Despite being very different characters placed in very different stories, The Batman's Riddler echoed The Dark Knight's Joker in a perfect way. With so many different Batman reboots taking place in a short amount of time, avoiding repeating villains that have already been used on the big screen became almost impossible. With that said, The Batman found a way to reinvent the Riddler in a version that could not be more different than the one from Batman Forever.
Much of that had to do with Matt Reeves' film grounding the Riddler in the same way he approached Batman and the rest of Gotham's mythos. Riddler's "riddle me this" moments gave place to live-streaming threats against the city, and the silliness of the villain was replaced by the terror of a Zodiac killer-inspired character. Despite The Batman also featuring the Colin Farrell's Penguin, Falcone, and Catwoman (here as an ally), it was the Riddler who took the role of the movie's main villain, mostly because of his deep connection with Batman.
In an interesting twist that not only redefined the Riddler but also set the stage for Robert Pattinson's Batman to truly become the hero he needed to be, it was revealed that the Riddler was inspired by the caped crusader himself. Edward believed he and Batman were fighting the same fight and that Batman could do the extra step he never could - being not just the brains but the muscle. In a way, Riddler believed Batman completed him as an agent of Gotham's reckoning, in a perfect combination of genius intellect and superb fighter. That is similar to the relationship between Heath Ledger's Joker and Christian Bale's Batman in The Dark Knight. From the Joker's point of view, he and Batman were the two parts of Gotham's anarchy, one that had a moral code and one that did not. Joker's obsession with what Batman represented is one of the main reasons why The Dark Knight's story worked so well, and The Batman replicated some of that with the Riddler.
Why Batman Has A History Of Inspiring Characters Like Riddler & Joker
Batman's villains who believe the hero either owes them something or is actually not much different from them is something very common in Batman's mythos, but not every adaptation succeeded in translating that. What explains why The Dark Knight and The Batman managed to incorporate that idea is the fact that both films treat Batman as a flawed figure that is always at risk of inspiring as much mayhem as he inspires hope. Both in the comics and in Nolan's Dark Knight trilogy, it is after Batman's first few months in Gotham that the rogues' gallery begins to be formed, and it seems like The Batman will follow that same concept. Fortunately, Robert Pattinson's Batman realized his approach was not the correct one and that the vengeance narrative helped inspire the Riddler.
Ledger's Joker saw Batman as the perfect opponent while Riddler saw Batman as a partner, but both villains truly believed the Dark Knight was their other half. There is a level of campiness in all of Batman's rogues, and that is why finding a connection between them and the hero can help to ground a story. It will be interesting to see how The Batman's actual Joker will be explored in the sequels.
