The Riddler (Arkhamverse)

"Think of me as an information broker. I've got data handlers everywhere - feeding me all kinds of interesting stuff!"

- Enigma

Edward Nigma is a man who has spent a vast amount of his life studying, exploring and memorizing all the knowledge he possibly could. Being raised by abusive and neglectful parents, he strived to be the most intelligent man alive. His parents (primarily his father) refused to believe he could ever become smarter than them, often accusing him of cheating whenever he succeeded in school academics or trivial games. This may have been what caused his inferiority complex to become so deep that he feels compelled to always leave cryptic clues to anyone worthy of his games in an attempt to prove both his honesty and his intellect initially taking on the moniker of Enigma.

Batman: Arkham Origins
The mysterious stranger known only as Enigma first catches the Dark Knight's attention when he notices a disturbance in his cryptographic sequencer, leading him to a GCR comm link tower with a booby-trapped mainframe. After piecing together a crime scene that involved the death of a maintenance employee, the Dark Knight becomes acquainted with the computer hacker who would one day be known as the Riddler. Enigma also had the man he hired to rig the mainframe access panel, John F. Baker, killed at the Diamond District to clean any traces of his involvement.

Although at first the Dark Knight suspects the hacker to just be another crook on Black Mask's payroll and, while the hacker is indeed aiding Black Mask's schemes (though he is intially unaware that it was actually the Joker who hired him, disguised as the crime lord), it is soon discovered that Enigma has plans of his own. By using a variety of methods, Enigma has been able to obtain massive amounts of blackmail on Gotham's most powerful citizens, planning to release the information to the public in order to inspire chaos in the streets.

Dismissing the Dark Knight's attempt to stop him as a minor inconvenience, Enigma continued to taunt Batman as he attempted to disrupt all the radio towers, but eventually Batman succeeded. Finally, after destroying all relays, interrogating all informants and collecting all the data packs, Batman came back to Enigma's HQ and destroyed his server. Enigma accepted temporary defeat, while claiming that he now holds onto the biggest, dirtiest secret that puts his collection of data to shame. Batman later unlocked Enigma's secret room, which revealed several items of interest: newspaper clips indicating Enigma's research on the Batman's identity (with the two main suspects being Bruce Wayne and Harvey Dent), pressure pads, cages, and one green glowing question mark that would later be referred to as the Riddler Trophy.

It is later revealed by Alfred that Enigma's real name is Edward Nashton, head of the GCPD's Cyber Crime division, explaining how he had so much access to the city's communications network and the extortion data he planned to release. With this knowledge in hand, Batman is prepared to apprehend Edward, who has since gone on the run, the second he resurfaces.

A coded message within the GCPD server and telecom rooms reveal that Nashton had only recently joined the organization as its Cyber Crime Division head, revealing that he had joined the GCPD simply to gain inside information through his newly acquired access to the entire city's infrastructure and files, which would eventually be used as extortion data on all of Gotham.

Cold Cold Heart
The next day, just as Mayor Hamilton Hill was about to make Peter Grogan Loeb's replacement for GCPD commissioner, envelopes from an anonymous individual were supplied to various media outlets containing evidence strongly implicating Hill and Grogan for ties with the Maroni Crime Family. It is strongly implied that Enigma had been responsible for exposing Hill's corrupt nature and the ensuing six-day protests as his "biggest, dirtiest secret."

On New Year's Day, Mayor Hill eventually ended up resigning in disgrace from office, although he had not ruled out a possible attempt at re-election during the new year. Regardless of whether he'll run for office or not, his resignation meant Grogan would not become commissioner.

This meant that, ironically enough, Enigma's plans had a profoundly positive effect on Gotham City as they finally revealed the corruption and conspiracy within Gotham's infrastructure and allowed the public access to the knowledge and evidence they needed to force their corrupt public officials out of office and appoint more ethical and noble individuals instead. Whether or not this was Engima's intentions is unknown, though his previous statements of wanting chaos in the streets seem to make it unlikely, given that the resolution to Hill's resignation ended on relatively peaceful terms, despite nearly a week of protests, and not the destruction Enigma had envisioned.

Batman: Assault on Arkham
At some point, he managed to be recruited into the Suicide Squad, which resulted in him learning about the explosives as well as how to deactivate them. The Riddler had been involved in The Joker's theft of a dirty bomb with enough power to wipe out more than half of Gotham should it go off. Sometime afterwards, he managed to steal data relating to the Suicide Squad. He then entered a communication with Director Amanda Waller where he attempted to prove his superiority by giving her riddles for her to solve. However, unbeknownst to him, Waller had deliberately contacted him in order to stall him long enough to get a pinpoint on the location of his hideout in the Gotham docks and have him taken out in a black ops operation by A.R.G.U.S.. However, he was rescued by Batman from his would-be assassins, and then captured and interrogated by Batman himself as he tried to escape in the confusion, due to Batman trying to track down Joker's dirty bomb. However, the Riddler doesn't know where it was located, so he was then sent to Arkham Asylum. The failure of the black ops mission resulted in Waller sending in the Suicide Squad to recover data from the Riddler and presumably assassinate him.

He eventually encountered the Suicide Squad, who had been dispatched with recovering the data of the Suicide Squad members, although he managed to help them with getting rid of their explosive bombs by shorting them out via electrotherapy. Unfortunately, he wasn't able to save King Shark from his explosive because his skin proved to be too tough to actually short out the bomb encased inside him. He also deduced that "Black Spider" was actually Batman in disguise, although he accidentally set off the electrotherapy voltage again after Batman shot a batarang into his arm. He managed to escape into the night after the Joker released the various Arkham inmates, taking advantage of the confusion.

Batman: Arkham Asylum
The Riddler was one of the many inmates who escaped Arkham Asylum after the Joker took control of the island. The Riddler made his way to a hidden location in Gotham City and contacted Batman by hacking into the communication signal the Dark Knight used to contact Oracle. In order to boast his superior intellect, the Riddler had organized a series of riddles around the island, ranging from a number of small trophies hidden in out-of-the-way spots to elaborate perspective puzzles. After escaping, he challenged Batman to find these, along with the additional challenge of solving riddles that described specific objects in various rooms.

Batman steadily solved every riddle, with the Riddler boasting his superiority to begin with but slowly becoming more enraged with Batman. Before solving the last few riddles, Batman located the Riddler's signal and notified the police of his whereabouts. After solving his final riddle, the Riddler began to implement Gotham's "greatest riddle." But before he could do so, the GCPD broke into his hideout on 225 O'Neil Avenue in Old Gotham. The police arrive there and arrest Riddler as he quotes to Batman that he cheated on his riddles. Riddler question marks in Dr. Young's book are found on his page and many villains' pages. He saw the book and wanted to know about a professional's viewpoint on the inmates. Some might be easy to manipulate or great allies to have in his eyes.

Batman: Arkham City

 * See: The Riddler (Batman: Arkham City)

Batman: Arkham Knight
The Riddler makes his first appearance just after Batman re-enables the bridge controls to save Oracle. He appears on the triple screen T.Vs next to the train station and shows Catwoman being held hostage in a wheelchair. He welcomes himself to the Dark Knight and goes on to explain how Batman humiliated him after their last 'meeting' (referring to Arkham city). He expresses how Batman will not defeat him this time as it is 'impossible'. He tells Batman to come to the Pinky Orphanage, where Catwoman is being held, or she will die. Left with no choice, Batman Heads to the Orphanage to rescue Catwoman.

After Batman removes Catwoman from the wheelchair in the main room of the Orphanage, he appears on a big T.V and 'introduces' his assistants to Batman & Catwoman: Robots. After Batman and Catwoman work together to defeat the robots, The Riddler explains that Catwoman has a collar on her neck, that requires 9 keys to unlock, but in order to collect the keys Batman must face a series of challenges in order to do so. The Riddler also explains that Catwoman cannot leave the orphanage without the collar, thus it is up to Batman to save her.

As Batman completes The Riddler's challenges to free Catwoman of the collar he constantly reappears on the screens around Gotham city, boasting about how he is superior to Batman and that he will never win.

After Batman and Catwoman work together to remove all 9 keys on Catwoman's collar; the two of them head for the exit of the orphanage but the Riddler himself appears in the main room, in a green giant mechanical robot. He fights Batman and Catwoman for a few moments but vanishes under the ground and tells Batman that in order for him to fight the Riddler, he must solve every Riddle in Gotham City.

As Batman comes close to solving last of Nigma's riddles, Nigma becomes increasingly shocked and frustrated. He nevertheless, boasts about how he is ready to fight Batman and will beat him once and for all.

When Batman solves the final riddle, Nigma congratulates him, and Batman confronts him at the Pinky orphanage. The Riddler, in his robot, rises up from the main rooms floor, in a green shield ready to fight Batman.

The Riddler summons many robots to attack Batman. Batman destroys most of them with ease, but many of them are color coded only to Catwoman, meaning he cannot defeat them all. Catwoman then appears on top of a beam in the main room and jumps down to help Batman defeat the robots, much to Nigma's dismay.

After Batman and Catwoman, destroy each round of robots, Batman grabs Nigma from his robot and knocks him out of the floor. Knocked unconscious, Batman drags the Riddler into the Batmobile to take him to the GCPD. Batman explains to Catwoman his plan, (Knightfall) they share a kiss and depart. While Batman is driving Nigma to the GCPD, Nigma is frustrated and accuses batman of cheating the whole time.

After Batman locks him up in the Maximum Security Cell along with all the other villains, he refuses to believe Batman is Bruce Wayne and complains how he is surrounded by inferior minds. Nevertheless, he remains in the maximum security cell, under close watch from the GCPD guards.

Batman: Arkham Origins

 * "Well, well. If it isn't the King Thug himself."
 * "You're cheating aren't you? You're getting help from someone. But who... Who's smart enough to outsmart me?!"
 * "Your response is as predictable as it is banal. Goodbye."
 * "You're quickly approaching the point of no return. I'd turn back if I were you!"
 * "What's wrong with you? It's not like I'm backing the bad guys here. Well - not usually."
 * "Alright. We've had our fun. But this endeavor's grown tiresome."
 * "I thought you had a city to save? So what are you doing, wasting time with me?"
 * "I'm disappointed Batman. You do realize there are other ways to overcome obstacles beyond smashing them?"
 * "Crawling around in vents like a common rat. How... expected."
 * "I bet steering that thing requires a whole lot of concentration - OOPS! SORRY ABOUT THAT!"
 * "You know, if you'd have asked nicely, I would have opened the door for you."
 * "You must be feeling pretty good about yourself, Batman. I mean, you took down all the towers! Which means you've foiled my plan... Except, oh wait, I already have all the data I need. And as soon as I'm done uploading it - so will everyone in Gotham."

Game Over Lines

 * "Brains always triumph over brawn, my friend. Always!"
 * "And here I thought I'd finally met my intellectual equal. So much for that."

Game Over Lines

 * "I did it! I actually did it ! I mean, of course I did. Good. As expected."
 * "I don't think you'll be solving this one."
 * "Riddle me this: What's dead? You!"
 * "Your death was inevitable, I'm afraid. A statistical certainty."

Trivia

 * Batman dubs him "Enigma" because Nasthton said he was "a great, big mystery [Batman] will never solve".
 * The name itself also alluded to his daughter in one of the comics.
 * Enigma is also the name of the character in the Spanish translations, among others.


 * Ironically, this may have been what inspired Edward to change his name to Edward Nigma - E. Nigma


 * Enigma's secret room cannot be accessed until all the Extortion Data has been collected and all the Relay Stations have been destroyed.