Batwoman: Who Is Enigma?

We're officially at the midpoint of Batwoman's second season, and we've already been treated to a surprising number of new DC Comics characters along the way. That has especially been the case for the series' villains, whether they be big bads like Safiyah Sohail (Shivaani Ghai) or Black Mask, or villains of the week like Victor Zsasz (Alex Morf) or Amygdala (R. J. Fetherstonhaugh). At the tail end of tonight's midseason finale, fans were introduced to the official debut of another DC Comics baddie — one who had already been teased sporadically across the season thus far. Spoilers for Season 2, Episode 9 of Batwoman, "Rule #1", below! Only look if you want to know!

The tail end of the episode saw Roman Sionis/Black Mask (Peter Outerbridge) checking up on a heavily-scarred Kate Kane, who he has been keeping as his prisoner ever since the members of his False Face Society kidnapped her from the wreckage of her crashed plane. In this scene, Black Mask was joined by a woman, who expressed sympathy for Kate's condition and then asked if she could be alone with her. After Black Mask obliged, the woman introduced herself to Kate as Enigma, and vowed that she will help her forget being Kate Kane.

Enigma had been name-dropped before in Season 2, particularly with Safiyah revealing that she used her abilities to brainwash Alice (Rachel Skarsten) and Ocean (Nathan Owens) into forgetting their time together on Coryana. But between that backstory, her apparent role in the lapse in memories of Julia Pennyworth (Christina Wolfe), and now her work on Kate, she seems to be a pretty formidable force.

So, who exactly is Enigma? No, it's not a code name for Edward Nygma/Riddler, although an interation of that character did go by the name of Enigma in the Anti-Matter Universe. But by and large, Enigma is the supervillain name for a female villlain created by Geoff Johns, Tony Daniel, Carlos Ferreira, and Art Thibert, who made her debut in 2006's Teen Titans #38. Initially, Enigma joined the Teen Titans following the events of Infinite Crisis, serving under the name of the Riddler's Daughter and befriending Duela Dent. As her appearances stretched along, she joined Deathstroke in the Titans East, and was later confirmed to actually be the daughter of Edward Nygma, who ultimately would kill her in 2011's Batman #712.

It's unclear exactly if and how Enigma's backstory will make its way onto Batwoman, especially as Riddler has been one of the few major Batman rogues to be relatively unmentioned within the world of the series. It certainly couldn't be impossible that the show's version of Enigma is actually related to an older version of The Riddler — or if she has just been a stand-in for his criminal deeds in the show's version of Gotham. Either way, it's abundantly clear that she'll have a pivotal role in Batwoman going forward.

What do you think of Enigma making her TV debut on Batwoman? Share your thoughts with us in the comments below!

Batwoman airs Sundays at 8/7c on The CW.