Just Another Batman Blog

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...

This is another one of Scott Snyder's new villain creations. First seen in Batman vol 2 #43, during the Iron Man-esque Jim Gordon Batman arc, Mr. Bloom is equal parts technology villain and supernatural monster. Mr. Bloom introduces "seeds" that unlock superpower abilities but with deadly consequences, which he gifts to unsuspecting citizens. Physiologically, Mr Bloom can manipulate his size and shape, can manipulate fire, ice, and mechanics. His MO seems to be to "sow seeds" of chaos. Sometime after the events of Scott Snyder's Zero Year, scientist Daryl Gutierrez developed a project using nanotech to create superpower abilities in normal humans. The unpredictability of the nanotech reactions, and the public reaction to mysterious new superpowered people forced Dr. Gutierrez to scrap the project. However, the nanotech seeds resurfaced years later, in the possession of the mysterious Mr. Bloom. Mr. Bloom's longterm plans aren't very clear, other...

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...

Another new character appearing during Scott Snyder's Batman run, The Dollmaker is not to be confused with previous DC villains also using the same name. Created by Tony S Daniel and Ryan Winn for their run in Detective Comics, this Dollmaker first appeared in 2011 in Detective Comics vol 2, #1. Almost as soon as he debutes, Dollmaker disappears, in the shadow of another bigger villain. He helps the Joker  escape from Arkham. Joker has his face removed and reattached, aided by the Dollmaker. Once the Joker is out, Snyder's Death of the Family storyline begins. Despite Dollmaker's seemingly throwaway role to launch Death of the Family, he actually is a pretty interesting villain. In summary, he is a 2nd generation serial killer, obsessed with body parts in a very Frankenstein-like way. He wears his father's face, Wesley Mathis, a serial killer executed by Jim Gordon in self defense. Dollmaker has created a "family" of Frankenstein monsters which includ...

This character will be forever attached to a few other characters. However, Talia is as important to Batman and his character arc as the Joker, the Riddler, and Bane. She is Talia, daughter of Ra's al Ghul, who has his own post here . Sometimes she is given the surname al Ghul, or Head, but that doesn't seem to be necessary, as her father's name is more of a title than a formal name anyway. Also, mononyms are way cooler. Created in 1971 by Dennis ONeil, Dick Giordano and Bob Brown for Detective Comics #411. She actually appears a month before her father, and returns in Batman #232 during Ra's Al Ghul's first appearance. Writers early on attempted to make her the next Catwoman, a femme fatale character worthy of Batman's new global, mysticism, macabre storylines. While her relationship with Batman is never truly romantically reciprocated, they are mostly amicable to each other. Her character is tied up pretty closely with her family. Throughout her publica...

Science fiction, and comics especially, have played with the idea of a string theory multiverse concept for a very long time. Some authors/writers are better at it than others. HG Wells, Philip K Dick, Philip Roth, Harry Turtledove, and Robert Harris all play with these ideas of alternate histories and multiverse concepts. This idea of an infinite multiverse was first introduced by Erwin Schrodinger in 1952. Creatively, the nature of an infinite multiverse allows writers/artists to come up with a seemingly endless line of what-if scenarios. Marvel just made an award winning Spiderman movie on this very concept. Creators were allowed to create Spiderman if he were a Japanese girl with a robot, or a cartoon pig. Into the Spiderverse scratched the surface of what is creatively possible (spoiler: everything is possible in this scenario). This is not a new thing for DC comics, or Batman in particular either. I wrote before in my other blog about the DC Elseworlds imprint. Batman has ...

As an obvious reversal to our hero, the Batman, Frank Robbins and Neal Adams created an actual bat man for Detective Comics #400 (1970). Kirk Langstrom is a scientist, another in a long line of unregulated, crazy, comicbook scientists. Dr. Langstrom studies chiropterology (the study of bats) and specifically their ability to use sonar. He tries to develop a way deaf people can utilize bat sonar, and creates a serum. Naturally, he tests the serum on himself, and things go sideways. Kirk Langstrom turns himself into a human sized bat monster, The Man-Bat. At first, this character is a frenzied wild animal, and Batman has to save the day by finding an antidote. Sometimes, Dr Langstrom is a Jekyl/Hyde character, unable to keep himself from turning into his evil alter-ego. Other times, he's a naive and victimized scientist and inventor that other villains use to build armies of man-bats, or sow public chaos (or both). Sometimes his wife Francine is involved and becomes She-bat. T...