Batman. Yes, All of Batman Wrapped Together

Close your eyes and imagine a foggy city. It probably smells like piss, and sewer grates are blasting moist humid air onto your legs. All of a sudden, a car drives past you and hits you on the street. That's how the average citizen who stayed in Gotham feels when they walk outside while I'm driving the Batmobile.

Sorry boys... I'm Batman. Although sometimes, I feel more like a Riddler. Over the years, I've consumed many types of Batman media. I have seen Adam West's Batman show, Batman: The Animated Series (please go watch it), Batman: Brave and the Bold, all of the Batman movies, Gotham, Titans but just Jonathan Crane's scenes, the Arkham games, the Lego Batman game, the Brave and the Bold game, several comics, and probably a lot more that I am forgetting. I am twenty years old as of writing this and I have a Batman quilt on my bed, courtesy of my grandma. I own action figures, a movie poster of "The Batman," and tried bartering my way in to see Joker (2019) when it was out in theaters despite the fact that I was 14. All in all, I love Batman. And I want to talk about it.

If you look me in the eye and ask me who I think the greatest character in all of Batman is, I would immediately respond with the Scarecrow aka Jonathan Crane. There is some unspoken understanding between myself and Crane's character. I understand him, why he does what he does, and that is what makes him so special to me personally. It's hard to place exactly where this miniature obsession began, although it probably started when Christopher Nolan decided to cast Cillian Murphy as Crane and then give him the sexiest, sluttiest pair of glasses to ever exist. This infatuation with Murphy led me to do lots of research on Jonathan Crane, which has changed my life in a myriad of ways (one of them resulted in me being initially exposed to Gotham, another led to a flirtation with Psychology). Crane is cold, calculated, and focused on his work. He does what he does not for the enjoyment (although it can be inferred that that naturally bloomed over time), but to experiment. What lengths wouldn't one driven scientist take to prove that he's right? Crane assumes the identity of the Scarecrow for his crimes to get back at the people who tormented him, which directly interferes with any preconceptions of him not having emotions in his work. He is a walking enigma (pun sort of intended) and an oxymoron of himself. He's a trauma victim who uses his stereotypical identity of a calculated strategist and scientist to make decisions that he tries to convince himself are for science, but are really a way that he's fighting back at everyone who has wronged him in the past. He's a brilliant character, and one that I cannot recommend researching enough.

Because there are so many versions of these characters, I also decided to tell you my favorite version of them. For Jonathan Crane, Vincent Kartheiser's portrayal in Titans is my favorite. I feel like not many incarnations of Crane focus on how emotional he truly is, except for Titans. In the show, he is painfully aware of his own situation due to his previous work as a psychiatrist, and yet seeks out other people (his mother and Batman) to diagnose him in a feeble attempt to convince himself that he is not ultimately flawed himself. He is surprisingly charming, and is not treated like a joke when he walks into a room (cough, Arkham Asylum, cough, the Animated Series, cough, most Batman media) all while being ultimately likeable to the audience (sorry, that might be just me). I just think he is the star of the third season because of how unassumingly complex he is under the surface. Have you ever paused to look at his cell in Arkham? Probably not, but the guy has cat photos above his desk. What does that say about him? More importantly, what does that say about him that previous incarnations of his character have been unable to come close to saying about him? All in all, Kartheiser's Jonathan Crane is spectacular and he's my favorite version of Jonathan Crane because he actually feels like a person instead of a facsimile of some kind of calculated scientist.

All of the Paul Dano memes have probably insinuated that the Riddler would be on this list, but I genuinely love the guy. I like the Riddler mostly because of how much variation different versions of his characters can have. If you had a line-up of Frank Gorshin, Jim Carrey, Cory Michael Smith, Paul Dano, and Wally Wingert's Riddlers, they are all almost completely different from each other. Each one has different beliefs in themselves, the world around them, and how they occupy their specific world.

For my favorite versions of the Riddler, I want to talk about both Paul Dano's Riddler and Wally Wingert's Riddlers from the Arkham games because they are incredibly stark contrasts to each other. Also, shout out to Paul Dano for writing Riddler Year One, which provides loads of insight and is the basis for most of my opinions on his character. To separate them, I'm going to be calling them Nashton for Paul Dano's Riddler and Nigma for Wally Wingert's Riddler. Let's start with Nashton, who is a shy accountant working a dead end job. He doesn't have the confidence to talk to his boss, never mind the confidence to become the Riddler. He sees puzzles as a solace to escape the trauma and shitty world view bestowed upon him through the torment he received as a child. In addition, he has a very specifically good view of Batman, who he initially believes is "hope incarnate" and going to save Gotham from the hellhole he believes it has become. However, the heinous actions Nashton uncovers leads him to assume the role of jury, judge, and executioner himself, and leads to him becoming the Riddler to help Batman. Inversely, Nigma is extremely confident in himself, despite a similar traumatic upbringing. He initially worked at Gotham PD in the Cybercrimes division and learned about the wrongdoings of government officials there. Surprisingly, Nigma takes a similar approach to Nashton through hoping that Batman would agree with his methods of curing evil (blackmail), but ends up finding the Dark Knight incredibly flawed compared to him. Opposed to Nashton, whose world view and view of himself shatters when Batman doesn't agree with him (leading to an ingenious scene acted by Dano, the infamous "NO NO NO NO" and the screaming, which I will defend until I die), Nigma uses that anger to finally become the Riddler and assume the name Edward Nigma.

The nuances of each of these characters does not separate them, but bind them together to make a wholly interesting villain who is hellbent on convincing Batman that he is right and Batman (and everyone else) is wrong. And, to be even more cool, this separation of me vs them results in the isolation of Nashton and the god complex of Nigma throughout their respective media. Nashton, despite every attempt to do something with himself and every attempt to connect with someone he views very highly, will always be alone, whether that be in his little dingy apartment or in a cell at Arkham. Nigma, despite every attempt to prove Batman was wrong about him and prove that he is better than Batman, will always see himself as alone because no one could ever reach the level of intellect that he has. Both characters, while different and similar in their own ways, show how amazingly complex the character of the Riddler is. Above all of the minutiae, the Riddler is a character who will always be alone and will continue to be alone until he eventually becomes -ironically- smart enough to admit his wrongdoings.