Riddle me this, Riddle me that,
Who’s afraid of the big, bad Bat? God, I hate Batman Forever but Jim Carrey saying that line is too good to not
compliment. The Riddler is one of Batman’s oldest and most intelligent foes,
but is also probably one of his least effective baddies. But more on that in a
few minutes. Also, The Riddler’s name has been tinkered with a few times.
Sometimes he’s Edward Nashton, sometimes he’s Edward Nigma, sometimes he’s
Edward Nygma. I’ll try to be consistent with each series. Let’s get to it.
 |
| He's got all the answers. And even more questions. |
The Riddler began life as Edward
Nashton. He was a remarkably intelligent son of an abusive father. Amazing how
often those come up, isn’t it? Edward was desperate to prove his intelligence
to his dad, and decided that a school contest would be the best way to do it. The
contest was to solve a puzzle the fastest. Edward wanted to win so bad that he
broke into his school late at night and practiced solving the puzzle again and
again until he could solve it in under a minute. He, obviously, won but said
victory didn’t have the desired effect. His father refused to believe young
Edward was smart enough to have accomplished this on his own, and increased the
beatings upon his boy. And Edward’s prize? A book of puzzles and riddles. Oh joy.
Over the years, Edward developed an
intense love/desire with being right. And a love for puzzles. As an adult, he
ran a carnival game where he challenged customers to complex puzzles. He also
cheated, ensuring that no customer had any chance of winning any prizes. So
like every other carnival that has ever existed, got it. Edward also changed
his name to Nigma, to separate himself from his abusive father, and give
himself an obvious alias. E. Nigma, seriously? Edward eventually grew bored
with fleecing rubes at his carnival games, and decided to turn his attention on
a worthy opponent. And who is the only one that Edward felt was a worthy opponent?
Why, Batman of course. To do this he created the guise of the Riddler, and one
of the stupidest costumes I’ve ever seen. A green leotard covered in question
marks? With a belt? Does he have no fashion sense whatsoever? Whatever, he
tried to defeat Batman using a series of deadly traps and complex puzzles, but
Batman proved the superior mind, thwarted Riddler, and saw him locked in Arkham
Asylum. Like so many of Arkham’s guests, this proved to be a short vacation.
Over the years, The Riddler has developed into
as one of Gotham’s most notorious criminals and information brokers. Batman
more or less tolerates the green weirdo’s presence in Gotham as long as the
information he gets is good. Better the devil you know, I suppose. More
recently, the Riddler learned he was suffering from Cancer. Using his various
resources, he was able to secretly get access to a Lazarus Pit, one of the
chemical pools that makes Ra’s al Ghul largely immortal. The pools healing waters
cure his cancer and, in the fit of insanity that follows exposure, realizes
that Bruce Wayne is Batman. He devices a very cruel scheme, where he has the shapeshifting
Clayface morph into Jason Todd, Batman’s late ward, to torment Batman. Batman,
at first off balance, gains the upperhand and confronts the Riddler. Edward
threatens to reveal Bruce’s secret, but the Dark Knight scoffs at the idea. Why?
Because if Edward reveals the answer to the greatest riddle of all, “who is the
Batman?” the information becomes worthless. Something that Edward’s rattled
mind could not stand. And, furthermore, revealing the secret would give Ra’s a
clue about who’d been bathing in one of his precious pools without his permission.
Something the Demon’s Head would never tolerate.
 |
| Major costume downgrade. |
The Riddler is a criminal
mastermind and expert at puzzles, traps, and riddles of all kinds. Like Batman,
he has no superpower other than his above average intelligence. Now if only he
had Batman’s talent for fighting, then he might be a credible threat. He
utilizes a number of Question Mark shaped weapons and gadgets, his favorite
being a Question Mark shaped Cane that usually shoots some sort of projectile.
While extremely intelligent, he has a major flaw in that he needs to PROVE his intelligence.
It’s described as a form of obsessive compulsive disorder. Even if he’s
perfected a deathtrap, no obvious means of escape for his target, he’s pretty
much compelled to stroke his own ego, talking about how brilliant the trap was
and, more often than not, mocking his target for not figuring out how to
escape. Thus telling his capture how to escape. Idiot.
The Riddler has appeared in a
number of DC series. He’s one of Batman’s most recurring villains, alongside
the Joker, Two-Face, and Penguin. Just about every Batman series has him either
an active role or at the very least a cameo appearance.
He appeared in a few episodes of Batman: The Animated Series. For the
first half they did a significant redesign for him, dressing him in a suit and
bowler hat. Fun fact, he’s played by John Glover, who would later go on to play
the father of Lex Luthor, Lionel Luthor, in the Smallville TV series. They also changed his zanier personality,
making him more calm, cool and collected when he’s not being bested by Batman.
This, I’ve read, was in order to help differentiate him from the Joker, whom he
shares some personality traits with. I think they didn’t give we 90s kids
enough credit. One guy dresses in green, the other purple, it’s not hard to
tell them apart. He appears in the episode “If You’re So Smart, Why Aren’t You Rich?”
In the episode, he’s established as an up and coming game designer that created
a game “The Riddle of the Minotaur” which sold millions of copies. He’s then
fired by his boss, Daniel Mockridge, who wanted to keep all the profits for
himself. Enraged, Edward disappeared. Two years later, he appeared in his
Riddler costume. He kidnapped Mockridge and trapped him in life size version of
the Minotaur’s Maze. Batman and Robin, despite sympathizing with Mr. Nygma,
have to intervene to save Mockridge. They’re able to save Mockridge, who
escaped legal punishment since he technically didn’t break the law, but now
lives with perpetual fear of Nygma’s return for more revenge. So… little
victories. He also appeared in “Almost Got ‘Im,” “What is Reality,” “Trial,” “Riddler
Reform,” “Knight Time,” and “Judgement Day.” He has a somewhat smaller role
then his compatriots, as the writing team had trouble thinking up plot lines
for him that weren’t overly complex or convoluted. They also redesigned him for
the later seasons, reverting him to the green leotard. Such a shame, I really
liked the classy look he had to begin with.
 |
| Too much mouth liner. Is that even a thing? |
A very different looking Riddler appeared
in the very different The Batman. This
version is… well, a goth. Like no other way to look at him. And he’s played by
Robert Englund, you know, Freddy Kruger. Perfect casting, really. He first
appeared in “Riddled.” He set up several bombs across Gotham, which could only
be disarmed by a Riddle. This was set up to keep the cops, and more importantly
Batman, busy while he robbed Gotham bank. Batman and his police aide Detective
Yin are able to stop the bombs. His origins are revealed in “Riddler’s Revenge,”
A few years prior, in episode, Edward Nygma had developed a device to increase
the subject’s intellect with his partner Julie. A man named Gorman came and
offered to buy the machine. Nygma wasn’t interested. During a demonstration of
the device, it malfunctions, ruining Nygma’s career. He swore vengeance. It’s
how he got his start as the Riddler. It’s revealed by episode’s end that the saboteur
was Julie, who wanted Nygma out of the picture so she could deal with Gorman.
The Riddler also appeared in “Night and the City,” and “Rumors.”
He was one of two major villains in
Batman Forever directed by Joel
Schumacher, portrayed by Jim Carrey. Edward Nygma was a Wayne Enterprises employee
that built a device he called “The Box,” which could beam information directly
into the viewer’s brain. He saw it as next gen TV. Bruce Wayne thought the
technology too dangerous and ordered the project be terminated. Frustrated,
Nygma continued experimenting and realized it could drain a victim of their intelligence
and transfer it to Nygma. He murdered his supervisor, stole the tech, created
the Riddler identity and partnered with Two-Face to cause trouble. This movie
is bad. Not Batman and Robin bad, but
bad. What should have been perfect casting came across way too campy and way
too bizarre. A major step down from Batman
and Batman Returns.
 |
| Why Mr. Carrey, why? |
He’s a major side villain in the Batman: Arkham games. Not important to
the story at hand, but his riddles and Riddler trophies are scattered about,
for the guys that like to be completionists. He’s also the main target of the
Suicide Squad in Batman: Assault on
Arkham. Amanda Waller tells her unwilling recruits that his cane has a
flashdrive with intel on the Suicide Squad, namely members and potential
recruits. In actuality, he’d discovered how to disable the bombs that Waller
implants in the Squad to make them compliant. He disarms them for the active
squad, which leads to a show down with Batman. Always a fun time with this guy.
The Riddler is an interesting villain.
He’s one of Batman’s greatest foes, but is also one of the least effective,
given his habit of ruining his own traps. It’s always rather interesting to see
him match wits with Batman, which helps highlight the fact that the Dark Knight
is equal parts brain and brawn. Which infuriates the Riddler, which is always
good for a laugh. And, it’s always entertaining to see a villain whose greatest
motivation is his Achilles Heel. He has to be the smartest, has to be the one
with the answer, and will go out of his way to ruin nearly flawless plans to
prove that point. In the end, he’s still that little boy, the helpless child taking
his father’s beatings while hearing that he’s worthless. He can’t prove to dear
ol’ Dad he’s worth something, so all of Gotham and Batman have to suffer for
it. How sad. How pathetic. That’s the Riddler for ya. Next time: We’re in for a
Sweet Christmas, as Luke Cage has his Netflix debut.
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/1/1b/RiddlerGA.JPG
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Riddler#/media/File:Riddler_(DC_Animated_Universe).jpg
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/7/76/TheBatmanRiddler.jpg
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/b/b0/Riddler-carrey.jpg
No comments:
Post a Comment