The Riddler (DC animated universe)
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| The Riddler
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| Dick Sprang Bill Finger |
The Riddler (Edward Nygma), 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 John Glover.
For this version, the producers decided to play against the popular Gorshin image of an over-the-top, giggling, hyperactive trickster in tights and have the character as a smooth, emotionless intellectual who presentes true challenges to Batman and the authorities. However, as with the other versions, his fondness for elaborate deathtraps is kept. This version of the Riddler is calm and somewhat arrogant while he is in control, but unstable and outraged when defeated.
Although as revealed by Paul Dini in The Animated Batman, they originally planed the character to appear as frequently as the Joker, Catwoman or the Penguin, the series' creators admitted they didn't use him very much because his character often made story plots too long, too complex, or too bizarre.
Contents |
[edit] Appearances
- If You're So Smart, Why Aren't You Rich?
- What Is Reality
- Riddler's Reform
- Over the Edge
- Judgement Day
- Knight Time (Superman:The Animated Series)
[edit] Cameos
[edit] DCAU Biography
In In this incarnation, Edward Nygma is introduced as a computer game designer fired by Dan Mockridge, one of the main executives of the company, for suing after not getting royalties for a game he created. In consecuence, the company goes bankrupt and Mockridge has to sell to Wayne Enterprises. However, this is not enough for Nygma, who becomes the Riddler to seeks revenge by kidnapping him and placing him in an elaborate maze deathtrap modeled after The Labyrinth of the Minotaur, the game he created. With the aid of Robin, who is an expert on the videogame, Batman rescues Mockridge, but is not abble to capture the Riddler, who is succesful in causing his victim a long paranoic fear of him after the traumatic experience.
In What Is Reality?, the Riddler returns a new challenge directly addresed to Batman holding Commissioner Gordon as hostage, by kidnapping his mind in a virtual reality game he crates to test Batman. This time the Riddler is finally apprehended and locked in Arkham Asylum, where time later, in Trial he participates as part of the inmates "jury" that declared Batman not guilty, when they kidnap Batman to put him on trial on the charges of making their lifes become tragedy.
He is later released in Riddler's Reform and since he is a genious level game designer and his crimes made him a celebrity, he is hired by a toy company to create old fashioned riddle toys and advertise them. However, he couldn't help to plan new crimes and hint them in the advertisements as part of a new plan to defeat Batman. After thinking he finally killed Batman, Nygma is ready to finally give up his Riddler gimmick, but he is tricked to confess his crimes. When he is sent back to Arkham, he couldnt stop screamed outraged by hes defeat.
The Riddler is briefly seen in The New Batman Adventures, in in a dream sequence makes a non voiced cameo among other Arkham inmated in a dream sequence, then in Judgement Day, he makes a small appearance in which during a hit he is quickly defeated by The Judge, a saddistic new vigilante. He also makes a brieff appearance in Superman: The Animated Series episode Knight Time, where he is in league with Bane and the Mad Hatter to take over the city during Batman's absense. They are quickly defeated by Superman wearing Batman's costume and Robin.
His absense in Justice League becomes notable when the producers made a revamp of the Legion of Doom with most of the original 13 members. Since the rights of the Batman characters where holded for The Batman. The opposite situation happened back in the 1970s, when Super Friends holded the rights of the Riddler and he didn't appear in the Filmation's Batman animated series.
[edit] Design
His original design include most of his clasical face features but with red hair and a smaller forehead. The suit is similar to the one designed for Frank Gorshin when he refused to keep wearing tights in the Batman 60s TV show and was later used in the comics. Prior to that design, Bruce Timm considered exaggerating a little more his poor taste in clothes.
For The New Batman Adventures along most characters, the Riddler was redesigned. His new design was physically modeled after Jim Carrey, who portrayed the character in Batman Forever. His clothes were changed for the tights worn by Carrey's and most portrayal of the character, including the original from the comics. Additionally, unlike any previous incarnation, the character was made bald and dropped the mask (incidentally, Carrey's dyed red his hair to look like Tim's original design).
[edit] Action figures
Despite the fact that the series producers didn't use the character until the second half of the first season (of 64 episodes), and that they never used him much, the Riddler was released as an action figure by Kenner in 1992 among the first wave of villains (which also includes The Penguin and Two-face) and he is among the villains that were re-released the most.
The first figure comes with his cane and a question mark weapon that never apears in the series. As the Two-face, his jacket is opened to aloud leg movement, even though theye are never seen like that in the series.
A variant of the figure with black pants (that he never wears in the show) if released for the "Duo-Force" line with another weapon that didn't appear in the show.
For The New Batman Adventures, Kenner released an action figure modeled after the new design of the character. It gets actually looks closer than the previous model to its targeted design, since this time there is no jacket issue. It comes wit a question mark vehicle that never apears in the series and his cane.
[edit] See also
- The Riddler
- The Riddler (Batman TV series)
- The Riddler (Super Friends)
- The Riddler (Batman Forever)
- The Riddler (The Batman)
[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.
- DCAUResource.com, a very well documented site when it comes to DC fictional biographies.
- 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.
