Tuesday, February 14, 2017

Bring on the Bad Guys: Clayface

Real name: Basil Karlo
A.K.A.: none
First Appearance: Detective Comics I#40 (June 1940)
Abilities:  Master of disguise
Weapons: knife
Quotes: "The scene is finished-for death is the director!"
Worst Act: Murder and sabotaging a movie
Created by: Bill Finger (writer) and Bob Kane (artist-credited), Jerry Robinson (inks)


Here we have the last of the first year villains who's still active today. He's taken a few different shapes over the years, (in fact I think he is the first proper legacy villain Batman ever tangled with, fake Joker notwithstanding), but for this entry's sake we'll focus our attention on the first, Basil Karlo.

We're introduced to Karlo as he (and others) are on the set of the Terror, a talking remake of an early silent film which stared Karlo. Someone is bumping off the cast and crew, someone dressed like the character of Clayface, another character from another silent film which also starred Karlo.

Clayface is Karlo, so the mystery aspect is a bit lacking. The guy's motivation was still pretty unique, if underdeveloped. Did Karlo do other roles besides horror? Was he bitter at sound? Did he pal around with any of the other old time actors in the DCU? And why disguise himself as character that people identified with him anyway?

In any event, that was pretty much it for Karlo for a while. Professional scumbag Matt Hagan would take over the mantle in the 1960's, but Karlo would return sometime later now leading the Mud Pack. Thanks to Batman: The Animated Series most versions now combined Karlo with Hagan, but the original is still an interesting read.





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