Enemies of Batman

The enemies of Batman form one of the most distinctive rogues galleries in comics. In the 1930s and 1940s the most familiar Batman villains evolved: the Joker, Catwoman, the Penguin, the Riddler, Two-Face, the Mad Hatter, the Scarecrow, and Clayface. Other well known villains emerged in the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s including Mr. Freeze, Poison Ivy, and Ra's Al Ghul; Killer Croc and the Ventriloquist emerged in the 1980s, and Bane and Harley Quinn in the 1990s.

Many of Batman's enemies are supervillains such as:

• Amygdala: A powerful behemoth with a child like temper; quick to anger and turns into a murdering monster. Has been stopped by Batman in the past by applying a severe blow to the back of the neck, just below the skull.
• Anarky: Lonnie Machin, a vigilante obsessed with theories of Anarchism. He is originally discovered to be a small child, but as he becomes a teenager, he evolves into a superhero himself.
• Bane: An escaped convict from an island prison in South America, who has abnormal strength as a result of having had experiments with a derivative of the drug Venom performed on him. Bane was responsible for breaking Batman's back, forcing Bruce Wayne to give up the Batman persona while he recuperated.
• Black Mask: Roman Sionis, a former business executive who has it in for Bruce Wayne rather than Batman. He wears a Black Mask and leads the cult like False Face Society of henchmen.
• Catwoman: Selina Kyle, a female criminal (often burglar) who operates with a cat theme and costume and has a love/hate relationship with Batman. Also, has been known to wreak revenge upon those who do crimes against animals, especially large cats.
• Clayface: A name for a number of criminals, with the best known being Matt Hagen, a criminal with the power to instantly change his shape and appearance to any form he wants.
• Firefly: Garfield Lynns, an orphan who became a pyromaniac and has developed a fireproof suit and flamethrower to further pursue his 'hobby'.
• General: Ulysses Hadrian Armstrong, a psychotic child with the mind of a military genius. He dresses himself and his henchmen in historical attire as they act out crimes based on military history.
• Harley Quinn: Harleen Quinzel, a former criminal psychiatrist who fell in love with the Joker and became his most famous accomplice. She wears the clothing of a traditional harlequin jester and affectionally refers to the Joker as "puddin" and "Mr. J".
• Professor Hugo Strange: An insane psychologist who knows Batman's secret identity and lusts to take the identity for himself.
• Hush: Neurosurgeon Dr. Thomas Elliot, a childhood friend of Bruce's. Hush's name originates from a nursery rhyme, however, he truly lives up to it; He uses manipulation and guile instead of any noisy "signatures." An example of this guile is how he led Batman to believe that he was the second Robin, Jason Todd, previously believed to have been murdered by the Joker.
• Joker: A homicidal maniac with a clown-like appearance who takes comedic delight in violent crime and challenging Batman.
• Killer Croc: A criminal deformed by mutation into a humongous humanoid lizard. He has low intelligence but great strength, as well as animal abilities, such as heightened senses and the ability to hold his breath underwater for long periods of time.
• Mad Hatter: A research scientist named Jervis Tetch who is completely smitten with the works of Lewis Carroll. He specializes in neuroscience and developed hardware that can control the brain and induce hypnotic states.
• Man-Bat: A scientist, Kirk Langstrom is cursed to periodically turn into an animalistic humanoid bat, and often causes much trouble for Batman despite also being an ally.
• Maxie Zeus: An insane mob boss with a penchant for Greek mythology, Maxie has a god complex and usually uses electrically based weaponry to emulate the Greek god Zeus.
• Mr. Freeze: Formerly a scientist and expert on cryonics, Dr. Victor Fries tried to cryopreserve his stricken wife until a cure was found to her disease. An accident in the process caused his body to function only below freezing point and so he wears a special self-contained refrigeration suit and uses similar technology for weapons and other devices of his own design (such as a freezing gun).
• Penguin: Oswald Cobblepot, a short rotund man with a long pointed nose who fancies himself a gentleman of crime. He usually wears a tuxedo, top hat, and monocle, and carries any variety of umbrellas which have various hidden functions such as vehicles or weapons.
• Poison Ivy: Pamela Isley, a female criminal who employs plants of all varieties and their derivatives in her crimes. She is often described as fanatical about defending plants from human beings, even to the extent of murdering them.
• Ra's Al Ghul: ("Demon's Head" in Arabic), a centuries-old eco-terrorist who knows Batman's secret identity; Ra's Al Ghul desires for Batman to marry his daughter Talia and become his successor.
• Riddler: Edward Nigma, a criminal mastermind who has a strange compulsion to challenge his opponents by presenting clues to his crimes in the form of riddles and puzzles.
• Scarecrow: Jonathan Crane, a renegade scientist specializing in the nature of fear, who employs special equipment and techniques designed to use it to his advantage.
• Scarface: See the Ventriloquist, below.
• Two-Face: Formerly District Attorney Harvey Dent (a friend of Bruce Wayne's), until his latent multiple personality disorder fully took hold when half his face was horrifically scarred, and he became obsessed with committing crimes themed around duality and opposites with all major decisions being determined by a two-headed coin.
• Ventriloquist: A ventriloquist whose puppet is a gangster called Scarface. It has been implied that the Ventriolquist merely suffers from multiple personality disorder, but also that his puppet, which was created from gallows wood, is possessed by a demon calling itself Scarface.
• Zsasz: Victor Zsasz, a serial killer who keeps a tally of his victims by cutting new scars into his body with his trademark knife.

However, some versions of the Batman mythos pit him against more ordinary enemies, such as mobsters.

• Falcone family: Prominent in the storylines of Batman's early years, including The Long Halloween and Dark Victory.
• Rupert Thorne: In the animated series, head of one of Gotham City's top smuggling gangs, Rupert Thorne is envied for his power in the underworld and loves prospering from other people's misery.