The Riddler/Edward Nygma Appreciation

[The Riddle Factory]

Edward Nygma/The Riddler

This is an appreciation thread to (in my eyes) the greatest villain in any media.

The Prince of Puzzles | Edward Nashton | The Crown Prince of Conundrums | Wizard of Quiz | The Puzzle King | Conundrum Champion

First appearing in Detective Comics #140 way back in 1948 with the story ‘The Riddler’ and going on to appear in many stories like ‘The Long Halloween’, ‘Dark Victory’, ‘The Riddle Factory’, ‘No Man’s Land’, ‘Hush’ and even in the Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo current run with ‘Zero Year’

A lot of people have the live version Frank Gorshin as their favourite after seeing him in the Batman 1966 show and movie but he has also been played by Jim Carrey in the under rated ‘Batman Forever’ and is set to be played by Cory Michael Smith in the upcoming show Gotham.

The Riddler has appeared in many version throughout the DC Animation world from the 1968 ‘Batman/Superman’ Hour to the Hanna-Barbera ‘Challenge of the Super Friends’ and the most famous animation version in Batman: The Animated Series voiced by John Glover to the Robert Englund voiced Riddler we saw in ‘The Batman’.

I love The Riddler, that’s why I run The Riddle Factory fan site (see my signature for link) and love to see images of all version out there as well as hear people’s opinions and love to see weird and wonder things people have found starring or mentioning the main man himself The Riddler.

I am not going to post a list of the greatest Riddler stories as everyone has different tastes but feel free to post your favourites along with any images, news and Riddler goodness you can find.

Hello, Welcome and Enjoy.......

[nepenthes]

Great OP.

My favourite Riddler stories are

Dark Knight, Dark City
Whatever Happened to the Caped Crusader collecting When is a Door
King Tut's Tomb
Detective 845 where him and Batman and Detective Chimp help other other in chat rooms to solve a case without ever realizing each others identities

[The Riddle Factory]

I LOVE ‘When is a Door’ by Neil Gaiman too, especially this page.



It kind of shows a lot of what is great with The Riddler and its one of my favourite comic book pages full stop.

I really like ‘Riddle Me That’ a lot too (just read it last week) where kidnaps an influential Gotham City doctor and its pretty brutal which was a nice surprise.



It’s in Legends of the Dark Knight #185 to #189

[exile001]

I love the Ridller, and always enjoy the three part prestige mini-series Run, Riddler, Run.

[Kingcrimsonprog]

I think the Riddler is the best part of the Arkham games

[officersmile1466]

I think the Arkham games really got the Riddler as a character. If you look at the game in chronological order, you see a really fascinating story of Edward turning into the Riddler and grdually becoming a psycopath.

In Origins, it's said that he works at the GCPD as an IT man. His actions in this game indicate someone with a complex intelligence but a strong determination to right what he sees as the wrongs in Gotham. To that end he steals a heap of incriminating data and threatens to make it all public on christmas day. To seemingly mock his pursuers, he hides it all in complex puzzles in order to make his point that he's much smarter than they are. But while he claims to have noble intentions, he'd unleash total chaos on the city if this data got out. He quickly meets an intellectual match in the young Batman. As Batman gradually unravels Edward's puzzles he finally raids the secret hideout only to find it empty. But exploring the hideout reveals that Edward has shifted focus from righting anything and now is obsessed with the idea of a masked man who's smarter than him.

In between games, I like to imagine that Edward adopted the Riddler persona in order to attract Batman's attention. After all, another masked man is a lot better for catching the attention of a guy who punches clowns on a regular basis. Arkham Asylum interview tapes reveal that he's still incredibly intelligent but is now so obsessed with the idea that he's not the smartest man in the world that he seems to be falling apart mentally. During the events of Arkham Asylum, Riddler claims to placed bombs around the city but I think this is just a ploy to get Batman's attention. Probably to Riddler's huge annoyance, Batman doesn't even bother to leave Arkham island to deal with Riddler and instead lets him ramble so much that he can effortlessly place a trace on his location and then mail it to the police to take him out.

The fact that Riddler is no longer worthy of Batman's physical attention seems to be the final trigger to send the once well meaning but always intelligent Riddler into total insanity. To that end he decides that he'll use Arkham City as a ground to engage Batman in a battle of mental strength that will strike Batman at his very core. Having learned that vague threats and annoying him on his comm link aren't enough, Riddler takes a group of well meaning medical and police professionals hostage in elaborate death traps. Throughout this, I don't believe for one second Riddler wants anyone to die. Rather, I believe he simply doesn't care. If he has to take people hostage in order to get Batman's full attention and if killing them in puzzle death traps will destroy Batman forever and prove himself supreme, then so be it.

So I love the Arkham games portrayal of Riddler because I love the idea that everything Riddler does is to prove himself the smartest guy alive. So if people have to get hurt or even die, then so be it.

I don't care for the Riddler in zero year at this point (even though having Riddler in a big role like this is always good). Mostly because the idea of Edward suddenly becoming Riddler for very little reason and the idea of him having the ability to instantly shut off the city's power and turn it into The Last of Us within mere months just seems too much for him. I mean sure, the fact he'll let them go if they're smarter than him is cool, but I don't put the Riddler in insane over the top super villain territory, particularly not so early in his career.

[Professor Moriarty]

I always loved The Riddler.

[EdwardNigma]

I love how he is treated in the Arkham games. The Riddler is all about ego and his progression in the games makes complete sense.

[TomServofan]

Ah yes, one of my favorite villains ever since i saw him in the 60's show and comics growing up.

What do you all think of Frank Gorshwin, John Astin, Jim Carrey, John Glover and Robert Englund?

[ImprobableQuestion]

Loving the Riddler in Zero Year. The Animated Series made him an all time favorite of mine.

I hope this last Arkham game brings him even further into the forefront. Maybe we'll see him in person more.

[ImprobableQuestion]

Ah yes, one of my favorite villains ever since i saw him in the 60's show and comics growing up.

What do you all think of Frank Gorshwin, Sean Astin, Jim Carrey, John Glover and Robert Englund?

FG: Love him for creating the suit-and-bowler-hat look
SA: I think you mean John Astin? I haven't seen any of his episodes
JC: He's fine. I stand up for Batman Forever more than some. I have to find out one day if he ever did color guard in school, or if he learned how to twirl like a boss just for that movie
JG: My absolute favorite
RE: Never saw The Batman

[Nlindsay]

I dig the Animated Series version quite a lot. It was his level in the old SNES video game that really did it for me - you actually had to solve three riddles to proceed through the minotaur's labyrinth. So cool!


officersmile1466, you've done a super nice job with the character analysis of the Arkham game version of the character, but I just hate how time-consuming his darn puzzles are...too finicky for old-man-me.

Some crazy-committed Riddler fan should build a list of all of the silly "when is a _______ not a ________?" riddles, along with some of his other more formulaic queries...it'd make a great read. The Riddle Factory, I'm looking at you!

[Nygma]

Animated Series Riddler is for me the epitome of what 'version' of Riddler I think of when I think of Nygma, followed closely by the Arkham games Riddler. Curious to see where Rocksteady are going with him in Knight, given he seems to be involved predominantly with the Batmobile and is something of a mechanic?

[The Riddle Factory]

I think the Arkham games really got the Riddler as a character. If you look at the game in chronological order, you see a really fascinating story of Edward turning into the Riddler and grdually becoming a psycopath.

In Origins, it's said that he works at the GCPD as an IT man. His actions in this game indicate someone with a complex intelligence but a strong determination to right what he sees as the wrongs in Gotham. To that end he steals a heap of incriminating data and threatens to make it all public on christmas day. To seemingly mock his pursuers, he hides it all in complex puzzles in order to make his point that he's much smarter than they are. But while he claims to have noble intentions, he'd unleash total chaos on the city if this data got out. He quickly meets an intellectual match in the young Batman. As Batman gradually unravels Edward's puzzles he finally raids the secret hideout only to find it empty. But exploring the hideout reveals that Edward has shifted focus from righting anything and now is obsessed with the idea of a masked man who's smarter than him.

In between games, I like to imagine that Edward adopted the Riddler persona in order to attract Batman's attention. After all, another masked man is a lot better for catching the attention of a guy who punches clowns on a regular basis. Arkham Asylum interview tapes reveal that he's still incredibly intelligent but is now so obsessed with the idea that he's not the smartest man in the world that he seems to be falling apart mentally. During the events of Arkham Asylum, Riddler claims to placed bombs around the city but I think this is just a ploy to get Batman's attention. Probably to Riddler's huge annoyance, Batman doesn't even bother to leave Arkham island to deal with Riddler and instead lets him ramble so much that he can effortlessly place a trace on his location and then mail it to the police to take him out.

The fact that Riddler is no longer worthy of Batman's physical attention seems to be the final trigger to send the once well meaning but always intelligent Riddler into total insanity. To that end he decides that he'll use Arkham City as a ground to engage Batman in a battle of mental strength that will strike Batman at his very core. Having learned that vague threats and annoying him on his comm link aren't enough, Riddler takes a group of well meaning medical and police professionals hostage in elaborate death traps. Throughout this, I don't believe for one second Riddler wants anyone to die. Rather, I believe he simply doesn't care. If he has to take people hostage in order to get Batman's full attention and if killing them in puzzle death traps will destroy Batman forever and prove himself supreme, then so be it.

So I love the Arkham games portrayal of Riddler because I love the idea that everything Riddler does is to prove himself the smartest guy alive. So if people have to get hurt or even die, then so be it.

I don't care for the Riddler in zero year at this point (even though having Riddler in a big role like this is always good). Mostly because the idea of Edward suddenly becoming Riddler for very little reason and the idea of him having the ability to instantly shut off the city's power and turn it into The Last of Us within mere months just seems too much for him. I mean sure, the fact he'll let them go if they're smarter than him is cool, but I don't put the Riddler in insane over the top super villain territory, particularly not so early in his career.

i have never played the games but this post makes me want to go get them all

[KurtW95]

John Glover and Wally Wingert are the best voices of the Riddler. And Frank Gorshin's Riddler is legendary and iconic, even though his characterization may not be my default version of the character.