Riddler
The Riddler is a fictional character owned by the US entertainment company Time Warner . The character appears regularly in comics published by the US publisher DC , a subsidiary of Time Warner. The Riddler is used regularly in the titles in the series about the superhero Batman . Within the traditional character constellation of American superhero comics, the Riddler usually takes on the role of the so-called " super villain ", i.e. H. the opponent of the superhero. In public, the Riddler is one of the most widely known representatives of his character type.
Surname
The name Riddler comes from English and, when translated into German, means something like “riddle maker” or “riddle picker”.
In his genre- typical secret identity , the Riddler is called Edward Nygma (also spelled Edward Nigma). The name Edward Nygma, abbreviated E. Nygma, is based on the Greek word Enigma , which means something like 'riddle'. In keeping with the idea of the speaking name , the Riddler and his main purpose in life - solving the puzzle - are carried so meaningfully to the outside world by his name.
In earlier German translations he was given the name Mr. Sphinx , alluding to the Sphinx of Greco-Roman mythology . Since the Batman series in the late 1960s, he was often called The Riddle Cracker in German-speaking countries . In other countries it is known as Enigmista (Italy), El Acertijo (Spanish-speaking countries), or Charada (Portugal and Brazil).
Emergence
The figure of the Riddler was developed in the mid-1940s by the American author Bill Finger and the illustrator Dick Sprang . Finger and Kane, who had already invented Batman, first used the character in the comic book Detective Comics No. 140 from October 1948. Long before the introduction of the Riddler, it was the Joker, another arch enemy of Batman, who often left puzzles behind his crimes .
Visual appearance
According to the publisher, the Riddler is 1.85 meters tall and weighs 83 kilograms. His hair is black (but in some versions it is also brown or even red) and his eyes are blue. Outwardly he looks remarkably thin - almost slim - and his physique is more of an asthenic disposition. Its most distinctive feature is a green costume strewn with randomly arranged (often, but not always purple) question marks. The design of the costume fluctuates between a skin-tight spandex suit, as v. a. Performers wear, and a business suit with a white shirt, a lapel-hemmed green jacket, purple gloves and a green bowler hat, often trimmed with a purple border with a single question mark. Sometimes he also wears a narrow face mask that frames the eyes and otherwise does not cover the field of vision (in newer comics he wears green sunglasses). As an accessory, the Riddler often carries a walking stick with him, the upper end of which is typically crowned by a question mark-shaped attachment. This walking stick can also be equipped as a stun gun for self-defense.
characterization
Original characterization
The Riddler is obsessed with puzzles of all kinds (crosswords, quizzes, puzzles, etc.) as well as word and confusion games. Thus he belongs to the category of thematically-arrested acting villains , i. H. that group of characters who do not either act completely randomly, haphazardly and improvised or who pursue certain goals and intentions, but choose a goal-oriented approach ("The goal is the goal", e.g. to achieve financial profit), but who, especially in their appearance, in the design of their equipment, in the choice of their operational objectives and in the implementation of their missions are rooted in a narrowly limited thematic area. Further examples of such figures are e.g. B. Two-Face , who puts his crimes in the context of the number 2 or duality and inconsistency, the Joker , who puts many of his crimes in the context of the entertainment industry, of jokes, joke articles, circus, or the Calendar-Man , who his Always puts crimes in relation to dates, times, etc. The quirk typical of the Riddler in this sense is his passion to announce his crimes to the police and / or Batman in a cryptic form, so that a playful competition develops. This consists in whether his adversaries succeed in solving the riddles he has assigned them in the first place, and if they are able to solve them, whether they succeed in doing so before he successfully ends the coup in question Has; or whether he just manages to successfully complete his plan and get away scot-free because his opponents did not manage to solve his puzzles in time. The Riddler is by nature more of a loner, but more often he surrounds himself with two young, attractive, quarreling assistants who support him in his projects and whose names are usually chosen from two of the three names Quiz , Query and Echo . Another accomplice - but also a name on his hit list - Riddler has worked with was Arthur Brown , the Cluemaster , whose criminal inclinations closely resemble those of the Riddler, although Brown's passion for puzzles is less delusional and his goals and methods more common vary.
Characterization change
Like most of the Batman villains, the Riddler has changed in the past few years from a free-floating, cheerful, lively crook and joker, whose appearances were almost humorous, to an oppressive figure that sometimes provokes compassionate discomfort in the reader: today he is more of a psychosis sociopath driven to compulsive behavior than a charming charlatan . The modern riddler often uses digital media for his crimes and has recently been a frequent antagonist of the superhero Green Arrow . Like the penguin, he often prefers to direct his actions from a distance.
Character biography
As a child, Edward Nygma discovered how fun and fascinating puzzles can be. As a schoolboy, he broke open his teacher's closet to get his hands on a crossword puzzle so that, since it would be a school assignment the next day, he would be able to distinguish himself by being the first to solve it in class. Severe abuse by his father, who did not recognize the brilliance of the child and believed his son would cheat at games together, and beat him out of anger about it, increased the young nygma's need to prove himself and his intelligence. Nygma's youthful enthusiasm for puzzles and tricky questions grew into an increasingly obsession.
His obsessional neurosis intensified more and more and finally took on almost carnivalesque features: this resulted in the Riddler becoming unable to commit a crime without first announcing it in the form of a riddle. His success as a criminal was massively impaired by this weakness: regardless of his genius, his "tick" meant that he was ultimately mostly cheated of the fruits of his ingenious "crime masterpieces". Therefore, he set himself the goal of developing ever more difficult, complicated and dangerous puzzles in order to compensate for his handicap by minimizing the risk that the tasks set by him would be solved. But so far, thanks to Batman's efforts, Nigma has achieved few truly successful crimes.
In many adaptations of the Batman material, the real name of the Riddler is Edward "Eddie" Nigma (or Nygma) or E. Nigma. However, in some stories the name Nigma is flagged as a misnomer and his real name is identified as Edward Nashton. Unlike many of the opponents of the Batman villain gallery, the Riddler presents a mental rather than a physical challenge to the hero; That is, the difficulty for Batman is to locate the Riddler based on his encrypted messages, rather than overpowering and trapping him in the ensuing confrontation. Also, unlike many other members of his "profession" in the Batman comics, he only seldom kills , mostly doesn't even have the mentality to hurt others, but rather wants to satisfy his play instinct in competition with the law enforcement and Batman.
Various attempts by the Riddler to free himself from the bizarre compulsion to ask puzzles failed. The action-controlling compulsion of the Riddler is very flexible: It is possible for him to commit almost any crime, as long as he can only depict it in a puzzled form.
His criminal career in the Gotham underworld has been extraordinarily straightforward for years: after a successful escape from state custody, after a more or less long-lasting phase of hiding and preparing, he appeared with a new spectacular coup to finally Being hunted down by Batman, one of his allies, or the police. Exceptions to this "monotonous routine" were a short phase in which the Riddler committed extremely cruel crimes - as he himself claimed because he was under the influence of a demon - and the encounter with the terrorist Bane , who administered the steroid poison Venom to him, which temporarily gave the Riddler considerable physical strength and turned the otherwise weak crook into a dangerous duel for Batman. A gunshot wound (his arm and shoulder were hit), which had been inflicted on him by some of Bane's henchmen, even briefly pushed the Riddler into a life crisis, as it made him realize his own vulnerability. A disease of a brain tumor - years later - confirmed these emotions, although the tumor could be cured by a bath in the mysterious Lazarus pit of Ra's al Ghuls .
In the course of Batman's argument with Tommy Elliott, a doctor and businessman who harbored a pathological hatred of the vigilante, the Riddler finally managed to reveal Batman's secret identity through clever inferences. Since, in his opinion, a puzzle, the solution of which is well known, is no longer one, Nigma has decided to keep this to herself for the time being.
Trying to hide from Elliott and the Joker, who were killing him, the nigma eventually ended up in the gutter. There he happened to meet a former NSA code breaker who enabled him to return to a more stable environment. For Nigma this meant a process of purification: he became increasingly aware of his own motives and compulsions. He finally succeeded - up to the present day - in freeing himself from the compulsion to ask riddles. Since then he has occupied himself with them exclusively for his pleasure. After killing the codebreaker to get rid of an uncomfortable witness, he turned to apparently legal ventures and has since appeared publicly as a respectable businessman, but has also secretly joined the Secret Society of Supervillains. He also became a successful private investigator in some stories. He also worked temporarily with Batman and has recently had a cultural, aristocratic "good" relationship with the penguin .
A double of the Riddler in the so-called "Antimatter Universe" is the Quiz-Master , a hero who works in Lex Luther's "Justice Underground" group.
Query and Echo
Query (English "question, question mark"), alias Deidre Vance , and Echo , are two young women who are the Riddler's side in many Batman stories. Both are first featured in Detective Comics Annual # 8 from 1995 (author: C. Dixon, illustrator: K. Dwyer). As Riddler Girls, they support the Riddler time and again in his criminal activities.
Both have in common a wild, carefree and even ruthlessness for adventure and the propensity for physical violence. While Query has long blonde hair, Echo (also often called Quiz) can be identified by her short black hair.
Analogous to the green costume of the Riddler, the two usually wear tight-fitting green or purple costumes with a? -Print and various changing accessories such as? -Earrings, dominatrix caps, fishnet tights or face masks. Both are loyal to the Riddler and, as some stories suggest, also erotically inclined.
In most of the stories in which they appear, for the Riddler, the two perform the tasks of women for the rough: They are better at handling firearms than the Riddler, who is the two "Furies" - who are also better at handling the gun Understanding unarmed hand-to-hand combat as he - usually prefers to confront Batman.
In their debut story, it is revealed that Query and Echo were originally two bikers and muggers who tried to ambush Eddie Nashton, the Riddler, but who convinced them it would be more profitable to join his gang. In later stories, the two kidnap the Cluemaster, as a supposed Riddler imitator, on behalf of their boss from a prison in order to send him on the gauntlet as punishment for copying his scam. Unlike the Riddler, however, you rarely see them behind Swedish curtains.
Appearances in other media
In the cartoon-esque exaggerated Batman comedy television series of the 60s , the Riddler was played by Frank Gorshin (also on behalf of John Astin ), whose portrayal popularized the character and made it a highly recognizable icon of pop culture . Before appearing on the television series, the Riddler had been a minor villain; the prominent position he achieved through his appearances in the television series and Gorshin's popular portrayal as a completely "crazy" lunatic led to the fact that the Riddler in the comics soon became one of Batman's main opponents.
As a cartoon character, he made his debut in the series The Batman / Superman Hour , which was broadcast by CBS from 1968. In the series Challenge of the Super Friends produced by Hanna-Barbera , he appeared as a member of the “Legion of Doom”: here he is portrayed as a hyperactive madman and dubbed by Michael Bell.
In the 1995 movie Batman Forever , the established film star Jim Carrey ( Robin Williams was originally intended for the part) slipped into the role of the Riddler. Carrey based his portrayal on Gorshin's model. However, the Riddler in the film is less of a puzzle master, but embodies a mad scientist who incorporates the thoughts of the city with virtual television.
In the Batman cartoon series of the 1990s , he also appeared (dubbed John Glover ), but this time not as an unpredictable lunatic, but as a special intellectual. Like most of Batman's opponents, the Riddler underwent a later visual makeover in the series: his outfit was significantly changed, his suit gave way to a sporty green question mark overalls. His hair, mask and eyebrows were removed and he became noticeably thinner. His second-row appearances were brief, he only acted as a sidekick and had no episodes specifically about him. The portrayal of Carreys in the 1995 film had the consequence that the producers of the animated series of the later 1990s tended to resemble the Riddlers optically to Carrey.
In the cartoon series The Batman , which started in 2005 , a new, futuristic Riddler made his debut. This Riddler has a very Gothic-looking habitus that is apparently modeled after Marilyn Manson and is significantly dubbed by Robert Englund - who played the serial killer Freddy Krueger in the Nightmare-on-Elm-Street films. Here, as in Batman Forever, the Riddler was a scientist until he was betrayed in business by a colleague. In the episode "Night and the City" he sees himself as the head villain of the Joker and the Penguin, which led to a competitive battle in which the Riddler was defeated last. He later had an appearance in the episode "Riddled" and a brief appearance in the episode "Roumors".
The Riddler also appears in the music video for the single The Riddle by Nik Kershaw .
The young Edward "Ed" Nygma has appeared in the US crime series Gotham (played by Cory Michael Smith ) since 2014 . The series thematizes the rise of James Gordons in the Gotham City Police Department and, in a subplot, the development of forensic analyst of the GCPD Edward Nygma to the later Riddler. In the series, the Riddler is portrayed as a brilliant but shy and less than self-confident forensic scientist. His affinity for puzzles and word games is already evident, as he always wraps his findings into little guessing games during investigations, much to the annoyance of his colleagues. His feelings for a colleague lead him out of anger to stab her violent lover in the affect; Nygma looks at the blood-streaked knife and laughs madly. From this point on, Ed's gradual mental decline into a dangerous psychopath begins, initially with the development of another personality (representing the self-confident side of Nygma) and finally culminates with the accidental murder of his lover during an argument. The series portrays the Riddler's career as rather tragic and delusional; Ed is also presented as a friend of Gordon.
Lego DC video games
- Lego Batman: The Video Game (2008)
The Riddler breaks out of the Arkham Asylum with Clayface, Mr. Freeze, Poison Ivy and Two-Face. They come up with a plan to rob Gotham City's bank. Batman and Robin defeat the whole squad and they are arrested by the GCPD.
The Riddler breaks out of the Arkham Asylum again with Two-Face, Catwoman (only in the film), Penguin, Harley Quinn and the Joker. You go to the "Man of the Year" event to cause chaos. But were finally defeated again by Batman and Robin, arrested by the GCPD. Later, the Riddler and other Arkham Asylum patients break out of Arkham Asylum again. However, they are defeated again by Batman and Robin.
- Lego Batman 3: Beyond Gotham (2014)
This time the riddler only plays a minor role. You can find him in Free Play in the Hall of Justice, where you have to solve his puzzles.
- Lego Dimensions (2015-2017)
During the dimensional crisis, the Riddler helps the evil Lord Vortech, together with the Balrog, he wants to challenge Batman, Gandalf and Wildstyle with riddles and orcs in Middle-earth. He is eventually defeated by Batman with a nutshell. He later walks away from Lord Vortech with the other villains.
- Lego DC Super Villians (2018)
There the Riddler is back and wants to get the old things from the Gotham City Police Department (GCPD) with the Joker, Harley Quinn, Clayface and Scarecrow. However, Commissioner Gordon, Detective Bullock and the rest of the GCPD put up a fight. But they are eventually put to flight. When they get to the vault, Batgirl and Nightwing also arrive, which scares Scarecrow very much. Suddenly Two-Face and Catwoman appear behind them and knock them out with frying pans. They flee from the police in Joker's car. Finally end up in the night club of the penguin "the Iceberg Lounge". There you can defeat Nightwing and Batgirl. But they are defeated by the GCPD. Afterwards, Owlman also shows up. The Riddler then fights with the Justice League and the other villains against the Crime Syndicate and Darkseid. In the end he is back in Gotham City and escapes from Batman and the other heroes together with the other villains.