Clayface (DC animated universe)
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| Clayface
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| Bob Kane Bill Finger Sheldon Moldoff |
Clayface (Matt Haggen), a DC Comics supervillain and enemy of Batman, consistently appeared in Batman: The Animated Series, and several of the related series created by Bruce Timm and Paul Dini, played by Ron Pearlman.
This version combines complementary aspects of the three comic-book male Clayfaces to make an ultimeate Clayface complete with morphin powers, chamealeonic skills and motif. His name is Matt Haggen and his powers are the same, he is a skilled actor like Basil Karlo and he is a trajic figure who gets his powers out of need like Preston Payne.
Contents |
[edit] Appearances
- Feat of Clay, part I
- Feat of Clay, part II
- Mudslide
- Hollyday Knights
- Growing Pains
- Secret Society, part I (Justice League)
- Secret Society, part II (Justice League)
[edit] DCAU Biography
In the two part episode Feat of Clay, Matt Hagen is introduced as a past-his-prime actor who is disfigured in a car accident. While recovering, he is approached by corrupt businessman Roland Daggett, who ofers to make him a test subject for a compound called Renuyu, which manually aplied to the face can temporarely modify it, restoring his youthful good looks if he wants. In exchange, Hagen would use the compuond and his acting skills to commit crimes for Daggett.
When Hagen botches a robbery at Wayne Enterprises while disguised as Bruce Wayne, his supply is cut off. He is caught by Roland's henchmen in Daggett Industries, disguised as Wayne, trying to steal a large supply of Renuyu. The henchmen try to kill Hagen by forcing him to ingest an entire canister of the compound, but rather than kill him, the substance in his body saturated and mutated every cell, turning him into a bulky and misshapen claylike creature able to color, harden and shapeshift his mass and module his voice after anything or anybody he wishes to as long as he can concentrate his mind. After trying to get revenge on Daggett, he was stopped and, apparently, destroyed by Batman.
He reappeared in Mudslide, in which it is revealed the he has been having trouble to hold his new body structure together. Dr. Stella Bates, a former medical advisor on his films, who had fallen in love with Hagen and sold her motel to raise funds for a laboratory in which to treat him, restores him to a semblance of health, by creating a mannequin-like organic armor. However, as it is only a temporal remedy, Clayface starts stealing to aford the chemicals they need to create a permanent solution. Batman tracks him down to Stella's lab, tries to offer him a better solution if he turn himself to the authorities and ends up battling him to another apparent death, as Hagen's now-unstable clay form having absorbes too much rainwater to hold its cohesion, and falls into and dissolving in the ocean.
In The New Batman Adventures, Hagen's character again in "Growing Pains," in which Robin II (Tim Drake) befriends a lost, amnesiac little girl (whom he named "Annie"). The child turns out to be a portion of Clayface that has gained sentience and identity on its own, and in the end is re-absorbed into the main body of the villain, effectively "killing" the girl as a separate person. Batgirl (Barbara Gordon) was also shown battling Clayface in one segment of a Christmas-themed episode, "Holiday Knights," in which Clayface further expanded his separative ability by posing as four separate children at once to shoplift from Gotham department stores at the height of the Christmas Eve rush.
[edit] Justice League
Clayface made his return to action in the Justice League series, where it was revealed that at some point, he had been captured, separated and sealed into several biohazard canisters by Morgan Edge. Gorilla Grodd and his newly-formed Secret Society attacked his mansion, freeing Clayface and offering him a position in their group. Grodd promised Clayface that he'll find a way to revert Clayface back to Matt Hagen. Clayface was defeated when the Flash planted fireworks in his clay body and Hawkgirl ignited them, blowing Clayface apart. It is unknown whether he survived or not.
[edit] Design
[edit] Action figure
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
- The World's Finest, a site with a complete guide to the DC animated universe. It's the source of a great deal of the related images in Pop-Cult Guides.
- Clayface at DCAUResource.com
- The Animated Batman, an Unofficial Guide, a site with a complete guide to Bruce Timm's Batman. It's the source of a great deal of the related images in Pop-Cult Guides.
