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about_facesI'll be honest with you folks: with one exception, there are no winners in today's batch of villains. Granted, I haven't actually read any stories featuring the majority of these characters, so all I have to go by in this case is their bios and what info I can find online, but I doubt reading their original comics would have helped much.
If you've seen these villains in action and think they've got any worth, then by all means, let me know! Once again, there are no bad characters, just bad writers... but man, I'm not sure what even a great writer could do with some of these morts. I'll try my best, but when I'm handed an assortment like this, I kinda feel like the Joker's surgeon:
As Henchgirl said: Being inspired by the Batsignal: you're doin' it wrong.
Apparently Signalman actually was featured in at least one interesting appearance, but otherwise, he's every bit as much of a half-baked visuals-based sub-Riddler as you'd imagine. Look, I'm the kind of guy who hates when people look down on the Riddler for being self-defeating, because they just shows that you don't get it, maaaaan, it's all about the GAME and so on, but it's hard not to do the same thing with Signalman here.
For a time, it looked like his only claim to fame in the past few decades was an off-handed mention in Identity Crisis that he was tortured and killed by Dr. Moon on video. This was apparently confirmed in the pages of Manhunter, which was milking Meltzer's story for all it was worth. But instead, it turns out that Signalman either survived or that writers didn't notice his death in the first place, and he's currently a drug addict and lowlife informant. Oh, and he was in Final Crisis as one of Libra's Secret Society of Super-Villains, because being a forgotten Z-list character guarantees that you'll be used in a Grant Morrison story.
I know, he looks ridiculous, but don't be so quick to judge. Sure, one glance and you'd think "Straight-to-Z-list with you, no waiting!" Sure, even his bio writer didn't care enough about the character to proofread, which is why Spellbinder is now a former forger of "op art." And sure, this hot mess of a villain fell into limbo for a few decades, had his gimmick usurped by Mirage in the 80's, and was brought back out of obscurity in the 90's only to be killed off by his pink-haired pantsless punk girlfriend who sold her soul to Neron and became Spellbinder II.
And yet, thanks to Batman Beyond, Delbert here (his name is Delbert, by the way, which is just insult to injury) is now the most well-known of the reality-distorting Bat-villains. Go figure, right? Even in death and limbo, a Z-lister can still have the last laugh.
I like that the Spook is one of those villains who is less about the usual villain motivatons of trying to kill Batman, terrorize the city, or get revenge, and more about hiring his services out to others. While all of the villains' occupations are listed as "Professional Criminal," the Spook is one of the few who really seems to embody the "Professional" aspect. Killer Moth and Scarecrow also used to offer out services to the underworld back in the day, but that's been largely forgotten, as was the Spook in general save for a revamp by James Robinson in Legends of the Dark Knight and a new(?) version showing up in Grant Morrison's first new Batman storyline, where he was promptly beheaded by Damian. That little scamp.
I suspect that they were trying to go for a Goldfinger-style villain with Sterling Silversmith, which is in keeping with the Bronze Age Batman writers trying to give Batman a more post-Bond international scope. As it is, it looks like they struck lead. Hurr, me am give clever commentary!
Finally, FINALLY, a decent character! Although even that's a source of much contention among certain fans. There's a vocal contingent who loathe Talia solely because she dares to challenge their fanatical adherence to Bruce/Selina OTP. Thing is, there are entirely other reasons why I could understand someone not liking Talia. Hell, sometimes I wonder why I like her as much as I do. Her whole routine of "I love you, my beloved! But he is my father! Join us! I cannot turn him in! I will save your life! Forgive me, father! Goodbye, Beloved! Wash, and repeat!" can and should be rather tiresome after a year or forty.
Regardless, I can never bring myself to actively dislike Talia. I'm not sure why. I guess that I've always just liked how she was unquestionably a villain--working with assassins and actively working towards genocide puts you there no matter how many times you save Batman--but as far as villains went, she was one of the least malicious. It plays into the charismatic, seductive kind of evil offered by Ra's, made all the more tricky by the fact that Talia genuinely loves Bruce. She's not selling him some bill of goods or trying to corrupt his soul. She truly does love him, and while I'm sure that their relationship can be grating even if you're not beholden to Bruce/Selina, I personally find it rather interesting.
Of course, I speak as someone who grew up to see Talia become, for an all-too-brief period, an independent character in her own right, which we'll be looking at in the final post. That could also be coloring my views. I loved that there was a point where she could finally exist outside of the struggle between Bruce and Ra's, and am sad to know that will never happen again, partially because Talia's been irredeemably ruined. I'm sure many don't mourn the loss of the character she used to be, but man, it's a shame. Again, something I'll get into more in the last post.
Here's another character I learned about via Wizard's "Mort of the Month," a character who was ingloriously bumped off alongside Clayface II in Crisis on Infinite Earths. According to Wikipedia, his death "was reportedly at the specific request of Marv Wolfman, among a list of characters he wanted to kill first." Ouch.
Naturally, Grant Morrison has had a fascination for this guy, it seems, giving him a cameo in Animal Man and then creating an entire Middle Eastern tribe of Ten-Eyed Men in 52, one exiled member of which became the new(?) Ten-Eyed Man right before the events of Batman R.I.P. All righty then. That'd be pretty impressive if it weren't for the fact that this is still a guy who sees through his fingertips.
Really, that's a superpower worthy of a supporting character in The Tick: "I just learned that with ten eyes comes great responsibility!"
I imagine that I'm far from the only person who knows these guys best from Batman: The Animated Series, where they were depicted as spoiled rich thrill-seekers and general douchebags. I've never read any of their original appearances, and nothing in this profile exactly sounds interesting, but this piece of fanart by Scott Kowalchuk now has me dying to see the Terrible Trio done as the swingin' Rat Pack of the Gotham underworld. They'd be like Mad Men, although ironically, quite sane compared to the rest of the villains.
I'm gonna be honest, every time I try to read this profile, I keep tuning out every couple of sentences. Maybe this is one of those stories I actually have to read to give a damn. As it is, the only thing I find interesting about the Time Commander is that his powers seemed to influence the second, inferior Clock King episode of B:TAS, Time Out of Joint.
With the exception of a great Mad Hatter story by Paul Dini a couple years back (and geez, how come it's taken over sixty years for anyone to think about teaming Jervis with the Tweeds?), there hasn't been a single good story with Tweedledee and Tweedledum. Not a one. Can you name any? Seriously, I defy you to name a good appearance. Even their own profile here comes up short with anything to say about them other than the fact that they're lazy and identical to one another, and oh, are pretty good crime bosses too.
Frankly, I'm at the point where I'd like to see the Tweeds in the Penguin's current role as criminals who operate best from behind a desk, and who can also be pumped for information by heroes. Otherwise, I can't really think of any other application that would best serve these two little creeps. Hey, that's why I find them so off-putting: they remind me of the Murderous Moppets/Pupae Twins from Venture Bros! Yeah, that'll do it.
And once again, Bill Sienkiewicz valiantly tries to make obscure characters looks worthwhile. Maybe he saw it as an artistic challenge or something. I won't lie, I'd read the hell out of a Batman comic with Dr. Tzin-Tzin, Mirage, and the Tweeds if Sienkiewicz drew it.
If you've seen these villains in action and think they've got any worth, then by all means, let me know! Once again, there are no bad characters, just bad writers... but man, I'm not sure what even a great writer could do with some of these morts. I'll try my best, but when I'm handed an assortment like this, I kinda feel like the Joker's surgeon:
As Henchgirl said: Being inspired by the Batsignal: you're doin' it wrong.
Apparently Signalman actually was featured in at least one interesting appearance, but otherwise, he's every bit as much of a half-baked visuals-based sub-Riddler as you'd imagine. Look, I'm the kind of guy who hates when people look down on the Riddler for being self-defeating, because they just shows that you don't get it, maaaaan, it's all about the GAME and so on, but it's hard not to do the same thing with Signalman here.
For a time, it looked like his only claim to fame in the past few decades was an off-handed mention in Identity Crisis that he was tortured and killed by Dr. Moon on video. This was apparently confirmed in the pages of Manhunter, which was milking Meltzer's story for all it was worth. But instead, it turns out that Signalman either survived or that writers didn't notice his death in the first place, and he's currently a drug addict and lowlife informant. Oh, and he was in Final Crisis as one of Libra's Secret Society of Super-Villains, because being a forgotten Z-list character guarantees that you'll be used in a Grant Morrison story.
I know, he looks ridiculous, but don't be so quick to judge. Sure, one glance and you'd think "Straight-to-Z-list with you, no waiting!" Sure, even his bio writer didn't care enough about the character to proofread, which is why Spellbinder is now a former forger of "op art." And sure, this hot mess of a villain fell into limbo for a few decades, had his gimmick usurped by Mirage in the 80's, and was brought back out of obscurity in the 90's only to be killed off by his pink-haired pantsless punk girlfriend who sold her soul to Neron and became Spellbinder II.
And yet, thanks to Batman Beyond, Delbert here (his name is Delbert, by the way, which is just insult to injury) is now the most well-known of the reality-distorting Bat-villains. Go figure, right? Even in death and limbo, a Z-lister can still have the last laugh.
I like that the Spook is one of those villains who is less about the usual villain motivatons of trying to kill Batman, terrorize the city, or get revenge, and more about hiring his services out to others. While all of the villains' occupations are listed as "Professional Criminal," the Spook is one of the few who really seems to embody the "Professional" aspect. Killer Moth and Scarecrow also used to offer out services to the underworld back in the day, but that's been largely forgotten, as was the Spook in general save for a revamp by James Robinson in Legends of the Dark Knight and a new(?) version showing up in Grant Morrison's first new Batman storyline, where he was promptly beheaded by Damian. That little scamp.
I suspect that they were trying to go for a Goldfinger-style villain with Sterling Silversmith, which is in keeping with the Bronze Age Batman writers trying to give Batman a more post-Bond international scope. As it is, it looks like they struck lead. Hurr, me am give clever commentary!
Finally, FINALLY, a decent character! Although even that's a source of much contention among certain fans. There's a vocal contingent who loathe Talia solely because she dares to challenge their fanatical adherence to Bruce/Selina OTP. Thing is, there are entirely other reasons why I could understand someone not liking Talia. Hell, sometimes I wonder why I like her as much as I do. Her whole routine of "I love you, my beloved! But he is my father! Join us! I cannot turn him in! I will save your life! Forgive me, father! Goodbye, Beloved! Wash, and repeat!" can and should be rather tiresome after a year or forty.
Regardless, I can never bring myself to actively dislike Talia. I'm not sure why. I guess that I've always just liked how she was unquestionably a villain--working with assassins and actively working towards genocide puts you there no matter how many times you save Batman--but as far as villains went, she was one of the least malicious. It plays into the charismatic, seductive kind of evil offered by Ra's, made all the more tricky by the fact that Talia genuinely loves Bruce. She's not selling him some bill of goods or trying to corrupt his soul. She truly does love him, and while I'm sure that their relationship can be grating even if you're not beholden to Bruce/Selina, I personally find it rather interesting.
Of course, I speak as someone who grew up to see Talia become, for an all-too-brief period, an independent character in her own right, which we'll be looking at in the final post. That could also be coloring my views. I loved that there was a point where she could finally exist outside of the struggle between Bruce and Ra's, and am sad to know that will never happen again, partially because Talia's been irredeemably ruined. I'm sure many don't mourn the loss of the character she used to be, but man, it's a shame. Again, something I'll get into more in the last post.
Here's another character I learned about via Wizard's "Mort of the Month," a character who was ingloriously bumped off alongside Clayface II in Crisis on Infinite Earths. According to Wikipedia, his death "was reportedly at the specific request of Marv Wolfman, among a list of characters he wanted to kill first." Ouch.
Naturally, Grant Morrison has had a fascination for this guy, it seems, giving him a cameo in Animal Man and then creating an entire Middle Eastern tribe of Ten-Eyed Men in 52, one exiled member of which became the new(?) Ten-Eyed Man right before the events of Batman R.I.P. All righty then. That'd be pretty impressive if it weren't for the fact that this is still a guy who sees through his fingertips.
Really, that's a superpower worthy of a supporting character in The Tick: "I just learned that with ten eyes comes great responsibility!"
I imagine that I'm far from the only person who knows these guys best from Batman: The Animated Series, where they were depicted as spoiled rich thrill-seekers and general douchebags. I've never read any of their original appearances, and nothing in this profile exactly sounds interesting, but this piece of fanart by Scott Kowalchuk now has me dying to see the Terrible Trio done as the swingin' Rat Pack of the Gotham underworld. They'd be like Mad Men, although ironically, quite sane compared to the rest of the villains.
I'm gonna be honest, every time I try to read this profile, I keep tuning out every couple of sentences. Maybe this is one of those stories I actually have to read to give a damn. As it is, the only thing I find interesting about the Time Commander is that his powers seemed to influence the second, inferior Clock King episode of B:TAS, Time Out of Joint.
With the exception of a great Mad Hatter story by Paul Dini a couple years back (and geez, how come it's taken over sixty years for anyone to think about teaming Jervis with the Tweeds?), there hasn't been a single good story with Tweedledee and Tweedledum. Not a one. Can you name any? Seriously, I defy you to name a good appearance. Even their own profile here comes up short with anything to say about them other than the fact that they're lazy and identical to one another, and oh, are pretty good crime bosses too.
Frankly, I'm at the point where I'd like to see the Tweeds in the Penguin's current role as criminals who operate best from behind a desk, and who can also be pumped for information by heroes. Otherwise, I can't really think of any other application that would best serve these two little creeps. Hey, that's why I find them so off-putting: they remind me of the Murderous Moppets/Pupae Twins from Venture Bros! Yeah, that'll do it.
And once again, Bill Sienkiewicz valiantly tries to make obscure characters looks worthwhile. Maybe he saw it as an artistic challenge or something. I won't lie, I'd read the hell out of a Batman comic with Dr. Tzin-Tzin, Mirage, and the Tweeds if Sienkiewicz drew it.
