Much like its excellent and unsung first season, Batman: Caped Crusader season two reinvented several classic Dark Knight rogues for a retro, film noir setting. And many of them were incredible, while a few missed the mark. We rank the ten villains reinvented for the second season of the Prime Video animated series, produced by the legendary Bruce Timm, along with showrunners James Tucker and Geoffrey Thorne. We should note that we left off Calendar Man, who isn’t really a villain in this series, and more of a fun Easter egg.
10. Mad Hatter (Larainne Newman) Episode 1, “Brute Force”
Season one of Caped Crusader did a gender swap with the Penguin, and that worked out ok. But season two gender-swapped the Mad Hatter, turning twisted scientist Jervis Tetch into gossipy TV host Hattie Tetch, who hates all things Batman, and uses her TV platform to spread propaganda against him. It’s not that she’s bad, but she just leaves little impression. And she barely qualifies a villain in the traditional sense.
9. Blockbuster (Zach Lazar Hoffman) Episode 1, “Brute Force”
Another mid-tier Batman villain who makes a notable but small appearance in episode one is Blockbuster, even though he’s never called that. In the comics, Blockbuster was Mark Desmond, a chemist who gave himself Hulk-like strength and size. In Caped Crusader, the Riddler gives his driver and toadie, a guy he calls “Dez,” the serum that makes him a hulking brute. He fights Batman in a brief but memorable scene, and then drops dead. Not bad, just one note. Many fans believed this to be Solomon Grundy, but it’s definitely Blockbuster.
8. The Mad Monk (Blythe Melin) Episode 4, “The Devil’s Due”
In the comics, the Mad Monk was the second costumed villain Batman fought, back in Detective Comics #31 in 1939. In those comics, he was a cult leader who was also a vampire. For Caped Crusader, he’s reinvented as the leader of a cult in Gotham City that worships the bat-god, Barbatos. DC Comics fans know Barbatos as one of the creations of seminal Batman creators Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo. There isn’t much to this version of the Monk beyond “grifter pretending to be a religious fanatic,” and he sadly doesn’t leave much of an impression. However, we do appreciate the Caped Crusader writers for going back to the Dark Knight’s earliest days for inspiration.
7. Roxy Rocket (Wunmi Mosaku) Episode 2, “Rocket’s Red Glare”
Bruce Timm and Paul Dini created Roxy Rocket for The New Batman Adventures animated series in 1997, and she is a pretty obscure villain. So this is a reinvention that even some well-read Batman fans might not even realize is a rebooted character. Especially as no one ever calls her “Roxy Rocket”; they use her real name, Dr. Roxanne Sutton. This version is a pretty standard “They wronged me, so I vow revenge!” baddie, but her rocket suit is cool. There’s a little bit of the original Iron Man design, as well as a healthy dose of the 1949 serial, King of the Rocket Men. But other than a cool retro costume, this villain reinvention isn’t one that will stick with you. This despite a great vocal performance by Sinners‘ Wunmi Mosaku.
6. Thorn (Fryda Wolff) Episode 7, “Her Dark Reflection”
From the Caped Crusader trailers, most fans believed the red-haired, clad in green femme fatale was Poison Ivy. But nope! It was obscure DC antihero, Thorn, aka Rose Forrest. This character appeared in a series called Rose and Thorn, about a vigilante with a split personality. Here, she’s a mousy florist, one whose father is killed by the Riddler in front of her, causing a mental break. Rose takes on a new, sexy, and dangerous persona, Thorn, and finds a way to get her revenge on the Riddler. If the DC Comics versions were this cool, she wouldn’t be so obscure.
5. The Riddler (Ronan Raftery) Episode 1, “Brute Force”
We were a bit perplexed at a version of the Riddler that didn’t actually deliver any riddles. And maybe we groaned a little when we found out his nickname comes from the fact that he “riddles his victims with bullets.” But this version of Eddie Nygma, played by Ronan Raftery, is a wonderful take on a 1930s Chicago mobster thug that’s hard not to love. It’s not the Edward Nygma we know, but it’s a very fun, unhinged performance we came to love watching. Fun fact: this version of the Riddler was based on Richard Widmark’s character in the 1947 film Kiss of Death, which was Frank Gorshin’s inspiration for his Riddler in Batman ’66.
4. The Scarecrow (Josh Brener) Episode 6, “Sudden Fear”
We’re all accustomed to the Scarecrow as Dr. Jonathan Crane, a mad psychiatrist obsessed with fear, who dresses like a traditional burlap scarecrow. In Caped Crusader, they transform Crane into a disgruntled college student, who steals the fear toxin and murders his fellow university students. His look is top-notch, as this version of Scarecrow looks like a 17th-century plague doctor. He also just sounds creepy. So, he’s an actual scary-looking crow. We absolutely love this version, and if the comics followed suit with this look for the character, we’d be so down.
3. Mr. Zero (Kevin Michael Richardson) Episode 8, “Zero Hour”
Mister Freeze became a top-tier Batman villain because of his ’90s reinvention in Batman: The Animated Series. But he originated as a goofy Silver Age villain in the ‘50s, going by Mister Zero. It was Batman ’66 that rebranded him as “Mister Freeze.” Caped Crusader resurrected the original Mister Zero name, but this version was anything but goofy. A fixer for the underworld, he freezes his victim’s bodies, turning their corpses into ice statues, which just adds to the creepiness. So does his metallic-sounding voicebox, which allows him to speak. He’s not better than the classic B:TAS version, Victor Fries, but this is a very (dare we say) cool reinvention.
2. The Spectre (Roger Craig Smith) Episode 5, “The Spectral Hand”
Season one of Caped Crusader introduced crooked cop Jim Corrigan, whom DC Comics fans know becomes the Spirit of Vengeance, the Spectre. But nothing in his episode suggested he was worthy of becoming the instrument of God’s wrath, as he is in the comics. But Caped Crusader found a way to reinvent Corrigan as the Spectre, now a shambling undead engine of revenge against those who wronged him. And yes, he still has his green hood and cape. No one ever calls Corrigan “the Spectre,” but we know exactly who he is, and he rules.
1. The Joker (Matthew Needham) Episode 9, “Dead Before Dawn”
We almost hate giving the top spot to the Joker. After all, what Batman villain is more overplayed than he is? But for Caped Crusader, the producers went in a totally different direction, basing this look on the actor who inspired the Joker in the first place, Conrad Veidt from the silent horror film, The Man Who Laughs. This Joker never laughs, never cracks a smile. And his calm evil as he turns Gotham into a city filled with his uncontrollably laughing victims is chilling. House of the Dragon star Matthew Needham gives his Joker a sinister European accent, which adds to his whole creepy vibe. Look, no one will ever top Mark Hammil for us, but Caped Crusader’s Joker comes pretty darn close. We hope to see this Joker again someday.
You can now watch all of seasons one and two of Batman: Caped Crusader on Prime Video.