One of the most prolific villains in Batman’s rogues gallery over the years has to be Hush. The mysterious villain behind the popular storyline Batman: Hush, Hush was a man covered in bandages and responsible for manipulating and pushing Batman nearly to his breaking point. All the while, it would become apparent that it was one of Bruce’s closest childhood friends responsible for it all.
When it comes to Batman’s rogues gallery, there are many foes who are charismatic or memorable for their creativity. Yet it was Hush who proved the most organized and dangerous, so here are ten things to know about the villain.
10 Taught Bruce Important Batman Lesson
Hush is known now by many fans to be Bruce’s longtime friend Dr. Tomas Elliot, a world renowned surgeon with a troubled past. Unbeknownst to Bruce, Tommy would hold a massive hatred and disdain for Bruce later on in life, but as children they were nearly inseparable.
It would be Tommy who taught Bruce one of the greatest lessons Batman would ever know. Showcasing a genius level intellect at a young age, Tommy would teach Bruce how to think and see through the eyes of his opponents, allowing him to manipulate and out think his foes as he would later in life as Batman.
9 Despised Both His Parents
One of the big things about Tommy’s past that made him into such a hateful and cruel person was his relationship with his parents. Although he and Bruce both came from wealthy families, Tommy’s father was known to be abusive and his mother was submissive, never fighting his father’s attacks, which made Tommy despise them both.
Despite providing for Tommy all his life, his hatred for his parents drove him to cut the break lines of their car. Hoping to earn his inheritance at an early age, he arranged for his parents to suffer a tragic end in a fiery car crash.
8 Blames Wayne Family For Misfortune
Tommy’s plan would have worked, if not for the quick actions of Thomas Wayne. While his father didn’t survive the crash, his mother was saved during an emergency surgery by Dr. Thomas Wayne, a world renowned surgeon in his day. This led to a massive hatred for the Waynes as Tommy was left without his inheritance.
Later when Bruce lost both his parents, he secretly resented Bruce for gaining his inheritance the way he never could. He was left to care for his mother as she recovered and during her battle with cancer later on in life, leaving his hatred to grow even further.
7 Met Batman Villain At Early Age
One year at a summer camp he attended with Bruce, (after Tommy’s father’s passing but before Bruce lost his parents), Tommy suffered a psychotic episode in which he attacked another boy at the camp. This led Tommy to be committed to a psychiatric ward after his violent outburst.
Things only grew worse for Tommy Elliot as he blamed Bruce and his own mother for making him grow more hateful and violent, which led to the random attack. He was eventually freed from the psych ward by a young Dr. Jonathan Crane, who many fans know went on to become the Batman villain Scarecrow.
6 Gained Inheritance With Help From Ventriloquist
After his mother recovered from her battle with cancer, she and Tommy began to grow further apart after he began seeing and dating a young woman named Peyton Riley, who in the comics would later become the second incarnation of the Batman villain Ventriloquist. His mother hated her so much and disapproved of Tommy’s relationship that she cut him out of her own will.
Before the will could be changed however, he and Peyton took matters into their own hands. Tommy ended his mother’s life and made it look like an accident, while Peyton killed mother’s lawyer’s and destroyed the new will.
5 Became Hush Through Partnership With Riddler
Fans may be surprised to learn that it was in fact The Riddler who turned Tommy into Hush. While not a major obstacle for Riddler as Tommy’s hatred for Bruce had grown into an obsession, The Riddler had used the Lazarus Pit to cure himself of his own cancer, and while in the throws of the pit’s mental effects he had an epiphany that Bruce Wayne was Batman.
Going to Tommy Elliot to sell the secret to him, they instead forged a partnership in a pact to destroy Batman and Bruce Wayne at the same time, once and for all.
4 Partnered With Jason Todd
During the major Hush storyline, Batman: Hush, a surprise character ended up working with Riddler and Hush. That character was Jason Todd, Batman’s former protege and Robin sidekick who had been long thought passed away after being taken out by the Joker years earlier. Consumed with anger for Batman, he gave the villains insight into how Batman thought and worked.
This allowed Riddler and Hush to carve out a psychological attack, using Clayface to become a copy of Jason Todd’s Robin to fuel Batman’s guilt over not being able to save Jason from the hands of the Joker all those years before.
3 Framed Alfred Pennyworth
After the first Hush plot ended with Hush seemingly falling off a bridge after being shot twice by a cured Two-Face, Hush returned with a vengeance. He beat his former partner Riddler to within an inch of his life, and drove the Joker himself out of Gotham, marking the city as his territory and letting Joker know Hush was a serious player.
He then obtained a sample of Clayface’s DNA and infected Alfred with a small portion of it, allowing Alfred to be controlled somewhat by Hush. Hush then framed Alfred for the murder of an innocent person, but Clayface rebelled and helped clear Alfred’s name.
2 Attacked By Joker
After defeating Joker the first time, Joker returned to Gotham seeking revenge or “payback” for Hush’s attack. Bringing an army of trained pigeons of all things, he attacked Hush and managed to capture the villain. Keeping him imprisoned and sedated, he eventually put a pacemaker into Hush’s chest.
Unable to remove the device himself, Hush was at the complete mercy of the clown prince of crime. In a shocking turn of events, he went to Batman for help in return for his surrender. Batman agreed, but after Tommy escaped believing the pace maker removed, he learned Bruce lied, and used Tommy to find The Joker.
1 Became Bruce Wayne
The biggest aspect of Hush’s career has to be his obsession with taking Bruce Wayne’s place in order to ruin his reputation. Using his surgical skills to steal people’s faces to reconstruct into an exact replica of Bruce’s, Tommy was eventually stopped by Batman and his allies and imprisoned.
However in the chaos after Bruce Wayne’s supposed “death”, or rather Batman’s passing, Tommy used his likeness of Bruce to impersonate the billionaire and try and take over Wayne Enterprises. The whole Bat-Family kept Tommy on a tight leash, and when Ra’s Al Ghul tried using Tommy, Tim Drake transferred all of Wayne Enterprises to his control, leaving Tommy powerless.