"In the deepest slumber-no! In delirium-no! In a swoon-no! In death-no! even in the grave all is not lost.” - Edgar Allan Poe

Series: Re-Animator
Name: Dr. Herbert West.
Occupation: Doctor, scientist, The Re-Animator.
Origin: Arkham, Massachusetts.
Height: 5’7.
Weight: 140 pounds.
Alignment: Chaotic Neutral.
Likes: The Re-agent, science, Dan (not really).
Dislikes: Death, improper science, meatballs, pencils.

The inevitable and immutable conclusion for all lifeforms that walk our planet is death. The coming of age as our bodies return to the earth and our souls to the afterlife. For some, this revolution frightens them to their core, while others embrace the scarcity of life. But no matter what, in the end, the end is all there is. Unless, much like a disease, death has a cure, and “reanimation” of the dead back into the living is the next evolutionary step of mankind. This may sound like madness to most, but reanimation is exactly the dream of one doctor, no scientist, in particular, one who would do whatever it takes to remove the shackles of mortality from humanity. This is Dr. Herbert West, and he is the Re-Animator.

So, in a versus scenario befitting someone his style, how will the Re-Animator stack up? Come find out as we cut to the bone and unravel the mind of Herbert West.

Before We Start…

Before we begin our operation, there are ground rules to point out in how we will be handling a blog such as this, as expected from slasher franchises at this point. Herbert West is unique though, as he, and Re-Animator as a whole, is a modern interpretation of a short story by the same name written by H.P Lovecraft. Despite technically being an adaptation, the two stories and characters are vastly different and conflict with one another. While we have had no problem simply compositing characters in the past, they aren’t exactly the same franchise, just one is heavily based on the other. Thus, we won’t be accounting for H.P Lovecraft’s original version of the character and any other adaptation that isn’t the modern one we’re familiar with. This helps shorten the media list as well.

For what we are using, the film series is an obvious must and in addition to those, the novelizations and scripts that come with them. There are also other forms of media that Re-Animator comes in, including musicals, a manga and promotional material, which will all be looked at as well. We will also be using all comic books, including crossovers with characters such as Ash Williams and Cassie Hack, these are inherently parts of Herbert’s story and all take place in the same continuity as the regular Re-Animator comics. You have to include these if you want to use any comics at all. Though, we will leave how Herbert can scale to these characters and how he can use some of their gear for Important Notes. In the meantime, here’s sources we pulled from in the making of this blog, big thanks to these and go check each of them out!

Sources:

Lastly, BIG DISCLAIMER. This blog will contain a lot of gore and graphic violence which we won’t be afraid of showing at points, both for the displayed images and scans. As well as some scans depicting nudity, though we aren’t showing that upfront. Also, if you’re afraid of needles or anything of the sorts… It's recommended you sit this one out.

Background

“Never let it be said that I have not suffered for science. I have been exiled by my peers, I have been reviled by society. One day, though, they will see the errors of their ways... and they will raise monuments in my honor.”

Class is now in session.

As an old quote goes, the oldest and strongest emotion of mankind is fear, and the oldest and strongest kind of fear is fear of the unknown. The unknown takes many forms, from the grandest of cosmic horrors to the simplest of improbabilities; it is all that the human mind cannot fully comprehend. But the greatest and most persistent of these forms is the abstract concept of death. The final chapter to every story, the fate that every organism abides by, and the passing of one into the afterlife that remains beyond our feeble minds, into the unknowable. How we cope with this reality differs from person to person, religion to religion and lifestyle to lifestyle. But a peculiar few attempt to cheat death, hoping to get the dead to walk the earth once more. This ambition of “curing” death has driven many mad, yet the most recent mind occupying such thoughts is on the verge of that discovery, a simple med by the name of Herbert West.

Herbert West’s origins are shrouded in mystery; no one quite knows what pushed him over the edge. Maybe he always had a few screws loose, or perhaps he had truly been an unassuming medical student conducting research for a noble cause. As he got closer and closer to figuring out a working formula, Herbert attempted for his work to be recognized, but was met with ridicule. He was ostracized by his peers and superiors, forgotten and reviled by society, never to be helped or noticed by his associates. Herbert then thought, if all of the ignorant and ungrateful were denying him of resources and recognition, then the fight with death would be one he’d fight alone. In this revelation, Herbert threw his notions of right and wrong out the window; there were now no lines that he wouldn’t cross in order to show those worms that he had been right and that his work was the truth. This continued until he reached the culmination of his research, the cure for death, the Re-Agent. This formula effectively replaces the corpse’s damaged tissue by copying healthy tissue to replicate their body at the time of death. Herbert had turned man into The Re-Animator.

There was just one problem: the formula was still incomplete, and the subjects it was injected into turned to zombies driven by rage to attack West and any life around them. When Herbert had finally come around to using the serum on the fresh corpse of Dr. Gruber, a professor at a university in Switzerland, the dosage had been too large, and his Reanimated self had his eyes burst open. This didn’t discourage Herbert; successfully given life, even for a time, had been accelerating. The best thing he’s felt in his entire life. If he could just perfect the formula with more research, he’d be able to obtain flawless Reanimation. Luckily for him, this event displaced his research to Miskatonic University in Arkham, Massachusetts. He’d now be in a new playground, full of guinea pigs and potential test subjects to experiment on.

Something interesting happened here, though. Herbert had been assigned to live with Dan Caine, a naive but honest person who wholeheartedly wanted to save people. A trait that Herbert used to manipulate Dan into helping him. Herbert finally had an assistant, and after Herbert’s Re-Agent caused a zombie takeover of the hospital involving a Reanimated zombie trying to steal Herbert’s work, Dan’s girlfriend, Meg, died by a Reanimated, and Dan was left with heavy trauma. Herbert saw this as an opportunity to keep Dan as an assistant, and through years of running and hiding from the law, Herbert found the heart of Meg and held it over Dan’s head. Convincing him to help build a Frankenstein replacement made of different body parts of Meg, giving it a consciousness and reason that no other Reanimate quite had. This was The Bride, and while Dan was obsessed with her at first, after The Bride had attacked his new girlfriend, Francesca, he called her a monster. Prompting her to kill herself by ripping Meg’s heart out of her body. As various other zombies surrounded them in a basement, the roof caved in, and only Herbert, Dan, and Francesca had resurfaced. It was then that Dan rid himself of Herbert’s influence. He walked away with Francesca into a new life, leaving Herbert, once again, alone.

Now researching by himself again, Herbert was eventually captured by the law and taken to prison. Before he was, however, he left his last sample of Re-Agent in the hands of a child who watched his sister die to a Reanimate awakened by Herbert. This was Howard Phillips, a person who would later work in the same prison holding Herbert. Surprise, surprise, Herbert then manipulated Howard’s grief at the loss of his sister and his desire for the admiration of his peers to get him to work for him. This time, though, Herbert proved just how heartless he’d become when his antics caused Howard and his love interest to go insane, and in response, he stole Howard’s credentials to escape prison. In his freedom, he gave up scientific value and resorted to a supernatural answer to life and death, leading to his encounter with the fable Necronomicon Ex-Mortis, the book of the dead, where he was killed and remade as a demonic entity. In this form, he ran into the groovy chosen one to fight all evil, Ash Williams, and later ran into him again after getting his body back, this time teaming up with him to save the world from a Mayan prophecy. Comics sure are interesting, aren’t they? However, after this, Herbert was sent to the 1920s. During his time here, he went mad due to the evil of the book slithering in his veins, filling out his usual operations until Ash came along once more to snap him out of it. Prompting his death at the hands of Deadites, though the evil in his blood soon resulted in his resurrection and return to the present.

After gaining his sanity back, Herbert swore to never let his mind stray away from a scientific solution to defying death; he’d promise himself that he would conquer it through his brain, not through the magic of an unholy book. To do so, he pushed his research to its fullest potential, invented various forms of Re-Agent, hoping to find a way to perfect the formula, which he ended up doing in the distant future, and most importantly, he attempted to look for a new assistant. They came and went. Susan Greene was a widow manipulated by Herbert into joining his cause and motivated to take justice into her own hands by killing her husband’s murderer. Then there was Cassie Hack’s father, Jack Hack, who worked with Herbert under the idea that his slasher wife would be brought back to normal. Drifting away from Herbert’s work when she was restored, but soon dying due to the imperfections of his Reanimated spouse that Herbert had tried to warn him about. Through it all, what Herbert really sought in these assistants wasn’t their help; it was to fill a hole in his heart that had been left by assistants before then.

All of this paints a clear picture. For all of Herbert’s brilliance and proficiency in Reanimating, there was one thing that he was never able to understand and something he’s deeply frightened by: love. He’s so involved with life and death that he can only see those around him as a tool to get what he wants, never to form intimacy or connections with them; in fact, that idea disturbs him more than anything. He has seen so many assistants destroy themselves over love that he views it as a disease, poisoning their senses and making them act irrationally. That’s why he’s so obsessed with rebirth. Because in all of his apathy, the only life that Herbert couldn’t reanimate was his own.

“My work… All of that progress and discovery: Gone. Once again, I must slash and burn to cover up someone else’s mess, and move on. First Dan… Now Jack… Blinded by that accursed hum of emotion that poisons their senses. Perhaps I am eternally destined to be alone in my work, unable to collaborate or share discoveries with any of the weak-willed ingrates around me. Yes. Alone.”

Of Herbert West, everyone can speak only with extreme terror. But what difference does it make? Who cares if they’re screaming your name with fear when the moment you master the formula of bringing the dead back, they will scream it with admiration. Who cares how blasphemous or how repulsive the experiments will have to be when you will be treated as a god when everything is said and done? That is Herbert’s hypothesis, and as long as Herbert West can dig through sorrow and disgust to form a worthy experiment in an attempt to reach a conclusion, his dreams of life after death won’t ever die.

Class dismissed.

Skill And Experience

Over the course of his life and devotion to restoring life, Herbert West has demonstrated time and time again his mastery in the dead, turning from your typical med student to a grade A survivalist. Rest assured, Herbert West has as good of a head on his shoulders as much as he does one on his desk, and that is ultimately his greatest strength. Herbert originated as a medical student of high regard, but through years of research combined with his knowledge of biology and chemistry, he created a serum known as the Re-Agent. This chemical formula copies healthy cells to replace damaged cells, regenerating the brain to the exact moment the person had died, with the last thing on the person’s mind being the only thing their Reanimated selves think about. This Re-Agent isn’t perfect, to say the least, it brings the Reanimated folk back as zombies that attack all they see, driven mad with rage. But like any good scientist, Herbert learns from his failures and aims to perfect this Re-Agent, in his many experiments trying to do exactly that, he’s only gained more intelligence and is skilled in the craft.

Herbert is beyond brilliant, possessing an understanding of the human mind and flesh and how to manipulate it in a way no one else is capable of. He’s a puppet master that performs marvels of surgery to stitch together horrific monstrosities, take for example The Bride, a sentient entity with reason that was sowed together with the feet of a ballet dancer, the legs of a prostitute, the womb of a virgin, the arms of a waitress, the hand of a lawyer and a murderess, the head of Gloria and the heart of Meg. He has molded an obscene amount of flesh and body parts in ways unheard of, like someone with 2 front sides of people, someone with 2 lower halves of people and his equal demonic part created an amalgamation of Deadites seamed into one.

In the field of chemistry, he’s arguably greater. Not only has he made the Re-Agent but he has made several variants of it ranging from a serum of fluids from The Necronomicon that possesses whoever is injected with a Deadite and a Super Re-Agent of energies bestowed by the goddess of death was able to create a portal that acted as dimensional rip in space-time to the dead dimension. In the future, Herbert actually managed to perfect his classical Re-Agent, void of all flaws the original had and with the capabilities of restoring limbs and making the user live indefinitely, which allowed Future Herbert to survive till 3404. His achievements don’t stop at Re-Agents, he has discovered an amniotic fluid in a breed of South American Iguanas that let him create a type of Chloroform that kills the victim by stimulating a heart attack. He has created, distributed and occasionally amplified a drug known as Eunique, or Psychotropic Powder, this drug has the mood enhancement of ecstacy, the heightened energy of cocaine, the psychedelic effect of acid and when taken in excess, the power to link one's mind with the Elder Gods. Speaking of the elder gods, Herbert is used to dealing with The Necronomicon’s supernatural evil, he’s able to read and interpret prophecies said in the book, memorize spells and use it to uncover the secrets of life and death.

Second to his raw intellect is his cunning and manipulative nature, Herbert perfectly understands and manipulates the human mind enough to analyze response of stress like a skilled psychiatrist. Herbert has famously persuaded his assistants to follow through with his experiments like how he pulled the strings of Dan Caine, who suffered from heavy trauma and grief at the loss of Meg, his girlfriend whom was killed in the first movie, by holding the possibility of getting Meg back, convincing him to help him create The Bride. Susan Greene was a widower, and when Herbert had taken an interest in her husband’s murder, he stalked her for a long time, learning her patterns, interests, strength and moral attachment and orchestrated a moment where Herbert could recruit her as a lab assistant. It was here Herbert showed his psychological skill by perfectly dissecting the nature of her character. There are other examples, like Howard Phillips and Jack Hack, but the idea is the same. For other feats of intelligence, he can read Latin, pick locks and uncover cases that were abandoned. This trickery proves useful in fights, like setting up traps, initiating gang wars, and deceiving people into taking his tainted blood thinking it's a drug enhancement.

Speaking of fights, Herbert is more than capable of holding his own in this department if the line of work calls for it. He’s killed a lot of Reanimates over the years and has contended with other survivors, such as Cassie Hack and Ash Williams, the latter being a character he has crossover with many times. In one of these crossovers, they teamed up along with other monster hunters to save the world from a Mayan Prophecy, Herbert didn’t fight directly in this but he was using the book as his method of attack. After being sent to the 1920s not soon later, Herbert made due with the time and enlisted in the great war, making him an excellent shot that can target limbs with precision. This had also given him enough experience of digging so many graves that his upper body strength improved drastically, allowing him to fight his way through a horde of his own Reanimates and the monstrous Croceus Rex.

Equipment

Re-Agent

The key to bring life to the dead and the focal point of the entire franchise, the Re-Agent is the peak of Herbert’s research and his greatest invention. This chemical formula, often injected into corpses through the use of a hypodermic syringe and usually administered to the corpse’s nervous system, uses healthy cells to replicate these cells in place of damaged cells and brings the corpse back to life. Of course however, not as normal, it brings them back as zombies, or Reanimates. Hostile, motivated only by primal rage, mentally degraded, driven mad to do things and having been put through experiences their soul cannot endure, these zombies attack everything in sight. Depending on the freshness of the corpse, these zombies carry varying levels of intelligence and awareness. The corpse being fresh means that, because the cells replicate to the moment of the person’s death, the last things on their mind at the point of death are the only things on their Reanimated selves mind. Conversely, an older corpse may be less sentient since the Re-Agent will struggle to replicate the cells exactly to how they were before the person died. The amount of the dosage the person needs to come alive also depends on their race and the same goes for different species of animals.

The premise may be simple, but the Re-Agent has a lot of nuance to it. If, instead of a dose being given to a full body, it’s given to a severed part such as a head, the head will come alive and be able to control its lost body. Alternatively, it has restored life in dead creatures regardless of their physical condition like a broken back. That’s just from a regular dose, Herbert has actively been shown weaponizing the Re-Agent to cause overdoses. An overdose in this case is able to cause every cell in someone’s body to vibrate into an accelerating quiver as their body is consumed by too much reanimation, causing their very organs to come alive and rip out of their body to attack those near it. If enough is taken, it can even cause your body to contort out of shape and explode, leaving the victim a near fleshless corpse. Another interesting use utilized by a Reanimated Dr. Hill is that if the user injects their own brain cells and the Re-Agent into any biological material, they are effectively able to duplicate their mind and see out of said material.

As you can tell however, the Re-Agent’s intended purpose of bringing the dead back is pretty flawed, the whole zombie thing was just a side effect after all. Herbert has reconfigured his Re-Agent on several instances to achieve different effects, to avoid problems like physical mutation and mental degradation. Such as the time he unintentionally made it burst open the injected’s chest and mutated someone’s physiology into horrific form. Or how about the time he, also unintentionally, used a reconstituted version to transform someone into an immobile blob of flesh almost immediately after injection. With research, he was seemingly able to remove decay in Reanimates by synthesizing proteins found in American Alligators. Other times, he’s added new enabling compounds to prevent rigor mortis in his Reanimates. There’s even a lower solution of the regular serum that Herbert takes to keep himself awake and his brain sharp. With all this in mind, you’d think that the Re-Agent would only be able to affect the dead, but these variants have shown to affect alive specimens in horrific ways.

Herbert has made several versions of this classic Re-Agent, each one differing from the last in terms of how they deal with death in a human body. But a trait that remains absolute in all of these Re-Agents is the fact that, for anyone who is alive and using it, it's incredibly addictive. It causes emotional highs in the user and even the calm minded Herbert has gone into a nasty withdrawal over it, shaking badly as he begs for a dose to be given.

Vat Of Re-Agent

Herbert has to keep the chemicals of his Re-Agent safe somewhere, and boy does he have a lot of it, exactly why he opts to have a giant container of the substance kept around his lab. Allowing him to pull his famous chemical for a variety of experiments and to completely restore a person’s body from a rotten state.

Perfected Re-Agent

In the distant future, Herbert, now ruling over a post-apocalyptic wasteland, has finally actualized the full potential of the death defying Re-Agent. This perfected Re-Agent is especially powerful, healing injuries like a blown off head in a matter of seconds with the strange chemicals of the Re-Agent emitting into whatever shape its healing, and it's said by Herbert to be able to heal any wound. We do actually have a measure of how much this heals, for you see, the regular Re-Agent works by replicating healthy cells to replace dead ones, the perfected one would work the same but to a greater degree. Meaning that it is capable of cellular healing.

Unlike its imperfect counterpart, there is no drawback to this serum and Herbert has a constant dosage of this Re-Agent being injected into his body through the use of bionic arms, allowing him to come right back up from death and live indefinitely, which is how he was able to survive till the future year of 3404. By the end of the comic, it is shown that Herbert has metallic parts disrupting the substance across his body and can survive an implied lifetime of being ripped apart. Though it is fair to assume there’s a time limit on how long he can keep doing this.

Revenant Re-Agent

Combining the attributes of his regular Re-Agent and a chemical found with the body of a Slasher, though Herbert prefers the term “Revenant,” called Senex-Rev 5. Slashers are extraordinary monsters, they are undead that are brought back to the living through sheer anger and exhibit the ability to regenerate from lost tissue, even massive tissue damage in some cases. This Re-Agent aims to normalize the brain activity of a Slasher and regenerate most lost connections. Under the effects of this Re-Agent, what would be a rage filled Reanimate Slasher hybrid can act like a regular person… until the effects wear off and the person’s body mutates, as does their personality.

But hey, if the subject is acting too hostile, just two of these Re-Agents mixed with senex are enough to make the subject overdose, causing an enhanced reaction that draws from regenerated cells to flush complex organs like the brain, making it so the subject shrivels and decay as their body consumes itself at a rapid pace. Extreme, but necessary in some circumstances.

Deadite Re-Agent

Upon obtaining the fabled Necronomicon Ex-Mortis, Herbert used it in an attempt to enhance his Re-Agent, causing the dead bodies injected with the substance to become possessed Deadites that specifically targeted him for some reason, likely for his magic blood being enchanted with the Necronomicon. In any case, being turned into a Deadite is very potent not just because it possesses you with an evil spirit, but because, when you are possessed, all aspects of human form are erased, including the soul.

Super Re-Agent

The pinnacle of Herbert's research into reanimation, The Super Re-Agent, a mixture created by a power bestowed to Herbert by a goddess of death, doesn’t just defy death, it breaks it. To explain what it can do takes explaining what it was used for, as it's a very convoluted process, especially for how it fits into Herbert’s kit. Essentially, when it was injected into a makeshift gate of flesh, it opened a portal to the dead dimension by tearing a hole through time and space with negative death based energy being poured into our world. These energies were then controlled by the goddesses of death and her husband to reshape earth and flood it with death energy in a storm that sucked the souls of whoever were affected by its wave of energy. To defeat the goddess of death and her husband, Herbert injected the Super Re-Agent into Vampirella, knowing that, because her physiology was unique, she would withstand it and grow powerful enough to defeat them.

This is all fine and dandy, although frankly fucking crazy for a series that was about bringing the dead back to life but I digress, but how does this relate to Herbert? Well, he only has a small container full of Super Re-Agent, which is the only sample of it we see him have and which he kept after these events, meaning that he likely can’t use it to reshape their earth, summon soul sucking storms and send out deathwaves on a world wide scale, as that required much more dead energy that what Herbert has shown access to. The god and goddess of death needed the gates to be open for the dead energy to pour into the living after all.

However, it is still the same energy that was used for the process, which means it does have the same properties but on a much lower scale. That may not sound that impressive, but that would still allow this Re-Agent to rip souls out of the victim as they are infected with dead energy, which would send their soul to the dead dimension by tearing a hole through space-time with just an injection of the thing! Herbert can’t amplify his or basically anyone’s stats with this like he did to Vampirella, as that required her unique physiology. But that just makes it an even deadlier offense option to kill opponents with. The downside to this chemical though, even with it being incredibly powerful in the small amount Herbert has, he still has a small amount and has no recorded way of being able to restore it. Once it’s gone, it’s gone, and that includes if someone destroys the container.

Nanoplasm

Herbert’s great Re-Agent may have brought life back to the dead, but this invention of his will give true life. This invention is a small container of Nano Plasmic Energy, or NPE for short, that takes the form of an electric charge within the container. Once inserted into a Reanimate, it will restore cognitive thought and rationality, making them think like a human but with the instincts of a Reanimate, meaning that they sometimes lose all control and go into a feral state. This doesn’t discourage our beloved doctor however, as he’s been adapted to quickly manufacturing ways to transport others NPE into this capsule to use on other reanimates.

Psychotropic Powder

Stolen from a cultist and amplified by yours truly, this powder may not look all that special but when it's used, it can control the victim’s body. Their mind will still be intact but their body will follow the user’s every command, causing immobilization if Herbert does not instruct movement and this effect can last for days on end. This is an amplified sample of a drug Herbert deals to this cult, this drug is called Eunique and it has the mood enhancement of ecstacy, the heightened energy of cocaine, and the psychedelic effect of acid. If taken in excess, it physically opens your mind to that of the Elder gods. With this power in his arsenal, this means that at his peak, Herbert can reasonably control his Reanimates and other support to make sure that they don’t attack him.

Acid

A mixture of the chemicals in his labs that he uses to make the Re-Agent, Herbert has quickly made acid on the spot at points to catch foes off guard, used against Evil Ash to scar his face and melt the lower half of his body.

Blood Sample

When faced with drug traffickers, Herbert reasoned with them to give him a hostage while they get a vial that multiplies the mental stimulation of their own drugs. Or so they thought, in reality, this was actually a sample of Herbert’s blood, the details of which we will get into later, but what’s important is that when this sample is taken, it forever taints your blood with Herbert’s magically infected own.

Blood Sample Cure

With the right amount of research, Herbert has found a way to suppress the magical taints rushing through his veins in a special concoction that suppresses its influence. In this case, he worked up a cure that is hundred times the regular dosage of what he uses, boiling the fluids of those with his blood and pushing the entities that lurk within it back, latter of which supposedly negates the properties of his blood to a degree.

Sedative

Used for overly aggressive subjects, Herbert can calm their aggravation by sedating it as you would a regular wild animal.

Chloroform

God DAMN he’s buff. Besides addressing the allegations of being a skinny white boy, this panel does show that Herbert carries around chloroform that can naturally knock someone out.

Heart Attack Chloroform

A unique type of chloroform created by Herbert, this variant doesn’t just knock you out, it flat out kills you by simulating a heart attack. Leaving you a lifeless corpse with no damage done to your tissues, organs or even skin and does so without any evidence. Exactly what the mad doctor needs when he runs out of biological material.

Defibrillators

A true doctor at heart, Herbert’s no stranger to keeping around your typical medical appliances for more of a sinister approach with how he uses them, like Defibrillators to kickstart a heart of both the living and dead.

Surgical Saw

Harvesting body parts in the 1920s isn’t easy, but Herbert manages with the medical equipment given to him, shown in his surgical saw used for taking limbs and body parts from corpses.

Electric Bonesaw

“Bonesaw is ready!”

Another saw that’s more up to standard then the previous saw, this one is strong enough to not only cut through bone, but an entire person’s chest.

Shovel

He has to have some way of getting dead bodies, and what better way then to grave rob with his trusty shovel, arguably a more iconic part of his arsenal, which he has used to knock out people like Ash out in a single hit and full on decapitate someone with enough jabs.

Axe & Hatchet

As the image above states, you better believe Herbert is not afraid to get his hands dirty and lab coat bloody in order to deal with his failed experiments. A weapon he’s been fairly consistently shown to use to get this job done is an axe, or sometimes a hatchet, that’s able to hack Reanimates to bits and pieces.

Machete

Borrowing tricks from other horror movies popular at his time, Herbert has shown to use a machete to slice off a Reanimates arm in one chop, leaving it bleeding out of its missing arm as it stumbled away.

Spear

If Herbert ever needs to kill two birds with one stone, aka disposing of a rogue Reanimate and obtaining a new dead specimen in the form of whoever the Reanimate is attacking, then he has a spear fit for the occasion.

Pistols

Dedicating your life to restoring the dead comes with the necessity of ways to defend yourself from the zombies you’re awakening, and Herbert has his hands on a variety of firearms to cut live experiments short. In particular, he’s shown to carry all sorts of pistols, namely a M1911A1 and a revolver, which he has proven he’s a good shot with.

Rifle

While never used by West directly, we see in an Army Of Darkness crossover comic that he keeps a spare rifle in his office that can blow through Deadites.

Shotgun

Herbert’s firearm of choice in times where a slaughterfest is guaranteed, this long barrel shotgun, despite the oddly inconsistent proportions, is incredibly powerful. Allowing for Herbert to set up traps with his Reanimates by shooting a chain open, and even if he loses it, no sweat; He’s no Ash Williams anyway.

Misc. Tools & Weapons

Unfortunately. Herbert hasn’t showcased his full arsenal in combat, but it is important to note that he has a stash of weaponry he can realistically use in the right circumstances. This includes sniper rifles, machine guns, more revolvers, katanas and knives and explosives like grenades. This isn’t quite the full extent of his arsenal either, not only does he have a bag full of medical equipment on him, but he’s shown to have access to a lot of other tools or improvised weapons like glowsticks, torches, scalpels, golf clubs, bidents and more.

The Necronomicon Ex-Mortis (Debatable, See Important Notes)

In his quest for bringing the dead back to the mortal plane, Herbert’s research soon diverted from its scientific roots and centered itself around a magical explanation, something Herbert deeply hated himself doing, and this magical explanation was embodied in The Necronomicon Ex-Mortis, The Book of The Dead. The Necronomicon is a sentient demonic book created by The Dark Ones, an ancient group of supernatural beings that draw their power from an endless realm, to unleash their hatred and evil onto humanity. An evil that originates from a space in between worlds, shapeless and dark in nature. Over time, several copies of the book were made and spread across the world, one of these happened to cross paths with Herbert West. This wasn’t any copy of the Necronomicon however, this was the original latin translation.

Herbert West was first introduced to The Necronomicon when it was used against him, specially to create an evil version of himself that took his place and led a group of Deadites to claim Ash Williams’ soul. It was here that Herbert’s Re-Agent needles were shown to extract demonic fluids from the book that can be injected into corpses to corrupt them. After regaining control of his body, Herbert kept onto The Necronomicon as an equal exchange for his dark services, using it for offensive attacks and he memorized spells such as spells that spatially teleport him across the globe. Even with his rocky relationship with the book, which we will get into in Important Notes, we still feel it's important to list off the uses of the Necronomicon, a list similar to what we did in The Freddy Krueger Character Analysis.

Necromancy: Can awaken Deadites and can summon an Army of them that fought the Marvel Zombies
Resurrection: Can either bring someone back as a Deadite or can bring them back as normal. The latter requires a Special Alter.
Regeneration: Can heal from being burned, chopped apart, etc.
Absorption: If anything ever wonders onto the book, it can slam itself shut and absorb the entity for itself. Gaining its attributes, like limbs if the creature has any.
Possession: Can let users temporarily possess anyone you want, even Deadites. Touching the book’s blood will also make it so your body can easily be possessed by Kandrain Demons.
Earth Manipulation: Similar to storms, It can create massive earthquakes capable of completely destroying enemies.
Teleportation: With some weird greenish magic, it can teleport the user out of harm’s way.
Electricity Manipulation: By holding up the book, the user can shoot out bolts of electricity that pass through foe to foe around them. Which Ash has used in quick succession.
Fire Manipulation: Can shoot fire to engulf enemies or summon a bunch of fireballs from the sky.
Force Projection: Projected an invisible force that sent Ash flying.
Forcefield Creation: Can protect the user by creating an energy shield over them and block off exit points with similar barriers.
Stat Boosting: Can make Ash stronger and taller.
Paralysation Inducement: Can temporarily stun any enemies in the way.
Healing: By saying "necktie" instead of the correct word, it can heal Ash and any allies around him
Duplication: Created several mini versions of Ash to stab him in the ass.
Summoning: Can Summon Archers, Spearman, Knights, Torch Boys, Lancers, a good boy and other heroes like Henry the Red Pablo and Kelly as well as things like beer.
Sound Manipulation: Kandarian Demons are monkeys.
Plant Manipulation: Can hold others down using branches and tree limbs.
Technology Manipulation: In Evil Dead: Rise, it could cause technology to malfunction and control it.
Animal Manipulation: Made an already dead bird move and tweet to scare Ash. It really likes messing with him if you couldn’t already tell.
Blood Manipulation: Can create an excessive amount of blood and make the walls bleed, somehow.
Biological Manipulation: Can create organic life and melt away organic material, mainly flesh.
Disease Manipulation: Able to induce a supernatural sickness that stacks overtime.
Pain Manipulation: Is apparently made of pain and can inflict intense pain through tendrils of energy.
Empathetic Manipulation: Can make people feel a variety of emotions running through them, including a sick sense of lust that is only escapable through extreme willpower.
Life Manipulation: After tormenting Ash, it was likely responsible for causing this deer head along with the rest of the furniture in the cabin to come to life.
Transmutation: Turned a normal mirror into a vertical pool of water.
Sealing: Can fly around and trap anyone inside of it after a simple spell.
Existence Erasure: The Necronomicon can make people phase in and out of worlds, disappearing out of existence for as long as hours at a time.
Mind Reading: Read someone’s mind, telling the holder of the book their intentions.
Clairvoyance: It can reveal the true form of individuals if you speak the words “Tabaloo, Saru, Amaru, Kanu.”
Memory Manipulation: After making a mistake while tampering with the book, Ash lost his memory and the Necronomicon restored him back to normal.
Soul Manipulation: Can Suppress and even remove Deadites from a possessed victim and the evil the Necronomicon emits can completely destroy your soul over time.
BFR: Herbert’s usage of a spell he himself memorized resulted in him being teleported from Massachusetts to the Yucatán Peninsula.
Precognition: Can show the user possible futures if you don’t do certain things, like a future ruled by the dead if Ash didn’t find a way to destroy the book.
Portal Creation, Time Travel & Manipulation: Kandarian Demons can make it night time and like just read the description of Army of Darkness.
Reality Warping & Fate Manipulation: Can rewrite Destiny confirmed by the director of the 2013 remake be able to manipulate events, rewrite timelines and grant wishes to whoever wields it.

Abilities

Magic Blood

After his soul was forfeited to the elder god Yog-Sothoth by the Necronomicon and a new, demonic version of Herbert was made from its pages, Herbert later reclaimed his body when his twisted self was exposed to its reflection, escaping from the deadite dimension and taking control of his now corrupted body. Corrupted is an understatement, his soul wasn’t just claimed by Yog-Sothoth, the lurker of the threshold itself had infected Herbert’s blood with foul magic that acted as a pathogen of supernatural design. Both the book’s evil and Yog-Sothoth itself are literally squirming around in Herbert’s veins, causing the mind to undergo a dizzy ride through hysterias and imagery, and under some circumstances, having Yog-Sothoth tear its way through the body.

This blood doesn’t just serve in giving Herbert unique physiology, the magic tendencies of his blood have resulted in him being brought back from death on multiple occasions. Including when he was mutilated by Deadites and had his head ripped off or the time he had his entire lower half of his body ripped open. This resurrection effect has proven to be near instantaneous, someone with Herbert’s blood could reform their body after being cut up and as his deadite self’s body, the same body he took over, can have its head torn off but that decapitated head can simply sprout tentacle legs and reattach at a moment’s notice. The exact reason for the blood giving Herbert resurrecting capabilities is never explicitly said, but it is heavily suggested it’s the Yog-Sothoth entity itself bringing Herbert back. The Necronomicon specifically created the blood infected Herbert by summoning Yog-Sothoth in his veins and this has pledged Herbert’s blood to it, meaning that, along with his soul, Yog-Sothoth has fully claimed his being.

This is important for a few reasons. Firstly, and thankfully for Herbert, he has learned to suppress Yog-Sothoth’s influence to do what he wants, seemingly keeping his resurrection. Yog-Sothoth being the cause only amplifies Herbert’s resurrection capabilities, because Yog-Sothoth completely created Deadite Herbert’s body by having it burst out of human Herbert’s chest. Essentially making it so, as long as Herbert’s body is intact, Yog-Sothoth can always restore him. The power of Yog-Sothoth cannot be undermined, it is an elder god, the very essence that the spells of the Necronomicon contain to achieve its effect, and the equivalent to Cthulhu. Cthulhu is able to snuff out souls like a candle and fight Damballa, the creator of the cosmos who form the sea and earth by shedding his skin,

Teleportation

After being completely and utterly responsible for the failed resurrection of Cassie Hack’s mom, who traumatized her, and the death of her dad, Herbert made his grand departure by… teleporting? Yeah, it’s weird. Cassie was mid conversation and the moment she turned her head away from West was when an ambulance was flying past them, in that short time, Herbert simply disappeared. Whether this could be actual teleportation or a case of extreme stealth is up for debate. But since Herbert was already supernaturally augmented at this point, and he disappeared in an open area so suddenly, we think it's valid to classify as teleportation.

Broadway Force

Who knew Herbert had such an affinity for music! He’s quite charismatic in singing and dancing, getting others and zombies to dance alongside him at points. He’s not too happy about others doing the same though, he might even break a pencil to interrupt it, truly diabolical.

Resistances

Sound Manipulation: Was fine being next to a zombie who screamed so loud it broke glass, which requires upward of 105 decibels.
Sleep Manipulation: Thinking sleep is a waste of time, Herbert takes a weaker solution of the Re-Agent every night to force him to stay awake.
Radiation, Negative Energy, Death & Potential Soul Manipulation: Was shared the essence of the goddess of death, allowing him to understand her language but more importantly allowing him to withstand the radioactive negative energies produced by a portal to the dead dimension, which are death based. This “death energy” was poisoning the world around it, and Herbert was perfectly fine. This energy was then used to create a storm that sucked the souls of several people, however, Herbert surviving the soul storm can be argued to be because the goddess of death and her bride spared him prior.
Mind, Soul, Madness & Biological Manipulation: When he was killed by a Mayan god, Herbert was brought back by being injected with his own Re-Agent, this was before his Re-Agent was perfected and there is no proof this is a different type of Re-Agent, making it so Herbert should be immune to the drawbacks of his regular Re-Agent.
Soul Destruction: Herbert West’s blood is infected with dark magic of the Necronomicon and the evil of the book lurks within his veins as Yog-Sothoth silters in his fluids, the evil that the Necronomicon pumps out is capable of destroying the souls of regular people, leaving them hollow inside.

Forms

Deadite Herbert

“Herbert West is about to ascend to Godhood.”

When first being exposed to the Necronomicon, an evil zealot used a passage from the book to submit Herbert’s soul to Yog-Sothoth and form a new, darker Herbert, while killing regular Herbert in the process. This bad Herbert, free from the previous Herbert’s restraints and now with a bunch more sadism, has only been named “The Re-Animator,” but since that’s not the most specific name for the form, we’re referring to it as Deadite Herbert. Working with the same zealot that brought him to life, Deadite Herbert commanded hordes of Reanimates and Deadites, with them seeing him as their master, this Herbert continued to try to work on his Re-Agent.

Being infused with the body parts of Yog-Sothoth though, this Herbert has one hell of a physiology. He can replace any body parts with a Reanimates own, such as ripping out his own eye and using another eye, therefore seeing all that the eye had seen. Once he was decapitated, but his head grew tentacles to move around and remained alive, as did the rest of his body, as well as being able to put his head back on his shoulders. Later on in the comic, Herbert fought his bad self and regained control, now being in the Yog-Sothoth infected body, which is the cause of his magic blood. So he should have the full extent of this form’s physiology.

Future Herbert

“The time has come. When I learned the path of unlimited knowledge… The day when my destiny becomes clear… And dominion over the worlds of the living and the dead!”

With the secrets shown to him by the Necronomicon, Herbert, in a future timeline, had finally unlocked the means of breaking free from the chains of death and perfected his Re-Agent to restore any wound that the body receives, healing injuries like a blown off head in seconds by emitting Re-Agent energy into the shape being regenerated. By constructing bionic arms and other mechanical parts that replaced his organs, Herbert is able to syphon the Re-Agent chemical throughout his body, effectively making him immortal. At least for as long as his supply of Re-Agent lasts. The imperfect Re-Agent works by replicating regular tissues to replace any damaged ones, so this serum would be completely restoring Herbert’s injuries at the cellular level.

He doesn’t need to worry about that part however, after all he’s broken death and such an accomplishment has let him rule over the post-apocalyptic world now dominated by the Necronomicon’s evil. Securing him unlimited materials and a loyal staff of soldiers that will literally kill themselves at his command, trusting that their “master” will bring them back.

Support

Re-Animated Zombies

The product of Herbert’s mad science and the titular zombies brought about through the chemicals injected into them by the Re-Agent, The Reanimates are mentally degraded, though they do make conscious act, to the point of madness and are purely motivated by rage to attack everything they see, having gone through experiences their souls cannot endure. With this experience comes enhanced strength, being able to bite off fingers and knock down steel doors, and resilient enough to walk through gunshots. Being biologically mutated, they can live without a heart, continue going as a nearly fleshless figure after their stomach explodes and all their organs shot out, and any body part cut off from a Reanimate will have a mind of its own and move around like so. If they ever suffer an overdose of Re-Agent, their organs themselves mutate and come alive, launching out of their body.

The levels of aggression between different Reanimates depend on how fresh their corpse was by the time of injection, old corpses do retain some level of consciousness but mostly limited to raw animalistic instincts with little to no will. Fresh corpses however, because of the fact that the Re-Agent replicates a body’s cells at the moment of their death, are able to maintain the memory they had at the time of their death. This does actually form a will, a will that, if strong enough, is able to overcome mind control done by a lobotomy.

While his hordes of Reanimates are prone to attack him on occasion, he’s gotten pretty good at getting around this issue though, like setting up elaborate traps that keeps himself safe, having mind control options that makes it so the Reanimates follows his command or at his peak being recognized as the Reanimates superior. He’s shown to do the latter on the fly, causing recently resurrected Reanimates to attack his enemies while protecting him. This means that, under the right preparation, Herbert has a very good handle on how to control the dead without being thrown under the bus in the process. After all, he’s referred to as a puppet master that knows how to influence the Reanimates mind to do what he wants. There are a bunch of Reanimates Herbert has access to, some that hate him and others that follow his every lead, the following section is going to mention every notable Reanimate in the series.

Dr. Carl Hill

The no-good second rate scientist who attempted to steal Herbert’s work for himself and who swiftly met his end by Herbert decapitating him for doing so, Hill had both his head and body injected with Re-Agent, making both parts of his dead body live again. With his head controlling his lower half, Hill soon took Herbert’s sample of Re-Agent for himself to use on corpses and then lobotomized the Reanimates to make them listen to him through some sort of psychic link. He was even able to inject his own brain matter along with the Re-Agent into other body parts to essentially duplicate his mind and allow him to see through said body parts. In the second movie, after his head was reawakened, he had a pair of wings surgically implemented. Dr. Hill has had it out for Herbert before he became a Reanimate, and even more so after becoming one, it’s unlikely he’d aid Herbert willingly but still can be victim to Herbert’s manipulation and mind tricks.

The Bride

Herbert’s first recorded attempt at a Reanimate with reason consisted of stitching together the feet of a ballet dancer, the legs of a prostitute, the womb of a virgin, the arms of a waitress, the hand of a lawyer, the hand of a murderess, the head of Gloria and most importantly, the heart of Meg, Dan’s old girlfriend. That’s right, Herbert doubled this gruesome experiment as a means of manipulating Dan with the idea of bringing his dead girlfriend back to go through with his plans, what an asshole. In any case, Herbert’s experiment paid off and The Bride came alive with more reason than any Reanimate before her. She may still be extremely emotionally unstable, but she’s just as strong and durable as any Reanimate, being able throw people across rooms, survive electric shocks without worry and rip out her own heart which can continue to beat after her death.

The Valusin

A human assistant is good and all but they often don’t have the oomph to them to dispatch enemies efficiently, to fit this role, Herbert took the murdered Nathan Davis and Reanimated him, replacing damaged tissue with reptile flesh to better fit Nathan’s reaction to the Re-Agent serum causing him to undergo rapid growth and transformation, his body literally splitting down the seams. In this process, he lost a lot of human awareness and intelligence, being limited to only base emotions of anger and vengefulness, but gained incredible strength and endurance even for Reanimates standard. After being hypnotized by Herbert and taken care of, Nathan had become The Valusin and is now entirely loyal to helping Herbert, attacking at his order like a dog. You better hope you aren’t on the opposite end of this attack because The Valusin is a behemoth, he can punch holes in people and shred through hordes of Reanimates on his own. His Alligator flesh addons have also given him extremely long alligator tails coiled around his arms that can uncoil to wrap and attack foes.

Re-Animated Animals

(Art By JustEm_78)

Man didn’t obtain the wonders of their medicine by strictly testing it on their fellow man, that's what rats and guinea pigs are for, and in Herbert’s case, not only is his medicine different, the animals he tests it on are rather interesting. A Reanimated animal presumably shares the same functions as a person, though the dosage required to resurrect them varies between species. In his experiments, Herbert has reanimated so many animals.This list consists of cats, dogs, gibbons, chimpanzees, scorpions with a finger as their stinger and a lot more desecrated and altered dead animals like a severed deer or a bird with a deer skull and antlers. Below are the most notable of Reanimated animals, though these are modified in more than one way.

Snapper Hybrids

One of Herbert’s Reanimated pets that he lets breed with others for his experiments, Snapper Hybrids are what looks like a gross mix of an alligator turtle and a scorpion. Despite the strange physiology, these suckers are vicious, capable of biting with a measure of a thousand pounds per square inch, that’s a bite force equal to your average Bengal Tiger for the record. This bite only hurts worse when these beasts grow to great size in a matter of moments. There may only be a few of them, but Herbert is able to get them to not attack them by dousing himself in ammonia and urine, which acts as a repellent to them.

Giant Spiders

When working under the goddess of death and after she murdered a whole village for pieces of flesh, Herbert repurposed their flesh to make giant spiders to defend him, with them being empowered by Re-Agent as well. These spiders never show any intent of hurting Herbert, and in fact do the opposite for the whole comic run. All the better for Herbert because these spiders can briefly take on Vampirella, even if they do get killed pretty handily.

Sentient Body Parts & Misc. Experiments

Now we’ve officially moved from creatures to critters, some pretty horrific critters at that! These are the leftovers of Herbert’s experiments, crudely made entities like an eye with 4 fingers around it and your regular body parts that have been separated from the main body, like a cut off eye that bursted flesh-like appendages to walk or… a penis that sluggishly moves around. Cool I guess. Besides the little ones, Herbert’s failed experiments include stuff like two upper halves of different people stitched together, the two sides of different people stitched together and even a head with a leg for a neck.

Deadites

And we’re back from critters to creatures, but for the remaining sections we aren’t just looking at any creatures, it's the worst of the worst, The Deadites. These are the demonically possessed spirits brought into the living by The Necronomicon, fit to spread their evil and kill every lifeform they see. While some have taken dislike to Herbert, targeting him above everyone else at times, Herbert when he was in his Deadite state was recognized as their superior. In this state, Herbert led a unique horde of Deadites, including ones with tentacles, ones that can hang on ceilings, ones with an expanding body of faces and tentacles that can crush survivors with its tentacles. Obviously, as Deadites, these devils are capable of doing a lot more courtesy of their demonic origin. Like reattaching limbs, flying, teleporting and much more.

The Amalgam

For his final act of making an artpiece of the Deadites, Herbert created what is easily his most grotesque creature by far, that being an amalgamation of body parts, Reanimates and Deadites. Hence the name. All parts of this entity are individually alive, capable of speech and are constantly trying to grab onto anything near them to consume them into their ever-growing flesh. If the stitching on this creature is undone however, then the whole thing comes apart pretty easily, leaving all parts of the monster to move around on their own again.

Feats

Overall

Served as a paramedic during WW1.
Invented the Re-Agent as a way to bring the dead back, as well as all of its variants.
Perfected his Re-Agent in the future, living eternally and ruling over the wasteland that the world had come to.
Met horror icon Ash Williams several times, almost always aiding him defeat zombies.
Has helped save the world using the Necronomicon alongside Ash Williams, Red Sonja and Vampirella.
Almost ended the whole world by resurrecting the goddess of death and opening a gate to the dead dimension.
Recovered from being driven mad by the Necronomicon.
Always managed to get away when facing charges for his actions on multiple occasions.
David Bowie’s favorite horror film.
Became weirdly popular in the Furry community.
Re-Animated Hatsune Miku.

Power

Speed

Durability

Scaling

Re-Animates & Deadites

“Wessst…”

Reanimates, the patients to the mad doctor’s operations, include any zombie or type of undead that Herbert has reanimated from the depths of the dirt. Herbert has dismantled and dismembered his experiments in a variety of means, such as beating them senselessly, consistently showing he can fight on par with them. This extends to Deadites, demons possessing corpses brought about by the pages of an evil book. When he was taken over by his evil persona, The Reanimates and Deadites alike recognized him as their superior, only making it more consistent that Herbert can scale to them.

Reanimates have consistently shown to be able to mutilate humans, including ripping off their limbs and disemboweling them in mere moments.
In the manga adaptation of the film, a Reanimated Dr. Halsey shattered a wooden door via lunging through it. (516 Kilojoules)
A random naked zombie knocked down a steel door. (1.8 Megajoules) (Hey, my old teacher is friends with that zombie - Iceking)
Deadite demons have destroyed large tombs (0.45 Tons of TNT)
Especially powerful Deadites have shown to be able to create earthquakes potent enough to make rocks fall down. (2.7 Tons of TNT)
Hordes of Deadites can survive a 20 Kiloton Df-15C missile, though from an unknown range. (At Most 20 Kilotons of TNT)
Bad Ash is seemingly able to dodge shotgun fire from good Ash.
Regular Deadites have been shown actively avoiding rapid fire from shotguns.

Ash Williams

“Good, bad. I'm the guy with the gun.”

The groovy man himself, kicking evil’s ass for more than thirty years (at least linearly), Ash Williams has met with Herbert West many times. Their first encounter was when he was fighting Herbert while he was in his Deadite state, the next was when saving the world together, the next them fighting to survive the 1920s and the last in the distant future fighting Herbert’s future self. Despite technically never fighting, Herbert has displayed bare minimum downscaling from Ash, he’s knocked him out in a single hit before and his Reanimates have harmed Ash, in particular The Amalgam gave Ash a bit of trouble. Herbert and Ash’s crossovers are consistently shown to be canon to both series, Herbert’s magic blood is literally caused by the Necronomicon and so many Evil Dead comics since the crossover have referenced or shown the crossover in some way. Excluding it isn’t fair to Herbert, and isn’t very truthful of his overall scaling.

Thus, we think it's fair to scale Herbert to Ash’s feats, just exactly how much is the tricky part. We’ve decided that, since the Freddy Vs. Jason Vs. Ash comics are in the same continuity as the Vs. Reanimator comics, Herbert should be able to compare to Ash competing with characters like Jason or Freddy. But we have also decided that, because of it bordering too much on cross scaling and assumption for Reanimators canon, to not include anything of Friday The 13th or NoES that’s not mainline or connected to FvJvA in some way. This includes any installments that happen after the comics, such as Jason X’s novels. Only scaling Herbert to Ash and feats that happen in mainline/dynamite continuities for Freddy and Jason is, in our opinion, the best course of action.

Punched dents into a stone castle.
Is able to avoid gunfire from his own boomstick. (Mach 1.7)
Dodged a beam of energy he offhandedly calls a lightning bolt.

Other survivors have moved in tandem with actual lightning strikes. (Mach 79)

Reacted to and tracked a beam of light. (87% c)
Survived a plane explosion. (0.4 Tons of TNT)
Withstood an explosion that covered an entire hill with little damage. (29 - 137 Tons of TNT)
Fought the Dark Ones, who are able to make giant craters in place of whole towns. (97 Kilotons of TNT)
In the Freddy Vs. Jason Vs. Ash comics, which are a part of the same continuity as the Vs. Reanimator comics, Ash was able to take beatings, slice the arm off and shoot a hole through the chest of Jason Voorhees, who can…

Outran helicopter fire. (Mach 3.8)
Tanked being inside of a house explosion. (0.5 Tons of TNT)
Survived Freddy’s telekinesis in a fight where Freddy was taking him seriously and where he was summoning all of his power into said attack, in previous movies, Freddy’s telekinesis has been able to throw houses into space. (234 Megatons of TNT & 2% c - 287 Megatons of TNT & 1% c)
Fought Uber Jason I in the comics, the same one as the movie and Jason X comics, who can…

Survive a point blank explosion from a robot. (283 Megajoules)
When he crash landed on earth, he left behind a massive crater. (0.7 Tons of TNT)
Was completely unharmed at the space station exploding at the end of the film. (1.9 Kilotons of TNT)

In the same comic, Ash could fight Freddy as he was taking him seriously, both directly and by surviving a fire attack of his. He shouldn’t scale to the full extent of Krueger, as that type of power has been shown to be far too much for Jason or Ash to handle without dying. Thus, we can scale Ash to a casual Freddy in the mainline continuity of NoES, who can…

Conjure a storm around the white house.
Turned the sky red and made it rain blood all over Washington. (288 Megatons of TNT)
Moved fast enough to catch fire. (Mach 5)

Cassie Hack

"I'm Cassie Hack. I'm mean, I'm hard to kill, and I hunt Slashers."

Another hunter of the supernatural that Herbert has crossovered with, Cassie Hack is the toughest final girl you will ever see and has made it her life mission to kill the unkillable slashers one swing of the bat at a time. Herbert worked with her dad and brought her slasher mom back to life at one point, and had helped her storm through his Reanimates to get to her. As such, Herbert should realistically scale to Cassie’s feats. Though once again, not any scaling to other slasher characters, it is supporting evidence for Herbert scaling to Ash however.

Can crack concrete with her bat.
Swung her bat so fast it caught fire. (Mach 5 & 8.3 Megajoules)
Rolled off of an exploding snow blower so fast she created afterimages.
Took an attack that knocked both her and Vlad through a wall.
Physically comparable to Bomb Queen, who can tank their grenades blowing up in their face.
Should scale to Diaboliq, who can vaporize walls with her power. (205 Megajoules)
Scales to Libby, who can…

Weaknesses

For all of Herbert’s ambition and accomplishments, nothing can disguise the fact that he is never safe from the clutches of death himself. He does have options to get around his Reanimates attacking him, but he isn’t immune to it happening, this isn’t too bad for him though. A real problem lies in his immortality, it’s strong all around but a major problem is it is reliant on his blood as the link between him and Yog-Sothoth, if it's ever drained or his body is entirely destroyed, he cannot be brought back. But by far Herbert’s biggest flaw is his own ego, he thinks above mortality and god himself, though he isn’t a firm believer in god. Herbert’s lust for a solution to death has caused him to be caught off guard multiple times and has even resulted in his unbecoming.

Important Notes

Ash Williams Scaling (& The Matchup)

Among the most popular slasher icon rivalry out there, Herbert West and Ash Williams are, in one way or another, some of the most determined and driven survivors in horror history. Unlike other rivalries at the time however, these two did actually manage to score crossovers with the other, up to 4 in fact! And with those crossovers came the discussion of cross scaling, both on if these crossovers are canon, if they can scale at all and the extent of how much of the other either can scale to. All questions to be answered here, as well as an additional section explaining the supposed flaw of the vs matchup itself.

First thing’s first, it's absolutely canon to both. There are 4 instances of these crossovers happening, all written by Dynamite Entertainment, these comics include, in order; Army Of Darkness Vs. Re-Animator, Prophecy, Army Of Darkness/Reanimator and Army of Darkness Versus. Re-Animator Necronomicon Rising. Each one takes place after the other, with the exception being the most recent one, and that includes the Re-Animator comics where the reason Herbert got his magic blood was because of The Necronomicon itself. To include those comics, you must include the AoD crossovers as well. On the flipside, later Army Of Darkness comics made by Dynamite have directly shown Necronomicon Rising as a timeline that happened, backed up by the fact that Necronomicon Rising mentions timelines as a real thing. Ash even references these comics on multiple occasions. So it is both canon to Dynamite Herbert and Dynamite Ash.

What about scaling? Hasn’t Ash been shown to be much stronger? Well, in these comics, Herbert has displayed strength to match Ash by knocking him out with a shovel and keeping up with him on foot, Deadite Herbert has also shown to be able to match Ash with Deadites and The Amalgam. Besides that though, they haven't fought yet, thankfully however they have consistently teamed up with each other to take on foes. So what’s the issue? Being honest, nothing really. Herbert very blatantly displays being able to hurt Ash and fighting alongside him. He is sometimes portrayed as being weaker than Ash, such as in Prophecy, but he rarely even fought in that comic and that was before he got physically stronger. We don’t see any issue in scaling Herbert to Ash’s and Evil Dead’s feats, the problem is how much of it he scales to. Because the crossovers fit within both’s canon and can’t be ignored so easily, Mainline and Dynamite Ash are fair game for Herbert to scale to, but that also includes… oh no.

Yeah so Jason Voorhees and Freddy Krueger. The Freddy Vs. Jason Vs. Ash comics happen in the Dynamite continuity and even reference the original Re-Animator crossover, this is also a follow up to the Freddy Vs. Jason movie, which in of itself happens after all of both slashers installments. Furthermore, The Necronomicon is a literal canon aspect of Jason’s backstory. Does this mean Herbert gets scaling? Yes and no. Yes in that we do think Herbert should be able to scale through mainline Jason and Freddy feats, as they literally would had to have happened in the same continuity as Ash fighting them. No in that we don’t think it's valid to give Herbert any scaling past this point, as giving Herbert scaling to extended bits of Friday and NoES media such as the Jason X novels require a lot of stretches in canon to pull off. What feats would this give Herbert? We’ve highlighted the major ones in scaling, but notably this would give Herbert scaling to Mountain level and Sub Rela feats on top of already scaling to Ash’s Town scaling.

TLDR: We think that Herbert scaling to Mainline and Dynamite Ash is justified, as do we think that Herbert getting scaling chains to Mainline Jason and Freddy is, as well as any feats that happen in the FvJvA comics.

However, there is one more thing to discuss here, The Matchup. We are saving matchup reviews for later in this blog, but since we wouldn’t want to reiterate everything from this section, we’re just combining them for the sake of clarity. Feel free to skip if you’re not interested and or are just here for the vs bit of this blog, but we would like to discuss this matchup a little more. Also, don’t take this part too seriously, we’re just hoping to inform those who may be confused on how this matchup could work. We’re not giving our opinion on the matchup itself until later though, just clarifying a couple of things.

There have been arguments against the matchup hinging on the fact that it was already a crossover, and therefore there wouldn’t be anything new to offer, while other arguments include Ash being the canonical winner between the two. We’ve already said that Herbert should scale to Ash, so shouldn’t we agree? Not necessarily, while they do scuffle enough to be classified as scaling, Herbert and Ash themselves don’t actually fight ever. Below is all of the crossovers and how Herbert and Ash interacted in them.

Army of Darkness Vs. Re-Animator: Herbert was replaced by Deadite Herbert and under the thumb of Dr. Whateley, Deadite Herbert then commanded Deadites to attack Ash and created The Amalgam to fight Ash as well. Throughout the entire comic Herbert is more or less possessed by a Deadite version of himself, meaning that he and Ash barely interacted all things considered, and even then all Ash fought was Deadites, which he does already, and The Amalgam, not something of Herbert’s usual kit.
Prophecy: They didn’t fight at all in this comic, Ash only came later and Herbert was portrayed as comedically wimpish, not getting into physical combat, they did still fight together but we rarely got to see them both side by side at all.
Army of Darkness/Reanimator: After being sent to the 1920s, Herbert lost his mind and went mad. Ash was later sent back there as well, not recognizing Herbert and Herbert not recognizing him because y’know, he went insane, and they worked together for a short time. Besides Herbert knocking Ash out at one point and discovering a Deadite Re-Agent, nothing really happens besides Herbert dying to Deadites.
Army of Darkness Versus. Re-Animator Necronomicon Rising: The most recent crossover, Herbert and Ash only meet on issue 3 and they don’t fight, both are completely without their resources and they instead fight a future version of Herbert. Even still, they only really fight his trained soldiers and not any of his arsenal.

As you can see, there has only been 1 comic where Herbert and Ash ever fought, and it was a Deadite version of Herbert that was only using 1 new monster to attack Ash which Ash only used his chainsaw and boomstick against in 6 short panels. We think that the matchup can totally bring something new that these crossovers didn’t do in a similar vein to matchups like Robocop Vs. Terminator.

Can Herbert Even Use The Necronomicon?

Alright, let’s address the demonic book shaped elephant in the room, the Necronomicon Ex-Mortis, the book of the dead. As said before, Herbert’s history with this book is rather complex both in how often he has it and the times he’s used it. Let’s focus on the latter half for the moment, and answer the question on if Herbert is capable of using the Necronomicon.

It is a rather malicious book that would no doubt want to kill Herbert, and it has when used against him by evil. But after he took control of his demonic self, Herbert obtained the Necronomicon, not just any copy of the Necronomicon however; this is the original Latin translation of the demonic book, containing within its pages the essence of the elder gods. Herbert has shown to be able to indirectly command the Necronomicon to attack, which Ash has also quickly done this in this comic, and the book hates Ash much more than Herbert. These are done with varying degrees of success however. Herbert was then included in a massive fight against an army of skeletons, which he seemingly was using the Necronomicon for the entirety of, though that part is left vague.

What isn’t vague is that Herbert is able to read the latin text of his original Necronomicon with expertise, and has consistently been shown to be able to perform spells such as teleporting him distances like Massachusetts to the Yucatán Peninsula. He didn’t just read this teleportation spell out though, he memorized it to the point where he was able to say it in captivity after the book had parted from him. He did somewhat imply he was rusty on saying the exact phrasing, but it still proves he’s more than knowledgeable enough to perform spells from the book’s vast pool of magic, especially if he has the book on him.

More Importantly… Is It Even Standard!?

Speaking if he has the book on him, there’s no doubt that there's going to be contention on giving him the Necronomicon or not. Let us illustrate again, Herbert’s relationship with this god damn book is very convoluted and open to vs interpretation on whether or not it should be deemed standard. We’ve already answered the canonicity of the Army of Darkness crossovers, see Ash Williams Scaling if you missed it. Essentially, this section’s purpose is to inform you on Herbert’s relationship with the Necronomicon.

Herbert first came into contact with The Necronomicon as Dr. Whateley, a follower of the Necronomicon and Yog-Sothoth, had used it to create a new Herbert West corrupted by Yog-Sothoth. This “Deadite” Herbert wasn’t seen using the Necronomicon, but after regular Herbert got his body back he obtained the real, original latin translation of the Necronomicon as an exchange. He held onto this copy for seemingly a long time before he was locked away, where he recited a memorized passage from it to escape and somehow get it back, using it to help save earth from a Mayan prophecy dooming humanity (comics am I right?). After the events of this story, he lost it as he was sent backward in time to the 1920s, where he went mad. After Ash came along and knocked some sense into him, Herbert then died. Only to be resurrected in his own comic run, now in the present. He didn’t have the Necronomicon ever again in this continuity. It was only in the stand alone comic of Necronomicon Rising, where he was launched with it into the year 3404 and where his future self reigned, that he would have it again. He did have it in his possession for a solid duration of this crossover, but he lost it by the end of the comic run.

There are several directions you could take with this. Herbert possessed the Necronomicon for a while after defeating his Deadite self, but we never see him during this period, and when we do, he loses it in the same comic. Really, both including and excluding the Necronomicon are valid approaches depending on the matchup and or debate. It all varies based on what you would like to do.

Overall

“Blasphemy? Before What God? A God Repulsed By The Miserable Humanity He Created In His Own Image? I Will Not Be Shackled By The Failures Of Your God. The Only Blasphemy Is To Wallow In Insignificance. I Have Taken Refuse Of Your God's Failures And I Have Triumphed. There! THERE Is My Creation!”

Attack Potency & Durability ranges from Wall-Small Building through direct feats and Cassie scaling, can reach up to Town-Mountain through Ash Williams Scaling.
Speed ranges from vague bullet timing to Supersonic+ through Cassie scaling, can reach up to Relativistic through Ash Williams Scaling.
An ingenious doctor and scientist with extensive knowledge of biology, chemistry and the dark arts, just as smart as he is manipulative.
Skilled fighter with experience fighting in WW1, making him an excellent shot and fighter that can face supernatural foes and hordes of Reanimates.
His Re-Agent is a devastating serum which can alter biological functions, strain the soul, mentally degrade and drive the Reanimate insane.
Has many variants of Re-Agent, the best of which can perform cellular regeneration and possess the injected with a Deadite and or force their soul into the afterlife.
Kit consists of many other useful items, such as mind controlling powder, heart attack chloroform and various weapons.
Magic Blood grants him resurrection capabilities through Yog-Sothoth, as well giving him soul destruction resistance and a unique biology capable of regeneration.
Almost always have spares of Reanimates that he can use as support, some of which listen to him directly while others he can manipulate through hypnosis, powder or preparation.
Main weakness is his ego and thirst for resources, causing distractions and in some cases, overestimating his capabilities.
Asexual icon since 1997.

Possible Opponents

Before we wrap up our analysis on Herbert West, we would like to talk about this team’s favorite matchups for the Re-Animator, as he is a character we’ve talked about endlessly, and that includes his matchups! We’re not going to include every single matchup there is for Herbert, but we are going to talk about matchups that we like for him. If you have any matchup you like for Herbert that wasn’t discussed here, go ahead and use this blog to push for it! Seeing such an interesting and relatively underground horror character getting attention is always nice. Please don’t let this section discourage you from making your own matchups. So without further ado, here’s the matchup highlight wheel!

Ash Williams (Evil Dead)

The Crossover topic was discussed in Important Notes in case you missed it

Spycrab: I’m sure this matchup needs no explanation, it’s possibly the most popular for Herbert and I can very much see why, in fact, I’m a big fan of this! The theme is simple, primary characters of lovecraftian inspired horror comedy series with a big emphasis on raising the dead with one chosen to destroy the dead while the other is destined to raise it, but I think there’s more to it than that. At their core, a major part of both of these series is about love. Ash losing his girlfriend, Linda, to the book lines up thematically with Dan losing Meg, the only difference is that Herbert manipulates Dan’s trauma into trying to get Meg back through Re-animation.

Ash desperately tries to form new connections with other women in his life, but his role as the chosen one doesn’t allow for it, often causing the death or possession of his companions. Ash hates himself for this reason, and all of the “bullshit” of him being the chosen one. Herbert meanwhile has accepted that he will always be alone in his fight with death, that every companion he ever has will soon fall victim to the disease that is love and that they are all, ultimately, just a means to an end to him. Herbert doesn’t understand intimacy, the only thing that gives him feeling is his work, and for that, Herbert thinks of himself as god. It’s such an interesting contrast and ties so well with the tone of both series and character’s loneliness. The animation potential is just as good, but I think this blog alone makes the dynamic pretty clear and this section is getting long. Overall, I love this matchup. It might not be my favorite for Ash, Denji still holds that title, but it is tied for my favorite for Herbert.

Fiction: Holy moly, is that Ash vs Herbert?! My 5th favourite matchup ever?! Why yes it is. And I’m here to talk about it a little. While the previous section talked about the really compelling theme this matchup has, I wanna talk about its very vast and fun animation potential. I think this matchup gets pretty undersold as just ‘Ash kills zombies and makes quips, while Herbert creates more zombies and rolls his eyes’ cause there is far more to it than that, and I think this has one of the most brilliant progressions in a fight ever. I feel you could start the fight with it taking place in a secluded hospital in the woods, which Herbert has been using for his studies, only for Ash’s delta to drive on in and bust into the building and find the room Herbert's in, where it’s revealed he has stolen The Necronomicon for his own personal gain to re-animate life, and he also believes Ash is to stupid to be the wielder of it, and Ash's brash nature leads to him yelling at Herbert telling him he has no clue how to use it. I’d love to see an instance of Herbert saying a line similar to his remark to Hill, maybe something along the lines of ‘’Who’d believe a man with a chainsaw for an arm? Get a Job in a sideshow Ashley’’ then from there you can have them fight lower scale, Ash using his boomstick and chainsaw to slash and shoot at Herbert, who counters with his revolvers, pistols, bonesaws and shovels. During this you could have some fun interactions, like Herbert throwing acid into Ash’s face which causes him to scream like when he poured boiling water on himself, and I’d love to see both do a quickdraw, where Ash pulls out his much larger Boomstick in comparison to Herbert's small pistol, with Ash making a dirty ‘Mines bigger’ joke.

After their scuffle, I’d like to see Herbert run out the room, and go to a nearby morgue within the hospital, where he begins reviving zombies that Ash easily tears through in a very Doom type of manner, with Ash and Herbert going into several rooms, where Herbert uses weirder re-animates, and Ash uses his stranger weapons, like his various prosthetic hands, explosive launchers, and laser blasters. I’d love to see a sequence where Ash fights against Herbert's tiny re-animates, like the eye fingers, cats, and weird bugs and spiders, as they mess with him in a very similar manner to The tiny Ash AOD scene, maybe even have Ash do his ‘London Bridge Is Falling Down!’ thing. And as they eventually break out the hospital, Herbert uses heavier Re-animates, like The Bride, Giant Spiders, The Valsuin, and The Amalgam, which Ash fights with stuff like The Kandarian Dagger, Chain Lightning, and killing all these monsters can eventually lead to Ash turning into his Deadite Form from Regeneration, which Herbert can bounce off of with his own Deadite form.

As the fight gets crazier, you could have Ash get his hands on the book, and begin reciting spells to mess with Herbert, all while Herbert shouts his own spells to cause misfortune for Ash, as he knows how the book works. Eventually you could even have a sequence in which Herbert creates a portal through space and time with The Super Re-Agent, while Ash creates a portal with The Necronomicon. Sending them all across time and space which leads to fun environments (I’d love to see Herbert bring back Dinosaurs if they go to the past, which Ash can fight with his mech suit) All while the gore goes insane as Re-animator and Evil Dead are known to do, helped by Herbert's blood making it to where he can be ripped apart and easily come back Deadpool style. And I’d love to see Herbert try to use his manipulation on Ash, bringing back Linda, Scotty, and Cheryl to mess with him, which Ash can act like is messing him up, but reveal he’s trying to fool Herbert like he did with Baal. That also nicely transitions into the banter, lots of people misconception this as just ‘Ash makes jokes, Herbert groans’ which it is absolutely not. Herbert is a very witty guy, often making jokes to himself, or making them to his partners like Dan. And Ash can be very serious himself, which I’d love to see near the fight, as Ash is fully set on taking Herbert down, as Herbert does one of his God speeches, which Ash can counter with a fun quippy action line. Overall there's just lots of fun to be had here, and it’s such a frickin wacky good time.

Iceking: Ahh yes Ash vs Herbert the battle of two splat-stick horror protagonists who have to clean up and deal with the messes that they often cause. By accident of course. This battle is outright my favorite matchup ever. I just love it so much. I mean, you got great banter that plays into their characters the best, which is saying a lot because they both have some pretty good matchups. A bunch of cool things that could happen in the fight, for example they both have samurai swords so we could have a good ol’ samurai sword battle there or Herbert using Ash’s stitched up dead loved ones against him. Hell to reference that they both have used the Necronomicon before you can have a scene where both of them are fighting over it and then they accidentally start casting a bunch of spells which summon more monsters or something like that. I also think that the analysis could also be really fun, especially if Wiz and Boomstick glaze Herbs and Ash because they realize that they are just like them. It’d be fun if, since this is a halloween episode, Wiz and Boomstick dressed up as Herbert and Ash for halloween.

All that being said…

“A vote for Ash is a vote for free boobies.”

SCP-049 (SCP Foundation)

Spycrab: What I think of as Herbert’s second most popular, I think this matchup is pretty decent. The connections are fun, borderline emotionless doctors obsessed with curing what they think of as a disease and toy with life and death in the process, turning the deceased into mindless zombies. Admittedly, it doesn’t quite go into what I want for Herbert, mainly his apathy and connections with others, but the theme is serviceable regardless. What I like most about this is the atmosphere, Re-Animator and SCP is a very neat mesh and the plague doctor esthetic will never not be cool. As for animation potential, it’s decent here too, a zombie fight is an interesting premise and opens the door for more of their wackier kit to be used. I’m not the craziest SCP fan, but I do like 049 and the media I’ve seen of him. Overall, decent alt.

Fiction: One of Herbert's bigger matchups, and I can totally see why! SCP is something that while I do jokingly hate on, is pretty cool. 049 especially being great, and I’d love to see how these two interact, with Herbert ridiculing 049’s methods, as does 049, with both bringing back the dead and doing lots of other fun stuff. Also think an SCP fighting a guy who fits right in with other SCP doctors is fun. Overall, pretty darn cool.

Iceking: Probably Herbert’s most popular matchup besides Ash and yeah, it’s cool. I don’t have too much to say on it besides that it’s cool and that I’m a little bit burnt out from SCP in vs.

William Afton (Five Night’s At Freddy’s)

Check out this awesome Megapost!

Spycrab: We can never escape him can we? This time though, I’m fine with it! Mainly because it's in the form of what is easily Afton’s most underrated matchup, and I love it. The theme of two average, everyday looking psychopaths that have devoted their entire lives over discovering life after death, initially being fueled by resentment of their peers and now by a lust for immortality, they do whatever it takes in the name of progress, really works. In particular, I adore the Michael Afton and Dan Caine comparison, how Afton and Herbert manipulated both of their guilt to go through with their plans through the promise of bringing their loved ones back to life. Which they never did, fitting.

The contrasts are just as good, Afton found himself amazed with what he had become through the supernatural agony while Herbert soon hated his Necronomicon corrupted body. And my favorite contrast, both’s main motivation for wanting to break free of death being for purely opposite reasons, there’s nothing Afton fears more than dying. Then feeling like the one not in control. While Herbert does it because he cannot see past life and death, he cannot live like any human and things like intimacy scare him, and thus longs for life in the afterlife. The animation potential is just the chef kiss as well, there’s so many cool things you can do with Afton’s disruptive abilities and powerful close range attacks and Herbert’s wide range of Reanimates and Re-Agent and his own fighting experience. I haven’t talked about debate much, but I do want to mention it here because I think this matchup is both’s closest, though I am leaning Herbert as for right now. Ultimately, this is one of my favorite alts for Afton and tied for my favorite for Herbert.

Fiction: A matchup I’ve always had a big soft spot for, and among all of Afton's hundreds and hundreds of horror movie matchups, this one might actually be MY favourite. The theme is so easy but so cool to understand, with this being a battle between two egotistical shady men, discovering ways to defeat death, and being obsessed with researching it, and they do not care how many people they have to kill or manipulate for this plan to come to fruition. And even beyond that, the animation is super cool. Aftons Animatronics fighting Herberts Re-animates, the Illusion disc causing really fun imagery similar to the opening of Re-animator, and the body horror here can be insane, as that's something FNAF is actually quite good at. It’s banter is also tons of fun, the clash of egos and mindsets here is just a blast. So yeah, while I like a lot of matchups for Afton, I think I’d consider this the fun one. Boo me off stage for that yeah.

Iceking: Super underrated matchup for both that I think has great potential for some very entertaining dialogue and a wicked fight which could have Herbert and his legions of monsters vs Springtrap, and all of his animatronics. What’s not to like?

The Medic (Team Fortress 2)

Spycrab: Pretty fun. I think this one is really simple but also gets across both’s nature of mad scientists and Herbert’s lack of connections with others in a contrast with Medic’s team. As well as Herbert’s odd moral alignment, with Medic being a wildcard throughout the comics and all. The atmosphere is booming here, and I love the chaotic potential and banter both can have over the course of the fight. Surprisingly, I don’t actually have much more to say other than the fact that I think this is fun, fairly similar in vein to Medic vs Ritchofen, though not nearly as much of a stomp.

Fiction: This was actually THE first Herbert matchup I ever found and fell in love with, and while it’s not my favourite for him anymore, this is still easily my all time favourite for Medic. Team Fortress 2 is my favourite multiplayer game of all time, with me having over 200+ hours on it, and I’m a big fan of horror movies so, this matchup kinda speaks to me. Even beyond that I just think this can be really cool.

Herbert and Medic can have some scuffles with their basic equipment, like Herbert's shovels, medical equipment and guns, while Medic can fight through his nail guns, bonesaws, and even his own firearms which he’s used in other bits of media. (I’d also appreciate it if Herbert's shovel and Medics frying pan clash, making a stupidly loud frying pan sound). But the battle can escalate as Herbert brings to life his creations, as Medic begins using his MVM shield to vaporise everything in his way, all while Herbert brings to life other dead BLU team mercs, that’d be fun. Over time you could have Medic begin charging up his Ubercanteens and Crits via using The Vita-Saw on Re-Animates, so Herbert dunks a vat of Re-Agent across the battle field that overdoses the bodies and causes them to boil up and explode, which Medic uses another uber-charge now via the canteen to protect himself from, but Herbert also reads that the canteen is nearly empty and Medic is now on his last Ubercharge. You could also then do some other fun stuff, like Herbert giving Medic an overdose of Re-agent, only for Medic to use an Ubercharge on Herbert which destroys his heart. But then both come back, through Herbert's magic blood, and Medic's special connection to Satan.

So after both realise they aren't going down easy, they bring out the big guns, like the stronger Re-animates, The Deadites, and all the weird insane shit The Super Re-Agent does, while Medic uses halloween items, like magical potions to grow larger or become a ghost, and his magic spells, as he summons skeletons and MONOCOLUS, which if you wanna get nuts, Herbert can counter with The Necronomicon to counter that. I’d also love to see a scene where Herbert uses Nanoplasm on Medic, only for Medic to use that one invention from the Gargoyle and Gravel comic that puts your mind in other things, so Herbert has to fight as a rat, while Medic has to fight as Archmedies, which sounds very TF2. And for the ending, no matter who wins I think it’d be fun if the winner kept the loser's decapitated re-animated skull in a fridge or something, that's fun. Also the banter is just amazing, I’d love to see Herbert's dry responses to the absolute insanity of The Medic. It’s ultimately just a stupid fun time which I adore, which is what both Re-Animator and TF2 really are at their core so, It works!

Iceking: Not much to say, it’s cool. These goobers have already said enough about the matchup.

Fritz Ludwig (Emesis Blue)

Spycrab: Wait a minute… that medic guy looks familiar, eh it's probably my imagination. In any case, this one’s debatably even more simple than regular Medic, but I think I prefer it over that matchup. Two doctors entangled in a psychologically tormenting tale of death and rebirth as hostile zombies, with one being the cause of it all doing it in the name of perfecting a cure for death while the other is a victim of a mistake in their respawn machine trying to fix said mistake but spiralling down into madness. It works well, and this is one of the few matchups for Herbert that I would say I want Dan involved in, as it can complement Ludwig chasing after Jermey. This is one of my favorite atmospheres in any horror matchup period, seeing Re-Animator being portrayed as mentally grueling and maddening as Emesis Blue is an absolute treat. It may not have the craziest dynamic, but it goes over the essentials and I’m fine with just focusing on Herbert’s standard kit.

Fiction: Very very cool. Emesis Blue is a phenomenal piece of animation, and I love the fun contrast this has with Herbert's battle with the canon Ludwig. While Medic vs Herbert is an insane all out brawl of inventions, gore, and insanity, this is a grounded fight where both fight off their creations, get into very grounded fist fights, and insane visuals keep the audience on their toes. It’s overall such a good time, and while I don’t love it NEARLY as much as Medic vs Herbert, it’s one that sounds absolutely brilliant.

Iceking: So fun fact, this is a matchup that I created not too long ago and I still think it’s quite neat. Hopefully people will take a liking to it as well because of this blog segment. But yeah, a Herbert match up that can play into psychological horror? Sign me up.

Closing Words

Well, I haven’t posted since March, so you would be correct Herbert.

Anyway, hey guys! I haven’t posted for quite awhile, and the reason for that is mostly because I’ve been helping out on other blogs, long projects that consumed a couple months. I tried getting back into working on my own during this time, but had no luck, until now. I’ll be focusing on my own blogs for the time being, as well as helping out with my friend’s own blog series some more.

Don’t think that this blog is all you’re going to get this October, I got 1 or 2 more planned, depending how I do time wise since this blog took longer than I expected. I won’t beat around the bush too much, all I will say is thank you so much for reading and I hope you have a good rest of your day. As for the next time, it’ll be a character analysis like this one, and it is…

Victor Crowley (Hatchet)

“Some legends never die.”

Monday, October 13, 2025

Character Analysis: Herbert West

Before We Start…

Background

Skill And Experience

Equipment

Re-Agent

Vat Of Re-Agent

Perfected Re-Agent

Revenant Re-Agent

Deadite Re-Agent

Super Re-Agent

Nanoplasm

Psychotropic Powder

Acid

Blood Sample

Blood Sample Cure

Sedative

Chloroform

Heart Attack Chloroform

Defibrillators

Surgical Saw

Electric Bonesaw

Shovel

Axe & Hatchet

Machete

Spear

Pistols

Rifle

Shotgun

Misc. Tools & Weapons

The Necronomicon Ex-Mortis (Debatable, See Important Notes)

Abilities

Magic Blood

Teleportation

Broadway Force

Resistances

Forms

Deadite Herbert

Future Herbert

Support

Re-Animated Zombies

Dr. Carl Hill

The Bride

The Valusin

Re-Animated Animals

Snapper Hybrids

Giant Spiders

Sentient Body Parts & Misc. Experiments

Deadites

The Amalgam

Feats

Overall

Power

Speed

Durability

Scaling

Re-Animates & Deadites

Ash Williams

Cassie Hack

Weaknesses

Important Notes

Ash Williams Scaling (& The Matchup)

Can Herbert Even Use The Necronomicon?

More Importantly… Is It Even Standard!?

Overall

Possible Opponents

Ash Williams (Evil Dead)

All that being said…

SCP-049 (SCP Foundation)

William Afton (Five Night’s At Freddy’s)

The Medic (Team Fortress 2)

Fritz Ludwig (Emesis Blue)

Closing Words

Victor Crowley (Hatchet)

Character Analysis: Herbert West