[Meeting…] Hugo Strange

Arkham Assylum is where Gotham's criminally insane people end up when Batman crosses paths with them. Popular murderers such as Two-Face, Joker or Harley Quinn and more forgotten ones such as Calendar Man, Dr. Phosphorus or Professor Hugo Strange, to whom I dedicate today's section, have remained within its walls.

The name Hugo Strange may not sound too familiar to many of you, and others may know who he is thanks to the video game. arkham city, where he has an important role in the plot.
However, Strange's merits go beyond that video game, as he is one of the first villains who faced Batman and when I say Batman I mean the original Batman, who did not hesitate to use his weapon or any method to eliminate his enemies.

The first survivor of the bat's wrath 

And the main problem that Bob Kane and Bill Finger encountered is that Batman was lethal to any villain, which is why Doctor Doom and the Monk (Batman's first enemies) had ended up dead and could not be used in more stories, with Hugo Strange being the only one of the initial enemies who had survived the bat.

However, the decision not to kill enemies at the first opportunity was maintained for Batman's own collection, where well-known characters such as Catwoman or the Joker made their debut, which made Hugo Strange go from being the exception to becoming the norm, and in the process remained in the shadows for a long time, competing with characters who had become much more popular than him.

Fortunately, superhero comics tend to be cyclical and in the 70s this crazy professor returned, in which he has tried to maintain himself, by appearing in the Batman collections on a more or less regular basis, and it cannot be denied that the competition is very great in terms of crazy guys that roam around Gotham, and that the public has a predilection for the characters they already know.

What does Hugo Strange do?

Hugo Strange is a fairly intelligent guy, but at the same time he is still as crazy as any of Batman's rivals, which makes his different plans completely contrast with each other, showing his enormous inventiveness and at the same time his profound dementia.

His first plan was to create a machine that would create a dense fog and avoid being captured by the police after committing his crimes. It sounds stupid, but it is quite logical (for a superhero comic from the 40s). Unfortunately, an FBI agent who had been injured by Strange tipped off Batman, who was responsible for putting the professor behind bars for the first time.

Strange also likes to dedicate his ingenuity to the typical experiments of a mad scientist, which is why one of his most famous creations is a serum that, when injected into the “volunteer”, turns him into a kind of monstrous man with enormous strength.

Years later, upon his return to the comics, Strange decided to apply his ingenuity to stealing identities (and wealth) by impersonating famous and millionaire people, and at the moment he decided to steal Bruce Wayne's He ended up discovering that he was actually Batman., which was a tactical advantage for Strange, and at the same time defined his role in future appearances.

And as the years, the scriptwriters and the stories went by, Hugo Strange was defined as a psychiatrist with mad scientist skills who had become obsessed with Batman, which is why he decided that he himself must be batman, coming to fulfill this fanciful dream on more than one occasion, much to the chagrin of the real one.

Like many other enemies of the Bat, Strange appeared in the animated series of the 90s, which was his first approach to the general public, since unfortunately he was not included in any of the live-action Batman films that were filmed during those years, so he had to wait for the recent video games to become globally known among the thousands of people who have never read a Batman comic.

Conclusion and Recommendations

Despite being a very particular character, with some psychotic facets that can give rise to great stories and full of curious and very original resources (such as the fact of having simulated his death on more than one occasion to be able to take advantage of the surprise factor, avoid problems or torment people with "his ghost"), Strange remains a secondary enemy of the bat. Perhaps his appearance as a villain in the aforementioned video game arkham city and his confirmed appearance in the television series 'Gotham that is currently broadcast, leads DC Comics to consider giving it a little more prominence in the future.

Anyone who wants to see Strange doing his thing can try searching through the regular Batman collections or reading one of these comics:

Batman: Dark Moon Rising (2006)

Update of two old Batman stories, where we will see the Monk and Hugo Strange as main villains.

Batman Legends Prey (1990)

Hugo Strange is the main villain in these story arcs, where the character is redefined and his obsession with being Batman is explained.