Egghead (DC Comics)

Egghead
Egghead
	Vincent Price as Egghead
Publication information
First appearance	"An Egg Grows in Gotham"
In-story information
Full name	Edgar Heed
Abilities	Genius Intellgence ; Various Egg-Themed Weapons

Egghead is a fictional character created for the 1960s Batman television series. Played by horror film mainstay Vincent Price, the character was identifiable by his pale bald head and white and yellow suit. He believes himself to be "the world's smartest criminal," and his crimes usually have an egg motif to them; he also includes egg-related puns in his speech ("egg-zactly", "egg-cellent", etc.). Additionally, he would use a wide assortment of egg-shaped weapons, such as laughing gas eggs and tear gas eggs (laid by chickens on a diet of onions).

Background

Like many other villains, Egghead was created specifically for the 1966 Batman TV series (e.g., King Tut, Shame, The Siren, Chandell, the Bookworm, and Louie the Lilac). Egghead would go on to be introduced in the comic books.

Fictional character biography

Egghead was introduced in the second season two-parter, "An Egg Grows in Gotham" and "The Yegg Foes in Gotham," where he schemed with Chief Screaming Chicken (Edward Everett Horton) of the Mohican Indian tribe to revert control of Gotham City to the Chief's people. In return, Egghead would also govern the city and enable the criminal underground to run amok. Their scheme was foiled by Batman (Adam West) and Robin (Burt Ward).

Egghead would return three times in the third season with his new partner and love interest, Olga, Queen of the Cossacks (Anne Baxter), in exile from Bessarovia. The first two third-season appearances, "The Ogg and I" and "How to Hatch a Dinosaur", were actually filmed as one multi-part story, but split into two separate stories (Season 3 episodes 8 and 9) prior to airing. In "How to Hatch a Dinosaur," Egghead and Olga's plan was to hatch an egg of a Neosaurus and later to try to feed Robin and Batgirl to it. It didn't work and the Neosaurus advanced toward Egghead and Olga causing them to surrender to the police as the Neosaurus was actually Batman in disguise. On a related note, Batman's Neosaurus costume was actually a recycled costume of the alien creature Gundemar from the Lost in Space episode "The Questing Beast."

The final season three appearance was in episode 15 "The Ogg Couple" where Egghead and Olga steal the Sword Of Bulbul and The Egg Of Ogg.

In "The Entrancing Dr. Cassandra," Egghead (alongside Joker, Penguin, Riddler, Catwoman, and King Tut) was freed from prison by Dr. Cassandra Spellcraft and her husband Cabala, but this brief appearance was by a stand-in. Dr. Cassandra Spellcraft promised Egghead control over the poultry farms when she took over Gotham City even giving him and the other villains her camouflage pills to assist in their crime spree.

Egghead was one of only two Batman 1960s series villains to deduce Batman's secret identity (and the only one to do so through deductive reasoning instead of trickery). Reasoning that the enormous "egg-spense" involved would point to only one of three Gotham City millionaires who would be of the right age as Batman and deducing that two could not be the Caped Crusader (one has a French accent, which Batman does not have, and the other is left-handed, whereas Batman is right-handed), he concluded that the last, Bruce Wayne, must be Batman.

In other media

Television

Egghead can be seen in Batman: The Brave and the Bold episode "Day of the Dark Knight!" as a convict trying to escape Iron Heights Penitentiary, but was stopped by Batman and Green Arrow, among other villains from the show and the Adam West series.

Film

In the animated film Batman: Return of the Caped Crusaders, which is an adaptation of the 60's TV show, Egghead appears among other criminals during the climax and is seen fighting Batman by using egg-like bombs.

In Team StarKid's comedy Musical, Holy Musical B@man, Egghead makes a minor appearance, stealing all the chickens from Gotham City, hoping to see its citizens suffer from a lack of eggs. He is almost immediately defeated by Batman and Robin.

Comics

Egghead has rarely made cameo appearances in other Batman media outside of the 1960s series. He can be seen in Shadow of the Bat #3-4 as an inmate of Arkham Asylum, battling Batman gladiator-style after being set free from his cell by the maddened Jeremiah Arkham.
He is also featured in Batman: The Brave and the Bold issue #16. In this issue, his real name is given as Edgar Heed and he seeks to awaken Egg Fu.
Egghead appears in Batman '66 #9 "Scrambled Eggs", which is supposed to take place in the same continuity as the original series.
He appears as Professor Egghead in Gotham Academy #14.

References