Hugo Strange was the morally ambiguous head chief of Psychiatry at Arkham Asylum, who was driven by his keen interest of the criminal mind.
Personality[]
Professor Hugo Strange is an insane psychiatrist who grows to become Batman's greatest threat. His job as a psychiatrist ending after he toyed with his patients' well-being just out of curiosity, notably curing Arnold Wesker of his split personality Scarface - only to break his mind again. He cares nothing of innocent people as shown when he didn't look to find Detective Yin, instead focusing on finding out the Joker's past. He even made a robot to study Batman and bring him down. However, later on, he become so evil that he worked with The Joining to gain ultimate power and willingly sold out all of humanity to be destroyed by them, in return for all the knowledge in the universe. Even the Joker proved willing to help the police fight the Joining, whereas Strange helps the aliens incapacitate and capture the Justice League. This proves Hugo cares about no one but himself and will do whatever it takes to get power. However, there are times when his curiousity overrides his own sense of self-preservation.
History[]
A psychiatrist at Arkham Asylum, Professor Hugo Strange had an interest in the minds of the psychotic minds that filled the cells in Arkham. Strange testified at Ethan Bennett's, aka Clayface, court date, and gave Ethan a clean bill of health for his mental stasis.
Although he claimed to have wanted to help the inmates at Arkham Asylum, Strange seemed more bent on finding out how the criminal mind worked, rather than simply curing it causing him to do morally questionable actions that Batman was against.
After being "cured" of his affliction by Strange, Arnold Wesker (The Ventriloquist) was able to resume his life in the real world. Despite being successful in his new life, Strange wished to "test" his criminal therapy and gave the Scarface puppet back to Wesker, which caused him to fold and resume his criminal career. He even lied to Bruce that Wesker would be happy to perform at his Gala. Once Batman found out about Hugo putting Scarface in Weskers apartment, he admonished Strange for further damaging the old man's mind, only to be mocked for his method of solving crime(costumes), showing Stranges clear lack of morality.
Strange once ran Arkham Asylum until his own asylum deemed that he was insane himself. He was then tossed into one of the Arkham's padded cells. On many occasions, he tried to study Batman, but none succeeded. Strange invented a machine that allowed someone to enter a person's mind and entered The Joker's, which sparked his new interest in Batman after he learned he wanted to save Ellen Yin.
In Gotham's Ultimate Criminal Mastermind, Strange invented a special computer to study Batman. After he took the profiles of Mr. Freeze, The Penguin, The Riddler, The Joker, Clayface, and himself, Strange created "Gotham's Ultimate Criminal Mastermind", a Digitally Advanced Villain Emulator or "D.A.V.E."
Allowing this Frankenstein's monster to unleash itself upon Gotham by programming it to "escape" from Arkham, Strange allowed it to lure and study Batman. Though he had set the ultimate trap for Batman in the Batcave, D.A.V.E. hadn't planned on Batman using reverse logic on him. Although D.A.V.E. knew of the origins of others, he didn't know the origin of himself--or even that he wasn't human. After Batman told him this, it bought him enough time to crush D.A.V.E. under the giant penny.
Now committed into the very place where he used to treat his patients, Strange requested Batman’s audience and told him of his mad ambitions to turn everyone in Gotham into a zombie who listened only to him.
Unbeknownst to Batman, Strange infected him and Robin with the very same virus that he planned to inflict upon the city, and made Batman and Robin the carriers. Batman then spent the remaining 48 hours trying to cure a city that didn’t need treating before he eventually overcame Strange’s mind control and realized that he was seconds away from infecting Gotham. Strange remained in Arkham with his mad scheme stopped.
Strange was later shown as one of the criminals who was captured by the vigilante, Rumor. During his time captive, Strange desires to know more about Rumor's motivations by watching Bane try to break out of his cell. Additionally, Catwoman finds him annoying. Rumor tells him about his past, which Strange taunts him as he learns that Paul isn't a hero, but a man who wants to save his boss. While Batman and Robin fight Rumor, he accidently freed all the escaped prisoners. Once freed he tried to escape, but was later put back in Arkham.
Strange later tried to help the Joining take over Earth, and requested all of the knowledge of the universe. After succeeding, they granted Strange's wish. However, the amount of knowledge caused his brain to overload. Strange had all of the knowledge of the universe, but he was left catatonic.
Appearances[]
Season 2[]
Season 3[]
Season 4[]
- "Strange New World"
- "Rumors"
- "The Joining, Part 2" (Flashback in another episode)
Season 5[]
The Batman Strikes[]
- Issue 26 "Escape"
- Issue 39 " Hostile Takeover" (cameo)
Voiced by[]
- Frank Gorshin (English)
- Richard Green (Later On)
- Manzo Wowari (Japanese)
- Jean Claude Sachot (French)
- Cesare Rasini (Italian)
- Andrzej Blumenfeld (Polish)
- Gunnar Ernblad (Swedish)
Trivia[]
- In "Strange New World", Strange's role in the episode was originally going to be filled by the Scarecrow. This makes sense considering that Batman suffers hallucinations throughout the episode thanks to a toxin made by Strange, which resembles the Scarecrow's iconic fear gas. However, the Scarecrow was restricted from appearing in the show due the version played by Cillian Murphy in The Dark Knight Trilogy.
Gallery[]
