Friday, 20 February 2009
#20 - The Cavalier
Mortimer Drake was a man of exotic and idiosyncratic taste. When he found himself unable to purchase more exotic valuables for his collection legally, he resorted to theft. Donning a costume resembling that of a Musketeer, he called himself the Cavalier. His course of actions ultimately brought him into conflict with Batman and Robin. Drake matched wits against Batman and Robin several times, and escaped them in each encounter, but Batman was able to deduce the Cavalier's identity, leading to Drake's eventual imprisonment.
#19 - The Calculator
The origins of the Calculator and the advanced technology that he used are unknown. He was known to have had one conflict with Mikaal Tomas, the alien Starman, before disappearing for years. When he returned, he began to progressively attack the Justice League of America, allowing them to defeat him once so his computer could deduce their methods, and then went on to defeat them on their second encounter.
The Calculator continued his spree in Gotham City, and was defeated by Batman, but quickly escaped and headed to Central City. There the entire JLA that he had defeated came to take him down, but he had prepared for this, and was able to defeat them. But he had not prepared for Batman entirely. Batman led Calculator into a trap by predicting how Calculator would try to counter him, and was able to defeat the villain and send him to jail.
#18 - The Spinner
#17 - Blockbuster
The first Blockbuster was Mark Desmond, a chemist who desired to increase his physical strength. Experimenting on himself, he succeeded in making himself stronger and taller, but a side-effect of the process became almost mindlessly aggressive. The mentally debilitated Desmond was cared for by his brother Roland, a local criminal, who kept their mother from discovering what Mark had done to himself. Roland manipulated his brother into committing crimes on his behalf until they came into conflict with Batman and Robin. Roland Desmond became the second Blockbuster after a severe illness forced him to be treated with experimental steroids. Like his brother Mark, Roland became a child-minded super-strong monster.
#16 - Killer Croc
Waylon Jones is born with a medical condition that caused him to grow progressively more like a crocodile. In the comics his intelligence level has varied from competent schemer to berserk monster. In his original appearances, he resembled a powerfully-built man covered entirely in green scales. However, his disease has slowly robbed him of identifiable human traits.
#15 - The Eraser
Lenny Fiasco was a college classmate of Bruce Wayne (Batman), and was continually mocked by his fellow students for all the mistakes he made in class. The few people who remembered Lenny always pictured him with eraser in hand, correcting his mistakes. The only girl Lenny ever wanted was Celia Smith, and he planned to take her to the school's ice carnival. Lenny was crushed when she chose to go with Bruce Wayne. Feeling quite bitter he turned to a life of crime, developing an eraser costume that could eliminate all evidence from a crime scene. He took out advertisements as the Eraser in The Secret Underground, a periodical aimed at Gotham City's small-time criminals. He did a commendable job, and the police were baffled at the lack of clues at a series of bank robberies.
#14 - Bane
"Originally intended as a "dark mirror" of the highly disciplined and multi-skilled pulp hero Doc Savage, Bane spends his childhood in a hellish prison on the corrupt island nation of Santa Prisca. He develops superhuman strength through a forced experiment involving the drug Venom. Although his dependency on Venom is an immense weakness, Bane has been one of Batman's most intelligent and physically powerful foes. He is best known for breaking Batman's back in the "Knightfall" story arc."
#13 - The Scarecrow
The Scarecrow (Dr. Jonathan Crane) is a former psychiatrist who uses a variety of drugs and psychological tactics to exploit the fears and phobias of his adversaries. He does not commit his crimes for wealth, but rather as a form of "research" to further study the effects of fear on humans, making the innocent citizens of Gotham City his unwilling guinea pigs. While he will occasionally commit robbery or other types of larceny, he does so only to get the funding he needs to carry out his experiments.
#12 - Quakemaster
Robert Coleman is an architect of some note in Gotham City. His reputation is irreparably damaged when an apartment complex he designed and built does not withstand a hurricane. Feeling that he has been wrongly branded, Coleman creates the alias of the Quakemaster and uses his super-charged jackhammer to create earthquakes in Gotham City. His scheme backfires and only his buildings are damaged in the quakes. Quakemaster is defeated and captured by Batman.
#11 - The Reaper
#9 - The Joker
The archenemy of Batman, the Joker is portrayed as a master criminal whose characterization has varied from a violent sociopath who kills people and commits crimes for his own amusement, to a goofy trickster-thief. He has also been directly responsible for numerous tragedies in Batman's life; including, but not limited to, the paralysis of Barbara Gordon and the death of Jason Todd.
The Joker's real identity is unknown. Throughout the character's long history, there have been several different origin tales; the most common theme depicts him as falling into a vat of chemical waste, which bleaches his skin and turns his hair green and his lips bright red, giving him the appearance of a clown. Wizard Magazine's list of the 100 Greatest Villains of All Time ranked the Joker as #1.
#8 - Mirage
Mirage used a gem that caused people to see elaborate illusions and committed crimes while his victims were occupied fighting against these illusions. This crime wave brought him to the attention of Batman. Batman faced Mirage several times before coming up with a strategy to beat him. During the encounter, Mirage's gem was destroyed. Batman was able to defeat him and sent him to jail. While in jail, Mirage managed to create contact lenses from fragments of his jewel. He proceeded to create the illusion of himself in jail and escaped to the circus he once worked for. Starting another crime wave, Batman was once again alerted to his actions. This time, Batman easily beat him and sent him back to prison.
#7 - Cluemaster
#6 - Electrocutioner
Tuesday, 17 February 2009
#5 - Copperhead
The criminal known as Copperhead first appeared in Gotham City in a snake costume. He committed numerous thefts before finally being apprehended by Batman and the first Batgirl. Copperhead then turned to more deadly pursuits as a super-assassin, constricting victims to a suffocating death with his costume's tail.
#4 - Dr. Phosphorus
A crack in a reactor core causes Alex Sartorius to get "five million slivers of (radioactive) red-hot sand" into his body. Burning forever, he starts a quest for revenge against the people he blames for his terrible fate.
#3 - Two-Face
Once Harvey Dent, District Attorney of Gotham City and an ally of Batman, he goes insane and becomes the crime boss Two-Face after the left half of his face is hideously disfigured; he chooses to bring about good or evil based upon the outcome of a coin flip. Originally, Two-Face was one of many gimmick-focused comic book villains, plotting crimes based around the number two, such as robbing Gotham Second National Bank at 2:00 on February 2. Creator Bob Kane was inspired by a movie poster advertising the Spencer Tracy film Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and conceived the idea of a villain with a dual personality. In later years, writers have portrayed his obsession with duality and fate as the result of bipolar and multiple personality disorders as well as a history of child abuse. He obsessively makes all important decisions by flipism, one side of the coin scratched over with an X.
#2 - The Penguin
The Penguin is depicted as a short, obese man and is one of Batman's greatest enemies. He is known for his love of birds and his specialized high-tech umbrellas. A mobster-type criminal, he fancies himself a "gentleman of crime"; his nightclub business provides a cover for more low-key criminal activity, which Batman tolerates as a source of criminal underworld information.
#1- Killer Moth
First appearance - Batman #63 (February 1951)
The original Killer Moth is a prisoner identified only by his prison number, 234026. While in prison, he reads a newspaper article about Batman and decides to set himself up as the "anti-Batman," hiring himself out to Gotham City's criminals to help them elude capture by police. Upon his release, he uses the hidden proceeds of his crimes to build a "Mothcave", modeled on the photos of the Batcave in the newspaper article he read.
Killer Moth also establishes a false identity, as millionaire philanthropist Cameron van Cleer. In this guise, he becomes friends with Bruce Wayne. Meanwhile, he promotes himself to Gotham's criminals using his identity as Killer Moth, giving them each an infra-red Moth-signal. In his first job, he rescues some criminals from the police and then uses his Mothmobile to defeat and capture Batman and Robin. The duo escape and lead Killer Moth to a climactic battle on Gotham Bridge, which ends when the villain plunges 1,000 feet into the river and disappears.
WanderingBert presents... The Batman Villain Project!
You can visit the full set on my Flickr
Or to see more of my work visit my site, WanderingBert.com