House of Mystery - The House

The House

The House of Mystery also exists as a location in the DC Universe (in Kentucky) and the Dreaming. The origins of the House of Mystery are unknown. In fact, very little is known about the House of Mystery in general, lending credence to its name. The architecture is indeterminate and actually changes periodically. The same holds true for the inside of the house: the rooms constantly shift about, and one never enters the same room twice. The House of Mystery lies in the same graveyard as the House of Secrets, its companion. Whereas Abel resides in the House of Secrets, Cain makes the House of Mystery his abode.

Cain is not the only person to have resided within the House; in addition to boarders, including Mister Mxyzptlk, Elvira also took shelter within the House. Her brief stay in the House of Mystery is notable for two reasons: first, the House of Mystery is established as being the same House throughout its publication history. Three distinct personalities of the House are shown: the original horror House of Mystery, a dark humor "House of Weirdness"-style which harkened back to Cain's stint in Plop!, and the current version of the House of Mystery in Kentucky. The second reason is the timing of Elvira's stay. She took up residence during the Crisis on Infinite Earths. Elvira, tasked by the House of Mystery to find Cain, took over his role of host for a brief period, while Cain was relegated to being the butt of jokes during occasional cameos.

The House of Mystery possesses sentience, along with mystic powers. It has possessed someone before, and merged with the House of Secrets briefly. This also ties into the constantly shifting appearance of the House of Mystery. It was torn down in the highly metafictional The House of Mystery #321, but its existence was restored during the Crisis.

Superman teamed up with Cain against Mister Mxyzptlk, who was attempting to take over the House, in issue #53 of DC Comics Presents. Batman entered the house in The Brave and the Bold #93, tripped on a floorboard, and would have been shot had his pursuer's gun not jammed. He never actually met Cain, who instead narrates a story about him occurring in Scotland, which climaxes in a castle he describes as "a house of mystery" rather than "the House of Mystery."

The House of Mystery appears mainly in various Vertigo titles, especially those tied into Neil Gaiman's Sandman; it has also appeared briefly in Resurrection Man. Most recently something called the House of Mystery appeared in 52 # 18, where it seems to have been used for some time as a base for a team of detectives called the Croatoan Society, which counts both Detective Chimp and Ralph Dibny as members. It is unclear if the Croatoan's House of Mystery is meant to be the same as the original House of Mystery, a post-Infinite Crisis version of the original House of Mystery, or simply a different location with the same name. Cain's name did, however, appear on this house's mailbox, implying some sort of connection to the original House.

The House reappeared after the 2011 DC Reboot in the pages of Justice League Dark, being used as a base for the team. The House is shown to currently belong to John Constantine, who claims to have won the key to the house in a poker game against Doctor Occult and Father Time (DC Comics).