The idea of a villain-centric movie without the superhero that they typically fight is one that Hollywood has explored previously, with a batting average near zero. Catwoman notoriously ended the potential of a female-led comic book movie for almost two decades, while Sony Pictures quickly earned the mockery of the entire internet with gilded turkeys like Kraven the Hunter, Madame Web, and Morbius. The trilogy of Venom movies managed to earn commercial success while forgoing critical acclaim, and only 2019’s Joker has proven to be the one “villain” movie to actually make a dent culturally (though it was quickly followed by a sequel that lowered the bar once again).
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This fall could change the format entirely, though, with DC Studios tempting fate on a villain movie that shifts things entirely. Last week came the first reveal of Clayface, the R-rated film from DC Studios that will put one of the most surprising Batman villains front and center. The first footage revealed a film that could break the cycle of “villain-only movies being terrible,” but the success of a C-List villain becoming a blockbuster icon would no doubt mean one thing: replication. Assuming Clayface works and is a hit, there are plenty of other Batman villains that could follow suit.
5) Man-Bat
A key element of why the Clayface movie is even happening is that filmmaker Mike Flanagan, who wrote the script, saw the tragedy of the character. The heart of the story is a man who is thrust into this antagonistic role due to circumstance, having fallen from grace and doing his best to just get back to the life he had. By that same token, Man-Bat can easily follow the same trajectory.
Though initially a traditional supervillain, Man-Bat, like Clayface, has become both an antihero and a sympathetic antagonist. Dr. Kirk Langstrom’s origins arrive with good intentions as he hopes to cure deafness by studying bats. Through this, he’s able to develop the serum that turns him into the monstrous Man-Bat. Despite now being split in a Jekyll/Hyde style way between the scientist who wants to do good and the monster that seeks to terrorize, the formula is already in place for a film to explore this character without even needing the Dark Knight Detective.
4) Calendar Man
Despite his initial appearances in the Silver Age being a man wearing a proper calendar, the version of the Batman villain that most fans know is the Hannibal Lecter-inspired take that first appeared in Batman: The Long Halloween. This version is certainly the more inherently cinematic take on the character, who can maintain his obsession with specific dates and holidays while also being menacing. The real trouble in making a villain like this work on the big screen without Batman is not how you turn Calendar Man himself into a tragic figure, but who do you put in opposition to him? The simple answer is any number of Gotham City police detectives, of which there are plenty.
3) Mr. Freeze
Once again, with Clayface tapping into a specific, nuanced take with its villain that might separate it from the others, the other Batman villain who is clearly defined by tragedy is Mister Freeze. Though perhaps still associated for many with Arnold Schwarzenegger’s hammy performance and terrible puns, Mr. Freeze is a villain whose origin is born purely of misfortune and whose villainy is rooted in making a wrong into a right. As fans know, scientist Victor Fries becomes Mister Freeze while trying to find a cure for his terminally ill wife, Nora, who he has placed in a cryogenic freezing chamber to keep her alive until he can develop a cure. All of this creates a perfect environment for a villain that’s easy to root for,
2) Poison Ivy
Once again, a villain unfairly roasted by pop culture due to their one appearance on the big screen, a new feature film based on Poison Ivy can not only take back the character but redefine her on the big screen. The current ongoing comic series of Poison Ivy by G. Willow Wilson and Marcio Takara provides the clear blueprint for how a film about the character can work without also needing a superhero. In the series, the character takes her environmentalist positions to extreme places in order to try and take back the planet from greedy people and corporations. Furthermore, there are extensive body horror elements within the new Poison Ivy, which would position it nicely alongside Clayface.
1) Court of Owls
Though it may seem like a villainous group like the Court of Owls can really only exist in stark contrast to Batman, since the animal naming conventions immediately make the opposition clear, but at the heart of their story, it’s about a shadowy cabal that secretly runs the world, which is inherently cinematic, no matter if a character has on tights and a cape or not. Though only introduced in 2011, the Court of Owls was revealed to have been secretly running Gotham City for centuries, not only acting as masked persons pulling the levers and making all the decisions, but maintaining their own secret army of undead assassins in their talons.
How can the Court of Owls work as the center of a film without Batman? Picture a movie like The Empty Man, but about the Court; or Conclave, about the Court deciding their next leader; or even All the President’s Men, but about reporters discovering the Court. The possibilities exist, and they don’t require Batman.
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