He's Batman's Arch Enemy, but who gets second place?

The guy who raped him

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my heart says Twoface but my mind tells me that it's Bane

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It'd probably be easie rto just list the candidates.
> Two-Face
> Bane
> Penguin
> Ras
> Hugo Strange
> Scarecrow (Or so I like to think)

What about Riddler?

Hm. Maybe. I kind of see him as more Barbara's. At least because I think they have a little more in common.
But then again so does he and Bruce.

Probably Ra's. They are always fighting over the children. Damian, Cass, Jason and now Duke all come from the League or trained with them for some time.

In terms of popularity and iconography, I'm gonna go with the Penguin. After the Joker, he is the most well-known Batman villain among normies.

fpbp

Damian and Jason were also turned against Batman for a while, right?

its not penguin
kek

Why not? He’s one of Batman’s oldest and most elusive foes. He rules a good portion of Gotham’s criminal empire, and seldom gets prison time. Just because you don’t care for his gimmick doesn’t make him any less significant

As far as iconic status goes, its the Riddler. He's always been the number two for decades; Remember that Two-face and R'as didn't get much media attention to the 90s. Conversely the Penguin, while historically a good candidate for second place, has gotten relatively little media attention recently. Meanwhile,say "Riddle me this" and everyone knows who you're referencing.

He's also kind of a parallel to Bruce Wayne's wealth. Though Lex Luthor could probably better fit that since he's more on equal footing. penguin's just a crime lord with a net worth in the tens of millions. Maybe a couple of hundred at most.

So because Nygma has a catchphrase he’s #2? Penguin has an iconic look, laugh, and signature weapon

Two-face cause he is/was a friend....

I'M SURROUNDED BY PLEBS

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He’s a parallel to Bruce’s wealth in terms of how he uses it. That and the character itself is a parody of old money. Bank account has little to do with it. Bruce shares his wealth whild Oswald hoards it

Joe Chill may have made Bruce who he is today, but he's still just a two-bit thug. Not much different than the ones Batman beats up on a nightly basis.

Oh please. Joe Chill is a fucking nobody. Any random mugger would have done it. That’s the point

It's Ra's.

The Penguin. It's been established for decades.

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Riddler has all those too, though.

>Conversely the Penguin, while historically a good candidate for second place, has gotten relatively little media attention recently.
He was pretty much the main character of the Gotham TV show after Gordon.

Isn't the Penguin going to be the villain of Battinson's movie?

Jason yes. Damian not really. I don't remember Damian turning against his father since he became part of the family.

dr. strange?

Depends on the time period and whatever character is being particularly shilled by the writer or editorial at the time

From the 40s up until the 60s it was Penguin, without a doubt. He and Joker were pretty much equals in the Adam West period, and by that point Riddler was also a strong contender. You could even argue that Penguin, as far as pop culture recognition goes, is still the number 2 Batman villain.

Then the 70s rolled in and everyone decided that Batman had to be purged of all camp whatsoever, and unfortunately Penguin and Riddler became the sacrificial lambs. Enter Denny O'Neil with Ra's al Ghul, who under his pen was bigger even than the Joker, and remained a huge deal for a while later.

Can't say for sure in the 80s. I think they tried a bunch of different characters and none stuck.
90s was Bane, definitely Bane. He is the poster child of 90s Batman for a reason, and I'd argue he's reclaimed that spot for the 10s (or at least, DC sure thinks that way).

For the 00s I'd say DC editorial tried their damn hardest to make either Hush and Black Mask take that spot, but it didn't stick.
And for the 10s, I don't know. There hasn't really been many successfull Batman villains created this decade, and DC puts the Joker in literally fucking everything to the point there isn't even room for a number 2.

I'd say Two-Face could arguably be called the number 2 villain in general given he's consistently remained fairly popular and relevant (except for that time period he dissappeared from comics all together) in comics and media and he has a whole shtick around the number 2.

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He was his arch enemy before The Joker took that spot. He was basically Batman's Professor Moriarty. They even had a fight resembling Holmes' and Moriarty's fight at a cliff

Forgot to include image.

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Strange was supposed to become Batman's big arch-enemy back when he was first introduced, but he only got three stories to himself before they retired him. By the time of his 2nd story, The Joker was introduced in the same issue and proved far more popular and enduring.

By all means, Hugo could have become Batman's biggest nemesis, but I think it worked for the better that he didn't, and instead he got such a glorious reinvention in the 70s and stayed such a rarely used but consistently great character since then.

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Joe Chill isn't a Batman enemy, you stupid dolt

Yep.

So far it's between Riddler, Penguin, or Ra's

I feel like two face should be a contender considering he’s a former ally and the whole dualism theme contrasts with Batman’s own dual identity

Riddler's popularity was entirely due to the tv series. He hadn't been a major villain at all before then, but was arguably the biggest villain in the show. Unfortunately, O'Neil came onboard right around that time and he seems to have a massive hateboner for the character in general, so Riddler basically disappeared for 20 years. Despite that he still retained a solid fanbase, got a great showing in BTAS, had a not particularly faithful but popular depiction in Batman Forever, and still gets a big story every couple years, plus Gotham. More than anyone else, Riddler is probably Batman's number 2 villain, not necessarily because of his usage, but because for the past 45 years he's been considered one of Batman's A-list rogues by sheer power of his gimmick and personality. It also helps that Riddler requires a bit more thought to use than other villains, so even his bad stories tend to be higher effort.

1. Joker
2. Ra's
3. Bane
4. Riddler
5. Hugo Strange
6. Penguin (i love the guy but he's a MASSIVE jobber nowadays)

Superman

I doubt it's Penguin.

Personally, I'd say Ra's.

It's the penguin, I never even heard of ras until I was an adult, I heard of literally everyone else in his rogue gallery though.

Classically, it's been Penguin. One of Batman's most persistent recurring foes since the Golden Age, and one who seemed to almost win the most.

Two-Face was never super popular back in the day, and had a period where he fell into disuse. But in the modern age, I'd say he's supplanted The Penguin as #2 in Batman's Rogues' Gallery.

Ra's is Batman's most resourceful and formidable foe. But he's his "special" villain: an intetnation Bond-villain-like terrorist rather than an eccentric street criminal. I put him in a different category entirely.

As for Bane… I like him, but the big guy just isn't in the running. Hell, Hugo Strange has a more credible claim than Bane does.

>secondary archnemesis
>guy he met twice

This isn’t about power levels you dolt

And here I was angry Joker cucked him out of the villain role in Arkham City. They were just being historically accurate.

I’d throw Quinn in the hunt because of her extreme popularity recently. It just doesn’t seem right a Joker sidekick is number 2

>Harley Quinn
>a significant threat to Batman in any way
>capable of causing him tragedy in any way
what drugs are you on?

This

> Power levels
> Joker higher than Ras, Bane, and Penguin
Ehhhhh. I wouldn't make that assumption.

>what drugs are you on?
That page from Heroes in Crisis where she soloes the trinity

I’m talking strictly in terms of popularity nothing else. Don’t deny Suicide Squad and the Arkham games gave her tons of fans

> Batman
No
> Nightwing
I see potential there, but I don't think the writers use it.

Riddler came this close to becoming the main arch-enemy based entirely on the popularity of Frank Gorshin's Riddler, but Bronze Age Joker cribbed his best best traits and left comics Riddler with the scraps, worse off than he was before.

>Riddler is probably Batman's number 2 villain, not necessarily because of his usage, but because for the past 45 years he's been considered one of Batman's A-list rogues by sheer power of his gimmick and personality
A lot of people still call Riddler a C-List villain.
Of course Riddler is an iconic character and on the same tier as Penguin, Catwoman and of course Joker as far as pop culture recognition goes, but I don't think he's ever actually been a contender for number 2 outside of the Adam West show, in terms of usage at least.

I feel like we need to set a distinction over being Batman's number 2 villain is about popularity, or relevance/usage in the comics, because those two are not necessarily the same and the latter tends to change over time.

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Ras I can understand, but neither Penguin or Bane are remotely capable of soloing the League. Though being the archenemy has nothing to do with powerlevel, that rank goes to Barbatos.

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She had "Mad Love." That's it.
Well, she also attempts to rape him in "Damned". But I don't think most people count Black Label as canon.

>neither Penguin or Bane are remotely capable of soloing the League.
I'm sure if Chuck Dixon or Tom King were writing Bane he'd be soloing the League ten times over

Neither can Joke runless he's in Emperor Joker mode. In general: Joker would be lower than Bane and Penguin on a list because Bane's much stronger as well as having more resources, and the same goes to Penguin for the latter.

Except in Endgame Joker literally solos the entire League.

He did?
That sounds remarkably stupid.

Allright so we narrowed it down to
>Penguin
>Riddler
>Ra's
>Bane
>Two-Face

Penguin and Riddler are the most popular ones
Ra's and Bane are bigger deals and more relevant characters.
And Two-Face is a middleground of both on top of being a crucial enemy to the Robins and to both Batman and Bruce Wayne.

I'd say Two-Face takes it.

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A lot of people make the mistake of thinking this is a popularity contest.
Unless the villain impacts a hero's life in any way, they're not really an arch enemy. Even if they do have an impact: I wouldn't completely count it, because there could be another villain that is objectively the hero's opposite or mirrors them in a dark way.

the guy is fucking auschwitz mode how does he keep up with batman?

Unironically Scarecrow

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Abattoir, Quakemaster, or The Monk.

Two-Face. He's got the strongest connection to Batman and Bruce and works better as a dark reflection and has some of the more interesting uses. In the New Adventures his Judge character was especially good.

I wouldn't say Scarecrow is really second. Maybe even third.
I'd like to see more done with him, though.

I don't think it can be Penguin because Penguin only hates Batman because Batman keeps fucking with his business enterprises. Hell, doesn't Batman regularly go to the Penguin's office when he needs info on something, and then shake Penguin upside down until he gets something to come out? Penguin is just too docile to be Batman's secondary arch-nemesis.
I also agree that Bane was too one-off to be considered the secondary arch-nemesis.
I would say it's Ra's, but makes a very good point about whether it's fair to characterize Ra's as a rogue at all, as opposed to something else.
I think you could have made a very strong case for Riddler at the point in time right before the New 52, because at that time Riddler had even started doing white hat detective work, and I think there's a strong case to be made that the fact he was on a redemption arc at all somewhat implied that he was more important of a villain in all the issues that led up to that character development. But then we had to get a reboot, and all of Eddie's development got flushed down the shitter.
I think it'd have to be Two-Face.

So, Ras is too powerful to be classed as a rogue?

probably 5th desu

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no user, you are the pleb

Has Two-Face even been a big player in anything recently???

BASED

Joe Chill isn't Batman's enemy. Batman is Joe Chill's enemy.

It's The Penguin and you're kidding yourself if you think otherwise. In fact this thread's problem is power levels and anons not liking his gimmick. Oswald Cobblepot ensures crime runs in Gotham like a well oiled machine, and hardly ever pays for it. If The Penguin was as big as a joke as some anons keep saying, he wouldn't still be a problem.

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All-Star Batman started off strong with him. And there was that one issue a while back that ended with him shooting himself in the head. Obviously he got better. Two-Face was also in Priest's Deathstroke. And now I realize how badly I want Priest on Batman.

Arkham Knight he was a side Villan
Dark Knight he was second fiddle to Joker
Harvey Dent was in Gotham a few times

In the case of Arkhamverse, Scarecrow
>takes over an entire city after ONE(1) gas attack
>killing Batman isn't his mission, he wants to see him unmade and mentally broken for the world to see
>hires an entire militia to secure the city, all run by the Arkham Knight
>Arkham Knight appears to be in charge of everything, but Scarecrow the one truly running the show
>immediately finds a replacement for Arkham Knight after he fucks off (Deathstroke), keeping the militia under his control
>ultimately is the one that unmasks Batman to the public

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Crane fucking sucks because he has no goal, no rhyme or reason. He's a gimmick

Do you think Priest has a chance to be the next writer for Bats?

my dream Hugo story would be about him trying anything to become Batman but always fails. At the end he decide he lacks the tragedy. He finds a woman he could love with child that could be his and pretens he rehabilate only to wait for the tragedy to hit and he will finally surpase Batman

I'd assume DC wants to lock him down and he's been doing a lot of stuff around Batman's characters and he'd be a great fit.

>Crane fucking sucks because he has no goal, no rhyme or reason. He's a gimmick
He fucking spells it out for you in every iteration: He wants to create a world of madness using fear, hence his toxin.

Yeah and Joker wants madness and chaos. It becomes just cliche bullshit. You know what Crane really is? He's a guy who gets off on spooking people. It's literally his fucking fetish ever since his college teaching days when he would scare birds. Scarecrow COULD be cool but mostly his plans just involve gassing Gotham

>You know what Crane really is? He's a guy who gets off on spooking people. It's literally his fucking fetish ever since his college teaching days when he would scare birds
Point being?
>Scarecrow COULD be cool but mostly his plans just involve gassing Gotham
It's kinda hard to go national when he's just a glorified chemist. I think his Injustice iteration is the only one to go beyond Gotham.

The point being is that outside of a debut appearance Scarecrow doesn't have much material. He's a one trick pony like Bane

>The point being is that outside of a debut appearance Scarecrow doesn't have much material. He's a one trick pony like Bane
In the past, maybe. The Arkham Games, Injustice, and Batman: Hush did a lot of favors for him.

It's kind of hard to take you seriously when you list shit that isn't comic books, and Hush fucking sucked. All he did in that book was recent rhymes and get his ass kicked. In fact the only good Scarecrow story I can think of is Year One

His new 52 run was the best the character’s ever had. Hush was shit.

Surprised it took this long.
Riddler is easily Bruce's second most iconic villain.

Literally almost every fucking Batman villian is a gimmick. What are you even saying?

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You need something more than HES CRAZY. About the only real thing Crane has going for him is that he mirrors Batman using Fear as a weapon. Again, Crane has potential, but for the longest time he's just been a spooky looking asshole

You're all wrong you fucking CASUALS

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Not anymore. She's a Nightwing villain. Not exactly his arch enemy but close because Nightwing's true nemesis is getting raped.

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This isn't a Nightwing thread.

>It's kind of hard to take you seriously when you list shit that isn't comic books
They’re still legitimate iterations, and are the main reasons he has a lot more clout at a villain than before.

>Nightwing’s true nemesis is getting raped.
Man, who HASN’T Dick fucked?

Fuck off waifufags

I'd say Riddler but they've been allies. I'd say Penguin but it's always been business, not personal. Maybe Two-Face, but their friendship makes it complicated. What about Scarecrow? He's been able to hurt Batman deep, but not quite as deep as Joker.

Human mortality.

And this:

Only Ras belongs in that list.

So you just care about your own headcanon?

Who ever said "iconic"? Certainly not OP.

Nah, you're the pleb

You haven't heard about this?

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Black Mask.

Anybody who says Bane a movie-first faggot who belongs on Yea Forums not Yea Forums.

The dudes mostly a non-entity in the comics past KF.

I'm not seeing why this makes your point that he's more of a batgirl villain than Batman. Do I have to post the plethora of Batman storylines he's been the main villain for or are you a Yea Forumsfag that so should I post Gorshin for? Maybe Jim Carey? Does him appearing in When In Rome make him a Catwoman-tertiary character?

Well, I can see how I implied he is. He isn't but depending on execution, he could be.

Conceptually I don't necessarily disagree with that.

But any of them who showed up in the West show are pretty solidified as Batman villains.

POLKA DOT MAN

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Does Catwoman count?

If not, Two-Face.

He and Catwoman ar eon too friendly terms.

She does but faggots like to think she isn't a villain.

Honestly thats correct answer by a long shot.

Doesn't she already have a Riddler-esque nemesis named Calculator?

Based

The Mad Hatter ofcourse

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You wish, Doug Moench

Look man I don't even like Bane but he was pushed super fucking hard in the 90s and in the 10s alone we've had like 3 storylines where he beats up every other villain and takes over Gotham.

The problem with Catwoman is that she’s not a villain anymore, at least not a constant one.
I like to think she just suffers from kleptomania.

>a woman being second big bad to the BAT.
Are you retarded? I bet you the type of nigga that LIKED Captain Marvel.

I'm happy that you guys like Strange enough to consider him a candidate since he's my 2nd favorite Batman villain, but unfortunately I really don't think he qualifies.
He has nowhere near the popularity, reocurring appearences, or relevance to Batman storylines that we are using to gauge the other villains.

He really just does his own thing and is superb while doing it.

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it's gonna be Bendis lmao

>it's gonna be Bendis lmao
Not after his Superman run tanking in sales.

Scarecrow is fucking great and has had plenty of good to great storylines. The problem is writers lacking imagination who just use him whenever they need some spooky hallucinations with fear gas, or who can't write villains that aren't oversized brutes or The Joker.

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God i love Alex Ross

Nowadays it's definitely Bane.
Ra's for the 70s
Riddler for the 60s
Penguin for the 50s

OBVIOUSLY Ra's.

>Why not?
Because he rarely sets out to cause Batman any problems.

Two-Face.

Was he even in Hush? Haven't seen the animated version, if it's that.

I'd like a story where Bruce Wayne is slowly driven insane by a dose of fear toxin he never detected. It gets so bad because it affects his mental state incrementally.

BTAS did a lot of great stuff with Scarecrow. The one with Batman at Arkham is great. Personal favorites are the one with Robin becoming afraid of everything and the one where Batman has no fear.

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Kys faggot

Read "6 Days of Scarecrow". It's a story where Scarecrow injects Batman with a fear toxin that doesn't affect him, but rather makes everyone around him terrified to be near him, even his closest allies like Gordon and Robin.

It's a really good, fun story that could easily serve as the basis for a much darker, psychologically driven one.

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Thanks. Will do.

Depending on how you look at it and if we're going all time I would say Catwoman. She's easily the second most recognizable villain after Joker

Oh, and if you want a darker, psychologically driven story where Scarecrow damn near breaks Batman's mind, go read Kings of Fear.

It's fucking criminal how hard people slept on that mini, even though it hasn't even been a year since it finished.
Not only does it offer a genuinely interesting and well-written exploration of Bruce's mind and his effect on Gotham (you know, the kind of thing Tom King has been trying to write for years and failing), but it's far and away the best depiction of Scarecrow of this decade, maybe ever I'd say. It's glorious.

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I'm not super well versed on DC or Batman but he from the panels I've read he seems to be equivalent to Slott in that he wrote some decent stuff on other titles but then got his hands on a big character, wore out his welcome a few times over, and ran said character into the ground. Is this accurate?

Will read that too.

Scarecrow's one of the few who really makes Batman go inward.
Who else does that? Two-Face?

This. I'm reading his Superman run and it's miles better than his Batman. He's writing Superman like a real person with real fears while his Batman is an autistic robot

Two-Face hasn't done shit since the late 70's.

The thing about the Riddler is that he isn't really a traditional criminal like the other rogues. He's simply in it for the attention. People always seem to want him to be this big criminal mastermind, but all Edward wants to do is stroke his ego by showing off how clever he is. It's a compulsion.

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Hugo was actually Batman's first villain before Joker, surprisingly, so it would make sense if he were to be in second place of all of Batman's adversaries.

Plus, remember that Joker beat Ra's in chess, along with Bane. Scarecrow might be up there, too, if he had the chance.

I like that many of his top tier rogues display obvious respect for him and what he does, even while actively trying to murder him.

Hugo Strange, definitely. Nobody does "fucking with Batman's brain" like Hugo Strange, not even Scarecrow with truckloads of fear gas or Joker at his cruelest knows how to pour salt in Batman's wounds the way Hugo does.

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Where do Freeze and Clayface rank? They were my favorites.

Two-Face is a special case because he really doesn't have to try to fuck with Batman's head in order to get to him. More than any other villain, he is, or at least should be, the villain that forces Batman to question things. About himself, his mission, what it does to people, whether he's making a difference, and whether he's really that far off from where Harvey is. Writers really like to push Joker as Batman's dark mirror/evil counterpart when that's the role Two-Face occupies more than anyone else.

And even though Two-Face's role as Batman's worst failure has been more or less replaced by Jason Todd, he is still the first major failure, and the one with the most widespread impact, and the one that Batman has tried the hardest to fix and failed.

Villains like The Joker, Scarecrow and Hugo Strange have to engage in widespread massacres or highly concentrated psychological attacks or takedowns just to put a dent on Batman's unshakeable will or try to prove a point. Two-Face does that just by passively existing in his current state.

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Take your pick of someone other than joker in this picture.

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Joker and Penguin teamed-up outside of the movie. I think that settles the argument.

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Zodiac crimes were some of the best episodes. Joker teams up with Eartha Kit in season 3 for two episodes. The ones with the light house, and lawyer lucky Pierre

Lets also not forget they teamed up against Mystery Incorporated as well. Twice.

I think it's safe to say they're two big power players in Gotham.

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Speaking of the 90s, which comics aged decently during that decade?

Catwoman

Through bad writing. They just happened to be jokerized one day with no explanation whatsoever for how he did it without them noticing or fighting it off. Also, currently Bane has the power of defeating the league through Gotham Girl and the Psycho Pirate (and also bad writing, specially with Gotham girl)

Well Bane broke his back so

They seem to be pushing him really hard as bat's mightiest foe and polar opposite in the current run. And for all of King's horrible flaws as a writer, his characterization of Bane has been consistently entertaining and I find his interpretation really endearing

I liked him in legacy and no mans land

How quickly everyone forgets Dr Hurt.

Honestly the only one that's approached Joker in my eyes.
Having him get buried alive by Joker was a great way to end him.

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He was his polar opposite and "mightiest foe" in Knightfall.

He's the Batman villain for powerlevel fags, that's it.

Gotham. Which is also Batman's otp

Even Joker went out of his way to avenge Batman's "death" in TAS. youtu.be/7ryHyDFCCD8

Two-Face is what Bruce Wayne could have turned into if he didn't have the support of Alfred and long-standing unresolved issues with his still-living family.
He's always been a personal favorite of mine considering he's an anti-hero to some extent but also maintaining a criminal lifestyle after watching his attempts at thwarting crime be destroyed time after time, he's Batman without the sanity to determine when killing someone can be considered wrong, a really fascinating villain.

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Penguin, Riddler, Two-Face, or Hugo Strange can all be considered strong candidates for second place.

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Is this series worth reading?
I love BTAS's Two-Face and I'd like to see more of him, he felt underused after the first season.

riddler.

What about the other crime bosses?

Ra's or Bane. Definitely not Penguin, given the intense increased focus on those two in the cinematic universes.

Historically it was Penguin, but certainly not anymore. Probably Two-Face.

Freeze I would put in the bottom of the top ten, his story is great and tragic but others are more prominent (I don't think it helps he was the main villain of Batman & Robin either). That's a big step up for him though, prior to Heart of Ice he was D-list.

Clayface I would put a tier below Freeze, he's unique in that Batman doesn't have a lot of superpowered foes (and he's extremely powerful), but he's played a lot like Absorbing Man from Marvel in that he could but a lot more powerful if he wasn't an idiot. I think he really works well as an ally now actually, though I'm sure he'll become a villain again someday.

Batman fears Two-Face as much as the Joker

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Bane has a feral intensity that makes him endearing. While he's more or less batman's equal in physical might, drive and intellect (and I feel the new run has displayed this rather well with his ridiculously overcomplicated keikkakus and resources, cementing him as a worthy archenemy for the all prepping batgod of the 2010s) batman's training was methodical and well planned, Bane's is more a product of extremely harsh circumstances, he's basically a guy who survived a life that would have ruined or wrecked anyone else and ended up as an indestructible weapon of a man. Plus his single minded mentality and motivation for wrecking batman in mind and body are genuinely unsettling. Like imagine some guy putting all of his drive and resources into ruining your life based on some vague nightmares and then because they woke up one day feeling like they should be the uncontested strongest guy alive in some competition you never agreed to participate on

10s was Dr Hurt and by extension Darkseid I guess

Killer croc

Two-Face has definirely been in the top 5 or 3.
As a kid I always saw him as one of batman's memorable foes.
Bane's character was basically the hulk and didn't become relevant again until TDKR.
Ra's is also a good option.

Dr Hurt was basically the pure devil archetype, he is both a one time villain and not nearly recognizable enough to achieve archnemesis status.

>second place
>2nd
>2

It's Harvey. All the way.

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Reminds me a little of what Bullseye did in Punisher Max.

For a second I thought there was a story arc called The Arkham Games. Like an Olympic Games set in Arkham Asylum. Or something.

TOO SMALL!

I love Dr. Hurt. He's great. I mean, he still appeared in that flash forward issue as the advisor who tells the president to nuke Gotham, right?

Get fucked

Where can I see these chess matches?

>t.Hasnt read shit

Without even considering Professor Pyg?

joker being good at chess... now that's just joker-wank.
(here are some chess games where players made "crazy" moves and won.)
youtube.com/watch?v=7B9p2PrsKWY
youtube.com/watch?v=r-xTunK0WcY (white was actually in a mental institution for a while, so I guess that fits)
youtube.com/watch?v=vztVylqnBSo

Pretty amazing that Morrison co-created both Pyg and Dr. Hurt. What a guy!

this, penguin is an actual criminal mastermind and not some thug to be jailed every other week

No.

A lot of people fail to realize that Bane intentionally has a lot of parallels to Bruce. Rather than being another "anti-Batman" character though, Bane has a complimentary psychology. For a guy created to be a big, strong villain that takes out Batman, he had a lot of thought put into him and has gotten a fairly fantastic amount of character development since even if a lot of it wasn't actually in a Batman book.

Hey if we’re counting Hurt, then technically shouldn’t Darkseid count as a Batman archnemesis? Ever since Final Crisis the Omega Sanction has been retroactively responsible for his dumpster fire of a life after all. He’s even the reason Barbatos started the Dark Night Metal shit.

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Is he planet buster level?

Two-face or Clark.

The question is who is his greatest (well, second greatest) enemy, not the most iconic.

Penguin for the most part didn't do shit since the eighties all the way up to the mid 2k years. And even then he is more of a counter to Batman than a arch enemy. Hell, he even works with the guy at times.

Bane was built to be the new thing but I believe other media ruined him. Movies and video games portrayex him as a dumb fuck who is high on Venom and is basically a bruiser, not a mastermind. Hardy did little to fix that.

Two Face is Bats most tragic enemy but not an arch nemesis.

Ra's al Ghul is the correct answer. He is a global presence, strong, competent and connected. Honestly he should be no1 but fandom is what it is so Joker got the first place.

Kite Man!!!

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Penguin.

Two-face

Does Two-Face genuinely believe in a higher power that pre-decided his decisions based on his coin or is it just a personal philosophy of "balancing" his moral actions?

I think it's a mix of both, I've always thought of his bad side being a personification of his father and the coin being Harvey's necessary balancing act to keep him from going fully insane.

Thing with Penguin is that he's not really a major villain anymore. Even then, he and Black Mask are just the remnants of Gotham'a old mob days, and don't really pose as big of a threat to Batman.

Strange is kind of a sad sack though.

They're lumped in with Falcone and Maroni? Aren't they the "New Mob"?

Several of Batman's villains can be categorized as grotesque gangsters, or "I can't believe it's not Dick Tracy." Penguin, Black Mask, Ventriloquist, and Two-Face primarily.

Yeah. Rupert Throne is usually active around the same time they are as well. He's probably the last "normal" mob boss.

>Thing with Penguin is that he's not really a major villain anymore.

That's because Batman comics today are a drama freakshow trying to get readers' attention.

You can't have fun villains when you're struggling to stay relevant.

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The Penguin has been hit the worst by the decline in quality brought on by piss-poor writers.

You go from Showcase #94, where The Penguin is the only villain in the Knightfall saga to suspect that Batman has been replaced and kidnaps Commissioner Gordon's wife to confirm it, to 1995's Detective Comics #683 - #684 where The Penguin is a mob boss that thinks Batman won't stop his crimes if he commits them during the daytime.

So yeah, you can thank Chuck Dixon for that.

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>Batman won't stop his crimes if he commits them during the daytime
I mean, where is he wrong? Batman doesn't operate directly during the day, so as long as you can get everything done by nightfall you're a step ahead of him.

Bane has one of the biggest canon wins aginst Batman. In terms of current canon, Bane is still upper tier threat in Batman’s Rogue Gallery. I wouldn’t place him at second, but the man is up there.

Second place easily goes to Razzy, but it got me thinking. Who would be most butthurt about not taking top three?

To all the people saying Penguin, this was true in the 60s, as Burgess Merideth was the biggest actor on the show at time, but it’s really not that true today.

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> Who would be most butthurt about not taking top three?
This version of him at least.

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What’s Jubilee doing there with Robin?

I think it's the DC Vs Marvel crossover event.

I mean that's not a bad gimmick for a bat villain. It allows for a different aesthetic during that villain's arc as it takes place during the day and forces Batman to switch up things to take him down.

Two-Face.
Think about it.

If we look at the big, epic acclaimed Batman stories, we will find: many Joker stories (The Man Who Laughs, Joker's Five Wat Revenge, Killing Joke, Joker by Azarello/Bermejo), many Two-Face stories (Lonely Place of Dying, Long Halloween, Dark Victory)... but only one Ra's Al Ghul story (Son of the Demon), one Bane story (Knightfall) and exactly ZERO Scarecrow or Penguin stories.

In fact, that was obvious even to people in 1980s, because when Frank Miller was writing Dark Knight Returns, which two classic villains does he pick to compliment Mutant and Superman arcs? Joker and Two-Face.

Similarly, in Batman: TAS, by many considered to be the quintessential Batman series, Two-Face has second-most amount of appearances out of any villain - DCAU wiki counts 31 appearances, compared to Joker's 36 - and easily outclassing 18 appearances of Penguin, and pathetic 3 appearances of Bane, 5 appearances of Ra's Al Ghul and 10 appearances of Scarecrow.

Think about it - Joker is a perfect opposite of Batman (Batman is a dark good person who uses fear, Joker is a light evil person who uses laughter) - but Two-Face is the same as Batman, his perfect reflection - a man who was driven into darkness by one bad day, splintering him into two identities - a good civilian Harvey Dent, and the grim outlaw who seeks his twisted version of justice, Two-Face.

Two-Face is what Batman is afraid he will become. He is at the same time his greatest error, he's the one friend he couldn't help - neither as Bruce Wayne or as Batman.

Also I don't need to point out the obvious - isn't it fitting that a man obsessed with number two is Batman's villain number two?

>Batman doesn't operate directly during the day
And that's where it's stupid. Batman operates whenever the fuck he wants.

Why do they allow people that don't read comic books into Yea Forums?

>If we look at the big, epic acclaimed Batman stories
Oh, you're a fucking casual.

>Two-Face is a two bit gimmick
>Penguin is a joke
>Bane is poorly used
>Hugo is rarely used
Riddler is the only correct answer.

How is Penguin a joke? Better question, how is Riddler not a joke?

Not saying he's even close, but wasn't he meant to be the anti-Batman?
So, he had a chance.

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>Spider-Man's greatest enemies are a bunch of steampunk LARP vampires

Has Batman ever taken on the Rogues from Flash?

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Gorilla Grodd sometimes.

The NRA?

Nah nah, i meant the Rogues!!! Like Cold and Trickster

Meant for you

Doe sit count if it's during a team-up with Flash?

Sure

Batman vs The Mirror Master (The Batman cartoon)
Batman vs Captain Cold (The Brave and the Bold) (Superman/Batman: Public Enemies. There were a bunch of other ice villains, and it's quick though.)
Weather Wizard (The Brave and the Bold. Also An old Detective Comics issue. 353 to be exact.)
> Zoom (The Brave and the Bold. Justice League: The Flashpoint Paradox.)
> Trickster (Justice League. The bar scene if that counts.)

Thx fren

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Not necessarily. Bane just doesn’t get many wins over Batman, but hardly anybody does. Bane getting his own series and having a lot of focus shifted his way is massive.

Forgot to include this image.

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Batman won't stop until all the guns are gone.

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>They just happened to be jokerized one day with no explanation whatsoever for how he did it without them noticing or fighting it off
It was explained how Joker got to the League, it was just done really poorly. Bruce said that the last time the League convened in public was at the Gotham Children's Hospital — so what most likely happened was that Joker, under the guise of Dr. Eric Border, found a way to secretly poison the League while they were there.

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So, basically "It just happened."

Who's a villain you'd like to see win for once?

Preferably somebody who is not already huge since that might put them over.

Maybe someone like Catman?

Himself.

He's his own worst enemy.

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I think Red Hood might want to have a word here.

Second greatest failure?
Two-Face I mean.

Was what happen to Two Face Joker's fault or Batman's?

How could it be Joker's? Usually, he's not there.
Bruce blames himself because he's supposed to be a hero that saves people, and he couldn't save his best friend from getting acid splashed on him by Maroni.
So, it's definitely Maroni's fault.

Riddler was in the Legion of Doom...

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Weren't Mr. Freeze and Scarecrow in it too?

Sometimes I either hear it depicted as or spoken about as Joker splashing acid in his face.

Hmm. I haven't. Any stories in particular?