Villain origin stories

[Masked Manhunter]

ok thx, that was nice reply, you shouldn't act cocky I was simply curious about modern era for comparison only etc... Wanted to know 'new' take on the villains...

[ngroove]

ok thx, that was nice reply, you shouldn't act cocky I was simply curious about modern era for comparison only etc... Wanted to know 'new' take on the villains...

OK, my apologies...

Perhaps modern-wise, it may be understandable, "Killing Joke" may be known to many as the pinnacle of Joker, "Long Halloween" expanded upon Two-Face, and "Pain and the Prejudice" got people feeling about Penguin again...although I still reccomend at least the "sampling" of some classics...you might be impressed with the storytelling of Dennis O' Neil or Gerry Conway...

But as for Croc - honestly, Croc is one of the guys, like Clayface and Black Mask, whose best were in the early stories of original interpretation, and only "devolved" more one-dimensional, savage, and kinda dumber as time went on; from scaly crimelord, one-time "King of Gotham City" pre-Bane, to guy who literally lives in the sewers or swamps, to creature who actually eats people; also used in stories nowadays easily used by someone else, purely for his muscle.

[Mat001]

It's such a disappointment, learning about Clayface from watching the awesome TAS episodes, and then going to the comics and finding out how lame he/they really are.

The show combined Karlo, Hagen and Fuller for the basic origin and used Payne's containment suit for "Mudslide".

For the Joker's origin, I prefer not to think of him as a failed comedian who got suckered into committing crimes with a red bucket over his head. That silver age nonsense never should have been allowed to become modern canon, but unfortunately Alan Moore used it in Killing Joke and DC slavishly accepted it. I don't dislike it just because a guy wearing a bucket over his head is stupid (though it really really is), but also because that origin implies that the chemical bath was completely responsible for the Joker we ended up getting, which I think diminishes him as a villain.

The failed comedian was Moore's contribution to the origin. In the original, it was said that the Red Hood was a genius with chemicals and a villain of his own choosing. Moore added the caveat that the Joker was only being partially honest. But yes, it's always been the chemicals that made him insane. That's why it has been used throughout the years in the comics, in animation and in the 89 film.

[PandaParker]

so Batman is my second favorite comicbook character, but this is mostly because of his rogue's gallery. I was wondering if anyone could point me towards a series (or some collections) that highlight villains? I heard that "Batman: The Dark Knight" does that, pretty much, but I'm more of a trade guy so I don't wanna go out and buy anything until a significant number of TPB's are out, which probably won't be for a while. I already own "Joker's Asylum" vols 1 and 2, so anything besides that would be awesome.

[Haytil]

so Batman is my second favorite comicbook character, but this is mostly because of his rogue's gallery. I was wondering if anyone could point me towards a series (or some collections) that highlight villains? I heard that "Batman: The Dark Knight" does that, pretty much, but I'm more of a trade guy so I don't wanna go out and buy anything until a significant number of TPB's are out, which probably won't be for a while. I already own "Joker's Asylum" vols 1 and 2, so anything besides that would be awesome.

Not so much a "highlight" of the villains in the way that "Joker's Asylum" was, but Hush, The Long Halloween/Dark Victory, and Knightfall Volume 1 each very consciously include most of the major rogues in their stories, where each gets enough screen time to be considered a guest star (rather than a background character).

[andthegunslinger]

Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight is a series with 1-5 issue arcs that feature different villians. I really love some of them.

The wiki page tells you which villian is featured: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Batman:...he_Dark_Knight and it's a good way to get a high quality fix of villianness.

[godisawesome]

Batman: Black and White has my favorite Joker origin story as written by Paul Dini and illustrated by Alex Ross. Their Joker was basically a sadistic villain before the bath but used it as an excuse to remake himself into terror personified. They gave him a nice collection of pseudonyms and ended the story with a very nice unreliable narrator reveal via Harley Quinn.