7 Old Batman Villains You Want To Forget but Can’t

Batman is often said to have one of the greatest rogue galleries in all of comics, and it’s not hard to see why. Standouts like the Joker, Ra’s al Ghul, Mister Freeze, and plenty more have established themselves as some of the most fun and terrifying threats a hero can face. They ride the perfect line between crazy and charismatic, drawing the reader in and sticking in their minds. One of the many reasons Batman’s best villains work is because they’re memorable. Each of them has a very strong identity and theme that lets them stand apart from all the other monsters in the universe and stake their own claim.

However, as great as it is that Batman’s villains tend to be some of the most memorable rogues out there, sometimes that isn’t a good thing. There are some villains that, as much as you want to, you just can’t force yourself to forget. Today, we’re going to look at seven of Batman’s old villains that we all desperately want to wipe from our minds, but they keep sticking there. Whether it be out of fear, disgust, or bafflement at their stupidity, these villains have stuck around in our heads for a long time. Odds are, they’ll stay there for even longer.

7) Two-Face III

No, not the original Two-Face Harvey Dent, or even his butler who once pretended to be Harvey to fill the role, but the third Two-Face. Not many people know about this character, but those who do can never forget him, because his origin is absurd, even by Golden Age standards. Introduced in Batman (1940) #68, Paul Sloane was an actor hired to play Two-Face in a movie about him. However, a stunt operator got jealous that his girlfriend had a crush on Sloane, so in perfectly reasonable fashion, he switched out the water for real acid in the famous scene where Two-Face was disfigured. 

The trauma of the incident drove Sloane insane and convinced him that he was actually the original Two-Face. There’s just something very funny about making a movie about a criminal who is still alive, and then the man having such a severe mental breakdown, all because of an extremely petty man. This man literally became a supervillain because somebody else got jealous, and it is simply absurd. Two-Face III is an anomaly that will always stick with me because I simply cannot get over how stupid his origin is.

6) Idiot

This villain needs to be forgotten exclusively because of his name, because it is actually insane how the name Idiot passed any editorial checks. Even his origin is crazy. On the surface, the concept of four Arkham Asylum patients’ worst impulses being combined into a single, malevolent entity obsessed with proving himself real is creepy in the best way. However, not only is he named Idiot, but he was created by sheer incompetence. How does an Arkham doctor use an ancient, magical Amazonian root to connect four crazy people’s minds and expect it not to end horribly?

Idiot is a very creepy villain who is an actual cannibal. That, combined with his mind-breaking powers, set him up to be a great villain, but nobody could take someone named Idiot seriously. He debuted in Batman #471 and hasn’t made any new appearances since the end of that arc. Batman comics have clearly moved on from this character, but I never can, because he has so much potential that will never be reached because of his horrible name.

5) Bruno

Do I need to explain why this character should be forgotten, but never can be? Bruno first appeared in The Dark Knight Returns #3, and is just about the most Frank Miller character you can imagine. She’s a literal Neo-Nazi who worked for the Joker, and covered her breasts and her bare daryaire with the worst symbol you could possibly choose. She doesn’t have much of a personality beyond being a Nazi, but as much as she should be forgotten as Joker’s random assistant from Frank Miller’s works, she’s so darn weird that she sticks out. She was designed to make you do a double or triple take, and she certainly does. Like, seriously, what kind of design is this?

4) Penny Plunderer

The Penny Plunderer is perhaps one of Batman’s most dated villains. Debuting in World’s Finest Comics #30, Joe Coyne only committed crimes in relation to pennies. There’s not exactly an unlimited amount of crime you can commit when that’s your requirement, and even his one story from the ‘40s clearly struggled to invent believable capers for him to pull. Penny Plunderer’s first appearance in post-Crisis on Infinite Earths continuity was in Batman Chronicles #19, where he was crushed by the giant penny Batman keeps in the Batcave and literally went to hell.

This piece of his lore elevates him from dumb but loveable gag villain to an absolutely insane character. Why did the Penny Plunderer of all people go to hell? What did he do beyond try to steal some pennies? The story of this character went from zero to a hundred so fast it could give whiplash, and that sudden change stuck with people. He’s a stupid villain with a ridiculously serious end, and the disparity between those two things makes him last forever, even if he can never be used again. Because I mean, seriously, how could you use him again?

3) The Eraser

The Eraser is the type of villain that has a very interesting concept, but is ruined by terrible execution. Debuting in Batman #188, Lenny Fiasco actually attended high school with Bruce Wayne, though he dropped out due to low grades. He became a criminal who cleaned the crime scene for other crooks, making sure there was no evidence for anyone to find them. Not even Batman and Robin could figure anything out by the time the Eraser was done. This is such a novel and story-rich idea, but it was flushed down the toilet because of the Eraser’s abysmal design.

Now listen, I don’t think dressing like a pencil is bad or anything, and I love my silly villain designs, but this is just way too much. Like, I get that he’s the Eraser, but does his head have to look like that? And why do his feet turn into points? He’s supposed to erase things, not draw more. The Eraser is another character with such great potential for future stories, but we all just have to forget about him and swallow that pill because he’s way too crazy to use in any new stories. It’s a darn shame.

2) The King of the Cats

This particular villain needs to be forgotten because he is plain weird. Appearing in Batman #69, the King of the Cats was inspired by the then-retired Catwoman, using her methods to commit crimes. He was obsessed with her, sending her flowers and telling her that they could rule the criminal underworld together, even capturing Batman and Robin to show that nobody could stop them if they worked together. While his obsession and calling himself the King of the Cats instead of something like the Cat King were bad enough, what makes this whole thing downright awful is that he was Selina’s brother.

Karl Kyle’s single-minded drive to rule with Selina at his side gets way, way weirder when you realize she was his sister. It recontextualizes the whole thing to make him go from strange to yucky in all the wrong ways. I desperately want to forget this guy existed solely because of that and write him off as just another Catwoman knockoff, but he’s simply too weird to ignore once you know he exists.

1) Ten-Eyed Man

This multi-ocular villain easily stands as one of the creepiest bad guys of all. He’s earned his spot here because everything about this man is unsettling in such a unique way. After an accident robbed Philip Reardon of his sight, an underworld surgeon performed horrific surgery to graft optical nerves onto each of his fingertips. This went down in Batman #226. Not only is this a sensory overload nightmare as he takes in five times the amount of visual stimulus someone should, but each new eye is as sensitive as a normal one. That means he can’t pick something up or make a fist without excruciating pain.

As if all of that wasn’t bad enough, Ten-Eyed Man recently received a redesign that reimagined him as a horror character. Now he claims he can see through walls and into souls, and even far into the future. Every time this man is on a page, a shiver runs down my spine. He feels almost like an eldritch creature as much as he does a villain, with a Greek tragedy-level fate. He’s unnerving, horrifying, and someone I definitely wish I could forget, but I doubt I’ll ever be able to.

So there we have seven of Batman’s old foes that you really never want to remember, but can’t help thinking about from time to time. These villains are definitely far from Gotham’s finest, and some of them definitely deserve to be forgotten, if only we can get them out of our heads. What do you think? Leave a comment below and join the conversation now in the ComicBook Forum!

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