Batman Villains At A Glance

	BANE Batman: Vengeance of Bane #1 (1993) Modern Age Villain
	'A virtually unstoppable juggernaut who would become known as the man who broke the Bat.'

Born in a Caribbean prison known as ‘Pena Dura’, The boy who would become Bane was forced to serve the life sentence of his father. Though imprisoned, his natural abilities allowed him to build his mind and body, while the prison yard forged his fighting skills. HIs freedom lay in being a test subject for “Venom”, an experimental steroid that granted him the strength to liberate himself. Fascinated with Gotham City because, like the prison, it is a place where fear rules, he set about dethroning it’s dark protector!.

	BLACK MASK I Batman Vol.1 #386 (1985) Modern Age Villain
	'Leader of the False Face Society and a sadistic Gotham City crime boss.'

	BLACK MASK II Batman: Shadow Of The Bat Vol.1 #1 (1992) Modern Age Villain
	'The former head of Arkham Asylum, afflicted by madness, he became the second Black Mask'

Thanks to his Mother and Father, the heads of the Janus Cosmetics Company, Roman Sionis inherited a fortune when his parents “mysteriously died” in a fire. Sionis quickly ran the company into the ground and it was bought by Bruce Wayne. It left Sionis with a hatred of Wayne. Obsessed with masks Sionis donned a black mask and murdered several Wayne employees, forcing a fiery confrontation with Batman in which the mask was burned into his flesh, making him a living Black Mask.

Jeremiah Arkham is the nephew of Amadeus Arkham and the inheritor of the Arkham legacy. Namely, he became the administrative director of Arkham Asylum. After years of running the facility, it became apparent that Jeremiah Arkham was going insane as he predicted and began suffering from dissociative identity disorder. He took the mantle of Black Mask after the previous, Black Mask was murdered.

	CHARAXES Underworld Unleashed #1 (1995) Modern Age Villain
	'Drury Walker was always a second rate villain, until his transformation by the demon Neron into a real Killer Moth!'

Drury Walker was little more than a joke. As Killer Moth, he offered his services as a protector to Gotham’s gangsters. However he was bested by Batman at every turn, so he made a deal with the demon Neron, to become what he most desired, to be feared. What he received for his soul was metamorphosis into the man-eating Charaxes!

	CORNELIUS STIRK Detective Comics Vol.1 #592 (1988) Modern Age Villain
	'A delusional serial killer who thrives on the chemicals produced by the human body as a reaction to fear.'

Cornelius Stirk is a serial killer in Gotham City who thrives on the chemicals produced by the human body as a reaction to fear. He suffers from a hypothalamic disorder that allows him to project images into other people’s minds. He uses this to torture and kill people, kidnapping his victim and literally scaring them to death, eating their hearts when he has done so.

Joe Rigger was a soldier and demolitions expert who returned to Gotham City when his family had been killed in three separate building-related accidents. His sanity slipping, Rigger vowed that those buildings would not kill again. Using his military training and a costume containing tanks of napalm, he became the Firebug.

	FIREFLY Detective Comics Vol.1 #184 (1952) Silver Age Villain
	'Firefly is a pyromaniac and arsonist who has come into conflict with Batman many times.'

Garfield Lynns used to work in movies as an expert in pyrotechnics. His occupation hid his real obsession, Pyromania. Being Hollywood’s master of explosion and fire effects wasn’t enough for him. He turned to arson for profit and then arson for pleasure.

	HUGO STRANGE Detective Comics Vol.1 #36 (1940) Golden Age Villain
	'An unhinged psychiatrist who deduced Bruce Wayne was Batman and used it as a weapon against him.'

Professor Hugo Strange is a psychiatrist, who became a media celebrity, early in Batman’s career by appearing on talk shows and providing “expert opinion” regarding the costumed vigilante’s psychological make up. Strange’s obsession with the Batman gradually unhinged his mind even as it allowed him to deduce Bruce Wayne was Batman, a fact he has used to torment Batman on numerous occasions.

	HUSH Batman Vol.1 #609 (2003) Modern Age Villain
	'Bruce Wayne’s childhood friend, a cunning criminal mastermind who seeks to destroy Batman.

Tommy Elliot was the childhood best friend of Bruce Wayne, he attempted to murder his parents at a young age in order to inherit their fortune. Tommy blamed the Wayne’s for ruining his life when Thomas Wayne saved his mother’s life. In the intervening years Tommy became a world class surgeon and whilst treating the Riddler he learned Bruce Wayne was Batman. The two formed a plan to destroy Batman, with Tommy taking the identity of Hush.

The Joker’s origins’ are shrouded in mystery. From his own fractured mind comes the tale of a man, a failed comedian whose wife and child were killed in an accident. He was conned into helping some criminals rob a chemical factory. The robbery went wrong and to escape he threw himself into a vat of chemicals. Eventually he washed up on a shore his skin bleached chalk white, his hair dyed green and his face stretched into a terrifying grin. the clown prince of crime was born

	KILLER CROC Batman Vol.1 #357 (1983) Bronze Age Villain
	'A brutal and bestial mutated criminal, who has become a perennial thorn in Batman’s side.'

	MAD HATTER Batman Vol.1 #49 (1948) Golden Age Villain
	'A psychotic with an obsessive-compulsive disorder, which leads him into conflict with Batman.'

Born with a disease that made his skin scaly, Waylon Jones was raised by an alcoholic aunty in a slum. Relentlessly bullied because of his appearance, he nearly killed one of his tormentor’s and was sent to reform school. With little education and a sociopathic hatred for ‘normal’ people, he became a petty criminal and eventually a murderer. After 20 years in prison, he was released and joined a travelling circus as ‘Killer Croc’. He soon left the carnival, travelled to Gotham aiming to become a gangster and amass a fortune.

	MAN-BAT Detective Comics Vol.1 #400 (1970) Silver Age Villain
	'A scientist who became more bat than man after testing an experimental compound on himself.'

Jervis Tetch lives in another world, seen through the looking glass of Lewis Carroll’s beloved children’s book Alice In Wonderland. Utterly convinced that he is “The Mad Hatter”, Tech has an insane desire for hats of all kind. He acquires these through thievery, extortion and other baser crimes, which inevitably leads him into conflict with Gotham’s Dark Knight.

Dr. Kirk Langstrom was the resident authority on nocturnal mammals at the Gotham Museum of Natural History. Inspired by his admiration of the Batman, Langstrom hoped to give himself a natural sonar power like a bat’s by taking increasing doses of a compound he extracted from a certain gland in bats. Langstrom, succeeded, but to his horror, the compound also turned him into a grotesque bat-like creature.

	MISTER FREEZE Batman Vol.1 #121 (1959) Silver Age Villain
	'Freezing cold psychopath, who blames Batman for the death of his wife.'

Victor Fries was a talented scientist, who married the love of his life Nora. When Nora became terminally ill, Victor desperate to save her life started working for Gothcorp, using there resources to cryogenically freeze Nora so he could work on a cure. When Gothcorp decided to pull the plug on Nora’s cryo-chamber, a stand off resulted in Victor becoming engulfed in his own cryogenic coolants. Now dependent on sub-zero temperatures and an exo-skeleton to survive, he began using his experimental inventions to commit crimes in efforts to fund his research. Losing touch with humanity over time, he eventually turned into a cold and sadistic psychopath.

	MISTER ZSASZ Batman: Shadow of the Bat Vol.1 #1 (1992) Modern Age Villain
	'Mr. Zsasz is a serial killer with no regard for human life. He carves a mark into his skin for every life he takes.'

Victor Zsasz is the most unrepentant of sociopaths, a serial killer who marks the death of his victims on his skin with tally marks. He believes that human beings are mindless 'robots' who attempt to give themselves purpose and meaning by materialistic and shallow means. He is very intelligent and deceptively cunning, often trying to manipulate or intimidate his victims before killing them and arranging them in lifelike poses for the police and Batman to find.

	PENGUIN Detective Comics Vol.1 #58 (1941) Golden Age Villain
	'A “gentleman” criminal, hungry for power, respect and control.'

Born Oswald Chesterfield Cobblepot, the Penguin was bullied as a child for his short stature, obesity, and beak-like nose. "Penguin" was one of the nicknames that other children would call the young Oswald to tease him. These traits make him an outcast, and spurred him into a criminal life. After finishing school, he adopted the "Penguin" name and used his family fortune to set up a socialite hang out club called the iceberg lounge. He has been involved in several criminal enterprises, from being an illegal boxing promoter, and a prominent criminal on the Gotham black market.

The seeds of Pamela Isley's madness were sown under the tutelage of Jason Woodrue, a.k.a. the Floronic Man. An unwilling experiment in plant/animal hybridization, Woodrue transformed Isley into a beautiful creature whose veins pumped toxins, while her skin exuded pheromones which quite literally drove men wild. To support her own botanical whims and extravagant lifestyle, Isley began a life of crime.

	PROFESSOR PYG Batman Vol.1 #666 (2007) Modern Age Villain
	'Insane scientist obsessed with turning people into 'Dollotrons'.'

	RA'S AL GHUL Batman Vol.1 #232 (1971) Bronze Age Villain
	'An Eco-terrorist who believes humanity is lost to corruption and dreams of purging it of its sins.'

Pyg has an obsession with making people "perfect", which he accomplishes by transforming them into Dollotrons, a process that bonds false "doll" faces to their own, presumably permanently. They have no will of their own, only silently following Pyg's orders as he plans to turn "everyone perfect". He wears a simple pig mask and often wears a makeshift surgical outfit.

	RIDDLER Detective Comics Vol.1 #140 (1948) Golden Age Villain
	'The crown prince of conundrums commits robberies on a grand scale to pit his wits against Batman.'

Ra’s al Ghul translated from the arabic as ‘Head of the Demon’ was born 700 years ago in a tribe of nomads in an Arabian desert. Fascinated with science, he moved to the city to study and become a physician. He discovered the secrets of the ‘Lazarus Pits’ and was able to extend his life to nigh-immortality. Ra's spent the next several centuries journeying the world acquiring wealth and power. Ra’s al Ghul commands an army of devoted followers, willing to commit genocide in order to restore Earth’s ecological harmony.

When Edward Nashton was a young boy he became excited at the idea of winning a puzzle contest at school. To increase his likelihood of winning, Edward sneaked into school during the night and practiced the puzzle until he could solve it with ease. He won the prize of a riddle book. Since that time, he mastered puzzles, mind games, and riddles. Years later, the adult Nashton further parlayed his love of conundrums by running a rigged puzzle booth at a carnival. Yearning to make even bigger money, he decided to become a thief on a grand scale and chose to match wits with the Gotham City police and Batman as the Riddler

	SCARECROW World's Finest Comics Vol.1 #3 (1941) Golden Age Villain
	'The master of fear, delivering terror to the streets of Gotham.'

As a child, the spindly Jonathan Crane found himself a target for local bullies. Fighting for years to overcome his terror, Crane dedicated himself to the study of fear itself. His studies of psychology and biochemistry, combined with his advanced knowledge of fear, allowed Crane to gain a professorship at Gotham University. Crane’s confidence in the security of his new position was his undoing, for his unorthodox and unsafe teaching methods warranted his dismissal. Vowing revenge, Crane adopted the tattered raiment’s of a scarecrow.

Long thought to be just an old Gotham legend from a children's nursery rhyme, Talons are the Court of Owls' lethal assassin’s, possessing the abilities of flexibility, intelligence, and regeneration, they are dispatched to slay anyone who threatens the Court’s centuries-old dominion over the city.

	TWO-FACE Detective Comics Vol.1 #66 (1942) Golden Age Villain
	'A criminal mastermind and former District Attorney obsessed with duality.'

The youngest district attorney in the history of Gotham City, Harvey Dent worked with Commissioner Gordon and Batman to stem the tide of crime afflicting the city. Bringing crime lord “Boss” Maroni to trial was Dent’s first (and last) step in cleaning up Gotham City. While on the stand, Maroni hurled acid into Dent’s face, horribly disfiguring him and breaking the final link in a fragile mind that had suffered abuse as a child. The left side of his face scarred and the right unaffected, Dent became the criminal mastermind Two-Face.

	FIREBUG Batman Vol.1 #318 (1979) Bronze Age Villain
	'A serial arsonist driven to crime by the death of his family.'

	JOKER Batman Vol.1 #1 (1940) Golden Age Villain
	'The Joker is the Clown Prince of Crime and Batman's arch-nemesis.'

	POISON IVY Batman Vol.1 #181 (1966) Silver Age Villain
	'A femme fatale who can control anyone with a simple kiss!'

	TALONS Batman Vol.2 #2 (2011) Modern Age Villain
	'The Talons are the Court of Owls' army of lethal superhuman assassins.'