Okay, so I'd be lying if I said I didn't love Batman mostly for the villains. The Dark Knight himself, meh, I can take it or leave it. But the macabre, demented villains, the dark plots and the astounding artwork in some of the Batman comics/graphic novels, like "Arkham after Midnight" are undeniably amazing. In fact, the forementioned book doesn't even have Batman in it at all, the entire story is about Arkham and it's staff and inmates and the lives they lead. It also has the added bonus of making the staff of Arkham come off almost worse than the villains themselves. But I digress. Batman's villains and their twisted psychis are the real reason for this list. And so, without further ado, here are the top 10 villains of Gotham.
10. Mad Dog
Ah, Mad Dog. Murderer, psychopath, victim? Mad Dog is the deranged maniac who violated and murdered Amadeus Arkham's wife and daughter in cold blood, eventually leading to Amadeus founding the Arkham Asylum. After finding the grisly murder scene, in which Amadeus' daughter's head was discovered inside her dollhouse, Amadeus took his family home and converted it into the Asylum for the treatment and containment of such lunatics as Mad Dog himself. But whatever happened to Mad Dog? Well, before/during Amadeus' own slip into lunacy, he attempted to treat Mad Dog, but ended up killing him with Electro Convulsive Therapy. The incident was officially filed as an "accident."
9. Harvey "Two-Face" Dent
Harvey Dent was Gotham's "White Knight", the district attorney who sought out to stand up against injustice and right the wrongs of the city, much like Batman. However, in a bizarre twist, he was badly burned on one side of his body and became horribly deformed which, as one might imagine, caused him to undergo a bit of a meltdown. The movies and comics differ slightly on how exactly Two-Face was burned, but they all stay the same when it comes to his post-burn pathology: he is incapable of making decisions and so depneds on his lucky coin, one half of which is burned (like his own face) to make even the most basic decisons. In "Arkham Asylum: A serious House on Serious Earth", Two-face is driven to the edge of his fragile "sanity" when the Arkham therapists give him a deck of cards and a six sided die with which to make his decisions.
8. Hush
Hush is, in a sense, the anti-Batman. He is a relatively new charatcer, surfacing in 2003, but was supposedly friends with Bruce Wayne when they were children. His life was oddly parallel to Bruce's, his parents were abusive, whereas Bruce's were nurturing, good people. Hush killed his own parents in an odd scheme to gain their fortune, but became jealous of Bruce Wayne when his parents were murdered and he inherited their vast fortune at a young age and lived a seemingly idealistic life. Where Batman set out to lead a life of vigilante justice, Hush made a name for himself among criminals, collaborating with villains such as The Ventriloquist and The Riddler, and cutting down anyone who wouldn't join him. Although his style of dress is fairly non descript, as is his choice of weapons and plots, he has a very deep backstory and a very brutal way of going about things, making him number 8 on this list.
7. Black Mask
Yet another villain who is almost a parellel of Bruce Wayne/Batman, Black Mask is so named for the mask he wears which was fashioned out of the ebony lid of his own father's coffin. Black Mask was also a childhoof friend of Bruce, although more at the urging of his parents then anythig else. His family was very wealtyh and so associated with the Wayne's to further their own social status, and Black Mask resented them for the fake "masks" they wore in public. Thus, his favorite torture techniques involve sadistic and demented disfigurations of his victim's faces, resulting in creepy masklike scars. Black Mask is one of the more twisted villains and may be featured in the newest Batman movie.
6. Abattoir
Never heard of him? You're not alone. Abattoir is not especially well-known, butmade this list anyway based on the creepy factor. Abattoir really seems like a DC spin-off of one of Charles Manson's "family" members or Ronnie of the infamous "Amityvile Horror" murders. Abattoir killed his family because he believed they were evil, them proceeded to kill his extended family and eventually pretty much anyone. He thought that murdering people gave him some of their life force, and so made him more knowledgable and powerful. Luckily for Gothamites though, Abattoir was completely ripped apart by shotgun shells, leaving nothing intact but his lower legs and feet. However, he was later reanimated for the second time in 2009 and continues searching for and killing his remaining relatives.
5. Professor Milo
Professor Milo is one of the lesser known villains of the DC Universe.He is sometimes a doctor at Arkham, while other times he is one of the patients, claiming to be perfectly sane and mistakenly admitted to Arkham. But why is he on this list? Well, for one thing, he is often seen as a thin, grey skinned, sickly man with no legs from the knees down rolling through the passages of Arkham in a wheelchair moaning to himself. If that isn't nightmare inducing enough, did I mention he has a toxin that can make one lose the will to live?
4. Scarecrow
Johnathan Crane, AKA Scarecrow, is one of Batman's oldest, weirdest villains and is linked to most of the other villains on this list, but not by any crinimal affiliation; Dr. Crane was one of the top up and coming psychiatrists at Arkham Asylum for a long time before eventually becoming a patient himself. In many versions of the character, Scarecrow speaks in eery nursery rhyme type speech, but Scarecrow's main claim to fame is the "Fear Gas" he uses to terrify his victims and often, his own patients. Crane donns the scarecrow mask and releases a hallucinogen into the air, incapacitating his victims as they see their worst fears brought to life before them, making him one of the most deranged and terrifying characters ever to plague the DC universe.
3. Professor Pyg
Okay, on the list of creepy villainous things to do, Professor Pyg has pretty much done all of them. Wear a creepy pic face as a mask? Check. Get innocent people addicted to mind-numbing, highly addictive drugs? Check. Create an army of zombie like folllowers? Check. Surgically mutilate followers by permanently attaching doll faces over their own faces? Check. Violate, de-humamize and mutilate victims? Check. Yupp, Pyg is beyond deranged. He is a narcissistic, conniving, disconnected, sadist and , the worst part, not too much is really known about him.
2. Mr. Zsasz (Victor Zsasz)
Ah, Mr. Zsasz, where to start? Well, firstly, Zsasz has dismembered and brutally murdered enough people to entirely cover himself in scars, each notch standing for a person he's killed. His victims, loving called "zombies" are not victims at all in his eyes, but people he has saved from living pointless, miserable lives. In addition to torturing and killing them with a knife or other such object, Zsasz takes great care and joy in posing his victims in odd "family portraits", often sitting together or playing cards around a table. Despite being seemingly lucid and even articulate in his speech and dexterity, Zsasz is one of the crazier villains, and one of the more macabre. He is also completely unpredictable and cunning, and even had, at one point, figured out a way to escape Arkham during the night to murder innocents, then return before daybreak, creating an air-tight alibi for himself.
Note: Mr. Zsasz was named after famed psychiatrist Thomas Szasz, who was also a little strange, believing that things such as drug-use, suicide and prostitution should be legal and socially accepted as they are personal choices and shoudl not be subject to criminal charges or investigation.
1. The Joker (Not surprisingly)
Anyone who has ever read, watched or in any way vegged out on anything Batman related knows just how bizzare The Joker is. And I'm not just talking about the Heath Ledger, Jack Nicholson portrayals either, although they were both done exceptionally well, especially Ledger's Joker, who was goosebump inducing as well as somewhat comedic. I'm talking about the classic Joker persona; the sadistic, murderous, devil-may-care villain who is both very intellgient and completely deranged. The Joker seems to be the ring-leader most of the time and genuinly seems to enjoy the terror and dissarray he provokes. He's not in it for money, revenge or sexual gratification, he just wants to watch the world burn. On his vast resume of exploits are such things as blowing up hospitals, paralyzing Commisioner Gordon's daughter (Batgirl/The Oracle), the death of the second Robin, and setting loose the inmates of Arkham on several occasions. He loves to set up elaborate pranks and puzzles for Batman, and often speaks in morbid jokes and odd metaphors, much like The Riddler, but far more sinister. He is never mundane in his killing, and has been killed off several times, only to re-appear later due to popular demand. He sees his relationship with Batman as more of a schooolboy rivaly or frenemy type of thing than anyhting else and always claims he is helping Batman see his true self. He is deep, yet lacks much of a discernable alter-ego or backstory and is brutal and evil, yet somehow lighthearted and child-like about the whole thing. Creepy, no? In fact, the Joker is so loved by fans and writers alike, he briefly surfaced in Metropolis to terrorize Superman, only to come back to his beloved Gothamites where he seems to be for the long-run.
Note: The Joker was the first ever Batman villain and has been portrayed by the likes of Jack Nicholson, Heath Ledger, Cesar Romero and even Mark Hamill (That's right, Luke Freakin' Skywalker).
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