Character Profiles - Villains - Riddler
Real Name: Edward Nigma
Occupation: Criminal
Marital Status: Single
Base of Operations: Gotham
Height: 6ft 1in
Weight: 183 lbs
Eyes: Blue
Hair: Black
First Appearance: Detective Comics #140 (October 1948)
Created By: Bill Finger, Dick Sprang
Pre-Crisis:
Edward Nigma discovered puzzles when he was a young boy, and he gradually incorporated them into his criminal career.
The Riddler's criminal modus operandi is so deeply ingrained into his personality that he is virtually powerless to stop himself from acting it out. He cannot simply kill his opponents when he has the upper hand; he has to put them in a deathtrap to see if he can devise a life and death intellectual challenge that the hero cannot solve and escape. However, unlike many of Batman's themed enemies, Riddler's compulsion is quite flexible, allowing him to commit any crime as long as he can describe it in a riddle or puzzle. He often has two female assistants, named Query and Echo.
Sometimes, he is shown to drive a "Riddlermobile," a green car with "???" on the license plate. In the animated series and in Batman Forever, he carries a trick cane.
Post-Crisis:
Little Eddie Nashton loved puzzles. He was good at all sorts of them, from crosswords to jigsaws to word games. And when his teacher announced that there would be a puzzle game the next day, Eddie snuck into the classroom after hours and snuck a glance at the answers. He won handily, and Eddie felt, for the first time, the thrill of winning a game and beating everyone, no matter how dishonestly.
Ed Nashton grew up, and began working at a carnival, running one of the rigged game booths. It fueled his passion, but it wasn’t enough. He needed a challenge. This was the time of the rising of the costumed villain in Gotham, and so Ed went to the city, changed hid name to Edward Nygma (a pun on the word “enigma,” which means a puzzle), and created the super villain identity the Riddler.
Nygma took on two women as his crew, and called them Query and Echo. They did much of the heavy lifting, allowing Riddler to scheme. His trademark was to leave behind a clue at his crimes, or to send one out in advance of them, to challenge the police to catch him. The crimes eventually drew the attention of Batman, who solved the crimes and brought Riddler in.
Riddler remained a formidable intellectual challenge to Batman, but little more. As opposed to many of Gotham’s villains, the Riddler was never a psychotic killer. He never needlessly took life, and so remained more a nuisance to Batman then most of Arkham’s other inmates.
For a brief time Riddler retired, but came back after being possessed by a demonic force. Freed from its influence, Riddler became a villain again. He was infected by the Bane with the Venom drug, and fought Batman to a stand still, but was stopped by Bane, and when he escaped Arkham along with the other villains, he was a wreck. He took a TV audience hostage, and was defeated handily by Robin.
When Gotham was declared a No Man’s Land, Riddler did not enter the city as many of his fellow villains did, but instead tried to make it on his own. His first stop was Keystone City, where he ran afoul of Flash and Robin again, and was forced to flee the city. He next tried Manchester, Alabama, but here he encountered Impulse, who caught him and sent him to jail.
Riddler developed a dislike for the Cluemaster, a villain who had a similar puzzle related scheme to his crimes, and initially the two butted heads, but eventually they became allies. Once more, the Riddler was run out of his base and embarrassed by a vigilante, this time the Black Canary.
After these embarrassments, Riddler found out a harsh truth: he was dying of an inoperable brain tumor. Using what time he had, he tracked down one of Ra’s al Ghul’s Lazarus Pits and used it to cure himself. In the ensuing madness, he came to a realization: Bruce Wayne was Batman! Having previously made contact with Tommy Elliot, a man who hated Wayne, they decided to join forces. With the aid of the Scarecrow, Riddler and Hush, as Elliot called himself, spent a year terrorizing Batman before there plan was revealed. When Batman confronted him, Riddler teased him with the idea that he would reveal Batman’s identity. But Batman knew it was a bluff, because what good is a riddle if everyone knew the answer.
Feeling betrayed by Riddler, Hush decided to take revenge on him. Terrified, Riddler went to the Joker for help. Joker had him sprung from jail, and protected him until Hush, with the help of Prometheus, made a move. Fleeing again, Riddler ran to Poison Ivy for a hiding place. He is currently with Ivy, hiding from Hush’s vengeance.
The fallout from Riddler's failed scheme would be played out in Batman: Gotham Knights #50-53. In the story "Pushback," Hush reappears and beats Riddler senseless across a rooftop. Seeking refuge, Riddler would go to the Joker and the Penguin. He would offer to tell the Joker who had killed his wife if the Clown Prince of Crime would protect him from Hush. The Joker agrees, but eventually Hush, with the help of Prometheus, defeats him.
The Riddler would face his most painful humiliation at the hands of Poison Ivy in the storyline entitled "Low", which took place the same time as "War Games" In this encounter, the Riddler would seek shelter from Ivy only to be humiliated. Riddler and Ivy then faced off in a physical duel, which Ivy won easily.
Riddler was stripped of his deductive powers and left to rot as a member of Gotham City's vast and invisible homeless population. A chance encounter with an ex-NSA codebreaker gave him a positive environment in which to recover his mind. During that stay, he experienced an induced flashback that led him to realize that his father had abused him many years ago. His father, unable to grasp that his son was brilliant, believed he had cheated in his accomplishments, and beat him out of jealousy. Once Riddler discovered this, he also realized that his compulsion was borne out of a strong desire to tell the truth to prove his innocence of deception.
Having made this connection, the Riddler spent some of his vast fortune, acquired over many years of crime, to get minor plastic surgery and extensive tattooing, covering most of his torso with his trademark question insignia. He returned and killed the codebreaker — who had pieced together his identity but couldn't act on it — then promptly stole a priceless scroll out from under Batman's nose. Since then, the Riddler has spent most of his time either legally amassing a huge fortune or attacking various heroes in order to prove his newfound power. He has apparently lost the desire to plant riddles or clues at his various crime scenes, although he still enjoys riddles in an abstract sense, and will occasionally make subtle references to them in the course of his crimes. After attacking and nearly killing Green Arrow and Arsenal, Riddler once again escaped before the Outsiders arrived to save them.
Riddler later showed up in during Infinite Crisis, with a group of villains attacking the Gotham City Police Department while the city dealt with the chaos resulting from the finale of Day of Vengeance. He was back in his green suit and talking in riddles, although he was next seen escaping Arkham Asylum during the world-wide supervillain breakout the Society engineered, which took place only days after the prior supernatural disaster. Riddler re-appeared as part of the Society's "Phase Three" attack on Metropolis. He was roundly defeated by the Shining Knight.
The Riddler has a counterpart in the anti-matter universe called the Quizmaster, who is a member of Lex Luthor's Justice Underground.
The Riddler returns, having spent much of the previous year in a coma due to the one-sided fight against the Knight. He has seemingly reformed, and is now a private consultant on the murder of a wealthy socialite. Hired by the socialite's father, he successfully - with great flamboyance and in front of the media - proves that a photo of Bruce Wayne apparently implicating him in the crime depicts an imposter, and briefly works with Batman to investigate the crime. As a result of his coma, The Riddler has apparently lost his compulsion for riddles, but retains both his intellect and his mammoth ego. Furthermore, he suffered severe memory loss; upon emerging from his coma, he barely remembers his own name. He does not appear to remember that Bruce Wayne and Batman are one and the same, though he does harbor some suspicions of once knowing something about Bruce Wayne.
The Riddler appeared to solve the case with the suicide of the apparent murderer, and quickly took the credit. However, Batman found evidence that the suicide was a setup to divert attention away from the real killer. Eventually, he loses interest in crimefighting — he finds his cases irritatingly simple — and may return to crime.
Back To Villains Main Menu |
Back To Comic Character Profiles Main Menu
| 
Home
