Hugo Strange (Arkhamverse)

"I feel I should thank you. Capturing Bruce Wayne is so much easier than Batman. And now that we have you, Protocol 10 is ready to begin. It will be my legacy, a monument to your failure. And if you try to stop me, I guarantee everyone will know your secret."

- Hugo Strange

A brilliant psychiatrist and skilled manipulator, Hugo Strange spent years studying the Dark Knight, eventually accomplishing a feat that few have ever done; deducing Batman's identity. Armed with this knowledge and a great deal of cunning, Strange formed multiple connections and spent years developing a sinister conspiracy to destroy Batman and claim Gotham City as his own. Through deception, political manipulation, crime, and even aiding and abetting some of Batman's most dangerous foes, Strange masterminds a sinister plot that would claim countless lives and reverberate throughout Gotham City and beyond.

Biography
First gaining fame as a psychiatrist who declared that he’d fully analyzed the Dark Knight from afar, Professor Hugo Strange lent credence to his own claims by deducing Batman’s true identity as Bruce Wayne. However, his interest in the Batman turned into a deranged obsession, and he’s used his medical expertise to hatch a series of bizarre plots based around genetics and mind control in order to defeat the Batman and possibly take his place. Strange’s fragile mental state has left him with intermittent knowledge of Batman’s true identity, a fact that hangs over Bruce Wayne’s head – for if Strange ever snaps completely, Batman’s greatest secret might be revealed…

Attributes

 * Trained to physical perfection
 * Extensive Knowledge of Genetics
 * Obsessed with Batman
 * Plagued by schizophrenic episodes that leave him confused and dangerous

The Seeds of Planning
Hugo Strange is an unknown and relatively new player to Gotham City. Although he is a licensed psychiatrist, little else is known about his origins and Strange has been shrouded in mystery for years. Working at Arkham Asylum, Strange was a power-hungry madman with disillusions of godhood, using the facility to perform experiments on everyone residing there; patients, nurses, professors, and security personnel in order to unlock the inner workings of the mind to ultimately control it. Early on in his career, he became obsessed with Batman after learning that almost every one of his patients of Arkham were either brought in by Batman or were obsessed with him themselves, and dedicated his life to finding out more about Gotham City's greatest protector. The more Strange researched Batman, the more he believed that the Dark Knight was a plague on the city rather than a savior, believing that his very presence is the cause of all the criminal escalation over the years. He began to believe that he himself could be a more worthy mantle to the legend that Batman has acquired over the years and eliminate all the criminals plaguing the city to obtain absolute fame and prestige.



Apparently spending years intensifying his studies on Batman, Strange also became intrigued with Batman's perfect code of justice-no one dies by his hand. His longing to become the Dark Knight became an obsession, desiring to inherit the legend of such a crime-fighter and use to obtain his own lusts and desires. To this end, Strange, working alone, used a series of complicated psychological profiling techniques to identify the man behind the cowl of Gotham's Dark Knight; billionaire playboy Bruce Wayne. After successfully deducing the identity of Batman, Strange planned to become both rich and famous from his deduction by selling the secret identity to the highest bidder in the criminal underworld. While word spread throughout the criminal underworld about this "auction", Strange eventually saw a much bigger opportunity awaiting him, one that could promise him ultimate power, control, and immortality itself. Strange then had the auction cancelled and disappeared from the criminal underworld spotlight before anyone could act on his proposition.

Rather than simply using his secret deduction for money and fame, Strange planned to exploit this knowledge by slowly setting the stage in Gotham for the ultimate challenge: To first destroy Batman in a one-on-one chess game with his city as the board along with friend and foe as pawns, then to take over as the Caped Crusader himself and use the identity for his own purposes. The first item on Strange's agenda was to find benefactors for his plans and the person who held all the treasures and luxuries he desired. He would find both in one man; Ra's al Ghul, one of Batman oldest and greatest enemies who also knew of his identity.

Through extensive research, Strange was able to locate Ra's and told him all that he knew of Batman and how he wished to help in his plans and operations to rid the world of those that they saw as undesirable. Ra's, highly impressed with Strange's brilliant mind and fortitude, gives him the chance to prove himself a worthy successor to his mantle. If Strange could find the means to eliminate all crime in Gotham and defeat Batman, than Ra's would make him his successor, giving him complete control over the League of Assassins, his wealth, his business empires, and even the the powers of immortality itself through unlimited use of the Lazarus Pit. Strange gleefully agreed and immediately began making his plans to wipe out all crime in Gotham by staging an insidious conspiracy that would not only wipe out all criminals in Gotham, but hundreds and thousands of innocents as well. This conspiracy would later be known as Arkham City, which would lay out the foundations of Strange's ultimate desire for power and authority.

One of Strange's most pivotal pawns would eventually be chosen as none other than Warden Quincy Sharp, administrator of Arkham Asylum for the Criminally Insane, where most of Batman's Rogues Gallery were kept. Strange soon found Sharp to be the best kind of puppet: Established, old-fashioned, affluent, completely hollow, a blank easel fit for someone else to manipulate, and, perhaps best of all, was planning on running for mayor of Gotham City. Knowing of these aspirations to become Mayor, Strange approached Sharp and informed him that he had friends in high places that could benefit his mayoral campaign for years on end and ensure of his victory in the elections. After Strange showed proof of his claims, Sharp, blinded by his own political desires, accepted Strange's bribes and allowed the mad professor to carry out inhuman experiments on the patients of Arkham Asylum. While Sharp allowed Strange to do as he pleased, the professor knew that the warden needed to come around to his way of thinking completely to serve as the perfect pawn and, over the next several months, Strange saw to it that he would.

If Strange's plans and operations for power were to succeed, he knew that he needed Quincy Sharp under his complete control to carry out his grand designs through the political arena. Using the resources in behavioral control and looking through all the patient files, Strange became fascinated by Jervis Tetch's, aka Mad Hatter's, mind control experiments, concluding that Tetch's brilliant mind was the perfect component needed to find the means to control Sharp's feeble mind. Manipulating security procedures behind Sharp's back, Strange enlisted the help of Jervis through deception and manipulation, preying on Jervis's love of hats, tea, and Alice to have him perform mind control experiments on the oldest and most forgettable patients of Arkham. Eventually, Jervis succeeded in preparing an amazing mind control drug that made anyone who ingested it much more malleable to suggestion. In order to cover his tracks, Sharp had Jervis locked back up, giving him another "Alice" to keep him quiet, and proceeded to have all the victims in the experiments lobotomized, locked away in extreme isolation, and never allowed them to the see the light of day again.

Using the completed formula, Strange mass produced large quantities of the drug and immediately invited Warden Sharp to his office in the Arkham Mansion for some tea. Unknown to the blissful Sharp, Strange drugged his tea with those same mind control serums and immediately began programming Sharp as his puppet, starting off by "suggesting" that he should begin to murder several patients at Arkham. Sharp's unstable mental state then snapped completely as he diluted himself into thinking that he was the spirit of Amadeus Arkham and proceeded to murder countless patients under Strange's influence. Strange eventually used these atrocities of murder to blackmail Sharp to ensure that he remains loyal to him and him alone.

Sharp, shocked at his unstable personality, agreed and let Strange become his private psychiatrist to become better, though Strange would do nothing of the sort and would continue to supply him with his mind control drugs, disguised as medical pills, to ensure that Sharp remains in his strangled hold. With Sharp now nothing more than one of his pawns, Strange has the warden hire him as his secret collaborator during his mayoral campaign, allowing him to easily twist and turn Sharp's actions and influence throughout Arkham and Gotham to serve his own ends. However, word soon got out that Strange was both involved with patient abuse and unethical experiments, forcing Strange to put in a transfer request and disappear from society all together. With the help of Ra's agents throughout Gotham's infrastructure, Strange's record and all information related to his crimes were completely wiped clean, allowing the professor to continue in his plans from the shadows without the worry of the authorities.

Over a period of three years the warden found himself programmed into becoming Strange's "face", being used to set the stage for a showdown with the Masked Man-hunter. Over these three years, Strange also had Sharp implement numerous security and research measures at the asylum to boaster his approval ratings to ensure he wins his election, while also influencing him into murdering several more patients who knew too much about Strange or might serve as an obstacle in his plans. However, one of Strange's most critical moves was to make Sharp present the City Council with the "Arkham City" plan; to wall off an entire district of Gotham and fill with it with every criminal as a fail-safe should Gotham's criminals became too chaotic to control. The City Council approved of the plan, impressed with Sharp's layouts, but also never thought that such a plan would have to be put into effect. These plans were of the creation of Hugo Strange however, who would see to it that Sharp became mayor and made his Arkham City project a reality.

As Strange used Sharp to remove any possible hindrances to his plans, he saw The Joker as a major, potential obstacle in his designs, as his murderous breakouts from Arkham and exploits throughout Gotham may cost Sharp's approval ratings. He then has Sharp attempt to kill the villain in his cell with a knife, but Joker is able to easily gain control of the situation and escape the asylum. The Joker would later reveal his own plans, which included the manipulation of the research staff at the asylum to create a chemical known as Titan, to build a massive and twisted force to destroy Gotham. To this end, Joker destroyed Blackgate Prison to have hundreds of his crew moved to Arkham Asylum in order to orchestrate a massive riot at the institution that would take the lives of hundreds of security personnel, doctors, and inmates alike as Joker released the most derange criminals and attempted to create his army through the use of Titan. However, thanks to Batman, the Joker's plans were spoiled at the last moment, all inmates and super criminals were recaptured, and the Gotham City Police retook control of the asylum.

With his security systems disabled, his private security force completely routed by the rampaging patients, and chaos spreading across the locked-down Arkham, Sharp's public image was nearly derailed for allowing such an incident to happen. However, quick-witted Strange was soon to exploit such an opportunity, declaring once the riot had been suppressed that the warden was solely responsible for stopping the Joker and thereby giving him enough public support to make his successful bid for mayor. Strange was able to further exploit the situation by having Sharp use the event as evidence that both Arkham and Blackgate are unfit facilities to hold Gotham's criminal element and that a new institution should be built. Most of City Hall agreed, but were still hesitant to put the Arkham City project into effect. Regardless, now that the city counselors were coming around to his way of thinking, all Strange had to do was push that mind set further in the appropriate direction and Arkham City would become a reality.

Now, with such a madman finally in control of the "board" and all the pawns lined up, the pieces of an ingenious plan to destroy the Dark Knight began to fall into place.

Prelude to Arkham City
Hugo Strange retreated further into the shadows once the now-Mayor Sharp was introduced to the public spotlight. He stayed in contact with his pawn mainly through the occasional phone counseling session, and directed his every word in public through a radio receiver implanted in Quincy's ear.



Sharp is able to keep a strong resolve with Strange's manipulation guiding him into constructing a new City Hall after the previous one's destruction at Joker's hands six month ago. This was nothing more than another item on Strange's agenda however, in order to serve as part of the final event to get his Arkham City project approved. Having recruited two twin thugs from Two-Face's gang, known collectively as T&T, Strange has them retrieve shipments of the Titan drug that Dent acquired for his own ends from his cellar to make themselves stronger and then slaughter half of Two-Face's gang. Keeping in contact with the pair through communication devices he surgically implanted into their brains, Strange has the pair commit heinous crimes throughout Gotham until, finally, their ultimate moment would come when Strange has Sharp initiate an official opening to the new City Hall.

While Sharp addresses the people of Gotham at this opening ceremony, Strange has T&T attack the ceremony, wiping out all of Gordon's men. Before they can cause any further damage however, Batman arrives and subdues the pair with tranquilizers, at which point Strange informs T&T that they must resort to their contingency plan. Gladly accepting Strange's orders, the mad professor bids farewell to his pawns as he presses a detonation button that activates explosives placed inside the pair's body. While Batman is able to escape, the resulting explosion completely destroys the newly rebuilt City Hall, killing more than three hundred citizens, causing billions in damage, and, thereby, setting up the perfect pretext for Strange and Sharp to put Gotham City under martial law and begin running it like their own police state. With Arkham Asylum and the local penitentiary now unfit to house criminals after Joker's brutal attack on both and Gotham's crime rate skyrocketing, a drastic new project is introduced with the broad mayoral powers at a villain's disposal: Arkham City.

Arkham City, in fact, is a hellish anarchic nightmare: Hundreds of the worst criminals are simply thrown into a walled-off lawless district where they free to do whatever they need to in order to survive with the only rule being no attempts of escaping. In addition to repeat-offenders and criminally insane mental patients, hundreds of innocent people are also rounded up and locked into the prison city, even those with only minor records. Strange becomes obsessed with tracking down and arresting all types of lawbreakers, regardless of how minor their offenses are and if they have already served their sentences. Even the more dubious upper class criminals can no longer hide behind their fronts and lawyers for protection as Sharp's martial law makes his word absolute and his alone. Mafia families such as the Maronis are completely gunned down and taken away while the Falcons are forced to flee the city to avoid capture after all their operations are shut down and their men slaughtered. To prevent Arkham denizens from escaping, a new security force is formed out of professional mercenaries. The team, made up of well-paid former military and police operatives, is codenamed "TYGER" and is subsequently turned into Strange's personal squad of trained assassins.

Unknown to all but Strange himself, each TYGER operative has been profiled and evaluated extensively by Strange personally and during their interview sessions, Strange would place hypnotic suggestions in their minds through his mind control serums. This makes TYGER unquestionably loyal to Strange and him alone, while appearing loyal to the mayor on the outside. When the time is right, Strange would use TYGER to seize complete control over Gotham City and dispose of the mayor once his usefulness has run it's course. With all TYGER operatives under his complete control, Strange next has Sharp sell Arkham Island as revenue for the city since the island is no longer in any condition to hold inmates. Many companies would bid for the land, but Sharp, under Strange's influence, would ultimately reward it to TYGER, who immediately converted it as their main base of operations as well as to plan the construction of Arkham City and prepare their fleet of helicopters and weapons.

With Sharp little more than an extension of Strange's own plans, ideals, and values, Strange instills within the puppet mayor that Batman is the true cause of all of Gotham's crimes as his very presence is what motivates criminals to become much more violent and chaotic. With these thoughts taken root in Sharp's simple mind, it didn't take long before the mayor had full research conducted on the Dark Knight and seek to end his crime-fighting career, blaming him for everything. With Sharp authorizing full research into Gotham's hero, it wouldn't be long before Strange figures out the means to defeat Batman once and for all. In addition, Strange purposely has Sharp have his security at his mansion, now where he directs his affairs from after the destruction of City Hall, lax as part of another test for Batman in order to study his techniques. True to his prediction, Batman eventually breaks into Sharp's mansion to obtain the plans for Arkham City, at which point Strange makes his presence known through a laptop computer. Activating machine guns that simply shoot rubber bullets, Strange cares only about observing the Dark Knight's abilities rather than killing him. Batman is able to escape shortly after, but only after Strange gets a glimpse of his fighting abilities.

Holding multiple City Council meetings, Sharp chooses areas of social decay to build Arkham City, only to met with opposition by Bruce Wayne himself. Defending his decision, Sharp reminds Mr. Wayne that this very location is the same area where he had lost his parents, Martha and Thomas Wayne, all those years ago. While Wayne remained unconvinced, the rest of the council agree to Sharp's plans and immediately send out eviction notices to all residence within the chosen location, allowing Sharp full access to the land to build his prison compound. However, this area was not only chosen due to it's social decay, but because it also resides over Wonder City, a city fair created by Ra's centuries ago that ended in disaster, where Ra's and his forces are stationed, perfecting the Lazarus Pit. Using this location, Strange not only stays in close contact with his benefactors, but also converts the Wonder City Tower, formally a mechanism that electrifies the Lazarus Pit from lightening strikes on the tower, into his main base of operations, where he can see all of Arkham City from hundreds of feet in the air.

As Arkham City is constructed, walling off Park Row and other decaying suburbs, anyone who opposes Strange's project is instantly outshouted by the paranoid and the fearful. Even Commissioner Gordon, who was outraged by Sharp's hiring of TYGER to police Arkham City without his consent, is not listened to as Sharp would stage every piece of legal precedent and loophole known to man to make any objection or court order Gordon has virtually useless. It wasn't long before Strange has Sharp demote Gordon to little more than a desk clerk at the GCPD while TYGER representatives cloud the offices of the police station, making it nothing more than one of Strange's numerous checkpoints throughout the city.

Arkham City's Completion and Strange's Unveil
"So, you know my name. Good, because I know everything about you. Your darkest secret, your ultimate weakness, I know you are Bruce Wayne"

- Hugo Strange

With Arkham City nearly finished, Strange begins to have all Blackgate and Arkham prisoners transferred to his facility, where they are violently thrown onto the streets to survive the hellish environment with minimum food, clothing, and medical supplies. Super-criminals, such as The Joker and The Penguin, quickly become the ruling elites on the streets and form massive gangs to carve up the city for themselves, causing massive chaos and destruction as they attempt to eliminate each other. A majority of the inmates are forced to join either of these gangs for their own protection or risk living to fend for themselves with no protection, equipment, or shelter in the hellish domain. However, this is exactly as Strange had envisioned, knowing that putting every criminal in Gotham City in one secluded area with no rules would incite a war for total control over the area. It wouldn't be long before this chaos would serve Strange's ultimate objectives for fame and glory.

However, one particular prisoner eventually gains Strange's attention; a prisoner by the name of Lester Kurtz, who displays amazing stamina, martial art skills, and was seemingly able to escape any situation. The thug joins both Joker and Penguin's gangs in order to weigh the advantages and disadvantages that both have to offer. It wasn't long however before Strange concludes the truth about this inmate; that he was Batman in disguise, surveying the environment. Having deduced his identity a second time, Strange easily pinpoints the location that Batman has entered Arkham City through, an abandoned boathouse near the bay. As the Dark Knight leaves the city, Strange uses all the surveillance footage from his security system to observe every detail of Batman's abilities. Using this to viciously train his TYGER guards to combat Batman's every move, Strange has a surprise planted for Batman in the boathouse should he return in his inmate disguise; a bomb rigged to blow.

As Batman returns once again in his Lester disguise, Strange activates the bomb, completely blowing up the boathouse and sending Batman flying through the air. Strange then sends his trained TYGER guards after him, at which point Batman flees and adorns his iconic attire. Fighting the guards, Batman is shocked to learn that they can block nearly every one of his moves as Strange hacks into his communication systems to taunt the hero. Thinking that he has Batman cornered, Strange prepares to have his guards take him in, when Selina Kyle, aka Catwoman, arrives in an armored van she stole from TYGER and rescues Batman. After departing from Catwoman, Batman gets his revenge on the guards and incapacitates nearly all except for one, who he brutally interrogates. It is during this interrogation that Batman would finally learn of Strange, much to the mad professor's delight, who begins to set up the next phase of his plans.

Finally learning of the previously secret power behind Sharp and Arkham City, Batman has Alfred and Robin prepare all available information on Strange. They are shocked to learn that Strange's record has been wiped clean and only obtain specific documents to his unethical experiments at Arkham after using the bat-computer to dig deep enough. However, Strange has already thought ahead and finally has Sharp announce his collaboration with Strange to the public, telling them that he has entrusted all operations and management of the prison to him. Bruce Wayne finally decides to come back into the political arena and presents the evidence to the audience at Strange's press conference, though Strange simply refutes the accusations by stating that he merely took the blame for other professors at the asylum and told the playboy billionaire that no matter what he or anyone else says or does, Arkham City will open as scheduled.

However, protesters soon see another chance at shutting the city down just weeks before it's official opening, as unexplained seismic activity shake the streets of the compound and cause an entire district of the city to be submerged in water. Protesters of the project immediately use this incident as evidence that the prison was not suited to be opened under basic humanitarian law. Strange however vetoes plans to investigate his land, having his own experts prove that the incident was a one time affair and that the inmates had given up their rights to any decent standard of living. Unknown to all but Strange himself, the seismic activity was caused by Ra's and his army mining throughout Wonder City below to further their base of operations and perfect the Lazarus Pit. Strange makes use of Wonder City as an execution chamber as he sends down the more insane and uncontrollable patients and victims of his own experiments to be quietly executed by the League of Assassins.

Whenever questioned about his mysterious disappearance over the past four years, Strange simply states that he was out of the country in order to study new, radical psychiatric techniques to further help his patients upon his return to the city. While most of the general public believed Strange, Jack Ryder grew suspicious and dug deeper into Strange's exploits over the years, eventually coming into contact with one his former patients from Arkham Asylum. The man, no longer a patient of the old Asylum, told Ryder about Strange's unstable and even frightening demeanor while a professor at Arkham and the inhumane experiments he conducted on his patients.

The man was one of those patients and after Strange claimed to have "cured" him, the man couldn't even remember his own name. Ryder soon planned to have this information revealed to the public when the time was right and when he had substantial proof to reveal Strange's crimes to the people of Gotham. However, Strange was well aware of Ryder's attempts to interfere with his plans and grander projects and would be prepared to act before Ryder did and ensure that the reporter would become nothing more than another numberless inmate in his prison facility.

With all protesters being blocked from every angle, TYGER operatives are allowed to do whatever they felt was necessary under Sharp's newly installed martial law, including the arrest of innocent people without trial or due process and even resort to murder and destruction. Countless innocent people are caught in the crossfires of Strange's megalomaniac designs while anyone with the power or authority to unveil Strange's crimes or shut down Arkham City promptly vanishes only to wind up in Arkham City themselves to be torn apart by the rampaging inmates. From all fronts, Strange seems to be virtually unstoppable with so much power and authority at his command and Gotham and Arkham City nothing more than his personnel chessboard.

Alliances and Connections
With years of planning and preparation finally meeting fruition, Arkham City is officially completed and opened for business. Now firmly in complete control of Arkham City and Gotham's political domain through Sharp, Strange next begins to target several high profile prisoners from Arkham to further his plans. To this end, Strange orchestrates a series of events to allow Mr. Freeze, who was previously observed by City Council as unfit to be held in Arkham City due to his condition, to escape his cell in Arkham Asylum after having his wife, Nora Fries, moved into Arkham City.

When Freeze arrives at Nora's previous location, Advanced Cryogenics, Strange is there waiting for him and informs him of his little preposition; if Freeze would use his scientific expertise to create medical serums and chemicals for Strange's plans, Strange would give Freeze everything he needed to find a cure for both Nora and himself. Freeze would begrudgingly agree and is transferred into Arkham City and is given full access to the the GCPD forensic labs by Strange to conduct his research, but Strange has no intention of handing over Nora and only plans to use Freeze as a means to an end to simply create his medical supplies.



In the meantime, Strange would stage any event he could to uphold a good reputation with the people of Gotham, even going as far as arranging for Victor Zsasz to escape and rampage Gotham, leading to the brutal murders of two innocent citizens, for the sole purpose of having his TYGER forces recapture him in order to make TYGER look much more efficient than the Gotham City Police Department. Strange would also manipulate the mayor in allowing him to send TYGER operatives to shadow the GCPD with the sole intent of hunting down Batman and study his every move in combat in order to effectively train his TYGER guards to take down Batman once and for all. Strange would then viciously interrogate his captains on their attacks on Batman, using various torture and truth serum techniques to learn every little detail of Batman's fighting style, even going as far as killing several of these guards to learn all this information.

The mad professor would also continue his love of experimenting with the human mind and, during processing, Strange would select inmates that fit his criteria and took them to his Inmate Analysis Unit, where the mad professor would continue in his horrendous and inhumane experiments. All these individuals were chosen for a variety of reasons; some had the correct psychological profile to be turned into TYGER guards to expand Strange's forces, some were simply ideal for experimenting with the human mind and learning other ways to control it and were lobotomized and left to roam the streets to be torn apart by the rampaging inmates, and others were simply chosen to executed by Strange personally for being too chaotic to control.

Strange eventually makes contact with the Joker, nearing death due to his Titan illness, and forms an alliance with the villain, offering to aid in making his final days more comfortable if Joker cooperates with his interview sessions and allows Strange to study and understand his insanity. Joker agrees and has Strange abduct dozens of medical doctors and brought into Arkham City to aid in his condition, though this was all part of Joker's own elaborate plans that even Strange is unaware of. In reality, Joker is using all the doctors and nurses that are brought to him to drain large quantities of his poisoned blood and ship it off to emergency rooms all over the city, infecting thousands of people with his lethal illness. He would then torture, mutilate, and murder all of them once they have served their purposes to simply add more numbers to his kill count.

As Joker recounts his origins to him in return for his assistance, Strange concludes that Joker is simply telling a series of fabricated events in order to conceal the truth about his condition. Joker admits to the deception, but also shocks the professor by revealing that he knows everything about his plans and criminal past, threatening to have the information leaked to the public if Strange does not stop trying to uncover his past. Strange would comply and continue to supply Joker with doctors and even keep Joker up to date on the occurrences of Arkham. While Strange caves into Joker's demands to ensure that his past is not known to the authorities, he also becomes cautious of Joker and begins making plans to remove the Clown Prince of Crime as a threat to his schemes.

Weeks later, Freeze finally reaches his breaking point and plans to take down Strange and find Nora, but Strange is already one step ahead of him and has his TYGER guards ambush Freeze and bring him to his office. There, Strange would interview Freeze to learn more of his psychosis, threatening to murder Nora if he refuses to cooperate. After learning of Freeze's history, Strange taunts Freeze by stating that his life of crime was his fault and his alone, ending with a chilling statement that Nora was on her way to being delivered to the Joker, who planned to use Nora as collateral to blackmail Freeze into developing a cure to his Titan disease. Freeze is horrified and vows to get Nora back and kill Strange, but Strange, unshaken by Freeze's threats, simply has him locked up in one of his holding cells.

Strange later forms an alliance with Oswald Copplepot, aka The Penguin, and hands Freeze over to him to be locked up in his museum as Strange has no further use for him and to also impede Joker's progress on developing a cure to his Titan illness, hoping that this would cement Joker's death and no longer serve as a threat to his position, though Joker would later prove to not be so easily outsmarted. Strange, remaining in contact with Joker and Penguin, also gives both gang-lords military weapons as part of a much larger plot and even hands over victims of his inhuman experiments to Penguin to use as target practice to further cover up his tracks. As one last string to pull, Strange informs the Penguin that ten inmates that were in his gang were actually inside agents for the GCPD, trusting the Penguin to dispose of them, telling the gang lord that he does not appreciate being spied on by Commissioner Gordon.

As Strange continues with his day to day affairs, he receives a shocking visit from Mr. Edward Nigma, better known as The Riddler, through a hologram projection. Riddler, much like the Joker, has learned quite a bit of Strange's criminal activities, and begins to taunt Strange for his own amusement and satisfaction in that he can ridicule the warden of Arkham City himself without any consequences. However, Strange would eventually turn the tables on Mr. Nigma by revealing to him that he knows who Batman really is, taunting the narcissist that he used no childless puzzles or traps to deduce his identity and simply relied on his own genius intellect. Riddler, incredibly disturbed and humiliated at the fact that Strange figured it out while he still hasn't the slightest clue, never contacts Strange again after the discussion and becomes dead set on humiliating and killing Batman through his deathtraps.

With all his connections established throughout Batman's rouge gallery and his most grand operations being put into effect, all that was left in Strange's preparations were the arrest of the last criminals on Gotham's streets and the capture and incarceration of Batman in his prison facility, where he would challenge the Dark Knight to the ultimate extremes of life and death and take everything he lusted away from the hero.

Final Preparations and Tying up Loose Ends
As Strange was unveiled as Sharp's secret collaborator on Arkham City to the public, Strange would appear on television shows and press conferences to give Gotham citizens a false sense of security. During these appearances, Strange would present himself as a confident, quick-witted, and brilliant psychiatrist with an unshakable demeanor who was never at a loss for words to any questions or accusations. He would continuously reassure the people of Gotham that Arkham City would see to it that every criminal that threatens the welfare of the city would be captured and locked up, while also hinting that Batman may be an aspect of particular concern as Strange believes that his presence creates the very criminals he fights. With no evidence coming to light of Strange's true intentions and crimes, many people in Gotham soon come to respect Strange for seemingly cleaning up the streets while others are still not convinced with such a controversial project as Arkham City.



Eventually, Strange would shut down all criminal operations throughout Gotham, forces many criminals and innocent civilians to flee the city, and capture every one of his targets except for three; Two-Face, Catwoman, and Batman. Working off a tip that came from none other than Two-Face, who desired to become the ruling elite on Gotham's streets, Strange locates one of Selina Kyle's apartments where she was currently residing. Attacking the apartment, TYGER operatives were unable to capture Catwoman, but were able to locate her safe, full of stolen loot and goods. Under Strange's orders, the guards took the loot and goods to the Arkham City Confiscated Goods Vault, hoping that this would draw out Catwoman to be captured. True to Strange's prediction, Catwoman would set her sights on Arkham Island to obtain the blueprints for Arkham City that would allow her to locate the perfect entry level into the vault.

Unfortunately for Selina, Dent and his gang had the same idea and attacked the facility first, but Strange saw this as the perfect opportunity to capture the last two criminals on Gotham's streets. As Catwoman and Dent brawl for the plans, which Two-Face photographed with his camera, TYGER guards are sent in to apprehend them both. Batman, however intervenes and saves Catwoman just as she steals Dent's camera and Dent is arrested. Before Batman can get Selina to safety, the feline learns that Two-Face had removed the SD card from the camera and looks down to see him swallowing it. Infuriated, Catwoman breaks free of Batman's hold to attack Dent, only to be arrested as well, while Batman escapes the facility knowing that there is nothing further he can do. While Strange is satisfied with Dent and Selina's capture, he is nonetheless disappointed that Batman has escaped him yet again. He has his guards bring in Two-Face so that he can interrogate him personally while he increases TYGER patrols throughout the city to locate Batman.

As Dent is brought to him, Strange informs the Mayor that every criminal is now in their hands and they can now focus their full attention on capturing Batman. Once Dent is brought to him, Strange sees him as a great, potential ally as his past public admiration and political prowess would serve Strange's plans and strengthen his hold over the city, though he would need to be cured first. Seeking to break Dent's addiction to his coin, he has his guards take it off his person while Strange replaces it with a coin of his own to ensure that Dent cooperates and answers his questions regarding his past. When Dent learns of Strange's deception, Strange has him released into Arkham City without his coin in hopes that he will learn to become independent of his iconic item. At first, Dent seems to function well enough to form his own gang and a headquarters within the Solomon Wayne Courthouse, encouraging Strange into thinking that Dent may be able to be cured after all.

Just as Strange was about to give the order to have Dent brought back in for further examination, Catwoman is found trying to break into his office. Strange has her brought in for a session as well and interrogates her about her life and what she knows about Batman, threatening to have Holly Robinson killed if she does not cooperate. After learning everything he wanted to from Selina, he informs her that Holly is safe for now, that Batman would soon be broken, and informs her that Two-Face has placed the SD card with the Arkham City plans on it in his safe in his old campaign office, as part of a fail-safe plan should Dent not cooperate with his designs.

Once Dent is brought back to him, Strange puts one final contingency manipulation into effect and begins to add fuel to Dent's hatred of Bruce Wayne, whom Dent sees as nothing more than a spoiled rich boy, in preparation towards Wayne's inevitable incarceration in his facility. Strange then legitimately reaches out to Dent and gives him a choice; he will throw his coin in the air and if Dent does not catch it, then Strange would do all that he can in his power to cure him and make him the man he once was. However, if Dent does catch it, then Strange would let him loose in Arkham City and inform him of what Catwoman is doing that very second. After Strange throws the coin in the air, Dent catches it, much to Strange's disappointment and annoyance, but lets Dent know of Catwoman's impending theft of his safe.

Strange then lets Two-Face go, knowing that Dent is too far gone to be cured and serve as a useful ally, and catch Catwoman, hoping to dispose of the cat burglar so that she can no longer interfere with his plans. With Dent's hatred of Wayne now made fresh in his mind, the billionaire playboy would soon become a target of his gang once he is captured and processed in Arkham City. Hugo Strange would also see to it that Two-Face and his crew would receive TYGER weapons as well to continue the escalation of violence in Arkham City.

With every possible witness to his plans or individual who simply knew too much being rounded up and locked within Arkham City, Strange is free to do as he pleased. Quincy Sharp's dictator-like stance soon compels the public to loath and fear him. None except Batman, however, know that Sharp is merely the front man for a much more insidious plot orchestrated by an outside power. Strange begins making all preparations to enact his ultimate plan, Protocol 10, which would pave the way to all his goals and allow him the complete authority and power he craved for most of his life.

Batman: Arkham City
"You are a truly extraordinary specimen. I look forward to breaking you."

- Strange as Batman pays his respects



After months and months of frequent challenges with confronting Quincy Sharp on the issue, Bruce Wayne finally enters into the political arena to challenge the necessity of Arkham City and questions its existence. Spending millions of dollars for this campaign, Bruce Wayne is able to rally enough public support to stage a press conference right outside the main gates to Arkham City. There, Wayne would officially voice his plans to start his campaign to shut Arkham City down and make Gotham a safer place again. However, to Hugo Strange, this could not be more perfect as he can finally capture Bruce Wayne once and for all, as capturing him as Batman has proven to be nearly impossible.

During the live press conference, which was attended even by Vicki Vale and Jack Ryder, Hugo Strange orders his TYGER forces to ambush the event and arrest all attendees with Wayne as the primary target, while also using this opportunity to capture Ryder and remove him as a threat. They accomplish their mission, delivering Wayne to Strange who proceeds to taunt and torture the man with electrical shocks. During this, Strange reveals to Bruce Wayne that he knows the truth about his secret identity as Batman and that he would reveal it to the world should Wayne not cooperate with him and his personnel in Arkham City.

With Wayne in his grasp at long last, Strange is mere hours away from enacting Protocol 10 and has Wayne thrown into the prison where he would soon become a target and, theoretically, be quickly killed by the various gangs. Strange personally communicates Penguin and informs him of Wayne's arrest, knowing of Copplepot's hatred of the Wayne family, to ensure that Penguin and his forces are waiting at the main gate for Wayne's arrival.

As Wayne is sent in with Ryder and another political prisoner, Strange watches and announces their new arrival to the citizens of Arkham City, enticing dozens of bloodthirsty killers to attack him. However, Wayne is able to easily outmaneuver all his attackers and attempts to save Ryder, only to be knocked out by Penguin's thugs. Regardless, Wayne defeats all of Penguins thugs, breaking Cobblepot's hand in the process, and escapes into the bowels of Arkham City. With all his pawns and plans in place throughout the entire prison compound, Strange delightfully begins the cat and mouse game he has been planning for years between him and the Dark Knight. With his TYGER operatives, his immense power and authority over Arkham City, and his countless connections with Batman's most dangerous and violent foes, Strange is confident in his abilities to best Batman and assume his mantle in order to conquer Gotham and pave the way for a glorious future comprised of fame, wealth, power, and immortality.

As Strange watches Bruce escape from the madness of the various gangs, his attention is soon diverted with the news that Catwoman is about to be executed by Two-Face, an event that was also orchestrated by Strange. While Strange sees this as inconsequential and amusing, Bruce is able to acquire his suit and equipment again with the help of Alfred and sets off to stop the assassination as Batman. With Arkham City as the ultimate experiment to test Batman and observe his abilities, Strange orders his TYGER troops to watch Batman's every movement during their patrols from their helicopters and study his moves extensively so that they will be prepared to take him down when the time is right.

In the meantime, Strange hires the help of Deadshot, a contract assassin, in targeting and killing the biggest threats to his position and plans, and has him smuggled into Arkham under the guise as another inmate. Strange gives Deadshot full access to all the equipment he needs as well as a PDA to store his hit list, which includes Jack Ryder, who has found out about Strange's hypnotic techniques, and Bruce Wayne/Batman, both marked as separate individuals, and three other political figures. While Strange doubts that Deadshot could kill Batman, he counts on him to take care of the other political prisoners and serve as a further diversion for the Dark Knight as he perfects his plans for Protocol 10.

As he approaches the commencement of Protocol 10, Strange would allow violent crime to chaotically erupt in the streets of Arkham City, including Penguin blowing up the highways, Riddler abducting the entire police and medical staff from the Gotham Cathedral, and gang warfare consuming the streets. Strange allows as much chaos to occur in order to obtain authorization to enact Protocol 10, the same reason that Strange continues to supply Joker, Penguin, and Two-Face with weapons.

As Batman rescues Freeze, puts Penguin and his gang out of commission, rescues Jack Ryder, and apprehends Deadshot after the contract killer murders three political prisoners, Strange realizes Batman is becoming much more of a risk while in Arkham City than he anticipated and resolves himself to employ psychological mind games against the Dark Knight. With Crime Alley firmly entrenched in Arkham City, Strange has the murder scene of Bruce's parents redrawn and a bouquet of roses placed next to the chalk outlines of their bodies along with a tape reel that contains a monologue by Strange himself taunting the deaths of Batman's parents and insulting his very motivation for becoming a hero.

With all the power and authority over Arkham City and TYGER under his complete control, Strange concludes that Mayor Sharp has finally outlived his usefulness and orders his security forces to arrest him, using the evidence of his crimes in Arkham Asylum as reason to incarcerate him. This makes Strange the De facto leader of Gotham City with the entire security force of Gotham under his complete control to bend to his every whim. After usurping his power and authority, Strange has Sharp dumped into Arkham City where he quickly becomes a target of the various gangs because of his affiliation with Arkham City and the rumors of the abused and murdered inmates of the old Asylum at his hands.

To ensure that Sharp becomes a victim of the lawlessness, Strange announces his location over the announcement system, encouraging the inmates to "give him the welcome he deserves". However, due to the continued bravery of Batman, Sharp's life is spared, who then recounts to the Dark Knight how he and Strange formed their alliance and what his role was in the massive conspiracy. Sharp admits that he agreed to work for Strange and set up Arkham City once Strange informed him back at the asylum of his powerful connections that would fund his mayoral campaign and ensure of his victory. Over the years however, Sharp began to see Strange's true nature and wanted to stop, but was unable to because of a combination of his mind control drugs and the knowledge Strange possessed of the former warden's heinous actions. Batman, now armed with the knowledge that there is another external party involved with Arkham City funding Strange's operations, lets the mayor go and continues in his attempts to stop them.



Two hours later, Strange calls an emergency meeting with the City Council where he informs them of a riot deep within Arkham City that might cause a massive breakout, caused by the military weapons that Strange has been providing to the gangs there over the previous months, and that Protocol 10 is the only option available. While the City Council members are both shocked and disappointed by Strange's apparent lack of control over the prison, they ultimately give him permission to enact Protocol 10: finally revealed to be the systematic destruction of Arkham City and the assassination of the entire inmate population.

Under Strange's commands, TYGER assault helicopters break off from their patrols and start tracking all prisoners that they can find and begin killing them on sight. Missiles are launched deep into the heart of Arkham City, hitting the Iceberg Lounge, Sionis Industries, and the Solomon Wayne Courthouse directly, killing hundreds of people in mere minutes. While Batman is set to pursue Talia al Ghul, who was stationed in Arkham City to aid in her father's operations, and rescue her from Joker, with whom she formed a pact with, he ultimately decides to go after Strange first at the pleading of both Alfred and Oracle.

As Strange oversees Protocol 10, Catwoman breaks into the Confiscated Goods Vault in an attempt to retrieve her ill gotten gains. Strange is further pleased by this turn of events and sends in his troops to kill the feline bugler once and for all just as Batman is caught underneath rubble from the various missile attacks on the Steel Mill. Strange orders his men to teach Catwoman one final lesson and to send a squad to retrieve Batman's body once Protocol 10 has concluded. However, Catwoman is able to defeat her opponents and rescues Batman from underneath the rumble, leaving all her loot behind.

"Have you ever considered that all this is your fault? Your presence creates these animals."

- Strange blaming Batman for the cause of Gotham's super-criminals

While TYGER helicopters are murdering all inmates in the city, Strange sends ground troops to personally massacre all the political prisoners and inmates he has made contact with as well as target Bane and retrieve all the Titan shipments in his possession. However, Batman spoils these attacks and, while fighting his way through the processing center to Wonder Tower, is interrupted by Strange through the Arkham City monitors. Holding a political prisoner hostage and threatening to inject chemicals into his throat through a syringe that would cause an overdose, Strange forces Batman to stop fighting and listen to his words. As Strange taunts Batman and blames everything on him, TYGER forces surround Batman as Strange reveals that he has been working together with another individual who also served as his private backer. After declaring his victory over Batman, Strange sends the orders to his TYGER troops to kill the Dark Knight once and for all.

Despite their overwhelming numbers, Batman subdues all the troops and proceeds to the lowest foundations of Wonder Tower. There, Batman finds the results of a bloody massacre between TYGER operatives and new inmates who were killed instead of being processed. In addition, it is discovered through Strange's PA system announcements that Arkham City is only the first of a series of prisons planned to be built with centers scheduled to be open in both Keystone City and Metropolis by the end of the month alone. As Batman gets closer to reaching the highest foundations of Wonder Tower, Strange augments security with additional troops in the subway system and orders them to shoot anyone on sight. Nonetheless, Batman is able to reach the Security Center at the apex of Wonder Tower.

Batman subdues all of the TYGER guards despite their increased strength and shuts down Protocol 10 down by disabling all the technology in Wonder Tower, rendering all TYGER helicopters and weaponry useless. After receiving several bone shattering hits from the Dark Knight, Strange reveals the truth to Batman that he intends to replace him as the new Gotham hero and savior and gloats how he has become a much better hero than the Dark Knight could've ever been because he has finally eliminated all crime in Gotham City.

Declaring that he will soon have command over forces beyond comprehension, Strange is brutally stabbed and run through by Ra's al Ghul, revealed as the silent benefactor of the project through his empire. It becomes apparent that Strange's ultimate goal was to replace Ra's and assume control over the League of Assassins and obtain the powers of immortality for himself through the Lazarus Pit. With Batman out of the way, Strange would be able to seize complete control over Gotham and multiple other cities as the new Batman with TYGER and the League serving as his armies.



Ra's, however reveals that he never had any intentions of giving Strange any position of permanent power and was simply using him as a pawn to eliminate crime in Gotham, telling the dying professor that the only thing that he has proven was that Batman was much better than him. In turn, Strange, who had anticipated a possible betrayal, employs his contingency plan: Protocol 11. Seconds later, the self destruct protocols engage and Wonder Tower explodes sending Batman and Ra's plummeting down to the ruined city hundreds of feet below, while Strange is consumed with his tower and TYGER guards, securing Batman's identity and ending the madness and plans of Hugo Strange once and for all. Batman would be able to safely land on the ground while Ra's Al Ghul is killed by his own hand after a failed suicide attack on Batman that ended with him being impaled by his own sword and violently landing directly on the Arkham City logo.

With the chaos and deception that is Arkham City no longer a mystery, Sharp's martial law is overturned and Gordon and the Gotham City Police Department are given back full authority by the City Council. With their full jurisdiction restored, Gordon and the GCPD begin to promptly arrest all TYGER forces and prepare to transfer all the inmates to secure locations, rescue all the falsely imprisoned, claim all illegal weapons, and shut down Arkham City once and for all. Over the following weeks, after much chaos and destruction, Arkham City would officially be shut down for good, all political prisoners would be rescued, and all planned constructions of further mega prisons in other cities would be cancelled, ending all of Strange's operations and leaving his reputation and legacy in tatters forever.

Ultimately, while Strange believed that his plans would create an honorable legacy for himself, he would only be seen as a power hungry madman who's megalomaniac and insane desires led to the death of thousands of individuals and left half of Gotham City in ruins. With years of planning and preparation met with betrayal, Hugo Strange died a broken man who would be seen as nothing more than another insane criminal on par with the very super-criminals he tried so hard to eliminate. Instead of becoming the hero and savior of Gotham City he thought he would, he had ironically became the very aspect of Gotham he despised and sought out to destroy.

Game Over Lines
thumb|300px|right|Hugo Stange's game over screens.

Batman

 * "So you fail to live up to his expectations. How predictable."
 * "I knew I was better than you, Wayne. Now you have proved it."
 * "Arkham City has become your tomb, Wayne."
 * "So the great Batman has fallen. Good."

Catwoman

 * "I will enjoy dissecting your brain, Ms. Kyle."
 * "Escape from Arkham City is impossible, Catwoman."
 * "Your thieving ends now."

Rules of Arkham City by Professor Hugo Strange
While in my custody, you will follow the rules of Arkham City to the letter. These rules ensure your continued well being.

Rule 1: Do not approach the security wall surrounding the facility, Any attempt to approach the wall will be considered an act of escape and will be met with extreme force.

 Rule 2:  All prisoners must surrender themselves for full psychiatric examination when requested. Failure to surrender will be met with extreme force followed by a level 9 and 10 psychiatric profiling.

Rule 3:  TYGER opreatives have full jurisdiction in Arkham City. If for any reason a TYGER operative approaches or issues an order to you, you must immediately adopt a kneeling position and place both hands on the back of your head. Failure to adopt this position will be considered an aggressive response and will be met with extreme force.

These rules are mandatory and by the power vested in me, by the people of Gotham City, lawful.