The Smark Avengers - From Joker to Gorilla Boss: Batman’s Weirdest Golden Age Villains

Episode Date: May 8, 2026

Batman has one of the greatest rogue galleries in comics… but it didn’t start out the way you think. In this episode, Corey walks Dylan and Jon through a PowerPoint deep dive into Batman’s Golden Age villains, showcasing everything from the icons that stood the test of time to the absolute strangest characters DC ever published. 🦇 In this episode: Classic villains like Joker, Catwoman, Penguin, Two-Face, and the Riddler in their earliest forms Deep cuts like the vampiric Monk, the mob-minded Gorilla Boss, and the Hitler stand-in Carl Kruger Truly bizarre one-offs like The Ugliest Man in the World How Golden Age versions of villains differ from their modern counterparts Why some villains became legends… while others completely disappeared As Corey presents each character, Dylan and Jon react in real time to just how weird, experimental, and sometimes ridiculous early Batman comics could be. From horror-inspired enemies to wartime propaganda villains to straight-up nonsense, this episode explores a side of Batman history that proves the Golden Age was pure chaos. 💬 Join the discussion: Which Golden Age Batman villain surprised you the most? 👍 Like the video if you enjoy Batman deep dives 🔔 Subscribe for more comic history, character breakdowns, and chaotic discussions Click the link for Dylan's radio show!: http://www.bouncedigitalradio.co.uk Click the link for Dylan's Twitch stream: http://Twitch.tv/spookylaroux Click the link for Jon's Letterboxd: https://letterboxd.com/bigjonbowski/ Click the link for Corey's show "Large Old Cup": https://open.spotify.com/show/2YHMppnl9inQevwLIxR64f

and trying to make up for some of the bad things that he's done and be a better person. So I think... Try to make up for some of the bad things that he's done. Yeah, you know. Sorry, kill his your girlfriend. Here's a male away bride. Sorry, hey, I'll try to make it up to you. Next time we go out, I'll pay for the food.

Sorry. Sorry. Right? You know, God, you're always talking about your dead girlfriend, you know? move past it you're a teenager don't be creepy it's not like I slept with her or anything hi everybody welcome to Spark Avengers name is Corey who with me is Dylan and John how's it going guys

hello yeah not too bad not too bad it's a great way to open the show I think yeah so as you can tell we're a little conflicted about the idea of Norman Osborne being a redeemed villain but today we're going to talk about some villains in general because we're going to do another look at a DC characters rogue gallery because I'm kind of the lone DC guy here and Dylan and John aren't as familiar with some of DC's very colorful catalog of characters.

So I'm going to ask you a very silly question, obviously, but how familiar are you guys with Batman villains? What we talked about Batman villains? I'd say I'm pretty familiar with them, to be honest. We did rank them in a previous episode. Actually, we spent like three episodes, four episodes? No, three episodes ranking them. But that being said, how familiar are you specifically with Golden Age Batman villains?

Not as familiar. I guess we'll find out. Yeah. So for our listeners out here, very traditionally, the world of comic books are broken out into a series of ages. They're usually agreed upon as the Golden Age, the Silver Age, the Bronze Age, and the Modern Age. Some people like to throw in the dark age between bronze and present day, but I think those are people who just didn't like the 90s. But anyway, the golden age is usually considered the period

where comics first started being published in the 1930s until about 1956 when the Comics Code Authority came in and started putting a lot of harsh restrictions on the content that was in comics. Batman was one of the very first superhero characters out there, so Batman had a lot of time to develop. a bit of a rogues gallery. Some of them are going to be familiar to you guys. Some of them will not be. And for the sake of illustration, I have once again created a PowerPoint presentation. Array. But yes, this is our golden age world of Batman villains. So I figured if you're going to start

anywhere, you start at the top, which is going to be the Joker. Is this guy? The Joker debuted in Batman number one in April of 1940. So he's been doing this for quite a long time. And for some of these characters, we're going to talk about, they are still used today. So for their kind of slides, I decided to illustrate the difference between their golden age depiction versus their modern depiction. So the original Golden Age Joker was more focused on notoriety and theatricality and greed, as opposed to just chaos and violence.

That being said, he still did murder people like the Joker did, but he used more gimmicks in his kills and more like just over the top bombastic theatrics as opposed to just visceral violence. Like modern day Joker will gut somebody with a knife or shoot him in the head, whereas Golden Age Joker would likely attach them to a giant jack in the box. Or there would be a cuckoo clock that was like triggered with poison gas once it hit like 12 o'clock or something like that. Logical, normal ways to kill people. Absolutely.

So as you can see, Joker was more sane and rational despite still being. a mad criminal mastermind. He wasn't a nihilistic, you know, chaotic gremlin like the modern day Joker is. He did sort of had a, yeah, he had a way of doing things. He had a format. He did a lot of heists that went around jokes, essentially. And he was also way more willing to be a team player and would team up with other villains, as opposed to the modern day Joker who is more of a solo guy against Batman because it will interfere with his weird relationship.

that he has built up in his mind with Bruce Wayne. The fact that that original Joker as well was basically just a rip-off of a guy called Comrade Vite, I believe his name is, in a silent movie called The Man Who Laughs. Like, the look of the face and everything is just taken straight from that. What did you give the Man Who Laughs on Letterbox? I'd have to look it up, but I think I'd think I'd gave it a pretty positive review.

I was going to say if you look at the signature on that panel, you'll see the master of plagiarism himself, Bob Kane. I gave it three stars out of five. Pretty positive. Pretty positive. The middle of the road. Six of ten. All right.

Up next, we've got Catwoman. So Catwoman also debuted. in Batman number one of April 1940. She was originally just known as the cat and she did not wear a mask. So she was just a sort of a beautiful woman in an evening gown who was this high society, sophisticated thief.

But then she did start wearing a mask. Actually, there was a period of time where she was wearing a mask that was just like a giant cat head. So like anthropomorphic like jaguarre head on like a woman's body for a short period of time. Before we got this purple and green ensemble that you're seeing here in the panel.

But yeah, she was more of a high society, sophisticated thief in comparison to the modern day catwoman who's much more of an anti-heroine, who's a cat burglar. She was still a romantic interest for Batman, but it was much more simple and not nearly as dysfunctional or complex as modern-day Batman and Catwoman's relationship is. Like, they would do a Batman catwoman marriage later on, but it was not the modern-day Tom King where Catwoman left Bruce of the old. altar, essentially. And this is actually a great time to mention that the golden age of comics, even though it ended in 1956, the continuity that these characters existed in, continued up until, I believe, 1986 in a series of books that were considered in the Earth 2 world. So you could still read like Silver Age Batman and Robin or Silver Age Catwoman, and they would be off having their own adventures. But if you're reading Earth 2 Catwoman, her and Bruce Wayne got married and they had a

daughter that became the huntress who she was Helen a Wayne and Robin kind of took over as the main uh hero of Gotham City as Bruce and Catwoman retired so keep that in mind that earth two did kind of continue on this weird golden age continuity and some of the information here kind of bled forward yes any thoughts on catwoman it does like she's born a dress and gone she absolutely is Is that an effective, like, I fit for crime? No, I don't think so. I don't think she was doing cartwheels and flips and things like our catwoman did.

She was more of just, like, running away or driving somewhere. Okay. No, she didn't really fight. No. But she ran away a lot, apparently. All right, next up, we have Two-Face. Two-Face first debuted in Detective Comics, number six. in June of 1942.

His originally was Harvey Kent, as opposed to Harvey Dent, but they changed the name to avoid any confusion with Clark Kent. Here, he switched to a life of crime, which was caused by the acid scarring and blaming it on bad luck, as opposed to the modern-day two-face that has a history of C-PTSD and childhood trauma, and he was already kind of fucked up before the scarring happened. So here, Life of Crime was an effect of the scarring, as opposed to modern day where the scarring sometimes kind of gave him an excuse to go for it. And also, Golden Age Harvey Dent was more of a straightforward mobster

who was obsessed with the number two in his crime. So he would do things like he would rob the second National Bank of Gotham on Tuesday at 222 in the afternoon. Like a lot of goofy themes like that. Classic stuff. Yeah. You know, modern day Harvey Dent obviously much more of a tragic figure that is sort of seen as an example of Batman

and not succeeding. Up next, we have your boy the penguin, first debuted in Detective Comics number 58 in December of 1941. He was a theatric bird-themed criminal thief, as opposed to the grounded and gritty mob boss in the modern era. He is motivated by greed and the rush of committing high-stakes crimes, as opposed for the modern days, lust for political power, money, and revenge on Gotham's elite families.

And while they did both use gimmick umbrellas, Golden Age Penguin was much more over the top in Wimpsom, with his as opposed to the modern day one, which is more guns and blades hidden in the umbrellas. But modern day penguins often more likely just get us in henchmen or use blackmail or like political power as opposed to being directly in the fight as opposed to golden age. So this is the penguin that would have like a helicopter umbrella or an umbrella that would spit up sleeping gas or an umbrella that he could spin and hypnotize people with. Yeah, logical uses of an umbrella.

Mm-hmm. Yeah. Well, the classics. I did say so. You knew what he was doing. Couldn't afford no surgery, though. Hey, there's nothing wrong with his nose. There's something wrong with that. He spent all his money on umbrellas, that's why. This is true. Does he have his own like umbrella factory? Where did he get the umbrellas from?

Did somebody have to bespoke those umbrellas for him? Well, I mean, he is from a, uh, the cobble pot fan. family was a very wealthy family in Gotham. Just fell on hard times. We don't know what they... We kept making weird umbrellas. That's why they fell on hard times. Yeah. Nobody wants our fucking poison gas umbrellas.

What are we going to do? Mr. Cobblepot, I went to open your umbrella because it was raining and instead I stabbed the man right beside me. Then I opened my umbrella. Yes, but it was a successful stabbing, was it not? Oh, well, he died. Ah, then what's you complaining about? It did exactly as advertised.

Yeah, stabble umbrella. That's what the people wanted. All right, up next, we got the Ridler. Wow, look at that pose. Certainly. First debuted in Detective Comics number 140 in October of 1948. He was considered a late bloomer in the Golden Age of Comics, so he didn't have as many stories as the other classic Batman villains.

But here he was focused on, theatrical crimes in order to brag about his high intelligence, as opposed to the modern-day kind of psychological terrorist. He was, modern-day Riddler is, believe it or not, is more physically intimidating than this version of Riddler ever was. Than that guy.

Yeah, right? His hands look weird. It does seem like he might have two years. His whole upper body is not where it's supposed to be. He's very long legs. Right thin is his waist. Oh boy, he's cinched in He's called the Riddler

Because everything about him is a fucking mystery Look at that Look at that Like his Oh, there's like a fucking gash ticket out of his side of his head My God Anyway Well, the golden age Ridler's death traps were very theatrical

And over the top in comparison to modern day Ridler who uses more of like a saw gimmick where it's intended to be way more lethal and way more scary. And Golden Age Riddler used to cheat at his own riddles and just enjoy manipulating people into thinking he was actually smarter than he was, as opposed to modern-day Riddler, who leaves a lot of clues because he has this compulsive need to be validated for his intelligence. Obviously, this is our Frank Gorshin inspiration here.

I love the idea that this guy had to cheat to make people think he was smarter than he is. Really, this guy is the genius. Look at the way he's standing. Yeah, the classic genius pose. Einstein used to start with that all the time. You imagine? Oh, look at this guy. Up next, we have the Scarecrow, first debut in the world's finest number three in August of 1941.

Golden Age Scarecrow just used a regular gun because Fear Toxin had not been introduced yet into the comics. His main motivation was to have money for books and nicer clothes, so his colleagues that got University would stop making fun of him because of his shabby appearance, as opposed to modern-day scarecrow who's obsessed with the psychology of fear. And because he didn't have fear toxin, Golden Age scarecrow basically just threatened people and had a racketeering operation as his main tactics. But aside from that, he seemed perfectly sane. Aside from, as a kid, it mentioned that he likes scaring birds, and that's why he chose to reaffirm

himself as scarecrow, despite, you know, I think the thing was that his college professor, his fellow professors said that he looked like a scarecrow because of how skinny and shabby his clothings were. What a nice man. Yes, with a queer grasshopper leap, some would say. I don't know if I would say that particularly, but, you know, to each his own. I just enjoy the fact that the scarecrow thing really, they had an idea that they wanted to do something to fear,

but they didn't really know what to do with it, and the best they did was like a racketeering scheme. Right. The scariest crime of all. All right. Up next, we have Clayface. Very different, by the way. Yep.

First debuted in Detective Comics number 40 in June of 1940. While they are both original, they're both failed actors. Golden Age Clayface had no powers, and it was just a guy in a rubber mask with a knife. So the mask was a character called Clayface that he played in a movie. And basically his origin was he went mad after learning they were going to remake one of his films without him being involved. So that's why he decided to dress up like the titular character and start killing off cast and crew from that movie. Whereas, you know, the one that we know and love today was horrifically scarred and lost his work as an actor, which led to him taking experimental serums to fix his face, turning him into a giant amorphous clay monster man.

delicious experimental drugs yeah I think this one was the one that I forgot about and I was like yeah that is night and fucking day it's like oh this is just a guy with a knife and a mask as opposed to shapeshifter mudman right yeah you think as well he wouldn't want to wear the mask of the famous character

you played on movies if you didn't want people to know it was you committing these murder it is, but... A bit on the nose, isn't it? Yeah. All right. Up next. Deadshot.

Deadshot first debuted in Batman number 59 in April of 1950. So, Deadshot, very famous for being a part of the suicide squad these days. Golden Age Deadshot was presented as a rival crime fighter before he was revealed to be a criminal mastermind who wanted to take over Gotham's underworld. Modern day, Deadshot is a gun for hire assassin. Golden Age Deadshot were a... a tuxedo, a mask, and had Western six shooters, as opposed to modern-day Deadshot, who has, like, a tactical suit and aiming devices and wrist-mounted guns and all sorts of high-tech weaponry. Golden Edge Deadshot was motivated by greed and power, and modern-day Deadshot basically was misanthropic with the death wish and a desire to die in a spectacular fashion over guilt from accidentally shooting his brother.

Okay. The glow up from this original look to his current modern day look is pretty spectacular. Well, doesn't he look spectacular here? I mean, he doesn't look intimidating. He just looks like he's going off to a fancy dinner. What about that does not look intimidating? He's got his gun holsters and he's wearing a fancy suit. Got his ugly butler behind him?

Yeah, he is ugly. No offense to that guy. For him and the Riddler, like in the same accident. Oh, boy. Yeah, this is the first of a few times at making the anti-Batman, which is basically like another millionaire with like money and resources, but a villain. So you'll see this motif a couple more times, I think.

Good, good. All right. next. Hugo Strange. First debuted Detective Comics number 36 in February in 1940. The original Hugo Strange was your kind of run-of-the-mill mad scientist villain as opposed to today's psychologist who is a dark reflection of Batman's intelligence. Main motivation for the golden age, Hugo Strange was wealth and power as opposed to the modern day who had this desire to understand the psyche and innerworking of Batman's mind. Basically, Hugo Strange is obsessed with like, what makes a man want to dress up like a bat and fight crime

I'm going to drive myself criminally insane and commit crimes in order to understand this I think though that is a perfectly logical thing to think to a degree I wouldn't say to the degree of like being driven mad and committing homicide but yes

you're you just don't have it in you you got that dog in me you need to be more homoice I've said this you need to be more homicidal golden age strangers his physique was massive and distorted as opposed to even the modern day lean and small frame and the Golden Age used

poison gases and henchmen's and kidnappings as his methods of crime, whereas the modern day Hugo Strange does mind games and tortures his opponents psychologically. Real quick, I don't want a nitpick, but that does not look like a massive physique. No, it was a good panel, but yeah, there is something that he's kind of like weird

and top heavy. I was going to say, I thought he was still pretty ripped now. So, like, he's a big musty guy. I think nowadays, yes. I think at the, like, in comparison to like, like, Bronze Age, he was a little more lean. Hmm. All right.

Up next. Firefly. Huh. Oh. First debuted in Detective Comics number 184. Modern day Firefly is a pyromaniac, whereas Golden Age Firefly is actually closer to Spider-Man villain Mysterio. So modern Firefly.

was known for using a jetpack and a flamethrower, but Golden Age Firefly used obstacle illusions, colored lights, and projectors to commit his crimes. Modern Firefly is also covered, like, I think 90% of his body in horrific burn scars that he doesn't treat because he has like a weird sadomasochism belief about fire purifying him.

Whereas Golden Age Firefly was a disgruntled special effects worker. But yeah, he was intended to just be a one-off villain, as the costume would imply. what's one off about that and look how intimidating there's antennae are on the top of his head yep you know it's funny when you say like

oh yeah he's he reminded me of Mysterio and I was like one has a fishbowl and the other has this weird little bug mask I really like his cape that's made out of lolly sticks it does it does look like that he's just together weirdly drawn.

The drawing of this, the art of this looks like a Sunday comics like funny strip, not like a comic book at all. Right. I don't want to be that guy. And, you know,

it's hard to draw comics, but also some of the artwork who've seen so far. Hey, they were the first in their field. The ugly butler. The ugly butler. The ugly bottle.

I'd make it on the thumbnail. Oh, boy. All right. Up next. Killer Moth. Looking hot. first debuted in Batman number 63 in December of 1950. He was also an anti-batman complete with a moth signal,

moth belt, Mothmobile, and various other moth-related gadgets. This version was seen as an equivalent to Batman, both physically and mentally, who was on the side of crime, whereas modern-day killer moth, as the costume would suggest,

which hasn't changed much, is kind of portrayed to be kind of an idiot and an underling to other more superior villains. there also was a short period of time where modern day killer moth was a giant moth monster after an accident an accident yeah like i said it didn't it wasn't also like that killer moth was like a huge deal in the golden age and then modern day made him look like an idiot in the bronze age there was a back girl story in a that was like a backup in the batman family comic where she beat him with a shoe like straight up and took off a shoe and hit him in the head and knocked him out So he was

He throws a shoe Right So he was kind of Kind of depicted as a jobber In the 1970s as well This guy Right yeah Why is he topless

He's not Why he's the top is lavender Oh I thought This shirt was off John you were talking about Intimiting Antennae Yeah there you go

Check this guy His are stand of attention You see that I think as well He's got like these weird pointy eyebrows which makes him look evil. Yeah. I'm a big fan of.

And hot pants. Yep. And straight leggings. And also kind of like lollis steak. Wings. Oh. Yep. Yep.

This is an instant thing. And a really weird pose as well just to go with him. He looks like he's kind of like leaning forward a little bit. And I don't know what he's doing. his hands. I don't understand. Very odd. Like, it looks like he should be holding a pair of binoculars in the one hand.

Yeah, I love how he's got one big eye and one small eye. All right. I think we've bullied Killer Moth enough. Oh, that's yeah. All right. Next up. The Matt Hatter. So first debuted in Batman number 49 in October of 1948.

He was originally a gimmick criminal like the penguin who used trick hats that hid weapons inside of them as opposed to the modern version who uses mind control devices inside of hats. Modern day, Matt Hatter is obsessed with finding his Alice, which we have discussed at length. Kind of is portrayed at times that he's a pedophile, whereas this one was just wanting to get money and be a goofy little guy. And yeah, Golden Age version was very simple and gimmick-based thief as opposed to the dark. version of Jervis Tetch, which is our modern day depiction. Is it a boat? Yes, they are on a boat. How did Batman?

Yeah, I'll get in a boat with you. He probably approached it via the bat boat. Of course. This drawing is so straight. His hat is as big as he is. Yep, yep. His head is very large. Can I also tell you

The Silver Age began in 1956 So there was a second Mad Hatter That was not related to this mad hatter That was in the Silver Age And he was like a normal sized guy With red hair and big bushy eyebrows And his gimmick was that he just loved stealing hats

And hat related things That had nothing to do with Alice in Wonderland he literally was a mad hatter yes okay so that was he didn't make the list because it was on the cusp of that silver age thing but I just thought it'd be funny to have two mad hatters in a row that were not related

to one another yeah but did he thought like a villain who goes around stealing hats is a bit below Batman's pay grade to be honest silver age we'll get there when we do the silver age villains list yeah I don't think you need Batman for hat thief no

Oh. All right. Up next. Dr. Death. Steve Williams. Yep. Good old Steve Williams. First debuted in Detective Comics number 29 in June of 1939.

The Golden Age Dr. Death was just your standard mad scientist who was motivated by greed. Modern era was a Wayne Enterprise scientist who's son died while looking for Bruce Wayne. Golden Age Dr. Death created poison and lethal gases and death race to extort money out of Gotham. as opposed to the modern version who wanted to use a special serum to create monstrous hybrids to just kill people. And after his first appearance, Golden Age, Dr. Death was disfigured in a lab explosion caused by Batman. That disfigurement basically turned his skin brown and gave him kind of a skeletal look. This isn't the disfigurement? This is not.

This is him pre-discurment. He's got a lazy eye. Oddly enough, not the one using the monocle. No, right. It looks like part of his head is cracked over. open. Uh, that is a receding hairline. He's bald on top.

Like, that's, it's, it's not, not good. And, well, the modern day doctor at death, uh,

gave himself a serum intentionally, which turned him into a giant, mutant, large skeletal monster man. It's a little bit different. Okay. Yeah, very different.

All right. So I believe, if I'm not mistaken, we're going to get to the Golden Age villains that were kind of, didn't deserve to continue on, or if they did, we're in very sort of small roles. So, up first,

the monk. So the monk first debuted Detective Comics number 31 in September of 1939. He was Batman's first supernatural villain. He was a vampire who could transform into a wolf. He was a post-Civil War plantation owner who was killed by his ex-slaves, and then brought back to,

life by voodoo. And he was originally killed by Batman after he and his sister were shot with silver bullets as they lay in their coffins. This was in the era that Batman used guns and killed people. Ah, man, also looking proportionally very strange there. You tell me you don't have a giant head like that? What the fuck? I think his shoulders are massive.

His nose is massive. You see a nose in there? That's interesting. Yeah, like it's point, yeah. Jesus Oh, this is worth This just look at these pictures Is worth it

Yeah, it's a reminder If you're listening to us on Spotify Check out the YouTube channel Oh my God, you have to see these pictures, dude I love how the monk Is a vampire who can transform it A wolf And he's like, I'll still just wear

A cool costume So you can't tell That I'm either Yeah All right But not dress as a monk though No, not at all The monks don't wear solid red robes with like hoods and shady symbols on them.

Fucking hammered sick on how the fuck's going on. Isn't this him in his whirlpool form? Because his hands look a little like warwolfy. Oh, yeah. You know? But then his nose would be like a dog, wouldn't it? You'd hope. Well, I mean, Lonchaney Jr. didn't have a big snout as the wolfman.

Where? You know? All right. Up next. The king of cats. Beautiful. Now, we've chatted about the King of Cats previously, but here's a more of a thorough breakdown of him. He first debuted in Batman number 69 in February of 1952.

He is Selena Kyle Catwoman's brother Carl Kyle. He committed a series of cat-themed crimes around Gotham, Dolores, sister out of retirement, so they could rule Gotham's underworld together as king and queen, which sounds romantic, right? Right? It's cat. Cat law is different from human law. You can do that. So Selena originally worked with Batman to bring him in,

but turned on Batman to allow her brother to escape before asking that he stopped his life of crime. Of course, he didn't. And in another confrontation with Batman, they both ended up trapped inside of a pen of tigers that Catwoman had to come out of retirement to rescue them from. And after being rescued, he expressed his regret over his crimes and turned himself in.

And in Earth 2 continuity, Carl Kyle walked his sister down the aisle to marry Bruce Wayne. I would argue that somebody who's called themselves the king of cats you can't command tigers to not eat him may need to retire his name. Didn't have powers. He gave up afterwards. Exactly.

He's like, I'm a sham. I'm not the ruler of them. Yeah, like what a time to find out you can't actually talk to cats. Like, oh, this is worse possible to him. All of his experience commanding cats, he was holding like a bag of treat. or something like oh they always do what i said when i was holding food well now if batman's going to see it i'm going to be so embarrassed and then also i'm going to die

now i have to give up the love of my sister to this man which i hate god i love the mustache though very classy beautiful they don't make mustaches like that anymore uh you might see a couple more in this uh in this presentation all right up next carl kruger Carl Kruger first debuted in Detective Comics number 33. He first debuted in Detective Comics number 33 in November of 1939. He's a formal mental patient who suffered from Napoleon Complex to the point of dressing like him.

He also invented the death ray and flew in a blimp with a group of scientists called the Scarlet Horde. In a behind-the-scenes thing, he was a stand-in for Hitler because comic books at the time could not actively attack or criticize Hitler in the Nazi Party. before the United States joined World War II. So Kruger, a fascist with the Napoleon complex, who wanted to conquer the world, was a covert jab by DC Comics to poke fun at Adolf Hitler. We can't use Hitler. Who's the next best Hitler?

Napoleon. Napoleon? Sorry, off we go. So, does it, a hack of a picture. It's beautiful. But does it think that after they were allowed to use? Siddler, they don't need Ruger anymore. Fuck him. Yeah, I think he only

turned up one or two more times as like kind of a background character. Invented a death ray. How could he not be popular? Death rays are pretty common back then unfortunately. He invented it. Yeah.

Didn't patent it though. I'm pretty sure Napoleon complex doesn't mean you start dressing up as Napoleon. It doesn't mean you think of. That's how much he believed in it. I'm so angry. I'm short. as well be the shortest, angriest man of all. He has a snagletooth that I don't think Napoleon hard, though.

I mean, it's not a one-for-one perfect take on it, but you got to give him a place. You don't always pick, you don't always poke the holes in a cosplayer's appearance. That's just rude. Maybe you don't. I think it very seriously. All right, up next we have. If somebody cosplayers Carl Kruger, I would. You would what?

I would criticize their appearance. Okay. Speaking of criticizing somebody's appearance, here's speaking, Professor Radium. Yep, Professor Radium first debuted in Batman number 8 in December of 1941. He was a scientist who believed the key to immortality was through the use of his created radium serum, and he proved its effect by killing himself and having his body injected with a serum by his assistant. The serum's side effect was that he did come back to life, but his skin turned green, and his body began to emit radiation,

which killed his lab assistant. He then began robbing banks in a radiation suit to get the funds needed for a drug that could temporarily hold back the side effects of his serum. However, they wore off. He didn't get the serum, and he accidentally killed his girlfriend from exposure to him. He had a girlfriend?

What? Listen, love is blind sometimes. Somebody's blind for sure. By the way, when I was putting this together, somebody asked me, Is this one of those caricatures of like an Asian? And no, they're not. His last name was Henry.

He was not an Asian man. I just want to put that out there. This is not one of the many old 1930s and 40s use of yellow face. I'm sure they're, well, this is a green face. This is a green man. I love the idea that he was like, to prove that immortality is real, I will kill myself. I think you're confusing immortality with resurrection there, kid. I mean, if you're.

you ever believed in something hard enough? Not whatever the fuck's You know Yeah, he's right Quillam problems as well He gives himself this serum And then comes back

And then he's like, oh no, now I need to rob banks So I can try and Get the money to stop these side effects It's like, dude, why did you just Not kill yourself and Get injected with this serum in the first place? Right, because you made it?

He knows is full of fucking radiation. That's part of the gimmick. He did this. He just believed in himself. He was fucking Dave is a rest of radium. All right. Up next, we have the crime doctor. First debuting

in Detective Comics number 77 in May of 1943. He was a doctor who started committing crime because he was just bored. Just bored. so he created a secret crime clinic where he would treat the illnesses and wounds of Gotham's criminals as well as help them plan out crimes for 25% of the take if you ever had to make a quote house call to rescue criminals

he would increase it to 50% however he wasn't in it for the money all of his money he would get he would turn into charity because he just liked the thrill of committing crime didn't need the money oh my god and to show his Hippocratic oath he allowed himself to be arrested

when he stopped running away from Batman in order to perform an emergency appendectomy on a victim of one of the aforementioned crimes. Can I real quick just point to the wonderful dialogue boxes in this picture. Can't see. Oh, a crime doctor might be the best one so forth. I think this is actually a pretty good gimmick.

I love him. They should bring him. back. They did actually. So far, some of these haven't gotten any legs. Well, you've got to remember who spent a good period of time writing Batman, Grant Morrison. Some of these characters showed up again. The crime doctor?

I believe so. I believe I found some modern panels of him wearing like star-shaped sunglasses. He never lets Vistine, does he? Well, he might let John die sometimes. Crime doctor. Is he going to bring back Napoleon? What was his name? Carl Krueger. I don't know if

Carl Krueger ever came back aside from just a few background images of him and a blimp. Yeah, I could see why, honestly. All right, up next. El Papagayo. First debuting in Batman number 56 at December in 1949, his name translates

to The Parrot, who would kill people if they did not amuse his pet parrot Toto. Oh, so he is named the pirate and he has a parrot. That has a name. So his name is the parrot, but his parrot has a name. Toto. Okay, so the pirate isn't the villain. No, the parrot isn't the villain. The pirate is the villain. No, well, the parrot is an associate of the villain. The pirate is the villain, but the pirate is the villain, but not the villain. Okay. That's a fun bit for Instagram. So his name translates to the parrot, as we have discussed, and the original story involved the president of a country in South America asking Batman and Robin to help train

a local man to beat Bat Ombre, but it was later to reveal that Bat Ombre was aligned with El Papagayo. So ultimately, they were defeated when Batman fed Toto a poison that knocked him unconscious and then used ventriloquism to make El Papagayo believe that Toto wanted to see his own gang fight to the death of their whips. And with his gang defeating themselves, Batman and Robin were able to subdue El Papagayo. That is some lazy-ass work by Batman. Work smarter, not harder, kids. It's Kaffirce.

That's a fucking pirate whisper horrible things to the pirate. Can I tell you bat-aumbray had a unique look as well? I bet he did. It was just a Batman suit, but he had a poncho and a mustache. Okay, is this some of the racist stuff we were talking about? Probably. That ombre with a poncho? Like, come on, man.

That was 1949. we were at war. No, we weren't. No, well, probably. A market was probably at war at some point. We're getting there. We're getting there. All right. Up next we have the human magnet. First debuting in Detective Comics number 181 in March of 1952,

he was a former watch repair man who gained his powers when he attempted to rob a millionaire and was bombarded with radiation when he ran inside an ultra-nuclear fission lab to escape Batman and Robin. so his powers was that one hand held him positive magnetic charge and the other hand had a negative magnetic charge but he couldn't turn off his power so he had to wear a special magnetic dampening clothing and he was ultimately defeated when Batman tricked him into slapping his hands together and he magnetically connected them and therefore was rendered inert

wait wait wait wait wait so one hand was a positive magnetic charge yes the other hand was negative magnetic charge yes he could turn off his powers so he made a suit and his suit did not include gloves covering the fucking hands that have the powers. Well, because he needed the gloves to do the crimes. Or he needed the hands to do the crimes. The only part

of his body that would need negating is his hands. Sure. So what the fuck is the rest of it for? Can I tell you that how he tricked him into doing it was making him believe that a mosquito had landed on his wrist? Okay, so he, oh, okay, sure.

Is he an idiot? A little bit. I mean, yeah. Seems like it. Okay. All right, up next, we have Gorilla boss. First debuting in Batman number 75 of February 1983. George Dyke was a mob boss who was killed in the gas chamber at Gotham Penitentiary,

and upon his orders, his gang retrieved his body and a disgraced scientist put his brain into a gorilla's body. Oh, so his orders? That's what he said to do. When I die, boys, I need you to get a gorilla and put my brain in his body. Hey, boss, when you die, your brain dies. Like, that's how you die. It's your brain dying. Don't worry about it.

We'll get a scientist. He'll figure it out. Yeah. A disgrace scientist, so he couldn't give a fog. But can I tell you? I appreciate the logic in this. Because even though his brain was a human brain, he didn't have vocal cords in a gorilla body, so he couldn't talk. So he still, he had to communicate to his men with pen and paper.

He could write. Weirdly enough, they wanted to keep that element of realism in this story. Well, kids are going to wonder, why is the gorilla talking suddenly? I love how big the gorilla's head is, because you're like, okay. A lot of room in that skull. Correct. If you put a human brain in there, it's going to be a lot of bouncing around. You have to like...

Rattle it around. Bubble wrap or something, you know, stop and jumping around. Can I tell you this is also now our second slideshow in a row that featured a character whose brain got put inside a gorilla's body at one point? And I also say, gorilla boss, one of the shittiest names you've found so far. There must have been a real fear that that was going to happen to us in the future, and that's why they kept putting in comics. One day they're going to put our brains and gorilla bodies. Yeah, it's not robots. We went to gorillas.

It's got to be gorillas. take that Darwinism All right up next The Exterminator First debuted in Detective Comics Number 191 in January 1953 He was a carnival worker

And a bounty hunter Who helped criminals escape from prison And then would hunt them down To kill them to get the reward For their bounty I think that's the best one I mean that's that's good business That's so good

That's so smart well if you like the executioner then i would like to introduce you to his uh not copywritten appearance friend the wrecker who first who first debut who first debut detective comics 197 in july nineteen fifty three no relation to the exterminator despite basically the same look he hated batman and had his gang disrupt any attempt at the public to honor batman by smashing statues of him, destroying Batman toys, and he murdered

the author of a book about Batman. But in reality... Isn't it? Like, baking some toys and then murdering a dude. Yeah, right? Breaks the statues, breaks some toys, kill a man. The wrecker went on the air to and claim that Batman had sent three of his brothers to the electric chair, but in reality, he was the author

who faked his death to get insurance money. So that's all... Hey, that's good. That's good. But is it... You know he's not good? The guy in the background, his posture, not, not great. You know what you mean?

This guy? Yeah. Yeah. Lean it forward a little too much. He's trying to run away. Imagine bags of loot. All right. Up next.

Mirror Man. First debuting in Detective Comics number 213 and November of 1950. he became obsessed with mirrors after using a broken mirror to help escape from prison. He then studied everything he could about mirrors and determined to use them as his motif in his future life of crime. This culminated in inventing an x-ray machine out of mirrors that successfully revealed that Batman was Bruce Wayne, but no one believed him. An x-ray machine out of mirrors. Yep. I am questioning the science of that.

Do you mean he just put up a mirror and then waited for Batman, I think he's my ask off? What a beautiful machine. Wasn't there a task and taskmaster once where they debated like, what is a machine and someone like edited the Wikipedia article to include a hat? Yes. I think it was the Bob Mortimer season actually. Potentially. I remember that bit being a thing.

Murman could have used a hat. I could have. Yeah. Projectives under sunburn. And as one bald man to another, I'll tell you. It's very important. He's looking pretty red there sunken eyes.

I'm more curious. He has way too many teeth as well, it looks like. It's a real problem. No, some of the teeth are mirrors. Oh, there you go. Yeah. All right.

Up next we have, the ugliest man in the world. First debuted in Batman number three. He came up by that. name himself. I don't know if they ever officially called him the ugliest man of the world, but I mean, that's how his character is known

as the ugliest man in the world. Is that man right there more or less ugly than that weird butler we saw earlier? He's got more lines, that's for sure. Yeah, but his face for character to it. There's a lot of jowls going on there.

About five or six of them? Yeah. His chins are just not where they're supposed to be. He's got one of his eyebrows. All right. The ugliest man in the world debuted in Batman number three in September 1940. He was formerly handsome Carlson was transformed after he was injected by an ugly serum by his college classmates and a hazing ritual gone wrong. He was... Wait a minute.

Okay. If you were to break that entire sentence down, yes. At what point does that start to ever make sense? Like, none of it, none of it makes any sense. An ugly serum that college roommates just happened to have. Yep.

The experiment that went bad, I assumed this was the going bad bit. Yeah, yeah. Also, I think was going to happen when they injected a guy with ugly serb. Well, so here's the actual thing. I don't know what the ritual was supposed to be, but he was a very strapping, handsome young man,

and he was tied shirtless to a post, and his classmate just happened to have a hypodermic needle full of his ugly serum, and he was only going to pretend to inject him, but one of his friends bumped into him, and the needle and plunger accidentally went in, and thus accidentally injecting him with the ugly serum. That's not how that happens. That's not how that works.

I don't know. I don't know where the ugly serum came from. Okay. We'll just, it's comics. We'll just go with it. Well, he was driven mad after his fiance and his friends rejected him due to his now ugly looks. So he kidnapped them and planned to inject them with ugly serum as revenge. I think it's pretty fair.

Unfortunately, this did have a very sad ending as Carlson was shot and killed by the police after he kidnapped Bruce Wayne to inject the most handsome man in Gotham as well. And thus the end of the ugly man. The ugliest guy in the world. No, no, Batman didn't do anything. The police did. The police, good old-fashioned police brutality. Yeah. Solving crimes, don't know any way they know how.

When I see a problem, I shoot them. Have I seen another guy in the street, shoot him? As you can see, Batman going back to 1940, not a lot has changed in America's crime fighting techniques. I love how in 1940, they're like, we got to come up with some really big evil guy for Batman to fight. What's the most evil thing we could think? think of,

ah, just some ugly guy. It's issue three as well of his own solo book. Like, what else do we got? You're hired. All right,

up next. The Glassman. Oh, wow. First debuted in World's Finest Number 28 in May of 1947. He wore a glass helmet

that destroyed his features to keep his identity a mystery and killed his victims with poisoned edges of glass objects that were they received mysteriously in the mail. In reality, he was a former automobile manufacturer who lost his business when his cars were considered unsafe and he was trying to pin the crime on a disgruntled glass worker instead.

Ultimately, he was blinded by reflected light and fell into his death in a glass furnace. That's a shame because I was already digging this guy. It was a good look. Yeah. Yeah, that's a great idea. You know what I mean? Dude, this guy dies

She should bring him back. He's fine. All right. He should come back. Look at him. Up next. Mr. Canberra. What?

First debuting in Batman number 81, February in 1954, he wore a camera-shaped helmet-slash-mask and was obsessed with photography. Despite his appearance, he did prove to be elusive when running away from Batman and Robin. They just couldn't catch the guy.

He just kept getting away. He had a secret layer filled with projectors, camera equipment, and a wall of framed crime scene photos, which I'm thinking it was in the 1950s because if this was like modern day, that was ghastly, if anything. Oh, this is just my wall of crime over here of crime scene photos. Ultimately, though, he attempted to defeat Batman by blinding with a large extra bright light bulb, but got punched in the face and was defeated. Wow. Did we do this guy already, or did we do something very similar to this? Because I feel like I've seen something like... Are you thinking of Dr. Domino?

Maybe. But there was some kind of like... It's at a bank? Oh, that was the Crimson Centipede. Oh, did he know... Was it not like a video camera there? No, no. He was just a guy who was covered in legs and arms.

Thank you for clarifying on arms as well. Yes. Mm-hmm. Okay. Maybe I just invented that in my head. Maybe. All right. I have next.

The Trapper. First debuted in Detective Comics number 206 in April 1954. He was an animal hunter slash trapper who was obsessed with catching his prey by any means necessary and turned to crime after he was in prison for hunting exotic species and saw Batman and Robin as the ultimate prey. Not a lot to this guy. He just looked like Davy Crockett and had very large comical bear traps and stuff

as his main weapons. Craven the hunter, he was not. I love her. He turned the crime up. he was in prison for hunting exotic species. So he turned the crime after he... After committing crime? Yes.

Yeah. Very interesting logic there. I already committed one crime. I might as well commit the rest of them. But are you going? He's a completionist. My family's already disappointed me. And I believe...

Our final one, the most infamous, the Penny Plunderer. So first debuting in World's Finest Number 30 in September of 1947, the Penny Plunderer was driven mad by Penny Plunderer. after they kept turning up in his life. Like when he was a young boy, he was working as a newspaper boy, and he was only ever getting tipped in pennies. And when he tried to rob his first ever bank, the only thing they had in the till were pennies. They just kept coming after him over and over again.

So he devised a plan. He was going to kill Batman by crushing him with a giant penny. However, he was thwarted when he needed a nickel for a payphone to call the rest of his gang to help him. And unfortunately, he only had pennies. And therefore, Batman was able to beat the shit. out of him. Ultimately, though, he was given the death sentence by

Gotham's court system. And that was the end of the Benny plunderer. What the fuck? Yep. He got the electric chair. Jesus Christ. Gotham used to not be so soft on crime back in the day. Well, they shot that other guy, remember?

They shot the oldest man in the world. Gave this guy. Guerilla boss got the gas chamber before he put his brain in a gorilla's body. Before the gorilla shit. Exactly. They did fuck around to Gotham back in the day. Like, yeah. Gotham politics

too soft. Yeah. Well, that's what's happened to Gotham. That's why clines are running around unchecked. Nobody's shooting them. No. But if he was an ugly client, fuck yeah. So ultimately, though, the giant penny that is in Batman's Batcave to this day

that's considered an iconic part of it, people sometimes assume that it has to do with Two-Face for whatever reason because it's a giant coin. No, it's the penny plunderer. That's like the best fact. That's the best fact in the whole show. Yeah. That's our learning moment there.

Yeah, because like a bed loads of people. Why the fuck is going to be coin? That's why. Does that mean the penny plunderer is technically carried over into the modern age then? Yeah. I mean, he does exist in modern continuity. Unfortunately, he doesn't like stick around very long. I mean, the guys are supposed to pay.

I would actually, because they have stopped producing pennies in America, earlier this year, I think they'd be the best time to do a penny plunderer story. He steals all the pennies. Yeah. Now he has a finite amount. Yeah. He can have them all, potentially. Which leads to many, many, like, pages and panels of him diving into fountains and, like,

shopping malls and fishing out pennies. I love the idea of him, like, stealing all the pennies. Because there's a finite in my panties. He's the one stealing all the pennies. Yeah. And then everybody else around him is, like, okay. All right. We don't want them.

Nobody likes fanny. There you go. He goes to a gas station that has a little take a penny, leave a penny. Don't mind if I do. I will take all the pennies. And we don't care. That's fine.

Even us, a lot of hassle, honestly. One thing I do want to say is imagine somebody tried to kill you in the stupidest way possible. And you thought, I'm going to save that death mechanism as a souvenir.

I'm going to put it up next to the giant T-R-X and giant Joker playing card. I'm going to look at it all the time and go, I survived the giant penny. You almost got me that day, Penny Plunderer. Thank God for Nichols. Yeah, yeah, exactly. If it was a giant, like,

quarter, I would have been in trouble, but thankfully he's an idiot. All right, let's let's exit out of here. So that was our walk-through Golden Age Batman villains. There were other villains that I could have included that didn't quite make the cut. People that, you know, like for example, there was Tweedledee and Tweedledum. They technically were golden age villains, but they're not really important to today. So why would, you know,

not really anything to say too much about him. Another one who almost made the cut was a character named Charlotton, who was this guy who also had half his face scarred and Two-Face, like, brainwashed him into thinking he was Two-Face so that, like, he could, like, commit crimes and have this other guy take the fall for him. But then he started to think he was Two-Face too good. And, like, now he was competing for, like, the right to be Two-Face. So that, you know, he didn't make the cut because I felt like that was really convoluted. But yeah.

So there is your, your history of some Golden Age Batman villains. And he surprises there. Napoleon. Carl Truder. Oh, no. The fucking ugliest guy in the world. I'm like, that's, he's, he's a criminal because he's, he's super ugly, like, I mean, he was a criminal because he wanted to forcefully alter the appearances of the people who shunned him. I mean, that is a crime kidnapping people with the intent to name.

They, they, they, without his consent, injected him with a serum that made him ugly. So I would say they are also criminals, right? Yeah. They, they committed some sort of crime. they, if he hadn't intervened, they would have got away Scott free. He had a duty, a moral duty to... To stop them from harming, and making other people the ugliest people in the world.

You know? I think he's innocent, really, and did not deserve to be shot by the police or whatever the fuck. I mean, Bruce Wayne didn't do anything either in that situation. I don't think he was a student at Gotham University when that happened. Knowing what we know about Bruce Wayne, he was in, like, Tibet. you know, learning how to do meditation with a French thief, you know? Right, but also if you were the ugliest man in the world, which everybody knew, and then you saw Bruce Wayne, a very handsome man, you would feel a little bit like,

that's not fair. He's handsome and the millionaire, and I am... Neither are things. Friends, like, you know, you feel a little resentment there. I get that. I'm just saying, he's getting a bad rap. By the way, there are also giants in stone totems, in genies. and all sorts of other weird stuff

that felt more like they would be more at home on a Silver Age list, which we'll do one day. We'll do a Silver Age list because we're going to get even fucking stranger in that one. Because the Silver Age, some of those rules where you couldn't depict like crime or political figures.

So mobsters and stuff went out of fashion. Mad scientists stopped being as popular as they used to be so they started getting a little creative with aliens and what have you. Mad aliens. Mm-hmm. That's what I think of when I think of Batman. Avians.

Right. The Batman of Khashida. Or Zura and Raw, actually. Come on. What's Khashida? Oh, Khashida, that's the magic words that makes Blue Beetle's scare of work. There you go. Sorry.

Slip my head, you know? So simple mistake. Anyway, yeah, that was our rundown of the Golden Age. Batman villains. if there are any names there that surprised you, maybe some modern day takes that you didn't realize were that old, by all means, let us know with the comments. Let us know if there's people that you thought

we didn't cover that we should have covered. Until then, though, John, I'm sure you've seen some of the ugliest men in the world in a movie or two recently. Probably. So I was hoping you saw like a Mickey Rourke movie recently or something. I was going to say, they don't put ugly people on film, but I forgot about it.

So. I mean, I watched the movie Warrior recently about, um, uh, Todd, Tom Hardy, Joel Edgerton in like an MMA tournament. Yeah. People get beat up a lot and they sort of, you know. They swell up. Yeah, uglified in that. Uglified. Yeah, I just made that up.

So where did that, uh, did that, was that your most recent film? No, that wasn't my most recent film. I can tell you my most recent film, though, which was the movie Sentimental Value, which came out last year, from the same director and star of the worst person in the world, which came out a few years ago now. But yeah, it was like a good solid family drama.

Stellen Scarsguard in it as well. Old Stellar Skape. Yeah. Recommend it. And how many movies have you seen for the year so far? So that one put me up to 379 movies for the year so far. Very nice.

Not bad. You're on pace. Yeah, it's going pretty well. So, John, where can they see your review of sentimental value and warrior? They can find them at Big John Bowsky, all one word, on letterboxed. And Dylan, what have you been up to you lately? I've been working on my ugly serum, which I plan on ejecting one of you with at some point.

In a harmless prank that will probably go wrong, you know. But it'll be fun to see what happens, you know, misadventures. a wait but other than that I have been doing a radio show I do it every Monday night 9 o'clock to 11 o'clock UK time

and bind to digital radio.comodded UK you can listen to it online it is a web browser kind of thing so if you have access to the internet you can listen to it play all sorts of cool rock music and stuff like that also I stream on

Twitch sometimes at Spooky LaRue and I animate stuff and I put those animations up on YouTube at Team Crow's N-I and I think we're on TikTok at Team Crow Studios so if you are into any of that kind of crap if you like really shit the

me at animations I'm your man yeah and if you don't then Dylan might hit you with an ugly serum well I'm gonna get you I'll get you there you go as for me I have my other show Large Old Cup which today as a recording which is two

three weeks ago now we just hit episode 50 which was fun and I got to do a little thank you I just did a little walk back through all of the various shows that I made Dylan talked about the writing podcast that we had for a period of time talked about my guest stint on

a podcast that all three of us were on that might have involved a pipe of some variety that we aren't going to talk about the subject matter because it's even nicheer and nerdier than shit. Yeah, I didn't, I didn't go to details, but I did. Okay. I'm like, yeah, I don't want to embarrass us any further than we need to, but that was my first, that was my first podcast experience. Yeah. Yeah. Those days are behind us. Anyway, aside from that I have new number ones where every week I try to find a new issue number one from a small publisher hopefully to read and see if it accomplishes the objective of being a good number one comic so you should definitely check those out they're also on the YouTube channel they come out usually every Sunday I aim to put them out but yeah until then try not to accidentally inject your friends with ugly serum. It could have negative repercussions for your life moving forward.

Try not to, but if it happens, it happens. You can't help that. And also, it's okay to be obsessed with pennies, but remember to at least keep a nickel on you in case you need to use a pay phone. That's correct. Many other morals that we learned? Don't be Napoleon. If you can't use Hitler, use Napoleon. in. Advice for life in any capacity, isn't it? Oh, it's okay if you want to steal the exterminator's costume, he won't notice.

No, he won't care at all. Just go nods. Just take the whole thing. And also remember that the parrot is the villain, not the parrot. The pirate is also the villain. The parrot is the villain, but not technically the villain. The pirate is not the villain. Yes.

yeah all right goodbye everybody bye bye bye bye good way to end it