Just Another Batman Blog

  Thomas Blake, the Catman, was created by Bill Finger and Jim Mooney in 1963 for Detective Comics #311. His origin revolves around his costume. The cat costume is made from mystical cloth from Africa, gives him enhanced abilities, including possibly 9 lives, which he uses to commit high-end heists. This origin is much like many other pulp fiction characters from the same era, reliant on mysticism and magic from far away, under developed lands, and misunderstood, "uncivilized" cultures. This can kindly be described as colonized fiction, but harshly and truly described as racist.  Just like several other characters written in the 60s, Catman had a distinct cat theme, much like his older female counterpart  Catwoman  (duh). He even had a tiger as a pet. At first, Catman's capers (crazy themed crimes probably are best described as capers) revolve around cat-themed merchandise. Often Catwoman is wrongfully accused of Catman's crimes, and she retaliates.  Eventually ...

 Tell me if you've heard this one...  "the only good criminal is a dead criminal". This idea of a character going on a crusade to rid the world of the criminal element can be found all over. It's the plot of The Boondock Saints. Kick-Ass is built around this premise. In Gotham there are a few characters that attempt to be vigilante killers. The Red Hood kills. Anarky kills. The Clownhunter kills. Nobody kills. This Batgirl villain, The Spoiled Slaughterer, Daybreak, the Butcher Brat herself, Knightfall also kills.  Created in 2012 by Gail Simone and Alitha Martinez for Batgirl #10, Charise Carnes has an interesting origin story. Daughter of a shady Gotham real estate mogul, Carnes is betrayed by her first boyfriend, forced to watch him torture and murder her family, and then gets framed for it.  While in Arkham, Carnes befriends Jim Gordon Jr, Commission Gordon's serial killer son. She decides certain criminal minds can't be rehabilitated and should be termin...

  Cornelius Stirk has probably the least scary name for someone truly horrifying. Created in 1988 by Alan Grant and Norm Breyfogle for Detective Comics #592, Stirk is a cannibal with mind altering powers.  A serial killer is bad enough, there is already one of those in Gotham. Stirk, though is a cannibal. And to make things worse, he can make people see him as someone else. Apparently, a hypothalamic disorder allows him to change his appearance in other people's minds. This allows him to camouflage himself as someone his victim trusts, long enough to murder them.  He eats hearts. He believes by eating the hearts of his victims, he can gain norepinephrine and extend his life. Norepinephrine is an actual hormone produced by the human body in bigger doses, like adrenaline, when the body is under stress. Stirk believes fear brings out the hormone, which he desires, so he scares his victims first. This seems like it would be pretty easy to do, considering he's going to murder...

  I've said it before on this blog, and I'll say it again, good villains in fiction need good criminal motivations. Good Batman villains need to be more than obsessed with beating Batman. The idea of a villain plotting and scheming to take down Batman, like some Western gunslinger kid looking to out shoot the most notorious outlaw, is only really good and compelling maybe one time. We had that one time in Batman comics, it was called Knightfall . After Bane's storyarc, we didn't need to revisit a personal crusade to tear down and ruin Batman for no other reason than bragging rights. However, comicbook writers continued to do just that. We got Bane, followed by Hush . The Joker  has done it multiple times. This is getting out of hand.  Simon Hurt was created by Grant Morrison in 2008, based on an unnamed scientist character created by Sheldon Maldoff and Charles Paris for a one issue story in Batman #156 in 1963. His backstory is a bit of a crazy retcon, but stay with...

  This character is actually an antagonist of Batwoman, but since all these heroes are connected, Red Alice is also a Batman villain. Alice, or Red Alice, is very much like the Mad Hatter , in that not only does she use the Lewis Carroll theme (also like the Wonderland Gang ) but she also speaks only in Alice in Wonderland quotes. Created in 2009 by Greg Rucka and JH Williams for Detective Comics #854, Alice is in fact Kate Kane's twin sister Beth. She also, despite the similarities, has no affiliation with the Mad Hatter, or the Tweedles.  Being a Kane, both Beth and Kate are Colonel Jacob Kane's daughters, and Martha Kane's nieces. And Martha Kane is also known as Martha Kane Wayne, Bruce Wayne's mother. This makes Kate and Beth also (drumroll) Batman's cousins. In addition to Batman, the Flamebird/Bat-girl character Bette Kane is also a cousin, which means Jacob and Martha had another brother.  This origin story has issues, just like every family character that i...

 Throughout Batman's publication history, there have been several Alice in Wonderland themed characters. The Mad Hatter appeared on this blog before. There are several others, and in 2008 Paul Dini and Dustin Nguyen brought them all together for a crossover event, creating a few characters in the process. Below is a membership breakdown:  The Mad Hatter was created in 1948 by Bill Finger and Bob Kane. His full write up is here .  The Tweedles : TweedleDee and TweedleDum, created in 1943 by Don Cameron and Jerry Robinson, are a pair of nearly identical mob bosses. Together they mastermind the crimes they commit, and direct others to implement them. During War Games, the original TweedleDum is killed, and his twin takes his place... which is a writer's ploy to undo another writer's dumb decision and make continuity work. Obviously. The Tweedles have this weird obsession with Lewis Carroll's Alice books, independently from the Mad Hatter, and a few other characters who ar...

  Earlier I wrote about the Terrible Trio . This gang of three white collar criminal dudes hide behind animal motifs, The Great White Shark, the Vulture, and the Fox. Gotham also has another threesome criminal gang, all women, all arthropod aliases, all criminal.  Created in 1966 by Robert Kanigher and Sheldon Moldoff, these three vamps debuted together for a Poison Ivy driven story. The Silken Spider, Tiger Moth, and Dragonfly made such a name for themselves criminally, that they became known as the World's Public Enemies, and went by the aliases Public Enemy Number 1, Number 2, and Number 3. They appear to be high stakes thieves in their original incarnation. Poison Ivy apparently is jealous for some reason and wants their fame.  Later, they are rebooted as members of the League of Assassins. I'm a fan of this idea, I don't think you can have enough agents for the League. Kevin Smith gives Tiger Moth a cameo in his unfinished Batman run.  This Tiger Moth incarnatio...