Jab’s Builds! (Lawnmower Man! Samus Aran! Metroids!)

[Ares]

I actually have a good chunk of the original Nocturna / Night-Thief / Night-Slayer run from when it first came out, including the final appearance of Nocturna, and I've got to say that both now and then it's a fun read. Nocturna is someone I could actually see as a legitimate romance for Bruce, at least as much as Selena Kyle and more than Talia, and Night-Slayer was actually a pretty formidable foe to Batman at the time. Done properly, Nocturna and Night-Slayer are these two damaged people who were romantics constantly searching for things they could never get. Night-Slayer wanted Nocturna's love and tried to get it by basically showering her with wealth, while Nocturna wanted actual, genuine love that she never expected to find, so she settled for love of wealth and appreciation of beautiful things. Then Nocturna found Bruce and Jason, and had the potential to get the actual love she wanted, but Night-Slayer couldn't let the person he loved be happy without him, which turned the whole thing into this violent tragedy.

The last appearance of Nocturna in the Pre-Crisis days is actually kind of heartbreaking as an injured Nocturna is placed in a balloon for her own safety, only for it to apparently be dashed to pieces by a storm. Meanwhile Bruce is holding the injured form of Catwoman, wondering both of them are dead, and he just screams to the heavens in what felt like palpable pain. Even as a kid I recognized the sheer hurt the writer and artist managed to put on the page, though I can only really appreciate it as an adult.

I honestly think more classic versions of Nocturna and Night-Slayer, updated for today, would be solid additions to the Batman mythos. Unfortunately, from what I've seen recent attempts to use them have badly mishandled Nocturna, to the point it comes off that people just say "sexy pseudo-vampire" and just stopped reading.

[Skavenger]

Bat-Mite is like the Dave Matthews Band. Once you experience it, you either really love it, or you really hate it.

But it's an interesting idea, and really goes to show how almost everything from DC really did come from Superman, on some level. It's a character who challenges the hero by working outside the standard rules. Superman was obviously the most powerful person in the world, so a lot of his stories involved changing his circumstances (red suns, various colors of Kryptonite, friends being mutated into monsters), and Mxyzpltk worked great in that.

Superman started the Golden Age of comics, but he's also the one who set up a lot of the rules of the Silver Age. Imaginary stories, pet sidekicks, human sidekicks, transformations, all the "rules" that came into place might have started elsewhere, but Superman nailed them into place and made them part of the structure. It's how we got Mxyzpltk, then Bat-Mite, then Quisp, Mopee, and Mr. Genie. Robin got his first solo title in the 90s, Jimmy Olsen had his in 1954.

But the idea of Bat-Mite is interesting, if not always portrayed well. I once read a comparison of him to Bugs Bunny in Duck Amok (the greatest Looney Tunes episode of all time) in that he doesn't act so much as a supervillain as he does an author surrogate. He wants every Batman adventure to be the best, so he keeps ramping up the challenges. You have to think of a situation so dangerous or a puzzle so clever that not even Batman can handle it, and then you have to think of how Batman will deal with it.

Bat-Mite also serves as a fan surrogate (I mean, lots of kids would love to jump through dimensions, put on a Batman cosplay costume, and be Batman's Best Friend Forever Original Character Do Not Steal), but it's that extra level of knowing that every Batman story needs to be awesome, even if it puts Batman at more risk, that lifts the character from just "fan surrogate" to "writer surrogate." With the Silver Age being more about stories involving Venus being a robot world, fighting rhinos, getting powers from being struck by lightning, and turning into a human fish, having a character whose existence was a means to introduce that craziness to the story really is kind of a genius idea, especially if it's from somebody who wants Batman to like him.

Otherwise, it's just another ridiculously powerful villain who Batman has to outsmart, and doing that is kind of Batman's thing.

[Ken]

Robin got his first solo title in the 90s, Jimmy Olsen had his in 1954.

In all fairness, while Robin didn't get a solo title until the 1990s, he did have a solo feature in the last 66 issues of Star-Spangled Comics in the 1940s (up until it became a war comic, Star-Spangled War Stories in #131.) From 65-95, Robin was the feature on the cover. This is important because in those days having a solo book was the oddity; Detective and Action were still anthologies.

Also, Jimmy Olsen got his own book due to the charisma and popularity of Jack Larson.

[Jabroniville]

THE MAD HATTER (Jervis Tetch)- Golden Age
Created By: Bob Kane & Bill Finger
First Appearance: Batman #49 (Oct. 1948)
Role: One-Off Foe, Mind Control Guy
Mental Problems: Obsession with Alice In Wonderland, Women & Mind Control

-In the Golden Age, The Mad Hatter debuted stealing a trophy from the Gotham Yacht Club, and goes on a crime spree until Batman stops him from robbing a high-society horse show. This is literally his only appearance in the Golden Age! He returns in the Silver Age, becoming a recurring menace. He is a generic thief and crook, not possessing the Mind Control devices for which he'd later become known- a mustached version of the character is eventually revealed as an "imposter". Even here, though, he's a runty, dwarfish man.

[Jabroniville]

Is that Alan Davis on art? I didn't know he did any DC stuff.

THE MAD HATTER II (Real Name Unknown, aka Hatman)
Created By: Bill Finger & Sheldon Moldoff
First Appearance: Detective Comics #230 (April 1956)
Role: Minor-League Foe, Mind Control Guy, Replacement Character
Mental Problems: Obsession with Hats

-The second Mad Hatter is a chubbier, mustached guy obsessed with having hats from all cultures and time periods, and stealing Batman's famous cowl. He claims to be the original, and nobody seems to question this (characters got redesigned and rewritten all the time back then), and is the sole "Mad Hatter" for twenty years at least. His gimmick was using hats like the Penguin uses umbrellas- he had Flamethrowing Hats, Buzzsaw Hats, etc. One time, he was successful in stealing the cowl, after spraying it with radioactive substance that forced Batman to remove it. But no sooner had he placed it among his collection that Batman & Robin arrived, having tracked it using the "Geiger Counter" in the Batplane. This is the version of the Mad Hatter which appears in the 1966 Batman TV series- one of the show's more minor villains.

-This character shockingly lives on until the Bronze Age, and in 1981, the ORIGINAL Jervis Tetch returns, marking this one as an imposter. Tetch claims to have killed the imposter, but he returns once in 1987. In a very modern comic (Batman #700), this version returns, calling himself "Hatman", but is again a minor backgrounder. He remains little more than a blip on the radar.

[Jabroniville]

Lotta good comments to read before work today- it's interesting to see the side bits and different takes on the characters. I was almost hesitant to post any new builds at all, but the Mad Hatter incarnations herd didn't even have profiles- just short bios- so that's fine, haha.

[Davies]

Is that Alan Davis on art? I didn't know he did any DC stuff.

Quite a bit! He replaced Jim Aparo on Batman and the Outsiders through to the end of that title and the start of The Outsiders, and was the artist on Batman Year Two and its sequel Full Circle, but his most notable works for them are probably the Elseworlds' duology of The Nail and Another Nail,

[Jabroniville]

THE MAD HATTER (Jervis Tetch)
Created By: Bob Kane & Bill Finger
First Appearance: Batman #49 (Oct. 1948)
Role: Minor-League Foe, Mind Control Guy
Mental Problems: Obsession with Alice In Wonderland, Women & Mind Control
PL 9 (97)
STRENGTH 0 STAMINA 1 AGILITY 1
FIGHTING 6 DEXTERITY 4
INTELLIGENCE 4 AWARENESS 2 PRESENCE -1

Skills:
Deception 5 (+4)
Expertise (Science) 8 (+12)
Investigation 4 (+4)
Expertise (Psychology) 4 (+8)
Perception 4 (+7)
Insight 5 (+7)
Technology 8 (+12)
Technology 3 (+15) (Flaws: Limited to Neuroscience)

Advantages:
Equipment 5 (Gas, Axe, Gadgetry), Inventor

Powers:
"Mind-Control Hat & Chips" (Flaws: Easily Removable) [27]
Affliction 12 (Will; Dazed/Compelled/Controlled) (Extras: Continuous +3) (Flaws: Chips May be Disarmed) (Drawbacks: Noticeable- Zombie-Like) (35)
Boost Strength 3 & Stamina 2 (Extras: Affects Others Only +0) (10)
-- (45 points)

Offense:
Unarmed +6 (+0 Damage, DC 15)
Mind Control +6 (+12 Affliction, DC 22)
Initiative +1

Defenses:
Dodge +3 (DC 13), Parry +3 (DC 13), Toughness +1, Fortitude +3, Will +7

Complications:
Obssession (Lewis Carroll)- Tetch is so obsessed with Lewis Carroll's "Alice" work that he frequently forces children to dress up as the characters for his own fantasy life.
Responsibility (Friendless)- Tetch is easily taken in by people who show him genuine kindness and friendship.
Enemy (Batman)
Enemy (The Secret Six)- Rag Doll in particular betrayed Tetch for silly reasons (both were dandy freaks), and Tetch has attempted to kill the lot of them.

Total: Abilities: 34 / Skills: 41--20 / Advantages: 6 / Powers: 27 / Defenses: 10 (97)

The Mad Hatter- C-Tier Bad Guy:
-Geez, I had absolutely no idea that the Hatter debuted so early on. Most sub-level Batman foes were created YEARS later, but this guy debuted before the entirety of the Silver Age! The Mad Hatter was a bit of a weak Batman villain in theory, as he was a weiner of a man who couldn't fight, was weak-willed, and one of the less-popular bad guys in the Rogues Gallery. So Tetch became a very useful concept, if not a great character (the "I'm obsessed with Alice in Wonderland" gimmick was always pretty weak given his competition for Bat-villains). Fun Fact: "Mad as a Hatter" is an old-school phrase owing to the fact that milliners, or hat makers, tended to go a bit loony as they aged. This was because hats often used lead lining, and this lead would slowly poison the milliners, causing erratic behavior. So it was generally known and a bit accepted that a milliner would go kooky- a society in which EVERYONE needed hates nevertheless kept them in frequent supply.

-So Tetch grew up a lonely, awkward, nerdy child, living in his own fantasy world. He became a neuroscientist as an adult, but maintained an unhealthy obsession with the works of Lewis Carroll. He is beaten by Batman and imprisoned in Arkham Asylum, returning only in the Silver Age... however, the one that clashes with Batman repeatedly is said to be an "imposter" than the original disposes of. He captures Wayne Tech CEO Lucius Fox and holds him for ransom... while also using a device to copy Lucius's skillset, so Tetch can make his own fortune. Okay, that's pretty ingenious. In his next appearance, he finally debuts his now-trademark Mind Control devices- he controls other villains (like the Scarecrow) into fighting Batman for him, but appears to die on a bridge under the wheels of a train. Naturally, he'd faked his death.

-Tetch reappears showing an unhealthy interest in children, offering sanctuary to runaway children so long as they dress up as Alice in Wonderland characters- when he expects a teenage Barbara Gordon to be his "Alice", she draws his attention away and Batman & Commissioner Gordon rescue the children. In Knightfall, Tetch is the first villain Batman runs in the gauntlet, showcasing him as one of the lower-end guys. Later, he mind controls many of the police in Gotham via a "Free Donuts & Coffee" scheme (with mind-control chips in the tickets he handed out)- hilariously, this snags nearly all the cops in town, with Crispus Allen and Renee Montoya breaking into a bank for him. When he shows up in a destroyed Gotham in No Man's Land... it turns out he's just after some classic hats.

Post-2000s Tetch:
-In Gotham Central, Tetch is revealed to be behind an old crime that's haunted Harvey Bullock for years- a bomb that killed the Gotham Hawks High School Basketball team. It turns out that his first big crime is to kill the children, after a girl falsified a rape to her mother to avoid getting in trouble for falling pregnant- a student was framed, and the mother, one of the few people kind to Tetch, asked him to do something about it. He opens fire on the police, but is shot and nearly killed. After a few more stories, he is recruited into the Secret Six in order to oppose the mind-control abilities of Doctor Psycho- he proves highly useful, but spies on his teammates. This ALSO proves to be useful when Scandal Savage abandons them, but he is badly injured by Cheshire, only to actually defeat Psycho in combat and save Scandal from falling, earning him the admiration of his teammates... except for Rag Doll, who pushes him off the hideout's roof because "There's only room for ONE dandy freak on this team". Heartbroken and infuriated, Tetch vows revenge.

-During Final Crisis, he allies with Darkseid to brainwash children and have them gifted with the Anti-Life Equation, which earns him a beating from Dan Turpin. Later, he enacts his revenge on the Six, but it just turns into a fight against his goons, and Rag Doll throws his hat over the edge of a bridge, and Tetch jumps out after it. In the New 52 era, he now is stuck in a childlike body, suffering from a condition that prevents him from aging- he murders Batman's girlfriend after trying to torture her for information, and is nearly killed by the vigilante until Batman has a bit of conscience. All in all, he's only a Batman villain about half the time, and is rarely a major foe- more just a speedbump. It's ironically in other books where he plays a bigger part in things.

Mad as a Hatter:
-Tetch is one of the lower-level Bat-villains, and it shows. Low on points, but with a very powerful Mind Control weapon. But still, he's got to TOUCH YOU to use most of them. It does boost Strength & Toughness however, so is a bit more useful, especially once he starts turning the civilians against Batman, who doesn't want to hurt them. Using a Touch-Range Mind Control is tricky rules-wise, because I'm not sure how to stat being able to disarm the CHIPS from people. I'll house-rule it that since it's on an Easily Removable Device, you can disarm it like a regular Device, in addition to being able to disarm the Hat from Tetch. The Hat frees ALL victims, the card-chip things free just the one inflicted, and they can't break out until freed (Continuous Duration).

[KorokoMystia]

The whole "Imposter Mad Hatter" thing is especially wierd since, as the original Mad Hatter wasn't named Jervis Tetch (his real name hadn't been given yet) in his first (and only) Golden Age appearance, so he was retroactively given the name his imposter had taken.

[Sidney369]

My favourite Bat-Mite story is Superman and Batman: World's Funniest

[brothersale]

Fun Fact: "Mad as a Hatter" is an old-school phrase owing to the fact that milliners, or hat makers, tended to go a bit loony as they aged. This was because hats often used lead lining, and this lead would slowly poison the milliners, causing erratic behavior. So it was generally known and a bit accepted that a milliner would go kooky- a society in which EVERYONE needed hates nevertheless kept them in frequent supply.

Slight correction, it was not lead, it was mercury, and it was used in the production of felt that was used in the lining. A lead lined hat would rather heavy and reasonable safe unless it was eaten (side note this is the reason that cornish pasties have a large crust section, as this area would be held by the miners [tin/lead mines] and the other area eaten and the crust thrown away)

[Skavenger]

The Mad Hatter was also the mastermind of one of the absolute best episodes of Batman: The Animated Series, "Perchance To Dream," where he doesn't try to kill Batman or destroy him, he tries to give him the world of his dreams instead just to keep Batman out of his own life. His brief appearance in Knightfall also showed off some of his intelligence, as he realized all the villains were freed for a reason, and sent Film Freak (RIP, Film Freak) to track down Bane to try to figure out what Bane's master plan was.

Honestly, the Jervis Tetch I like is the malformed victim of bullying, not a child murderer or someone with a fixation on children (unless, I think there was one version where he wanted to keep them safe from how horrible Gotham was? I could be misremembering that.) He also doesn't just randomly kill (that one subway car full of people lingers like a bad taste), he's a manipulator, not someone trying to out-corpse people like Pyg, Zsasz, or the Joker. His portrayal in the Secret Six was great, as he seemed immune to most of the craziness the other members brought to the team, while also stuck in his own madness, and while it seemed impractical and hasn't really been mentioned again, his abilities against the Doom Patrol and Psycho were an interesting step up.

But overall, I like him the same way I like Dr. Doom. He views himself as the ultimate victim, and the fact others won't let him have what he wants is proof that the world is against him.

[Jabroniville]

TWEEDLEDEE & TWEEDLEDUM (Deever & Dumfree Tweed)
Created By: Bob Kane, Don Cameron & Jerry Robinson
First Appearance: Detective Comics #74 (April 1943)
Role: Minor-League Foes
Mental Problems: Greed
PL 8 (95)
STRENGTH 2 STAMINA 4 AGILITY 1
FIGHTING 8 DEXTERITY 4
INTELLIGENCE 3 AWARENESS 3 PRESENCE 3

Skills:
Athletics 4 (+6)
Deception 7 (+10)
Expertise (Criminal) 5 (+8)
Insight 2 (+5)
Intimidation 2 (+5)
Perception 3 (+6)
Vehicles 1 (+5)

Advantages:
Equipment 3 (Guns & Stuff), Ranged Attack 6, Set-Up, Teamwork

Powers:
"Rolling & Bouncing"
Movement 1 (Slithering) [2]
Immunity 5 (Falling Damage) (Flaws: Limited to Half-Effect) [3]

Offense:
Unarmed +8 (+2 Damage, DC 17)
Guns +10 (+5 Ranged Damage, DC 20)
Initiative +1

Defenses:
Dodge +8 (DC 18), Parry +8 (DC 18), Toughness +4, Fortitude +6, Will +5

Complications:
Enemy (Batman)
Motivation (Greed)

Total: Abilities: 56 / Skills: 24--12 / Advantages: 11 / Powers: 5 / Defenses: 11 (95)

-So these are a pair of dudes that I always thought were just Mad Hatter's recurring goons, but it turns out they actually PRE-DATE him, and were usually just a criminal duo, albeit minor ones. They are a pair of near-identical cousins who greatly resemble Tweedledum and Tweedledee from Lewis Carroll's Alice-related tale, Through The Looking-Glass. They are criminal masterminds who let their henchmen do the legwork, and use their similarities to convince enemies there's only one of them. During the [i}War Games[/i] story, Tweedledum was shot through the head by the GCPD- later, it is revealed that Dumfree in fact died and his TWIN BROTHER, Dumson, took over the role. Haha, okay that's pretty funny.

-They appeared as part of the Wonderland Gang, which people assumed was led by the Mad Hatter. However, it turned out that they ran it using one of Jervis Tetch's own mind control devices on him. When Batman foiled the gang, Tetch got even by using his devices to turn them on each other, where they engaged in a brutal fistfight. In the New 52, they are super-strong and durable, and now work for the Mad Hatter.

[catsi563]

The Mad Hatter was also the mastermind of one of the absolute best episodes of Batman: The Animated Series, "Perchance To Dream," where he doesn't try to kill Batman or destroy him, he tries to give him the world of his dreams instead just to keep Batman out of his own life. His brief appearance in Knightfall also showed off some of his intelligence, as he realized all the villains were freed for a reason, and sent Film Freak (RIP, Film Freak) to track down Bane to try to figure out what Bane's master plan was.

Honestly, the Jervis Tetch I like is the malformed victim of bullying, not a child murderer or someone with a fixation on children (unless, I think there was one version where he wanted to keep them safe from how horrible Gotham was? I could be misremembering that.) He also doesn't just randomly kill (that one subway car full of people lingers like a bad taste), he's a manipulator, not someone trying to out-corpse people like Pyg, Zsasz, or the Joker. His portrayal in the Secret Six was great, as he seemed immune to most of the craziness the other members brought to the team, while also stuck in his own madness, and while it seemed impractical and hasn't really been mentioned again, his abilities against the Doom Patrol and Psycho were an interesting step up.

But overall, I like him the same way I like Dr. Doom. He views himself as the ultimate victim, and the fact others won't let him have what he wants is proof that the world is against him.

Me as well I prefer the portrayal of Tetch as one of the trully sympathetic villains in Batmans rogues gallery. a man who is just looking for a friends but has no idea how to get one or how once he has one to keep them so he resorts to the mad hatter schemes because he wants his friend to be happy and him to be happy but it invariably goes wrong and he ends up in the worst situation because of it

[Jabroniville]

THE WONDERLAND GANG
Created By: Paul Dini & Dustin Nguyen
First Appearance: Detective Comics #841 (April 2008)
Role: Job Squad

-The Wonderland Gang are a band of baddies brought together by Tweedledee & Tweedledum, all based around Lewis Carroll poems and concepts. They consist of The Walrus (Moe Blum- a powerhouse) & The Carpenter (Jenna Duffy- a tool-using thief), The Lion (Lewis Yarnell- a big guy with a maned shirt) & The Unicorn (Skitch Benson- a ripped guy with a horned helmet), and March Harriet (Harriet Graft- a grifter & escord). The Mad Hatter was also brainwashed into joining them. Batman easily defeats them, and the Hatter beats the twins with an oar.