Haunted Hunter

Ace Magazines' horror anthology The Hand Of Fate had none other than the living embodiment of Fate acting as its nail-biting narrator. After all, who is better qualified to tell kiddies his case files on deciding fate out to foolish mortals than the Big F himself. In issue #21 during the Silver Age, Fate goes over his followings of monster hunter Biff Stone, the name of which was oddly enough later reused for a totally different monster hunter written for modern horror hounds by Barry Gregory. Fate's story paints Biff Stone into being a creature catcher that would take his terrifying targets and sell them to circus for big bucks. Not only is this a world where monsters are recognized by the general public as being real but also where someone could make a career tracking down these half-human horrors. Some of his prior trophies include a werewolf that he subdued with a special serum and tricking a trio of vampires into fighting each other off when he made fun of them for being too fat. After the circus wouldn't pay up for his latest catch, Biff takes his skills to an aquarium to acquire a mermaid. Biff flies to the Italian coast and cranks his jambox to lure the fish ladies into his clutches. The great white hunter gets sucker punched by a pair of pink sea monkeys that bring him down to their blonde mermaid Queen Pesca who like all hot otherworldly monarchs wants to seduce this surface dweller into marriage. Biff hoodwinks Presca by literally stabbing her in the back and escapes. This act really ticks off Fate so much that breaks the fourth wall and takes his giant purple hand to drop Biff into a full tank back at the aquarium and transforming him into a merman. Biff now has to spend the rest of his life as a main attraction because the head of the aquarium doesn't even recognize him as just being Biff with a fishtail instead of legs. Very few comic book horror hosts took an active part in the story their telling. but Fate doesn't sit on his hands when it comes to swiping left the character into a living purgatory as part of a soggy freak show.

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