This week sees the return of the Dark Knight to cinemas, via the Matt Reeves-directed The Batman. While Robert Pattinson’s take on Bruce Wayne has been the most hotly anticipated aspect of this film, personally, I’m more intrigued by the return of the Riddler to the big screen.
To celebrate the Prince of Puzzle’s return to the big screen, here are some interesting things you should know about him.
ALSO READ: 'The Batman' review: Masterful take on Batman that is more 'Dark' than 'Knight'
Edward Nigma made his debut in 1948 via a story titled The Riddler written by Bill Finger and drawn by Dick Sprang, in Detective Comics #140.
Nigma began his rogue career as a small-time con artist at a carnival who happened to be really good at solving puzzles (even though most of the time he cheated). Then one day, he decided that the “small pickings of a carnival attraction” could not satisfy him.
“I’m clever enough at puzzles to baffle even the police – yes, and even Batman, too! Why don’t I commit puzzling crimes?” he reasoned.
“I’ll make each crime a duel of wits between myself and the law – and fix the puzzles so I’ll always win!”
And so, after coming up with an outrageously “appropriate costume” (because apparently Batman rogues can’t commit crimes without one), the Riddler was born.
Like most of the villains in Batman’s rogues gallery, Riddler has no superpowers whatsoever, but is a genius in coming up with all sorts of criminal schemes, which naturally all conform to his standard gimmick of being either a riddle or a puzzle.
Nigma is also one of Batman’s most intelligent rogues, capable of highly sophisticated and elaborate schemes, making him also one of the Dark Knight’s most formidable adversaries despite his lack of a physical threat (unless you count his penchant for questionable question mark-themed weaponry, threatening).
Anyway, that first story was a corny one (because there is literally a giant corn in it), with Riddler committing crimes across the city and announcing each crime before he commits it with a puzzle or riddle – first a crossword puzzle flashed on a building, then a giant jigsaw puzzle that has to be solved in a football stadium... you get the idea.
Anyway, this modus operandi has served Riddler well, though his schemes have grown more elaborate and dangerous over the years, as evident in the iconic Hush storyline.
This old riddle that almost everyone knows is included in the seminal Hush storyline by Jeph Loeb and Jim Lee, which ran from 2002-2003 in Batman #608-619, and bears great significance to Riddler’s role in the story.
Other than Lee’s phenomenal artwork on the comic and the introduction of the new Batman villain Hush, this story is also notable for Riddler’s influence on the entire event.
What was that influence? Well, like that old riddle I quoted above, it becomes meaningless if everyone knows the answer.
Let’s just say that compared to what he pulls off in Hush, all the Riddler’s previous crimes and schemes seem like child’s play.
Hush was also significant in the sense that it made us really take notice of Riddler’s menace and intelligence. So when DC’s company-wide reboot of its titles, the New 52, came around in 2011, it was no surprise that Riddler also got an upgrade.
And what an upgrade it proved to be. Writer Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo’s run on the main Batman title was one of the greatest ever, and Zero Year, which was an 11-part story that focused on Bruce Wayne’s early years as an inexperienced hero, stands as one of their finest hours.
In this retelling of sorts of Batman’s origin story, Edward Nygma is not a carnival con artist, but a strategist employed by Philip Kane, who, after a botched attempt to murder Bruce, becomes the Riddler, Batman’s first costumed supervillain.
With Bruce still inexperienced as a superhero, Riddler is not only able to beat him easily with his schemes, but even manages to completely take over the entire city of Gotham by first knocking out its power, then flooding it and causing it to become a savage wasteland.
Snyder and Capullo’s epic Zero Year story spans almost an entire year (from June 2013 to July 2014) and comprises three different arcs – Secret City, Dark City and Savage City, but it is well worth the read if only to see just how great a villain Riddler can be.
Did you know that Riddler actually became a hero at one point? Well, sort of – in Paul Dini and Don Kramer’s E. Nygma, Consulting Detective in 2006’s Detective Comics #822, the Riddler actually becomes a consulting detective with the Gotham PD!
Having been in a coma because of brain damage after an altercation with Shining Knight, Nygma comes out of it with seemingly no recollection of his own past, and cured of his obsession with riddles. Since his genius analytical mind is still intact, he decides to become a private detective, whose first case is to investigate the murder of a wealthy socialite... and the prime suspect is Bruce Wayne!
Nygma proves to be more than a match for Batman as a private investigator, and it is a role that actually lasted four years, until an explosion while on a case causes his evil persona to resurface in the Riddle Me This story in 2010.
The Batman isn’t Riddler’s first cinema rodeo, of course. Frank Gorshin played the villain in the 1966 theatrical film based on the Batman TV series, while Jim Carrey (in)famously played the character in the much derided Batman Forever.
The upcoming Riddler in The Batman, however, looks like the most sinister and darkest iteration yet. Played by Paul Dano, he is not Edward Nygma, but rather, Edward Nashton, and judging from the trailers and interviews, he will be a masked serial killer that is akin to the real life Zodiac Killer.
If the film even manages to capture part of Riddler’s true criminal mastery, then there should be no question about whether you should go watch The Batman.
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