Zack Whedon

Compared to Dr. Horrible, his henchman Moist seemed pretty together, other than the being constantly damp thing. After all, he at least seemed to have a social life.

But we learn in the second Dr. Horrible prequel comic, “Moist: Humidity Rising” — out today (December 3) on MySpace Dark Horse Presents — that the boy who became Moist had a supervillain-esque origin story that perhaps makes him more of a sad sack than the titular wannabe supervillain of “Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog.” (The first comic being, of course, the one from Captain Hammer’s point of view).

Moist, as it turns out, started off as abnormally dry, but “his father was just not very content with who his son was,” comic scribe Zack Whedon told us. “He meddled a little too much [by getting him a Soviet humidifer that backfired]. I think that’s what turned him into an outsider.”

Lonely and bored, Moist resorts to phone sex operators to have just a little human contact — that is, until the day he witnesses Dr. Horrible try out one of his ray guns on Captain Hammer (one meant to neutralize muscle and make you weak). Inspired, Moist finally figures out his purpose in life.

“By the time we see him in the show,” Whedon said, “he’s come a long way in terms of his self esteem. He was lost, he was sad, but now he’s figured out that his purpose is to be a lowgrade henchman.”

Though Moist gets a happy ending (if that’s how you want to look at it), the overall look and tone of the comic is a departure from the Captain Hammer issue, and features art by noted “Pop Gun war” alt-comics creator Farel Dalrymple.

“I think it would be fun to switch tone and genre and artists for each issue,” Whedon said. “I think some of the Evil League of Evil members could handle their own comics, and they could all jump genres. It would be cool to do one at some point that is a straight-up action comic.”

Next up, Whedon is leaning towards an Archies comic-style take on Captain Hammer’s groupies, noting that the groupies story would have to take place before they switched allegiance to Dr. Horrible.

“Captain Hammer fits the teen idol mold a little bit better,” Whedon said. “I picture them all being friends in high school, and gossiping about Captain Hammer, and going to see Captain Hammer at the mall and whatever other public appearances he makes.”

But the groupies would not become groupies in the traditional rock ‘n’ roll Band Aid sense, he said.

“That would be a story, but I don’t know if it’s one we’d tell,” Whedon chuckled. “Maybe we would imply it.”