Which Batman villains deserve to get a push or a chance as the Big Bad?

[Chazro]

In this day of 'American Sniper' reality, where shots are made from a mile away, I say Deadshot should be one of the most feared villains of them all. Think about it, everyone knows about the bat-signal, how easy would it be for Deadshot to set up a mile away and wait for Batman to answer the signal. Of course, he'd have to place the shot on the only exposed area, under the nose and above the chin, but hey, he's Deadshot! As exposed as Damien and Nightwing are, they should just be target practice! Of course, a story like this would never happen, Batman might be able to recover from Darkseid's Omega beams but in this scenario, Deadshot's deadlier than Darkseid!

[MajorHoy]

But to make him a real threat, he can also experiments with drones!

I suggested this back in early 2015.
Who knew what King would do with him in the Rebirth era?

[bat39]

Hugo Strange has sporadically got a push here and there since Englehart brought him back in the 70's, but I really think he has Big Bad potential...so much so that ideally, I'd love to see him featured in one of the films.

[Mistah K88]

Crazy Quilt could definitely be a villain who has it out personally for Dick. No matter if he's Robin, Nightwing, or even the Bat himself, Crazy Quilt HATES the original Robin, couldn't care less about Bruce's Batman.

[byrd156]

Crazy Quilt could definitely be a villain who has it out personally for Dick. No matter if he's Robin, Nightwing, or even the Bat himself, Crazy Quilt HATES the original Robin, couldn't care less about Bruce's Batman.

Quilt really should be in Dick's gallery of villains.

[MajorHoy]

They could always bring back Ramon Bracuda.

[godisawesome]

Hugo Strange has sporadically got a push here and there since Englehart brought him back in the 70's, but I really think he has Big Bad potential...so much so that ideally, I'd love to see him featured in one of the films.

Strange is the "Always a Bridesmaid" of Big Bads in Batman, with everyone seeming to think he *can* be a major lead villain, but rarely executing him as such.

I've recently started thinking a cool idea would be to have him be Arkham's warden early on in Batman's career, and exacerbate/create a bunch of Batman's rogues gallery out of his obsession with trying to one-up Batman, maybe uncovering who Batman is, locking Bruce up in Arkham, and forcing Bruce to team up with some villains to escape and take Strange down.

Another character? How about Rubert Thorne, as a major political and criminal enemy? Maybe he's Penguin's partner in the government.

[MajorHoy]

Strange is the "Always a Bridesmaid" of Big Bads in Batman, with everyone seeming to think he *can* be a major lead villain, but rarely executing him as such.

I've recently started thinking a cool idea would be to have him be Arkham's warden early on in Batman's career . . .

Instead of the warden/administrator, I think Strange would be better off as just the head of its mental health unit (and not have to worry about the other tedious day-to-day matters a warden would be responsible for).

[Mistah K88]

It's funny, more modern adaptions put Strange as one of the heads of Arkham. We all know about Arkham City where he was PRESENTED as the Big Bad but...yeah, as godisawesome said "Always a bridesmaid". In the cartoon "The Batman" he was head chief of psychiatry at Arkham, etc. Maybe establish him as the reason why the Arkham Asylum villains escape so much as he's trying to observe the Batman and all that jazz. The real funny thing about Hugo is that he was the one of the first recurring baddies that Batman faced, so maybe he was MEANT to be a big bad, but just fell off of the map.

[godisawesome]

It's funny, more modern adaptions put Strange as one of the heads of Arkham. We all know about Arkham City where he was PRESENTED as the Big Bad but...yeah, as godisawesome said "Always a bridesmaid". In the cartoon "The Batman" he was head chief of psychiatry at Arkham, etc. Maybe establish him as the reason why the Arkham Asylum villains escape so much as he's trying to observe the Batman and all that jazz. The real funny thing about Hugo is that he was the one of the first recurring baddies that Batman faced, so maybe he was MEANT to be a big bad, but just fell off of the map.

I think Strange's name and look make him a perfect Pulp Villain, the kind of antagonist that Fu Manchu, Johnny Sunlight, or Shiwan Khan are.

His problem is that the rest of the Rogues Gallery are bona-fide SuperVillains, and in fact helped codify what makes that archetype different from the Pulp Villain. They've got more iconic looks, themes, and abilities, while he's a fairly mundane if exceptionally good mad scientist character. He kind of needs good overall plots to really work, since he doesn't have the immediate pizazz of the Riddler, Joker, or Scarecrow; even Ra's is the evolution of the Pulp Villain into a Bond Villain and comes with a more clear "costume" thanks to his cape. Engleheart and Wagner had a handle on how to make the character work, but there seems to be less interest from other creators.

[BruceWayneJr.]

Dan Slott gave us the origin of Great White in his Arkham Asylum: Living Hell mini. James Robinson made the character a behind the scenes kingpin in his Face the Face "One Year Later" arc. Morrison followed Robinson, and started his run by having Batman basically wipe out crime.

I want to see the period where Great White was in charge (and where Harvey Dent was operating as Batman's fill-in).