The 3 great Grant/Breyfogle Batman villains

- by Señor Editor, 12 June 2012

The late '80s/early '90s Batman comics written by Alan Grant and drawn by Norm Breyfogle are some of my favorite stories ever made about the character. I still consider them some of the grittiest (and not in "that '90s way"), best-looking and original works in the character's long history. The Breyfogle/Grant duo was also responsible for introducing quite a lot of characters that have caught on and still appear every now and then. Today I'll take a look at 3 of my favorite villains the duo created. So here we go, in the order they appeared!

SCARFACE & VENTRILOQUIST (1988)
Let's just get this out of the way: ventriloquists freak me right the eff out. Even sans the dummy. Speak to me in a weird voice while your mouth is shut and there's just no telling what I'll do. This may actually be part of the reason why I consider Scarface/Ventriloquist (it's always the same problem with good creepy ventriloquists and their, often supernatural, dummies! You're not sure which one to focus on) one of my favorite Batman villains. It certainly helps a lot that he isn't as played out or overused as some of his top-tier enemies.

Batman #475 & Detective Comics #642. My first exposure to Scarface.

Scarface first appeared in Detective Comics #583 from February 1988 although I think it's his second appearance that was one of my first Batman comics. But I don't think I was immediately a fan. It probably weirded me out a bit. I mean, it was a dummy with speech impediment in a mobster suit that had all the thugs listening to it's orders, and it kept constantly berating the timid (and seemingly unwilling) ventriloquist that was holding it. I like! Makes for a good villain, if you ask me. Sure, he might not be a threat to Batman but let's be honest here: 90% of Batman villains are no threat to him. He's/They're (aw jeez...) a creepy guy/duo (*sigh*) and a threat in the Gotham crime scene. Scarface is a sadistic maniac. Every time you see him dealing with other gangsters he's always threatening them or killing them and just being an all around 100% crazy creep.

I think the fact that the dummy may have some sort of free will was already hinted at in those early appearances and it made it all the cooler for me. The contrast between Wesker's (the original Ventriloquist) and Scarface's characters was also crucial. For some reason, I don't think the later Scarface stories measured up to his earliest appearances (I liked the Showcase 94 issues that presented his origin, too). Some of it must be the writing, while some if it is definitely the way they are drawn. Look at how Breyfogle used to draw Wesker - that guy looks completely emotionless. He seems more like a dummy than Scarface himself. If you think I'm wrong though and have some Scarface gems to share with me - leave a comment!

A "Dynamic Duo" in their own right.

CORNELIUS STIRK (1988)
Cornelius Stirk is a Batman villain that first showed up in Detective Comics #592 (it's a two-issue story, it continues in #593) in November 1988, so just a couple months after Scarface. The problem with him is that after that run and the initial appearences, his next ones weren't very good. So much like the dummy & ventriloquist combo I just wrote about above. Some people write Stirk off as a Scarecrow rip off, because much like the iconic villain, he's all about the fear. But (and this may cause some outrage among the Batman fans) I actually think he's much more interesting than Scarecrow. What's more creepy? A guy dressed up as a scarecrow who has potions that make you fear stuff or a guy who looks exactly like Jesus or Abe Lincoln, pushing a shopping cart with a dead body in it on an empty Gotham street, late in the night?

Yeah, I love Scarecrow too, but he's so... "themed" (looks like a scarecrow, has fear potions, likes scaring the crap out of people) and specific that it actually doesn't make him very realistically creepy, if that makes sense. And sometimes, in the hands of less skilled writers, villains whose schtick is so damn specific seem to be restricted by it.

Back to our man Cornelius. His thing is that he has this hypnotic type of power that makes anybody who look at him see him as someone they'd have no problem trusting. So he kills a guy while looking like Lincoln or Jesus in his first appearence (and the face Batman makes when he hears somebody identify the suspect as Jesus is priceless). Well, he doesn't kill them immediately. He actually really lures those guys into his crib, terrorizes them there, and when they're as scared as possible he cuts out their hearts and eats them. The sky-high levels of fear that the victim feels before death somehow make their hearts a delicacy, and apparently makes Stirk feel really good!

The many faces of Cornelius Stirk.

Cornelius' other endearing qualities include adressing people as "Sir", loathing violence (or so he's convinced) and hating drugs (that's why he doesn't take his medicine. Say "NO!" to drugs!). You should be sold on this guy already! Seriously, try and track down Detective #592-593. You might really like it!

Who WOULDN'T like this guy, though??

MR. ZSASZ (1992)
Mr. Zsasz (that's how he was first introduced, the "Victor" first name seemed to be added later) is pretty often used in Batman books and most people know him as that guy who kills people and adds a cut on his body for every life he takes. That guy who's covered in cuts from head to toes. But not a lot of Zsasz stories reach the level of greatness that his debut had and it's really quite hard to talk about him not mentioning that story. "The Last Arkham", which ran in "Shadow of the Bat" #1-4 in 1992, is a story that any Batman fan should be familiar with, and one that is often missing on the "Best Batman stories" lists that people make. And that's just plain wrong.

"Last Arkham" is the story that also introduces one other character that has since became a staple in the Bat universe. That's Jeremiah Arkham, the new boss of the crazy house! I'd actually add him to this list but he wasn't really a villain at that point (though his origin story told in the opening pages is quite unsettling and a highlight of "Last Arkham" in its own right). The story opens with all the Arkham crazies being moved to a brand new, state of the art Arkham Asylum that Jeremiah inherited from his late uncle and will be now running. We follow Dr. Arkham as he makes his rounds, checking on each of his patients (Ooh, look at that! A nice Cornelius Stirk cameo! Picture below). I read this when it came out and the way the various criminals are being treated, Jeremiah's methods of "curing" them and the harsh asylum reality shown here made quite an impression on my young mind. Breaking their spirits, force-feeding them medicine and all that. Pretty grim stuff.

Mr. Stirk makes a cameo in Mr. Zsasz's story, Sir.

Back to Zsasz, though! When we first see him, we umm.. DON'T really see him. He's locked in some sort of cage that only lets us see his mouth. We're told he's not really a serial killer, more of a mass murderer, since he has quite a few victims under his belt (probably literally, in his case). He's having a little chit-chat with Jeremiah and he's sort of a Hannibal Lecter type of guy. They're discussing philosophy, talking about madness and Zsasz seems to know more than he has any right to about the things that are happening outside of his cell. He also seems to have quite an influence on Dr. Arkham, already beginning to pull some strings...

This is how we first meet Mr. Zsasz.

The next patient who the good the doctor checks on is... Batman! Dun-dun dun!  Uh-oh!  SPOILER ALERT, I guess. But this story is exactly 20 years old and this is all revealed in it's beginning. Go buy that thing anyway, you really have to. See, Batman is there cause it's obviously a bigger scheme of his and nobody other than Gordon and one other cop know this. There have been murders that fit Mr. Zsasz M.O. but Zsasz is locked tight in the new supersafe Arkham! What the heck is going on here? This is what the story is about. And this is the portrayal of Zsasz that remains his best to date. His intelligence is really apparent here, and it really wasn't that apparent in most of the later stories. He's pulling all the strings. Batman has to go through all that stuff that's really hard to bare because he has no idea how Zsasz could both be commiting the crimes outside and being watched 24/7 in the new asylum. And at the same time Zsasz is having those chats with Arkham, manipulating him into making Batman's life there even worse and making sure he stays at the asylum he put himself in. That's quite impressive. And when we finally DO see Zsasz, not just his mouth through a tiny window, well... it's quite the introduction, really.

Click to view the two pages in a bigger version. Admire the work of Breyfogle and Grant and the carefully placed Zsasz word balloon.

IN CONCLUSION...
Well, what you should do now (especially if you're a big Batman fan) is go and buy the comics listed here. Especially "Last Arkham" if you don't own it already, sitting at the shelf along with all the best Batman stories. The  Grant and Breyfogle duo had some really fantastic  Batman stories  so go  and  eBay  them, or check your local comicbook store's back issue bins.

What  DC should  do now is  to bring  back both  Breyfogle and Grant. Give them a mini to make, at  least. A few minis, even. They created together some of the most interesting Batman villains and made them work the way few other writers could after them. And that's pretty much all I had to say in this article. What are you still doing here? Go and buy them!

Related articles that you might enjoy:
Trash Mutant Interviews (TMI): Norm Breyfogle
Trash Mutant Interviews (TMI): Alan Grant

Tagged: comics.

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