Arkham Asylum is a facility for the criminally insane where Batman takes the villains that need mental help; which happens to be all of them. Not every villain can get the perfect name that induces terror into people's core. You shouldn't judge a book by its cover, so don't judge a villain by its name.
While Gotham City has the infamously named villains like the Joker, Two-Face, and Black Mask, the city also has villans running around with names like Condiment King and Crazy Quilt.
Arkham Asylum's padded walls have been home to a lot of villains, ranging from the criminally insane to the mildly obsessive. Just because these villains' names are not particularly scary doesn't mean they aren't a force to be reckoned with. Here are 10 inmates of Arkham Asylum that are much more dangerous than they sound.
10 Clayface
Clayface is anything but a hunk of clay. Basil Karlo's first appearance as Clayface is in Detective Comics #40, but he wasn't always made out of clay. Karlo was an aspiring actor. He goes on a killing spree when he learns that they were remaking one of his horror movies without him, targeting the cast and crew.
Karlo has his body turned into clay later in life. He now can mold his body into any form like clay, a poisonous touch, superhuman strength, agility, stamina, and durability. With his clay-like body, he can easily suffocate any hero that tries to get in his way.
9 James Gordon Jr.
With a name that ends with Junior, you might imagine your nice next-door neighbor rather than an Arkham Asylum inmate. James Gordon Jr. is the son of the Gotham City Police Department's Commissioner, James Gordan. We all know Gordon's heroic efforts to protect Gotham City, he is even an ally to batman, but this does not stop his only son from being a diabolical psychopath.
As a child, James Jr was violent towards animals and might have had something to do with the murder of Barbra's friend Bess Keller. He even dressed up as the Joker on Halloween which greatly distressed the Commissioner.
James Jr. and his antics were shown in the graphic novel Batman: Black Mirror, where he went up against Dick Grayson's Batman. James Jr. is a master at covering his tracks and is very intelligent. He is also a master at hand to hand combat; going up against Batman and holding his own.
8 Cluemaster
This guy is no Bob Barker. Arthur Brown is a supervillain who made his first appearance in Detective Comics #351. He is the father of Stephine Brown, who eventually takes the helm of Batgirl. Arthur was a failed gameshow host. When his dream job failed to pan out, he turned to a life of organized crime.
Cluemaster has no metahuman abilities. His strongest ability is that he is completely sane; something a lot of Batman villains are not. The way he got this not so scary name is because he uses gameshow puzzles and clues to torment his targets.
7 The Spook
Scooby-Doo villain meets The Phantom of the Opera, Val Kaliban is a criminal mastermind who uses his talents as an escape artist, special effects master, and a hypnotist to enact his evil ideas. With the combined efforts of special effects and escape artistry, people commonly mistake him for a ghost.
Kaliban's first appearance is in Detective Comics #434. Before his life of crime, he was an architectural draftsman. Kaliban worked for an engineering company that wanted to rejuvenate Gotham City. The Spook has gone toe-to-toe with Batman for a long time, but his last curtain call was when he got beheaded by Damian Wayne.
6 Flamingo
Eduardo Flamingo is a skilled assassin who was introduced in Batman #666. He was a normal man until he got in trouble with the mob. They brainwashed him and turned him into a killing machine that eats the faces of his victims. When the brainwashing was done, Flamingo moved to Gotham City to take on Batman and Robin.
Batman soon learned Flamingo is an assassin with an exemplary kill record. In addition to eating his victims, the first thing Flamingo did after being brainwashed was to kill his whole family. With a track record like that, his reputation proceeds him.
5 Doctor Double X
Simon Ecks is a scientist who discovered how to make an energy twin that could commit crimes for him. With his twin, he has the ability of flight, energy projection, and superhuman strength. Batman and Robin were caught off guard when fighting Doctor Double X for the first time. They were not prepared for Doctor Double X's energy twin.
After their first fight, Doctor Double X was determined to fight until the Bat was done for good, but like every other villain, he lost. Batman beat him to a pulp and sent him to Arkham where the real doctors work.
4 KGBeast
Anatoli Knyazev was on a team of KGB agents that went by the name of "The Hammer." He has been cybernetically enhanced to become the perfect weapon. KGBeast is a master assassin, trained in martial arts and a variety of weaponry. He also had a part in the Blackest Night story arc where he was raised from the dead as a Black Lantern.
With his enhancements, Knyazev has cybernetic force and velocity, energy production, and superhuman agility. With his first appearance being in 1988's Batman #417, KGBeast is no stranger to fighting the Bat.
3 Film Freak
Never invite this man to a movie night. Burt Weston dreams of being an actor. He thought the easiest and well page position would be playing the funny villains. When his plans didn't pan out, he faked his death, using the movie The Sting as inspiration.
After his "death," he rose from the dead to become a criminal. As his name would suggest, Burt is a freak for the flicks. Every crime Film Freak commits is some kind of twisted recreation of a movie he has seen. While he has no powers per se, he does have an acute immunity to telepathy because his only memories are film clips. While this does not sound terribly scary, Weston is the best at recreating disturbing film scenes.
2 Quakemaster
Before his life of crime, Robert Coleman was an architect. His life's work was ruined when an apartment complex he designed got demolished by a hurricane. When his name was dragged through the rubble because of a flaw in the design, Coleman sought revenge.
Coleman makes a supercharged jackhammer to wreak havoc through the City of Gotham. His jackhammer sends strong waves of electromagnetic pulses that trigger earthquakes. If Batman didn't put an end to Coleman's quake of terror, the villain could have destroyed Gotham and killed thousands of people along with it.
1 Polka-Dot Man
Abner Krill is a simple villain. With a name like Polka-Dot Man, he does not pose as much of threat to Batman as some of the other villains on this list. The polka dot suit produces objects he uses to commit crimes, like a hole-dot for teleporting or a chainsaw dot.
The reason he is dangerous is that Krill started a theme of subpar villains coming out of the woodworks. These villains want to get Batman's attention. While Batman is taking care of these villains committing petty crimes, the hero is not protecting Gotham from real threats like the Joker or Two-Face.