Art: Batman villains from "Rogues Gallery," an "Underworld Unleashed" tie-in collection of pin-ups!

[about_faces]

I finally picked up a copy of Rogues Gallery, a collection of DC villain pin-ups to coincide with their potentially-great-but-terminally-mediocre crossover event, Underworld Unleashed.

For those who haven’t read UU, you’re not missing much. Essentially, it was about a tedious Satan stand-in named Neron (DC's answer to a poor man's Mephisto) who offered to give villains an extreme 90’s makeover and power-boost in exchange for their souls. Well, they weren’t using those anyway, right? As a result, we got such silliness as Killer Moth turned into a man-eating mutant monster who caccoons his victims (something so lousy that it was actually a vast IMPROVEMENT when it was adapted for The Batman) and Mister Freeze got actual freezing *powers* (something which was promptly forgotten). Also, UU opened with the Flash’s Rogues getting killed off, solely because Mark Waid genuinely couldn’t figure out how to write them, something which he admitted in a Wizard interview in ‘98. Man, thank god for Geoff Johns, at least when it comes to the Flash's rogues. Basically, the entire UU event was by and for people who mistook scary/extreme/overpowered villains for interesting characters.

That said, Rogues Gallery was still a cool collection of pin-ups by some great artists, especially for the Bat-Rogues. Unfortunately, I’ve been able to find no scans online. I’ve found pin-up scans for other DC villains at a Martian Manhunter blog, a Wonder Woman blog, and a Firestorm blog, but NOTHING at *any* of the Bat-blogs, nor anywhere else teh interwebs! What the hell, Bat-fans?

So, naturally, I’m rectifying this. Here are all of the Batman villain profiles, complete with inane and annoying commentary by Neron that I really wish I could erase.





Bill Sienkiewicz seems to be channeling Dave McKean's Joker from Arkham Asylum: A Serious House on Serious Earth, right down to the fingernail. I like it, but the Neron text (written by an unnamed writer, probably an editor or perhaps an uncredited Mark Waid) is kind of troublesome. "Look into the face of insanity-- and pray you leave with your life"? Look, I know that Batman villains are problematic as hell with how much they're written with the subtext that insanity=evil, but it really rubs me the wrong way to pretty much see it spelled out here. See also: the classic ad for The Killing Joke, which describes insanity as being one step BEYOND evil. Personally, I just find it annoying and in bad taste, but I'm sure there are others who would understandably be outright hurt by that sort of thing, so I dunno, it bugs me here. Again, it's best to just ignore the damn Neron text. Whose bright idea was that, anyway? Ugh. Moving on!



Lady Spellbinder by John Van Fleet. I gotta admit, I kinda like her even despite her wonderfully awful outfit. She’s like the Live Wire of Batman’s foes. Shame they had to kill the original Spellbinder to make room for her, but hey, he got the last laugh as being reinvented on Batman Beyond. As for Lady Spellbinder, she made a return appearance in the recent novel Wayne of Gotham. It's kind of an incredibly-flawed book, to put it charitably, but hey, Lady Spellbinder!



Next up, we have a quintet of villains behind bars courtesy of Matt Wagner, starting with Harvey. I've always liked the way Wagner draws/paints Two-Face, which is one of the things I like best about Faces, a problematic and frustrating story I still need to review. It's the red and black scarring that I really love.



I love this piece, I'm not quite certain what's going on. Did he just learn that Jervis spiked his coffee or something? It's almost like he's posing as a living question mark, but if that's what Wagner is doing, I don't see it.



I take exception to Neron calling poor Clayface III a "brute." Preston’s not a fighter, he’s a lover. A lover of mannequins, yes, but a lover nonetheless!



I've always loved classic Mr. Zsasz for his crazy eyes (either they're intense pits of darkness or sunglasses, depending on the artist), which Wagner has here reinterpreted by just giving him ridiculous eyebrows. So there's that.



Vagina dentata symbolism for everyone! Whee!



When I posted these images to Tumblr, this Scarecrow piece by Cliff Nielsen was far and away the most popular one. I like it a lot, but I'm not quite sure why that one should be the biggest hit.



Conversely, this Arnold and Scarface painting by John Hanley is probably my least favorite of the lot, but I'm having a hard time putting my finger on why. Oh, and if you're confused as to why Scarface is holding a candle, it has to do with UU and Neron themselves. Again, it's a lousy story, so this just isn't worth going into.



Finally, we have one more piece by Cliff Nielsen, who gives us the very best depiction of Charaxes I have ever seen. He almost looks like a scary, interesting character here, doesn't he? Seriously, is there anybody who actually PREFERS Mothy this way? Let Charaxes stand as a perfect example of why UU was full of bad ideas about "reinventing" villains, as well as why the 90's sucked and why it's so awful that DC is hellbent on recreating that era.