Who Is Clayface? The Many Faces of Clayface, Explained

The DC Universe is taking shape. Peter Safran and James Gunn’s DC Studios greenlit Clayface, a “horror-leaning” take on the Batman villain from The Haunting of Hill House and Midnight Mass creator Mike Flanagan. The Clayface movie, which is set in the new DCU canon, is scripted by Flanagan and will be produced by Gunn and Safran with The Batman filmmaker Matt Reeves and Lynn Harris (DC’s animated Dynamic Duo) producing via their 6th & Idaho Productions.

Warner Bros. has dated Clayface for September 11, 2026, as the next feature on the DC Studios slate following Gunn’s Superman reboot (July 11, 2025) and the Craig Gillespie-directed Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow (June 26, 2026). Other announced projects that have yet to be dated include The Authority, Swamp Thing, and The Brave and the Bold, which will introduce the DCU Batman and Robin: Bruce Wayne and Damian Wayne.

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But who is Clayface? There have been multiple iterations of the mud-based shapeshifter, who began as a guise assumed by a disgraced movie star driven mad by his lost stardom (a version of the character who recently featured in the Reeves-produced animated series Batman: Caped Crusader).

Basil Karlo: The Golden Age Clayface

Clayface was introduced in 1940’s Detective Comics #40 as Basil Karlo, a once-famous character actor and makeup expert turned costumed killer. When Batman and Robin investigated the murders of actors involved with the production of “Dread Castle,” a remake of one of Karlo’s classic films, they unmasked the disguised Karlo as “Clayface” — one of Karlo’s old monster movie roles.

Batman identified Karlo as the killer of movie actress Lorna Dane by linking him to a claylike substance under her fingernails: movie effects makeup.

Matt Hagen: Clayface II

1961’s Detective Comics #298 introduced treasure hunter “Lucky” Matt Hagen as the second Clayface, a super-criminal capable of molding his body into any shape he could imagine after being exposed to a strange liquid protoplasm while diving for sunken treasure off Bermuda.

Hagen realized he could alter his appearance at will to conceal his true face while committing crimes, which the clay-faced Hagen used to his advantage in battles with Batman.

Clayface and the Mud Pack

Clayface’s malleable flesh and shape-shifting powers made him one of Batman’s most dangerous enemies, and he spawned a “Mud Pack” that included Preston Payne — whose claylike-body was confined to an exoskeleton suit after synthesizing Hagen’s protoplasm to become the flesh-melting Clayface III — and Clayface IV, a.k.a. Lady Clay, who could mimic her victims’ appearances and abilities.

Payne was an acromegalic whose chronic hypopituitarism had made his body deformed, so he sought out Hagen for a blood transfusion in an attempt to treat his condition with Clayface’s power to mold his body like putty. Sondra Fuller was transformed into Lady Clay by the terrorist leader Kobra, and after she sought out Karlo to learn his secrets, Karlo used a serum to become the Ultimate Clayface: by combining the malleability of Clayface IV with the lethal touch of Clayface III.

Clayface

Modern iterations of Clayface in the rebooted comic book continuity also possessed DNA-duplication abilities, plus enhanced strength and shape-changing powers. On DC’s Prime Earth, the Basil Karlo Clayface was a disfigured movie star whose addiction to Renu — an industrial chemical that, when mixed with wax and putty, could mold almost any material like clay — transformed him into the monstrous Clayface.

DC Studios’ Clayface movie is scheduled to open in theaters Sept. 11, 2026.