Just Another Batman Blog

I just finished an excellent 3 part podcast about rats. The Radiolab talked all about New York City rats, the history of people's perception of rats, rat control, rats as pets, etc. We have been studying rats and rat behavior for quite some time. Rats can remember, make decisions, and have pattern recognition. They also display empathy. While it has been inconclusive whether they can pass the mirror test, recognizing themselves in a mirror, they do show abstract and emotional intelligence. This includes responding to their own name, learning tricks, and learning how to find things, like drugs, and cadavers. In fact, cadaver rats are cheaper to train than dogs and have a better success rate. The downside, rats have a lifespan of 12-24 months. Most wild rats don't survive past a year with a 95% mortality rate.  On the other side, rats have a terrible reputation in urban areas. They reproduce at a high rate. Five litters a year per female can produce around seven pups each totalin...

  This is probably the most obscure villain to be featured yet here. With only a handful of appearances, and only two being more than a cameo, this guy is for the weirdo diehards. First appearing in 1966, The Monarch of Menace was created by Robert Kanigher and Sheldon Moldoff. He had only one other full appearance in a Batman story in 1981, 15 years later. Mark Russell brought him back as a cameo in 2020, and he's made 2 other cameos since.  Introduced in Detective Comics #350, Batman describes the Monarch of Menace as the only criminal to elude him and escape into presumed retirement. However, the Monarch's son gets caught committing crimes using his father's alias. Batman and Robin use the son as bait to lure the Monarch back to Gotham and have him arrested. When Batman goes missing after a battle with Ra's al Ghul , the Monarch resurfaces again. He capitalizes on Batman's disappearance and claims he has captured the Batman, using that lie to defraud other crimin...

  The Royal Flush Gang aren't really a Batman exclusive team of villains. They were created in 1966 by Gardner Fox and Mike Sekowsky for The Justice League of America #43. So, technically, since Batman is a member of the Justice League, this counts. But also, I like this concept, and it's my blog... This is a gang of thieves, the theme is playing cards, obviously, and the five members of the team identify with a different face card. There are a few different iterations of this group.  The first group dressed all as Clubs, and then changed to Spades. Kerry, Queenie, Jack, Thomas Dillon (the Ten), and Amos Fortune used "stellaration" to change their luck and help commit burglaries. They fought the Justice League three times, and the Joker . They were all killed during their last battle with the Justice League.  The second group is the most recognizable. Created in 1982 by Gerry Conway and Don Heck. I'll come back to them...  There are a few other versions of the Roy...

  Another in a short list of compelling female Batman villains, Natalia Knight, Nocturna, was created in 1983 by Doug Moench, Don Newton, and Gene Colan for Detective Comics #529. I am surprised I hadn't heard about this character more, or why she hasn't been used more frequently, as she ticks off a lot of boxes character-wise.  An orphan, like our hero, Batman, Natalia Knight is adopted by a Gotham mobster. She attempts to turn away from her criminal family and becomes an astronomer, working at Wayne Enterprises. Another in a long line of science-based Batman villains, Natalia is a victim of a lab accident (obviously), which essentially turns her into an albino. After this, she rejoins her adoptive brother Anton Knight and his inherited crime family. The two of them start a career of breaking and entering, and burglary. So, to recap, Nocturna is a female thief, and gangster, a scientist, and an accidental monster, and creature of the night. On the surface, she appears to be a...

  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 ...

 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 incarnat...

This villain could be seen as a deep cut. Unless you're a Batman fanboy junkie. Created in 1966, by Gardner Fox and Carmine Infantino, the Cluemaster, Arthur Brown, is really nothing more than a Riddler rip-off. In his debut in Detective Comics #351 , Arthur Brown is a former game show host who decides to commit crimes and leave clues to help the police for some reason. This is not technically the same modis operandi as the Riddler, as the clues are not in the form of riddles, but this is basically semantics. The Cluemaster's goal is to uncover the identity of Batman and Robin, somehow.  Obviously, he is caught and thrown in Blackgate Prison. There are a few other appearances where he joins various super villain teams, to no success. But in Detective Comics #647 Brown is released from Blackgate. This time around he performs heists without leaving clues behind. However, someone else does, which ruins the new crimes and narrowly puts him back in prison.  This run...

Originally a nemesis of the Green Arrow, Clock King was created in 1960 by Francis Herron and Lee Elias for World's Finest Comics #111. His real name is William Tockman, and is much like most of the themed villains of the 60s, obsessed with a singular gimmick instead of the ambitions that drive normal criminals.  Also, like many villains created in the same period, Clock King has gone through changes. Originally, he dressed like the costume below. Eventually his look was changed to the more realistic and grounded look above that fits better with a character obsessed with punctuality.   Not a very time honored look Tockman, or sometimes referred to by the alias Temple Fugate (latin for Time Flies), is very much like Mr. Freeze in that he commits crimes for money to help a sick sister. He uses an obsession over timing to plan and execute a bank heist. After that initial appearance, the Clock King becomes one of many joke villains, easily dispatched due mor...

Pulp fiction seems to have a villain motivation problem. Back when I wrote the first post for this blog, about the Joker , I included a quote from Ben Bova. He states, "in the real world there are no villains. No one actually sets out to do evil [. . .] There are no villains cackling and rubbing their hands in glee as they contemplate their evil deeds". Villainy, in pulp fiction, is just bad guys doing bad things for no other reason, presumably, than to be bad. Snidley Whiplash hasn't any reasons for tying women to traintracks, normal people don't do that. But, normal people do hatch plans like Iago to psychologically control others through gaslighting, manipulation, rumors, and drama. Real people do cheat and steal to amass wealth. There is no believability or realism to Snidley Whiplash's villainy, but sociopaths and white collar criminals do exist.   These characters, the Terrible Trio, are far more like Snidley Whiplash. Created in 1958 by Dave Wood a...

The more into this Batman villains blog thing (I'm not really sure what this is) I've gone, the more I realized there are so many evil dudes in this rogues gallery. There aren't very many women though. Aside from the big 3 ( Catwoman , Poison Ivy , and Harley Quinn ), Batman's female adversaries appear to be next generation versions of older male villains (like Clayface , or the Ventriloquist ), assassins from the League of Assassins ( Talia , Cheshire, Lady Vic, Lady Shiva ) or henchmen (henchwomen?) for male villains, which is how Harley Quinn started (Query and Echo, Dollhouse, Lark, Fright), or throwaway villains that either get killed off, or taken advantage of by other male villains.   This post features the Magpie, whom I believe has been misused and done wrong. Created in 1986 by John Byrne, Magpie debuted in Man of Steel #3 , and was the first villain to be apprehended by the Superman/Batman team up. However, she continued to be a villain primarily for...

Awhile ago, I started writing pieces about Batman villains. Today's post is about Catwoman, most recently portrayed by Anne Hatheway, although not ever named Catwoman in the film, the character has similar traits, appearance, and modis operandi, and shares the same alter ego, Selina Kyle. Selina Kyle, The Cat, or Catwoman, debuted in 1940 in Batman #1, the same issue that debuted The Joker . Created by Bob Kane and Bill Finger, Catwoman appears as a cat themed cat-burglar (clever) wielding a whip. A femme fatale character, Selina Kyle seems to have similarities to several film noir actresses, and Irene Adler from Sherlock Holmes. Her original origin cast her as a former flight attendant with amnesia who began a life of crime. Later stories have her recant this statement, admitting she lied. In 1987 Frank Miller rewrote the origin, casting Selina as a reformed prostitute, turned cat burglar. In Jeph Loeb's Long Halloween/Dark Victory saga, there is a strongly hinted, but...