Mad Hatter (DC)
The Mad Hatter is a male comic supervillain who features in DC Comics.
Contents |
Biography
Origin
Jervis Tetch
He began his criminal career in Gotham City by stealing from the Yacht Club. During his first crime, he was confronted by the vigilante Batman where he managed to escape from the Caped Crusader. (Batman v1 #49)
After his defeat, Tetch came to be committed to a sanitarium for several years. Sometime later, an imposter emerged who took the mantle of the 'Mad Hatter' and began to operate as him. (Detective Comics v1 #510)
A month ago, the real Tetch managed to escape where he came to 'dispose' of the Mad Hatter imposter. He then resumed his old criminal career where he kidnapped Lucius Fox and demanded a two million dollars ransom from Bruce Wayne. Part of this plot involved wiping Fox's memories with a machine he had created but this plan was stopped by Batman. (Detective Comics v1 #510)
Post-Crisis
Following the Crisis on Infinite Earths, a new version of reality was created with a different history of events. Jervis Tetch was a male human born in the modern age as the son of Barbara Tetch and Paul Tetch where he had a brother named Ben Tetch along with a sister named Susan Tetch. (Batman and Robin v1 #21)
As he grew in notoriety, his family ended up changing their surname to Randall to distance themselves from the Tetch name. (Batman and Robin v1 #21)
Later on, Bane was noted to had struck at Arkham Asylum leading to a number of the in-mates escaping. Among them included the Mad Hatter who used his mind control hats on several of the escapees to help him against Batman. This later resulted in a final battle at the Gotham Park where Batman and Robin managed to capture all the criminals including the Hatter. (Batman v1 #492)
Joker killed a kindergarten class, and the grieving wealthy father of one of the children put a hit out on him. Hitman Tommy Monaghan accepted the contract, and used his superhuman powers to make it past the GCPD and Batman into Arkham. He’d taken out a few other contracts once word got out that he was going to Arkham, and Hitman shot out one of Mad Hatter’s kneecaps. Hatter screamed for a doctor, and Hitman said he had a message from Liiam Dawson, who said next time Hatter bought guns from him he should remember to pay. (Hitman v1 #2)
The Society made plans for a worldwide prison break to free every incarcerated supervillain, and they sent Killer Croc to free Arkham Asylum's inmates. Mad Hatter was one of the released inmates, but most of them were captured and sent back to their cells by a group of superheroes called in by Oracle to deal with the Arkham situation. (Villains United: Infinite Crisis Special v1 #1)
Mad Hatter tried to start his life over, promising to never again drink tea or wear his hypnotic hats. He began scrapbooking and making a book about how he would find his Alice and she would fall in love with him. He found a number of girls that resembled Alice from the Lewis Carrol book, kidnapped them, and tried to keep them by drugging them with tea. Something always went wrong, and he ended up killing them and stuffing them in his closet, but he repressed each one of these incidents. His newest Alice was a woman working as a checkout girl at a grocery store, and when he worked up the courage to approach her he felt betrayed when he learned her name was Cathryn. He broke down, drank his tea, and put on his hat. He blamed her for making him be the Mad Hatter again, so he kidnapped her, dressed her up as Alice and showed her the book he was working on. He told her that she should have been Alice so they could have fallen in love, gotten married and had children, but because she was Cathryn the end of the story involved him killing her with a cleaver. Batman arrived on the scene just in time to save Cathryn, and chased Hatter through his apartment. Hatter unlocked the closet where he kept his other Alices, and had a breakdown. He tried to have one of the dead girls drink tea, and kissed her mouth, at which point he was restrained by7 Batman and taken away by the GCPD. He saw a blonde police officer on the scene and started obsessing over her, determining to give his love story another go when he got the opportunity. (Joker's Asylum II: Mad Hatter v1 #1)
Post-Flashpoint
Following the Flashpoint, a new version of reality was created with a different history of events.
Overview
Personality and attributes
He was noted for being vain and liking his picture being taken. (Batman v1 #49)
It was said that he tried to imitate the likes of the Joker and the Penguin by sending clues in advance. (Batman v1 #49)
According to Dr. Blakloch of Arkham Asylum, Jervis was said to suffer from paranoid schizophrenic who was an obsessive compulsive and highly delusional. They believed that Tetch had an immature self-image that made him identify more with children than adults. Authority figures such as the police were noted to draw suspicion from Tetch with him responding better to people being direct to him. As a defense mechanism, he was known to speak in rhyme and that this was a dangerous time to engage with Jervis. (Gotham Central v1 #20)
His mother was Barbara Tetch and his father was Paul Tetch with him having a brother named Ben Tetch along with a sister named Susan Tetch. Due to his crimes, the family had to change their name where they took the surname of Randall instead to hide their association with Jervis Tetch. (Batman and Robin v1 #21)
Powers and abilities
Tetch was regarded as being a genius. (Gotham Central v1 #20)
It was shown that he had rigged his trick hat to secret chemicals that erupted as a smoke which he could use as a distraction during his capers. (Batman v1 #49)
He came to use weapons such as gas-guns that he hid on his person. (Batman v1 #49)
The Mad Hatter once operated a machine that was able to raid a person's memory. This device worked on a bio-feedback principle but instead of feeding on alpha waves into the brain it instead looked into thoughts and memories. With it, Tetch could go through the knowledge contained in a person's mind for pertinent information and then erase it thus leaving the victim in a mindless state. (Detective Comics v1 #510)
He came to head a team of superpowered criminals called the Wonderland Gang with them including:
- Tweedledum : Dumson Tweed was a bald male twin of Dumfree Tweed where he replaced his sibling after he died. (Detective Comics v1 #841)
- Tweedledee : Deever Tweed was a bald male who had a look-alike cousin. (Detective Comics v1 #841)
- March Harriet : Harriet Pratt was a blonde haired woman who was a small-time grifter and part-time escort. (Detective Comics v1 #841)
- Lion : Lewis Yarnell was career thug that was the newest member of the gang and served as an enforcer. (Detective Comics v1 #841)
- Unicorn : Skitch Benson was a career thug that was the newest member of the gang and served as an enforcer. (Detective Comics v1 #841)
- Walrus : Moe Blum was a ginger haired male who was one of the newest members to join the gang and had been a former bodyguard for Black Mask. (Detective Comics v1 #841)
- Carpenter : Jenna Duffy a pickpocket and con artist who was wanted in Keystone City with her becoming the newest member of the gang. (Detective Comics v1 #841)
- Dormouse : an identity held by a bald black male scientist called Master Wyze who had been a former fellow research partner of Jervis Tetch. When Tetch first began his life as the Mad Hatter, he asked Wyze to be his March Hare but the man rejected and instead took the name Dormouse. The two worked together initially but in time Tetch was declared insane and Wyze decided to reject him to instead form a collective of free thinking people called the Unsanity Collective. (Batman v1 #115)
Notes
- The Mad Hatter was created by Bill Finger and Lew Sayre Schwartz where he made his first appearance in Batman v1 #49 (October, 1948).
Alternate Versions
In other media
Television
- In Batman, the Mad Hatter appeared in the 1960s live-action television series where he was portrayed by actor David Wayne.
- In The Batman/Superman Hour, the Mad Hatter appeared in the 1968 animated television series in the episode "A Mad, Mad Tea Party" where he was voiced by actor Ted Knight.
- In the DC Animated Universe, the Mad Hatter made multiple appearances in the shared continuity setting:
- In Batman: The Animated Series, the Mad Hatter made his first appearance in the animated television series starting in the episode "Mad as a Hatter" where he was voiced by actor Roddy McDowall. Tetch was initially a technical and electronics genius who experiments with animals using mind-controlling microchips stored within hats to stimulate brain waves. He falls in love with his secretary, Alice Pleasance, who does not reciprocate his feelings. Donning the guise of the Mad Hatter and using Alice in Wonderland as inspiration, he attempts to win Alice's affection by taking her out on the town after her boyfriend dumps her. However, she misinterprets the gesture as a way to cheer her up and unwittingly spurns his affections. Driven over the edge, Tetch uses his microchips to turn Alice into his robotic puppet until Batman defeats him. Episode writer Paul Dini once claimed that the episode was inspired by a true story involving a technical designer who had unrequited feelings for someone at work and committed a workplace shooting.[47] In the episode "Perchance to Dream", Tetch uses an electronic helmet to trap Batman in a virtual reality realm that gives him his greatest desires in an attempt to remove the Dark Knight from his life. Once he gets free however, Batman defeats Tetch and leaves him for the police. In the episode "The Worry Men", Tetch creates the eponymous dolls using his chips to hypnotize Gotham's elite into giving him large sums of money so he can acquire an island where he can live in peace. However, Batman stops him and gives Tetch his own "Worry Man" to stop him from committing more crimes. Tetch also makes minor appearances in the episodes "Trial" and "Make 'Em Laugh".
- In Gotham, the Mad Hatter appeared in the setting of the live-action television series where he was portrayed by actor Benedict Samuel. A professional hypnotist, he controlled people's minds via his voice and a 'ticking' device. He was also known for dressing himself, his henchmen, and his victims as characters from Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland as well as creating a virus from his sister Alice's blood that turned people into homicidal maniacs. Tetch joined Jerome Valeska's Legion of Horribles to assist them in spreading chaos throughout Gotham and acquired his 'Mad Hatter' moniker from Oswald Cobblepot. Tetch was later put in charge of Ace Chemicals and brainwashed Jim Gordon and Leslie Thompkins as part of his plan to make Bruce Wayne re-live his parents' death.
- In Young Justice Outsiders, the Mad Hatter appeared in the setting of the animated television series where he was voiced by actor Dwight Schultz. At some point, the Mad Hatter was imprisoned in Arkham Asylum, and later released on parole on the condition that he wasn't allowed to wear hats. Hatter came to work for Branchwater Security's meta-human trafficking operation. He used nano-tech to place captured meta-humans under mind control, forcing them to follow commands given into special control boxes. While he worked in a warehouse in Gotham City, he had a controlled Clayface to impersonate him elsewhere. Hatter applied the nanotech to Shade, and was in the process of testing it when Clayface burst in. Hatter was unhappy to see him until Robin's squad arrived. Hatter ordered Clayface to protect him, while he fled with Shade. Hatter set a self-destruct on his base before having Shade teleport them both away.
- In Batwoman, the Mad Hatter appeared in the setting of the live-action television series set in the Arrowverse in the episode "Mad as a Hatter" where he was portrayed by actor Amitai Marmorstein. Liam Crandle was a mentally ill teenager and a fan of Alice, seeing her as a victim of society. After buying Jervis Tetch's hat online, he held Mary Hamilton's graduation ceremony hostage, only to be foiled by Batwoman, Batwing, and Alice. Crandle was later incarcerated while Tetch's hat was confiscated.
Films
- In Batman: Bad Blood, the Mad Hatter appeared in the animated film where he was voiced by actor Robin Atkin Downes. This version worked for the League of Assassins as one of Talia al Ghul's henchmen and helped turn Heretic into the perfect soldier for the League. After Heretic captures Batman, Tetch reprograms his mind to follow Talia's orders and reveal his and his allies' secrets. Batman helps the League infiltrate the World Tech Summit and take over Wayne Enterprises' technologies, Tetch brainwashes all of the attending politicians and dignitaries into obeying Talia. However, he is killed by a system overload caused in the ensuing battle between Batman's allies and Talia's henchmen.
- In Batman Unlimited: Mechs vs. Mutants, the Mad Hatter made a cameo appearance in the animated film where he was voiced by actor Alastair Duncan.
Video games
- In DC Universe Online, the Mad Hatter appeared in the setting of the MMORPG where he was voiced by actor Aaron Mace.
Appearances
- Batman v1: (1948)
- Detective Comics v1:
- Gotham Central v1:
- Joker's Asylum II: Mad Hatter v1:
- Secret Six v3:
- Batman and Robin v1:
- Batman Eternal v1:
- Batman: The Dark Knight v2:
External Links
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