Characters / Batman Film Series: Villains

Main Character Index Bat-Family | Villains (The Joker | Poison Ivy) | Supporting Characters

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Batman (1989)

The Joker

See his page for more information.

Carl Grissom

Carl Grissom

"My friend, your luck is about to change."

Played by: Jack Palance

Voiced by: Osamu Saka (Japanese), Jean-Claude Michel (European French)

Appearances: Batman

"Jack....smart thinking. That's the way to go. In fact...I'd like you to handle this operation personally."

An infamous Gotham mob boss and Jack Napier's employer. Grissom has Napier set up due to having an affair with his mistress Alicia; this backfires on him when Napier survives the confrontation at Axis Chemicals and kills Grissom in revenge, proceeding to take over his operation.

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• Affably Evil: While Grissom may be a reviled crime lord, he is also charming and polite. Grissom is shown to treat Alicia with respect, in contrast to Jack Napier, who seems to regard Alicia as a trophy.
• Asshole Victim: A powerful criminal who corrupted the Gotham Police Department and coordinated many heinous crimes, including the murders of a wealthy family, isn't going to be missed when one of his own turns on him and disposes of him.
• Backstab Backfire: Sells out Jack Napier to the police to remove a man who was cheating with Grissom's girl. It didn't work and comes back to kill him.
• Composite Character: He's The Don who ran Gotham's underworld early in Batman's career like Carmine Falcone, and is also responsible for setting Joker up for a fall that instead transforms him like the gangsters in The Killing Joke.
• Dirty Old Man: His mistress is much younger than he is.
• The Don: Grissom is the old-school leader of a good set of thugs in Gotham early in the film, but his Backstab Backfire of Napier/The Joker leads to him getting pumped full of lead and the Joker to take over as The Don and Big Bad for the rest of the film.
• The Dreaded: He's a mafia boss who is widely feared throughout the city with even Jack wary of crossing him.
• Evil Old Folks: In his later years (Jack Palance was seventy when he played the role) and a widely feared and powerful crime lord.
• Expy: He takes over the role of Carmine Falcone, the crime boss of Gotham before the "freaks" take over.
• Large and in Charge: He's the head of Gotham's criminal underworld and is played by 6'4" Jack Palance.
• Large Ham: Not to the extent of Joker but he's still pretty hammy and delivers all his lines in a dramatic manner. It comes with being played by Jack Palance.
• Murder the Hypotenuse: He set Jack Napier up to be captured by the police because he was having an affair with his (Grissom's) girlfriend Alicia. This backfires when Batman's intervention leads Napier to turn into the Joker and then come back to kill Grissom and take over his empire.
• Sanity Slippage: The film hints that Carl might have a few screws loose himself. In fact, the first thing a newly Jokerized Napier tells him is that he must be insane.
• The Unfought: Never crosses paths with Batman (or with any of the good guys, for that matter).
• Unwitting Instigator of Doom: His vengeful actions lead directly to the creation of The Joker, and his own demise.
• Uriah Gambit: When he discovers that his mistress has been sleeping with his right-hand man Jack Napier, he sends Jack to go steal the books from a mob front under investigation by the authorities, then tips off the Dirty Cop on his payroll and orders him to kill Jack. This backfires magnificently when Jack is dunked in chemicals and becomes the Joker, then returns to Grissom's office to shoot him.

Bob Hawkins

Bob Hawkins

"Check his wallet!"

Played by: Tracey Walter

Voiced by: Norio Murata (Japanese), Gilbert Lévy (European French), Marc Bellier (Canadian French)

Appearances: Batman

"And Bob- remember...you..are my number one...guy!!"

Jack Napier/The Joker's main henchman.

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• Canon Foreigner: He was created for the movie so that Joker would have someone to privately talk to about his plans and motivations.
• *Click* Hello: During the Axis Chemicals shootout early in the film, Bob manages to sneak up on Commissioner Gordon and puts a gun to his head, forcing Batman to turn Napier loose in short order.
  "Let him go, or I'll do Gordon!"
• The Dragon: He's the Joker's "number one guy".
• Establishing Character Moment: When Eckhardt meets Jack Napier in an alley, Bob is in the background diligently polishing Jack's car. Then, when Eckhardt pulls a gun on Jack, Bob is immediately at Jack's side and pointing a gun of his own at Eckhardt. The Death Glare he fixes Eckhardt with makes it clear that if Eckhardt's trigger finger so much as twitches, Bob will kill him.
• Foil: To Alfred, being Joker's 'number one guy', defacto consigliere and loyal servant ready to supply Jack with whatever he needs at a moment's notice, the same way Alfred does for Batman. Unlike with Alfred though, his loyalty isn't reciprocated.
• Glasgow Grin: Has a scar that starts from the left corner of his mouth.
• Hypercompetent Sidekick: Bob saves Jack more than once. He forces Eckhardt to back down when the latter pulls a gun on Jack, and even forces Batman to release Jack by threatening to blow Gordon's head off.
• Perma-Stubble: Bob always has a day's worth of stubble or so.
• Psycho Knife Nut: He carries a large knife for up-close combat, although he realizes that it won't help him against Batman.
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here: Batman has just finished wiping out several of the Joker's mooks. Bob appears holding a knife. When Batman makes a Bring It gesture to him (beckoning with his index finger), Bob drops the knife and runs away.
• Signature Headgear: Bob is almost never seen without his gray fedora.
• Too Dumb to Live: Poor Bob, after Joker has just been decisively pissed off and now wants to blow off some steam. He's had his little outburst, but there's a Tranquil Fury brewing under his crackpot exterior — something his loyal lackey fails to notice.
  Joker: Bob? Gun.
  (Bob hands his gun to the Joker, who immediately shoots him dead)
• Undying Loyalty: He's the kind of staunchly loyal henchman that most any villain would be grateful to have, which makes his death at the Joker's hands a major Kick the Dog moment.
• You Have Failed Me: The Joker responds to his own master plan's failure by requesting a handgun from Bob, only to shoot Bob point-blank for not telling him Batman "had one of those...things!"

Lt. Eckhardt

Lt. Max Eckhardt

"Where you been spendin' your nights?"

Played by: William Hootkins

Voiced by: Takehiro Koyama (Japanese), Jacques Frantz (European French)

Appearances: Batman

"I answer to Grissom, not to psychos!"

A high-ranking member of the GCPD. Although he reports to Commissioner Gordon, he's taking bribes to do Grissom's dirty work.

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• Asshole Victim: Shot dead by Jack Napier during the raid on Axis Chemicals.
  Jack: Eckhardt! [Eckhardt turns around with a gormless look on his face] Think about the future! [shoots Eckhardt dead]
• Beard of Evil: A facefull of stubble which fits perfectly into his slovenly looks.
• Deadpan Snarker: Shows off some contemptuous sarcasm when Knox comes snooping:
  "Sorry, Knox; these two slipped on a Banana Peel."
  • Also, from the same scene:
  "I say... you're full of shit, Knox. Oh, uh, you can quote me on that."
  • And later when he meets Napier:
  Jack: Brought you a little snack, Eckhardt.
  Eckhardt: Why don't you broadcast it ?
• Dirty Cop: One of many police officers on Carl Grissom's payroll; also on close enough terms with him to get a personal phone call ordering Napier's death.
• Even Evil Has Standards: He is unsettled by Jack who he accurately sees as an unhinged sadist and "A-1 nut boy".
• Evil Sounds Raspy: Has a low and scratchy voice, thanks to actor William Hootkins' own very deep, gravelly baritone.
• Fat Bastard: An overweight, sloppily dressed, cigar-chomping Dirty Cop straight out of a noir story.
• Jerkass: For him it comes naturally to harshly insult and dismiss almost everyone, even Commissioner Gordon. He's even one to Jack Napier.
• Kill on Sight: When his men arrive at Axis Chemicals, Eckhardt passes out copies of Napier's mugshot and tells them, "Shoot to kill." Gordon later countermands that order before anyone can carry it out.
• The Stool Pigeon: It is heavily implied that it is he who tells Grissom about (or at least confirms) the affair Grissom's mistress Alicia is having with Napier, in retaliation for his standoff against Napier and Bob in the alley.
• Suspiciously Similar Substitute:
  • Lieutenant Harvey Bullock without the positive qualities.
  • He may also be based on Arnold Flass, a real dirty cop from Batman: Year One.

Vinnie Ricorso

Vinnie Ricorso

"Hello, Vinnie! It's your Uncle Bingo! Time to pay the check."

Played By: John Dair

Appearances: Batman

A Gotham mob boss who seeks to usurp Joker's place as Grissom's successor.

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• Bullying a Dragon: Like Antoine Rotelli before him, Ricorso really should though twice about challenging the Joker’s position of power, especially after the latter just killed Rotelli.
• Coat Cape: Wears his overcoat like this in both scenes he's in.
• Even Evil Has Standards: He's disturbed by the Joker's insanity, and his attempt to usurp him is motivated just as much by wanting to keep him away from any sort of position of power as it is by wanting said position for himself.
• Face Death with Dignity: Ricorso stares defiantly at Joker when his former colleague interrupts Ricorso's attempt to take over the syndicate. Given how plenty of clown-clad enforcers appear behind Joker, and Joker uses the same Faux Affably Evil tone of voice he did before killing Rotelli, Ricorso likely knows he's about to die, but his last moments aren't spent panicking.
• Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: Joker kills him by throwing a long, steel-tipped quill pen into his neck.
• We Hardly Knew Ye: Only around for two scenes before Joker kills him.

Antoine Rotelli

Antoine Rotelli

"What if we say no?"

Played By: Edwin Craig

Appearances: Batman

"And what's with that stupid grin?"

A ruthless Gotham mob boss subservient to Grissom.

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• Adaptation Name Change: His first name is Carmine in the novelization.
• Asshole Victim: He gets electrocuted to death by the Joker. Since he was a vicious crime boss who even the Joker considered to be a "vicious bastard", no one misses him all that much.
• Bullying a Dragon: He really shouldn't have mouthed off to the Joker.
• Cruel and Unusual Death: He gets electrocuted by the Joker's electric joybuzzer, leaving him a smoking, burnt corpse.
• We Hardly Knew Ye: He's only around for one scene before the Joker kills him.

Batman Returns

The Penguin

Oswald Cobblepot/The Penguin

"My name is not Oswald! It's Penguin! I am not a human being. I am an animal! Cold-blooded!"

Played by: Danny DeVito

Voiced by: Ben Hiura (Japanese), Philippe Peythieu (European French), Ronald France (Canadian French), Mauro Ramos (Brazilian Portuguese)

Appearances: Batman Returns

"You're just jealous because I'm a genuine freak and you have to wear a mask!"

The son of wealthy Gotham citizens who dumped him in the sewer due to his deformity, he was taken in by the Red Triangle Gang, eventually becoming their leader. Wanting to find out about his family, Oswald blackmails Max Shreck into helping him and he eventually becomes Gotham City's new darling, even running for Mayor. That is, until his true nature and intentions are exposed by Batman.

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• Actually Pretty Funny: Subverted. The Penguin seems to share a laugh with a campaign worker who jokes about his less-than-stellar looks, but it's really a ploy to get him to lower his guard so he can take revenge.
• Adaptation Personality Change: In the comics, the Penguin is often portrayed as being well-spoken, with gentleman-like manners. This version of the Penguin on the other hand is crude, thuggish, lecherous, unfriendly and lacking any manners.
• Adaptational Backstory Change: In the comics, Penguin has always lived a privileged life-style ever since he was born. Here, however, he has been forced to live in poverty down in the sewers after being abandoned by his parents.
• Adaptational Badass: In the comics, Penguin has often been portrayed as something of a joke villain, usually being a caricature of upper-class, privileged men in tuxedos, and never posing much of a threat towards Batman. In Batman Returns however, The Penguin is downright menacing compared to his comic book counterpart and a lot easier to take seriously.
  • He got ahold of blueprints to the Batmobile and hijacked control of it, very nearly putting Batman in a scenario where he would have killed an innocent old woman.
  • After Batman foils his plan to murder Gotham's first-born sons, Penguin arms his birds with rockets and has them march on Gotham, planning a full-scale genocide.
• Adaptational Sympathy: The Penguin gets this treatment by having been made a Tragic Villain. Unlike the "Gentleman of Crime" from the 60s TV series, this Penguin is callously abandoned by his parents for being a deformed freak and raised by circus freaks living in the sewer. It's this that leads him to resurface years later and pull a Villain with Good Publicity stunt to become mayor and enact his master plan.
• Adaptational Ugliness: You'd better believe it. Despite Cobblepot's pudgy body, short stature and beak-like nose in the comics, he's still relatively normal-looking. This version of Penguin is a pale, hunched, disfigured mutant with stringy hair and a mouth full of sharp teeth. His monstrous appearance is a vital part of his character and the film as a whole.
• Adaptational Villainy: While the comics Penguin was a crime boss, he was also an Affably Evil Wicked Cultured gentleman of crime and was genuinely deemed sane. Here, he's a deformed, psychotic, Ax-Crazy, sadistic, sexually-repressed child killer and would-be mass murderer, setting the stage for many future interpretations of the character to follow, including The Batman, the Batman: Arkham Series, and Gotham (and sometimes they go even further, as the Gotham Penguin once ate his own stepsiblings and fed them to his stepmother after they killed his father^note by accident, since they were trying to poison Oswald).
• Alas, Poor Villain: After being knocked through a skylight window and nearly drowning, then weakly emerging from the Arctic World pool burned, bleeding and vomiting up toxic waste, he dies completely unrepentant, still raving about how he intends to take Batman to Hell with him. But through it all, we can't ever forget that this is someone who was forced to grow up in a cold and lonely sewer ever since he was a baby, and for whom Bruce Wayne (who, as Batman, is largely responsible for his death) once expressed sympathy as a fellow orphan. The moving "funeral" that a group of emperor penguins hold for the villain helps to soften the blow, too.
• Alternate Self: Has one on Earth-Prime, Earth-9, Earth-66, and an as-yet-undesignated Earth.
• Ambiguously Jewish: Penguin was suspected of being this by a few particularly touchy Jewish groups, owing to his short stature, hooked nose, Moses-like upbringing and fondness for fish. And according to her tombstone, his mother's name was "Esther" (an exiled Hebrew queen from the Old Testament). Paradoxically, however, the tombstone was also topped by a huge Christian cross which gets a long, lingering closeup as part of the movie's rather unsettling biblical imagery. Though they could be messianic Jews.
• And Your Little Dog, Too!: After Shreck publicly washes his hands of the Penguin, the latter declares that he'll murder Chip Shreck, even though Chip had done nothing wrong by the Penguin.
• Animal Motifs: He's short and stout - no doubt from trying to adapt to cold weather while living in a sewer - and he loves fish.
• Anti-Villain: A major type II (Woobie Variant). Penguin is far from a good person, however; at the end of it all, he is a very broken, damaged individual who wants vengeance against society for rejecting him and being abandoned in the sewers by his parents, which is ultimately what made him into who he is today.
• Ax-Crazy: Big Time... He'll murder people for even remotely disagreeing with him (the fat clown learnt that the hard way), bit a consultant over an ill-advised jab about his appearance and is vengeful and vindictive to the point of wanting to murder babies. When that fails, he opts to blow up all of Gotham City.
• Badass Bookworm: In spite of his upbringing, Penguin shows himself to be quite educated. He keeps track of election dates, holds onto junk that could be used for blackmail and is studious enough to keep a record of all the firstborn sons of Gotham.
• Bad Black Barf: The Penguin discharges greenish-black gooey bile from his mouth after he gets attacked by bats and falls in the sewer water. Although he spits up bile throughout the movie considering his health problems and his growing up in a sewer full of radioactive chemical waste, it’s more prominent here.
• Bad Boss: He's not above executing his subordinates if they question him. Little wonder that they all abandoned him once they realized Batman had pinpointed their hideout.
• Bad People Abuse Animals: Zigzagged. On one hand, he killed the family cat when he was just a baby; which is likely what might have been part of what convinced his parents to abandon him. On the other hand, however, he is very kind towards Penguins and other types of birds, since the former adopted him.
• Ballroom Blitz: "You didn't invite me, so I crashed!"
• Bat Scare:
  • During Batman's attempted rescue of the Ice Princess, The Penguin releases a swarm of bats from his umbrella at her, causing her to fall off a building and to her death; after her body slams on the button, the Christmas tree lights up and unleashes a bigger bat swarm on the Gotham City citizens.
  Rats with wings, do your thing!
  • Batman later uses the same trick against The Penguin in their final fight at Arctic World; The Penguin eventually falls into the toxic pool.
• Becoming the Mask: The Penguin realizes that Shreck is trying to exploit him to get a Mayor who will approve Shreck's new power plant. However, the Penguin quickly warms to the idea on his own and decides that he likes the idea of becoming Mayor because, despite Max's obvious personal reasons, he does bring a lot of valid points that interest Oswald, particularly "unlimited poontang." Considering he's a guy who's spent his life isolated, Penguin is quite the repressed pervert.
• Berserk Button: Like any megalomaniac criminal mastermind, he doesn't respond well when his plans go awry. But what really seems to set Penguin off is rejection, because of his background. He tries to kill Catwoman when she rebuffs his advances, he opens fire on a crowd of Gothamites when they turn on him after his Engineered Public Confession, he tries to murder Max Shreck for ditching him after the mayoral bid failed, and it's implied (at least in the novel) that he murdered his own parents for originally abandoning him.
• Better to Kill Than Frighten: The Penguin kidnaps the Ice Princess with the help of Catwoman and holds her hostage at the top of a high-rise building, with the intention of framing Batman for the crime to cause him to lose public support. When Batman comes to rescue the Princess, Penguin uses bats to force the Princess over the edge of the building, framing Batman for murder as well as kidnapping. Catwoman is quietly horrified, saying she thought they were just going to scare the Princess, to which Penguin remarks "She looked pretty scared to me!"
• Big Bad: While he faces competition with Selina and Shreck, the Penguin is undeniably the greatest threat in Returns through his final attempt to blow up the city. Selina is an Anti-Villain in comparison to the two of them while Shreck is completely at the Penguin's mercy when their alliance falls apart.
• Big Bad Ensemble: With Catwoman and Shreck in Returns. While Shreck was able to manipulate the Penguin for the first half, Penguin managed to turn the tables on him and become the major threat in the final act. As the Penguin was trying to maintain a benevolent image during his run as mayor, Catwoman assists him in sowing chaos in Batman's life from the shadows.
• Blackmail: Penguin convinces Max to help him with his plans by threatening to reveal that his company produces toxic waste, that he owns half the hazardous buildings in Gotham, and that he had his old business partner murdered (“Remember me? I’m Fred’s hand!”).
  Penguin: Remember Max, you flush it, I flaunt it!
• Bloody Smile: Penguin flashes a bloody smile at a female assistant he finds attractive right after nearly biting off the nose of her boss.
• Break Them by Talking: Downplayed. During their first meeting, he taunts Batman by suggesting that his habit of wearing a mask is a sign of his cowardice. Later on, however, he comes to believe that Batman wears a mask in order to cope with the fact that he is jealous of Penguin because "I'm a genuine freak!" Grudgingly, Batman admits that his nemesis may have a point.
• Burial at Sea: After dying, his penguin flock guide his body into the sewer's waters.
• Child Hater: The Penguin plans to murder all of the first-born children of the rich people of Gotham to avenge his Parental Abandonment. Like with many people who would harm children, he's got zero qualms about killing and maiming anyone or anything else.
• Cloud Cuckoolander: Especially when running for Mayor. When asked for a platform, he proposes fighting global warming by introducing "global cooling" to "make the world a giant icebox."
• Composite Character:
  • Penguin controls a well-armed gang from the shadows and has sharpened teeth for attacking people when he doesn't have a weapon handy, similar to the Mutant Leader from The Dark Knight Returns.
  • His backstory is the same as that of Killer Croc: a sewer-dwelling outcast and ex circus freak born with mutant qualities resembling a particular species of animal.
  • Penguin also has clowns and other circus freaks as his henchmen, something that is usually associated with The Joker.
• Contrasting Sequel Antagonist: The Joker was a mass murderer who started out as a hitman, who had personal ties to Batman due to having killed his parents. While mass murder is still an element to Penguin's character, he's more of a dark analogue to Batman, and whose plan ends up hinging on becoming well-liked by the public. The Joker proudly started out as Gotham's top criminal before successfully reworking his image by bribing Gothamites, while the Penguin started out as sympathetic before switching to criminal mastermind.
• Corrupted Character Copy: Of Edward Scissorhands, a character from another film by Tim Burton. Both are pale outcasts with abnormal hands who become local celebrities until a mistake gets them run out of town. However, Edward was a genuinely good, if socially challenged, person whose ostracization is caused by a misunderstanding. Penguin, on the other hand, is a corrupt lech who uses his lonely upbringing to fish for sympathy, and his ostracization was caused by his own misdeeds.
  • And also of Joseph "The Elephant Man" Merrick. Like Merrick, Oswald is severely deformed and was abandoned to a circus freak-show by his parents, as well as being named after an animal due to his resemblance to said animal. But unlike Joseph, Penguin is completely malicious and vindictive. He even makes a speech that serves as a complete antithesis to Joseph's famous "I am not an animal" quote.
  Penguin: My name is not Oswald, it's Penguin! I am not a human being! I am an animal! Cold Blooded!
• Creepy Child: Back in his circus days as "The Aquatic Bird Boy", he was suspected of kids going missing in the circus fairground, and disappeared before he could be questioned.
• Creepy Shadowed Undereyes: Undoubtedly the most-unsettling thing about his appearance. Though it's unknown whether he was born with them, or just developed them from years of living underground.
• Dark Is Not Evil: Subverted. He passes himself off as this, but if anything, he's actually several magnitudes more monstrous than he looks.
• Deadpan Snarker: He definitely has some snarks over the course of the movie, with this line being the best example:
  "Right now, my troops are fanning out across town, for your children! Yes, for your first-born sons! The ones you left helpless, at home, so you could dress up like jerks, get juiced, and dance... badly".
• Depraved Dwarf: He's very short - either it's part of his birth defect or his growth was stunted from his unhealthy upbringing - and is one of the slimiest villains Batman has had to deal with.
• Dies Wide Open: The Penguin is shown with his eyes open while sinking down the sewer in a cloud of his own blood.
• Dirty Old Man: Well, he's only 33 years old but looks middle-aged at the youngest, but either way he's quite lecherous. At one point, he leers at a female image consultant and utters "I'd like to fill her void" and then mimics a woman telling him "I need you, Oswald," and later puts an election pin on a young woman's jacket to secretly fondle her breast. He's completely against running for mayor, feeling it would distract him from his own plans until Shreck uses two little words: "unlimited poontang." His alliance with Catwoman is also loaded with sexual frustration.
• Disabled in the Adaptation: While it became Depending on the Artist after Returns, before it, the Penguin in the comics and other media was never shown to have syndactyly (fused fingers).
• Disproportionate Retribution: He's prone to lashing out at anyone who so much as mildly slights him with over-the-top and brutal punishment. Examples of this include biting off his particularly annoying aide's nose for passive aggressively mocking him and shooting the Fat Clown for questioning his plan to kill all the first-born children of Gotham.
• Drives Like Crazy: Done deliberately when the Penguin overrides the Batmobile's control system so he can make Batman look unhinged.

"Maybe this is a bad time to mention this, but my license has expired!"

• Enfante Terrible: Even at a very young age, he was violent and cruel. It was a big factor in his parents trying to kill him.
• Engineered Public Confession: "You gotta admit, I played this stinking city like a harp from Hell!"
• Enemy Mine: Penguin teams up with Shreck and later Catwoman in Returns. Neither one is charmed by him and set the Penguin adrift as soon they no longer need him.
• Et Tu, Brute?: By the third act, the Penguin has lost all of his allies, save for his namesake. Shreck dumps him the moment his mayoral campaign goes to pot, his circus troupe hightail it out of the sewers when Batman tracks them down and he drives away Catwoman by trying to kill her.
• Even Evil Has Loved Ones: As monstrous as he is, Penguin genuinely cares for his penguins. In the end, it's shown the feeling is mutual when they give him a Burial at Sea.
• Evil Counterpart: To Bruce/Batman. He's the evil "orphaned freak" to Bruce's righteous "orphaned freak". They even have similar arsenals, creepy lairs, and a bizarre multi-purpose car or boat!
• Evil Is Hammy: Danny DeVito is clearly having a ball playing the iconic villain. Even when the Penguin's putting on a good guy facade he tends to milk it.
• Evil Wears Black: The Penguin dresses in a black, grey and white tuxedo. Additionally, he's got Creepy Shadowed Undereyes and Bad Black Barf.
• Eviler than Thou: To Max Shreck. Shreck may have killed people himself and plans to rob Gotham of its energy, but it's unlikely he would have stooped to murdering children or blowing the city to kingdom come.
• Failed Attempt at Drama: Rare non-comedic example. The Penguin emerges from icy, polluted water. Dramatic music begins to play. He staggers slowly towards Batman, who is preoccupied trying to find Selina in the burning wreckage. The music builds. He reaches for one of his lethal umbrellas. Batman turns around. The music swells...and it's just a trick umbrella. Too exhausted to try for another, Penguin tough-talks Batman before succumbing to his injuries and ingested pollutants.
• False Reassurance: The Penguin does this when he uses a swarm of bats to force the Ice Princess off the edge of a building, resulting in her death:
  Catwoman: You said you were just going to scare the Ice Princess.
  The Penguin: She looked pretty scared to me!
• The Farmer and the Viper: The people of Gotham showing him genuine kindness and even trying to elect him mayor does nothing to make him lose even a modicum of his misanthropy and cruelty; instead, he just gets distracted from his original plan and starts engaging in more strategic criminal activities, before reverting back to his original plan after being exposed.
• Fat Bastard: As usual with most incarnations of the character, he is overweight and a ruthless sociopath.
• Faux Affably Evil: When he successfully wins the town's sympathy vote (and starts to win their actual votes) and presents himself as a miserable victim of fate's hand, who nonetheless is willing to forgive the parents who abandoned him and expresses despair and outrage at the devastation caused by the Red Triangle Gang. It's complete bunk and in private, he is every bit the petty, vindictive, murderous, depraved, psychotic, misanthropic, and hideous monster he looks like. He only put his Evil Plan to murder all the first-born children of Gotham on ice because Shreck offered him the chance to be a Villain with Good Publicity, and when both those schemes are foiled by Batman, he goes so berserk that he tries to destroy the city just to avenge his own crappy life.
• Freudian Excuse: While the Penguin always had a vicious streak - even as a baby - being left to die in the sewers and subsequently growing up in a sideshow is what ultimately resulted in him becoming an unhinged, vengeful monster.
• From Nobody to Nightmare: The Penguin went from being a rich couple's abandoned baby to a sideshow freak to a gang leader to a local celebrity and mayoral candidate to an out-and-out terrorist.
• Fur and Loathing: The Penguin wears a bulky fur coat. Since his Establishing Character Moment showed him killing a cat, the connections are obvious.
• Gonk: He isn't particularly attractive, though he'd tell you otherwise. That nose in particular doesn't look like anything you'd see in real life.
• The Grotesque: His plan for revenge on Gotham involves appearing to be merely this.
  • Alfred even specifically refers to him as a "ghastly grotesque" at one point.
• Hair-Trigger Temper: It takes next to no prompting to suffer some violent retribution from the Penguin. Crowning moments include biting a consultant's nose for mocking his appearance, trying to kill Catwoman for rejecting his advances and shooting a clown just for speaking out of line.
• Handshake of Doom: The Penguin is able to convince Max Schreck to help "reintroduce" him to the people of Gotham by blackmailing the unscrupulous businessman with evidence of his many, many crimes...including the severed hand of his former partner, Fred Atkins. Shaken, Schreck agrees to his terms, whereupon the Penguin gives him a handshake to seal the deal...with Fred's hand. Their deal ends with the Penguin setting out to kill all the firstborn children of Gotham, with Schreck being condemned to be executed alongside them.
• Hoist by His Own Petard: The Penguin appears to have the Mayoral race in the bag until Bruce & Alfred broadcast his previous hateful rants over the loudspeakers. Later, after his plot to kill all the first-born sons of Gotham is foiled, Penguin straps rockets to his hundreds of penguins in order to destroy the city. Alfred is able to jam the signal used to control them, sending them off to follow a new beacon. When Batman arrives at his underground lair, Penguin wields a sword-umbrella, only for Batman to simply pull out a small remote control with a blinking red button. His eyes shift from the control, to something on the opposite side of the screen. Penguin does likewise, and sees his penguin army. He snaps — even further than he already had — and is able to take the controller and press the button. The rockets launch, destroying what remains of the park, but also releasing a swarm of bats from the Batskiboat, which immediately descends upon Penguin. He stumbles backward, through the ceiling glass, and into the icy, polluted water.
• Humiliation Conga: The final act of the movie basically has one thing after another going wrong for the Penguin. After he failed to kill Batman by sabotaging the Batmobile, the Dark Knight uses an Engineered Public Confession to reveal his true face to Gotham, ruining his chances to become mayor and obliterating the Villain with Good Publicity image he had worked the entire movie to build. He then tries to take revenge by kidnapping and killing all the children of Gotham's elite, only for Batman to stop his gang, save the children before he can even get his hands on them, and taunt him with a letter just to rub salt on the wound. Infuriated, the Penguin attempts to destroy Gotham using his pet penguins as a personal army equipped with rockets, but Batman is able to steal control of the army from him and use them to destroy most of his hideout. His gang abandons him, and his final fight ends up completely one-sided, with Batman throwing him in the chemical wastes of his lair using the very same trick he used to kill the Ice Princess. Exhausted, he makes one final attempt to kill his opponent from behind, only to accidentally pick the one umbrella in his collection that was harmless, before dying from his wounds.
• Incoming Ham: "YOU DIDN'T INVITE ME, SO I CRASHED! HAHAHAHAHA!!!"
• In Name Only: The only things this version of the Penguin shares with his comics counterpart are his attire, physical appearance (excluding the deformities), umbrella weaponry and love for birds. Other than that, he may as well be a completely different character.
• Irony: Penguins are known for being cute and sociable creatures. Oswald is hideous and will attack friend and foe alike at the drop of a hat.
• Jabba Table Manners: Clearly displays these while gobbling down a raw fish.
• Karmic Death: The Penguin kills the Ice Princess by terrorizing her with a swarm of bats, causing her to lose her balance. Batman later unleashes a swarm of bats on the Penguin that chase him through a skylight window. The injuries sustained by the fall later prove fatal.
• Kick the Dog:
  • When the Fat Clown objects to his plan to kill Gotham's firstborn children (which is vile as hell in itself), Penguin just takes out a revolver and shoots him.
    Fat Clown: Killing sleeping children? Isn't that a little... err...?
    Penguin: (BANG!) No, it's a lot!
  • The Penguin also tries to run down a little old lady while going on a rampage with the remotely-hijacked Batmobile. Batman takes back control just in time to keep her from being splatted.
• Lack of Empathy: Best shown when Max persuades Penguin to take him instead of his son, Chip.
  Max Shreck: If you have an iota of human feeling left, take me instead.
  Penguin: I don't, so no.
• Large Ham: Bombastic doesn’t even begin to describe him. You can tell Danny Devito did not pull ANY punches.
• Last Breath Bullet: Subverted. With Batman distracted with the death of Max Shreck and the disappearance of Catwoman, the mortally-wounded Penguin rises from the sewer water and tries to shoot Batman with one of his umbrellas. Fortunately, he "picked the cute one," and dies.
  Penguin: The heat's getting to me... I'll murder you momentarily. But first, I need a cool drink... of ice... water...
• Laughably Evil: His disgusting behavior, dirty comments towards all the women he sees and crazy personality can be pretty amusing to watch. Moreso if you're accustomed to seeing Danny Devito as Frank Reynolds.
• Looks Like Orlok: Moreso than he does a penguin, anyway; he's got the ashen pallor, sunken eyes, Sinister Schnoz, bald head, and all-black ensemble down pat, though he's considerably shorter and fatter than the trope namer.
• Loophole Abuse: When Catwoman agrees to help the Penguin frame Batman by kidnapping the Ice Princess, she takes at face value his promise that he is going to scare the girl. Little does she suspect that he intends to scare her to death!
• Madman in the Attic: His earliest life while his parents were still attempting to raise him; they kept him locked up in a cage hidden away from the public.
• Mind-Control Device: Subverted with the Penguin's spiral-patterned umbrella:
  Maximillian 'Max' Shreck: What is that, supposed to hypnotize me?
  The Penguin: No, just give you a splitting headache.
• Misanthrope Supreme: It's made more than obvious that Penguin has a severe hatred for all of humankind, going as far as to kill his own henchmen whenever they annoy him or defy him in the slightest, and attempting to murder every newborn in Gotham.
• Misplaced Retribution: His idea of getting back at his parents for abandoning them is by murdering all of Gotham's children, despite the fact they had nothing to do with what happened to him. (see Vengeance Feels Empty)
• Moses Archetype: A villainous example of the trope; his parents abandoned him in the sewers when he was just a baby, and he was soon adopted by a traveling circus and put to work in their freak show. He soon returns home and is able to gain a following that puts him on even footing with a politcal leader. Then he attempts to unleash several atrocities on the city, with the most prominent one being killing the first-born sons.
• Moses in the Bulrushes: Oswald Cobblepot's parents, horrified by his appearance and cruelty, put him into a basket and drop him into a creek. He is then carried away by murky waters into the sewers and adopted by...penguins.
• Murder by Remote Control Vehicle: The Penguin installs a remote control device in the Batmobile and uses it to try and kill Batman and some Gothamites while Batman is driving.
• Nasal Trauma: The Penguin inflicts this on a member of his campaign staff, taking a massive bite out of his nose and sending blood gushing all over the place.
• No Celebrities Were Harmed: This iteration of Penguin has some similarities with real-life American freak show performer Grady Stiles. Not just only was this version of the Penguin once involved as circus sideshow performer, they also even had the same condition of Ectrodactyly and also had short tempers of which lead both of these figures to murder. In a strange coincidence, Stiles was killed the same year as Batman Returns' release.
• Not Good with Rejection: He does not take rejection well, as Catwoman and the citizens of Gotham learn. No doubt influenced from being abandoned by his parents as a baby.
• "Not So Different" Remark: To Batman.
  "You're just jealous because I'm a genuine freak, and you have to wear a mask!"
• Offing the Annoyance: He shoots a clown for questioning his plan for revenge.
• Obviously Evil: He's very sinister looking, like all the other Batman villains. The general public are convinced otherwise, as he manufactures a heroic first impression while playing up his vulnerable side.
• Papa Wolf: The Penguin goes ballistic after Batman has Alfred jam the frequency over which he is sending neurological commands to his pet penguins. ("MY BABIIIIES!")
• Parasol of Pain: He wouldn't be the Penguin without them. He has umbrellas that double as a machine gun, sword, flamethrower, helicopter, a cute one to lure children, and one with a black and white spiral that he starts spinning at Shreck to give him a splitting headache.
• Parental Abandonment: His parents dumped him in a sewer because he was deformed and violent.
• Pet the Dog: The only times we see any form of kindness from him is when he's tending to his penguins. Even then he was willing to march them to their deaths.
• Phlegmings: The Penguin has a perpetual trickle of an oil-like bile running down his chin.
• Practically Joker: As part of his Composite Character status, he takes on several traits that come more from the Joker than the Penguin of the comics. His gang has a Circus of Fear and Monster Clown motif. He has physical deformities including pale skin (granted many Bat-rogues are at least partially deformed). He's a Laughably Evil Faux Affably Evil Ax-Crazy Large Ham with a hefty dose of Psychopathic Manchild. He concocts a plan, mostly For the Evulz, so monstrous that even some of his henchmen are disturbed by it. He has a Mysterious Past where it's unclear what exactly happened between his parents abandoning him and where he is today, with only a few hints given about it. Finally, he sees Batman and himself as two sides of the same coin, both "freaks", with the only difference being that Batman has to wear a mask, while Penguin's freakishness is authentic.
• Pre-emptive Declaration: The Penguin has one where he responds to a crack from one of his image consultants which has everyone laughing (including Penguin, who laughs right along with them).
  Penguin: Still, could be worse! My nose could be gushing blood!
  [Everyone laughs except Josh, who looks mystified]
  Josh: Your nose could be...what do you mean by that — !
  [The Penguin proceeds to viciously bite Josh's nose and draw blood.]
• Psychopathic Manchild: He spends a good deal of screentime wearing only a onesie-like garment stained with his own spittle and slobber. Furthermore, he rides around in a giant toy rubber-duck vehicle and amuses himself with an umbrella (among his collection of genuinely deadly ones) hung with little plastic animals reminiscent of a mobile found in a baby's crib. ("Shit! Picked the cute one!") Actually, he is more of a Type C, a quite sane and intelligent (though, again, extremely evil) man who simply has not been able to grow up because of his Daddy Issues.
• Raised By Penguins: With a little educational help from a gang of clowns.
• Red Right Hand: Both his hands are noticeably deformed, having a thumb and an index finger each, but the remaining three fused together in a manner that resembles the flippers of a penguin.
• Resigned to the Call: The Penguin isn't very keen on becoming Mayor of Gotham City, and only agrees to it so Shreck will help him with his own goals. It's later subverted when the Penguin decides that he could actually enjoy being Mayor, along with all the trappings that would come with it. As well as reclaiming his birthright his parents have denied him.
• Rousing Speech: To his penguins.
  "My dear penguins, we stand on a great threshold. It's okay to be scared, many of you won't be coming back. Thanks to Batman, the time has come to punish all God's children! First, second, third and fourth-born! Why be biased? Male and female! Hell, the sexes are equal with their erogenous zones BLOWN SKY HIGH! FORWARD MARCH! THE LIBERATION OF GOTHAM HAS BEGUN!"
• Roaring Rampage of Revenge: The Penguin's main motive. He was denied a normal childhood, so he murders other children out of spite. Batman kills his henchmen, so he frames him for killing innocents. The civilians turn on him once it becomes clear he's not so innocent, so the Penguin attempts a killing spree.
• Running Both Sides: The Penguin has his gang (to which he appears to have no connection whatsoever in the public's mind) commit random acts of violence throughout Gotham City in order to make the city's current mayor look weak, while simultaneously running for mayor himself and claiming he's the only one who can restore order (and technically, he's telling the truth!). One of his allies even refers to "the Gulf of Tonkin" and "the Reichstag fire", both real-life events that might suggest to naïve viewers that both were False Flag Operations, when in fact they genuinely happened and were only exploited afterward.
• Same Character, But Different: This Penguin does resemble his comics counterpart, dresses in very similar clothes and wields umbrella guns, however this version of the character is different in every other way. For starters, the comics version wasn't deformed or abandoned in the sewers by his parents, and he wasn't as vulgar or psychotic as this version, nor was he willing to murder all the children in Gotham.
• Secret-Identity Identity: Even after he finds his birth family's grave and publicly declares himself to be Oswald Cobblepot, it's heavily implied to be an act on the Penguin's part to advance his agenda of murdering the firstborns. Once he's outed as a corrupt politician who hates the people of Gotham, Oswald rejects his birth name and completely embraces the name Penguin, a cold-blooded freak and a monster.
• Serial Escalation: Once The Penguin is disgraced from his mayoral bid, he very quickly degenerates in his desire for revenge. Initially, he wants to take out all the first-born sons of Gotham City. When that is thwarted by Batman, he sends an army of penguins with guided missiles to try to kill them all (per Rousing Speech).
• The Sociopath: If the fact that he murders people without the slightest bit of provocation, and plans to murder small children, wasn't clear enough to make him a textbook example of this, he outright says to Max that he does not have single iota of human feeling left in him.
• Spared by the Adaptation: In the children's adaptation, "The Penguin's Plot", The Penguin survived the events of the film; the book ends with him being run off the stage by the Gotham citizens after his Engineered Public Confession.
• Straw Nihilist: Though not outright stated, Penguin doesn't seem to believe that life has any purpose, which he makes very clear by living a whole life of vengeance and misanthropy, hurting and killing literally anyone who crosses him.
• Tempting Fate: The Penguin issues a challenge to Batman upon their first face to face meeting, asking if he actually thinks he can win; Batman coolly retorts that things change. Sure enough, Batman is eventually the victor in the struggle between the two for Gotham.
• That Man Is Dead: After he was exposed as a fraud by Batman, The Penguin renounces his birthname and his humanity upon arriving back at the Arcric World, as seen in the above quote.
• Trademark Favorite Food: The only food he's ever seen eating is raw fish, fitting with him being a self-proclaimed animal.
• Tragic Villain: Played With. Being abandoned by his parents and forced to live in the sewers has twisted Penguin psychologically, turning him into the vengeful, bloodthirsty madman he is today. However, in the first act of the movie, we can see Oswald even as a little boy being violent when he killed the family cat for no reason. This is how his parents realized he was already born a monster, not because of his body deformities but because he's evil at heart, which in turn convinces his parents to dispose of him. In the present, he puts on the act that he's an unfortunate guy who just wants a place in the society again after being rejected by his parents because of said body deformities, while trying to hide his own sociopathic and murderous tendencies for which his parents really rejected him. Penguin's evil is born both from his experiences and just who he is at heart.
• Troubling Unchildlike Behavior: The Cobblepots hardly like having a deformed son in the first place, but it's not until Oswald drags the family cat into his "crib" and implicitly kills it with his bare hands — at the age of somewhere between one and three years old — that they throw him into the river to drown and/or freeze.
• Unholy Matrimony: Zig-zagged. The Penguin tries to make this happen by making more than one advance towards Catwoman, but she has no physical interest in him whatsoever. When she turns down his marriage proposal, he angrily ends the partnership and tries to kill her.
• Uninvited to the Party: The Penguin crashes the Max-squerade Ball late in the film in spectacular fashion, not having been invited due to being exposed for the villain that he was. He proceeds to try to take Chip Shreck, Max Shreck's son, only for Max to volunteer in Chip's place.
• Vengeance Feels Empty: In the Craig Shaw Gardner novelization, it's heavily implied that he was the one who put his Abusive Parents in those graves. In which case – it clearly didn't make him feel any better in the long run, given that he's still vengeful enough to be a Would Hurt a Child Omnicidal Maniac at the end.
• Villainous Breakdown: The Penguin has a multi-tier one after the fallout of his campaign. First, he renounces his humanity and tries to kill all of Gotham's first-born sons. After Batman sends him a letter letting him know the children have been saved, he freaks out again and decides to nuke Gotham Square with rocket-launching penguins. When Batman and Alfred jam the signal and his goons abandon him, he freaks out again and goes out to face Batman in the Duckmobile. He then uses the penguins to bomb his own base in the slim hope he'll kill Batman along with himself.
• Villain Team-Up: With Max Shreck and later Catwoman, both of whom ultimately turn their backs on him through his own hubris.
• Villain with Good Publicity: During his mayoral bid, although he is soon brought down by an Engineered Public Confession.
• Where Does He Get All Those Wonderful Toys?: Y'know, wait, where does Penguin get the thousand-plus penguin-scale explosive rockets and penguin mind control gear for his final assault on Gotham, or all the electronics for hijacking the Batmobile, for that matter?
• While Rome Burns: As his Red Triangle Gang riots in the streets mere blocks away, Gotham City mayoral candidate Oswald Cobblepot (a.k.a. the Penguin) goes for a stroll in Gotham Plaza. Batman eventually makes his way to the plaza and demands to know what Oswald is up to. "Touring the riot scene. Gravely assessing the devastation," Oswald replies with mock seriousness.
• Wicked Pretentious: The Penguin's typical depiction as a Wicked Cultured Man of Wealth and Taste was deconstructed in Batman Returns, where he's revealed to be the grotesquely deformed member of a wealthy family who dumped him in the river and left him for dead when he was still a baby. Although obviously intelligent and certainly no stranger to fine clothes, this version of the Penguin is quite vulgar, with thuggish manners and distasteful sexual appetites.
• Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds: Really, you can't blame him for becoming the way he is today. He was disfigured since birth, and his aristocratic parents tried to drown him in the sewers (although to be fair to them, he did kill the family’s cat before they tried to drown him). He was then found by a traveling circus and raised in the freak show. While the public views him with sympathy, he has become a warped sociopath, plotting to kill all the first-born sons of Gotham City. When Batman foils him, he straps rockets to his hundreds (thousands?) of pet penguins, intending to use them in a suicide bombing to kill all of Gotham which, as the only setting we see, is extremely Omnicidal in context. And yet, you still can't help but pity him at his death.
• Would Hit a Girl: Clocks the Ice Princess with a stolen batarang so hard it draws blood.
  • Later tries to murder Catwoman by strangulation/fatal fall after she rejects his advances.
• Would Hurt a Child: Has no problem kidnapping children to further his agenda, and wants to throw the children of Gotham's elite into a "deep dark watery grave." The files that Bruce digs up on imply that he's been a serial child murderer for years.
• Younger Than They Look: If the prologue is to be believed, he is 33 years old.

Catwoman

Selina Kyle/Catwoman

"I am Catwoman. Hear me roar!"

Played by: Michelle Pfeiffer

Voiced by: Reiko Tajima (Japanese), Emmanuelle Bondeville (European French), Élise Bertrand (Canadian French), Mônica Rossi (Brazilian Portuguese)

Appearances: Batman Returns | Catwoman (2004) (photograph only) | Batman '89

"I don't know about you, Miss Kitty, but I feel so much yummier."

Max Shreck's secretary, Selina Kyle finds out her boss' plans to take energy from Gotham citizens and is pushed out a window in an attempt to kill her. She survives, but suffers a psychotic breakdown that results in her becoming Catwoman.

---

• Adaptational Job Change: She was a Classy Cat-Burglar in the comics and all other media. Here, she's a secretary. She doesn't become a thief until Batman '89.
• Adaptational Sympathy: With her only appearance prior to this being the 1960s tv series, which showed her as The Vamp and a Card-Carrying Villain, this version getting thrown out the window by her corrupt boss when she finds out his evil plans and going insane after (apparently) surviving the whole ordeal certainly makes her turn to villainy more understandable.
• Adaptational Ugliness: Catwoman's costume resembles a dominatrix bodysuit held together with white stiching that unravels over the course of the film to make her look increasingly unstable. In the comics Catwoman's outfits were more fashionable.
• Adaptational Villainy: Zigzagged given how many versions of Catwoman exist. Compared to quite a few, where Selina is merely an amoral mostly sane jewel thief who doesn't have any murderous intent she comes across as quite dark here, since she's a revenge obsessed and mentally unstable arsonist with an even more sadistic streak (though it bears to mention that she only targets empty buildings of her enemy). When compared to the other versions however where Catwoman is a sociopathic killer no different from the Joker and the Riddler she does come across as a good deal more restrained. By the time of Batman '89 she's overcome her issues and is closer to her depiction in the comics.
• Adaptation Dye-Job: Selina/Catwoman is usually depicted as having dark hair, but is blonde in Returns. Much like the Penguin's redesign, the change in hair color carried into the animated series.
• Adaptation Personality Change:
  • The craziest, most neurotic version of Catwoman in any media. This is implied to be fuelled by venegeance, as she reappears in Batman '89 with a much calmer disposition, which she credits to her new therapist.
  • She lacks her comic counterpart's kleptomania, choosing to cause property damage rather than rob a place. Shreck tried to briber her with money, jewels and "a VERY big ball of string". Catwoman ignores all of his offers.
• All There in the Script: In the shooting script and novelization, Selina has been attending rape prevention, martial arts, and other self-defense classes, according to messages left on her answering machine, which could explain why she had fighting skills as Catwoman.
• Alternate Animal Affection: Catwoman "kisses" Batman under the mistletoe by giving him a long lick from his chin to his nose.
• Alternate Self: Catwoman has one on Earth-9, Earth-66, Earth-203, and Earth-686.
• Ambiguously Bi: Even though she is shown to have (or to have had) two heterosexual romances in the film (and is suspected of a third one by Bruce), there are things about Selina Kyle that make you wonder. Like the way she spoke to the female victim after saving her from the mugger. Or when she manhandles the Ice Princess in a frankly kinky manner with her whip. And then there's her contempt for male sexuality ("You poor guys — always confusing your pistols with your privates!"), as well as some lines in the script (cut from the film) that suggest Selina's resentment at having been born female. The novelization even has Penguin wondering if she swings both ways and entertaining the idea of having a FFM threesome with her. Back when the spin-off Catwoman (2004) film was first in development (before Michelle Pfeiffer dropped out and Halle Berry replaced her), the screenplay for that film actually ran with this and removed all doubt by having Catwoman engage in some girl on girl action... in more ways than one.
• Ambiguously Evil: She is mostly motivated by a desire for vengeance on Shreck for trying to kill her, but she shows little care for the survival of innocent bystanders and is briefly drawn into an alliance with the truly evil Penguin.
  • She was clearly disturbed by Penguin's callous murder of the Ice Princess, and seems to genuinely believe that eliminating the heinous robber baron Max Schrek from life will make Gotham, if not the world, a better place.
  • For all of her violent tendencies Catwoman only kills one person, but then again she also had some understandable reasons for doing so.
  • In Batman '89 Catwoman has become an anti-hero, only targeting people who need a good dressing down. She's responsible for the death of Two-Face, but only because she was trying to protect Bruce and didn't know he had a plan that would have kept Harvey alive.
• Ambiguously Human: Ambiguously Alive, anyway. It's never made clear whether she survived being pushed out that high window (she only awakens after the alley cats lick and bite her, and up to that point she appeared pretty dead), and given Catwoman's borderline superhuman and/or supernatural powers (though many have noted there are logical in-universe explanations for those) it's possible that Catwoman/Selina is no longer human, but some kind of avenging angel/zombie/feline hybrid.
• Anger Montage: Selina's breakdown takes the form of her trashing her apartment.
• Animal Motifs: Like cats, Selina can alternate between affectionate and livid without warning.
• Anti-Villain: Selina is a Type II. While Catwoman may cause property damage and pick fights (against both criminals and vigilantes who stand in her way) for the thrill of it, Selina does reveal a kinder side to Bruce that shows she's not completely beyond redemption.
• Bad Girl Comic: An Ambiguously Evil Dark Action Girl vigilante in a very flattering costume who was brought back to life by mystical alley cats, is out for revenge against her former boss, and is willing to work with the villain to get that revenge? This was about as close as you could get to the genre in a PG-13 movie in 1992.
• Beautiful All Along: Dowdy secretary Selina Kyle goes through a near-death experience, trashes her apartment, and stitches together a vinyl suit to become the evil and sexy Catwoman. Bruce is taken aback as soon as he meets her post-transformation.
  • In the novelization Shreck's son Chip is taken aback when he sees her at the masquerade ball looking more glamorous than she's ever looked and tries to get a dance from her. She ignores him.
• Beauty Is Never Tarnished: Subverted. After Selina is pushed through a window to her (presumed) death. She has a large, bloody cut on her head from where a shard of glass slashed her, and upon landing in the alley, she loses consciousness and lays in the snow for so long that her skin goes icy white. Then about a dozen cats show up and crawl over her body, one of them chewing her fingers and drawing a fair amount of blood. Then her eyes roll around in their sockets, Undertaker-style, as she regains consciousness. Then, upon arriving home, she slowly undergoes a Heroic Breakdown that begins with her messily downing an entire carton of milk, spilling a good portion of it on her dress and leaving her with a "milk mustache"; she can also be seen drooling the milk from her maniacally grinning lips as she goes crazy in subsequent shots.
• Best Served Cold: Catwoman kills Max Shreck at the end of the film for his crimes, making her life even worse both as a Bad Boss and attempting to kill her for learning too much.
• Betty and Veronica: Both her identities are this to Bruce/Batman.
  • She's also something of a Veronica to Vicki Vale's Betty from the previous movie. She even makes a jab at the preppiness of Vicki's name.
• Big Bad Ensemble: With Penguin and Shreck in Returns. While the Penguin plays the good guy, Catwoman provides the physical conflict.
• Big "NO!": Selina has one after coming home from a near death experience and listening to her messages of her demanding mother and annoying beauty sales. It doesn't help that the latter is endorsed by the company whose head man has literally just thrown her out a window, and more specifically the fact that it talks about how, after she tries the pitch's perfume, her boss will want to arrange "A candlelight staff meeting for two," the final straw that sends Selina over the edge and begins her transformation into Catwoman.
• Break the Cutie: She was already unhappy due to her bad work environment and lack of social life, and Shreck trying to kill her drove her completely insane.
• Break Them by Talking: She tries appealing to Batman's sympathetic side twice in the same scene. First she plays fragile when he hits her, then she starts seductively caressing his chest while asking if he can "find the woman behind the cat". Both times she gets the drop on him.
• Broken Bird: Selina Kyle was already this thanks to Parental Abandonment and a poor work environment. Then Max Shreck tried to off her. And then she snapped. Her speech to Bruce before she confronts Max Shreck (see Bittersweet Ending) says it all.
• The Bus Came Back: She's revealed to be alive and well in Batman '89, having recovered from her madness and now operating as a vigilante.
• …But He Sounds Handsome: Walking down the street, Bruce and Selina comment on the news coverage of Batman and Catwoman:
  Selina Kyle: I heard on TV that Catwoman's thought to weigh 140 pounds. [scoffs] I dunno how these hacks sleep at night.
• Cats Have Nine Lives: She seems to genuinely believe that she has this, and actively counts off the number of potentially fatal things she survives: dropped/pushed from a great height by Shreck, Batman, and Penguin; shot four times by Shreck; then decides to save one life "for next Christmas" before electrocuting Shreck and herself with a kiss.
• Chance Meeting Between Antagonists: Bruce Wayne and Selina Kyle are at the same party when they realize that they are enemies (i.e., Selina figures out that Bruce is Batman, and he that she is Catwoman) while they dance together.
• Clothing Damage: Catwoman's costume gets progressively damaged as the film wears on; the script even refers to it as being "arousingly tattered" at one point. The film ends with her returning with her costume inexplicably repaired. She eventually shows up in Batman '89 wearing a costume that's a mix of her movie and comicbook designs.
• Cloudcuckoolander: At least some of the time, like in the scene where she leaves unclear to Bruce and Max just how severely she might be suffering from amnesia, rambling her way through irrelevant childhood anecdotes of a pregnant nun and the time she went commando at school and a boy peeked up her skirt. And where, oh where, did the "dirty limerick" idea come from? The amnesia scene may have been Selina employing Obfuscating Stupidity to taunt Shreck.
• Combat Pragmatist: She fights dirty all of the time, tends to manipulate her opponents into a false sense of security, and uses any sort of weapon she can get her hands on, from a whip to homemade claws to a taser.
• Combat Stilettos: She does action scenes in ludicrous heels.
• Complexity Addiction: Penguin's plan? Rig the Batmobile to self-destruct the next time that Batman gets in. Hers? Frame him so he can't become a martyr; it works... until a still-living Batman is able to strike back at them.
• Composite Character: Her dual personality nature is similar to that of Two-Face.
• Crazy in the Head, Crazy in the Bed: Discussed; at one point, Selina quips: "It's the so-called 'normal' guys that always let you down. Sickos never scare me. At least they're committed."
• Creepy Blue Eyes: Selina's glasses draw attention away from her eye color, but once she's reborn and out for blood, she stops wearing glasses altogether, showing off her near-white eyes.
• Dark Action Girl: A textbook example - violent, ruthless, beautiful and radiating depraved sexuality.
• Darker and Edgier: In the comics Catwoman was one of the more fun members of Batman's rogues gallery, not committing crimes any more heinous than theft and appeared to be sound of mind outside of her kleptomania. This Catwoman is a Bomb Throwing Anarchist and signs of intense psychological instability.
• Dating Catwoman: With Bruce/Batman in Returns. When the two realize each other's secret identities, Selina is conflicted over whether or not she should turn on the only man that's treated her with any decency.
• Deadpan Snarker: Even before becoming Catwoman, she had an acerbic sense of humor.
• Death-Activated Superpower: Apparently how Catwoman is "born."
• Despair Event Horizon: Selina crosses this after Shreck pushes her out a high window when she uncovers his plans to steal energy from Gotham citizens.
• Determinator: Catwoman will stop at nothing, not even four rounds from a .38 revolver through her, to get revenge on Shreck for everything he put her through.
• Disabled in the Adaptation: As while comicbook Catwoman has had some issues with mental illness early on, she was for the most part sane. This version is a Psychopathic Womanchild.
• The Dog Bites Back: Or rather the cat. Max Shreck throws Selina Kyle out of her office when he suspects she knows something. This results in her transformation into Catwoman, who uses her (supposedly) last life to kill Shreck with a literal Kiss of Death (courtesy of electric wires and a stungun).
• Do I Really Sound Like That?: Catwoman is shocked when Penguin accuses her of "sending mixed signals."
• Dominatrix: Catwoman wears a skintight black suit with high heels, a corset and mask, complete with a whip. She also talks in a seductive tone while inflicting pain on her quarry.
• Don't Create a Martyr: Discussed by her when she teams up with The Penguin to kill Batman; she suggested that they need to turn Batman into a pariah first.
• Dressed Like a Dominatrix: Catwoman wears a costume similar to the one from the 1966 Batman TV series, but covered in stitches symbolizing its hand-made origin. She also wields a whip. She's presented as the "wild side" of a meek, timid woman.
• Enemy Mine: With the Penguin. She's openly repulsed by him the whole time and he's too horny to realize, but they both want Batman out of the way.
• Even Evil Has Standards: She's genuinely shocked that Penguin got the Ice Princess killed.
• Evil Counterpart: To Bruce/Batman. She's the evil mask in the night to Bruce's good mask in the night.
• Evil Makeover: Selina Kyle's transformation into Catwoman, coupled with Evil Feels Good:

"I don't know about you, Miss Kitty, but I feel so much yummier..."

• Extreme Omnivore: Catwoman does this to The Penguin's bird and keeps it in her mouth for a while (which is very real, by the way, as Michelle Pfeifer actually put the live bird in her mouth and held it there during the shot)...until Penguin threatens her cat with an umbrella knife and lets it out.
• Femme Fatale: She's revenge obsessed, and bordering the line between Anti-Villain and outright evil, but she's also beautiful and not afraid to use her sexiness and seduction tactics against Batman.
• Forceful Kiss: While she has Batman pinned they realize that they are under some mistletoe, so she leans in and gives him a big lick from his chin to his nose (the cat form of kissing).
• For Halloween, I Am Going as Myself: Selina goes to Shreck's masquerade ball unmasked. Since both identify with their alter egos more than their civilian selves, it's actually an inverted trope.
• Freak Out: Just like Bruce, Selina's transformation into Catwoman starts with her screaming before trashing her apartment. When the Penguin makes an attempt on her life, Catwoman has a second one.
• From Nobody to Nightmare: She was an ordinary bullied secretary before being pushed too far.
• Girl Of The Movie: Bruce and Selina are strongly mutually attracted even after they know each other's costumed identities, but the moral difference between them is too much of a barrier.
  • Selina breaks out of this mold in Batman '89 by merit of getting a second appearance, though her relationship with Bruce falls just short of romantic despite their lingering feelings for each other.
• Glass-Shattering Sound: When she gets dropped through the roof of a greenhouse, she sits up in a daze and lets out a scream that shatters all the glass.
• Glurge Addict: Selina Kyle's apartment at the beginning is sickeningly sweet in direct contrast to her obviously unhappy life; plush toys, dollhouses, and pink on every surface. Not helping is the apartment is clearly a slum that's been painted pink in a lazy attempt to appear feminine. Selina gets rid of all this stuff once she starts to become Catwoman.
• Going Commando: Selina mentions a time when she forgot to wear underwear to school and that only one boy noticed. He's dead now.
• Gosh Dang It to Heck!:
  • When Selina realizes that Max has left his speech for the tree lighting ceremony up in his office, all she can think to say is a very calm "Oh, darn." Her language does get cruder as the film goes along.
  • After she tries to suggest something at the board meeting where she is introduced:
  Selina: "Actually more of a question" ...Stupid corn dog! [Quietly] Corn dog, corn dog...
• Groin Attack: Catwoman kicks Batman down there with a heeled boot, but she realizes that this attack isn't very effective against Batman, as he isn't showing much flinch from the effect of that attack.
• Heel–Face Revolving Door: Catwoman just can't decide whether she wants to be a villain or...well, if not quite a hero, at least a sympathetic Anti-Villain. Michelle Pfeiffer herself said in an interview that she didn't know whether her character is "a good guy" or "a bad guy." It's this complete ambiguity that largely makes this movie feel as dark and adult and unsettling as The Dark Knight.
  Bruce: (after Selina tells him of her plan to kill Shreck) Who the hell do you think you are?
  Selina: (in tears) I don't know anymore, Bruce...
  • As the conclusion to Batman '89 shows, her attempt at doing something genuinely heroic ends up backfiring quite tragically.
• Hell-Bent for Leather: Averted, as her catsuit was made out of latex, vacuum-sealed to the point of discomfort, and coated with a wet silicone lubricant to create the illusion of sheen, and to hide the fact that the stitches were not stitched into the fabric, but glued on after the fact because latex is notoriously easy to tear (so much so that the production team had to make more than 40 catsuits).
• Heroic BSoD: Or Villainous BSoD, depending on how you look at it. Selina suffers one of these (complete with psychotic breakdown and terrifying music) upon returning home after Shreck threw her out the window.
• He's Not My Boyfriend: Earlier in the film, after Max's attempt to kill her, Selina lashes out in anger when a telemarketer's message suggests a perfume that would seduce her boss. Later, when Bruce believe Selina has an interest in Max, she laughs at the suggestion and clarifies she's come to kill him.
• Hypocritical Humor: Selina corrects Bruce calling her a secretary to "executive assistant" (although she later jokingly admits "secretary"). Moments later, though, she mocks Vicki Vale as a potential "stewardess", an even more outdated and sexist term.
• I Broke a Nail: Parodied. Catwoman snaps one of her metal claws off on Batman's body armor (ruining it), picks it up, stares at it, and says "Damn."
• If You Kill Him, You Will Be Just Like Him!: After realising what is really her motivation, Bruce uses this argument to try to persuade her not to murder Shreck.
• Implacable Man: Shreck tries to bribe Catwoman when she has him cornered. She makes it clear she won't be satisfied until he's dead.
• Insistent Terminology: Selina insists on people calling her an "executive assistant" rather than a secretary. Finally, during her date with Bruce at the manor, she resignedly admits "Secretary."
• Iron Butt Monkey: Takes this to such extremes that she becomes heroic. She's pushed out a window to the street below, burned on the arm by a vial of acid and sent plummeting down into a truck full of sand, nearly strangled by one of the Penguin's umbrellas and sent crashing through the roof of a glass greenhouse (which rips her costume to shreds), and finally shot four consecutive times in the stomach. But all this just makes her angrier and crazier than before, to the point where (apparently) nothing can kill her.
• Kiss of Death: Selina, after her identity is revealed to Shreck and has two "lives" left, grabs the stun gun she'd picked up near the beginning of the film, puts it in between her and Max, and kisses him with it while grabbing on to some torn high voltage wires, creating a current to shock the inside of his mouth.
  Catwoman: Two lives left...I think I'll save one until next Christmas. But in the mean time... (Turns the gun on) How 'bout a kiss, Santy Claus? ["Kisses" him]
• Large Ham: Michelle Pfeiffer, quite composed as Selina Kyle, goes over the top as Catwoman.
• Love Cannot Overcome: In spite of her feelings for Bruce, Selina can't imagine living happily ever after.
• Made of Iron: She can survive anything, to the point that it's suggested that she actually has nine lives like a cat. Falling to her apparent death multiple times, being burned by acid, and shot four consecutive times in the stomach does nothing but make her angrier. She even lives through getting electrocuted at the end of Returns.
• Madness Mantra: She constantly mutters under her breath, calling herself a "stupid corndog" after Shreck humiliates her at work. This indicates that her Sanity Slippage started long before the movie did.
• Mask of Sanity: It's heavily implied that she was already mentally unstable as Selina Kyle, as a result of being surrounded by utterly toxic people, given her apartment and refusal to swear, her constantly muttering under her breath at work as well as her monologues to herself when she's alone at her apartment. Shreck's attempted murder was just the straw that broke the camel's back.
• Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane: Does she really, supernaturally have nine lives? Or is it just her delusion, and she happened to get lucky eight times?
  • For that matter, after she's pushed out the window. Is her transformation into Catwoman the result of brain damage or did the cats swarming over her impart some of their life force to her.
• My Beloved Smother: Her mother keeps calling her to question her career choice and for not seeking a man.
  "This is your mother, Selina. Why haven't you called me?"
• Ms. Fanservice: Her ultra-tight catsuit and curvaceous body get a lot of camera attention.
• Never Found the Body: After electrocuting herself and Shreck, Catwoman seemingly disappears into thin air, as Bruce can only find Shreck's corpse. She survived, though how she got away without being seen isn't explained.
• Noble Demon: She's a coward who wins fights by cheating, and can be just as mean as the men who have persecuted her. But she takes no pleasure from Penguin's callous murder of the Ice Princess, admits that she loves Bruce Wayne as he loves her, and shows Max Shreck who the real coward is by defiantly coming toward him as he cringes backward and fires bullet after bullet into her body.
• Nominal Hero: She's one of the main protagonists, however her motivations are pretty self-serving, and she's mainly out for revenge against Max Shreck, but not for noble reasons (though she does point out repeatedly that Gotham would be better off without him).
• Not the Fall That Kills You…: Having been pushed through the window of a high-rise office, Selina falls what looks like several dozen stories to her Not Quite Death. It's implied that she didn't die (unless she really did and was mystically revived by cats, which is also shown as a possibility) because the awnings projecting from the building's side slowed her fall — except that even this doesn't happen, with Selina whipping through the awnings in a matter of seconds.
• Pay Evil unto Evil: She murders Max Shreck, but damn if he wasn't an evil piece of work.
• Pet the Dog: Rescuing that woman on her first night out. Sure, she's not a very compassionate savior, but it doesn't change the fact that Catwoman saved someone's life just because she could.
• Pink Means Feminine: Selinas apartment is a cramped, dreary bedsit that's been hastily painted pink to appeal to prospective female tenants.
• Plucky Office Girl: Deconstructed. She's got a lot of ideas, and never gets noticed by her boss, due to her Shrinking Violet tendencies. When she finally does get noticed snooping around the office, he tries to kill her, and her sanity takes a sharp jump off a cliff.
• Power Cable Attack: During the climax, Catwoman does it to herself and her former boss by placing a taser between their mouths while holding an electrified cable; she does this as an act of revenge against him. It appears to also be an act of Taking You with Me, but she survives.
• Pre-Mortem One-Liner: As she sets up to electrocute Shreck with her taser and some exposed wiring, she offers a quip before setting up the Kiss of Death.
  Selina: How about a kiss, Santy Claus?
• Pretty in Mink: Selina sports a snowy, white, faux-fur ensemble in one scene.
• Psychopathic Manchild: While vandalizing, and ultimately blowing up, a department store owned by Max Shreck, she takes some time out from her mischief to girlishly "skip rope" with her trademark bullwhip.
  • Even before her transformation, her apartment is full of things far more appropriate for a young girl instead of a grown woman.
• Rage Breaking Point: Upon arriving home after being pushed out of a window by Max, the voice message of a beauty sale endorsed by her boss's company snaps something in Selina.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Catwoman gives Bruce one when they break up for good.
  Bruce: We're not the same, Selina. As much as I'd hoped we were...we're not the same. I'm not a killer.
  Selina: No. You're a poor little rich boy, arrested at age...eight, or whatever it was. And if you'd ever had to earn a living—feed a family, like everyone else...Batman wouldn't exist.
• Redemption Rejection: In Batman '89 Catwoman has shifted firmly into anti-hero territory, but when she kills Two-Face to protect Bruce - not realizing Bruce had a plan - he pushes her away for good. Feeling spiteful, Catwoman released Batman's true identity to Barbara Gordon.
• Revenge Before Reason: Despite falling in love with Bruce and the idea of being with him is something she wants, she chooses revenge on Max Shreck instead, believing she can't live with herself as long as he's alive.
• Sanity Slippage: She constantly mutters under her breath and insults herself at work, showing how she's already well on her way to a breakdown when the movie starts.
• Scary Stitches: Her costume is roughly stitched together from randomly-shaped torn pieces of PVC, symbolizing the unstable and cobbled-together nature of her persona.
• Secret-Identity Identity: Her fall from the building and descent to madness has caused Selina to lose all sense of self-identity. All she could cling onto is Catwoman, as it's the only identity that gives her comfort and a sense of power she never had as a civilian.
• Secret Identity Vocal Shift: Catwoman's voice is a full octave lower than Selina's. When her mask gets damaged, Catwoman's voice shifts to somewhere in-between.
• Sexy Cat Person: Inevitably.
• Scrubbing Off the Trauma: Parodied. "The thought of busting Batman makes me feel all...dirty. I think I'll give myself a bath right here." Then, she proceeds to lick herself!
• She Knows Too Much: Max tries to kill her for finding out too much about his plans for his power plant. It doesn't work, and Shreck promises to Chip that if she tries to blackmail him, he'll drop her out a higher window—meantime, he has badder fish to fry.
• She Who Fights Monsters: Shreck is genuinely vile, but her quest for revenge on her sends her into some morally dark territory.
• Signs of Disrepair: Selina's "HELLO THERE" sign, which reads "HELL HERE" after she smashes portions of it.
• Single Woman Seeks Good Man: Despite her decaying mindset, she falls for Bruce Wayne, since he's the first person she's met in a long time who is nice and caring to her.
• Spy Catsuit: Despite not being a spy.
• Star-Crossed Lovers: Bruce & Selina are just not destined to be as their masked alter-egos keep interfering, what with Selina's reluctance to date Bruce because it clashes with her Catwoman schedule, the two being unable to properly make out since they're trying to hide their battle scars from each other (and by extension, their secret identities), Bruce being freaked out by Selina's plans to murder Shreck and get revenge (which is arguably brought on by the newfound aggression of her Catwoman side), their relationship getting turned upside-down once they discover that they've been fighting against each other's alter-ego the whole time, and Selina/Catwoman rejecting Bruce at the end since she wouldn't be able to live with herself choosing such a fairy tale ending. Their duality is arguably a big part of why they're attracted to one another, but it's also why they just can't be together. Bruce pushes her away for good when she kills Two-Face.
• Stepford Snarker: Honey I'm home! Oh, I forgot. I'm not married.
• Super Loser: She was the Butt-Monkey before her transformation into Catwoman...after that, the situation didn't change and gets worse—she joins forces with a monster (The Penguin) and fell in love with someone nearly as damaged as her (Batman) who she ultimately abandons to get revenge on Shreck because she knew they will never be happy together.
• "Take That!" Kiss: After Batman is shot by the police and injured from a fall, Catwoman pins him down and straddles his chest before flirting with him for a moment. Then after they notice they are under some mistletoe she teases him by licking him, the cat form of kissing, before mocking him for how "all the women he tries to save end up dead".
• Taking You with Me: Does this to Shreck by kissing him after grabbing a live electric wire. Still played straight even though she survives; it still "killed" her, she just had one "life" left.
• Tragic Villain: Selina was a good person, but a terrible home life and work environment resulted in her becoming a Broken Bird with mental health issues. Getting shoved out a window by Shreck just caused her to go over the Despair Event Horizon, and thus, Catwoman was born.
• Unresolved Sexual Tension: With Batman/Bruce. When she comes back to life and tries to help him defeat Two-Face, Bruce pushes her away for killing a man who could have been rehabilitated.
• Vengeance Feels Empty: Averted. Killing Shreck seems to have taken a load off Catwoman's psyche. She's still unscrupulous, but she's firmly on the side of justice now.
• Villain Team-Up: With the Penguin. They team up to destroy the public's trust in Batman, but once that happens Catwoman gives the Penguin the cold shoulder and he tries to kill her.
• What Happened to the Mouse?: Though Catwoman is seen alive and well at the end of the film (looking out at the bat signal), she doesn't appear in the following film, and her whereabouts are left unknown. Though various ways of continuing the character were explored (Burton reportedly planned for her to play in the third film he would have directed, and there were also plans to have her in her own spin-off film with Pfeiffer reprising the role, but that project became the ill-fated Catwoman film starring Halle Berry), these plans never came to fruition.
• Whip of Dominance: Catwoman's weapon of choice is a whip, and she is shown to be quite proficient in its use a few times, often in a kinky manner. Not only she has a sensual and domineering attitude but her outfit in the film is a skintight bodysuit held together with white stitching that is meant to make her look like a Dominatrix.
• Wolverine Claws: Kind of. She sports makeshift claws made from sewing implements. They are very long, quite painful, and somehow retractable.
• You Taste Delicious: She gives Batman a big lick from his chin to his nose under some mistletoe, imitating a cat-style kiss.

Max Shreck

Max Shreck

"I am the light of the city, and I am its mean, twisted soul. Does it matter who's Mayor?"

Played by: Christopher Walken

Voiced by: Shinji Ogawa (Japanese), Patrick Guillemin (European French), Hubert Gagnon (Canadian French), Márcio Seixas (Brazilian Portuguese)

Appearances: Batman Returns

"Bruce, shame on you."

A powerful and respected businessman, Shreck seeks to siphon power from Gotham's citizens and joins forces with the Penguin to do so.

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• Actor Allusion: Christopher Walken plays a light-haired Corrupt Corporate Executive named Max. His full name is also a reference to Max Shreck, who played Count Orlok in the classic silent movie Nosferatu; a film which a gang leader killed by Frank White — also played by Walken — was a fan of.
• Awesome Anachronistic Apparel: He's a Sharp-Dressed Man whose fabulous suits look vintage even by Gotham's standards.
• Bad Boss: He pushes Selina out of a window to her death after she discovers his Evil Plan to steal energy from Gothamites. Not to mention, he dismembered his former business partner, Fred Atkins and dumped his body into the sewer.
• Big Bad Ensemble: With Penguin and Catwoman in Returns.
• Big Bad Wannabe: With Penguin as his Dragon-in-Chief.
• Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: He might be a humble, easy going and charitable guy in public but in private?? We have a mean spirited, egotistical, sexist, manipulative and ultra corrupt tyrant who could care less about the people of Gotham and as more than willing to endanger innocent lives and also take innocent lives just to get even wealthier and keep his tight grip on the city.
• Bond Villain Stupidity: Near end of the film, he decides to shoot Catwoman in the chest repeatedly until he is out of bullets, rather than just shooting her in the head, giving Catwoman a chance to kill Max.
• Canon Foreigner: He isn't in the comics... although interchangeable evil business moguls are common in any Batman iteration, so he fits in well enough.
• Cigar Chomper: He keeps a cigar in his breast pocket, befitting a typical Corrupt Corporate Executive.
• Classy Cane: In some scenes, he carries a long, black cane with a fancy silver handle.
• Conspicuous Gloves: Is always wearing black leather gloves. Justified since it's winter and he needs to keep warm.
• Corrupt Corporate Executive: He sucks the life out of Gotham like a vampire, as he constructs unsafe buildings or dumps toxic waste into the environment. He has also killed several people in cold blood, and plans to create a power plant in Gotham so he can drain electricity from its power grid and stockpile it for profit.
• Deadpan Snarker: He can be very sardonic at times.
• Death by Irony: His plan throughout the film is to set the wheels in motion in starting an electric company to run scams through. Catwoman kills him by charring him with a very large electricity generator. Turns out that one really can have too much power.
• Death by Secret Identity: Once he finds out who Batman and Catwoman are, it's not long before he lights up like a Christmas tree.
• The Determinator: He'll go to insane lengths just to get what he wants.
• Dies Wide Open: When Bruce finds his corpse, his eyes are still intact and bulging out of their sockets.
• Einstein Hair: Has an impressive white mane, which gets even more Einstein-esque when he's electrocuted.
• Even Evil Has Loved Ones: When Penguin tries to take his son hostage, Max persuades Penguin to take him instead.
• Even Evil Has Standards: Implied. He appears quietly disturbed at the thought of Penguin drowning innocent children in toxic waste.
• Evil Counterpart: To Bruce Wayne. He's the Corrupt Corporate Executive to Bruce's Honest Corporate Executive.
• Freudian Excuse: He makes a few comments that state that he comes from a less than stellar background, describing himself as "some poor shmo who got lucky" and shows noticeable and seemingly sincere contempt for Bruce and others who came from wealth. It's clear this caused his current attitude as he feels he has to be ruthless and manipulative since that's what it took for him to reach where he has.
• Hidden Depths: He seems at first to be nothing more than your typical Corrupt Corporate Executive, but his love for his son turns out to be genuine and not just nepotism.
• High-Voltage Death: Selina uses a taser and an electric generator to kill Max.
• Humiliation Conga: Complete with a Karmic Death.
• I Am the Trope: See the quote for this section.
• Jerkass: On a personal level, he wasn't as personable as he presented himself in public and kept a memo on venting his frustration on his subordinates. Selina knows. Shreck is also particularly rude and condescending towards Bruce Wayne.
• Karmic Death: "I am the light of this city!" Really? You should be careful what you wish for, Maxie!
• Large Ham: The one and only Christopher Walken hams it up like nobody's business in this role.
• Manipulative Bastard: Made a long and successful career out of it.
• Man of Wealth and Taste: He's a rich villain with extravagant tastes.
• Mean Boss: He treats Selina like dirt long before she learns enough for him to kill her. When she speaks up during his meeting with the Mayor of Gotham, he comments that they haven't "housebroken" her yet, although he praises her skills at making coffee. When he's about to speak at Gotham's Christmas celebrations and realizes he forgot his speech, he tells Chip to remind him to take out on "what's her name." She constantly angrily mutters under her breath at work, implying that he's been mistreating her for years.
• Meaningful Name: His surname is German for "fright," which makes sense for someone as evil as he is.
• Miles Gloriosus: For all his tough talk, he isn't above running away and hiding in an alley when Penguin's gang crashes the downtown Christmas celebration. What makes his cowardice even worse is that he leaves his son standing there on the stage with multiple guns and bladed weapons pointing at his throat. Sure, it's what everyone else is trying to do, and it's what his son wants anyway... but one would have expected more dignified behavior from such an eminent public official.
• Named After Somebody Famous: Max Shreck, a man who plans to suck the life out of Gotham by draining the electricity and stockpiling it, is named after Max Schreck, the first man to ever play a vampire on film in Nosferatu.
• Nerves of Steel: He remains calm and collected when confronted by things that would horrify most people:
  • When he sees the Penguin for the first time, he simply mutters his surprise that the rumors about the "penguin man in the sewers" were true. Penguin even lampshades that most people would be screaming.
  • When Selina shows up at the office the next morning after he throws her out the window, complete with a new Deadpan Snarker attitude and Hotter and Sexier look, he's utterly shocked but keeps his composure long enough to come up with a cover story to try and trick Bruce Wayne, who he'd been meeting with.
  • When Penguin shows up at his costume party to kidnap Chip, he's shaken but calmly pleads with Penguin to Take Me Instead.
  • His reaction to finding out Catwoman's and Batman's secret identities is a mild You Have GOT to Be Kidding Me!, along with anger at Selina for blowing up his department store.
• Oh, Crap!: Makes this expression when he sees that Selina survived his earlier murder attempt.
• Papa Wolf: He's a ruthless, cold-blooded thug of a businessman, but still loves his son. When Selina finds out the truth about his "power plant," he tries to kill her because he views it as his legacy to leave to Chip.
• Pet the Dog: For all their faults, he and his son Chip do indeed seem to care for each other, as when the Red Triangle Gang comes for Max, Chip stands in the way and tells Max to save himself. In an echo of the aforementioned scene later on, when Penguin comes to kill Chip, Max begs him to take him instead.
• Politically Incorrect Villain: Among other things, he is quite sexist toward his main female employee, Selina Kyle.
• Pragmatic Villainy: Even though Selina survives his attempt to kill her because she learned about his power plant scam, he's apparently willing to let it go so long as she doesn't try to blackmail him.
• Rags to Riches: He had to work his way up to get where he is. And is implied having to do unethical and illegal means to do it. Thus, has resentment to the likes of Bruce who was born into a wealthy family.
• Self-Made Man: He describes himself as "some poor shmo who got lucky" and dismisses Bruce Wayne based on his old money status.
• Sharp-Dressed Man: Nobody out-dresses him. His natty striped suit, fur-lined coat, black-and-white spats, colorful bowties, black homburg, fancy cane, and Ominous Opera Cape you will not soon forget.
• Smug Snake: Max uses Penguin for his own agenda. Unfortunately, little does he realize that Penguin is also using Max for even more sinister plans.
• Take Me Instead: The only moment that he doesn't come across as an unfeeling monster is when he gives himself up to save his son's life.
• Temporary Substitute: His role was clearly meant for Harvey Dent, with Billy Dee Williams reprising his role. The plan was that the explosion at the end of the film would turn him into Two-Face, thus setting up the next film.
• Trumplica: He bears a striking resemblance to Donald Trump's public persona from the time period; Schreck is a Corrupt Corporate Executive with a flamboyant public image, prominent media presence, big hair, a garish fashion sense and if you ask Trump's critics, a questionable track record with women, and political aspirations for less-than-noble intentions.
• Villain Has a Point: He convinces Penguin to take him instead of his son Chip, since Max used and later betrayed Penguin. So it makes sense for Penguin to have Max die horribly. Penguin cedes his point.
• Villain Respect: He's floored when Selina shows up at the office the morning after he pushed her out the window. It's implied that he's not only shocked at her surviving, but her sexier appearance and Deadpan Snarker attitude. He tells Chip that he's surprised Selina "had a brain to damage". He even seems willing to let her live despite knowing about his power plant scam, so long as she doesn't try to blackmail him.
• Villain Team-Up: With Penguin.
• Villain with Good Publicity: Invested a lot to it, knowing that he depended on this to keep his position. Penguin decided he was the best possible teacher.
• Would Hit a Girl: He tries to murder Selina when she finds out about his plans.
• Wouldn't Hurt a Child: Implied, since he is disturbed by Penguin's plan to drown all of Gotham's newborns.

The Red Triangle Circus Gang

The Red Triangle Circus Gang

"You want my old friends up there to drive the mayor into a foaming frenzy!"

Played By: Vincent Schiavelli (Organ Grinder), Anna Katarina (Poodle Lady), Rick Zumwalt (Tattooed Strongman), Erika Andersch (Knifethrower Dame), Travis McKenna (Fat Clown), Doug Jones (Thin Clown), Flame (Snake Woman), John Strong (Sword Swallower)

Appearances: Batman Returns

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• Badass Bookworm: As violent, sociopathic gang members go, they also have some good mechanics.
• The Brute: The Tattooed Strongman who is shown beating up a Santa Clause and laughs when Batman punches him in the face with no effect. Which forces Batman to blow him up with the Thin Clown's bomb.
• Carnival of Killers: They even employ a bewilderingly diverse array of weapons.
• Circus of Fear: In the past the Gang had a hand in both circus and fear given the kids who disappeared thanks to a certain aquatic boy
• The Dragon: The Organ Grinder, and later, the Poodle Lady, following the Organ Grinder's capture by Batman.
• Dwindling Party: By the time of the finale, it's just the Poodle Lady, the Thin Clown and a couple of acrobats left out of a gang numbering several dozen members.
• Even Evil Has Standards: The Fat Clown raises his concerns with the Penguin's plan to kidnap and murder children, and is killed in response.
• Everyone Calls Them Barkeep: Except for The Penguin, the performers' real names are unknown.
• The Family for the Whole Family: Played with. Depending on the scenario, they're seen either riding around on unicycles while firing guns harmlessly into the air and grabbing people and slapping them on the head...or blowing up buildings with gigantic rocket launchers and kidnapping sleeping babies and children to be executed.
• Fat and Skinny: The Fat and Thin Clown.
• Gatling Good: The Organ Grinder's organ is equipped with a Gatling gun.
• Gang of Hats: They dress up every day in "old-timey," Victorian-era circus costumes. Seriously. It's as if Hamas had a "children's birthday party" faction. Their weapons vary, as normal clowns utilize blades, nunchaku and machine guns, while some performers use objects they would use in the circus, like firebreathers and jugglers using torches, The Sword Swallower using his shortsword, or The Knifethrower Dame using her knives. Others are more outlandish, such as the Organ Grinder's Gatling gun disguised as a big music box, or a clown strapped with a cartoonish time-bomb. Lampshaded in that Bruce Wayne does research on them and learns that they once really were circus performers and apparently didn't bother to change their costumes after taking up a life of crime. ^note By the way, Hamas really does have a "children's birthday party" faction, as described here.
• Karma Houdini: The Poodle Lady and a handful of clowns and acrobats abandon the Penguin when they realize Batman has again foiled his plans and is coming to get them. They are never seen again; while one might assume they could be killed offscreen in subsequent explosions, the film never makes this clear.
• Monster Clown: Some circus members go beyond doing harmless yet threatening acts of vandalism and terrorism, and attempt to hurt people. They include the Terrifying Clown who threatens to taze Selina Kyle, the stilted jugglers with threatening masks who burn an innocent man, and the large and imposing Strongman who knocks out a mall Santa with a toy sled.
• Not-So-Harmless Villain: Despite being clowns who once performed in a circus and kept their costumes, the Red Triangle Circus members are still menacing enough to serve as an effective terrorist army for The Penguin.
• The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything: They don't actually perform anymore. Justified in that they're fugitives from the law and generally act as criminals now. Subverted (albeit briefly) when a few of the performers use their skills as tools of terrorism during the Gotham Plaza sequence, proving that they've "still got it."
• Psycho Poodle: One member is a poodle trainer lady. Her small poodle, which she is always seen with, functions as an attack dog.
• Red Right Hand: Some of them appear just as ugly as Penguin himself (although, unlike him, they are obviously sporting masks and face putty).
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here: In the final act when Batman is approaching the Penguin's zoo hideout, the last remaining members of the Red Triangle Gang abandon Penguin.
• Terrorists Without a Cause: Subverted. On the surface, they appear to fit this trope due to the observation that their acts of arson and vandalism and the bullying of innocent citizens don't appear to serve an ultimate purpose; they don't even garner any loot from their crimes, even though they're living in near-poverty. However, all this anarchic violence does accomplish something: it humiliates Gotham City's Mayor, making him appear to be soft on crime and providing a justification for Penguin to run against him for office.
• Western Terrorists: A Type I example (or, given their name, perhaps a Type VI example). One of them is even a suicide bomber!

Batman Forever

Two-Face

Harvey Dent/Two-Face

"People of Gotham City, I'm a man of few words. But those words will count. And so will my actions."

Gotham's former District Attorney on both Earth-89 and Earth-97, with a strong desire to do good despite how corrupt the city is. Harvey's quest for justice would eventually lead to him sustaining gruesome burns across the left side of his face, driving him insane and becoming the villain known as Two-Face.

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General

• Adaptational Villainy:
  • In the main DC universe, Harvey Dent actually started out on neutral and then good terms with Batman, allowing Batman to help take down the mobsters that controlled Gotham. In the 89 comic, Dent believes Batman is part of the problem and wants to take him down.
  • Despite being more comedic than other incarnations of the character, Forever's version of Two-Face is also arguably the nastiest and least sympathetic version of him. For starters, he lacks any of the sympathetic or tragic qualities he has in the comics, and he has enough Kick the Dog moments, such as being responsible for the deaths of Robin's parents and brother, to make his fate at the end completely well-deserved. Also, whereas his comic counterpart usually just does whatever his Two-Headed Coin says, during the attack on Wayne Manor during the climax, this one just keeps flipping it until he gets the side that lets him shoot Bruce.
• Alternate Self: He has four, one on Earth-Prime, one on Earth-9, another on Earth-66, and another on Earth-686.
• Contrasting Sequel Antagonist: To the Penguin. The Penguin was born disfigured and had to live as a circus freak before turning to crime, only to win over the people of Gotham by milking his personal tragedy, which gave him the potential to form his own criminal empire. Two-Face on the other hand acquired his disfigurement after becoming a well-established man of the law, when he fell from grace, he turned to crime and completely destroyed his reputation, never coming close to gaining the kind of power the Penguin almost had.
• Crusading Lawyer: In the first film, as Harvey Dent.
• Face–Heel Turn: Harvey was previously Gotham's crusading, well-respected District Attorney- an incredibly difficult and thankless job, but by all accounts excelled at it, until he became disfigured, beginning his Start of Darkness and eventual change to the homicidal master criminal Two-Face.
• Facial Horror: How Harvey Dent becomes Two-Face.
• Fallen Hero: Used to be Gotham City's District Attorney, and a fairly good one, too.
• In Spite of a Nail: Both versions of Two-Face fall to their deaths. Unlike Forever where he's written off the second he lands, the death of the 89 version weighs heavily on Bruce.
• Race Lift:
  • A strange case of this happening within the same continuity. In the first Batman film, Harvey Dent (a Caucasian in the comics) is played by the African-American Billy Dee Williams, but in Forever, he was played by Tommy Lee Jones.
  • Played straight in Batman '89, where Harvey's ethnicity is a major defining trait. He sees himself as proof that a black man from the ghetto can accomplish something.
• Sharp-Dressed Man: Was definitely this in Batman, when he was still the respectable (but stylish) District Attorney.
• Starter Villain: Both takes on Two-Face are this for Robin (either Dick Grayson or Drake Winston).
• Two-Headed Coin: Naturally.

Batman and Batman '89

"Mr. Knox, we have enough problems in this city without worrying about ghosts and goblins!"

"Soul of Gotham...the Hell with it."

Played by: Billy Dee Williams

Voiced by: Jun Hazumi (Japanese), Hubert Gagnon (Canadian French)

Appearances: Batman | Batman '89

"The universe is an infinite garden of forking paths. Whatever can happen, does happen - somewhere. Think of the power in the choices you make. You can literally split the universe in two - with something as simple - as the toss of a coin."

On Earth-89, Harvey Dent grew up in the crime ridden Gotham district known as Burnside while having a friendly relationship with reclusive billionaire Bruce Wayne. Starting a relationship with Barbara Gordon, Dent grew to see her father and especially Batman as the biggest threat to Gotham, and resolved to find a way to bring them both down for corruption and illegal vigilantism. However his fate took a dark turn when he tried to rescue Drake Winston from a burning building, where his face became half burned and he was driven insane.

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• Adaptational Backstory Change: The two-headed coin that Harvey keeps originally belonged to his abusive father, who used it to play rigged games against his son (“Heads, I beat you. Tails, I don't”). Here, it originally belonged to a much more caring father figure who used it in a far more positive context (“Heads, your future is bright and beautiful”).
• Adaptation Relationship Overhaul: At some point Harvey started courting Barbara Gordon. By the time they appear in Batman '89 he's ready to propose to her. No other versions of either of these characters have dated one another at any point in the series.
• "Angry Black Man" Stereotype: Not evident in the first film, but as Harvey gets involved with the injustices going on in Gotham's African American community he starts alienating his white colleagues.
• Anti-Villain: Even after going off the rails, Two-Face still has the marginalized as his motivation. He intimidates Gotham's elite - including Carmine Falcone - into handing their fortunes over to the Burnside residents so they can climb out of poverty.
• Beyond Redemption: Gordon provokes Two-Face into shooting him, knowing it will be the final straw that convinces Barbara to give up on saving Harvey. He also earns the hatred of Drake for killing Jerome, though Bruce still holds out hope that he can reach his friend. Ultimately, Harvey dies before any true rehabilitation can happen, though he falls to his doom with a smile, having destroyed the Two-Face side within himself.
• Color Motif: Two-Face wears a black-and-white suit, reflecting his overly simplistic idea of justice.
• Entertainingly Wrong: Harvey believes that Batman is actually a group of former black op mercenaries, because he simply can't believe that one man is capable of doing everything Batman does. Also while he's able to quickly determine that the only one with the money to afford all of Batman's equipment is Bruce, he comes to the conclusion that he funds the group while Gordon is the one in charge.
• Foil: While Bruce Wayne was born into privilege and stays out of the spotlight, Harvey Dent had a lower-class background and savours attention. Bruce's personal tragedies drove him to become Batman and defend Gotham City, while Harvey's fractured his reason to the point where turning against Gotham City made perfect sense to him.
• Hard Work Hardly Works: This is what Harvey concludes after finding out how much of his life was determined through luck rather than his own efforts.
• My God, What Have I Done?: Harvey is left shattered when Two-Face forces him to shoot Jerome, one of the few people he still genuinely cared for. When Drake finds him, he's huddled on the floor sobbing.
• Pay Evil unto Evil: Two-Face flips for the life of mob boss Carmine Falcone. The good side comes up, but Two-face shoots Falcone anyway, pointing out that killing a mob boss is a good deed.
• Rage Breaking Point: The hallucinations of a better life that slipped through his fingers haunted Harvey after having his face damaged. He began to view his entire existence as being determined by chance instead of through his own willpower, which when combined with the stress he'd been putting himself through up until that point caused him to finally snap and become a criminal determined to make Gotham suffer.
• Through the Eyes of Madness:
  • After getting his face disfigured by acid, Harvey gets a glimpse of how his future could have potentially gone. He imagines having a comfy political career where everyone adores him, Barbara has replaced Jim Gordon as commissioner and Bruce Wayne admits to funding the Batman militia. When Harvey comes to and realises that all of his hard work has left him stuck in hospital with a horrific disfigurement and the possibility of dying prematurely, he's driven insane thinking about how his entire life has been determined by chance. He also has hallucinations of his ideal self taunting him from some theoretical parallel dimension where he never became Two-Face.
  • When he enters the Batcave and finds himself hanging on for dear life, Harvey has visions of two different outcomes — one where he kills Bruce right when he's trying to save Harvey's life and another where he accepts the help. When he sees his coin nearby with its good side facing upwards, the first vision dissipates, and Harvey willingly falls to his death, believing that the "good future" has come to pass.
• Took a Level in Jerkass: Harvey went from being close friends with Commissioner Gordon and having enough esteem for Batman to read out his message to the public in the first film. In the comic, he's campaigning against both men for not keeping Gotham City safe for the lower classes. Harvey mentions "code-switching", implying that his previously friendly side was always just a front.
• Villain with Good Publicity: Despite his deformity and violent instability, the people of Burnside still view Two-Face as their hero since his acts of violence were done for their benefit.
• The Whitest Black Guy: Played for drama — the comic series goes much further in showing the tightrope Harvey walks in trying to be a successful role model to Gotham's black community, while at the same time acting in his role as a public litigator and politician that sometimes has to acquiesce to the white power structures of Gotham. When he tries making friendly overtures with the civic leaders of Burnside, they suspect he's doing it for publicity's sake; after he finally starts getting tough and promising systemic police reform, Bullock accuses him of back-stabbing the GCPD and, it's implied, selling them out to his own people. Notably, in Harvey's dream of the perfect life, he has near-unanimous support from both white and black citizens.
  "Code? I've been code-switching all my life, and that ain't code."

Batman Forever

"You're counting on the winged avenger to deliver you from evil aren't you, my friend?"

Played by: Tommy Lee Jones (Batman Forever)

Voiced by: Takayuki Sugo (Japanese), Claude Giraud (European French), Vincent Davy (Canadian French), Júlio Chaves (Brazilian Portuguese)

Appearances: Batman Forever

"One man is born a hero, his brother a coward. Babies starve, politicians grow fat. Holy men are martyred, and junkies grow legion. Why? Why, why, why, why, why? LUCK! BLIND, STUPID, SIMPLE, DOO-DAH, CLUELESS LUCK!"

On Earth-97, Harvey Dent became Two-Face two years prior to Forever when he was attacked by a mobster. Developing a Split Personality and blaming Batman for what happened, he now seeks revenge while being aided by his two henchwoman Sugar and Spice.

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• Adaptational Comic Relief: Comics Two-Face is a grim, serious villain. This Two-Face is a hammy, comedic goofball who's Practically Joker.
• Adaptation Dye-Job: Two-Face has pink hair, which is a first for him. Typically his scarred side's hair is either greying or white (that is when he has hair at all.)
• Adaptation Origin Connection: Dick Grayson sees his parents killed by Two-Face instead of Tony Zucco, much in the same manner the first movie made Jack Napier (a.k.a. the Joker) the murderer of Bruce's parents rather than Joe Chill.
• Affably Evil: His "good" side is this. Case in point when he crashes Nygma's gala and tells everyone that he's just doing a casual robbery, no need for any violence.
• All There in the Manual: The novelization of Forever reveals that he was the one who restored Batman's public reputation after the events of Returns, back when he was still one of the good guys.
• Arch-Enemy: To Robin since he killed his parents.
• Asshole Victim: After everything he did throughout the film (threatening a circus, gunning down the Graysons, endangering an innocent bank guard, etc.), regardless of whether or not one approves of Batman causing his Disney Villain Death despite telling Dick that killing is wrong throughout the film, it's hard to argue that Two-Face didn't completely deserve his fate.
• Bad Boss: He'll spray bullets in Batman's direction even if his own henchment are caught in the crossfire.
• Big Bad Duumvirate: With Riddler in Forever. Two-Face provides the manpower while the Riddler provides the brains.
• Bling-Bling-BANG!: One of Two-Face's guns (the one he menaces the Riddler with) is a chrome-plated Benelli MP95. This is an exotic pistol which doesn't appear in other films (Benelli is better known for their shotguns, which appear in everything including Chris Nolan's trilogy and a Resident Evil game). He also lugs around a silver-plated grenade launcher at one point.
• Composite Character: While he did kill Jason Todd's father in the comics, here, he takes Tony Zucco's role as the murderer of Dick Grayson's parents.
• Create Your Own Hero: Two-Face galvanised Dick Grayson into becoming a crusader for justice when he murdered the latter's family.
• Create Your Own Villain: Batman couldn't save Harvey Dent from getting a glass of acid in the face and becoming Two-Face.
• Cut His Heart Out with a Spoon:
  • Two-Face's introduction to the Riddler. *click* "Let's see if you bleed green."
  • He also says that he should crush Edward's "bones into powder" for invading his lair.
• Death by Adaptation: In the comics he's never bit the bullet. Not the case here.
• Death by Secret Identity: Dies after finding out Bruce Wayne is Batman.
• Death Trap: The interior of the bank safe in which Two-Face locks Batman is filled with acid nozzles, which will kill Batman but keep the money pristine and secure, which is actually clever.
• Dies Differently in Adaptation: In the novelization, Two-Face commits suicide by leaping off the girder after he flipped his coin.
• Disney Villain Death: After saving Robin and Chase from falling to their deaths, Batman is then confronted by Two-Face. Batman then tricks him to fall down instead with a fistful of coins that he throws in the air when Harvey makes another of his signature coin tosses.
• Dragon Their Feet: Two-Face meets his end not long after Riddler's plans are thwarted.
• Evil Duo: The Riddler is the one with the plan, while Two-Face is the more experienced and aggressive of the two.
• Evil Is Hammy: Two-Face even tries to out-ham the Riddler. Given how extensive those acid burns on his head are, it's likely the shouting and flailing around is because he's in constant pain.
• Face-Revealing Turn: Our introduction to Two-Face. He delights in grossing out a security guard with his scarred, veiny side of his head.
• Final Boss: The last villain Batman and Robin face in Batman Forever, after the Riddler goes down.
• Foil: Two-Face and Batman have several parallels over the course of the film, starting with Robin as Two-Face murders Dick Grayson's family while Bruce offers him a place to stay. Both are admired by Edward Nygma, but while Bruce rejected Nygma's offer for a partnership, Two-Face accepts. Also while Bruce is reluctant to let anyone else into his lifestyle, Two-Face has no qualms so long as he gets something out of it.
• Giggling Villain: Much more than his original comic and other iterations.
• Good Smoking, Evil Smoking: One of the perks of being a dual-themed supervillain is that you can do both. Sugar lights up Harvey's cigarette like he's a gumshoe detective, while Spice (on his opposite side) uses a blowtorch.
• Guns Akimbo: As befits a criminal obsessed with duality, he bursts into the Nygmatech party with two pistols a'blazin'.
• Hair-Trigger Temper: Very much so when his damaged side is in control. It isn't helped by the fact that Batman survives all of his numerous attempts to kill him. For instance, he pulls his gun on the Riddler the second he walks into his hideout, and shoots in the ceiling to abridge the Riddler's flattery talking to make him get to the point. Riddler himself remarks that Dent has a "serious impulse control problem".
• Ham-to-Ham Combat: With Riddler.
• Harmless Lady Disguise: During a Batmobile chase with Two-Face's cars, Two-Face himself steps out into the street disguised in a ratty shawl and pushing a baby carriage(!). This causes Batman to slow down a bit, like a good Gotham citizen, before Two-Face pulls a rocket launcher.
• The Heavy: While he and the Riddler get just about equal focus, Two-Face is the one Batman faces most often throughout the film and outlives the Riddler's defeat to have one last confrontation with him and Robin.
• Hoist by His Own Petard: At the end of Forever, Batman exploits his habit of flipping his coin with lethal results.
• I Am Legion: With the exception of a single line, he constantly refers to himself as "we" or "us". Since he uses plural pronouns even when in private, it's likely he really does see himself as two people.
• Ignored Confession: Two-Face is about to detonate the bomb in the circus when Bruce Wayne stands up and proclaims that he's Batman in order to stop the murder, but the audience has erupted into a frenzy and nobody notices Wayne's confession.
• "I Know You're in There Somewhere" Fight: Batman, upon breaking in on Two-Face (and socking him in the jaw) during his attempted escape via helicopter, appeals to whatever good may be left in his old ally with "You need help, Harvey- give it up!"
• Impossibly Tacky Clothes: Natch. He (or "they," as he may insist you call him) wears a variety of two-toned suits throughout the film: a patchwork of garish animal prints (in pastel, no less); a Judas Priest getup with leather and chains; and his comparatively mild ringmaster outfit and tuxedo. The left side of the tux is patterned to resemble blood streaks.
• Incoming Ham: "YES FOLKS, IT'S ONLY AN OLD-FASHIONED LOW-TECH STICKUP!"
• Kick the Dog: He has quite a few moments, including locking a security guard in an acid-filled vault after his Two-Headed Coin said to let him live, threatening an entire circus with a bomb to get Batman, and gunning down the Graysons in cold blood.
• Large Ham: "LET'S START THIS PARTY WITH A BANG!!"
• Laughably Evil: This iteration of the character has a lot of Joker-esque mannerisms.
• Misplaced Retribution: Two-Face blames Batman for his scarring and Start of Darkness and seeks revenge on him for it. At no point does he ever think of blaming or taking vengeance on the mobster who actually threw the acid in his face; Batman's only role in the accident was trying to save him.
• Monumental Damage: Two-Face crashes a helicopter into the Gotham equivalent to the Statue of Liberty, leaving the left side of her face horribly disfigured.
• Mood-Swinger: To the Riddler's chagrin. When the District Attorney side is in control, Two-Face speaks in an oily voice—that is, until something irritates him. Then he's snarling on every syllable.
• Mundane Made Awesome: Dent's simple flipping of his coin is always a dramatic, fascinating event. It helps that the outcome of the flip usually means the difference between life and death.
• Mundane Solution: Batman's pressing you hard as you try to make your criminal getaway? Cheap shot him, then lock the helicopter into a suicide dive toward a famous landmark, using "The Club" or some similar steering wheel security device to immobilize the controls, then jump out of the cockpit, leaving The Dark Knight to deal with it!
• My Greatest Failure: It's hinted that Batman sees Harvey Two-Face as this, as his inability to prevent Dent's disfiguring and subsequent descent into madness led directly to not only Harvey's Face–Heel Turn, but the death of Robin's family, along with many others.
• No Indoor Voice: Two-Face yells contantly when his damaged side is in control.
• Not-So-Harmless Villain: Two-Face may have gone a bit overboard with the Giggling Villain riff, but he had Batman a thread away from death on at least two occasions: when he buried Batman alive with the cave-in caused by his grenade launcher, and during the invasion of Wayne Manor. In these instances, only the last minute intervention of another party saved The Dark Knight's bacon: Robin digging him out in the former, and The Riddler preventing Dent from finishing Bruce's off with a point-blank headshot in the latter.
• Practically Joker: Let's see, a man who goes insane and becomes a supervillain after being disfigured with acid, who's quick to anger, sadistic, prone to fits of cackling and has a (partial) permanent smile? Are you sure it's Two-Face we're talking about here?
• Pushy Gun-Toting Villain: He is trigger-happy, always threatening to shoot people and his preferred way to make Riddler get to the point is a "Shut Up!" Gunshot.
• Red Oni, Blue Oni: Two-Face is the red to Riddler's blue. The Riddler is usually the one to talk him out of any berserker moments, while Two-Face has no ambitions outside of theft and violence.
• Sky Heist: Two-Face baits Batman into a high-rise bank vault, before shutting it behind him and dragging the whole thing into the sky with a helicopter, while it fills with "boiling acid". 
• Skyward Scream: Each time Batman gets away, Two-Face takes it a little more badly. During the car chase, the Batmobile drives up a vertical facade, leaving Harvey at street level and hopping mad. Later, when the Riddler hands him a newspaper reporting Batman's escape from the subway, he literally rears his head back and bawls like a baby. 
• Slasher Smile: The disfigured portion of his face appears to be stuck in a perpetual smile.
• Split Personality: A rather odd case. In the comics and animated series, Harvey Dent does go insane, but it's clear that "Two-Face" is a title he has given himself rather than a separate individual. Here, though, Two-Face is an entirely separate personality from Dent, and the two apparently share a single body; Dent is the "good" side that looks mostly human, while Two-Face is the purple, acid-scarred, "bad" one. This is further emphasized by Dent/Two-Face consistently referring to himself with plural pronouns ("The Bat's stubborn refusal to expire...is DRIVING US INSANE!"), having Sugar and Spice prepare two separate dinners for him (one for each half), and, during the finale, leaping out of the shadows and introducing himself twice.
• Suddenly Shouting: The clearest indicator that Harvey and Two-Face are separate personalities is that every now and then he'll switch from talking in a normal tone of voice to barking and snarling.
• Supervillain Lair: Two-Face's base is hidden in the fixtures of a bridge and is split down the middle between an art deco suite from the 1960s and some kind of S&M dungeon.
• Suspiciously Similar Substitute: It seems like Harvey's gone completely bonkers, and wants to be The Joker.
• Trigger-Happy: On multiple occasions, he shoots off his gun into the air or readily draws it during a berserker motif. His very first impulse when Riddler enters his hideout is to threaten to blow his head off.
• Two-Headed Coin: Instead of always doing what the coin says, he seemingly keeps flipping it until he gets the outcome he wants. He actually seems to toss it every time he has a clear shot at Bruce, keeping it perfectly in-character for Two-Face.
• Verbal Tic: With the exception of a single line, Two-Face constantly refers to himself as "we." The credits even list him as "Harvey Dent/Harvey Two-Face."
• Villain Team-Up: With The Riddler. Two-Face assists the Riddler in robbing banks and jewelery stores so the latter can fund his corporation and in return the Riddler helps Two-Face figure out Batman's true identity.
• Villainous Breakdown: Has a LOT of them sprinkled throughout the film, usually after his various failed attempts to kill Batman.
  "The Bat's refusal to expire IS DRIVING US INSANE!"
• We Have Reserves: When his chopper pilot helpfully points out the black-clad superhero on their windshield, Two-Face simply shoots through him.
• We Used to Be Friends: As D.A., he worked hand in hand (if not side by side) with Batman to clean up crime in Gotham. But it's hinted with his last words that he and Bruce Wayne were even closer:
  "Thank you Bruce, you've always been a good friend."
• Why Won't You Die?: "WHY CAN'T YOU JUST DIE?!"

The Riddler

Edward Nygma/The Riddler

A criminal obsessed with puzzles and wordplay.

General

• Adaptation Dye-Job: The Riddler is typically a brunette, but in both continuities he's got auburn hair, which the Jim Carrey version dyes red.
• Evil Redhead: In both continuities, Edward's red-haired and a criminal. Interestingly, when he turns to villainy in Batman Forever, he wears a brown toupee as a civilian (to resemble Bruce Wayne) and dyes his hair an even brighter shade of red as the Riddler.
• Green and Mean: True to the text, the Riddler's signature color is green and he's a mischief-maker.

Batman Forever

"Riddle me this, riddle me that... who's afraid of the big, black bat?"

Played by: Jim Carrey

Voiced by: Bin Shimada (Japanese), Vincent Violette (European French), Pierre Auger (Canadian French), Marco Ribeiro (Brazilian Portuguese)

Appearances: Batman Forever

"Soon my little Box will be on countless TVs around the world. Feeding me... credit card numbers, bank codes, sexual fantasies, and little white lies. Into my head they'll go. Victory is inevitable!"

A Bruce Wayne fanboy working at Wayne Enterprises, Edward Nygma was turned down by Wayne himself over the idea of mental experimentation. After being fired by his supervisor (and sending him to Destination Defenestration), Nygma was inspired by Two-Face's spree at the circus and decided to create a supervillain identity of his own. Utilizing his tech to team up with Two-Face and steal money to mass-produce his "Box," Nygma becomes the Riddler, draining the intelligence of Gotham's Box-owning citizens to add to his own already formidable intellect. All to get back at Bruce Wayne.

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• 90% of Your Brain: In the Novelization, when the Riddler shows off his neon jacket, Chase gets an extra line where she warns Nygma that his continued usage of The Box is frying his brain with information.
  Chase: There's a reason we only use twenty percent of our brains.
• Acquired Situational Narcissism: Any Riddler is supposed to be an Insufferable Genius, but once he becomes a successful businessman he makes sure to have a boastful public persona.
• Adaptational Intelligence: Raised from a petty thief with a fixation on needlessly-risky crimes to a mad scientist and entrepreneur who only gets smarter as the film progresses.
• Adaptational Job Change: He was a former carny in the comics. In the film, he's a former employee of Wayne Enterprises who starts up his own business, though his cluttered apartment has paraphenelia, in particular a question-answering machine with an animatronic, suggesting his traditional origins.
• Adaptational Name Change: In the comics his last name was originally Nigma. This was later retconned in the main comic book storyline to Nashton. In some versions he adopted Nigma/Nygma as a new surname himself, purely for the sake of Punny Name. In Batman Forever, he is called Nygma from the start, even before adopting his villainous persona.
• All Your Base Are Belong to Us: Riddler invades Wayne Manor along with Two-Face, and there he enters the Batcave. To top it off, he uses a skywriter to turn the Bat-Signal into a giant question mark.
• Alternate Self: Has one on Earth-Prime, apparently has one on an undesignated Earth, has one on Earth-9, and another on Earth-66.
• Ambiguously Bi: He's obsessed with Bruce Wayne and he has a large collection of green outfits with increasing levels of flair. He also dons a tiara and other traditionally female bits of jewelry during his and Two-Face's crime spree montage. There are a few hints that he has an interest in women, such as keeping Sugar around as arm candy — though this is implied to be for show. Edward also arranges to have Chase suggestively chained up on a lounge, with the scene cutting short just as he sidles up next to her...
• And Then What?: He presses Two-Face to think about what happens after he succeeds in killing Batman. A quick death would be so unsatisfying, wouldn't it? Wouldn't a more involved scheme to thoroughly destroy the Bat be better?
• Arc Words: "Too many questions"
• Ax-Crazy: He becomes this after Bruce politely turns down his idea.
• Badass Boast: “If knowledge is power, then a god...am...IIIIIIII!!!” He also gives a longer one in the script and the novelization by Peter David:
  “Oh, Batman, you are clever. How fitting that numbers led you to me. For numbers will crown me king. My Box will sit on countless TVs around the globe, mapping brains, giving me credit card numbers, bank codes, safe combinations, numbers of infidelities, of crimes, of lies told. No secret is safe from my watchful electronic eye. I will rule the planet. For if knowledge be power, then tremble, world. Edward Nygma has become a god!”
• Bait the Dog: Nygma ties up his boss and leaves him hanging for dear life out of a skyscrape window. He makes a brief gesture of trying to save the man, only to deliver a Pre-Mortem One-Liner, followed by some sinister chuckling.
• Bat Deduction: The Riddler gets his own variant, using The Box in order to glean the location of Two-Face's hideaway. In the novel, the explanation makes a bit more sense: He simply traced back the anonymous orders of custom two-toned suits, half-and-half pizza, and the like.
• Batman Gambit: Nygma showed this during his expo for his Box device. Before dancing with Chase, Edward constantly tried to goad Bruce Wayne into trying out his new invention (which to him raised too many questions, if you recall). He fails spectacularly, but Bruce decides to check out the mechanics behind the images. When Bruce takes out the battery for the machine with Sugar's help (Sugar is Nygma's companion for the night), he walks into the room with a deactivated Box...only for Sugar to insert a spare battery.
• Be Careful What You Wish For: Nygma wants to be Bruce Wayne; in the wake of his comeuppance he is confined to Arkham Asylum sincerely (if rather whimsically) believing that he's Batman.
• Beware the Silly Ones: The Riddler is not the least bit intimidating, but he does manage to murder his supervisor and make it look like a suicide, figure out Batman's identity, and utterly destroy most of the Batcave.
• Big Bad Duumvirate: With Two-Face in Batman Forever. While Two-Face is more experienced and lasts longer, it's the Riddler who comes up with the scheme that drives the main plot.
• Big "SHUT UP!": The Riddler yells this before he remotely shuts off the Batcave's alarm system.
• Body Horror: When Batman destroys the Riddler's mind-reading machine, it lets loose a massive stream of unfiltered brain waves that causes the Riddler's skull to warp. By the end the Riddler's head looks like it's going to burst.
• Bond One-Liner:
  • The Riddler whacking his boss with a coffee pot: "Caffeine'll kill ya!"
  • And then after letting him fall down: "OOOO! Nice form, but a little rough on the landing. He may have to settle for the bronze."
• The Chessmaster: True to the comics, he's a schemer always planning for his opponent's next move.
• CloudCuckoolander: He IS a Jim Carrey character so he would be expected to a be hyper, dramatic and insane villain.
• Complexity Addiction: Addressed; when he offers to help Two-Face kill Batman in exchange for money to manufacture his Box devices, he convinces him that just offing the hero quickly and simply wouldn't be as emotionally satisfying as ensuring he was humiliated first by having his true identity revealed and used against him. Also referenced when Two-Face shoots Bruce Wayne, knocking him down, and as he's going to put a bullet in Bruce's brain, Riddler stops him because he wants Batman to die in a more dramatic fashion.
• Composite Character:
  • Of the Riddler and Hugo Strange — the latter invented a mind-reading machine and discovered Batman's true identity.
  • Strangely enough, the Riddler is a unique combination of the hyperactive spandex trickster of the Silver Age and the suave businessman-like personality of the Bronze Age. This was partially explained in the novelization by having his mind getting fried from using The Box; he is the trickster when in the Riddler costume and the businessman when acting as the CEO of NygmaTech.
    • Before he dons the bowler, Ed going postal on his supervisor is more reminiscent of Post-Crisis Scarecrow than anything.
    • Also, brainwashing the people of Gotham with high-tech headgear seemed more like a job reserved for the Mad Hatter (who more casual fans often mistake for Riddler, given the latter's fondness for bowler hats in the comics).
• Costume Copycat: Nygma showing up Bruce Wayne by wearing the exact same tuxedo and hairstyle.
  • He's also donning and removing a pair of reading glasses at the exact same times Wayne does and has a matching artificial mole put on his face to match Wayne's.
• Create Your Own Villain: Bruce Wayne created the Riddler by turning down Nygma's brainwave manipulation ideas, though Stickley firing Nygma and verbally putting him down (by threatening to have him arrested, thrown in jail and then committed to a mental institution... and in the meantime, firing him) may have been the real trigger.
• Cut Lex Luthor a Check: Played with. He initially wants to make money honestly, but after being rejected and funding it with Two-Face's crimes, he still makes billions on the Box technology. If he wasn't obsessed with Bruce Wayne and Batman, he could have lived a very comfortable and lavish life. Assuming nobody ever looked too closely at the company's initial books...
• Deadly Game: The Riddler wheeling out his two hostages, Chase and Dick. He reads off smarmy, game show-like biographies of each (using his cane as a microphone) while Harvey does his Ed Mac Mahon impression in the back.
• Death by Secret Identity: Surprisingly averted despite having learned about Batman's identity, but his insanity causes him to lose memory of it and go full Napoleon Delusion.
• Death Trap: The Riddler rigs an elaborate pit with sharp rocks and a descending ceiling, all of which ends up claiming Two-Face instead.
• Destination Defenestration: Nygma kills Stickley by sending him crashing through a window (pausing the deed momentarily to retrieve some equipment), whose murder is covered up to look like a suicide plunge.
• Didn't See That Coming: The Riddler asking a coin-flipping, duality-obsessed, indecisive, crazed killer to become partners with him. Can't see where that could go disastrously wrong. (Lucky for him, Two-Face always slaps the coin on the back of his hand, reversing the verdict.)
• Dingy Trainside Apartment: Nygma lives in a very cramped one before becoming the Riddler fully.
• Dragon with an Agenda: The Riddler starts out as Two-Face's second-in-command, but even then he was using Two-Face's crimes to help him gain the capital needed to mass-produce his Box. Once he uncovers Batman's true identity, Two-Face allows the Riddler to take the lead.
• Drunk on the Dark Side: Once Nygma realized his invention would make him the smartest man on the planet, he dove headfirst into villainy to achieve his ends. Even when he's accomplished his goal, the Riddler only seeks out further knowledge and potentially world domination.
• Entitled Bastard: After Nygma finally gets to reveal his invention to Bruce, Bruce tells Nygma to talk to his assistant to set something up regarding further development. But Nygma says it's not good enough for him and demands a direct answer from Bruce, claiming he deserves it... only to be crushed when Bruce turns the idea down.
• "Eureka!" Moment: Edward Nygma gets the idea for his alter-ego from a carnival fortune teller game he keeps in his apartment. We even get a light bulb flash.
• Evil Counterpart: Twice over.
  • When his crimes as the Riddler make him wealthy enough to start Nygmatech, he transforms his civilian identity and appearance from a dowdy nerd to that of...a charming, handsome billionaire playboy just like Bruce Wayne, with the bonus of also being a technological visionary. But where Bruce is famous for his philanthropy, Nygma is out to become a virtual god by stealing not just money or jewels, but thoughts and secrets from everyone who uses his Boxes. Of course, Bruce Wayne has an alter ego of his own, and Nygma's delighted to realize he's Batman because it makes the prospect of humiliating and destroying him all the sweeter. The death trap he sets up for Batman (forcing him to choose between Robin and Chase) also reflects something he believes he has over Batman: The Riddler is completely comfortable with his double life. He learns too late that by the time the trap was set, Bruce Wayne had already reconciled his existence with that of Batman's.
  • He's also this to Robin. Dick Grayson hopes to get revenge upon Two-Face, Nygma wants to destroy Bruce Wayne, and each one is inspired to adopt an alter ego in part by witnessing the example of their nemesis' pre-established adversary. While Bruce becomes a father figure to Dick who helps him set aside revenge as a motivation for do-gooding, Two-Face becomes a big brother of sorts to the Riddler, teaching him how to punch people and happily participating in a high-stakes game of Battleship with him. As well, both Robin and the Riddler manage to break into the Batcave and learn Bruce Wayne's secret identity, with very different outcomes in each case!
• Evil Duo: With Two-Face. He brings the plan, Two-Face brings the muscle.
• Evil Genius: His ability to not only create a simulator, but to also use it to scan minds and become even smarter, is incredibly impressive. He makes all the other villains here look like episodic thugs, despite being the most comical of the lot.
• Evil Gloating: He takes great delight in rubbing in Bruce's face how successful his Box is and how stupid Bruce was to reject it.
  "Yes, yes, yes, Bruce, old man. The press were just wondering how it feels to be outsold, outclassed, out-quaffed and generally outdone in every way."
  • In their final confrontation, the Riddler also gloats that he is on the way to destroying Batman and becoming a virtual god. But Batman takes advantage of this tendency by posing a simple riddle to him, which gives the former time to aim a Batarang at the giant Box receiver as the Riddler teases him over solving it so quickly.
• Evil Is Hammy: As a Jim Carrey character in a mid-'90s summer flick, this should be a given.
• Evil Is Petty: He turned to evil and became the Riddler for no other reason than because Bruce Wayne, his employer and the man he admired most in the world, rejected his idea that they become partners in marketing Nygma's invention. What makes this especially petty is that Nygma made twice as much money going into business on his own, and in fact taunts Wayne about his "bad" decision afterward when Nygmatech outperforms Wayne Enterprises. But apparently all of that isn't good enough: the Riddler never forgave Wayne for failing to "understand", and decided to devote the rest of his life to humiliating and then killing him.
• Evil Makes You Ugly: After being short-circuited by his own device, Nygma's now-deformed head is swathed in bandages, meaning he won't be imitating Bruce Wayne, CEO again anytime soon.
• False Reassurance: Nygma wheels Stickley straight into an office window, but as he's still connected to a Box helmet, he dangles precariously from the ledge. Nygma seeing this rushes over to save the day — but only to retrieve his helmet.
• Fan Disillusionment: He idolizes Bruce Wayne and wants Bruce's approval of his "Box" which stimulates and manipulates brainwaves to beam TV signals. Bruce rejects the project, stating that it "raises too many questions." As his idol leaves, Nygma vows revenge, the first step towards him becoming the Riddler.
  "You were supposed to understand! I'll make you understand!"
• Fantastic Drug: Taking hits from Nygma's machine is apparently quite addictive. The Riddler himself spends hours on a stylized throne shaped like "The Thinker," jittering like a coke fiend as he sucks up more thoughts and knowledge.
• Form-Fitting Wardrobe: Jim Carrey might as well have been wearing green paint.
• Freudian Excuse: Hinted at by the obviously-troubled Edward saying of his device, "Why be brutalized by an uncaring world?" (The novelization goes into further detail: He was bullied as a youth, with a physical attack leaving him in a coma for several months. Upon emerging from it, he became determined to prove his intellectual greatness.)
• From Nobody to Nightmare: From a little-known Wayne Industries employee to an eccentric Super Villain who deduces Batman's true identity.
• Giver of Lame Names: Nygma struggles while coming up with a supervillain persona for himself. Among the rejected names are "The Puzzler" (themed around crossword puzzles...groan), "The Gamester" (wearing a giant chess piece outfit), "Captain Kill" (a Rambo knockoff), and finally "Question Mark Man," (wearing nothing but a shoulder-hanging sign covering only his front and backsides to about thigh-level) an awful name and costume combo which he immediately regrets but gives him an idea when his carnival game machine approves.
• A God Am I: Quoted word for word, ending in a ridiculously deep echoing voice, after managing to feed off the brainwaves of every person in Gotham.

  Was that over the top? I can never tell!

• Green-Eyed Monster: At first, his fixation with his boss is simple hero worship, but it becomes a desire to Kill and Replace Bruce in Gotham's social circle after Bruce rejects his dangerous product idea. Even at his launch party, after Nygma sculpts his hair and dons a fake mole and identical suit to match Bruce Wayne's, the press still flocks around the Waynetech CEO. Edward is shown standing off the side, absolutely fuming.
• Ham-to-Ham Combat: With Two-Face. The two villains are very loud and flamboyant, so it comes as no surprise they get on like a house that they set on fire. Their Battleship game being a standout moment.
• Hoist by His Own Petard: Batman destroys his giant brain energy-sucking machine, which causes an overload of sorts in his head and destroys what little sanity Nygma had left.
• Large Ham: It's Jim Carrey and The Riddler, so this is very much expected. Best shown during the climax, where he lets loose spare ribs and hot dogs by pretending to be a game show host!
  "Can Bruce Wayne and Batman ever truly coexist? We'll find out today! But first, [with voice changer] LETS MEET OUR CONTESTANTS!"
  • The unnecessarily hammy way he stops Two-Face from giving Bruce Wayne direct lead poisoning.
    NO!!! Dooooooon't kill 'im. If you kill him... [sets down riddle box next to Bruce] He won't learn nothin'! (cue Evil Laugh from Two-Face and Riddler)
• Laser-Guided Karma: After the Riddler destroyed the Batcave, Batman returns the favor.
• Laughably Evil: Yes, Riddler is a villain, but his antics are often very funny.
• Laughing Mad: The last we see of Edward, he's cackling madly in Arkham.
• Leitmotif: "Nygma Variations (Ode to Science)", which flip-flops from whimsical to creepy.
• Lonely Bachelor Pad: Darkly inverted with Edward Nygma's cramped apartment, whose every surface has been infused with his unhinged personality - it's so excessively "decorated" that there's barely an inch not covered by some piece of paraphernalia related to Bruce Wayne, riddles, puzzles or Ed's various gadgets and toys (including a stack of rebuilt tube-TVs broadcasting various closeups of mesmerized human faces, and a terrifying life-sized Riddler mannequin inside a fortune-telling machine which Edward occasionally talks to).
• Loony Fan: Is a big one of these for Bruce Wayne, to the point of obsession. See Mad Scientist and Yandere below.
• Madness Mantra: Bruce Wayne's verdict on the Box technology is that it raises too many ethical "questions." This remark definitely shakes up Nygma; he's heard repeating it to himself while sitting amidst his smoldering lair.
  "Too many questions...too many questions..."
• Mad Scientist: He invents a brain-reading machine — and tests it on his supervisor at the first opportunity. Wayne Enterprises' corporate system, his unhealthy obsession with Bruce Wayne, and Wayne's turning down his project pushed him over the edge of sanity, and unfortunately the Box works even better than expected in that first test, expanding his intelligence...
• Manipulative Bastard: Aside from leading Bruce on a wild goose chase with multi-layered riddles, the Riddler also manages to usurp Two-Face's crime gang by playing the snivelling toady so that Two-Face will help him steal enugh money to fund his business, which leads to the Riddler getting filthy rich while Two-Face apparently still has to stick with armed robbery.
• Meaningful Name: Openly acknowledged by the characters with Edward Nygma as in...E. Nygma or...enigma. Also Mr.E or Mystery.
  • In the comics, his birth name was "Edward Nashton" and he changed it to Nigma(/Nygma) himself, both for the pun and to distance himself from his abusive father.
• Moon Logic Puzzle: The "solution" to the Riddler's riddles seems to stray into this territory, where the solution is to ignore the actual answers to the riddles and focus on the numbers in them, which when transposed to alphabetical letters give you "M-R-E," which is a homonym for "mystery," a synonym for which is "enigma," which added to the original answer gives you a rough approximation of "Mr. E. Nygma," or Edward Nygma. The jump in logic comes with there being four numbers given, 13-1-8-5, which translates to M-A-H-E on the alphabet. Somehow, Bruce immediately puts together that "1 and 8 are 18", as opposed to finding a sum of a combination of numbers, which produces the correct M-R-E answer Edward was giving.
• My Brain Is Big: The Riddler grows steadily smarter as he robs neural energy. It backfires on him when Batman destroys the machine, leaving his skull warped into an ugly shape.
• Napoleon Delusion: After his arrest and institutionalization in Arkham Asylum, he goes insane and believes he's Batman. Lampshaded when an off-screen prisoner yells in response "Yeah, and I'm Napoleon!"
• The Nicknamer: The Riddler refers to Harvey as "Bifurcated One" to stroke his ego and make him easy to manipulate. He also calls Batman "Fatman" because he's an immature asshole.
• Nightmare Fetishist: While everyone else is horrified about the chaos Two-Face causes at the circus, Nygma watches it on television with delight while eating popcorn.
• No Indoor Voice: Usually crossed with Suddenly Shouting.
  "Has anybody ever told you you have a SERIOUS IMPULSE CONTROL PROBLEM?!"
• Not Good with Rejection: His descent into madness begins with Bruce rejecting his idea for The Box.
• Not-So-Harmless Villain: He may be a Large Ham and Laughably Evil, but all things considered, he manages to figure out who Batman is on his own and launches an assault on Wayne Manor that almost completely destroys the Batcave and leaves Bruce for dead. If not for his need to utterly screw with Bruce serving as his downfall, he could have flat-out killed him.
• Oh, Crap!: The Riddler has a big one when he realizes Batman has foiled his plan, causing his mind-reading machine to overwhelm him. As his brains are effectively fried, he murmurs "Bummer..." (The novelization notes that he wants to say something more poetic, but literally can't think of it under the circumstances.)
• Pass the Popcorn: Edward excitedly munches on popcorn while watching Two-Face's chaos unfolding at the circus Bruce is attending.
• Personal Arcade: Edward keeps a carnival fortune teller booth in his home, upon which he bases his Riddler costume, even taking the jacket and bowler from out of the machine. It's dubbed "The Guesser" in the novel, and is based on an old children's TV show puppet.
• Professor Guinea Pig: Although he regards Stickley as this ("Rise and shine, little guinea pig!"), in order to test the Box upon him Nygma has to wear the receiver helmet, and when he turns the device to full power to keep the virtual reality image from shorting out he ends up stealing Stickley's brainwaves in the process.
• Psychopathic Manchild: His entire descent into villainy is motivated by one thing: Bruce Wayne said "no" to developing his invention. When he does find success, Edward goes out of his way to rub Bruce's face in it.
• Red Oni, Blue Oni: He's the blue to Two-Face's red. The Riddler is the schemer while Two-Face provides the muscle. This causes some conflict when Edward is trying to host a gala and Two-Face crashes it without telling him beforehand.
• Sadistic Choice: Poses one to Batman at the climax—either save Chase or save Robin (a choice that also represents his two personas, Bruce and Batman).
• Sissy Villain: He loves him some spandex, and accessorizes with everything from sequins to, at one point, a tiara! He's also physically weak and relies on Two-Face's goons for protection.
• Smug Snake: Once the box goes on the market, Edward goes from socially awkward to gloating in his former employer's face. In the final confrontation he takes extra joy in being a wiseass over his perceived advantage.
• Stalker with a Crush: To Bruce, who even refers to his riddles as love letters.
• Start My Own: After Bruce rejects The Box on ethical grounds, Nygma quits Wayne Enterprises to form Nygmatech, where The Box becomes a huge success.
• Start of Darkness: The second half of Forever wouldn't have been nearly as dramatic if Bruce had the time to talk over his designs and his supervisor wasn't such a buzzkill.
• Suddenly Shouting: He often indulges in this — it comes with the territory of being a Large Ham played by Jim Carrey. Two examples stand out:
  • During his first meeting with Two-Face, the latter gets exasperated by Riddler's non-stop flattery and shoots into the ceiling to make him get to the point.
    Riddler: Has anybody ever told you that you have a SERIOUS IMPULSE CONTROL PROBLEM?!
  • Then there's the climax, when a captive Chase warns him that Batman will come for her:
    Riddler: Batman? Batman, you say? Coming for you? [long pause] I'm... COUNTING ON IT!!
• Supervillain Lair: Starting his criminal career from the ground up, the Riddler gradually builds himself a throne room filled with all the question marks his heart desires.
• Taking You with Me: After Batman destroys his lair, the Riddler activates the trapdoors that drop Chase and Robin to their potential deaths.
• Tested on Humans: Edward previously asked Bruce to allow him to conduct human trials, but the boss said no way. Stickley is the first (unwilling) participant in the Box experiments.
• Ungrateful Bastard: Bruce was nothing but kind and polite towards Nygma — despite his unsettling behaviour — showed genuine interest in his project and was willing to look into it, only to reject it when Eddie openly demanded of him to make decision here and now. And yet Nygma reacted as if Wayne single-handedly ruined his entire life out of spite.
• Unlimited Wardrobe: Nygma has four different Riddler costumes over the course of the film: green suit w/ bowler, green spandex, black jacket with light-up question marks, and silver-and-glitter bodysuit based on 1970's David Bowie (with a question mark in place of the lightning bolt). He also changes his hairstyle twice and uses wigs to hide his identity, beginning with wacky Einstein Hair before progressing to a flattop (switching intermittently with a GQ haircut like Wayne's), and then back to a longer, electrified 'do reminiscent of Gozer from Ghostbusters. The last two costume/hairstyle combos occur minutes apart during the climax.
  • To be clear, his fire-engine-red Riddler hairstyles are clearly meant to be wigs, which could be quickly swapped. His real hair only changes once, from the longish auburn mop he sports as a WayneTech lab geek to the dark, deliberately Bruce Wayne-ish coif he gets after becoming a multimillionaire entrepreneur.
• Villain Team-Up: With Two-Face. Riddler provides the schemes while Two-Face provides the muscle. Unusually for this series they never turn on each other, though they do disagree on the importance of showmanship as it applies to supervillainy; Two-Face just wants to kill the Bat but Riddler wants to thoroughly humiliate him first.
• Villainous Breakdown: Due to various circumstances, he gets increasingly loopy as the film progresses. Not that he isn't clearly demented at the start...
• Villainous Friendship: He actually seems to get along quite well with Two-Face, and they're clearly having a blast robbing jewelry stores to fund Nygma's factory.
• Villain with Good Publicity: Nygma rivals Bruce Wayne once the Box goes on the market. That being said, rumors that the Box has negative side effects on consumers do spread, they're just not taken seriously enough to make a difference.
• Well-Intentioned Extremist: Clearly one at first, since he only wants to patent and market his virtual-reality invention (without approval from his superiors, if necessary) to spare the people of the world from "being brutalized by an uncaring world" (which is a correlative to his own loneliness and sense of worthlessness). It's not until he accidentally discovers that "The Box" can extract information from human minds — which also, crucially, alters his already-unstable own — that he decides to go down the criminal route.
• Why Won't You Die?: "Why? Why can't I kill you?"
• Yandere: Nygma can go from wanting to break Bruce Wayne into a million pieces, to unintentionally showing his fanboy side again through trying to one-up him by imitating his look, down to the mole.

Batman '89 Echoes

Appearances: Batman '89 Echoes

An inmate at Arkham Asylum admitted uner the name "Maynard".

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• Affably Evil: A criminal and a madman, but he seems to get on well with Bruce Wayne when he's going undercover.
• Berserk Button: He seems like a bit of a gadfly at first, but touching his collection of crossword puzzles is a surefire way to get him in a fighting mood.
• The Napoleon: Maynard's noticably shorter than Bruce Wayne, who is of average height. When someone touches his crossword puzzles, he pounces on the offender and starts pummeling him.
• No Celebrities Were Harmed: He bears a strong resemblance to Martin Short.

Sugar and Spice

Sugar and Spice

Spice and Sugar

Played by: Drew Barrymore (Sugar), Debi Mazar (Spice)

Appearances: Batman Forever

Sugar and Spice are Two-Face's themed girlfriends; they represent Two-Face's good and evil sides, respectively.

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• All There in the Script: Their names are only shown in the end credits and official merchandise.
• Betty and Veronica: Sugar and Spice, respectively.
• Canon Foreigner: They were originally created for Batman Forever.
• Co-Dragons: Two-Face's most prominent minions. Although Sugar starts serving under the Riddler after he partners with Two-Face.
• Dressed Like a Dominatrix: Spice is dressed in leather lingerie.
• Feminine Women Can Cook: Both prepare a meal for each of Two-Face's personalities, but while Sugar is a Supreme Chef^note  Poached salmon with quail eggs, lemon soufflé and sparkling champagne, Spice is a Lethal Chef^note  Charred heart of black boar, raw donkey meat, and a Sterno/Grain alcohol mixture, straight up.
• Light Is Not Good: Though Sugar represents Harvey's "good" side and dresses like a lingerie angel, she's something of a Soft-Spoken Sadist and even participates in one of Two-Face and Riddler's plans.
• Meaningful Name: Sugar and Spice's names reflect Two-Face's split personalities. Their original names, Lace and Leather, were based on what lingerie they wear.
• Ms. Fanservice: Both of them; Sugar and Spice were originally named "Lace" and "Leather", respectively.
• No Celebrities Were Harmed: According to Drew Barrymore, Sugar is her 'glitter-dipped' tribute to Marilyn Monroe.
• Paid Harem: They both reside in Two-Face's hideout.
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here: Both Sugar and Spice flee after Batman destroys Nygmatech Headquarters on Claw Island.
• Small Role, Big Impact: Because Sugar kept an eye on Bruce Wayne during Nygma's benefit gala, she knew to reactivate the machine that read Bruce's mind. It's because of her that Riddler and Two-Face found out Batman's secret identity and thus set off the invasion of Wayne Manor and the film's climax.
• The Vamp: Spice is the more overtly sexual and domineering.
• Whip of Dominance: Spice fights with a whip to complement her Dominatrix theme alongside her cold and domineering behavior as well as being Dressed Like a Dominatrix with her skimpy leather corset, spiked choker, and fishnets.

Batman & Robin

Mr. Freeze

Dr. Victor Fries/Mr. Freeze

"Prepare for a bitter harvest. Winter has come at last."

Played by: Arnold Schwarzenegger

Voiced by: Ryūzaburō Ōtomo (Japanese), Daniel Beretta (European French), Yves Corbeil (Canadian French), Nizo Neto (Brazilian Portuguese)

Appearances: Batman & Robin

"Allow me to break the ice. My name is Freeze. Learn it well... for it is the chilling sound of your doom."

Victor Fries was a two-time Olympic decathlete and a brilliant scientist whose wife, Nora, was stricken with an incurable disease, leading him to cryogenically freeze her until he could find a cure. Sadly, a lab accident altered Victor's physiology and turned him into a cold-blooded organism that could not survive in above-freezing temperatures, forcing him to turn to a life of crime. Building both a suit that allows him to move in warm environments and a gun that fires freezing rays, Victor now calls himself Mr. Freeze and is stealing diamonds from all over Gotham to power a device that will freeze the city, planning to hold Gotham for ransom and demand enough money to complete his research and cure Nora.

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• 24-Hour Armor: He wears his armor any time he's outside his lair, as he's unable to survive without the extremely cold temperatures the suit provides.
• Academic Athlete: Bruce notes that, before his accident, Fries was a decathlete who won a Nobel Prize for his work in molecular biology.
• Adapted Out: Ferris Boyle, who's traditionally responsible for Freeze's transformation, is not present in this series.
• Adaptational Badass: Unlike previous versions, he's much more physically formidable. While some iterations say his suit also augments his strength for fighting, there's no indication of that here. Instead the movie mentions he's an athlete to imply his physical power is all raw.
• Adaptational Comic Relief: Downplayed, as he's still a dangerous threat, but he's much more humorous and hammy than the more cold and chilling iterations seen in other series.
• Adaptational Curves: Freeze is normally depicted as having a frail to average build underneath his suit. Here, he's played by Arnold Schwarzenegger, a professional bodybuilder. Makes sense when you consider he'd need to be quite strong to haul around such heavy equipment.
• Adaptational Sympathy: Borrowing from his Batman: The Animated Series counterpart, Freeze turned to villainy to save his wife from dying, whereas all other iterations of the character before those two were just greedy scientists.
• Affably Evil: Unlike his predecessors, Freeze is a Noble Demon who just wants to save his wife. He's a faithful husband who refuses the advances of his Sexy Secretary. His reasons for stealing aren't out of greed, but necessity as both he and his wife require immense funding to sustain themselves. He had several opportunities to kill Batman and Robin, but gives them a fighting chance simply because he's not Ax-Crazy, even telling Batman that his victims can be saved within 11 minutes of freezing them. In his downtime he enjoys watching animated musicals and his old wedding videos, while all the other villains were either obsessed with their schemes or had sadistic hobbies.
• All There in the Manual: The novelization of Batman & Robin establishes that he had met a young Bruce Wayne during his decathlon days.
• Anti-Villain: He has a tragic, sympathetic backstory and a noble motive, namely trying to cure his terminally ill wife. But of course, the movie also portrays him as a Card-Carrying Villain who yells "Go! Kill the heroes!".
• Alternate Self: Has one on Earth-Prime & Earth-66.
• Badass Boast: The above quote.
  • He also makes one at the end after ending up at Arkham sharing a cell with Poison Ivy, who had tried to kill his cryogenically-frozen wife:
  Mr. Freeze: Surprise! I'm your new cellmate. And I'm going to make your life a living hell. Prepare for a bitter harvest. Winter has come at last!
• Badass Creed: "In this universe, there is only one absolute. Everything... freezes!"
• Bad Boss: Freeze's minions aren't too keen on working in a base that's constantly set to the lowest possible temperature. He also has no qualms turning them into blocks of ice if they agitate him. Just ask Frosty when he makes the mistake of interrupting Victor while he's watching home videos of his wedding.
• Bald of Evil: As a result of the accident that made him what he is.
• Bathos: Ice puns and hamminess aside, Freeze is an incredibly tragic character at heart, having been driven over the edge by a lab accident and being obsessed with saving his wife.
• Big Bad Duumvirate: With Ivy in Batman & Robin. Like Two-Face he regresses into a sidekick as Ivy manipulates him into a vengeful rage against Batman for her own schemes, but Freeze is the titular duo's primary target from the very start of the film, the Dragon-in-Chief Ivy needs to see her plan through, and the Final Boss.
• Blizzard Of Puns: All of his puns have something to do with ice or winter.
• Boisterous Bruiser: He's hulkingly big, incredibly strong and prone to dropping ice puns and one-liners in the middle of battle.
• Bond Villain Stupidity: Freeze indulges in a classic case of this after the heist at the Gotham Museum. After claiming the diamond and freezing Robin, he could have easily done the same to Batman given that he had him dead to rights and shocked by his partner's fate... but instead, he just tells him how to cure Robin and that he'll "Kill him next time", before leaving.
• Breaking Out the Boss: While he's captured midway through, he doesn't stay that way for long, thanks to Poison Ivy and Bane breaking him out.
• Card-Carrying Villain: During his Evil Gloating to Batman, he outright refers to himself as "the villain", and earlier commands his ice-skating minions to "Kill the heroes". Odd, considering Freeze's usual Anti-Villain traits are still present at the same time.
• Cigar Chomper: Briefly during his off-time.
• Composite Character: He has the behavior of 60s Mr. Freeze with the Backstory of BTAS Mr. Freeze.
• Contrasting Sequel Antagonist: To Two-Face from the previous movie. Both are The Heavy and Final Boss of their film, and both became supervillains after suffering something that left their body scarred. Both are also obsessed with achieving their goal, the difference being that while Two-Face sought to get revenge on Batman, Mr. Freeze has the much more noble goal of saving his wife. While Two-Face clung to his grudge up until the end, Mr. Freeze pulls a Heel–Face Turn after Batman reveals he saved his wife and offers him the chance to continue his work legitimately.
• Conveniently Cellmates: With Poison Ivy at the end of Batman & Robin.
  • The tie-in comic reveals that he bribed the Arkham Staff into arranging this with his few remaining diamonds and the means to replicate cure for Stage 1 of MacGregor's Syndrome that he made.
• Crazy-Prepared: Almost rivals Batman with the amount of gadgets he has. His suit not only augments his strength and durability — on top of keeping him constantly cooled to sub-zero temperatures that he needs to live — but contains glider wings, a small hose that serves as a miniature version of his gun, and even a little compartment for the MacGregor Syndrome medicine.
• Cut Lex Luthor a Check: His research to create a freeze ray just blew a hole through the laws of thermodynamics, so he could get both a physics Nobel and obscenely rich to fund the research on his wife's disease. But given everything blasted his mind, he instead resorts to crime for that. And even if diamonds are used to power his equipment, he could also sell the surplus in the black market and remain as low-profile as possible. This gets somewhat lampshaded at the end, when after defeating him Batman offers him the chance to continue his research legitimately while he's imprisoned at Arkham.
• Declarative Finger: "It's winter forever here in Gotham!", and later, "You LIE!".
• Despair Event Horizon: Freeze crosses this after Poison Ivy (falsely) tells him Batman killed his wife, and he decides to freeze not only Gotham, but the rest of the world as well. He does get pulled back from it after he's shown that Nora is alive, but he's still incredibly pissed with Ivy and vows to make her life a living hell.
  Mr. Freeze: If I must suffer, then humanity will suffer with me!
• Determinator: He's determined to find a cure for his wife's illness at any cost.
• Dragon-in-Chief: Although the two start off as partners, it's Poison Ivy who manipulates Freeze into going along with her plan. At the same time, Ivy was dependent on Mr. Freeze's technology in order to succeed and it's Mr. Freeze who's the bigger threat of the two.
  • Dragon Their Feet/Dragon Ascendant: Poison Ivy is defeated before he is, but that doesn't stop Freeze from carrying out his end of the plan, leaving him as the Final Boss of the film.
• Dramatic Irony: He vows revenge on Batman and to help Poison Ivy with her Restart the World plan after she tells him Batman pulled the plug on his wife's cryogenic pod, not knowing that it was Ivy who pulled the plug and he's playing right into her hands.
• Dying Curse: "FREEZE IN HELL, BATMAN!". Subverted in that he survives.
• Endless Winter: This becomes his goal after Poison Ivy tells him Batman cut his wife off life support.
• Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Freeze loves his wife so much he turns down the advances of his female minion.
• Evil Duo: With Poison Ivy after he joins forces with her, with Freeze being the more boisterous of the pair, not that Ivy is lacking in the ham department either.
• Evil Genius: He's a genius Nobel Prize winning scientist who uses his knowledge of cryogenics for crime.
• Evil Gloating/Sadistic Choice: When Batman and Robin catch up to him, Freeze fires his ice-gun at Robin, freezing him, and then gives Batman the choice of pursuing him (Freeze) or saving Robin.
  Mr. Freeze: Can you be cold, Batman?! You have eleven minutes to thaw the bird. What will you do... chase the villain, or save the boy? Ha-ha! Your emotions make you weak! That's why this day's mine! Ha-ha! I'll kill you, next time!
• Evil Is Deathly Cold: His suit keeps his body in constant sub-zero temperatures, and his abilities are all ice-based, if his name and ice puns didn't tip you off.
• Evil Is Hammy: He's an absolute Laughing Mad lunatic and doesn't hold it back at all.
• Evil Laugh: Just about any time he has even a spark of happiness.
• Evil Sounds Deep: What other voice range would you expect from a character played by Ahnold?
• Face Death with Dignity: After he's defeated by Batman, he calmly tells him to finish him off so he can be reunited with his wife again. Fortunately, Batman chooses to spare him and reveals his wife was in fact saved.
• Final Boss: Poison Ivy is defeated before he is, but that doesn't stop Freeze from being able to carry out his end of the plan, leaving him as the final foe Batman and Robin need to face. And since the film series ended with Batman & Robin, he's technically the final foe they fight overall.
• Freak Lab Accident: This is how he became Mr. Freeze. Fries was working on a cure for MacGregor's Syndrome at Gotham University's laboratories when one of his experiments failed, causing him to fall into his own cryogenic solution. The solution, which was 50 degrees below zero, mutated Fries' body to the point where he became dependent on a diamond-powered sub-zero suit.
• Genius Bruiser: A Nobel Prize winner who not only builds a freezing engine, but can send people flying with his bare hands and effectively hold his own in physical combat, even without his ice gun.
• Happier Home Movie: One surprisingly moving scene has Mr. Freeze watching home videos of his wedding with Nora, including one of him giving her the snowflake necklace that she wears.
• Healthcare Motivation: Fries turned to villainy to seek a cure for his sick wife.
• The Heavy: The most prominent villain in the film, as it's his tech Ivy needs to enact her genocidal plans. He's also the villain the titular dynamic duo face the most often, including at the beginning of the film and at the end.
• Heel–Face Turn: At the end of Batman & Robin, when he gives Batman a cure for stage one of MacGregor's Syndrome so the latter can help Alfred. In exchange, Batman promises to have Nora moved to Arkham so Victor can continue his research legitimately.
• Herr Doktor: He's never implied to be anything other than American, but Schwarzenegger's Austrian accent definitely evokes this trope. Appropriately, Fries is a surname of Danish and German origin.
• An Ice Gun: His main weapon, built from the cryonic technology that he specializes in.
• An Ice Person: Freeze became this as a result of a Freak Lab Accident.
• Icy Blue Eyes: Literally. And done with contact lenses, given Arnie's eyes are green.
• Kill It with Ice: His freeze ray, which can coat any target it hits in a thick sheet of solid ice and kill them in approximately 11 minutes if not thawed. Fries later builds a scaled-up version from the Gotham Observatory telescope, which he intends to use for his revenge on the entire world.
• Large Ham: Arnold Schwarzenegger is clearly having an absolute blast playing a cackling supervillain.
• Laughably Evil: He's an evil scientist with an eccentric demeanor and a strong affinity for puns.
• Love Makes You Crazy: His motivation is to cure and later avenge his Human Popsicle wife.
• Mad Scientist: A medical doctor specializing in cryonic application turned supervillain. It's implied that the lab accident he was in, coupled with his obsession with saving his wife, didn't leave him sane.
• Manly Tears: Sheds a Single Tear upon being told his wife is dead.
• Mascot Villain: The most prominently featured character in the film in most promotional material. Arnold Schwarzenegger is even credited before George Clooney in the opening credits.
• Mood-Swinger: Switches between hammy and melancholy (see Composite Character). Though perhaps his campiness is his way of coping with the pain of his condition and his wife's terminal illness.
• No-Sell: In one of his better moments, when Ivy tries to seduce him with her pheromones, he smiles, identifies the chemical makeup, then informs her that her poison has no effect "on the cold-hearted".
• Nostalgic Music Box: While trapped in Arkham Asylum, he makes a music box in the image of his wife.
• Not Quite Flight: When Freeze jumps out of his personal rocket, he uses mechanical wings on the back of his suit to glide away to safety. When Batman lands on Freeze's back, the villain simply detaches the wings and uses the blast from his freeze gun to slow his descent.
• Oh, Crap!: When he sees Batman survived his freezing of the Batmobile.
• Offscreen Villain Dark Matter: His suit of armor and freeze gun can be explained as him being a Nobel Prize-winning scientist, but just where does he get all those hockey team-esque Mooks from?
• Omnicidal Maniac: Becomes this when Poison Ivy tells him Batman killed his wife and uses it to coax him into going along with her plan to Restart the World.
• Please Kill Me if It Satisfies You: After being defeated in the final battle, and still under the impression that Batman killed Nora, the crippled Freeze bitterly demands Bruce to kill him as well. It's ultimately subverted when Batman reveals to Freeze that not only was Nora found and saved in time, but also that Poison Ivy was in fact the one who did it.
  Mr. Freeze: Go on... kill me, too. Just like you killed my wife.
• Pre Ass Kicking One Liner: Freeze gets in some pretty good ones here and there:
  Mr. Freeze: (before firing the freeze cannon) Let's... kick some ice!
  Mr. Freeze: (revealing himself in the telescope) Tonight's forecast? A freeze is coming.
  Mr. Freeze: Mercy?! I'm afraid my condition has left me cold to your pleas of mercy.
• Pungeon Master: All of his puns have something to do with ice or winter. A few notable examples:
  • "I'm afraid my condition has left me cold to your pleas of mercy!"
  • "You are not sending me to the cooler!"
  • "What killed the dinosaurs? The Ice Age!"
  • "Stay cool, bird-boy!"
  • "Cool party!"
  • "It's a cold town."
  • "If revenge is a dish best served cold, then put on your Sunday finest! it's time to feast!"
  • "FREEZE IN HELL, BATMAN!"
• Sad Clown: Despite this incarnation of Freeze being more known for his sheer hamminess and near-constant spouting of terrible ice puns, he's actually hurting a lot more inside at Nora's loss than he lets on. In fact, Arnold Schwarzenegger went on record saying that he intentionally played Freeze that way, which is particularly evident when he's seen quietly watching home movies of his wedding in his lair and making a music box in Nora's image in his Arkham Asylum cell.
  Mr. Freeze: One more diamond, my love. One more.
• Sanity Slippage: His transformation didn't exactly leave him sane, but he really loses it when Ivy pulls the plug on his wife's pod and tells him Batman did it, allowing her to manipulate him into going along with her plan to kill off humanity.
• Single-Target Sexuality: As he tells his henchwoman who tried cozying up to him:
  Mr. Freeze: My passion thaws for my bride alone!
• Single Tear: He sheds a single tear when he's told Nora is dead. It immediately freezes and sprinkles away.
• Tragic Ice Character: As with most incarnations of Mr. Freeze. He has to keep his body in sub-zero temperatures lest he die, and his only motive is to cure his wife.
• Tragic Keepsake: He was able to develop a cure for stage one of MacGregor's Syndrome, but by the time he did so his wife's condition had already advanced to the next stage. He keeps two vials of it with him as a constant reminder of his failure and to motivate him to keep going.
• Tranquil Fury: In his final scene, after finding out Ivy attempted to murder his wife to pin it on Batman, and he's arranged to be her new cellmate. Even though he never raises his voice, his rage is palpable.
• Unwitting Pawn: Poison Ivy manipulates him into wanting revenge on the world so that his goals suit her more destructive ends.
• Villains Out Shopping: His idea of off-time? Making his minions watch and sing along with a Christmas musical, while he walks around in silk pajamas and polar bear slippers!
• Villain Team-Up: Joins forces with Poison Ivy halfway through Batman & Robin.
• Voice of the Legion: His voice has an odd reverb to it at times. Might be an effect of wearing the suit.
• Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds: After Poison Ivy convinces him Batman killed his wife, he agrees to go along with her plan, vowing to make all of humanity suffer along with him.

Poison Ivy

See her page for more information.

Bane

Antonio Diego/Bane

"I'm a lover, not a fighter; that's why every Poison Ivy action figure comes complete WITH HIM!"

Played by: Michael Reid MacKay (Antonio Diego) | Robert "Jeep" Swenson (Bane)

Voiced by: Dai Matsumoto (Japanese, Diego) | Daisuke Gōri (Japanese, Bane)

Appearances: Batman & Robin

"BAAAAAANE!"

After a series of ruthless experiments conducted by Dr. Jason Woodrue, South American serial killer Antonio Diego is transformed into the monstrous, mindless, hulking brute known as Bane. Played by late wrestler Jeep Swenson, this iteration of Bane is an In Name Only version of the character, serving as a monosyllabic Giant Mook for Poison Ivy.

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• Achilles' Power Cord: The largest tube supplying Venom to Bane's head is this. Once Robin and Batgirl kick it out, he reverts into his much smaller form within the space of about twenty seconds.
• Adaptation Name Change: Retroactively. Bane's father in the comics is Sir Edmund Dorrance — AKA, a D-List villain named King Snake — so Bane's surname by default would also be Dorrance, even if he himself never uses the name. However, this incarnation ignores this completely, giving him the full name of Antonio Diego; which crosses over with Named by the Adaptation, since Bane has never been given a first name in any other media, and his connection to King Snake in the comics wouldn't be revealed until several years after Batman & Robin was released.
• Adaptational Curves: Inverted. In the comics, Bane was a muscular man even before being enhanced by Venom. Here, Antonio is originally a scrawny guy.
• Adaptational Dumbass: And how. Whereas the comics Bane was smart enough to come up with a successful plan to beat Batman, this Bane is barely able to speak — only engaging in Hulk Speak and saying half a dozen words or so at most when he did — and relying entirely on animalistic instincts to fight. Even before becoming Bane, Antonio doesn't act as someone with an academic mind, though he would still need to have some smarts in order to commit a series of killings to the point of gaining a life sentence.
• Adaptational Origin Connection: This version of the steroid drug Venom was created by Pamela Isley (Poison Ivy), and Bane was created by experimentation of Venom by Dr. Jason Woodrue (Floronic Man in the comics). In the comics, neither of these characters had anything to do with Bane.
• Adaptational Wimp: Nowhere near as strong or as good a fighter as he is in the comics, where he was a fearsome, near-unstoppable Genius Bruiser who famously crippled and nearly killed Batman in his first appearance. But here, he's just a dim-witted minion of Poison Ivy who generally doesn't put up much of a fight even when juiced up on Venom and ultimately ends up being one-shotted by Robin and Batgirl when they kick the largest hose out of his head. Prior to his enhancement, Antonio is also far from one who would be considered a Genius Bruiser, never mind an equal to Batman. While he's still a vicious guy — after all, he did rack up enough of a body count to deserve life imprisonment — his small and scrawny physique and seemingly lack of fighting skills means that he can easily be restrained by two guards. Furthermore, Antonio was in prison for murder, but he most likely would've had to use weapons to do so.
• Amazing Technicolor Population: He starts out with an ordinary skin tone, but the procedure that makes him Bane turns his skin and veins a toxic shade of yellowish-green.
• Asshole Victim: Considering he was a serial killer implied to have a large body count, it may be hard to feel bad for him when subjected to the excruciating agony Woodrue delightfully subjects him to.
• Bald of Evil: He has no hair under that mask, as it was permanently shaved off so Woodrue could drill and install the feed ports into his head.
• Beware the Quiet Ones: He's a lot quieter and docile after becoming Bane, but it's still not a good idea to mess with a now hulking man who towers over 6 feet and weighs over 400 lbs.
• Body Horror: The process of turning Antonio into Bane is full of this. On top of having a series of concentric holes drilled into the back of his skull — with a network of cannulae directly pumping Venom into the limbic system of his brain — he's very painfully transformed from a short, skinny figure into a hulking, mind-scrambled brute with his skin turned a sickly yellowish-green through his Tainted Veins.
• The Brute: He's the muscle for Poison Ivy and Mr. Freeze's scheme.
• Brought Down to Normal: Bane is defeated by Robin and Batgirl kicking the largest Venom-supplying hose out the back of his head as he tries to strangle them, causing him instant withdrawal and turning him back to his original, scrawnier self. Antonio is last seen gasping and convulsing in a pool of spilled Venom, clearly shell-shocked by the experience, and it's unclear what happens to him after.
• Composite Character: This Bane resembles a character named Ivan, later known as Ivor, more. Like this Bane, Ivan doesn't speak much except for short and simple sentences. The scene where Ivy disguises herself with a wig and Bane/Ivan drives her from the airport comes from 1981's Batman #339. Just like Bane, Ivan is turned into a powerful half-man, half-plant (as evidenced in 1982's Batman #344) that's enhanced with a formula that is based on Ivy's (which she developed to create carnivore plants).
• The Dragon: Poison Ivy's lone henchman.
• Dragon Their Feet: His boss is defeated before he is, leaving Bane to help out Mr. Freeze with his scheme.
• Dumb Muscle: Thanks to the effect the Venom and other assorted steroids and toxins seem to have on his brain, Bane's not exactly a bookworm. Case in point: When Poison Ivy and Bane break out Mr. Freeze, Bane breaks into the lockup, forgets what he’s supposed to be doing mid-task, goes all the way to Poison Ivy to ask what he needs to do (he can be seen through the cell door while Ivy talks with Freeze), suddenly remembers, then takes an even more difficult route back to Mr. Freeze’s cell, needing to break through a lock and run past multiple guards to do. Plus, he can’t even punch correctly.
• Green and Mean: As Bane, Woodrue's Venom causes his skin and veins to gain a sickly greenish color, and he was originally an unpleasant Serial Killer.
• Hulk Speak: He can only say one or two words at a time.
  Poison Ivy: Enough monkey business, we've got work to do.
  Bane: MONKEY... WORK!
• In Name Only: Besides his codename, Spanish ethnicity, life imprisonment sentence, status as a Sole Survivor in a Super-Soldier project, Venom-named Super Serum, and luchador-esque appearance, this Bane has very little in common with his original comic counterpart. Even his prison background differs; whereas comics!Bane was sentenced in lieu of his late father before he was even born, Antonio was sentenced as an adult due to him being a Serial Killer. If anything, this Bane is more in line with Poison Ivy's henchman Ivan (later Ivor) from the comics, a Recurring Extra whose physical appearances only last for a couple of issues.
• Irony: As Antonio Diego, he was a Serial Killer with a high enough body count to get him a life prison sentence. As Bane, however, not only does he become more docile in nature and is only capable of following orders, but he also doesn't kill a single person in the entire film (unless you count that one guard whom Bane pulled along with breaking the metal gate, along with Woodrue's goons when he broke free of the gurney and trashed the lab, but it's not shown if the guard or goons died from those).
• Lean and Mean: As Antonio Diego, he's quite scrawny but is a vicious Serial Killer serving a prison sentence for life.
• Made of Iron: Even before becoming Bane, Antonio is tough enough to survive the Venom enhancement whereas every other test subject died.
• Malevolent Masked Man: Wears a luchador mask very similar to his comics counterpart, but with the addition of a metal gas mask-like filter where his mouth and nose should be.
• Mighty Glacier: Very strong and hard to damage, but very slow in his movements.
• Muscles Are Meaningful: Bane's a huge, powerfully built brute, with all the crazy levels of strength and durability you'd expect. It's particularly emphasized by how small and scrawny he is as Antonio Diego.
• Named by the Adaptation: Bane's real name (if he even has one) was never revealed in the comics. Here, he's known as Antonio Diego. Retroactively became the aforementioned Adaptation Name Change, with the revelation of Sir Edmund "King Snake" Dorrance being his father.
• Neck Lift: Bane does this to both Robin and Batgirl in his last appearance, getting the drop on them and strangling them up against a cave wall. However, it quickly backfires on him when it gets them close enough for them to kick the main Venom hose out the back of his head.
• Red Baron: Bane receives two such nicknames from Dr. Woodrue during his initial creation ("The Ideal Killing Machine" and "Bane Of Humanity"), the latter of which partially serves as his supervillain name.
• Red Eyes, Take Warning: Invoked. The eyepieces of his mask have red markings (that look like big angry eyes) stitched around them, and they become especially noticeable when he's boosted up on Venom and get even more dangerous.
• Serial Killer: Antonio Diego himself used to be one of these, and is noted to be serving a life sentence, on top of being the sole surviving test subject for Woodrue's Super-Soldier project.
• Spikes of Villainy: This version of Bane sports a spiked collar and a similarly spiked belt and gauntlets.
• Spiteful Spit: Just before he's transformed, Antonio does one towards Woodrue just before he's chained onto the gurney, which only amuses the mad doctor.
  Woodrue: (laughs) And what a charmer he is!
• Strong as They Need to Be: Bane's Super-Strength is often inconsistent throughout the film, especially when "Turbo" mode comes into play. At his absolute limit, Bane cannot damage reinforced steel. Whenever Bane goes up against the heroes, however, he's always using Turbo mode but his punches don't hit with the expected force that would easily rip their heads off and he can get momentarily stunned by their attacks, along with Batman being able to flip him off the railing despite his increased weight.
• Super Mode: Bane has one in the form of his "Turbo" mode, as named by Dr. Woodrue during his initial transformation and testing. When the glowing button on his chest is pressed, it provides a bigger dose of Venom to him; temporarily boosting Bane's already-impressive strength to even greater levels.
• Super-Soldier: Bane was created as part of this kind of project by Dr. Woodrue, with the intention of mass producing Venom-enhanced soldiers like him to sell to power-hungry dictators. Thanks to being the only surviving test subject and Poison Ivy killing Woodrue before he can go any further, however, Bane ends up being the first and only one of his kind.
  Woodrue: GENIUS! Behold, the ideal killing machine. I call this little number... Bane. Bane Of Humanity! Imagine it; your own private army, made up of thousands of these Super Soldiers! Bidding starts at a mere... $10 MILLION!
• Super Serum: Venom, the source of his strength. It also doubles as a Psycho Serum, given the mind-scrambling effect that it is being pumped directly into the Limbic System of his brain.
• Super-Strength: As is typical for the character, Bane has this through his Venom system; being powerful enough to break free from being chained to a gurney, pull a steel door (and the unlucky guard sat in front of it) through a brick wall, throw people several feet through the air, and stomp through solid concrete. However, the brick-covered reinforced steel walls of Arkham Asylum prove to be too strong for him, even in Turbo mode; necessitating Mr. Freeze to break through them by freezing the pipes.
• Super-Toughness: In addition to his Super-Strength, the Venom also causes Bane's durability to rise to great heights, such as allowing him to survive a 700-foot drop with no major issues.
• Tainted Veins: After being injected with Woodrue's Venom, his veins and skin are turned a poisonous green.
• Uncertain Doom: What ultimately happens to Bane is never fully established. After he's unplugged from his Venom supply and reverts back to his previous skinny self, the last we see of Antonio is him lying (conscious) in a pool of spilled Venom as the cave where he fought Robin and Batgirl in begins to shake. Said cave is not seen outright collapsing, and he's never confirmed dead or mentioned again after this.
• Unskilled, but Strong: Justified. A side-effect of Dr. Woodrue's Venom causes Bane's higher brain functions to lag behind in exchange for a superhumanly enhanced physical condition^note Venom was made up of an assortment of unknown steroids and toxins and was injected directly into his limbic system after all, and Woodrue was intending on making some final modifications to Bane before selling him off to the one who won the bidding. While Bane is still intellectually abled enough to drive a car, obey traffic laws, understand orders given by others, (assuming Ivy didn't use her newfound pheromones on him to make him slightly more intelligent to do such things) and use his great strength to beat/kill people and demolish obstacles, his capacity as a fighter leaves a lot to be desired. As seen when he goes up against either Batman, Robin, or Batgirl, Bane is nothing more than a typical brawler by relying on undisciplined, telegraphed, and wild swings that his trained opponents can easily dodge and run circles around him, with Bane's saving graces being that he's at least quick enough to Punch Catch and too tough for them to hurt him. On the off-chance, he does land a hit, it's shown that he doesn't know how to punch correctly, which would make his physical blows less fatal than they should be, and when he also gets a grip on them, he doesn't kill them right away despite having enough physical strength to easily snap their necks, allowing enough time to turn the tables.
• The Voiceless; He never says a word as Antonio.
• Wrestler in All of Us: Subverted. Despite his Luchador-esque appearance and being seen throwing several full-grown men through the air, Bane's far more of a typical brawler than he is a wrestler.

Dr. Jason Woodrue

Dr. Jason Woodrue

"Join me: the two of us entwined, side by side."

Played by: John Glover

Voiced by: Aruno Tahara (Japanese), Gilles Guillot (European French)

Appearances: Batman & Robin

A scientist employed by Wayne Enterprises, and Dr. Pamela Isley's boss.

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• Adaptation Origin Connection: While he did play a role in Poison Ivy's origin in the comics, here, he applied the Venom that turned Antonio Diego into Bane, which he stole from Dr. Isley.
• Alternate Self: Has one on Earth-1 as Mr. Sivana, Earth-19 as himself, Earth-167 as Lionel Luthor, and Earth-666 as Peter Peterson.
• Bad Boss: To Pamela. He tried to kill her after she rejected his proposal to help him Take Over the World.
• Big Bad Wannabe: He has plans for world domination, but as soon as Isley becomes Poison Ivy she immediately kills him and takes over his plans.
• Beard of Evil: Woodrue has a beard and he is a bad guy.
• Card-Carrying Villain: Openly refers to himself as a maniac, commends a client on their "supreme ruthlessness" and makes a bemused quip at the fact that he's holding a bidding for shady-looking terrorists.
• Comic-Book Movies Don't Use Codenames/Not Wearing Tights: In the comics, he's known as the Floronic Man.
• Death by Adaptation: His comics counterpart went on to become a supervillain; this Woodrue didn't.
• Evil Is Hammy: Yep, John Glover is immensely over-the-top as Dr. Woodrue.
• Four Eyes, Zero Soul: Wore a pair of glasses.
• Freak Out: He does this after Pamela calls him out on his highly unethical experiments and he calmly informs her that he doesn't handle rejection well.
• Karmic Death: He is killed by Isley's poisonous kiss after he tried to kill her when she found out his plans and refuses to join him, which caused her transformation in the first place.
• Kill It with Fire: If he wasn't dead from Poison Ivy's Kiss of Death, she also started a fire in his lab while he's on the ground, just to make sure he died.
• Kiss of Death: On the receiving end of this from Poison Ivy. He begins choking right after she lets go.
• Large Ham: "FELLOW MANIACS! BIDDING...BEGINS!"
• Mad Scientist: Dr. Woodrue created the Venom formula that gave Bane his Super-Strength. Bruce specifically describes him as "a lunatic."
• Messy Hair: A malevolent case of Einstein Hair, complete with a skunk stripe.
• Rogues' Gallery Transplant: Jason Woodrue is usually an enemy of either The Atom or Swamp Thing.
• Unwitting Instigator of Doom: His attempt to kill Isley ended up turning her into Poison Ivy, a much greater threat than he could ever be.
• We Can Rule Together: After Pamela finds out what exactly he's been up to, he tries to get her to join him, crediting her research with his scientific breakthrough. When she refuses and vows to have him fired, he doesn't take it well.
• You're Insane!: Pamela calls him a "psycho".

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