Batman has the best rogues gallery in comics. I’m sure you could rattle off over ten Batman villains without breaking a sweat. From archenemies like the Joker and the Penguin, to more minor characters like Man-Bat and Clayface, Batman’s villains are each classic in their own right. But who are some of the best obscure characters of the Dark Knight’s menagerie of bad guys? Here, we list down some of the most memorable obscure baddies who battled the Caped Crusader…
5. Professor Pyg
One of the creepiest, most insane Batman baddies ever created, Professor Pyg was introduced in Grant Morrison’s Batman run and certainly left an impression. Running the equally freakish Circus of Strange, Professor Pyg lobotomizes unwilling victims into becoming mindless dolls to act as his muscle. Pyg turns out to be a mere minion for the main villain Simon Hurt but he proves to be much more memorable, both for his strange design, his disturbing methods, and his bizarre manner of speech, which manifests itself as random nonsense akin to a word salad. Pyg has since gone on to appear in various other forms of Batman media, such as Batman: Arkham Knight and Gotham, cementing himself as one of the best new Batman lunatics.
4. The Condiment King
Image Via Batman Wiki
From the scary to the ridiculous, the Condiment King is one of the sillier bad guys of the Batman universe but he’s made an impression for being so ridiculous he’s actually incredible. His gimmick is, you guessed it, condiments, as the Condiment King wields guns that shoot out ketchup, mayo, mustard, hot sauce, etc. If that doesn’t sound like a threat, well, its because it isn’t. The Condiment King always gets taken down very easily, as the most he can do is give you some stains. But he’s always hilarious when he does show up and he’s so little of a threat its easy to feel kind of a bad for him.
3. Orca
Image Via Batman Wiki
Another ridiculous Batman villain, Orca first appeared in the ’90s. A former marine biologist, Dr. Grace Balin got into an accident that left her paralyzed. Experimenting on orca whale DNA, she injects herself with the genetics and transforms into Orca the Whale Woman, with all the powers of a whale at her disposal! Her motives were always rather unclear and she had a few unmemorable appearances before being shot dead by Two-Face. Luckily for her, she’s appeared alive and well again in the DC Comics reboot Rebirth, now an opponent to Nightwing.
2. Copperhead
Image Via Pininterest
Cooperhead, real name John Doe, was an assassin who took up a snake motif for his acts of villainy. He could use his costume to strangle people to death in its powerful coils and also had a venomous bite. His weakness was that he became obsessive toward a chosen target, ignoring everything else to his often detriment. Copperhead was killed during the Blackest Knight storyline and a new Copperhead, a woman called Jane Doe, took up the mantle of the snake in the New 52 reboot, antagonizing both Batman and the Flash.
1. Kite man
The poster child for silly super villains, Kite Man first appeared during Batman’s Silver Age. He was exactly what he sounded like, a kite-themed villain who tried to pretend he was something of a threat. After a scant few appearances, Kite Man joined the D list roster of Batman’s rogues gallery, languishing in obscurity for years. It wasn’t until the DC Rebirth where he was given a new lease on life, returning as a recurring joke villain who always got the short end of the stick from Batman and other heroes of Gotham. Whenever the writers needed a one off villain to get punched or humiliated, Kite Man was there. But Kite Man in this run is more than he appears and is given gravitas unexpected of the character, which we won’t spoil here. All we’ll say is: “Kite Man. Hell yeah.”
Who are some of your favorite obscure Batman bad guys? Tell us in the comics and get hyped for Batman Day on March 30th!
Featured Image Via I09