Originally Posted by
Jim Kelly
Mr. Element was Dr. Alchemy. That was the point--it was a neat trick with the character's pathology. It would be like if Green Goblin adopted another identity.
I think the reason that super-heroes with long histories attract a large rogues gallery is that they go through different waves of popularity. For example, Batman's traditional villains were mostly retired when the Comic Code came in (the Joker being the only one that survived) and a bunch of new knaves were introduced. Then when Julius Schwartz took over he retired those post-Code crooks and introduced a bunch of New Look ones, as well as slowly bringing back the traditional villains. Then after Batmania, most of the New Look baddies and most of the traditional villains were sidelined, so Frank Robbins and Denny O'Neil introduced a bunch of even newer foes. So you have these different waves of Bat-villains and by the late 1970s, editors recycled through these different felon franchises, bringing back from obscurity characters like Clayface, Catman, Hugo Strange even Mr. Freeze. And so it goes.