Supercharge refers to her as a freak when Dynamix (the third member of their villainous trio) wonders where she's been taken after they've all been incarcerated.

** ''ComicBook/TheSupergirlFromKrypton'' saw Superman fly to the edge of Creation fighting Darkseid and, lo, they beheld... an infinitely vast wall of living, breathing, '''screaming''' flesh and faces that act as the "wall" between Creation and the nothingness beyond, the Source Wall. Its current form is apparently made of everyone who's ever tried and failed to pass through it and discover the secrets hidden on its other side.

!!Franchise/TheDCU

** ''ComicBook/WonderWoman1987'': Those Ares possesses suffer from catastrophic PossessionBurnout, which tends to start with them smoking and their flesh bubbling before sloughing away and leaving a pile of smoldering bones as their remains.

* ''ComicBook/TheCrawlingKing'': In one story, a woman puts on a ring, and then her skeleton exits her body through her mouth. It then takes the ring and leaves the woman a lump of flesh on the floor.