Villain Profile: Killer Croc

Evolution is kind of a messy process. Even while mutations lead life forward, every now and then there are instances of giant leaps backward. Humans born with tails; dolphins, whales and snakes born with legs, horses with toes, and even teeth in chickens. These leaps backwards are called Atavism, the tendency to revert to ancestral types or forms. Why is this important? I’ll get to that in a moment. For now, Killer Croc. Let’s get to it.

He wants to eat your bones! Run!

Waylon Jones has a tragic backstory, even by supervillain standards. Waylon was born with an extreme form of atavism, which was further exacerbated by a Metagene. Wow, I actually got to that plot point much faster than normal. Had he just had the Atavistic trait, he probably would have just had a skin condition. The two combined caused poor Waylon to not only have scaly greyish green skin, but as he grew older he grew more reptilian. Again, get back to that in a second. His mother died in childbirth, sad. His father, when he found out his son looked way more like a salamander than he’d hoped, abandoned him. Dick. Waylon was named and raised by his aunt. She was an alcoholic, and having to raise a child with such an obvious deformity just drover her deeper into that particular addiction. She was also abusive, physically and verbally, to Waylon. His appearance plus his extreme anger issues more or less ensured that Waylon didn’t have any friends either. Rough, real rough. With that background, I can’t say I’m surprised he became a delinquent by the time he hit his teens. Waylon was in and out of juvenile detention centers until he was finally tried as an adult and incarcerated at 16. At this point in his development he was already massive, and starting to resemble a large predatory reptile. For some reason, a fellow prisoner thought that it was a good idea to make cracks about Waylon. I know convicts tend to be on the dumber side of things, but come on, that’s a rare form of suicidal stupid. Waylon killed this prisoner, because, you know, he’s sensitive about his appearance. And by “sensitive” I mean comments about his looks fill him with a bloodthirsty, homicidal rage that compels him to rip out the spine and/or internal organs of the commenter. So yeah, don’t talk about the scales. This got him another eighteen years in prison.  And marked the beginning of the trend of Waylon’s anger management issues getting him into trouble.

This one's smart enough to create an overly elaborate plan.

He joined a carnival sideshow after getting out of prison, wrestling gators. Huh, fitting. At this point in his life, Waylon was strong enough to lift the massive reptiles out of the water and snap their spines with his bare hands. He wrestled gators for a few years before Waylon “got smart,” and set his sights on ruling the criminal underworld. Not sure that that is “getting smart” to be perfectly honest. He left the carnival and began working towards that goal, adopting the name Killer Croc as well. He served as muscle for a number of minor goons before signing up with the Squid, a crime boss that had started filling the power vacuum left by the fall of Rupert Thorne, and Tony Falco. For a short while, Croc was content with being the oversized reptilian looking muscle for the Squid, until he saw the dark night escape from a death trap. It’s at that point that Croc realized that working as the reptile themed muscle for an idiot that named himself after a cephalopod who didn’t have mechanical tentacles was demeaning. He quit the Squid’s squad, and then murdered the Squid on a rooftop. Using a gun instead of his brute strength. Points for subtlety, Waylon.

While Batman was busy investigating the Squid’s murder, Killer Croc approached the big wigs of Gotham’s organized crime and let them know about his plans to become head of Gotham’s underworld. They proposed a test, for Killer Croc to show his commitment to crime by stealing some computers from a S.T.A.R. Labs branch. Croc steals the computers, gets the “we’ll be in touch” line, and heads home to celebrate his success. Unfortunately for him, Batman was waiting for him. Infuriated at seeing Batman in his apartment, Croc decides to destroy the place. Croc is very “If I can’t have it, Nobody can!” in his mentality. He shoots his space heater, and causes as major electrical fire. Croc escapes out a window and into the river. Batman, in an unusually stupid move for the genius billionaire, follows. Why would you chase a crocodile themed bad guy into a river? That’s like challenging the Flash to a foot race, or Superman to a weightlifting competition, or Bullseye to a skeet shooting contest, doomed to fail from the start. So, yeah, Croc kicks the daylights out of Batman by being a freaking man croc in a river. He bets and slashes at the Dark Knight, choking him underwater and only leaves him after Croc thinks he’d drowned. Croc then goes to Gotham Zoo’s Reptile House and demands that all of the previously mentioned criminal big wigs come as well. Why? To pledge loyalty to him since he “killed” Batman. The crooks, having heard this at least a half dozen times before, weren’t buying it and continued to declare their loyalty for the imprisoned Tony Falco. Rather annoyed by this, Croc breaks into Blackgate Prison (For the none-criminally insane Gotham crooks) and rips Falco to shreds. Batman tries to stop Croc as he leaves, but once again Croc’s reptilian strength proved to be too much.

Looks a little more like a troll than a Croc.

Around this time Robin (Dick Grayson) had enlisted the help of a pair of acrobats, Joe and Trina Todd, to help him break the protection racket that had threatened the Circus. They followed some of the mob’s enforcers, but were captured almost immediately. The Todds were put on stage with Croc, who used them to entertain his assembled Mobsters. The details are vague, but the fate of the Todds is grisly enough that it leaves Commissioner Gordon gray faced and distraught. Robin, distraught by his hand in the Todds death leaped into the croc pit and beating the reptiles to death with a hand gun. Around the same time the Joker, making his own bid for Gotham supremacy, was planning on killing Batman and Croc at around the same time. He revealed Croc’s plans to Batman, and hoped that the two would either kill each other, or that the fight would so weaken Batman that he’d be an easy target.

Batman and his two leading ladies, Talia al Ghul and Catwoman, are captured by Croc and his frenemy the Joker. Croc demands that’s Batman be released so they could fight to the death. This time, Batman is able to break Croc’s grip and beats Croc. He’s then beaten within an inch of his life by the Todd’s son Jason. I know that this isn’t like the background I gave in Todd’s Anti-Hero profile, it was retconned at some point to be less like Dick Grayson’s story, but I can’t seem to find Croc’s altered origin.

There we go, that's more like it.

Croc has proven time and again to be one of Batman’s most brutal and dangerous foes. This shifted into overtime when Croc attacked a shopping mall. Batman and Croc come to blows, and while Batman holds his own, the Dark Knight gets distracted by the arrival of Bane. Croc nearly breaks Batman’s back, again, but Batman slips out at the last second. Bane then intervenes and attacks Croc. The two are nearly a match in strength, but Bane over powers Killer Croc and breaks both of the reptile-man’s arms. This proves to be very foolish, as the trauma of this event and physical strain of the regeneration pushes Croc’s mutation into overdrive. It’s at this point he becomes more lizard than man. His plans become more and more thuggish and savage after this point. As Batman observes later, he’s more croc than man.

Waylon’s Metagene combined with his Atavism has transformed your standard human into a colossal mix of man and reptile. He’s incredibly strong, and possesses razor sharp teeth and claws. He has the biting strength of a croc, which is usually shown by Croc biting through chains. Initially just appearing as a giant scaly man, he’s grown more lizadly as his mutation continues to develop. He’s grown an elongated snout and tail in recent stories as well. His scaly skin is nearly bullet proof. And even if it wasn’t he follows the Lizard school of reptilian powers, meaning he regenerates. He doesn’t heal as quickly as Spider-man’s reptilian foe, but it’s much faster than most creatures. He has a nose like a bloodhound, once he catches a scent he can track that person for miles and he never forgets a scent. Not sure how he’s missed the Batcave for all these years, to be perfectly honest. He takes to water like, well, a crocodile. He swims faster than an Olympian, can hold his breath for absurdly long periods of time, and strikes with all the ferocity of his namesake. Waylon has also developed a taste for a special kind of meat…human. Some would call it cannibalism, but given how inhuman he’s become I’d more likely label him a man eater. Croc doesn’t really consider himself human any more, nor does Batman.

Despite his powers, which make him a beyond deadly threat, his below average intelligence, bestial tendencies and extreme anger management issues are usually the source of his downfall. Just an FYI.

Croc has been a fan favorite since his introduction in the 1980s. He’s appeared in several series and is often portrayed one of Batman’s physically strongest foes. Despite this, he’s also had his design revamped the most, either limiting or exaggerating the reptile bits.

Not a bad design for his first live action
appearance.

Killer Croc’s first major appearance was in Batman: The Animated Series. In this series, dear Waylon is a former pro wrestler turned criminal. He has grey lumpy skin instead of the usual green scales, and is considerably weaker. He is introduced in the episode “Vendetta” where he frames local dick detective Harvey Bullock for kidnapping. Apparently he’d been arrested by Bullock at some point before the series and bore a grudge. Batman defeats Croc and clears Bullock’s name. Bullock is not grateful. Croc has perhaps the best line in the episode “Almost Got ‘Im” where he’s part of a poker night with several villains. The group consists of The Joker, Penguin, Two-Face, Poison Ivy and Croc. They each relate the story of how they almost got Batman. Croc is the only one who doesn’t get a flashback, as his story consists of cornering Batman in a quarry and throws a rock at him. When everyone is unimpressed he adds rather sheepishly, “It was a big rock…” His biggest episode is “Sideshow” where Croc escapes a prison train and hides out with a circus sideshow. He befriends the carnies, but ultimately plans to use them as his new cronies. He’s captured by Batman and sent to Blackgate Penitentiary.

He returns in the sequel show, The New Batman Adventures. He is altered to better match his comic form, making him scaly, green and all crocodilie. His first major episode is “Love is a Croc” where he teams up with Baby-Doll, a supervillainess that suffers from a diseases the makes her never age beyond the age of five. Physically speaking. They are very successful, but their partnership ends when Baby-Doll learns Croc is just using her.

The Batman takes things in the other direction. Croc is shown to be an oversized mutant Croc-Man, complete with tail and snout. He’s also much smarter and stable than normal. And he's a Cajun, which is a little different too. In “Swamped” his evil plan is to flood Gotham City and plunder it. He easily defeats Batman during their first few encounters, but is ultimately defeated when Batman discovers his major weakness, he’s not a fish. Using a small breathing device and some super strong cable, he keeps Croc under until he passes out from lack of oxygen. He returns in “Team Penguin” when the Penguin forms his own evil team. He saw it in a movie… did I mention that The Batman is a little on the…sillier side of things? Whatever, Penguin forms a team consisting of Bane, Ragdoll, Killer Croc, Firefly, and Killer Moth. The Team works together okay, given that only Killer Moth respects Penguin. They steal a rare chemical that morphs Killer Moth into a giant monster moth. They’re defeated by Batman and his crew.

I'd have twice as many guys with guns on him. Just saying.

Croc is set to appear in the Suicide Squad movie, portrayed by Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje. No, I have no idea how to pronounce that.

In Batman: Arkham Asylum he appears in his most monsterous form. He’s about eleven feet tall and weighs over five hundred pounds. He’s kept in a specialized cell under Arkham Asylum in the sewers, is only fed once a week on Animal carcasses, and forced to wear a shock collar to keep him in check. It’s unfortunate that Croc takes over the sewers and turns them into his den. Even more unfortunate is that the sewer is the only source of “venom roots” a specialized plant used in the creation of Venom and the more dangerous Titan formula that Joker developed. He chases Batman through the sewers. If he didn’t have the collar he’d eat Batman easily, but a few batarangs shut him down. Batman finally defeats him by blowing the floor and dropping Croc into the lower part of the sewers.

He also appears in Batman: Arkham Origins as one of several assassins hired to kill Batman. He’s noticeably smaller and more human in form, implying this early Croc has yet to mutate completely. He is still super strong though, proving him to be a challenge to Batman.

Killer Croc is an interesting character. He’s one of the most monstrous of Batman’s foes, and yet his background does make me wonder how much of his story is a self-fulfilling prophecy. He’s physically deformed, and was never loved pretty much from the moment he was born. This led to him becoming misanthropic, which undoubtedly led to his later cannibalistic tendencies. He was hated, therefore he did things to make himself more hated. Or something like that. Regardless, he is now an oversized monster bent on making the world suffer as he has suffered. He’s the voracious, villainous alpha predator, the cruel Killer Croc. Next time, not sure, but will get to it soon.

 http://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Killer_Croc#/media/File:Killer_Croc_-_Batman_Arkham_Asylum.png

 http://batman.wikia.com/wiki/Killer_Croc_%28The_Batman%29

 http://batman.wikia.com/wiki/Killer_Croc_%28Batman:_The_Animated_Series%29

 http://dc.wikia.com/wiki/File:Killer_Croc_DCAU_002.jpg

 http://www.ign.com/articles/2015/05/20/suicide-squad-a-closer-look-at-killer-crocs-makeup

 http://batman.wikia.com/wiki/File:Batman-arkham-asylum-20080912001230350_640w.jpg