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 to Bruce Wayne

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 and Batman's secret identity
 * Plagued by schizophrenic episodes that leave him confused and dangerous

Background
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. 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, and dedicated his life to finding out more about Gotham City's greatest protector.

Apparently spending years intensifying his studies on the one topic, Strange also became intrigued with Batman's perfect code of justice--no one dies by his hand. He also longed to become the Dark Knight himself, inherit the legend of such a crime-fighter. With such an cunning mind being put to work, it wasn't long before the cunning doctor used his skills to discover his subject's secrets, including his alter ego as millionaire playboy Bruce Wayne. Strange was later 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.

After successfully deducing the identity of Batman, Strange planned to become both rich and famous from his deduction and planned to sell 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 of Strange's proposition.

Strange's keen understanding of Batman eventually allowed him an audience with none other than Ra's al Ghul, one of Batman oldest and greatest enemies who also knew of his identity. Strange told Ra's all that he knew of Batman and how he wished to help Ra's 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, 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 an 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, and completely hollow. He was a blank easel, fit for someone else to manipulate. Knowing of Sharp's aspirations to become Mayor, Strange approached him and told him that he had friends in high places that could benefit his mayoral campaign for years on end. Strange, blinded by his political aspirations, accepted Strange's bribes and allowed the mad doctor to carry out inhuman experiments on the patients of Arkham Asylum.

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 digested it much more malleable to suggestion. In order to cover his tracks, Sharp had Jervis locked back up 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 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 insure that he remains loyal to him and him alone.

Sharp, shocked at his unstable personality, agreed and let Strange become his private psychiatrist to get better, though Strange would do nothing of the sort and, instead, continue to supply him with his mind control drugs, disguised as medical pills, to insure Sharp remains in his complete control. 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. With the help of Ra's agents throughout Gotham's infrastructure, Strange's record and all information related to his crimes was 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. One of Strange's first 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.

These plans were almost set back by a massive riot at Arkham Asylum carried out by The Joker, Clown Prince of Crime, who freed most of its deranged inmates and took over the institution for one night before his scheme was thwarted by Batman himself. 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.

Now, with such a madman finally in control of the "board", the pieces of an ingenious plan to destroy a 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 declaring Gotham a war zone and instituting a new prison system for all criminals after several rogue members of Two Face's gang destroyed the city hall, killing more than three hundred citizens. It is implied that the psychiatrist had been planning this incident all along from his position behind the scenes, thereby coming up with a pretext to put Gotham City under martial law and begin running it like his own police state.

With Arkham Asylum and the local penitentiary now unfit to house criminals, 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: Dozens of the worst criminals are simply thrown into a walled-off lawless district where everyone can forget about them. Hugo Strange, of course, finally comes into the limelight when Mayor Sharp places him at the helm of the new project, delegating to him full authority over both the project and its staff. 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. 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 begin using it as their base of operations 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.

With months 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 to escape his cell in Arkham after having his wife, Nora, moved into Arkham City. When Freeze arrives at Nora's previous location, Gotham 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, but Strange has no intention of handing over Nora and only plans to use Freeze 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 until his TYGER forces recapture him, making TYGER look much more efficient than the Gotham City Police Department. Strange would also 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 doctor 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 behavioral control, where the mad doctor would continue in his inhumane experiments. Some of these individuals would be turned into TYGER guards, while others were lobotomized, or went missing all together.

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, whom Strange had an alliance with. Freeze is horrified and vows to get Nora back and kill Strange, but Strange delightfully locks Freeze up in the next room. Strange would later form an alliance with Mr. Copplepot, also known as The Penguin, and hands Freeze over to him to be locked up in his museum as Freeze had no further use to him and to also impede Joker's progress on developing a cure to his Titan illness as Freeze was being blackmailed by the Clown Prince of Crime to find the cure. Strange would also give both the Joker and the Penguin military weapons as part of a much larger plot and even hand over victims of his inhuman experiments to Penguin to use as target practice to further cover up his tracks.

Gotham's New "Savior"
Eventually, Strange would shut down all criminal operations throughout Gotham, force 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 also to locate her safe full of stolen loot and goods. Under Strange's order, 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 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 super-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. 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 ever criminal is now in their hands and that they can now focus their full attention on capturing Batman. Once Dent is brought to him, Strange sees him as a great, potential ally, 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 insure that Dent cooperates and answers his questions regarding his insanity. 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 from his own gang and a headquarters within the Sholom 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 own campaign office as part of a fail-safe plan should Dent not cooperate to be cured.

Once Dent is brought back to him, Strange reaches out to him 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. He then lets Two-Face go, knowing that Dent is too far gone to be cured and serve as a useful ally and, and catch Catwoman, hoping to dispose of the cat burglar so that she can no longer interfere with his plans.

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, suspect that Sharp is merely the front man for a much more insidious plot orchestrated by an outside power. Strange began 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
Because of the secrecy involved in the project known as Arkham City and frequent challenges with Quincy Sharp, Bruce Wayne enters into the political arena to challenge the necessity of Arkham City and questions its existence. During a live press conference attended by Vicki Vale and Jack Ryder, Hugo Strange ordered Arkham City's TYGER Security Contractors to storm the press conference and take Wayne prisoner. They accomplished their mission delivering Wayne to Strange where he proceeded to experiment and torture the man with electrical shocks. During this, Strange revealed to Bruce Wayne that he knew 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 Protocol 10 soon to be enacted, Strange had Wayne thrown into the prison where he would soon become a target and would, theoretically, be quickly killed by the various gangs.

Sent in with Ryder and another, unidentified prisoner, Strange watched and announced their new arrival to the citizens of Arkham City. His attention was soon diverted, and intercepted by Bruce, with the news that Catwoman was about to be executed by recent arrival Two-Face, an event that was also orchestrated by Strange. While Strange saw it as inconsequential and amusing, Bruce set off to stop the assassination as Batman. When caught by a helicopter, Strange quickly ordered that Batman was to be ignored as he was not important. In the meantime, Strange hired the help of Deadshot, a contract assassin, in targeting and killing the biggest threats to his position and plans, including Jack Ryder, who found out about Strange's hypnotic techniques, and Bruce Wayne/Batman, both marked as separate individuals. While Strange never believed that Deadshot could kill Batman, he counted on him to take care of the other political prisoners and serve as a further diversion for the Dark Knight as he perfected his plans for Protocol 10.

As time passed by, Strange realized Batman was becoming more of a risk while in Arkham City and resolved himself to employ psychological mind games against the Dark Knight. With Crime Alley firmly entrenched in Arkham City, Strange had the murder scene of Bruce's parents redrawn and a bouquet of roses placed next to the chalk outlines of their bodies. Soon after, realizing that he'd outlived his usefulness, Strange ordered Quincy Sharp arrested by his security forces. Strange had Sharp dumped into Arkham City where he quickly became a target of the various gangs because of his previous affiliation with Arkham and rumors that he had abused inmates of the Asylum. To ensure that Sharp became a victim of the lawlessness, Strange announced his location over the announcement system.

Two hours later, Strange called an emergency meeting with the City Council where he informed 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 was the only option available. While the City Council members were both shocked and disappointment by Strange's lack of control over the prison, they would ultimately give him permission to enact Protocol 10: finally revealed to be the systematic destruction of Arkham City and assassination of the entire inmate population. Under Strange's commands, TYGER assault helicopters broke off of their patrols and started tracking any and all prisoners that they could find and began killing them on sight. Missiles were 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 was set to pursue Talia to rescue her from Joker, at the pleading of both Alfred Pennyworth and Oracle Batman went after Strange.

While TYGER helicopters were murdering all inmates in the city, Strange personally sent ground troops to massacre all the political prisoners and inmates he made contact with to ensure that his countless crimes were never found out or leaked to the public. However, Batman spoils many of these attacks and, while fighting his way through the processing center to Wonder Tower, Batman learns from Strange that he has been working together with another individual who also served as his private backer. In addition, it is discovered 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 before the end of the month alone. As he is getting closer to reaching the 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 City, 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 attacked by Ra's al Ghul, who was the silent benefactor of the project through the League of Assassins. 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 revealed that he never had any intentions of giving Strange any position of permanent power and was simply his pawn to eliminate crime in Gotham, telling the dying doctor 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, employed his contingency plan: Protocol 11. Seconds later the self destruct protocols engaged and the Wonder Tower exploded seconds after expiring his last breath, his body being consumed with his tower and TYGER guards, ending the madness and plans of Hugo Strange once and for all.

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."