The World's Public Enemies
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 incarnation appears to have sonar technology that disorients people. It is unclear if the 1966 version had the same. Naturally, Bats eat moths. But the Tiger Moth has adapted a technique to confuse bat sonar. I like this newer adaptation of the character, alluding to real life predator/prey relationships. This is similar to the Batman/Owlman, and Batman/Court of Owls relationship. Unfortunately, it appears that Tiger Moth is the only one of these three with any special tech/weapon.
Like I've said previously when writing about the Magpie and the Terrible Trio, this group could be much more interesting if written as actual career criminals. Possible heisters for hire, high class burglars, characters like we find in just about every heist movie ever made from Ocean's Eleven, to The Thomas Crown Affair would be welcome again in a Batman universe that seems to only revel in big bad villains looking to break and ruin and get revenge on our hero. Batman did become a vigilante to fight crime, not to have to continuously be on the defensive.
Besides, as I've also said before, more compelling female villains are always welcome. If they are career thieves, or a band of assassins/criminals for hire, I would like to see more of them. And I'd like to see each of them rounded out more as characters. Dragonflies, for example, are THE apex predator, with a 95% hunter success rate. Spiders trap and surprise their prey. Tiger Moths are, as I already pointed out, very good at tricking their predators, very stealthy even sonar can't pick them up. These characters, like so many other on this blog at the moment, have so much potential.
 |
| The 1966 versions |