Otis Flannegan was once a sanitation worker in Gotham City, before forming a bond with the very rats he was meant to exterminate. Disillusioned with the city's broken political system, Otis eventually suffered a mental breakdown and reimagined himself as his new persona, the Ratcatcher, using electronic means to control and build up a massive army of rats as his dedicated flock.
Using his new army to commit his own signature crimes, Otis employed himself to various crime lords, including his idol at the time, Black Mask. Upon the realization that the Black Mask he was serving was actually the Joker, impersonating the mobster, Otis became disillusioned and was arrested and sent to Blackgate Penitentiary, subsequently joining the emerging cult, the Rats, led by the elusive Rat King.
Upon the Rat King and his cult's neutralization, Otis largely operated alone and continued in his criminal activities for over a decade, before getting in too deep for his own good with other Gotham rogues, ultimately sealing his fate and ending his life.
History[]
Batman: Arkham Shadow[]
Otis Flannegan worked within Gotham City, having a career in pest control before he began to form a bond with the very rats that he was employed to snuff out. Eventually suffering a mental breakdown, Otis attempted to murder one of his sanitation coworkers when he attempted to kill several rats during one of their jobs and was subsequently incarcerated in Blackgate Penitentiary.
Upon being released from the prison for good behavior, Otis doubled down on his new "Ratcatcher" persona, experimenting with electronic methods of controlling his new flock of rats, eventually being able to effortlessly command them to perform various activities as part of his crimes. Viewing the city's biggest crime lord, Black Mask, who controlled the criminal underworld and the city politically, as his idol, Otis offered his services to the villain and became employed in his criminal empire.
Otis began to steal, assault, and even murder for Black Mask, before coming to horrifying realization that his employer was in fact a new criminal mastermind, the Joker, who had been impersonating the mobster to seize control over his empire, and the criminal underworld in the process. Broken upon the knowledge that his boss was actually a mass murdering psychopath with no ideals outside of creating carnage and destruction, while the real Black Mask became a fallen crime boss, Otis was eventually captured by the GCPD in Park Row and sent back to Blackgate.
While incarcerated, Otis eventually found solace in a new and emerging villain, the elusive Rat King, and joined his cult of Rats, who were largely disillusioned Gotham citizens broken by the corrupt political and law systems of Gotham. Within Blackgate, Otis would be able to escape from his cell using the prison's ventilation and tunnel systems and recruit and radicalize new inmates to join the expanding Rat cult to commence a doomsday event known as the "Day of Wrath," one week from the 4th of July.
However, word soon spread throughout the inmate population that prisoners, most of them being Rats, were disappearing from their cells each night, instilling considerable fear into the cult. Hoping to find answers, Otis would keep tabs over the prison at night via the ventilation systems, eventually seeing Carmine Falcone being bagged and beaten in the prison chapel by Lyle Bolton, the corrupt leader of the security company, TYGER, now in control of the facility. Wanting to help a fellow inmate, Otis went to aid Falcone after Lyle left him unconscious, but upon coming to, Carmine assumed that Ratcatcher was the one who roughed him up and was the Rat King.
Otis would eventually be located by Batman, during his uncover mission in the prison, and interrogated for his role in the Rat King's schemes, only for the hero to conclude that Flannegan was merely a follower and seemingly not privy to any essential information. Afterwards, Otis would be taken to solitary confinement by TYGER and eventually approached by Batman's inmate alter-ego, Irving Malone, based off information he interrogated from Johnathan Crane entailing that the Rat King had an operative now returned to solitary.
Otis finally unveiled the truth that he was inducted into the Rat King's cult during his incarceration in Blackgate, following his arrest while operating for Black Mask, and realizing that it was the Joker impersonating the crime lord. Otis further revealed that he was blindfolded during his indoctrination and had no knowledge on where his leader operated from, but confirmed that his appointed role was to radicalize inmates in order to be welcomed into his master's expanding army. Handing Irving a propaganda tape made by the Rat King, Otis urged him to listen to his master's words and become part of his cult.
Later that night, Otis would be freed from his cell during a massive riot initiated by the Rats at the behest of their leader, now believed to be Irving following his perceived attack on District Attorney Harvey Dent at the Solomon Wayne Courthouse. In truth however, Harvey was the Rat King, an alternate personality formed from years of abuse at his father's hands and made worse by Crane's experimental drugs. Harvey had in fact been the one responsible for the abduction of the Rats, employing corrupt TYGER soldiers and GCPD officers to take the inmates from their cells at night and store them within a World War II vessel that was docked beneath the island, with plans to crash the ship into the GCPD headquarters and have his army attack Gotham.
Injured from the resulting carnage of the riots, Otis apologized to Irving for his ignorance in not knowing that he had been speaking to his "king" for days. Irving, now posing as the Rat King, implored Otis to get some rest and that he did good work as his disciple. Batman, after surrendering his alternate identity as Malone, would neutralize the riots, prevent the Rats' attack on Gotham, and stop Harvey, ultimately averting the Day of Wrath. With the true events covered up and Harvey, now undergoing medical treatment, heralded as the hero who stopped the Rats, Malone would later become the prime suspect as the Rat King, but also presumed dead and no longer a threat.
As a result of these events, Otis would become disillusioned with the Rats, all of whom disbanded not long after the riots, and would consequently operate independently moving forward, no longer idolizing crime lords or cultists, and instead focused on his own signature crimes for his own goals and his alone.
Batman: Arkham Asylum[]
While the Ratcatcher does not appear in Batman: Arkham Asylum, his gear and his gas mask can be seen in the Ventilation System of the asylum's Botanical Gardens. Scanning them unlocks both his profile and solves a riddle.
Batman: Arkham City[]
Otis would be one of the many asylum inmates to be transferred to Arkham City, where he knew he needed a plan to survive. As the Penguin had the illicit goods market sewn up, Flannegan began using his rat army to retrieve supplies that he would sell as small comforts, such as fine soap, breath mints, and extra buttons. Business was brisk, and Otis felt safe, until Penguin came looking for his rival vendor.
Once Cobblepot located his competition, Flannegan was last seen dragged screaming through the streets of Arkham City, followed by a trail of rats, into the museum and never to be seen again. A conversation between two Penguin thugs, overheard by Batman, revealed that an inmate, relieved of his legs, was suspended over a pit of rats by their sadistic employer. Despite this, the inmate survived for days, much to Penguin's shock and anger and decided to instead feed the prisoner to his pet shark, Tiny, alluding to Flannegan's final fate.
Files[]
Psychological Profile[]
The Ratcatcher
Real Name: Otis Flannegan
TELL MAINTENANCE TO INCREASE RAT POISON AROUND CELL.
Psychological Profile: Suffering from acute anthropomorphic delusions, Flannegan is so convinced that he can control rats, that he has persuaded many of Arkham's inmates, orderlies, guards, and even other doctors that he commands this fantastical ability. Personally, I don’t consider "evidence" provided by the Batman to be convincing of anything, and find it much more likely that Flannegan has manifested a unique variation of a Messiah complex.
Additional Notes
I'm hesitant to administer aggressive treatment before first doing a full write-up on his condition; it could be an easy way to get published and procure naming rights to a newly documented disorder.
If only there weren't so many odious vermin constantly swarming in his cell.