Batman villains
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Batman's foes form one of the most distinctive rogues galleries in comic books. These villains range from the psychotic criminals locked in Arkham Asylum for the Criminally Insane, through Gotham City's mafia bosses, to world conquerors.
Contents
History
In early Batman stories, the character often fought mad scientists and gangsters, conventions carried over from the pulp magazines that had influenced his creation. Early recurring villains included Doctor Death, Professor Hugo Strange, and the vampiric Monk. Aside from Strange, none had any real staying power.Authors introduced many of the most familiar Batman villains in the 1940s. Golden Age Batman villains largely drew inspiration from the rogues gallery of Dick Tracy, whose villains were often grotesquely disfigured in order to highlight their evil nature to readers. The first issue of Batman, in 1940, marks the first appearance of two of Batmans's major adversaries: the Joker, Batman's archnemesis, and Catwoman, both a villain and love interest to the Dark Knight.
The Penguin and Two-Face also premiered during the early 1940s in Detective Comics, appearing often since their introduction, especially the Penguin. The Riddler, originally debuting in 1948 in Detective Comics, vanished from the comic book until his appearance in the late 1960s in the television show saw his return to popularity. Other foes created in the same era, such as the Scarecrow, and the Mad Hatter, appeared less frequently than some other villains, their mind-controlling skills and weapons that would later became their signatures, eventually made them classic recurring villains up until today. Deadshot and the original Clayface also debuted in the Golden Age.
By the 1950s, Batman's rogues gallery was largely ignored apart from the likes of the Joker (who appeared in virtually every Batman issue published), the Penguin, and Catwoman. With the growing emphasis on science fiction in the late 1950s Batman stories, even the Joker was shunted aside in favor of alien adversaries.
Still, villains with physical skills or super-powers slowly began to appear: these villains reflected a growing preoccupation with science fiction in Batman comics. Mr. Freeze and Killer Moth first appeared in the late 1950s, and the botanical scientist Poison Ivy in the 1960s, along with the debut of a new superpowered Clayface, a mud shape-shifter. Many older villains received a boost in popularity thanks to the 1960s Batman television series and consequently, after a long period of dormancy, again became fixtures in the comic books.
In the 1970s, new Batman villains adopted influences from horror, pulp and secret agent fiction. Man-Bat, a geneticist who turned himself into a humanoid bat, the murderous Clayface III, and Ra's Al Ghul all first appeared in this decade. Ra's al Ghul was different from most Batman foes, in that he was, unlike the typical mobster-stereotype, a centuries-old eco-terrorist who commands a large empire of loyal servants, as well as the League of Assassins. Ra's is an ideological mastermind in the tradition of Fu Manchu or the James Bond villain. His daughter Talia is one of Batman's best-known love interests. Ra's and Talia were the first villains to learn of Batman's secret identity.
The 1980s introduced grim villains like crocodile mutant Killer Croc, self-amputated ex-Russian agent KGBeast, pullback insane Mafiosi leaders like Black Mask and the schizophrenic Ventriloquist's puppet, Scarface. This wave of brutal villains continued in the early 1990s with serial killer Victor Zsasz, and Bane, an assassin addicted to Venom steroids who broke Batman's spine, temporarily putting him in forced retirement.
Joker's unbalanced lover, Harley Quinn, was first seen in 1992 in ; the character was introduced to comics years later due to her popularity. Other characters were also created or revamped in the animated DC universe, with their changes carried over to other media, such as the Clock King or Mr. Freeze, whose new origin was integrated into the comics and the film Batman & Robin.
New manipulative Bane-like enemies with personal relationships and hate issues with Batman's persona started to appear in recent times, including Hush, apparently one of Bruce Wayne's old friends, as well as assassin David Cain, the father and trainer of current Batgirl Cassandra Cain. Additionally, Jason Todd's recent return as the Red Hood has put Batman to the test.
Throughout his existence, Batman's rogues gallery has been particularly distinctive because a large majority of its number are defined by a theme, often-times iconic or archetypical psychosis, compulsion, obsession, or a gimmick.
Batman's major enemies
(In chronological order)
- Hugo Strange: An insane psychologist who knows Batman's secret identity and lusts to take the identity for himself.
- Joe Chill: The man responsible for murdering Bruce Wayne's parents (not named until 1948).
- The Joker: Real name unknown, the Joker is a homicidal maniac with a clown-like appearance, who takes comedic delight in violent crime and challenging Batman. He is generally acknowledged to be Batman's arch-nemesis and worst enemy.
- Catwoman: Selina Kyle, a criminal who wears a cat-theme costume and often operates as burglar and has a love/hate relationship with Batman. Catwoman has also been known to wreak revenge upon those who do crimes against animals, especially large cats. Catwoman has largely reformed in recent years, though she still comes into conflict with Batman on occasion.
- Clayface: A name for a number of criminals, with the best known being Matt Hagen, a criminal with the power to instantly change his shape and appearance to any form he wants.
- Scarecrow: Jonathan Crane, an insane scientist and psychiatrist, specializing in the nature of fear. Dressed symbolically as a scarecrow, he employs special weapons, equipment and techniques designed to use fear to his advantage in his crimes.
- Penguin: Oswald Chesterfield Cobblepot, a short round man with a long pointed nose who fancies himself a gentleman of crime. He usually wears a tuxedo, top hat, and monocle, and carries any variety of umbrellas which have various hidden functions such as vehicles or weapons. Currently he has become the kingpin of Gotham City.
- Two-Face: Formerly District Attorney Harvey Dent (a friend of Bruce Wayne's). Dent's latent multiple personality disorder fully took hold when half his face was horrifically scarred, and he became obsessed with committing crimes themed around duality and opposites. He makes major decisions by flipping a two-headed coin, on which one of the faces is scarred.
- Riddler: Edward Nigma (formerly Eddie Nash), a criminal mastermind who has a strange compulsion to challenge his opponents by presenting clues to his crimes in the form of riddles and puzzles.
- Mad Hatter: A research scientist named Jervis Tetch who is completely smitten with the works of Lewis Carroll. He is an insane neuroscientist and developed hardware that can control the brain and induce hypnotic states, and often uses hats or other headgear for mind control.
- Deadshot: Floyd Lawton is a suicidal assassin who wears a colorful costume in the hopes that someone will shoot him. He is considered the second greatest assassin in the DC Universe, the first being Deathstroke.
- Killer Moth: Drury Walker is an anti-Batman who aided criminals just as Batman aids police, but only for money. He was later turned into Charaxes, a vaguely humanoid giant brown moth by Neron, becoming a cannibalistic creature that spins cocoons to keep his prey in. Later, Charaxes turn out to be an imposter, a former henchman of Felix Faust who took Van Cleer's identity while he is still alive.
- Firefly: Garfield Lynns, an orphan who became a pyromaniac and has developed a fireproof suit and flamethrower to further pursue his 'hobby'.
- Mr. Freeze: Victor Fries, formerly a scientist and expert on cryonics. He tried to cryopreserve his stricken wife Nora Fries until a cure was found to her disease. An accident in the process caused his body to function only below freezing point and so he wears a special self-contained refrigeration suit and uses similar ice technology for weapons.
- Clock King: William Tockman was originally Green Arrow's enemy, but after fighting Batman a couple times, the villain appeared as a Batman enemy on the '60s television show. The character was treated as a minor foe until recreated him as Temple Fugate, a dangerous obsessive stalker.
- Poison Ivy: Pamela Isley, a former scientist, who employs plants of all varieties and their derivatives in her crimes. She is often described as fanatical about defending plants from other humans, even being willing to murder them for her beliefs.
- Ra's al Ghul: ("Demon's Head" in Arabic), a centuries-old world-wide eco-terrorist who knows Batman's secret identity; Ra's Al Ghul desires for Batman to marry his daughter Talia and become his successor.
- Lady Shiva: Sandra Wu-San, a mercenary assassin who once trained Batman. She is possibly the greatest martial artist alive in the DC universe, one of Batman's true physical rivals.
- Man-Bat: As a scientist, Kirk Langstrom is Batman's ally. He is unfortunately also cursed to periodically turn into an animalistic humanoid bat.
- Maxie Zeus: An insane mob boss with a penchant for Greek mythology, Maxie has a god complex and usually uses electrically based weaponry to emulate the Greek god Zeus.
- Killer Croc: Waylon Jones, a former croc wrestler turned into a criminal deformed by mutation into a humongous humanoid lizard. He has low intelligence but great strength, as well as crocodilian abilities, such as a keener sense of smell and the ability to hold his breath underwater for long periods of time.
- Black Mask: Roman Sionis, a former business executive who originally hated Bruce Wayne rather than Batman. He wears a Black Mask and leads the cult-like False Face Society of henchmen. Recently Black Mask became a mob boss controlling large sections of Gotham crime.
- Ventriloquist and Scarface: A ventriloquist (Arnold Wesker) whose puppet is a gangster called Scarface. It has been implied that the Ventriloquist suffers from multiple personality disorder.
- KGBeast: Anatoli Knyazev was a ruthless assassin who Batman encountered many times. Later, Batman caught KGBeast's left wrist in a loop of the bat-rope, but KGBeast cut off his own hand with an ax in order to escape. He later returned with a cybernetic gun prosthetic attached to his wrist.
- Anarky: Lonnie Machin, a vigilante obsessed with theories of Anarchism. He is originally discovered to be a small child, but as he becomes a teenager, he evolves into a superhero himself.
- Zsasz: Victor Zsasz, a more or less "common" serial killer who keeps a tally of his victims by cutting new scars into his body with his trademark knife.
- Harley Quinn: Harleen Quinzel, a former criminal psychiatrist who fell in love with the Joker and became his most famous accomplice. She wears the clothing of a traditional harlequin jester. Her crimes as an independent criminal motif is to impress the Joker, who she affectionately refers as "Puddin'" and "Mr. J".
- General: Ulysses Hadrian Armstrong, a psychotic child with the mind of a military genius. He dresses himself and his henchmen in historical attire as they act out crimes based on military history.
- Bane: An escaped convict from an island prison in South America, who has abnormal strength as a result of having had experiments with a derivative of the drug Venom performed on him. Bane became known as "The Man Who Broke the Bat" when he broke Batman's spinal cord, forcing Bruce Wayne to give up the Batman persona while he recuperated.
- Hush: A childhood friend of Bruce's. Although Hush's name originates from a nursery rhyme, Hush lives up to it by using manipulation and guile instead of noisy "signatures". One example of this guile is how he led Batman to believe that Hush was the second Robin, Jason Todd, previously murdered by the Joker.
- Red Hood: Formerly the second Robin, Jason Todd was killed by the Joker, who beat him half to death and left him in an exploding warehouse. Jason re-emerged years later as the new Red Hood, ironically the Joker's old alias. Notoriously brutal in his run as Robin, he has no problem with killing criminals.
Minor enemies
Some notable enemies with few appearances are:
- Abattoir: Arnold Etchison, a serial killer who was killed by Jean Paul Valley (AKA Azrael and "Temporarily Batman")
- Actuary: (Detective Comics #683-4 (March-April 1995)): A mathematical genius who applies formulas to aid the Penguin in committing crimes.
- Amygdala: Aaron Helzinger, a powerful behemoth with a child-like temper; quick to anger and turns into a murdering monster. Has been stopped by Batman in the past by applying a severe blow to the back of the neck, just below the skull.
- Batzarro: A distorted clone of Batman, presumably created through the same process as Bizarro, the failed clone of Superman. At times it seems as though Batzarro is trying to aid Batman, but his mangled dialogue and inexplicable actions make it difficult to be sure.
- Blockbuster: Two brothers took the alias of Blockbuster in turn. The first, Mark Desmond, was a chemist who experimented on himself and gained super strength, but also became a mindless brute. He would eventually die fighting Brimstone, a minion of Darkseid. Mark's younger brother, Roland, was mutated when he was treated with experimental steroids, also gaining massive strength. Later, he sold his soul to the demon Neron and became super-intelligent, allowing him to become the crime boss of Blüdhaven.
- Bronze Tiger: Benjamin Turner, a supreme martial artist with a personality disorder. He acted as a villain while brain-washed, but he is regularly a good character.
- Calendar Man: Julian Day, also known as the Calendar Man, was known for committing crimes that corresponded with significant dates.
- Captain Stingaree: First Appearance: Detective Comics #460 (June 1976)
- Catman: Thomas Blake, a cat-themed supervillain turned anti-hero.
- Cavalier: A swordsman who speaks in Shakespearean English and dresses in medieval garb.
- Cluemaster: Arthur Brown is a former game show host who turned to a life of crime and left clues at the scene of the crime.
- Cornelius Stirk: An Arkham intern with the ability to cause fear and hallucinations in others, via of telepathic methods. This ability, however, is limited, and will be used up completely unless Stirk consumes human hearts.
- Crime Doctor: Mathew Thorne, the go-to surgeon for all criminals. He is also expert in torture. In the Animated Series, he was Rupert Thorne's younger brother.
- Deacon Blackfire: A fanatical religious leader who formed an army in the sewers beneath Gotham, largely composed of the homeless. Blackfire began a violent war on crime, which escalated into him taking over the entire city, resulting in it being isolated from the rest of the country. Blackfire was something of a one shot villain. He appeared in the four issue story arc/miniseries The Cult, at the end of which, he was killed by his followers.
- Doctor Achilles Milo: a scientist who uses chemicals to defeat Batman.
- Doctor Death: A typical mad scientist character who made a few appearances in the earliest days of Batman and is typically considered Batman's first supervillain. Doctor Death developed chemical gases that were lethal, and threatened wealthy citizens, demanding money and tribute to him in exchange for their safety. After several decades' absence, he has reappeared in the pages of Batgirl.
- Doctor Double X: Dr. Simon Ecks discovered that human auras could be enhanced to function outside of the body. When Ecks created an energy-duplicate of himself, the introverted scientist's unstable mind became dominated by the doppelganger he named Double X.
- Doctor Moon. Originally Ra's Al Ghul's servant, Moon is foreign brain surgeon whith skills that made him the contact all DC foes go to when it comes to recover dead brains, erase or modify minds or mental tortures.
- Doctor Phosphorus: A mad criminal with radioactive powers, may be an inspiration for Batman Beyond's Blight.
- Doodlebug: An artist who believes he receives visions of inspiration and then compulsively recreates them on whatever canvas they indicate, including people.
- Electrocutioner: A vigilante who kills bad guys with electricity.
- The Eraser: (Batman #188 (December 1966)): A professional at covering the tracks of other crimes, for a 20% cut (before taxes) the Eraser will 'erase' the evidence of another crime.
- The Fearsome Foot-Fighters: (Detective Comics #372 (February 1968)): Experts in a French form of kickboxing, these acrobatic martial artists hail from the fictional Balkan country of Karonia.
- Firebug: A former soldier and demolitions expert who turned to a life of crime. Armed with explosive bombs.
- Film Freak: Burt Weston is a guy who plans to get a big break, even if it is committing crimes.
- Gearhead: Nathan Finch had lost his arms and legs when frostbite affected him after a fight with Batman. An unnamed underworld doctor replaced them with cybernetic arms and legs.
- Great White: Formerly crooked investor Warren "The Great White Shark" White, who avoided prison time by pleading insanity and was (unfortunately for him) sentenced to Arkham Asylum. There, among other indignities and torture, White was assaulted and locked in a refrigeration unit by Jane Doe, who was attempting to take over his identity. His injuries, compiled with excessive frost bite, left White deformed. His skin turned a pale white, and the frostbite claimed his nose, lips, hair, and several of his fingers, leaving him very much resembling a great white shark and driven partially mad. He now uses his business connections to serve as a liaison and fence for many of his fellow inmates.
- Greenface: A lost man that lives isolated in the forest, has only appeared one time in the Batman comics.
- The Hood Brothers
- Humpty Dumpty: A large, portly, well-mannered man who is obsessed with putting broken things back together again, even if he has to take them apart. Thinking she was broken, Dumpty dismembered and reassembled his grandmother in an attempt to fix her.
- Jane Doe: A cypher who obsessively learns her victims' personality and mannerisms, then kills them and assumes their identity by wearing their skin, eventually becoming that individual even in her own mind.
- Junkyard Dog: A man completely obsessed with scavenging prizes and treasures from garbage.
- Kite Man: Charles "Chuck" Brown commits crimes by arming himself with kite weapons and handgliding on a big kite.
- Lazara: Nora Fries, Mr. Freeze's wife resurrected by the Lazarus Pit possessing the ability to manipulate flame and reanimate the dead.
- Lock-Up: Lyle Bolton, a vigilante with his own way of justice, namely locking people up.
- Lunkhead: A large, imposing somewhat deformed bruiser of a man, seen in the mini-series Arkham Asylum: Living Hell.
- The Monk: one of the earliest Batman villains was a vampire whom wore a red, monk like outfit, with a hood that bore a skull and crossbones on it. The Monk turned out to be a vampire, and was killed after being shot with a silver bullet. The Monk first appearing in 1939, and his battle with Batman was one of the first multi-part Batman adventures.
- Magpie (Batman #401 (November 1986)): Magpie is a jewel thief who targets only jewels named after birds, and then replaces the jewels with booby trapped replicas. She is named for the Magpie, who, in folklore is attracted to bright shiny things. (Recently killed in Batman #651.)
- Mimic: A mute girl that commits crimes dressed as a mime.
- ''Nocturna: A killer who thinks she is a vampire.
- Orca: Grace Balin, a doctor of marine biology who was transformed into a monstrous orca. Killed in Detective Comics #819.
- Phantasm: A mysterious cloaked figure (resembling the Grim Reaper), who begins stalking and killing Gotham City mob bosses. Later revealed to be Andrea Beaumont, Bruce's former love, seeking revenge on the men resposible for her father's murder.
- Penny Plunderer: (World's Finest Comics #30 (September/October 1947)): 'Joe Coyne', a thief obsessed with penny-oriented crimes, he started his career selling newspapers for pennies, and was caught stealing pennies. The giant penny often seen in the Batcave is a memoir of this particular villain's caper.
- The Reaper: Judson Caspian was a socialite by day, and an ultra-violent vigilante by night. After losing his wife to a drug robbery he became The Reaper; who prowled Gotham during the '50s before returning during the second year of Batman's career to do battle with the Dark Knight.
- Signalman: Phil Cobb was a small-time criminal in Gotham who was convinced that he needed a gimmick to hit it big. Inspired by the Bat-Signal, he became the Signalman, using signals, signs, and symbols in his crimes., but was inevitably defeated by Batman and Robin (I), time and again. He was also a member of the Secret Society of Super-Villains. For a brief time, Cobb changed his m.o. and, inspired by Green Arrow, committed crimes as the Blue Bowman. First Appearance: Batman #112 (December 1957)
- The Spook: Val Kaliban is one of the world's greatest escape-artists, and has used his extraordinary abilities together with special effects to commit spectacular crimes and make people believe he is a real ghost. He has been stopped by Batman every time. When last seen, Spook II was an inmate in Arkham Asylum (inexplicably, since he was never shown as insane).First Appearance: Detective Comics #434 (April 1973)
- The Synaptic Kid: a deformed mutant telepath who attempts to enter Batman's mind and learn his secret identity for the purpose of blackmailing him, only to be rendered comatose when the attempt backfires (Detective Comics #633)
- Tally Man: A serial killer who murdered around sixty people. He is a hired killer who wears a mask over his face, a long purplish smock with ruffled sleeves, an oversized top hat, and a blue mask.
- Ten-Eyed Man: Philip Reardon was a former Vietnam War veteran/warehouse guard who was blinded in a warehouse explosion that burned his retinas until a doctor named Doctor Engstrom reconnected them to his fingers. He blames Batman for the incident that caused this.
- The Terrible Trio: a trio of scientists that wear masks of cartoon animals to commit crimes.
- Thanatos: Thanatos was the masked leader of the gang of terrorists known as the "Death's Head", devoted to the destruction of capitalism. Using a strange device invented by Amos Fortune, the so-called "Fortu-Tron", they manipulated several millionaires (including Bruce Wayne) to lose their judgement and gamble away their money. The Death's Head were defeated by the Batman, and Thanatos was unmasked as a Sophia Santos, also known as "Lina Muller", a reporter who had associated with the Batman. First Appearance: Batman #305 (November 1978)
- The Trigger Twins: Two cowboys that grew up apart without knowing they were twins, they discovered they share great cowboy skill and became bandits. They were defeated by Batman/Azrael.
- The Werewolf: Anthony Lupus, a former Olympic Decathlon champion whose pilosity was turned into a full-fledge lycanthropy by a drug given to him by Doctor Achilles Milo. In other words, Dr. Milo's drug turned Anthony into a werewolf.
Mobsters
The Batman mythos also pits him against more ordinary enemies, such as mobsters like:
- Falcone family: Led by Carmine Falcone, also known as "The Roman", and prominent in the storylines of Batman's early years, including Year One, The Long Halloween and Dark Victory. In the comics, as well as the feature film Batman Begins, the Falcone family and Carmine Falcone in particular are portrayed as having a massive amount of power and influence on Gotham City.
- Rupert Thorne: Prominent in the animated series, but also featured in the comics, head of one of Gotham City's top smuggling gangs, Rupert Thorne is envied for his power in the underworld and loves prospering from other people's misery. In the animated series of the 1990s, Thorne is responsible, in part, for the creation of that version of Two-Face. He was also the boss of "Matches" Malone, the criminals whos identity was taken over by Batman.
- Maroni family: Led by Sal "The Boss" Maroni, the Maroni family were a prominent crime family in Gotham, and in the early years of Batman's career, the Maroni's often vied for power and control of the Gotham underworld with the Falcone family. In the majority of Batman's incarnations, Sal Maroni is widely known as the mob boss whom threw acid on to the face of D.A. Harvey Dent during a trial. The resulting injuries and scarring transformed Dent in to the villain Two-Face.
- Lew Moxon: A mafia boss who hired Joe Chill to kill Thomas Wayne which sparked Bruce Wayne into becoming Batman.
- Tony Zucco: Tony Zucco was a mob boss, or simple low level thug (his position of power varies a bit in the continuity) who was responsible for the death of Dick Grayson's parents. Despite some variation, the basic recurring themes were that Zucco tried to extort the circus the Graysons were members of, and when the ringleader refused to pay him, he sabotaged the act, causing the ropes of the Graysons act to break, sending the parents of Dick falling to their deaths.
- Holiday: Mysterious serial killer who murdered mobsters and others over a year (during The Long Halloween storyline). The killer's weapon is a .22 pistol (using a baby bottle nipple as a silencer) with the handle taped and the serial number filed off. Also, every crime takes place on a holiday and a small trinket representing each holiday is left behind at the scene. Alberto Falcone, youngest son of Carmine Falcone, is revealed to be the Holiday killer. However, Holiday was actually 3 people. Harvey dent was the first, and when his wife, Gilda Dent, realized, she continued the killing spree. When Alberto faked his own death on New Year's Eve, she simply let him take over and had nothing further to do with it. She disposed of the incriminating costume (a trenchcoat and fedora), as well as the last .22 pistol, throwing them into the furnace. Reading like an old-fashioned murder mystery, clues to Holiday's identity are found throughout, however even after reading the entire story, the identity of the killer is still unclear and the killer may still be at large. The Holiday murders are also responsible for the creation of Two-Face.
- The Hangman: A serial killer (during the Dark Victory storyline), who murders police officers on every holiday of the year, leaving behind a version of the children's word game "Hangman" (with key letters missing) in with each new victim. All of the victims are police officers who, in one way or another, helped Harvey Dent rise to his position of District Attourney. In the end, the Hangman is revealed to be Sofia Falcone Gigante, daughter of the late crime boss, Carmine Falcone.
Enemies created for other media
Among Batman villains created in other media, with no appearances in previous or subsequent comics, are:Villains from comics in live-action media
A number of villains from the comic books have made an appearance, or appearances, in Batman live-action media.
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