Clayface

>In earlier appearances, Basil Karlo had no powers, but wore a clay mask based on one of his movie roles. In recent comics, Basil Karlo's body is made out of mud upon taking the DNA of Clayface III and Lady Clay, enabling him to gain the combined powers of both. In The New 52, these are improved to a level in which he can mimic the DNA of others.

>Preston Payne originally had shape-shifting powers, yet ended up gaining the ability to melt people with his touch. He has super-strength from his exo-skeleton anti-melting suit. Preston's shape-shifting ability was later restored by Prometheus.

>Sondra Fuller has shape-shifting powers and power duplication.

Alright, so this would mean that Basil Karlo can shapeshit, copy powers, copy DNA and melt people. Would this make him the most powerful Batman villain?

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He could be the most powerful villain ever, but he can be defeated by cooking him with fire.

To what extent can he copy dna humans only or could he copy a Kryptonian?

Clayface's orgins/powers are all kinds of fucked.

Preston Payne > Basil Karlo > Matt Hagen > Sondra Fuller

Oh damn, that's my fetish now...

What was it?

Well that looks kinky

The Batman AS was the best version by far.

He also has a daughter he made from his own clay as part of a scheme to fuck over the Grey Ghost's actor who broke away from his control running around in Gotham Academy.

In recent Detective Comics, Clayface was able to separate himself into a small army of fake policemen to help with escorting masses away from danger.
Basically had his mind separated a dozen different ways and spread all over a major city.

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Am I the only one who through the Ethan Bennett Clayface was interesting?

I think that was Matt Hagen.

Wait...

So they made that one episode of BTAS canon?

And also the Grey Ghost is canon too?

Gotham Academy canonized Annie and Simon Trent? Damn, I really need to get on that book.

That's why I think his redemption won't last... Clayface is too OP, his only limitations are he's not always the brightest, with Batman's tactical mind and his powers they'd eradicate all crime in a few months. Either he'll turn evil again, or get cured and be replaced by yet another Clayface.

Shit, is there a download link to GA? I need to read it now.

In Tec currently, Karlo is using Matt Hagen as an alias.

>Preston Payne is so nutty he's literally married to a mannequin he saw on a store window

Preston seriously needs to come back.

Didn't know Wonder Woman was into scat play.

If Clayface appeared in a Batman movie, I'd have him be just like TAS version, only I'd tie his origin with Black Mask since he already has a cosmetics company.

Well the writer was clever enough to insert a bit of info about "clayface's mud body is in a constant flux and if left uncontrolled will deteriorate his mind back to evil".
So basically as soon as Clayface gives up being a good guy they've made an easy out as to why another writer might make him mustache twirling dumb and evil. Mushy Claybrains.

His powerset was also pretty cool.

BUT DON'T YOU EVER TALK ABOUT ALICIA LIKE THAT YOU HEAR

Who doesn't?
youtube.com/watch?v=Hy8kmNEo1i8

Or die heroically.

That storytime was crazy. Clayface absorbed Diana because she is technically made of clay Pre-Flashpoint

If he can copy DNA at all, he can copy anything with DNA. The problem is not "could he copy a Kryptonian" or even "what would happen if he learned to resequence his own DNA to create new and powerful forms previously unknown instead of mimicking what already exists".

The problem is: as soon as he mimics the DNA of anything but himself, he loses the ability to change his DNA unless that form also possesses it, as hard-coded DNA.

It's a bad power written by people who didn't do the research.

There is the matter of a Kryptonian having alien DNA, and that Alien DNA requiring materials not native to Earth.

I'm not really trying to go contrarian, but there could be some limit to the structure which Clayface could mimic. Maybe he could look like Superman, based on the majority of Superman's genetics, but not actually fully gain Superman's powers due to some missing element.

Whelp, I guess he could still go permanently Kryptonian or Czarnian or new god for a power boost then. That still makes him Batman's most powerful foe.

It isnt literally Annie, but she's very clearly derived from the idea.

Alien DNA shouldn't really be a problem; our own DNA codes everything on Earth with just four chemical bases arranged on a sugar-phosphate backbone, and that covers everything that has ever lived (so far as we know). Creating new chemical bases that would work like DNA isn't necessarily impossible, but then it comes down to your definition of DNA - is it deoxyribonucleic acid, or is it any repetitive, complex chemical coding system capable of self reproduction?

If it's the latter, Clayface might have problems even recognizing it as "DNA", let alone replicating it (but so would we - there's no reason to assume our DNA testing methods would be able to identify it, and therefore our sequencing computers wouldn't be able to "read" it, let alone hybridize it with our own).

The matter of materials not native to earth is a more complex one still - earth has a fair abundance of most of the heavier (and heaviest possible) elements, and as we get into the Lanthanides and Actinides we're talking about elements with half lives so short that they couldn't possibly be used for "DNA" coding unless the entire organism lived and died in the space of microseconds. This also obviates the question of usefulness; not every element or compound is useful for building a creature, which is why carbon is the basis of all known life (and silicon is debated as a possible, if somewhat unlikely, substitute). Even animals which don't use iron to bond oxygen (such as crabs, which use copper) are still carbon-based, with their DNA composed entirely of those four bases.

So then it becomes a problem of unseen complexity - the problem of compounds that could be used to code "DNA" but aren't anything like earth's four bases. It's possible - if there's life out there - but there's no real way to know. If we found extraterrestrial life, we could check. Until then, there's no solid foundation for assuming non-DNA life is possible.

Remember that time that he was able to copy Batman's dna, transform into Bruce Wayne in front of Gordan and the GCPD to show them who batman was, and batman gets out of it by saying "No I'm not," any everyone believed him? New 52 was a fucking mistake. The only thing they did with Clayface that I really liked was him getting g tricked and seeded by Ivy.

Least Rebirth has been treating Clayface good, can't say the same for Ivy whose been reduced to Harley's on again off again gf.

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>Remember that time that he was able to copy Batman's dna, transform into Bruce Wayne in front of Gordan and the GCPD to show them who batman was, and batman gets out of it by saying "No I'm not," any everyone believed him?
kek no i don't but i wish i had read that

I mean, I wouldn't believe a crazy dirt man either