As I’ve ↵said before, I am totally opposed to the idea of using a sealed off portion of Gotham as a prison cum asylum. So I decided to give a press conference at Arkham City’s entrance area. Despite the press and TV news cameras, including anchorwoman Vicky Vale, being present, the mercenaries of Tyger Security grab me, knock me unconscious, and drag me away.
Next thing I remember is being tied to a chair, getting slapped, fainting again and again, the occurences coming to me as memory flashbacks. It’s ↵Hugo Strange standing in front of me. On his orders the Tyger mercenaries dragged me here and tied me to the chair. Everything in broad daylight, in front of news cameras. Testimony to mayor Sharp indeed having transformed Gotham City into a police state. Fittingly enough he made Professor Strange the head of Arkham City—of all people …
Strange is one of the Batman’s oldest acquaintances. The first supervillain and recurring foe of the dark knight was Doctor Death (Fox & Kane 1939), the second the Monk (Fox, Kane & Moldoff 1939), and the third Professor Hugo Strange (Finger, Kane & Robinson 1940: 3 [see above])—he’s older than the Joker.
When Strange appears for the second time (Finger, Kane & Hoolahan 1940: 20 [see above]), he frees inmates of an asylum … to turn them into monsters by a substance, a ‘growth hormone,’ he has invented. Well, with all the ‘roids called ‘Titan’ let loose in Arkham Asylum last time, I can imagine what I’ll be up against with Strange now being warden of Arkham City.
While battling Strange and his mutant giants, the Batman knocks the Professor out of the window of his hideout, high on a cliff above the sea: ‘The powerful blow sends Strange out—to fall to murky waters below …’
Looking down on the sea the Batman ponders: ‘I wonder if this really is the end of Professor Hugo Strange???’ (Finger, Kane & Hoolahan 1940: 26) Well, for 37 years it seemed to have been his end. Then ↵he returned and found out that Bruce Wayne is Batman (Englehart et al. 1977: 17):
While I am bound on that chair, Strange slaps it into my face that he still knows that I, Bruce Wayne, am Batman. Then he orders his mercs to bring Bruce Wayne into Arkham City …
ENGLEHART, STEVE, MARSHALL ROGERS, TERRY AUSTIN, JERRY SERPE AND JOHN WORKMAN. 1977. The dead yet live. Detective Comics 471: 1-17.
FINGER, WILLIAM ‘BILL’, BOB KANE AND NANSI HOOLAHAN. 1940. [Dr. Hugo Strange and the mutant monsters]. Batman 1: 20-31.
FINGER, WILLIAM ‘BILL’, BOB KANE AND JERRY ROBINSON. 1940. [Professor Hugo Strange]. Detective Comics 36: 1-12.
FOX, GARDNER F. AND BOB KANE. 1939. The Batman meets Doctor Death. Detective Comics 29: 1-10.
FOX, GARDNER F., BOB KANE AND SHELDON MOLDOFF. 1939. [Batman vs. the vampire, part 1]. Detective Comics 31: 1-10.
