You have been given the task of revitalizing any of the existing Batman villains and write a one-shot story featuring...

You have been given the task of revitalizing any of the existing Batman villains and write a one-shot story featuring them.

How would you do it ?
Which rogue do you think needs a major makeover ?
And what kind of story would you put them in ?

Jason Todd becomes full-blown Punisher-esque supervillain. Boom.

Make Ivy back into an actual dangerous villain instead of Harley's girl-toy. Take 'eco-terrorist' to the extreme- back to doing freaky shit like that episode of BTAS where she turned people into trees or fused them with plant cells or whatever as an experiment. The 'Batman and Harley Quinn' movie seems to be taking her back to her roots (aha), but that movie looks so garbage I'm gonna pretend it doesn't exist.

Like you need to ask.

make a series about the penguin and two-face trying to start a legal business for criminals as a front to embezzle money and undermine batmans efforts to stop crime by bribing and winning legal proceedings

This. Jesus, this.

Also I'd love to see a Riddler story where he takes some anxiety pills or some other experimental drug and is "cured" of his clue compulsion and fucking no one can stop him for a while.

I would write a one-shot of Jarvis Tetch shitposting online about his waifu Alice and cyberstalking some dude who said his waifu a shit. Tetch uses his tech to mind-control the kid into ruining his own life, culminating in a mass shooting/suicide. This happens multiple times before he is ultimately apprehended by the Batman.

I'd reconcile Mad Hatter with the "imposter" Hatter and just turn them into the same character, combine the Alice In Wonderland gimmick with the hat gimmick. The imposter excuse is idiotic and one of the reasons why the character never took off, and it discards a potentially interesting gimmick and a fun characterization.

I would try and write Mad Hatter as sort of The Tinkerer of Gotham, the guy who's on friendly terms with most of the rogues and who's responsible for building/fixing/selling a lot of tools for the other rogues. He's not exactly a huge threat himself but his machines are exceptionally dangerous at the hands of people who know how to use them.

I'd remove the idea of him being a pedophile completely. It has never been used well nor has it added anything to the character but pointless shock value. In fact, I'd go the opposite route and depict Mad Hatter as someone who's practically oblivious as to what sex is, like the oblivious and delusional manchild he is supposed to be. It could make for some pretty funny scenarios like Poison Ivy trying to seduce him for free gadgets but all he wants to do is put her in a Alice costume and invite her for tea against her will. It could also be used to make jokes where people think he's a pedophile because of the way he acts and his obsession with young blonde girls, but his intentions are not sexual in any way and he has no idea what he is doing wrong.

Essentially, I'd try and add some more unique elements to the character and make him closer to the Batman TAS version. I'd like a Mad Hatter who is sympathetic, creepy and whimsical and who serves a unique role compared to the other characters (like the character he's based on) and not a child-molesting hat-fucker.

I'd write a story where Mad Hatter and Riddler concoct a fraud scheme by placing mind control gadgets on computers sold by Wayne Enterprises and using the people affected by them to commit robberies, thus framing Bruce Wayne for fraud.

The modern D.B. Cooper. That's all you have to do with him.

>a Mad Hatter that barely understands sex
>probably puts together a Wonderland Gang
>includes pic related

I'd read it.

The Riddler has so much potential. I'd make the whole short without showing him, only his clues and riddles. I'd try to make them clever and difficult. I'd also push Batmans detective skills and catch him on a clue he didn't intend to leave.

I'd try to bring back the Mobs as legitimate antagonists. After years of the 'freaks' taking their toll on the city and cutting into their profits the heads of Gotham's crime syndicates realize they have something the Rogues don't.

Organizational skills.

There are plenty of them, they have loyalty to the 'family' and they have resources unavailable to the rogues as well as contacts and favors to be called in from outside the city or even the country.

Show them beginning to manipulate the system to their favor. Instead of the bosses mastering 'the fine art of legal immunity' they start paying off the judges and the lawyers to make SURE the Arkhamites are convicted and placed into places within their reach.

Bribe government contacts to freeze their assets.

And of course, using their numbers of harass, attack and harry the villains at any given moment. Even calling in hired guns and other hitmen if necessary.

Basically set it up for the mob becoming a third faction in Gotham's power plays between the Arkham Villains and Batman/GCPD.

I'm sure someone else could arrange this idea into something much better sounding...

I always liked the idea of supervillains being sorted into factions.

In Wayne Laboratories, Dr. Jonathon Crane is involved in a terrible lab accident that causes his body to involuntarily excrete a potent fear toxin gas at all times, causing panic attacks and fear reactions to the point of seizure in anyone around him. He is forced to abandon his family who no longer recognize him through the hallucinations of the gas and hide outside of the city all alone in an old abandoned shack in the woods that the locals claim are haunted because of his presence. His only friend in the world is Batman, who has the mental fortitude of mind and will enough to communicate with Crane despite the fear toxin. Crane maintains he will have revenge on Wayne Enterprises, who he believes are responsible for his condition, while Batman talks him down periodically and tells him he will find a cure.

Trouble arises when Penguin finds out about Dr. Crane and wants to try to use his fear gas as a weapon against his enemies to take over the Gotham underworld through terror. Penguin communicates with him through messages left on the outskirts of Crane's toxin emissions around the shack, offering him revenge on Wayne Enterprise. However Crane's hesitation begins to frustrate Penguin, who begins to wonder if he even needs Crane alive to harness the toxins.

I think it's more than about time Penguin makes a comeback and gets restored to his former status.

I would completely remove the Iceberg Lounge from the Penguin and stop writing him as a generic mob boss who only exists to get beaten up by Batman for information.
I would stop writing Penguin as a poor man's Kingpin relegated to cameos, and put him in the place where he belongs.
I would put him back as a manipulative and eloquent criminal mastermind who holds aspirations for respectability and acceptance which he is unable to live up to. A grotesquely endearing character who had a human element to him that the other rogues didn't. A man with an inferiority complex, misguided in his arrogance and resentment. A villain who wins through cunning and loses through hubris, who could incorporate comedy and tragedy into any story. The Richard III of Batman villains.

I love Oswald and I wish more people did it too.

Two-Face definitely needs to be rebooted. Outside of his origin story he doesn't have much going for him.

One thing I think needs to change is that he's supposed to represent a good/evil duality, but both of his sides are just varying degrees of evil. Good Harvey should still be on the side of justice, so he's got a foot on either side of the law.
Like for example a story could be something like Harvey's good side allies with Batman while Big Bad Harv is assisting Catman/Wrath/Prometheus/etc so he's working against them both as well as himself. Then at the end it comes down to a coin flip as to which side wins out.

Or maybe just one Harvey, but his idea of justice involves killing notorious criminals after giving them a mock trial where he plays both the lawyer and prosecutor.

>Scarecrow becoming a sympathetic villain

Neat.

This is pretty good.

>make a series about the penguin and two-face trying to start a legal business for criminals as a front to embezzle money and undermine batmans efforts to stop crime by bribing and winning legal proceedings
That actually sounds cool

Fix Mr. Freeze back to the way he was originally intended.

How's that, exactly?

Why? Two face is a guy with more good stories than any other Bat villain.

Mr Freeze is unusable outside of his origin, as evidenced by his lack of stories and practicality. Turn him into something else.

By not having Nora be some random bitch he didn't even know before she was frozen.
Really ruins his sympathetic angle and makes him "just another crazy batman villain"

Mr Freeze should revive Nora and they should be happily married and thank Bruce. Mr Freeze needs some character development rather than being shown as the same one dimensional "muh wife" guy, catered towards edgy teenagers.

What you are describing is basically how Two-Face acted like in his introduction, back when he was called Harvey Kent.

>he's supposed to represent a good/evil duality
Not exactly, that tends to vary. Two-Face was inspired by Jekyll & Hyde in terms of having that "man & monster" duality. But with time Two-Face's duality has changed to several things. Sometimes it's order and chaos, sometimes it's whether he commits an action by the law or breaks it, sometimes it's whether Harvey makes the decision or Two-Face does, etc. It changes all the time.

Two-Face is complicated because of how character-driven he has to be and how he depends more on good writing than other Batvillains, who can still pull off enjoyable appearences even if the writing is shoddy. And since depictions of Two-Face change all the time (as with the other villains), he can never be consistent, which is something his character depends on.

The best Two-Face stories are generally the ones who highlight his relationship with Bruce, the ones that depict his struggle and the ones that deal with the aspect of a dual identity.
Harvey has absolutely the potential to be a fantastic character, and usually his stories are some of the most tragic, but unfortunately he's often relegated to just being a crazy evil guy who does bad things after flipping a coin or, worse, Joker's punching bag.

I wish people would stop writing Croc as just a giant cannibal monster.

This is the objectively correct answer.

Top quality ideas, user.
I love the Penguin.

I really like him in Gotham, too.

If this page was done in one of the grittier stories that have happened the past however many years, that goon wanting money would have been killed or something in a ridiculous way instead of sticking with Two Face.