Greetings comic lovers and welcome back to casually comics the channel where we chat
all things comics from reviews of comics new and old to history to anecdotes to really
wherever our whims take us. And today we need to meet more people we’re not getting out
enough we need more classic tales. And today we’re going to look at the riddler what
no riddle for us to guess nothing clever, nope and well when it comes to the riddler
sadly a lot of the times that’s par for the course. The prince of puzzles, yes that’s
one of his titles and yes you need to know that lives or dies based on the talent of
the those writing him, Cause if you just rely on the whole riddle me this well it can go
downhill real fast. The medias been making a big riddler push at the time of this recording
I don’t know why maybe he bought some ad spaced but either way let’s take a look
at his first appearance and see how different or the same he is.
But first if you can’t be bothered with riddles then hit that like button.
The riddler first appears in detective comics 140 in 1948 so one of the later additions
but also unique for being introduced post golden age pre silver age and still sticking
around.
The Cover is really basic and not the riddler's finest hour but you get it they’re trapped
in a puzzle and the riddler thinks that’s hilarious also the text is working alliteration
overtime. Partners in peril the prince of puzzles ha can you imagine if they’d kept
it going the puzzler. He just commits really perplexing crimes, why would anybody steal
all these croptops the fiend.
So since this is the riddler’s first apperance we get a complete backstory and motivation.
His name is still E. Nigma at this point literally edward nigma later it’ll be nashton and
nigma will be a name he took up to make himself sound more interesting.
He’s given a disassembled jigsaw puzzle alongside the rest of his class whoever solves
it first wins and he decides his name is e nigma he has to solve it but to make sure
he does for sure he cheats.
My biggest takeaway from all of this though he is he has a man’s head his adult head
is on his kid body and it’s tripping me out. So Edward goes on to master puzzles but
he always cheats to make sure he wins. Even though lots of the times he could genuinely
solve the puzzles without it. But that last part isn’t stressed.
He somehow becomes decently rich based on his apartment and I’m assuming custom question
mark painting look at it I want one this is off of running some crooked carnival attractions...K
But he gets bored tricking carnival goers and decides he’s clever enough to take on
the cops and batman I\ll make each crime a duel of wits between myself and the law, and
fix the puzzles so I’ll always win But first i’ll need an appropriate costume. Yes indeed
priorities I’m not kidding can you imagine being an amazing villain and then just showing
up like this in your everyday clothes. No you’re not embracing the lifestyle without
a proper costume. So he picks a green leotard with question
marks all over it and completes the look with a belt. It’s a look I’ll say that about
it.
His first crime is stealing a company's crossword puzzle billboard to leave his own riddle well
really it’s a crossword but Batman and robin are still game I mean its not like someone
was murdered that they wait at least 2 nights for.
So we’re treated to the bane of all riddler comcis watching other people try to solve
riddles thankfully they figure it out pretty fast banquet and basin so they’re all the
mayor's banquet on basin street of course, but when they get there no crime instead they
learn that the riddler is really the prince of puns it was banquet but pronounced bank
wet he flooded the bank a few doors down to rob it. And he’s robbing it it a deep sea
diver get up And batman is all we’ve underestimated him, and I’m like really cause that was
a bad pun even in 1948 that had to be a bad pun.
Also the riddler had traded his apartment for a crossword puzzle themed lair...downgrade
i miss the question mark painting. The next day the riddler sends some trucks with giant
puzzle pieces over to the police station for batman to solve ah the golden age where a
vigilante could just hang out at the police station in broad daylight with their underage
sidekick. The glory days.
So they actually assemble this giant puzzle and believe it’s sending them to a nightclub
on top of a sky scraper. But Batmans been tricked once before so he sends robin to the
nightclub and he goes to the eagles nest the nickname for this local millionaires home
cause the puzzle was an eagle in a nest which by the way still not a riddle just saying
it’s not too late to be the puzzler. And so the riddler and batman meet for the first
time. And riddler has a hostage who he’s locked in a giant puzzle in such a way that
he’s slowly suffocating so batman can either save him or stop the riddler Of course batman
saves the guy mr eagle I’m not joking that's his name.
The next riddle the riddler sends to batman on a giant corn on the cob statue that he
sends hurtling through town Dear Batman Here’s a corny riddle to tip you off to my next job
Why is Corn Hard To Escape From The Riddler. Oh be still my heart an actual riddle and
it only took him 2 crimes to get there. Also fun fact the answer to this turns out to be
a maze which is actually referenced and paid homage to in the riddler’s first appearance
in Batman animated series in the episode if you’re so smart why aren’t you rich? Which
is just a great episode additional fun fact the voice of the riddler in that series John
Glover played Lex’s dad lionel luthor in smallville. And Thadeus Silva’s dad in Shazam
he’s got dad vibes i guess.
Anyway glass maze showdown on the pier go. The riddler is trying to trap the dynamic
duo in a glass maze he designed to be inescapable but he wasn’t prepared for batman to just
light the carpet on fire so the metal would expand and he could koolaid man his way out.
No one expects that I imagine. And he gets out just in time before a bomb goes off in
the maze the riddler plunges off the pier and only a question mark floats to the surface
with batman saying that only time will solve the riddle of whether he drowned or not, what
an experience.
So that was a thing it was to borrow a word from this comic pretty corny but there are
some kernels there ha maybe I am the the true prince of puns. I’m the real puzzler! The
idea of a villain matching wits with batman is cool as is the idea of a villain hiding
clues inside their crimes but a lot of this is going to be tweaked and change over time.
The arrogance is always going to be there though as is the need to be the smartest guy
in the room. But the motivation will shift back and forth from him nit cheating in that
school contest only to be beaten by his father as a result so he convinces himself he cheated
but knows he didn’t which manifests as a need to prove that he really did do the things
he’s done hence the riddles so no one else can get credit to he did cheat and he just
can’t help it, it’s all a compulsion the riddle the crimes. He’s going to get more
complex but he’ll always throw tantrums.
He’s always going to struggle with being viewed as cool though and t’s always like
an uphill ok hear me out the riddler even though he is genuinely smart and a threat
but people argue is he a list c list my answer is both is good but that’s a topic for another
video. The biggest riddler struggle is already evident even here. The riddlers. 2 of these
weren’t even riddles they were either puzzles or clues and the one that was there well it’s
hard to make a riddle come off as menacing so you need a strong story around it but when
you do you can get the riddler into mastermind mode and it can be a really cool story.
I’m glad he stuck around I actually really like the riddler I always have but I have
also never thought that he was cool and been ok with that I didn’t need whatever animated
adaptation hush was trying to do. Not everyone has to be cool some people can have corn puns.
Are you a riddler fan or can he take his riddles and b u t t out. Share your thoughts down
below alonside who we should meet next. I’m Sasha and thanks so much for watching casually
comics don’t forget to do all the youtube things like share comment subscribe and stay
tuned for more videos coming soon. Bye