Batman villains: Difference between revisions
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dude! harley is from the 90's thats basic. I did some copiedit, but still needs more. Don't blind revert |
T-Man up to his old bad editing tricks again... i reverted, but changed Harley Quinn to the 1990s. What, no Batman enemies created in the 1980s? |
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[[Image:BatmanVillainsSecretFiles.jpg|thumb|right|200px|Cover to ''Batman Villains Secret Files 2005''. Art by Barrionuevo & Bit.]] |
[[Image:BatmanVillainsSecretFiles.jpg|thumb|right|200px|Cover to ''Batman Villains Secret Files 2005''. Art by Barrionuevo & Bit.]] |
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Batman's foes form one of the most distinctive [[rogues gallery|rogues galleries]] in comics. In the 1930s and 1940s the most familiar Batman villains evolved |
Batman's foes form one of the most distinctive [[rogues gallery|rogues galleries]] in comics. In the 1930s and 1940s some of the most familiar Batman villains evolved. First among these is The [[Joker (comics)|Joker]], being thief, clown, pracical joker, killer, and insane. Other key villians include [[Catwoman]], the [[Penguin (comics)|Penguin]], [[Two-Face]], The [[Riddler (comics)|Riddler]], The [[Scarecrow (comics)|Scarecrow]], [[Hugo Strange]] and The [[Mad Hatter (comics)|Mad Hatter]], |
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Other well |
Other well-known villains emerged in the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s including the [[Man-Bat]],[[Clayface]], [[Mr. Freeze]], [[Poison Ivy (comics)|Poison Ivy]], [[Ra's Al Ghul]] and daughter Talia, [[Killer Croc]], [[Black Mask (comics)|Black Mask]]. The [[Ventriloquist (comics)|Ventriloquist]] emerged in the 1980s. In the 1990s and 2000s, new enemies have appeared, such as The Joker's assistant [[Harley Quinn]],[[Bane (comics)|Bane]], [[Hush]], [[David Cain]] (father of [[Cassandra Cain]], the new [[Batgirl]]), and a new Red Hood (in fact former Robin [[Jason Todd]] apparently back from the dead). These new enemies know Batman´s true identity and threaten to use this against him. |
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Human-crocodile mutant[[Killer Croc]], as well as the mafiosi insane leaders [[Black Mask (comics)|Black Mask]] and the [[Ventriloquist (comics)|Ventriloquist]]'s own puppet Scarface emerged in the 1980s. [[Bane (comics)|Bane]], "the man who broke Batman" and Joker's own bimbo [[Harley Quinn]], who first appeared on Batman: The Animated Series, but was imported to the DC Universe by popular demand are among the 90's most popular contributions to the Batman mythos. |
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Recently, new enemies have appeared, like [[Hush]] (who apparently is Tommy Elliot, Bruce´s childhood friend), [[David Cain]] (who trained Bruce and is father of [[Cassandra Cain]], the new [[Batgirl]]), and a new Red Hood ([[Jason Todd]], apparently back from the dead). These enemies, like [[Bane]], know Batman´s true identity and use that against him. Hugo, Strange, Ra's Al Ghul, the Riddler, the Scarecrow, Catwoman and Talia are also no strangers to Batman's identity, but they haven’t acted that personal yet. |
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==Major Enemies== |
==Major Enemies== |
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Revision as of 00:41, 30 December 2005
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Batman's foes form one of the most distinctive rogues galleries in comics. In the 1930s and 1940s some of the most familiar Batman villains evolved. First among these is The Joker, being thief, clown, pracical joker, killer, and insane. Other key villians include Catwoman, the Penguin, Two-Face, The Riddler, The Scarecrow, Hugo Strange and The Mad Hatter,
Other well-known villains emerged in the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s including the Man-Bat,Clayface, Mr. Freeze, Poison Ivy, Ra's Al Ghul and daughter Talia, Killer Croc, Black Mask. The Ventriloquist emerged in the 1980s. In the 1990s and 2000s, new enemies have appeared, such as The Joker's assistant Harley Quinn,Bane, Hush, David Cain (father of Cassandra Cain, the new Batgirl), and a new Red Hood (in fact former Robin Jason Todd apparently back from the dead). These new enemies know Batman´s true identity and threaten to use this against him.
Major Enemies
Many of Batman's enemies are supervillains such as:
- The Joker: Real Name unknown, occasionally refered to as Jack, 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.
- The Riddler: Eddie Nash/Edward Nigma, 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.
- Catwoman: Selina Kyle, a female criminal (often burglar) who operates with a cat-theme and costume and has a love/hate relationship with Batman. Also, has been known to wreak revenge upon those who do crimes against animals, especially large cats.
- The Penguin: Oswald 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.
- Scarecrow: Jonathan Crane, a renegade scientist specializing in the nature of fear, who employs special equipment and techniques designed to use it to his advantage.
- Scarface: See the Ventriloquist, below.
- Two-Face: Formerly District Attorney Harvey Dent (a friend of Bruce Wayne's), until his 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 with all major decisions being determined by a two-headed coin.
- 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 (who became known as 'The Man Who broke the Bat') was responsible for snapping Batman's spinal cord, forcing Bruce Wayne to give up the Batman persona while he recuperated.
- Mr. Freeze: Victor Fries, formerly a scientist and expert on cryonics. He tried to cryopreserve his stricken wife 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 technology for weapons and other devices of his own design (such as a freezing gun).
- Poison Ivy: Pamela Isley, a female criminal who employs plants of all varieties and their derivatives in her crimes. She is often described as fanatical about defending plants from human beings, even to the extent of murdering them.
- 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.
- 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 and affectionally refers to the Joker as "Puddin'" and "Mr. J".
- 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 animal abilities, such as heightened senses and the ability to hold his breath underwater for long periods of time. Croc controlled all illegal activities in Gotham before Bane beat him and took control of his business. Currently hiding in the New Orleans swamp under bizarre protection of the Swamp Thing.
- Mad Hatter: A research scientist named Jervis Tetch who is completely smitten with the works of Lewis Carroll. He specializes in neuroscience and developed hardware that can control the brain and induce hypnotic states.
- Man-Bat: A scientist, Kirk Langstrom is cursed to periodically turn into an animalistic humanoid bat, and often causes much trouble for Batman despite also being an ally.
- Ra's Al Ghul: ("Demon's Head" in Arabic), a centuries-old eco-terrorist who knows Batman's secret identity; Ra's Al Ghul desires for Batman to marry his daughter Talia and become his successor.
- Red Hood: Formerly the second Robin, Jason Todd was believed to be killed by the Joker, who beat him half to death and left him in an exploding warehouse. However, it looks like Todd survived somehow and emerged as the Red Hood, ironically the Joker's old alias. Notoriously brutal in his run as Robin, Red Hood has no problem with killing criminals. Currently, Red Hood is employing himself as a mercenary to anyone needing protecting from Batman or Blask Mask.
- The Ventriloquist: A ventriloquist whose puppet is a gangster called Scarface. It has been implied that the Ventriloquist suffers from multiple personality disorder.
- Black Mask: Roman Sionis, a former business executive who has it in for Bruce Wayne rather than Batman. He wears a Black Mask and leads the cult-like False Face Society of henchmen.
- Professor Hugo Strange: An insane psychologist who knows Batman's secret identity and lusts to take the identity for himself.
- Hush: Neurosurgeon Dr. Thomas Elliot, a childhood friend of Bruce's. Hush's name originates from a nursery rhyme, however, he truly lives up to it; he uses manipulation and guile instead of any noisy "signatures." An example of this guile is how he led Batman to believe that he was the second Robin, Jason Todd, previously believed to have been murdered by the Joker.
- Lady Shiva: 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.
- Firefly: Garfield Lynns, an orphan who became a pyromaniac and has developed a fireproof suit and flamethrower to further pursue his 'hobby'.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- Blockbuster: Two brothers would ultimately take the mantle of Blockbuster. The first, Mark Desmond, was a chemist who experimented on himself and gained super strength, but also became a mindless brute. He would eventualy die fighting Brimstone, a minion of Darkseid. Mark's younger brother, Roland, was mutated by an alien Gene Bomb and also gained massive strength. Later, he sold his soul to the demon Neron and became super-intelligent, allowing him to become the crime boss of Bludhaven.
- The KGBeast (Batman #417-420 (March-June 1988)): "Time for us to find out which of us is the best... the best at this game of life and death!" -
- 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.
- 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.
Minor Villains
Some notable enemies with few appearances are:
- Amygdala: 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.
- The Clock King: Althogh the name Temple Fugate was created for Batman:TAS recreation of the classic villain, the Clock King a Green Arow foe, has been around in the Batman mythos for a while, actually making another aparition outside comics on the 60 live-action series.
- Dr. Achilles Milo: a scientist who uses chemicals to defeat Batman.
- Terrible Trio: a trio of scientists that wear masks of cartoon animals to commit crimes.
- Lock-Up: a vigilante with his own way of justice.
- Calendar Man: Julian Day, aka the Calendar Man, was known for commiting crimes that corresponded with significant dates.
- Cornelius Stirk: A human with the apparent ability to cause fear or hallucinations in others, via some sort of telepathic method. This ability, however, is limited, and will be used up completely unless Stirk consumes human hearts.
- 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.
- Dr. Phosphorus: A mad criminal with radioactive powers, may be an inspiration for Batman Beyond's Blight.
- 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. "Everybody laughed at me spending all my time erasing my own mistakes! Now—I'm making a fortune erasing the underworld's! Take him, boys!"
- 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.
- The Hood Brothers
- Magpie (Batman #401 (November 1986)): First appeared in John Byrne's Superman revival Man Of Steel, Magpie appears in Batman as a jewel thief who targets only jewels named after birds (sic)... Further specializing, she replaces the jewels with booby trapped replicas. "You can't take the pretty things away from me, because all the pretty things are mine.". She is named for the Magpie, who, in folklore is attracted to bright shiny things.
- The 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 Tally Man: . A truly strange little villain who claims to have murdered sixty-odd people, and only one for personal reasons. 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. Tally-Man was severely beaten by Azrael, who proceeded to carve a Bat-signal on his victim's chest with his claws as Tally lay unconcious. Tally sought revenge; however, the Batman he took out his rage on was Dick Grayson, who had never met Tally-Man before but was nonetheless punished for Jean-Paul's insane crimes. Lured into a clever trap (Shadow of the Bat, "Prodigal", X) by the perpetually-grinning "debt collector" and tied to a set of support beams, Dick managed to keep Tally-Man talking while he took stock of his injuries and aches and plotted his next move. Dick ruminated over his own life while the crazed little man displayed his scars and taunted him in a slow, agonizing, deadly game of Russian roulette. Tally-Man seems to have some emotional problems and family issues, as he flips out when Dick mentions his mother. Dick freed himself of his bonds and made short work of Tally, adding that he was "fortunate I don't shoot people".
- 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. Not only was The Monk one of the earliest Batman villains, appearing in 1939, but Batman's battle against him was one of the first multi-part Batman adventures.
- Doctor Death: A typical mad scientist character whom made a few appearances in the earliest days of Batman and is typically considered Batman's first supervillain. Doctor Death developed chemical gasses that were lethal, and threatened wealthy citizens, demanding money and tribute to him in exchange for their safety. He was accompanied by a large strongman in both his initial appearances. In his second appearance, after surviving a fire which had left his fate unclear, he was shown to be burned and scarred, and had somehow developed pointed ears. After several decades' absence, he has reappeared in the pages of Batgirl.
Mobsters
The Batman mythos also pits him against more ordinary enemies, such as mobsters like:
- Falcone family: Led by Carmine Falcone, aka "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 in 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 90s, Thorne is responsible, in part, for the creation of that version of Two Face.
- 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.
- Lou 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 Graysons 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.
Two of Batman's Mobster foes have donned costumes and crossed over to become serial killers/supervillains (Spoiler Alert):
- Holiday: Carmine Falcone's son Alberto murdered mobsters and other who knew his secret over a year.
- The Hangman: Falcone's daughter Sofia seeks revenge on Harvey Dent by killing anyone who helped Dent rise to the position of District Attourney.
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 films.