Batman vs. Mr. Zsasz by Norm Breyfogle

--Denny O'Neil, Barry Kitson, & James Pascoe

--Rafael Albuquerque

The lost year of Harvey Dent: Gotham's forgotten hero.

This was meant to be the cover for Batman: Gotham Knights#12, which was intended to be part of the This Issue: Batman Dies! semi-event, which featured Batman getting killed in each issue. Obviously this story, written by B:GK scribe Devin Grayson, would have been focused on Mr. Zsasz. It was solicited and everything, complete with a preview image of the above cover art fully colorized.

But the issue was never released. With no announcement, the Zsasz issue was scrapped and this Oracle-based fill-in issue by Jen Van Meter was released instead. Why was the Zsasz issue scrapped at the last minute? What happened? Does anyone have any info?

What's more, I have to wonder... what was the actual Zsasz story going to be like? Was it just too graphically violent for DC at the time? If so, then HAHAHA, that's damn funny considering what a bloodbath the company has turned into since War Games/Infinite Crisis onward.

In the wake of an asylum riot and blackout caused by an inmate named Kryppen, Dr. Jeremiah Arkham fantasizes about exacting certain extreme "treatments" on a few of the rogues.

Original artwork by Rick Burchett and Brian Stelfreeze, text by Alan Grant. From Underworld Unleashed: Batman-Devil's Asylum (1995). Would that I had larger scans in color!

Mr. Zsasz's co-creator Norm Breyfogle drew this reinterpretation of the character wherein he seems to be played by Jesse Pinkman with Judge Doom's hair for some reason. Still love the eyes, though. Zsasz just isn't Zsasz without the black pinhole eyes of death.

Batman villains by Chris Samnee. More here!

--Graham Nolan's original Zsasz artwork from the Knightfall section of the best Batman trading card series ever, Saga of the Dark Knight.

THE PENGUIN, KILLER CROC, MAD HATTER, VENTRILOQUIST and SCARFACE in "Lucky Break"

A poker game at Arkham Asylum leads to a bad night for the Batman!

By Ben Raab and Sal Buscema, from Batman 80-Page Giant #2 (1999)

"The First Cut is the Deepest: the Secret Origin of Mr. Zsasz."

Written by Alan Grant, art by Jennifer Graves and Wayne Faucher, from Batman Chronicles #3 (1996)

Mr. Zsasz by Matt Wagner.

My Thoughts on how ARKHAM CITY handled the rogues

I was asked by "Anonymous" what I thought of the other Batman villains in Arkham City, and I attempted to post my answers with a cut tag for spoilers. After screwing that up, I deleted the entry, and along with it, the original question by "Anonymous." So until someone can tell me how best to do a cut tag, here are my spoiler-free thoughts on how the Batman villains were handled in Arkham City:

Overall, I liked them way more than the villains in Arkham Asylum, who seemed to be cartoonishly-"dark" horror versions of the comics characters. In B:AC, they were much truer to the comics, although not always in good ways.

JOKER: Loved it. The Joker's physical condition gave a wonderful restraint for Hamill to work with and around, which I think he really needed.

HARLEY: Ugh, hated her so... so... much. I like Tara Strong, but dear god, not here. Whereas Arleen Sorkin would have likely played Harley as pouty and over-the-top in her grief ala the ending to The Laughing Fish, Strong sounded like a whiiiiiiiny version of Toot from Drawn Together. In terms of being grating, she was just a level or two belong Nancy Spungen from Sid and Nancy to me. Ughhh. There wasn't a single damn thing I could like about her here. She was every bit as annoying, humorless, and joyless as the current abomination in Suicide Squad. Not enough blah in the world.

RIDDLER: I really like the character's writing and design, and thought they made him adequately threatening in a way that didn't push the character too far into Saw or Se7en territory, as some writers seem hellbent on trying to do because they're idiots who don't like fun. That said, his voice wasn't smug nor charismatic enough, and the choppy Max Headroom style delivery of his transmissions only made me long for one of my dream Eddie castings: Matt Frewer.

MISTER FREEZE: The best goddamn version of the character we've seen in over fifteen goddamn years. Holy shit, but I loved Victor here. While the character was reinvented brilliantly for the DCAU, comics writers (including Dini himself!) seemed determined to continue writing Victor as a one-note sadistic maniac, and even when Nora was brought up, it only was used to make things even worse. Not here: they handled the beautiful tragedy of Mr. Freeze beautifully, especially through Maurice LaMarche's voice acting, which captured both the pained humanity of Victor Fries and the cold robotic inhumanity of Mr. Freeze. My only complaint was the forced fight scene which made no sense, because Victor should have known that Batman would totally have done anything to save Nora anyway, and that it was in Victor's best interests to give him the cure. Chalk it up to Victor's villainous inability to understand heroism, I guess. 

TWO-FACE: How's the old joke go? "The food here is terrible!" "Yes, and such small portions!" Yeah, bad enough that Harvey was barely in the game, but when he was, he was Doug Moench's Two-Face all the way: a humorless and fanatical maniac who rants about fate and "THE DEATH PENALTY!!1!" who you just wanna punch in the face to make him shut the hell up. Oddly, the Two-Face of the Arkham City digital exclusive tie-in comics is much better, and has far more personality. In the game, he's a brutal thug with no dimension, and what Catwoman does to him is... ugh, no. He deserves better, and I hate that some fans think that this is how Harvey has ALWAYS been, that he's just a small fry villain who doesn't deserve better exposure.

MAD HATTER: The brilliant Peter MacNicol is casting genius for Jervis, but the character was barely used to make an impression one way or another. Chalk it up to "Let's see more next time." I don't like the facial design nor do I love the costume, but I really appreciate how he looked utterly unique and distinct, thus setting him apart from just being a walking caricature based on Tenniel's drawings. Jervis should be his own character, just as he was on TAS. I want more.

ZSASZ, CALENDAR MAN, DEADSHOT, POISON IVY: I haven't seen their levels yet, so I can't comment either way.

HUGO STRANGE: ...Sighhhh. You broke my heart, Arkham City. You won me over, and then, you broke my heart. Hugo is probably my second-favorite villain, and if you're wondering why, then I beg you to please check out my posts examining the character's history in comics. He's a magnificent villain, but one who's rarely used. Based on the game trailers and the character's appearance in the Arkham City prequel comic, I was convinced that Dini has nailed a goddamn amazing take on Hugo. He was brilliant, calculating, and dangeously insane, a master planner and manipulator capable of screwing with Bruce Wayne in ways that no other villain could do, or would even be willing to do. Instead, Hugo vanished for the majority of the game, and when he finally came back, he... he...

... well, that's where spoilers come in. How does one do a cut?

Hey, hey, remember that time that Tim Sale drew a story where the Arkham Asylum inmates played softball versus the inmates of Blackgate Prison? Because that totally happened, and you can read it here.

The Arkham Inmates by Mike Mingola, cover for Showcase '94, #3.

The story itself is drawn by Tim Sale, and features the Arkham inmates versus the inmates of Blackgate Prison... in baseball. I seriously need to post about that story and scans over at my fanblog sometime. Keep an eye out for it there in the near future.