Hugo Strange

Not to be confused with Doctor Strange or Doc Strange.

Hugo Strange
Cover to Batman: Gotham Knights #9; art by Brian Bolland
Publication information
Publisher	DC Comics
First appearance	Detective Comics #36 (February 1940)
Created by	Bill Finger (writer) Bob Kane (artist)
In-story information
Alter ego	Professor Hugo Strange Doctor Hugo Strange
Notable aliases	Doctor Todhunter Bruce Wayne Batman
Abilities	Genius-level intellect Trained in psychiatry, chemistry, and biology Peak Physical Condition Excellent Hand to Hand Combatant Skilled Acrobat and Gymnast

Professor Hugo Strange is a supervillain appearing in comic books published by DC Comics, commonly as an adversary of the superhero Batman. The character is one of Batman's first recurring villains and is also one of the first Batman villains to discover the hero's secret identity. The character first appeared in Detective Comics #36 (February 1940).

A notorious enemy of Batman, the character has appeared in various forms of non-comics media, including animation, video games, and the live-action television series Gotham, where he is portrayed by BD Wong.

Fictional character biography

Pre-Crisis

Earth-One

Professor Hugo Strange first appears in Detective Comics #36 (February 1940) as a scientist and criminal mastermind who uses a stolen "concentrated lightning" machine to generate a dense fog every night so his gang can rob banks unseen, though he knows that Batman poses a threat to him. Batman, who already knows of Strange's experiments, begins investigating him after one of his henchmen commits a murder. When the robbers are apprehended, Strange vows to set a trap for Batman and deal with him personally. He has a dozen of his men ambush the vigilante, and one of them knocks him out with a blackjack. Batman wakes up in Strange's lair, where Strange hangs him from his wrists and lashes him with a whip. Batman breaks the ropes, gases the room, and defeats Strange, who is jailed but quickly begins planning his escape. In Batman #1 (spring 1940), he carries out his escape plan, recruits a new gang of criminals, then breaks out "five insane patients" from the local asylum and uses them as test subjects, turning them into hulking 15 ft. tall monsters by administering a powerful artificial growth hormone that acts on the pituitary gland. He outfits them with bulletproof clothing, and uses them to rampage through Gotham City and distract the police while his men commit robberies. Strange administers the serum to Batman after the giants capture him, saying it will work in eighteen hours. Batman tricks two of the monsters into killing each other, and then formulates a drug that prevents any abnormal secretions from the pituitary gland, preventing the transformation. He is then able to kill all the other monsters, and sends Strange to his apparent death in a fall from a cliff, although he suspects that the mad scientist has survived. In Detective Comics #46 (December 1940), Strange returns and starts spreading a fear-inducing powder around the city until a punch from Batman again sends him falling to his apparent death.

He returned years later in the 1970s in the "Strange Apparitions" story arc in Detective Comics #469-479 (May 1977-September–October 1978). Having survived his earlier "death" (how this happened is never explained, seen or shown), Strange left Gotham City and went to Europe for several years, where his criminal career prospered with no one to challenge him. Bored and hoping to pit his wits against Batman again, Strange, now using the alias of Dr. Todhunter, opens a private hospital, Graytowers Clinic, for Gotham's wealthiest citizens, where he holds them for ransom before mutating them into mindless monsters. When Bruce Wayne checks into the hospital to recover discreetly from radiation burns he sustained while fighting Doctor Phosphorus, Strange finds out that Wayne is Batman and uses this information to wreak havoc on his personal life. Strange then attempts to auction off the identity of Batman to Gotham City councilman "Boss" Rupert Thorne, the Penguin, and the Joker. Not wanting to lose, Thorne has Strange abducted and beaten by his men to reveal Batman's identity, but Strange apparently dies without ever telling him. Strange's ghost then comes back to haunt Thorne, driving the councilman insane. Thorne confesses his long career of corruption and is sent to Arkham Asylum.

Strange's ghost returns again to haunt Thorne in Detective Comics #513 (April 1982), #516 (July 1982), #518 (September 1982), and #520 (November 1982) and Batman #354 (December 1982), leading up to the appearance of the real Hugo Strange in the last panel of the last page of the fifth issue mentioned here. As revealed two issues later in Batman #356 (February 1983), Strange had indeed survived the beating from Thorne's men by using yoga techniques to slow his heartbeat to an undetectable level. It is also revealed that Strange artificially created the "ghost" that haunted Thorne by using strategically-placed devices that simulated the appearance of an evil spirit. Upon his return, Strange used the devices again to bring back the "ghost" so he could punish Thorne for double-crossing him. Subsequently, Strange attempts to weaken Bruce Wayne through the use of drugs and lifelike robots called Mandroids, with the ultimate goal of destroying Wayne so completely that Strange could take his place as Batman. The plan fails, and Strange apparently dies once more when he attempts to kill Batman by blowing up a replica of Wayne Manor with himself in it, stating that if he cannot be Batman, then no one can. Batman survives the explosion, but no trace of Strange is found.

Later, Strange returns yet again (the Hugo Strange that "died" in the explosion was revealed to be a Mandroid) in Batman Annual #10 (1986), in another attempt to destroy Batman and Bruce Wayne, this time attempting to financially bankrupt Wayne by using various tricks to force three Wayne Enterprises shareholders to sell their stock holdings to him so he could bankrupt the company. He also attempts to frame Batman as a criminal. However, Strange is defeated and sent to prison. Batman is able to stop Strange from further exploiting his knowledge of his secret identity by falsely claiming that he hypnotized Strange to give him a fake idea of Batman's true identity just before Commissioner Gordon shows up to arrest him; his explanation is so convincing that Strange begins to wonder if Batman is attempting a complex double-bluff by letting him think that Bruce Wayne is Batman and thus doubts whether his original conclusion was correct.

Earth-Two

The Earth-Two version of Strange has a similar early history to the Earth-One version and also survives the fall that he experienced in Detective Comics #46. In The Brave and the Bold #182 (January 1982), it is revealed that he is left paralyzed by the fall but, after years of physical therapy, he regains enough movement to write out the surgical techniques needed to repair the damage to his body - and bribes a surgeon to perform the operation. The surgeon lacks Strange's skill, and the operation leaves Strange physically deformed (the surgeon is then killed for his failure). Strange uses one of his devices to capture Starman's Cosmic Rod to use its power to attack everyone and everything that Batman holds dear. He generates a storm in Gotham to obtain the device, which creates a dimensional doorway to Earth-One, bringing that universe's Batman over to Earth-Two, which allows him and Earth-Two's Robin to join with Earth-Two's Batwoman in defeating Strange. Strange realizes that he is, in fact, angry at his own wasted life and deformed body, so he uses the Cosmic Rod to commit suicide.

Post-Crisis

In the Post-Crisis continuity, Strange was reintroduced in the "Prey" storyline as an eccentric private psychiatrist enlisted to help a task force assigned to capture Batman by providing them with a psychological profile of the vigilante. While brilliant at his work, Strange is depicted as being equally unbalanced: he becomes so obsessed with the case, he starts wearing a replica Batman costume in private, convinced that he alone understands the darkness that drives Batman.

According to Commissioner Gordon, Strange was "abandoned as a child, grew up in state homes. A bright kid, but he apparently had a hell of a temper. Nobody knows how he put himself through college and medical school." Strange was raised in an orphanage on the lower East Side of Gotham, not far from the infamous "Crime Alley", in the heart of a part of Gotham known as "Hell's Crucible". As an adult, he became a Professor of Psychiatry at Gotham State University, but had his tenure suspended after using his position to promote a series of increasingly bizarre genetic engineering theories. At some point, he was approached by an Indian man named Sanjay, who seeks Strange's aid in curing his sick brother. Strange agrees to help, and Sanjay works loyally by his side from that point onward. Borrowing money from gangster Sal Maroni, who is in the employ of Gotham kingpin Carmine Falcone, Strange sets up a private laboratory to test his theories. He then bribes a corrupt orderly to supply him with ideal test subjects: incurably insane inmates from Arkham Asylum who have been institutionalized for so long that they will not be missed.

Strange's experiments have literally monstrous results, with his test subjects turning into gigantic, mindless "Monster Men", possessing superhuman strength and cannibalistic instincts. Strange uses the Monster Men to commit crimes so he can put together the money needed to pay back his Mafia connections. Batman becomes involved after discovering some of the gruesome remains of the Monster's Men's cannibalistic rampages. When Strange sets his creations free at an illegal poker game, helping himself to the victims' money after the slaughter, the Gotham mafia begins to grow suspicious. Batman tracks Strange down, but is captured by Sanjay and thrown to the Monster Men as an intended meal. Batman not only holds off the creatures, but uses them as part of an inventive escape. Strange is enthralled by Batman, believing that he has found a genetically perfect man. He creates one final Monster Man using a drop of Batman's blood, and while his creation still has many of the flaws of its "brothers", it lacks most of the grotesque disfigurements that had plagued Strange's earlier creations. Strange is subsequently forced to destroy his lab in order to evade capture. Soon after, he turns the Monster Men loose, including Sanjay's brother (who had also been mutated as a result of Strange's "treatments"), at Falcone's private estate in a bid to wipe out the mob's leaders, erasing his debt and covering up their ties to his work. In the battle that follows, all of the Monster Men are killed, along with Sanjay (who abandons Strange and dies trying to avenge his brother). Strange escapes amid the chaos, and succeeds in eradicating all links between himself and his experiments. Confident that his criminal past is permanently buried, he begins to appear on TV by reinventing himself as a "psychological expert" on the Batman.

It is possible that the events of Doug Moench and Paul Gulacy's "Prey" storyline take place at this point. Partly due to Hugo Strange's appearances on TV claiming to understand Batman's motives, Captain James Gordon is ordered to assemble a task force to apprehend the vigilante with Strange assisting him as a consultant in order to deduce Batman's secret identity. As the task force's investigation progresses, Strange grows increasingly maniacal in his obsession with Batman, going so far as expressing a desire to become Batman and dressing up in a replica Batsuit. To that end, Strange attempts to kill the Caped Crusader so he can fulfill his twisted fantasies. However, Strange repeatedly underestimates the level of physical conditioning that is needed to be Batman (e.g., incorrectly theorizing that Batman has only been active for the past five years while Gordon correctly deduces that it would take a lifetime of training to achieve Batman's abilities). Strange also diagnoses Batman with various mental illnesses, such as explaining Batman's use of a costume as symptomatic of a multiple personality disorder, whereas Gordon more accurately explains the Batsuit's intended purpose as "scaring the pants off criminals". Strange eventually concludes that Bruce Wayne is most likely Batman, brainwashes the task force's commander to impersonate Batman to turn the public against him, and kidnaps the Mayor's daughter while dressed as the Dark Knight. Despite Strange's attempt to psychologically "break" Batman by creating recordings and setting up mannequins of Thomas and Martha Wayne blaming Bruce for their deaths, even using Wayne Manor itself to enhance his illusions, Bruce is able to collect himself and focus in the Batcave. The following day, he confronts Strange and tricks the professor into doubting his own hypothesis about Batman's secret identity, claiming that his parents are alive and living in Paraguay and that he has no idea what Strange is talking about when he discusses mannequins. Strange is ultimately exposed, and gets shot twice by the task force when he attempts to escape dressed in his replica Batsuit before falling into a river and disappearing. Hugo Strange is then presumed dead.

In Doug Moench's "Terror" storyline, Strange mysteriously returns. He decides to work with another of Batman's enemies, the Scarecrow, and use him as a tool to help him capture Batman, while simultaneously having fallen into a further delusional state, as he engages in a "relationship" with a female mannequin dressed in Batman's cowl, reflecting his warped dual admiration and loathing of Batman. The Scarecrow turns on Strange when the professor's therapy proves effective enough to turn the Scarecrow against his "benefactor", tricking Strange into falling into the cellar of his mansion base where the twisted psychiatrist is impaled on a weather vane that the Scarecrow had left in the cellar earlier. The Scarecrow then uses Strange's mansion as a trap for Batman, but his attempt to use Strange's plan fails when he tries to use Crime Alley as the scene of a trap while ignorant of the reasons why that alley is so significant to Batman, with his "trap" merely consisting of luring Batman into the alley and decapitating a former classmate of Crane's in front of the hero. With Catwoman's help, Batman locates the Scarecrow's hideout and catches the Scarecrow in the cellar with Strange's body before the house is destroyed in a fire, but loses sight of Strange, with it being unclear whether Strange had actually survived the fall onto the weather vane - he claimed that he lured rats to himself by using his sweat so that he could eat them – or if the Scarecrow and Batman were hallucinating from exposure to Crane's new fear gas, although Batman concludes that the subsequent explosion of the house has definitely killed Strange.

Dark Moon Rising: Batman and the Monster Men, "Prey" and "Terror" all take place during Batman's early years. In the modern timeline, Strange returns in a four-part storyline called "Transference". Initially appearing in his own Batsuit, he captures Catwoman with the aid of his henchwoman Dora – a former patient who has been subjected to extensive mental conditioning by Strange to act as a new "Catwoman", albeit wielding a gun – and attempts to interrogate her about Batman's current status, Strange dismissing the existence of Batman's new allies by proclaiming them to be "parasites", as he cannot accept that Batman would share his "power". He is then shown posing as a psychiatrist doing standard stress evaluations at Wayne Enterprises. While Bruce Wayne is on the couch, Strange drugs him with a powerful hallucinogen in order to coax Wayne into admitting that he is Batman. Wayne is able to escape by using cleaning fluid to start a fire, puts on the Batsuit to fake the Dark Knight's death when the Batmobile explodes just as he lands in it, and triggers a post-hypnotic suggestion in himself, forcing him to completely repress the Batman aspect of his mind until Robin and Nightwing can defeat Strange. Faced with Nightwing and Robin each denying that Wayne is Batman and witnessing Wayne's complete lack of combat reflexes and training, Strange becomes concerned that his theory that Bruce Wayne is Batman has been disproved and realizes that he will never be able to learn the truth now that he killed the Dark Knight. Faced with this conflicting situation, Strange has a mental breakdown and voluntarily turns himself in at Arkham Asylum.

Following that, Strange reappears as the head of a gang of supervillains attempting to take control of Gotham's East Side, then controlled by Catwoman. Catwoman joins Strange's gang, then allows its members to "find out" that she intends to betray them, faking her death when they attempt to eliminate her. Although she defeats and imprisons most of the gang, and even convinces Strange to leave the East Side alone, Strange still mocks her by pointing out that he had faked his own death far more often than she had.

In Batman #665, Batman tells Tim Drake that a huge man dressed like a combination of Bane and Batman had beaten him up and he suspects that the impostor had used "Hugo Strange's monster serum and daily Venom shots" to gain his size and strength.

In the story arc Gotham Underground, Strange is associating with other supervillains such as the Mad Hatter, Doctor Death and Two-Face. Strange and the others are rounded up by the Suicide Squad.

Strange takes part in the miniseries Salvation Run. He is among the supervillains imprisoned on another planet.

Strange also appears in The Batman Adventures, which is set in the DC Animated Universe. Issues #35-36 of the comic book provide him with a tragic backstory: he witnessed the murder of his son David by mob boss Rupert Thorne and was so overcome with grief that he sought to literally erase the memory with his mind control technology. The plan backfired, however; following the experiment, he could remember nothing but his son's death. After Batman stops him from killing Thorne, Strange is imprisoned in Arkham Asylum.

The New 52

The New 52 (a 2011 reboot of the DC Comics universe) introduces the reader to Hugo Strange's son, Eli Strange, for the first time. Eli is first seen playing a game of poker with members of the Russian Mob, betting a valuable bracelet, winning big and cleaning house. Before he can walk away with his winnings, one of the mobsters forces him to play another hand, then discovers Eli's sleeve is loaded with cards. Before he can give the order to have him killed, the criminals realize that their bracelet (Eli's was a fake replica) had been stolen. Catwoman then pounces from the ceiling and takes out the entire group. She thanks Eli for being her distraction (the two having been working together the entire time) and tells him to run home to his father, which he is last seen doing.

Later, Strange tasks his son with overseeing an operation to dose Gotham with fear gas. The Scarecrow led Batman to believe that a small boy in a picture would be harmed unless he put a stop to it. Arriving at the scene, Batman realizes that the small boy was actually Eli. He manages to avert the disaster and Eli is arrested.

During the Forever Evil storyline, Hugo Strange is among the supervillains recruited by the Crime Syndicate to join the Secret Society of Super Villains.

DC Rebirth

Hugo Strange appears in DC Rebirth during the Night of the Monster Men crossover event. Although apparently now ignorant of Batman's identity, he is now determined to prove his superiority by attacking Gotham with a group of "Monster Men" created from the corpses of his former patients as representations of what Strange perceives as Batman's greatest flaws: his ego, grief, manipulative nature, childhood, and basic fear, ultimately provoking Batman into a confrontation at Strange's office penthouse headquarters. Strange wears what he terms a "suicide suit" - a near-replica of the Batsuit without the cape and cowl that is rigged to detonate if its wearer is subjected to any physical attack - on the assumption that Batman will have no choice but to surrender the cowl to him as the "true" Batman since he cannot take a life. Nightwing is able to defeat the final monster - an amalgamation of the previous ones - by literally leaping inside it to inject it with a prepared antidote, while Batman outwits Strange by having his ally Clayface cover the penthouse in an airtight seal prior to the confrontation. Strange, delirious and running out of oxygen, loses consciousness while Batman is still standing, Nightwing musing that Strange failed to realize that Batman's flaws were actually his motivation in protecting Gotham.

Hugo Strange later appears as a member of the Cabal.

Other versions

Batman '66

In the Batman '66 universe, Hugo Strange is initially a psychiatrist at the Arkham Institute, until being revealed as a villain in Batman '66 Meets the Man from U.N.C.L.E..

DC Bombshells

In the DC Bombshells universe, Hugo Strange is a eugenicist attempting to improve the gene pool. He weeds out what he considers unclean.

Following Killer Frost's plan to create a race of superhumans, Strange allied himself with the Penguin and Harvey Dent. With Harvey Dent at the head of Gotham City, Strange would have had access to all Gothamites' genes and control the generations to come. When the Batgirls attempted to stop the Penguin and his allies, Hugo Strange used his modified gun to force the Batgirls to fight each other. However, Dent eventually betrayed the Penguin and him in favor of the Batgirls. Strange fled in response, promising to find other scientists who share his dream. Strange found new allies within the Soviets. They fund his researches and he created several clones using Supergirl's DNA, of which two of them are Power Girl, who became the U.S.S.R.'s secret weapon, and Superman, who he considered a failure.

One year later, Strange captured Supergirl and Steve Trevor. With Supergirl as a guinea pig, Strange intended to create a perfect army in order to purge the world. During the tests, Supergirl was able to turn Power Girl against Strange, and the Reaper and Lois Lane, who had found the laboratory thanks to Killer Frost, blew up the laboratory's security system. Strange attempted to stop the Reaper, Lois Lane, Steve Trevor, Power Girl and Supergirl using his remaining clones. However, they were able to leave the place without a fight, taking Superman with them.

In other media

Television

Live action

BD Wong as Hugo Strange in Gotham

• Professor Hugo Strange makes his live action debut in season two of Gotham, portrayed by BD Wong. He is depicted as the corrupt and manipulative Chief of Psychiatry at Arkham Asylum and overseer of Indian Hill, a secret division of Wayne Enterprises that performs inhumane experiments on superhuman individuals. In this continuity, Strange has a major effect on several villains in the Batman rogues gallery: subjecting Oswald Cobblepot to mind-altering experiments to make him a contributing member of society; and transforms Victor Fries and Bridgit Pike into Mr. Freeze and the Firefly, respectively. His number one project is resurrecting the dead; starting with Theo Galavan, whom he reinvents as the warrior Azrael. It is also revealed that he was a friend and colleague of Bruce Wayne's father Thomas, playing a role in the Wayne murders, and that his resurrection experiments are funded by a mysterious council. But the actions of a resurrected Fish Mooney lead to Strange's arrest while the various specimens in his care are set loose in Gotham. In Season 3, Fish Mooney breaks him out of his prison cell to find a cure for her condition. The Penguin corners them in the woods, but decides to let them escape, and Fish and Strange leave Gotham. Before they depart, the Penguin tells both of them to never return to Gotham City. In the episode "Heroes Rise: Light the Wick", Hugo Strange is brought back to Gotham City by Kathryn Monroe of the Court of Owls into extracting Alice Tetch's poisonous blood from Nathaniel Barnes and weaponizing it. He tests the weaponized blood on a man that the Court of Owls obtained. James Gordon and Harvey Bullock later found the secret lab where he was working. After tranquilizing the test subject, Hugo Strange gave them the research on the weaponized blood and a sample that he secretly kept from the Court of Owls, in exchange that they do not arrest him, and caused the Court of Owls to go ahead with their plans early. In "A Dark Knight: No Man's Land", Hugo Strange helps to restore Solomon Grundy back to Butch Gilzean. When the bodies of the Riddler and Leslie Thompkins are brought to him by the Penguin's men, Strange starts to work on them. In the fifth season, it is shown that Nyssa al Ghul (under the alias of Theresa Walker) ordered Strange to use mind-control chips on Nygma and Lee. The chips in their heads are eventually fried and destroyed by Gordon. The episode "Nothing's Shocking" reveals that Hugo Strange was also responsible for the creation of shapeshifter Jane Doe. In "I Am Bane", Professor Strange transformed Eduardo Dorrance into Bane on Nyssa al Ghul/Walker's orders. Strange's fate after the rest of the fifth season is unknown.

Animation

Hugo Strange in Batman: The Animated Series

Hugo Strange in Justice League Unlimited

Main article: DC Animated Universe

• Hugo Strange appears in the DC Animated Universe:
  • Hugo Strange is introduced in Batman: The Animated Series, voiced by Ray Buktenica. This version is a psychiatrist that runs a rest hospital that he uses to blackmail Gotham City's elite with secrets via a machine that reads minds. He only appeared in the episode "The Strange Secret of Bruce Wayne", where Bruce Wayne goes to the hospital and undergoes the "treatment", which allows Strange to discover Bruce's double life as Batman. He then auctions off this information to a trio of Gotham's top crime bosses: the Joker, the Penguin, and Two-Face. After the villains simply pool their money and pay Strange rather than competing, Batman manages to switch the video with the Dark Knight's identity with a manufactured one which shows Strange boasting about his plan to scam the villains by giving them a fake identity for Batman. In an attempt to save himself, Strange blurts out that Batman is Wayne and the disbelieving trio then tries to kill him by throwing him out of an airplane. However, Batman saves him at the last minute and had Dick Grayson (disguised as Bruce Wayne) show up at the crime scene to discredit Strange's claims of knowing Batman's secret identity. Strange is then taken into police custody.
  • Hugo Strange is seen in a non-voiced cameo appearance in Justice League Unlimited. In the episode "The Doomsday Sanction", he is now a member of Project Cadmus seated at a table within Cadmus' headquarters with no lines. It is possible that Strange is the one who provides Amanda Waller with Batman's real identity. Producer/writer Dwayne McDuffie confirmed that the character's appearance was intended to set up for the episode "Question Authority" during a torture scene to pull information from the Question's mind. But due to the production of The Batman, Warner Brothers withheld most Batman characters and Strange is replaced in Cadmus by Doctor Moon.
• Hugo Strange appears in The Batman voiced by Frank Gorshin and later by Richard Green. In this series, he is the chief psychologist at Arkham Asylum. Strange appears briefly in the episode "Meltdown" and as a primary character in the episode "Strange Minds". Strange is portrayed as being far more fascinated with the deranged criminals at Arkham Asylum and how their minds work than actually finding a cure for their madness, on more than one occasion provoking them to cause more mayhem. In this interpretation, he is a master chemist and programmer and skilled at robotics. In the episode "Fistful of Felt", Strange cures the Ventriloquist of his multiple personality disorder, only to turn him again into a criminal. Despite his insistence that it was simply a test to see if he is truly cured, Batman warns Strange that he will be watching him. In the episode "Gotham's Ultimate Criminal Mastermind", he does in fact design a robotic villain called D.A.V.E. to hunt down Batman. He pulls a gun out at Batman, thus sealing his reputation as a villain. He is currently incarcerated in Arkham, having been ironically dubbed insane by his former colleagues. In the episode "Strange New World", Strange (from his cell in Arkham) infects Batman and Robin with a toxin, claiming it to be an antidote. Under the drug's influence, the Dynamic Duo hallucinate that they are being pursued by zombies. Hugo claims that he has distributed a chemical throughout town, making everyone into zombies that obey his every command. This is later revealed to be a lie, concocted in order to trick Batman into spreading the real chemical. Robin is cured about halfway through the episode. Batman realizes the truth at the last moment and allows Batgirl to cure him. Even later in the same season, Strange appears as one of the many supervillains that are held hostage by the vigilante Rumor. As Rumor moves to the machine that he would use to execute all the criminals at once, Strange asks him about his motivation. Rumor replies that he wants to kill them all in retaliation for an attack by the Joker that crippled his boss. Strange laughs and tells him that the scheme is in fact motivated by his guilt over his failure to protect his boss, rather than any sense of altruism or desire to protect Gotham from the captured villains. Strange later appears in the series finale "Lost Heroes", working with the Joining, helping them to capture the Justice League and extract their powers in return for ultimate knowledge of the universe. When Strange's work was complete, the Joining kept their promise, but the massive amount of information (delivered directly into his brain) overloaded his cerebral cortex, leaving him catatonic.
• Hugo Strange appears in the Batman: The Brave and the Bold episode "The Knights of Tomorrow!". Strange appears with his Monster Men and is defeated by Batman and Catwoman. This episode was all part of a story that Alfred Pennyworth was writing.
• Hugo Strange appears in the series Young Justice voiced by Adrian Pasdar. Introduced in the episode "Terrors", Strange is the psychiatrist of Belle Reve working under warden Amanda Waller. During the Icicle I's breakout attempt, Strange and Waller are trapped in a cell by the escaped inmates. After the breakout is thwarted by Superboy and Miss Martian, all of the prisoners (sans the Riddler) are rounded up and returned to their cells. Strange then ends up becoming the new warden of the prison. In the episode's closing moments, it is revealed that he had been working with the Icicle I the entire time as part of a plot to take control of the prison on behalf of the Light (Project Cadmus' Board of Directors). In the episode "Humanity", Strange was seen viewing a surveillance of the team interrogating Professor Ivo on where T. O. Morrow's hideout is. Hugo even allows Ivo to send a transmission to Morrow (impersonated by the Red Volcano at the time) warning him that Young Justice is heading his way. In the episode "Coldhearted", Batman and the Flash visit Strange at Belle Reve where they state that they suspected that Captain Cold, the Icicle I, the Icicle II, Killer Frost and Mr. Freeze were behind the flying ice fortresses that buried the U.S. in winter. Strange shows Batman and the Flash some security footage stating that the five ice villains have never left their cells. As of the episode "Usual Suspects", his role in helping prisoners escape is known by the JLA and he is not seen again, meaning he is either on the run or has been captured in the five-year break between Seasons 1 and 2.
• Hugo Strange appears in a short animated film created by Bruce Timm in honor of Batman's 75th anniversary titled Batman: Strange Days, voiced by Brian George. Strange has one of his Monster Men kidnap a woman to use her blood for an experiment, but Batman fires tear gas on them. Strange takes the woman hostage, but Strange falls off a cliff when he backs away from Batman unto unstable ground. The woman asks if it is over, to which Batman replies "For now", casting ambiguity on Strange's fate.

Film

• Hugo Strange appears in The Lego Batman Movie. He is one of several villains allied with the Joker.
• Hugo Strange appears in Batman vs. Two-Face, which is the second animated film based on the 1960s Batman TV series, voiced by Jim Ward in a German accent. In this film, Strange is a Gotham State Penitentiary doctor using an "Evil Extractor" on volunteering criminals the Joker, the Penguin, the Riddler, Egghead, and Mr. Freeze, who will be purified of their corruption. At a demonstration with his assistant Harleen Quinzel, the Dynamic Duo and city officials, the containment vat is ruptured, exposing Harvey Dent to the energies, transforming him into Two-Face. Strange is later kidnapped and coerced by Two-Face to aid him in exposing Gotham to the same gas, even corrupting Robin. Strange is later arrested after Harvey Dent has conquered his evil persona.
• Hugo Strange appears in Batman: Gotham by Gaslight, voiced by William Salyers. He appears as the director of Arkham Asylum. Strange shows a deep fascination with the concepts of masks and alternate identities, which draws him to both Batman and Jack the Ripper. He approaches Bruce Wayne at Sister Leslie's funeral and offers his insight on the Ripper's identity, hinting at the possibility that he has also deduced Bruce's identity as Batman. Later in his office at Arkham, Strange is approached by who he thinks is Batman, but is instead Jack the Ripper. Jack the Ripper then kills Strange by throwing him into a pit full of deranged Arkham patients, allowing them to rip him to pieces.

Video games

Batman: Arkham

Main article: Batman: Arkham

Hugo Strange in a cinematic trailer for Batman: Arkham City

• Hugo Strange's character bio is unlockable in Batman: Arkham Asylum. He is revealed as having once been a psychiatrist at Arkham Asylum.
• Hugo Strange appears in Batman: Arkham City, voiced by Corey Burton. According to Rocksteady Studios, this is the first time that Batman has faced him in this continuity. Professor Hugo Strange, who has a shady past involving controversial experiments with behavior control, brainwashed Warden Quincy Sharp into becoming his puppet during his time at the asylum. It is also revealed that he did some experiments on the patients at the asylum that later created the Arkham Lunatics. After the events of Arkham Asylum, Strange has Sharp run for mayor to obtain almost-unlimited influence over the city. Soon, Sharp was elected, and Strange ordered him to propose a project called "Arkham City", a city-sized detention facility where criminals were allowed to run rampant. Once the project is authorized, Strange is appointed warden of the facility. It is revealed that he also brainwashed and manipulated ex-military contractors, known as the TYGER Guards, into serving him by using technology created by the Mad Hatter. He continues his unethical research, disposing of anybody who attempts to uncover the truth by committing them to Arkham City. The game opens with Strange capturing Bruce Wayne (whom he knows is Batman's alter ego), and throwing him into Arkham City to die. During a conversation between the two, Strange claims that an operation code-named "Protocol 10" will mark Batman's failure and make him famous. Near the end of the game, "Protocol 10" is revealed to be the wholesale extermination of Arkham's criminal populace after their professional interest to Strange has expired. He accomplishes this by letting inmates "steal" TYGER weapons and convincing City Hall that the inmates have taken control of Arkham City and that "Protocol 10" was the only way to stop them. When his private security force massacres hundreds of inmates with a barrage of air-to-surface missile strikes, Batman steals the codes for Strange's security from an attack chopper and breaches Wonder Tower, Strange's headquarters. Breaking through many TYGER Guards, Batman eventually reaches Strange and forcibly deactivates the operation. As Batman confronts him, Strange is stabbed in the back, both literally and figuratively, by Ra's al Ghul, who is revealed to be the benefactor of Strange's operation, having financed the creation of Arkham City and Strange's private army to test if he could succeed him as leader of the League of Assassins. While Batman argues with Ra's al Ghul over his plan, Strange's last act before succumbing to his wounds is activating Protocol 11, a self-destruct sequence for his command tower. Batman pushes Ra's al Ghul out the window, leaving Strange inside as the tower explodes. Inmates can later be heard talking about Strange's sinister plan and how they are glad that he is dead, one inmate even noting that Strange is "spread" all over Arkham City.

Other games

• Hugo Strange is a featured villain and playable character in the mini-game "Villain Hunt" on the Nintendo DS version of Lego Batman: The Video Game.
• Hugo Strange is among many other DC characters included in Scribblenauts Unmasked: A DC Comics Adventure.
• Hugo Strange makes a cameo appearance in Injustice: Gods Among Us. He appears as a doctor present at Arkham Asylum, observing the fight and presumably taking notes.
• Hugo Strange appears as a playable character in Lego DC Super-Villains, voiced by Corey Burton, reprising his role from Batman: Arkham City. He appears in the fifth level “Arkham Barely Believe It”, when after getting some of the villains out of Arkham Asylum, The Joker and Livewire fall into a trapdoor and are encountered by Dr. Hugo Strange, who then tries to kill them both with his latest experimentation, Monster Man. Luckily though, the two villains escape his experiment, and Hugo Strange is never seen again for the rest of the story.

See also

• List of Batman family enemies
• Doctor Strange (Marvel)