Real Name: Lonnie Machin
Occupation: Villain
Marital Status: N/A
Base of Operations: Gotham City
Height: N/A
Weight: N/A
Eyes: N/A
Hair: N/A
First Appearance: Detective Comics #608
Created By: Alan Grant & Norm Breyfogle

Lonnie Machin was an ordinary child who had no great concerns in his life. At eleven he gained a foreign pen pal, Xuasus, as part of a school program. Every month they would write to each other about their lives; Lonnie about how wonderful the United States was; Xuasus about the poverty and political repression that made up his nation. After a year of contact, Xuasus stopped writing, and all of Lonnie's letters were returned as undeliverable. A year later Lonnie learned of Xuasus' fate. He wrote Lonnie a final letter explaining that his father had been arrested, his mother had taken ill, his sister had died of malnutrition, and at age eleven, he was homeless and fending for himself. Driven with worry for his friend, Lonnie fervently learned about Xuasus' country, discovering it to be a third world dictatorship at war with Marxist guerrillas, with arms dealers from the west making millions in profits from the conflict.

Further studies into war and political violence led him to hold radical sympathies. He came to view all wars as caused by political elites, with common individuals forced or cajoled into fighting on behalf of the former. He also began to read more into esoteric studies regarding science and philosophy, laying the groundwork for his advanced intelligence, and leading to his cover as a straight-A student with a normal job as a paper-boy. Eventually he discovered the extremely rare book, Universe by Scudder Klyce, which attempted to unify all knowledge. Within it he found several passages that convinced him of the need to reshape society. He became convinced that if he couldn't help Xuasus, he could fight on in his memory and give the oppressed people of Gotham City hope.

Inspired by the Batman, he fashioned a stun baton and smoke bombs in labs at school. He went to further lengths by creating a costume with a false head to increase his height and disguise the fact that he was only twelve. He then created computer files in which he made psychological profiles of Batman, to determine how best to defeat him when they inevitably came into conflict.

Cover of Detective Comics #609, highlighting Anarky as a champion of the oppressed, and Batman as a champion of the law.He made his debut as Anarky in issues #608 and #609 of Detective Comics, as an adversary to Batman. He responded to complaints in the newspaper by attacking the offending sources, such as the owner of a factory whose byproduct waste was polluting the water. Anarky and Batman ultimately came to blows, and during their brief fight, Batman deduced that Anarky was actually a young child. During this first confrontation, he was aided by a band of homeless men, including Legs, a homeless cripple who became loyal to him. After being caught, Lonnie was locked away in a juvenile detention center.

He increased his computer skills during his detention to the point of becoming an advanced hacker. He took on the computer alias "Moneyspider" to steal millions of dollars from western corporations, including Wayne Enterprises, and outmaneuvering Batman's own data security in the process. He then used the money to create bank accounts for poor farmers in third world countries. He was eventually caught by Tim Drake in the latter's first solo detective case.

After this setback he frequently escaped from the center and peregrinated around Gotham City, most notably during the Knightfall saga when he took on both Scarecrow and Batman-Azrael. In a rare, heroic portrayal during this early period of his career, he teamed up with Green Arrow to destroy a weapons manufacturing plant.

Upon his release, Lonnie built a machine that allowed him to fuse both hemispheres of his brain, giving him increased intelligence, and what he perceived as enlightenment. Creating an online bookstore, Anarco, to propagate radical literature, he began to accumulate funds which he donated to radical organizations or used for his own projects. As Anarky, he eventually chose to shed the encumbrance of his double life, and faked his death. He then worked in seclusion to further his goal of achieving an utopian society, briefly heiring local homeless men such as Legs to monitor Batman's movements. He had several further brushes with Batman, as well as the likes of Etrigan and Darkseid. Following the earthquake in Gotham Lonnie's parents disappeared, their house was destroyed, and he was threatened by Batman to leave the city. As one of many refugees who escaped from No Man's Land, he relocated to a new base of operations beneath the Washington Monument.

Beginning a search for his missing parents, he came upon evidence that the Machins were not in fact his biological parents, and attempted to track down his "real" parents. His leads pointed to the possibility that his biological father was in fact the Joker. He met his supposed biological mother first, but found that she was clinically unstable and unable to answer his questions. He then broke into Arkham Asylum to confront the Joker himself, but was betrayed, as the Joker opportunistically attempted to escape from the Asylum without providing any firm answers.

Anarky resurfaced months later in response to two events. The first was the government and media persecution of Young Justice, showing up at a public rally of super heroes to lend moral support (though as a reference to his absence from DC continuity, the local media reporters didn't recognize him, referring to him as "some woman with a stick," and Donna Troy confused his name, calling him "Chaos"') After the protest rally was interrupted and a government crackdown began, he aided the Justice League in making their escape. The second event was a bombing in Star City that he was framed for. He teamed up with Green Arrow to hunt down the bank robbers responsible, saying that though he did not care what others thought of him, he would fight for his name, asking, "What else do I have?"