30 Day Comic Book Challenge: Day 04 - Your guilty pleasure comic or character.

The Riddler!

Yeah, you heard me, The Riddler! I've always loved brain-teasers and I've always loved puns...so do the math!

Though I was never really fond of Frank Gorshin's ridiculousness from the camp tv show and I absolutely hated Jim Carrey's version, I've always loved stories featuring this OCD clue-leaver. He was a nice change every now and again when I grew tired of Batman punching his way out of his problems. Batman would always have to slow down and think while the Riddler was off committing his crimes having created a clever diversion.

He spent years in obsurity in the late 80's and 90's, writers just didn't know what to do with him as comics turned darker. In one famous story, "Dark Knight, Dark City", he is possessed by a demon and carries out his riddles as a gauntlet for Batman to run to unknowingly carry out ritualistic activities to release the demon from imprisonment. The story had a big impact, though he spent most of the time bloodthirsty and out of character somewhat, people liked him better this way and wonder if he hasn't been possessed all along since.

Riddler also discovered Batman's secret identity a few years ago and used it against him to enable a new villain, "Hush" (Bruce's childhood friend/rival), to spend a year messing with his mind and beating the crap out of him. The year-long storyline was a bit much, Batman running through every well known villain in his books just so Jim Lee could draw them and they could make action figures out of it. At the end of it all, Batman and Riddler have a chat and Bats basically lets him off the hook, knowing he won't tell anyone his identity because it's no fun TELLING people the answer to one of the world's greatest riddles. Riddler gives a "D'oh, he's got me there" face and that was the end of it until, surprise surprise, Riddler got amnesia in a later storyline.

One of my favourite little stories was from the comic version of the animated series where The Riddler decided to go straight (for the billionth time) and was trying to help Batman solve some crimes. However, it turned out that Riddler himself was committing the crimes and leaving clues at every incident...UNKNOWINGLY! Turns out he's a pathological clue-leaver whether he's trying to or not. I guess Twitter would be his worst enemy, "Who's going to the latex store to commit a "rubbery"? Me! Hee Hee Hee!".

- Jeff