Full House's John Stamos Played A Surprising Villain In A Hit DC Comics TV Show

It seems like every working actor in Hollywood has played at least two superhero characters. Some, like Mark Strong, have played up to four characters in DC Comics adaptations alone. From the many times the DC continuity has been rebooted, to animation providing the chance to embody different roles, it's not that hard to find an actor breathing life into more than one DC character. 

This makes it more interesting when an actor only has a single superhero credit to their name. That is the case of beloved sitcom actor and "Full House" star, John Stamos. Though Stamos has played both Tony and Howard Stark in several animated Marvel projects, he has only ever played one singular DC character — and he couldn't be more different from Stamos or the Starks.

Stamos' one DC project is in animation, specifically the excellent and underseen "Harley Quinn" animated TV show. In it, Stamos has voiced Etrigan the Demon, a devil bound to a mortal man named Jason Blood who runs a magical sex shop in Gotham City (at this time referred to as New New Gotham). 

What makes the casting of John Stamos quite surprising is that, well, Etrigan is far from the kind of handsome character Stamos has played for decades. He is a literal demon, after all. And yet, in his one-episode appearance, Stamos proves himself to be adept at voice acting and not just a piece of stunt casting. Stamos disappears into the role and gives Etrigan a dark, guttural voice that's unlike any other role he's done, but one that fits the demon.

Unfortunately, Stamos only got to voice Etrigan the Demon once before the character was recast for the spin-off series "Kite Man: Hell Yeah!" There, Etrigan was voiced by James Adomian.

Etrigan the Demon was created by Jack Kirby in 1972 as a monster hero who always speaks in rhyme. He's mostly appeared in the comics as a supporting character, primarily to Swamp Thing and Constantine. In his original comic book appearance, Etrigan was bound to a knight in King Arthur's Camelot by the wizard Merlin, turning him immortal.

The character walks a fine line between horror and comedy, which has been an issue with his portrayal in the comics — especially his few solo runs. "Harley Quinn" goes fully for the comedy, like with most other DC characters. This version of the character plays his supernatural background for comedic purposes by making Etrigan's sex shop focus on potions and lotions. For a short appearance like this, it works wonders.

When it comes to Stamos' performance, in an ideal world, he would continue to voice animated characters in various productions. Animation has a big celebrity stunt casting problem. This is particularly true in feature films where many studios care more about having a bunch of big, recognizable names on the poster than having actors with actual range. This results in characters that just sound like the actor is doing their regular voice rather than trying to embody the character. Stamos' performance is quite different than his live-action roles, or his Marvel roles, and it's a shame he didn't get to show more of it.

As for Etrigan, the character has had bigger roles in other animated projects. He's a part of the DC Animated Movie Universe, appearing in the very good "Justice League Dark" and "Apokolips War." Now that James Gunn seems to want to bring in all sorts of weird characters to his DC Universe, it's time for the demon to rise again.