The Designer started out as a criminal in the 20th Century and came into conflict with the genius detective Cassander Wycliffe Baker, thinking of him as nothing more than an irritant getting in way of his loot. As Cassander repeatedly spoiled his plans however, the Designer realized he needed to be smarter with his plans. Their complexity grew, however he would still fail to beat his enemy. After 20 years of their rivalry, he realized he needed a foolproof plan that his opponent could never beat and worked on an infallible grand plan for a year. When he succeeded at making one, it was the first time he took on the identity of "The Designer". The plan worked as expected, causing Cassander a massive amount of humiliation and terror, which made him go into retirement. |
At the age of 60, the Designer had become a criminal legend reputed for being able to pull of anything, and also created a chemical that allowed him to make corpses act as per his wishes like a voodoo zombie. He watched with interest how the vigilante and detective Batman repeatedly spoilt the plans of his enemies, a similar experience to his own past which created a desire in him to help them and secure his legacy with one final master plan. So, he contacted four of them - Catwoman, the Joker, the Penguin and the Riddler, meeting them at his hideout called the "Tartarus House", located outside Gotham City. After explaining why he had invited them, he offered to help them get whatever they wanted by creating infallible plans for them. |