Mad Hatter (cartoon character)
The Mad Hatter (Eng. The crazy hatter ; actually Jervis Tetch ) is a fictional character who appears in comics from the US publisher DC Comics , a subsidiary of Time Warner .
Beyond the medium of comics, the figure is relatively well known due to its appearances in books and graphic novels, computer and console games, real and cartoon series as well as in films based on the DC comics. Both in the DC Comics and in most of the products based on these comics, the Mad Hatter is an antagonist to Batman , another character in the publisher's repertoire. The figure of Mad Hatter is also a merchandising product, for example as a fridge magnet or action figure .
In the majority of versions of the character Mad Hatter, the latter is a mentally ill tinkerer whose real name is Jervis Tetch. Tetch is obsessed with Lewis Carroll's children 's book Alice in Wonderland , from which he also borrowed his criminal alias. As a rule, his crimes are closely related to this book or to the complex of topics “Hats and hat making”. The clinical picture from which Tetch suffers is mostly described as an obsessive-compulsive, psychotic-manic depression , which is interspersed with elements of schizophrenia and occasionally with pedophile tendencies . The latter come among other things in his preference for "little Alicen", i. H. little girl expressing.
The character of Mad Hatter was introduced into the Batman series by Batman creators Bill Finger and Bob Kane themselves. It first appeared in the 49th issue from October / November 1948. According to the publisher, the Mad Hatter is 1.72 m tall and weighs 67 kg. His eyes are blue, his hair is orange-red. The outer appearance of the hatter remains recognizable due to his clothing, which is always based on the topoi of John Tenniel's famous drawings for the illustrations of Carroll's Alice books, but is subject to permanent change. On his debut he was short and brunette. Average tall and blonde when it was reintroduced in the 1980s. Later again short and white-haired. The size and weight in the representation of the figure vary considerably.
Character biography
The fictional character Jervis Tetch, who appears in the Batman comic series, was a brilliant technician and inventor who experimented with animals that he tried to control using microchips he developed. In fact, he managed to stimulate the alpha waves in their brains and in this way influence them. Regardless of his professional success, Tetch's personal life was less fortunate: his secretary Alice, with whom he was secretly in love, ignored him and Tetch became an increasingly strange and bitter person.
In order to get Alice's attention, he came up with the idea of dressing up like the character of the Mad Hatter from Lewis Carroll's children 's book " Alice in Wonderland ", whom he admired . After failing to win Alice over, Tetch hit upon the idea of using a microchip he had developed to make Alice fall in love with him. After Batman had thwarted Tetch's plan, which involved all sorts of criminal activities such as the attack on the Gotham Yacht Club and a horse beauty pageant, he blamed the masked crime fighter for failing to win Alice over and swore bitterly to him Revenge.
Jervis is a criminal genius, a master of manipulation and strategy. He knows no scruples and is completely unscrupulous in all of his actions. But he's also absolutely insane and seems to switch between these two states all the time. So once he acts strategically and calculating in order to achieve his goals, another time he only speaks in rhymes from "Alice in Wonderland", addresses his henchmen by names from this book and it no longer seems clear which goals he actually aims tracked.
In the course of time, Tetch developed more and more into a stubborn, monomaniac lunatic who is downright obsessed with bringing other people under his control with the help of his hats. His passion for collecting hats and headgear of all kinds has meanwhile also developed into an obsession . Although he is a rather harmless contemporary in Gotham City, the "city of serial killers", Tetch has proven to be an extremely stubborn, recurring opponent. On several occasions, the hope that he had died or that he would soon succumb to injuries sustained in clashes with the police or with Batman proved to be deceptive. He was apparently run over by a train once, only to return soon after, and he was knocked down by the police with several shots while attempting to escape and still survived.
A regular partner of Tetch in his criminal acts is a trained chimpanzee named Jimbo (for the first time in Detective Comics # 510, 1981), whom he has to free again and again from the Gotham Zoo for their adventures together. Mad Hatter's most valuable weapon is his "mind control hats" (first used in Detective Comics # 526 in 1993), hats that contain his microchips that Tetch can use to miraculously bring other people under his control and turn them into mindless slaves to his own To obey orders unconditionally. The people over whom Tetch has already gained control in the past through his mind control hats or through chips implanted directly in his brain include the manager and boss of Wayne Enterprises Lucius Fox, as well as the criminals Scarecrow (Detective Comics # 526), Film Freak (Batman # 492) and, most recently, Killer Croc . Croc, with whom Tetch used to be on friendly terms (Batman: 80 Page Giant # 1, 1997), has since been sworn enmity with the hatter.
Such as the plan Gotham his plans, schoolgirl by chip -präparierte Walkmans to bring under its control and to the Third World dictator Generalissimo Lee (Robin: Year One) to sell or attempt to gain control of the thoughts Gotham police by giving these coffee and donut vouchers that contained his chip as a gift mostly failed.
Tetch allies relatively often, probably due to his own lack of physical strength, with other criminals, whom he however regularly betrays. The insane man who called himself a "film freak" had to lose his life after he got into a confrontation with the terrorist Bane, who beat him to death with his bare hands due to his partnership with the mad hatter (Batman # 492, 1993) . Likewise, the insane Narcosis, his partnership with Tetch (Batman: Shadow of the Bat # 77 and 78, 1998) had to pay with his life when he decided to betray him.
Most recently, he worked as a henchman for gang leader Black Mask (Detective Comics # 800) and joined the Secret Six as an expert in mind manipulation. A recent argument with Batman and Robin was unsuccessful in the usual manner. Although Tetch is not necessarily one of Batman's most dangerous enemies due to his rather limited objectives, he should not be underestimated because of an unpredictable madness.
Batman himself has a certain aversion to the Hatter, since "Alice in Wonderland" is one of the few beautiful memories of Bruce Wayne's childhood and the Hatter "pulls it in the dirt"
Mad Hatter Imposter
The fictional character of the Mad Hatter Imposter, an imitator of the Mad Hatter, was a simulant who pretended to be identical to this, despite only very little external resemblance to Jervis Tetch, the original Mad Hatter. This second Mad Hatter first appeared in Detective Comics # 230, dated April 1956. Unlike the original hatter, he was mentally sane and had a bushy mustache. He had curly instead of stringy hair and was relatively tall compared to the short Jervis Tetch. At the end of the 80s, this Mad Hatter disappeared from the Batman series after the original Hatter was reintroduced into the Batman universe at the beginning of the 80s.
Character biography
Shortly after the first appearance and the capture of Mad Hatter Jervis Tetch, a tall, stout, curly-headed and mustached man appeared who in turn claimed to be Jervis Tetch. The main concern of this man seemed to be the completion of his private hat collection with headgear of all kinds through criminal means. In his arguments with Batman, he used weapons of all kinds (flamethrowers, circular saws), which he usually hid in his hats. The headgear that the Hatter was most after was the hood of Batman's combat suit: accordingly, the imposter often tried to unmask Batman, which he even managed on one occasion after spraying Batman's hood with a radioactive spray. The hatter's claim that he had become honest (Batman # 297, March 1978) turned out to be a lie. That this hatter was a copycat and a deceiver finally turned out when the real Mad Hatter returned (1981). The hatter claimed to have killed the impostor, but this turned out to be false after the fake hatter made another appearance (Detective Comics # 573, 1987). The imposter has not been seen since then.
Mad Hatter in other media
In the live-action Batman series of the 1960s, Mad Hatter appeared in episodes "The Thirteenth Hat" (episode 13), "Batman Stands Pat" (episode 14), "The Contaminated Cowl" (episode 69) and "The Mad Hatter Runs Afoul ”(episode 70). Jervis Tetch was played by David Wayne . The figure portrayed by Wayne was externally based on the Mad Hatter Imposter, who was considered the "real" Mad Hatter in the 60s. The live-action series Mad Hatter was assisted by an assistant named Lisa, who ran a hat boutique. His plans essentially included attempts to steal Batman's mask as well as retaliation on the jurors who sent him to jail.
In the Batman animated series Batman: The Animated Series of the early 1990s, the Hatter was dubbed in the original English by actor Roddy McDowall . In this series, he was portrayed as an average tall, blond-haired, cranky-looking fellow with crooked teeth. In later episodes he also appeared a bit rodent. He appeared in the episodes "Mad as a Hatter", "Perchance to Dream", "The Trial", "The Worry Men", "Joker's Wild" and "Make'Em Laugh" on. In The New Batman Adventures he appeared in "Over the Edge" and "Animal Act". He also had an appearance on the episode "Knight Time" in the Superman cartoon series Superman: The Animated Series . In addition, he was a boss character in the Sega video game The Adventures of Batman & Robin and was a side quest for Arkham City , where he brings Batman under his control and as this one has to fight against hypnosis opponents and the Mad Hatter, to get out of this control. His plans were essentially the same as those of the comic book stories: he gained control over people with the help of microchips , manipulated them, tried to gain financial profit and the love of Alicen for himself. In the television series Gotham he appears as an opponent of James Gordon.