History of the Riddler

[Music] what's up my comic comrad today we continue our coverage of the batman movie with the movie's key villain the riddler edward nigma is of course one of batman's most notorious rogues but this is the first time the character has gotten the big screen treatment since 1995 when jim carrey brought us his very shall we say colorful betrayal in batman forever we actually brought you guys a teaser for the riddler during this past villains month with an episode looking at his origin which you could find right here but we're returning to give the character the full treatment with a look at his story arcs powers and abilities reading racks and more so without further ado let's talk about the riddler [Music] the brother was created by bill finger and dick sprang and first appeared in detective comics issue 140 in october of 1948. the riddler is one of batman's deadliest adversaries because of his vast intellect he uses set intellect to leave deadly puzzles and riddles around gotham for batman and the police to solve to prove his intellectual superiority there's nothing more the riddler strives for than proving he is smarter than the dark knight he is easily one of batman's top five villains in my and i'm sure many of your opinions he's the villain that more so than most proves that batman is the world's greatest detective constantly challenging batman to solve his insane riddles puzzles and brain teasers in short riddler is a psychological villain which is one of the most dangerous types of villains there is which is why i am so happy to see what matt reeves and paul dano who's playing him does with the character as it seems like we're going to be getting the psychological thriller version of riddler i've always wanted to see on the big screen but with all that said let's take a look at the riddler's comic origin as for the brothers origin the most well-received origin for the character was given to us in year one detective comics annual eight in 1995. so obviously that's the one we're going to break down here today in the issue the riddler is telling us and some unknown character in the issue his origin saying this is the story of edward nigma it's my story it all began on the tree shaded streets of waterbury we are then given flashbacks from his childhood as we see edward as a young boy asking his mom why are leaves green she answers because he asks because why his mother then tells him ask your father what she does but his father responds how the hell should i know go bug somebody else i'm busy we then see a young edward ask a school costume guard and they tell him i don't know chlorophyll or something enigma asks what's that the crossing guard then says look are you gonna cross the street or what we then get more narration from the riddler saying adults didn't have the answers or maybe they forgot them i was determined to be the guy with all the answers even if i had to make up the questions we are then taken into edward sixth grade class where his teacher is saying children a very special assignment for you a puzzle it's a game but it's also a test tomorrow you'll each be taken in turn to the teacher's lounge a gentleman will be there to monitor you he wants to see how quickly you could put this puzzle together the students who put the puzzle together in the fastest time will be honored at next week's assembly and not only that the winner will receive a prize we see edward doodling in his notebook as the teacher is saying this but when he hears that the winner will receive a prize his eyes light up as his curiosity is now sparked because he wants that prize he then goes to ask the teacher what is the puzzle of she tells them that would be cheating freddy he then tells her my name is eddie while saying under his breath big fat cow we then see eddie playing on the playground by himself looking up at the teacher's lounge saying story of my life you know i was a cipher nobody beneath the notice of even the school bullies but i could solve the puzzle the prize the recognition the other kids would remember my name they'd sit with me at lunch we were then taken back to the present where the riddler is sitting in a room saying but what chance did i have a mediocre student a faceless kid as forgettable as the capital of idaho tell you a secret i'm an only child lots of times i hear my parents fighting and one night i crawled out of bed and listened they were blaming each other for something really going at it dishes and pans flying we then see riler look up at us the reader saying you know what they were blaming each other for me you gotta say that's all kinds of messed up i mean that's the footier loins we are then taken back to the past where the ruler keeps narrating his childhood saying there was only one way i could beat the others and it was then i found my true calling in life cheating as we see him break into the teacher's lounge at night as he says i put the puzzle together after 30 minutes and then 15 then 10 then 5. i assembled the puzzle six times in a row in under one minute i thought that would easily earn me the prize and guess what it did the rhythm tells us but all that glory is fleeting a week later i was a nobody again everything was the same as it was except that the bullies now noticed me as we see them beating them up we then see that the prize edward 1 was a book on puzzles riddles and games for every occasion with riddler narrating saying a book more like a doorway actually i devoured it with the kind of attention i never wasted on my studies it made me hungry for more i had to know everything there was to know about puzzles and traps and trickery my favorite subject was the great houdini old harry and i share a talent we both cheat we then see edward performing magic for the kids while saying the secret to good tricks is fixing the solution ahead of time skill of sleight of hand is important flash forward over the years edward realized he didn't get any thrill from winning by cheating or fooling people anymore as he tells us where was the trip where was the respect simple theft wasn't a game it was a job i was going to have to establish a style it's at this point we see him leave his very first clue at a gcpd precinct as he tells us at first the cleverness wasn't appreciated as we see him robbing a teller at a bank with the lady saying what are you waiting for here's the cash you nut but edward tells her actually i was expecting somebody as he was expecting the police would figure out the clue and come looking for him to give him a challenge the riddler then tells us i had to work harder to get their attention as we see an officer say yo lieutenant i think there's a package for you as we see a green box covered in question marks but as he puts the box down on james's desk it explodes releasing clues that come falling down with parachutes one of the officers then asks what do you make of this gym jim replies trouble while looking at a clue that says the riddler on the back so jim gathers several of his men and goes where the clues lead saying to them the riddles were specific he wants us here the lighthouse club on march 4th and it's a minute to 30. and a moment after he finishes his sentence a bomb goes off as we see it's the riddler dropping dynamite on them from the top of the lighthouse and as we see the riddler do this he says it was choice i must say the cops scurrying for cover like cockroaches a back heavy with loot over my shoulder but the fun stopped there as a voice says what are you supposed to be and on the next page we see it's batman asking this the riddler then narrates the scene saying i read about him in the tabloids i thought he was just an urban legend a dystopic folktale like albino alligators and the sewers or the choking doberman batman then asked edward what are you dressed as the question mark the quizmaster withered and throws dynamite at him saying i'm the riddler batman just punches edward in the gut with the riddler saying he was real alright right from the first he knew how to humiliate me while batman punches the riddler in the face he says the riddler i've had it with you theme villains but as batman is punching him in the face the riddler says did you forget the dynamite as he starts laughing the explosion throws batman back and allows the riddler enough time to get away but there you have it friends that is how edward enigma became the riddler all the way up until his first confrontation with the batman i think it's a really solid origin but now let's take a look at some story arcs and publication history throughout the golden and silver age of comics the riddler wore tight green spandex with black question marks all over it and of course he tried to constantly outsmart the dynamic duo but after the batman 66 version of the character betrayed by frank gorshin the comic books gave him a green suit with a bowler hat then once the writer hit the modern age of comic books he was given a cane after jim carrey's portrayal of the character in batman forever but let's be honest not many people were fond of that version of the character as for me i was eight years old when batman forever came out so even though i do realize the movie isn't so great now as an adult i still have very fond memories of it because i liked it so much as a kid it was around this time fame b taz writer paul deeney took over detective comics and had the riddler become a good guy of sorts working alongside batman and nightwing as a detective but clearly that didn't last long now all of this was pre-flash point post flashpoint in dc's new 52 scott snyder reinvented the riddler who this time worked as an employee of wayne enterprises and he made riller the first villain that batman ever faced but more on that later as for actual story arcs let's dive into some of the greatest hits if you will first off we have the riddle factory from batman riddler from 1995. in this comic the riddler hosts a not so friendly tv show that he's broadcasting called the riddle factory how does this game show work you ask well each contestant is put into a deadly trap that can only be shut down if they answer the riddle correctly now why is the brother hosting this deadly game show you ask while we find out it's all a distraction so the rider's men could hunt down don scarely's hidden money that nigma previously found out about but riddler wasn't able to find the secret vault that held shkreli's cash and of course was outsmarted by the batman another good one is the primal riddle from batman legends of the dark knight issue 109 in this story the brother made what could be considered his greatest death trap ever which consists of batman being thrown in a narrow pit that is slowly filling with water but it doesn't end there the walls are also electrically wired and a set of bumpers are the only thing that's keeping the water from touching the walls meaning any minute batman could be electrocuted to death but come on the cape's crusader has to win so even though batman is faced with electrocution or drowning he of course manages to devise a way to escape moving on yet again we have the riddler clue master story from detective comics issue 705 through 707. in this story we see the riddler initially doesn't like clue master as he basically stole his gimmick so rithers henchwomen caught cluemaster and the riddler tells him i never saw you as competition clue master strictly bush league puzzles were just a cheap gimmick to you but they are my life you play at conundrums to me there are but i'm about to make you part of my master crime willer then straps a bomb to him at which point he would make batman chase riddles that would lead to defusing the bomb this served as a distraction to lead batman away from the riddler's real plan which was to steal a bunch of priceless baseball merchandise but clearly batman stops riddler and his henchwomen and saves clue master after this the rither and clue master would team up on occasion then of course the rither has been in some of the most iconic batman stories of all time like the long halloween where carmine falcone hired the riddler to figure out who the holiday killer is but carmine becomes impatient with the riddler and forces him to leave despite several good theories the riddler had on who the holiday killer was after this the brother would be attacked by holiday but left alive and said attack was actually planned to line up with april fools day because as we know in the long halloween story every attack happens on holiday then we have another iconic batman story batman dark victory which serves as the sequel to the long halloween in this story batman tracks down the riddler to help him figure out the importance or significance of the lost games of hangman but are left at the scenes of the hangman killer's crimes and of course you have batman hush where the riddler is one of the most crucial parts of the entire story long story short we find out in the story that the riddler is dying from cancer and luckily was able to find one of raz agul's secret lazarus pits curing himself unknown to ras al ghul after this the riddler and tommy elliot crossed paths elliot would then ask how he was cured as elliott's mother is dying then from here a lot more stuff happens and the two become entangled but the point is the riddler and hush are two of the most important villains of this massively iconic batman story and if you haven't read it you need to maybe one day we'll do a polished episode on it now there's a lot of other riddler stories we could talk about because again he's one of the most prolific villains in all of comics not just one of the most prolific batman villains but i feel like ending this with scott snyder's zero year version of the character is very fitting like i briefly mentioned earlier when scott snyder and greg capullo tackle batman's nu52 origin we find out that the riddler was the first villain batman ever faced in this rendition riddler worked for wayne enterprises and at this point in time bruce wayne's uncle philip came ran it basically enigma kills bruce's uncle then leaves wayne enterprises and causes a massive blackout in gotham city taking out all the power to make matters worse he does this just before a massive hurricane is about to hit the city it's a really good story one of my favorite origins and first outings for batman but with that said it's time for powers and abilities [Music] like most of batman's villains the riddler doesn't have any superhuman powers but he is incredibly wealthy and a genius as far as mind games puzzles and manipulations go he's pretty much the best there is during the time in comics when he was struck in the head by the shiny knights mace and was put into a coma waking up a year later he no longer had a compulsion for riddles and was now a good guy becoming a private investigator and during his reform time he showed that his investigation skills rival that of the batman so that tells you all you need to know right there the rhythm is by no means a physical threat to the dark knight but again the reason why he's one of batman's greatest enemies is because of his sheer brilliance as a criminal strategist he is responsible for putting batman and robin in some of the most unique and elaborate death traps that dynamic duo have ever faced case in point the riddler is widely known as batman's most intelligent adversary and as you know brains often overcomes bronze but with that said let's look at some riddler reading recommendations if you want to read some good riddler comics check out batman hush batman the long halloween batman zero year enigma consulting detective and the riddle factory that's enough to get you guys started and that's gonna bring today's episode event to a close but if you like this video check out this one right here to my left you're right and as always subscribe like and comment if you enjoy the channel but other than that i'll see you guys next time when i talk about all things comics

Channel: Variant Comics

Views: 376,918

Keywords: riddler, edward nashton, edward nigma, the batman, batman, villain, rogues, the riddler, history of, origin, origins, stories, story, powers, skills, abilities, variant, variant comics, entertainment

Id: s2N8RPWJk3w

Length: 13min 11sec (791 seconds)

Published: Sat Mar 05 2022