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Underground > Comic Books >

Batman's Gallery of Rogues

  
 
matthew.
23:37 / 26.12.05
Who's the best? Who's the worst? Who's the most obscure Batman villain you can dig up to make us all laugh? Who's the obvious choice that people will deride you for making? Who's the Red Hood and who gives a shit?

Does Batman exist only in relation to his villains, as GM once put forth? Or can Batman exist without garish guys in costume?

For my money, it's the Joker. Yes, I know. It's easy. But here's why I like the Joker in relation to Batman:
1) the Joker is unpredicatable. He will sometimes commit crimes for the hell of it. Sometimes because the crime is part of a master scheme. Only Joker can make sense of his own plans, as Bruce Timm once said.
2) He doesn't know Batman's secret identity. He has made a point of avoiding it so he can keep the mystique alive.
3) He's the antithesis of Batman, the flipside of the coin.
4) Mark Hamill did a bang-up job of voicing him.
 
 
Haus of Mystery
01:25 / 27.12.05
THE GENTLEMAN GHOST



1)The Name
2)The unspecified nature of him
3)Supernatural Batman villains make fanboys itch
4)He comes from one of the most imaginative eras of the batman mythos. Go to your local comic emporium, and check out the Bat-covers of the mid 70's - early 80's. Every one looks like the best comic you've never read.
5) Did I mention the name?
 
 
Benny the Ball
10:32 / 27.12.05
I really like the Riddler - I know he is often touted as one of the weakest villain's, but I think Pete Milligan showed that he has some potential, and I've always put it down to the weakness of writers rather than character, besides;

1) He is mentally unbalanced, like all good villains.

2) He is the sharpest dressed fella in Gotham.

3) He was great in the 60's show.

4) He knows who Batman is.

As for the worst, well, Bane is pretty terrible. The idea of Batman struggling against a muscle bound junkie so much is just weak.
 
 
matthew.
13:45 / 27.12.05
I don't know about Bane. Most of the Bane I've seen in the comics is a smart, cunning, deceptive and perceptive hulking bastard. He's usually very intelligent.
 
 
Benny the Ball
14:13 / 27.12.05
I must admit to being a bit ignorant and perhaps not giving the character his due, I lost interest in Batman around the time that Venom ran, and just thought that the idea of Batman taking drugs to push himself beyond himself didn't ring true, plus he just seemed created for the story line (knightfall).
 
 
Triplets
16:38 / 27.12.05
Since when did Batman take Venom? That's a very Anti-Bat thing to do
 
 
Haus of Mystery
16:48 / 27.12.05
In the storyline 'Venom'. But don't worry kids, he learnt that drugs are bad.

Bane? pssshhh. What an AMAZING concept. He's really smart, but at the same time really strong....

The mind boggles!!!
 
 
FinderWolf
16:49 / 27.12.05
Second story arc in the title Legends of the Dark Knight, titled (I think) "Venom." Inked by Jose Luis Garcia Lopez, I remember...had Bats taking small doses of the drug to push himself to be there to save everyone, all the time, with maximum strength, endurance, etc. (the story opened with him failing to save someone from drowning, which racked him with (more) guilt and inspired him to take the drug to boost his abilities. Of course, the story showed that drugs ain't cool, kids, and Bats never used it again. Bats soon saw the light.
 
 
Benny the Ball
16:49 / 27.12.05
He took some drug in the storyline "Venom" which featured in Legends of the Dark Knight (I think) - it may have been a proto-type of the drug that Bane used, but I remember it, because he couldn't save someone that drowned in the sewer I think.
 
 
Our Lady Has Left the Building
16:50 / 27.12.05
Wasn't it a Legends of the Dark Knight thing? Batty saves a scientist, who gives him a drug to make him stronger but almost too late Batman realises he's become stronger, more aggressive and less smart, so locks himself in the Batcave for a month to detox, then goes and slaps the scientist and his evil pals. 'Knightfall' was an okayish story, but like with Doomsday they should never have brought Bane back afterwards, as he's just a not-very-scary part of the rogue's gallery. After all, Bane only beat Batman by getting massively high on Venom, then making him fight every other villain in Gotham over a few days so he was knackered first. When a non-venomed up Bane goes head to head with a full rested Bats, am I really supposed to wonder who wins?
 
 
Shrug
16:53 / 27.12.05
Is Venom the comic correlator to the Batman Beyond performance enhancing drug named, I kid you not, Slappers?
 
 
Triplets
17:03 / 27.12.05
They should've been called Schlagpatches. Or Cake.

Batfuture meets OAP Bane later in the episode.
 
 
Haus of Mystery
17:27 / 27.12.05
Finder, I'm suing you for blatantly ripping off my post.
 
 
Benny the Ball
19:48 / 27.12.05
Yes, but who are the best and worst Batman villains?
 
 
Haus of Mystery
20:06 / 27.12.05
See above.

Also:
Calendar Man, in particular in an oft reprinted tale from the 70's with ace art by Walt Simonson, ('A Crime a Day Keeps the Batman Away'?) wherein CM had a new themed crime for every day of the week, and a splendid new costume to go with it. One of the most colourful bat-foes of all time, in an era where they seemed to comed up with a new character every week.

Here he is an earlier appearance:

 
 
Haus of Mystery
20:12 / 27.12.05
Also, whilst searching for the previous image I uncovered this bunch of cads:



I think they turned up in Matt Wagner's Okayish 'Dr Midnite' mini a while back, but no way did they look as righteous as here.
 
 
Hieronymus
01:15 / 28.12.05
I'm a little drunk so much of this might come out rambling. But to me the best Batman villains are those that need the most revamping, those that need the most improvement:

Dr. Hugo Strange. In the LODK Prey arc, he was incredibly twisted as the shrink determined to crack the psyche of Batman, to literally get under his costume. Good for the best head-fucks of the Dark Knight Detective. Sadly I've never seen this kept-up in further portrayals of the character. I really hope they put him in one of the next few Batman films as he has greater narrative potential than even Dr. Crane. Seriously, there's nothing scarier than a demented, fetishistic shrink. No offense, Ganesh.

The Penguin: I've never ever felt like the Penguin's been done with any sense of style that the character deserves. Not completely anyway. Lots of modern takes on the character have resulted in a few shining points amongst a pile of lackluster parts but nothing much in the way of a solid sum portrayal. His current continuity, as the owner of The Iceberg Lounge, always seemed like a weak cop-out for a character with so much history & heaps of vicious potential.

I've heard there's plans to make him an arms dealer in the upcoming Batman movie and I can see that take being executed well (makes his weaponized umbrellas more sensical). But I've always felt like Tim Burton deformed freak was the best approach by far, especially the sad Dickensian abandonment by his wealthy parents as an eerily parallel dynamic with Bruce Wayne's. It was just that goddamn bird gimmick crap that ruined the movie and has always soured the character for me in the comics. It's been a while since I read the comics but I hope it's being abandoned entirely.

Maxie Zeus: I've always felt like Maxie Zeus and the Electrocutioner should've been combined somehow. Zeus by himself is just some nut who thinks he's a Greek god. But Tesla with a god complex.. that would make for a much more interesting rogue. Morrison tinkered with that idea just a bit in Arkham Asylum.

The Ventriloquist: If they'd lose the Edward G. Robinson theme that's plagued the character from his inception (especially that asinine speech impediment that often times made reading his dialogue in the comics impossible), Scarface could very easily become THE crime lord of Gotham. I certainly don't understand how Black Mask has dominated that role lately. The Ventriloquist is just so much more fascinating.

And I agree with you, Benny. Milligan's Riddler was by far the creepiest yet. All that pseudo-Masonic conspiracy and demonic posession. I always liked the idea that The Riddler doles out his puzzles as subtle confessions, release for a guy who's compelled to muck up his own conscience.
 
 
matthew.
02:28 / 28.12.05
Two Things:

1) Who drew that Ventriloquist? It looks awesome.

2) The Penguin - don't you think the animated series did a good job with the voice, singer-songwriter Paul Williams (writer of the Rainbow Connection, among others)?
 
 
Spyder Todd 2008
02:34 / 28.12.05
Hieronymus, are you my Earth 2 counterpart by any chance?

Alright, there are very VERY few bad Batman villains, just a ton of bad writers. As much as I love the Joker, there's so much over exposure on him- I often times wish writers would use other villains more. I love Scarface, and Maxie Zeus, and Calendar Man and Riddler and Rupert Thorne and everyone else. But no one seems to either A.) use them any more or B.) use them intelligently. They're such a rich, diverse bunch of psychotics. Visiting Batman's rogue's gallery should be like flipping through your physician's desk reference of mental illnesses...
 
 
Hieronymus
05:54 / 28.12.05
Who drew that Ventriloquist? It looks awesome.

Norm Breyfogle, he of the coolest Batman run ever. In my humble opinion anyway.

The Penguin - don't you think the animated series did a good job with the voice, singer-songwriter Paul Williams (writer of the Rainbow Connection, among others)?

I always dug the impact Batman Returns had on the animated series Penguin, keeping the deformities, et al... but I always thought they lost their nerve by returning him to the 'gentleman criminal' of his older comics incarnation. The Shakespeare quoting dilettante. He should always be a tyrant or a violent deviant trying to bullshit or execute his way back into high society. Or some shoddy semblace thereof. Anything else is just, well, boring when it comes to the character.

Like Spyder said, it's the pathos of these characters, their torqued psychology, that makes them so damn interesting. They've all got to have something you can sink your teeth into, ultimately. Bruce Timm has done the best job of it. Look what he did to 2nd string villains like Mr. Freeze and the Clock King. They were laughable before he came along.

And in addition to Harley Quinn, Timm came up with one of my favorite fringe Batman rogues, Baby Doll. I mean, Gary Coleman meets The Bad Seed. How cool a villain is that?

I'm also a big fan of Dan Slott's Arkham Asylum mini, which introduced one of my favorite new villains, Humpty Dumpty. A roly poly man who likes to take things apart and put them back together. Up to and including people. *shudder* To me, Humpty's far more interesting than that asinine Mr. Zsasz character. A guy who notches the number of kills on his body and is based on that idiot psychologist, Dr. Thomas Szasz (Mental illness being a "fake disease", y'know). Feh, I say. Where's the panache in that one?

I need another drink.
 
  
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