The Gotham City villain known as The Riddler is often perceived as one of Batman's sillier villains. Matt Reeves' forthcoming The Batman film is set to challenge that notion, introducing a darker, scarier Riddler, who is playing sadistic games with Gotham City. Played by Paul Dano, this Riddler is a nightmarish masked serial killer, with his face hidden behind a leather mask and his games involving genuinely high stakes.
While Matt Reeves' Riddler is being touted as a horrifying new reinvention of the character, there is some precedent in previous DC stories that portray the villain in a more sinister light. Edward Nygma may be best remembered as the camp, cackling lunatic of the 1960s Batman show - or an even sillier Jim Carrey, in Batman Forever - but the comic book character has had his share of darker, more unsettling storylines.
Introduced in Detective Comics #140, (by Bill Finger and Dick Sprang), the Riddler was conceived as a criminal mastermind; obsessed with riddles and puzzles, and proving his intellectual superiority to Batman. A persistent thorn in the Dark Knight's side, he would adapt with the times, ultimately evolving from a smart but silly megalomaniac into something akin to a Saw villain.
Written by Peter Milligan and illustrated by Jim Aparo and Kieron Dwyer in 1990, "Dark Knight, Dark City" introduced a scarier version of the Riddler to the comics. No longer content with bank robberies and silly heists, the Riddler was now kidnapping babies, brutally murdering security guards and committing terrorist acts across the city. The story saw the Riddler attempting to complete an ancient occult ritual, with the hope of unleashing a demon known as 'Barbathos.' To free the demon, he would need the unwitting help of Batman.
In tracking down Riddler, Batman was manipulated into participating in a series of horrifying preparation rituals. The six steps of the ritual are: (1) kiss the lips of a dead man (2) bathe in human blood (3) dance with the dead (4) slay a wild dog (5) cut a newborn baby's throat (6) dance for the devil. In order to trick Batman into completing the steps, Riddler incorporated them into his physical and mental riddles - forcing Batman to perform mouth-to-mouth resuscitation on a hanged security guard, making him perform a tracheotomy on a choking baby, and blowing up a blood bank to cover him in gore.
When Batman completed the last of the steps, he was captured by the Riddler, who tied him up and prepared to sacrifice the Dark Knight to Barbathos. Ultimately, he was foiled by his underestimation of Barbathos, who revealed that Batman was a manifestation of himself. The Riddler may have been defeated, but "Dark Knight, Dark City" remains one of his darkest escapades to date.
Edward Nygma would continue down this path in the years that followed. The Elseworlds tale "Crimson Mist" (by Doug Moench, Kelley Jones, John Beatty) would give the character an all-new wardrobe to match his scary new outlook. This reinvention of the Riddler depicted him as a lowly heroin dealer - his trademark question mark carved into his forehead and chest. "Your Riddles are no different..." Batman remarked, after tracking Riddler to a morgue, "but you've graduated from robbery and extortion to drugs and murder."
As movies such as Se7en and Saw grew in popularity, so the Riddler's games would continue to get more dangerous and grisly. The Arkham City games re-imagined him as a gloating lunatic, booby-trapping an entire city. This, in turn, influenced his portrayal in "Batman: Zero Year" (by Sc0tt Snyder, James Tynion IV, Greg Capullo, Rafael Albuquerque, Danny Miki, Nick J. Napolitano, Taylor Esposito, Dezi Sienty, Dave McCaig, and FCO Plascencia). Here, the Riddler brought Gotham City to its knees, forcing Batman through a series of perilous death traps and horrifying new challenges.
The Batman is sure to challenge viewers' perception of who the Riddler is and how he might act. But "Dark Knight, Dark City" already showed how unsettling and violent this Arkham resident can be.