So I'm not entirely caught up on Rebirth but as I understand it Basil Karlo aka Clayface is now completely reformed and...

So I'm not entirely caught up on Rebirth but as I understand it Basil Karlo aka Clayface is now completely reformed and now working under Batman? How do you guys feel about this character progression? Admittedly Clayface hasn't really been doing anything significant lately, but I always thought he had good villain potential. You would have thought this kind of thing would have happened to Victor Fries first.

He's one of the best characters of Detective Comics.

I'm just enjoying it till the inevitable turn to villainy again even though there are like 4 other clayfaces

They're trying to find him a cure but its slow going

And the more he uses his powers the more unstable his mind gets, so he's probably going to go villain again

Is that still canon? Clayface's backstory is all kinds of fucked. I'm not entirely sure how he got his powers in current canon anymore

villain or heroic sacrifice in fear of losing his humanity/friends so we move onto one of the other clayfaces for a villain and he comes back reset to evil years later

It won't stick
He's too OP.
Conventional guns and weapons can't hurt him
He can disguise himself as anyone
Basically go anywhere that isn't wet or Mr.Freeze's lair
Could probably do that one episode of BTAS with the girl with clones of himself and just be able to patrol like 30 different parts of Gotham at the same time.
Like how do you write around making a character as versatile as Clayface in a mostly street level series.
I mean I guess it leaves time for Batman to knocking up Selina

He's getting an origin spotlight in January or December with the Tec Annual.

I think if they played up the angle of him being mentally unwell and more of a diseased victim that's a ticking time bomb from turning into a cronenberg, but still tries his best to help bats out by doing infiltration stuff that's always one bad moment away from him blowing his cover cause his face melted, it could be sufficiently engaging and interesting without being OP

>BTAS Annie
You bring up an excellent point user. If done right, this could actually be an interesting storyarc that calls back to that famous episode. It also plays well with Clayface's multiple personalities.
>Clayface's mind becomes more degraded
>His mind and body literally split apart, creating "Annie", a personality that represents all of Basil's good qualities
>Gotham now has a new shape-shifting hero, possible interactions with Cassandra
>We get to keep Basil as the bad Clayface.
Thoughts?

I'm glad. Batmans decades of work is paying off. Hes actually reforming them

Wait, is it Basil? I thought it was Hagen?

He already has a 'daughter' in Gotham Academy too.

...

That's practically not canon, right?

Wouldn't work if she's always in danger of being absorbed by Basil

The book is canon, just frequently forgotten.

I've wanted this kind of redemption since The Batman. I loved how he was still a stubbornly good man in there but was doomed to lose himself, so he did what he could while he still could.

There's an easy fix for that. Say for example that when the two split, Basil Karlo no longer exists, leaving only Annie and Clayface. The personality calling itself Clayface could absorb Annie, but that would mean both of them would cease to be, and Clayface likes being in control. It could be an interesting exploration into multiple personalities/DID, and both could have "leftovers" of Karlo's original personality. Both could share a love of theater

Works for me. There are six other Clayfaces out there to pull villain duty.

So you don't miss his infatuation with a mannequin?

>even though there are like 4 other clayfaces

Could be easily retconned into Basil's multiple personalities splitting off and creating "new" clayfaces.

I dont dislike the idea of Basil being good, it opens the character for more development and new facets, I think he will eventually crack like Two Face did but a good writer can always have Clayface OR Two Face being able to be less of a villain and more of someone struggling with a disease and falling to its own weakness, I like the opportunity that this brings in the future.

Wait, a mannequin or Manikin?

It feels like you are watching a car crash in slow motion. You can see he is making a real effort to reform over multiple issues and everyone wants to support him but in the back of your head a voice is screaming at you that he'll get turned back into a psychopath before long. Same thing has already happened to Two Face and Riddler. That's the sad thing about villains trying to reform. There will always be some writer/editor who wants to revert everything to status quo.

I'd argue the new status quo should be a reformed Victor Fries. He's the worst one out of the bunch when it's dead horse stories.

He's using the Matt Hagen name as an alias in the Rebirth Tec run.

Agreed but you get that Tynion is using that to twist that knife. He might pull the trigger himself before the next writer does it. It'll be heartbreaking as hell given the friendship Basil has taken on with Cassandra.

He does actually split himself up and help keep the peace during one of the more recent Gotham city-wide crises. It proves to be pretty hard on him.

>Tim made out with what was pretty much Clayface

Fag

Sup Forums is on of the gayest boards here
Tim would like it here

I'm half tempted to write a Annie/Clayface story now given the ideas pitched

I'm hoping his powers (or a portion) is separated from him and becomes its own villain while a good version with limited or no powers remains. Future writers would then have their good and bad Clayfaces to play with.