He might not be one of the A-Listers in Batman's rogues gallery, but the Mad Hatter has one little piece of knowledge that should earn him some much-needed street cred. Fans are aware that Jervis Tetch is a brutal criminal with a penchant for mind control and a fixation with Alice in Wonderland. But few know that his delusions have granted him a secret gift: the awareness that he’s a fictional character.
The Mad Hatter was created by Bill Finger, Bob Kane and Lew Sayre Schwartz and first appeared in Batman #49. A brilliant scientist, Tetch is known for his use of technology to manipulate and control the minds of his victims. But the most iconic element of his costumed identity is his devotion to the works of Lewis Carroll, often committing flamboyant crimes related to the English writer’s story. At times, Tetch has demonstrated difficulty discerning between reality and fiction, often believing himself to be the literal Mad Hatter from Alice in Wonderland.
This tenuous grasp on reality was pushed to the extreme in Animal Man #10 by Grant Morrison, Chas Truog, Mark McKenna, Tatjana Wood and John Costanza. The issue features a man, Dr. James Highwater, following up on a note he found that instructed him to meet with the supervillain Psycho-Pirate. Venturing to Arkham Asylum, he suddenly finds himself confronted by an unexpected character, the Mad Hatter, dressed in his full costumed regalia. He drops several cryptic clues to Highwater saying things such as, "We’re all words on a page," and "rushed out to meet a deadline." He even screams that, "Some cheap hack is writing our lives!" as he’s being hauled away to his cell.
It’s indeed a revelation that the Mad Hatter is aware he’s a comic book character, but it shouldn’t come as much of a surprise. Characters who can see beyond the fourth wall almost always pay the price of losing the ability to live comfortably within their fictional reality. Even wisecracking characters like Marvel's Deadpool experience a deep angst at their pain taking place for the amusement of others, and Animal Man plays its titular hero's realization that he isn't real as an unfolding cosmic horror. At least for the Mad Hatter, his understanding of reality is fluid enough that this revelation doesn't seem to dominate his thinking - he's more focused on the story he wishes he was in than confronting the comic he is. Ironically, this makes him far more like Alice in Wonderland's Mad Hatter, who for all his confusing proclamations, understands the twisted world around him better than Alice herself.
Mad Hatter’s brief appearance was meant to tie-in to the overall theme of Grant Morrison’s run on Animal Man, which examined the relationship between reality and fiction. Later appearances rarely have him acknowledge this truth again, returning Tetch to the warmth and safety of his Wonderland fantasy. That said, for a time, Mad Hatter was privy to a truth that could even drive Batman mad.