Batman has one of the darkest and most memorable origin stories of all time: a young boy is on his way home after a night out with his parents, when suddenly, they're cornered by a petty thief in an alleyway. In an instant, the family he loved more than anything else in the world was gone forever. It isn't just compelling story writing; it helps us understand Batman's character on a deeper level, and just why he's out there risking his life against criminals every night in Gotham City. And when it comes to baddies, there's no doubt about it -- the Dark Knight has the baddest and most insane villains in all of comics.
But what about the villains' backstories? Oftentimes, we're so busy rooting for Batman to take down the bad guys that we forget to stop and think about who those bad guys were before they turned evil. Sure, some of the Bat's enemies (like The Joker) may seem irredeemable, but believe it or not, there's actually a number of villains that are just as sympathetic as the Caped Crusader himself. In fact, there are some that you might feel even more sorry for than the hero himself.
Don't believe it? See for yourself as we check out the 15 Most Tragic Batman Villain Origins.
15. The Riddler
Ah, The Riddler. Blessed with a major case of egotism, and often considered to be Batman's most intelligent adversary (if not smarter than the Bat himself), it can be hard to see what's so tragic about this villain at first glance. As it turns out, young Edward Nigma (sometimes "Nygma") was resented for his intellect, both by his classmates and his abusive father.
Poor Edward would attempt to win everyone over by solving a puzzle in class faster than anyone else could manage, and even want as far as cheating by practicing with it beforehand so that he would win for sure. His plan would only end up causing his hateful father and spiteful peers to hate him even more, igniting his obsession with riddles, and turning him into the narcissistic showoff that he is today.
14. Clock King
Temple Fugate was just a successful businessman who kept an extremely tight schedule, making sure to follow his routine down to the minute every single day. That was until attorney-at-law Hamilton Hill suggested that he deviate from his routine for once in his life, so that he could loosen up and appear more relaxed during an important court hearing he was having that day. Big mistake.
Temple took the advice, triggering a chain of events which would eventually lead him to be late for the hearing, resulting in the total loss of his company. Years later, Hamilton Hill would go on to be elected as mayor of Gotham. Understandably, this left Temple Fugate with quite the grudge, so with the help of his impeccable timing and his trusty clock-hand cane, he sets off to take his revenge as the Clock King.
13. Black Mask
The saying "money doesn't buy happiness" is one that Bruce Wayne is all too familiar with, but the same can be said for Roman Sionis. Born into a wealthy family, Roman was neglected by his self-absorbed parents, who cared more about their public image than their own son. If that wasn't bad enough, he was even dropped on his head almost immediately after birth.
Roman grew up resenting his selfish parents, and their interference with his love life would lead him to burn down their mansion, burning his mother and father alive, and inheriting the family business in the process. Unfortunately, he would go on to cause his family's business to fail, losing his fiancée in the process. A broken and humiliated Roman would then break into his own parents' grave, rip apart his father's ebony casket, and use a piece of it to carve out a familiar Black Mask.
12. Clayface
We've seen it plenty of times before -- an up-and-coming movie star burns out and loses their fame before they even know it – but it usually doesn't happen quite as literally as it did for Matt Hagen when he had his face burned and disfigured in a horrific car accident. With his acting career surely over, he was approached by corrupt businessman Roland Daggett, who offered an experimental face cream that would cure him of his disfigurement.
The cream worked even better than expected, allowing Hagen to manipulate the appearance of his face any way he wanted (although the effects would wear off after 24 hours). As payment, Daggett had Hagen commit crimes for him in return for more of the cream, which the actor had become addicted to. After a botched mission causes Hagen to lose his beloved face cream, he attempts to steal it for himself, but Dagget's men get to him first and force him to drink an obscene amount of the cream with the intention of killing him. Instead, the concoction fused with every cell in his body, granting him the complete ability to shapeshift, and turning his physical form into the grotesque form known as Clayface.
11. Baby Doll
Clayface isn't the only ex-actor on this list, just ask Baby Doll – though she probably wouldn't be too happy about you bringing it up. Mary Dahl was a child star on a popular sitcom, famous for the fact that she played the role of a five-year-old named "Baby Doll" well into her 20s (yes, you read that right). As it so happens, Mary was born with a rare disorder which stunted her growth, leaving her with the appearance of a preschooler.
While this sounds bad enough on its own, things really took a turn for the worse after she attempted more dramatic work after her show had ended. Because of her overly youthful stature and appearance, she wasn't taken seriously by anyone, forcing the one-time superstar into obscurity. By age 30, Mary was driven mad by her disorder, so she kidnapped her former co-stars and created a fantasy world where she could be Baby Doll forever. Yikes.
10. Catwoman
Debuting all the way back in Batman #1, Catwoman is one of the Caped Crusader's oldest villains (and often his main love-interest). While Selina Kyle has had many a retelling of her origin story, the most tragic (and also most disturbing) came in her 1986 revamp, where she was introduced as a mistreated prostitute/dominatrix. Nope, we're not kidding.
What makes things more disturbing is that she answers to a controlling and abusive pimp named Stan, who would later end up violently kidnapping her sister, forcing Selina to kill the pimp in order to rescue her. Catwoman was introduced as one of the first strong female characters in comics, boasting confidence not only in her attractiveness, but also her skills as a competent foil for Batman; so it's understandable that this revised origin left a bad taste in the mouths of many readers. Luckily, the character would be revamped again in a more familiar fashion during The New 52 era.
9. Killer Croc
Poor Waylon Jones is yet another entrant on this list that had a really rough childhood. He was born with a strange medical condition which, over time, caused his physical appearance to resemble that of a crocodile. After his mother died giving birth to him, and is father having abandoned him, he was left to be raised by his alcoholic and abusive aunt, who would force him to scrub his scales off (which hurt a lot, by the way).
Young Waylon was constantly harassed by both the other kids in his neighborhood as well as his adoptive parent, and things only grew worse as his disorder progressed. After years of bullying and ridicule, Waylon became a juvenile delinquent, using the great physical strength granted to him by his condition to his advantage. By the age of 16, he was sentenced to prison as an adult, where he would spend many years further developing the hatred for mankind that would turn him into the beast known as Killer Croc.
8. Bane
We've talked about both neglectful parents and youthful incarceration – but Bane has to take the cake in both of these categories. Bane's father was a revolutionary who escaped persecution by fleeing their home country of Santa Prisca. Consequently, the corrupt government decided that Bane (a newborn baby at the time) would serve a life sentence in his place. Talk about deadbeat dads!
Bane would end up spending his entire childhood and young adult life imprisoned, and it wasn't a walk in the park either. At the mere age of eight, he was forced to commit his first murder while defending himself from another prisoner. After establishing his dominance in the prison, the prison authorities forced him to test out an experimental drug called "Venom". The drug almost kills him, but he manages to survive while also taking advantage of its strength-enhancing qualities. If things got a bit too positive there for a second, it should be noted that Bane would develop a severe addiction to the drug, needing to take it every 12 hours to avoid crippling side-effects.
7. The Ventriloquist
Arnold Wesker, better known as The Ventriloquist, is unique on this list in that he isn't actually the villain featured on this entry – well, not him technically. Arnold's parents were the victims of a freak accident which saw them struck and killed by a careening truck full of display dummies. The incident was so shocking that it caused him to suppress all of his emotions from there on out.
Another unfortunate event would happen to Arnold as an adult, when a bar fight turned into an accidental murder, resulting in Arnold being sent to prison. There, he met an inmate with a puppet named Woody. Arnold's years of built-up emotions began to manifest within the puppet, which he believed was communicating with him. "Woody" planned a successful escape for the two of them, expressed his ambitions to become a crime lord, and gave himself a new name: Scarface. The really sad thing is that Arnold isn't simply using Scarface as an outlet to commit crime; he legitimately believes him to be alive, and he feels compelled to follow his orders. As far as he's concerned, he's just an unwitting accomplice.
6. Deadshot
Deadshot is well known as the assassin who never misses his mark, but if that were true, he probably wouldn't be so high on this list. Floyd Lawton was born, along with his older brother Eddie, into a wealthy family. His parents focused all of their care and attention on Eddie instead of Floyd, causing him to be disconnected to everyone besides his own brother.
When they got older, Floyd and Eddie's mom told them about their father's adultery and mistreatment, requesting her sons to murder him. While Eddie was eager and willing, Floyd was reluctant and attempted to intercept his brother's attempt on their father's life. Unfortunately, Floyd's attempt at sniping the gun out of his brother's hands from afar went wrong, as the tree branch he was sitting on broke just as he pulled the trigger. Instead of striking his brother's hand, he accidentally hit him right between the eyes, killing the one person in the world that he truly cared about.
5. Poison Ivy
Another classic member of Batman's rogue's gallery, Poison Ivy had a fairly normal life at first, compared to Gotham's other villains. Lillian Rose was a bright young girl with a promising future ahead of her, before she started taking a botany class taught by Marc LeGrande. Young, and enamored with his knowledge, she fell madly in love with the professor.
LeGrande ends up convincing Rose to steal some ancient, priceless herbs stashed away in a heavily-guarded museum. Surprisingly, she pulls the heist off like a seasoned professional. But since this isn't a list of happiest origins, here's where things go sour. As it turns out, LeGrande was just using Rose the entire time, spiking her drink with the actually-poisonous stolen herbs in order to sever any connections between him and the robbery. Rose wasn't killed by her traitorous lover's attempt, however, and was instead transformed into the deadly villainess known as Poison Ivy.
4. Man-Bat
Dr. Kirk Langstrom was a famed geneticist who specialized in the study of bats (go figure). Regrettably, the good doctor began to go deaf, and he realized that his only hope for a cure was with his research on transferring bat sonar sense to humans. He manages to create a drug which successfully carries the bat sonar gene over to himself, curing his deafness. There's just one catch: the concoction would also transform him into a monstrous bat-like creature.
The reason why Dr. Langstrom's transformation is worse than many of the other villains on this list (such as Clayface and Killer Croc) is because he not only loses his human body, but his mind as well. The once brilliant doctor is reduced to a violent beast, only capable of acting on his animalistic instincts.
3. Harley Quinn
Thanks to the recent Suicide Squad movie, Harley Quinn is more popular than ever, but many fans still don't realize just how tragic her backstory really is. Dr. Harleen Quinzel was a psychiatrist at Arkham Asylum, where she was considered by many to be a genius. Coming from a broken family, with a con-man for a dad, Quinzel decided that if she studied the minds of criminals, she might understand her father more. This plan went a bit haywire when she started having sessions with The Joker.
For those that need a reminder, the Joker is easily Batman's most psychotic and deadliest enemy. Despite this, Harleen ended up falling for him, somehow charmed by his unusual charisma. One day, she decides to help her puddin' escape, becoming his right-hand-girl/love-interest in the process – the clown even affectionately names his new partner in crime Harley Quinn. This is no love story, however, as the Joker regularly mistreats Harley, both mentally and physically. The real tragedy is that it's obvious that he doesn't really care about Harley, and although she's gone rogue before, she almost always ends up coming back to him. Maybe one day, she'll realize that the homicidal clown isn't worth staying loyal to, and she'll finally leave him for good.
2. Two-Face
Harvey Dent will be forever known as Gotham City's fallen hero. Dent was Gotham's beloved district attorney, a do-gooder who made it his goal to put the bad guys away. No one would have guessed that he was raised by a mentally-ill father who used to abuse him all the time. On top of that, Harvey began forming his own mental illnesses, including bipolar disorder and schizophrenia. Despite all of this, however, Harvey led a successful adult life, working his way to becoming the youngest district attorney to serve Gotham. That was, until the incident.
Mob boss Sal Maroni had other plans for Dent, sneaking acid into a court hearing and using it to disfigure half of the young attorney's face. That's when Harvey's mind shattered in half, turning him into Two-Face. Harvey Dent is a tragic character in that he still exists, but he’s trapped. Two-Face is the one villain that Batman feels the most sympathetic for, sometimes feeling guilty for not preventing what happened to him, and he even considers Harvey to be one of his best friends. When the Dark Knight cares that much about one of his greatest enemies, you know something of great value has been lost.
1. Mr. Freeze
If you're surprised to see Mr. Freeze in the number one spot, then prepare the tissues, because you're in for a sad tale. Dr. Victor Fries was a gifted cryogenicist, but he still felt very lonely and detached from the rest of humanity. That was until he met the love of his life, Nora; the pair quickly fell in love, and were married shortly after. Things were good for a spell, though Nora was later diagnosed with a terminal illness. Victor manages to cryogenically freeze her in order to buy some time until he can figure out a way to save her, but his boss accidentally destroys the equipment while attempting to shut everything down. In the commotion, Victor is hit by an experimental freeze ray, lowering his overall body temperature and forcing him to use a cybernetic suit in order to survive.
If that doesn't gain your sympathy, here's the kicker: Mr. Freeze is the only one of Batman's regular villains who doesn't commit crimes for wealth or ill intent. He's just trying to find a cure for his wife. When it comes to bad-guy team-ups, Freeze prefers to go solo, usually avoiding any partnerships with other Batman baddies. Even in a world full of Bat-villains, without Nora, Mr. Freeze is alone.
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Do you agree with Mr. Freeze being the most tragic character? Are there any we missed? Let us know in the comments!