The Return of Hugo Strange
Dec. 8th, 2010 03:44 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
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At some unspecified point in the 80's, the great J.M. DeMatteis pitched a Hugo Strange story to DC, where Hugo "apparently kills Batman and, in his arrogance and ego, decides to become Batman, putting on the costume, taking over the role, in order to prove his superiority."
Of course, this is the story which became Spider-Man: Kraven's Last Hunt (and also informed JMD's own Batman: Going Sane, with the Joker). Can you imagine what that would have been like? The different characters right away demand fundamental changes to the story, but that had potential to be the character-defining storyline for Hugo, just as it was for Kraven.
Perhaps Denny O'Neill rejected JMD's pitch because Gerry Conway already started exploring that idea, once he revealed that Hugo was alive and well at the finale of the Rupert Thorne saga. I've decided to give Hugo's full return its own post, as it now represents a distinct shift in focus for the character.
So now that he's taken his revenge on Thorne, what's Hugo's next move? Head back to Europe and resume his lucrative life as a master criminal? Retire off to some remote island? Dedicate his life to using science to advance mankind? Ha, you're funny.
Oh wait. Hugo still knows that Batman is Bruce Wayne, doesn't he? Well, now. Something has to be done about that...

Note: These scans are from Batman #356.

You'd think Bruce would have enough on his plate between getting turned into a vampire and having Rupert Thorne hire Deadshot to kill him, but he's also had troubles with the women in his life. But at least with Thorne heading to Blackgate, things finally seem to be settling down for Batman's alter ego.

And when he wakes up, Bruce climbs out of the car, stunned by what he sees:

He enters to find Alfred waiting for him with tea, as usual. Everything seems kosher, but being the detective that he is, Bruce grows suspicious and declines.
Rule number one of Wayne Manor: Never Turn Down Alfred's Tea.

And there's Alfred, standing at attention with a full tray, as if nothing had happened. Bruce turns back around, and the Alfred who attacked him is... gone? Completely thrown off, Bruce thinks he must have been imagining things, as if he were having a bad dream, and he decides to relax with a nice hot shower.

I could have posted more pages that could actually tell this story better, but instead, I chose this panel. You're welcome, folks.
Hell, if I were really smart, I would have made that panel the preview image for the post. Probably would have gotten more attention. Meh.
Bruce strikes back against Robin, seemingly killing him in the process.

He turns to find Robin's body has vanished, while Dick looks perplexed as to why Bruce seems to be having a nervous breakdown.

Meanwhile, "Alfred" is seen heading down into the Batcave, carrying the body of "Robin" with him:

I like to imagine that Bruce actually has a dumpster in the Batcave where he throws away his used and broken butlers and sidekicks. He just has it there as a warning to the rest. "Watch out, or you'll end up just like Aunt Harriet and Fat Alfred!"
Just as Bruce is trying to pull himself together, "Dick" tries to kill him, and Bruce instinctively fights back, being pushed to the edge.

Realzing that he's not going crazy after all, Bruce heads downstairs to the Batcave. There, he finds his opponent waiting for him, dressed in a familiar costume and handing Bruce a spare.

Yoga does not work that way! ... Does it?
By the way, notice how this story is directly influenced by Alan Brennert's "Interlude on Earth-Two!" (published less than a year before this issue!) which culminated with the heroes battling Hugo--and his android replicas--in the Batcave. Conway clearly decided to take those elements and bring them into his grand return of Earth-One Hugo.
One thing I've noticed about Hugo Strange stories is that every one seems directly influenced by every one that came before. By and large, he's the only Batman villain to have a single continuous arc of development. And it carries through even in the post-Crisis, post-Miller reboot era, as you'll be seeing later.
By the way, while Bruce has been going through this whole ordeal, the real Alfred and Robin have been wondering where the hell's Batman. Using a homing beacon on the utility belt, Robin is coming to the rescue:




"... but by heaven," he declares, pulling the ominous red lever, "if Hugo Strange cannot be the Batman, then no one can!" And in a magnificent display which took up an entire page, the fake Wayne Manor goes kablooey! Oh noes!
Meanwhile, at real Wayne Manor, Alfred answers a knock at the door, finding Bruce Wayne pointing a gun at him, ready to fire. That is, until "Bruce" is knocked out by Batman.

And there you have it: Hugo Strange, criminal mastermind and brilliant manipulator, felled by poor eyesight. Man, between this and the "Zoinks!" and "Jinkies!" moments of the previous issues, it feels like Conway really was using Scooby-Doo as inspiration.
Seriously though, after all that build-up throughout the Rupert Thorne story, and all from Strange discovering Wayne's secret back in Strange Apparitions almost a decade earlier, this is kind of an ignominious death for such a major threat. Especially one as brilliant and methodical as Strange.
Clearly, Conway's successor, Doug Moench, thought so too. I was going to include that issue with this as a double-feature, but it deserves its own post, more so than even this story.
Of course, this is the story which became Spider-Man: Kraven's Last Hunt (and also informed JMD's own Batman: Going Sane, with the Joker). Can you imagine what that would have been like? The different characters right away demand fundamental changes to the story, but that had potential to be the character-defining storyline for Hugo, just as it was for Kraven.
Perhaps Denny O'Neill rejected JMD's pitch because Gerry Conway already started exploring that idea, once he revealed that Hugo was alive and well at the finale of the Rupert Thorne saga. I've decided to give Hugo's full return its own post, as it now represents a distinct shift in focus for the character.
So now that he's taken his revenge on Thorne, what's Hugo's next move? Head back to Europe and resume his lucrative life as a master criminal? Retire off to some remote island? Dedicate his life to using science to advance mankind? Ha, you're funny.
Oh wait. Hugo still knows that Batman is Bruce Wayne, doesn't he? Well, now. Something has to be done about that...

Note: These scans are from Batman #356.

You'd think Bruce would have enough on his plate between getting turned into a vampire and having Rupert Thorne hire Deadshot to kill him, but he's also had troubles with the women in his life. But at least with Thorne heading to Blackgate, things finally seem to be settling down for Batman's alter ego.

And when he wakes up, Bruce climbs out of the car, stunned by what he sees:

He enters to find Alfred waiting for him with tea, as usual. Everything seems kosher, but being the detective that he is, Bruce grows suspicious and declines.
Rule number one of Wayne Manor: Never Turn Down Alfred's Tea.

And there's Alfred, standing at attention with a full tray, as if nothing had happened. Bruce turns back around, and the Alfred who attacked him is... gone? Completely thrown off, Bruce thinks he must have been imagining things, as if he were having a bad dream, and he decides to relax with a nice hot shower.

I could have posted more pages that could actually tell this story better, but instead, I chose this panel. You're welcome, folks.
Hell, if I were really smart, I would have made that panel the preview image for the post. Probably would have gotten more attention. Meh.
Bruce strikes back against Robin, seemingly killing him in the process.

He turns to find Robin's body has vanished, while Dick looks perplexed as to why Bruce seems to be having a nervous breakdown.

Meanwhile, "Alfred" is seen heading down into the Batcave, carrying the body of "Robin" with him:

I like to imagine that Bruce actually has a dumpster in the Batcave where he throws away his used and broken butlers and sidekicks. He just has it there as a warning to the rest. "Watch out, or you'll end up just like Aunt Harriet and Fat Alfred!"
Just as Bruce is trying to pull himself together, "Dick" tries to kill him, and Bruce instinctively fights back, being pushed to the edge.

Realzing that he's not going crazy after all, Bruce heads downstairs to the Batcave. There, he finds his opponent waiting for him, dressed in a familiar costume and handing Bruce a spare.

Yoga does not work that way! ... Does it?
By the way, notice how this story is directly influenced by Alan Brennert's "Interlude on Earth-Two!" (published less than a year before this issue!) which culminated with the heroes battling Hugo--and his android replicas--in the Batcave. Conway clearly decided to take those elements and bring them into his grand return of Earth-One Hugo.
One thing I've noticed about Hugo Strange stories is that every one seems directly influenced by every one that came before. By and large, he's the only Batman villain to have a single continuous arc of development. And it carries through even in the post-Crisis, post-Miller reboot era, as you'll be seeing later.
By the way, while Bruce has been going through this whole ordeal, the real Alfred and Robin have been wondering where the hell's Batman. Using a homing beacon on the utility belt, Robin is coming to the rescue:




"... but by heaven," he declares, pulling the ominous red lever, "if Hugo Strange cannot be the Batman, then no one can!" And in a magnificent display which took up an entire page, the fake Wayne Manor goes kablooey! Oh noes!
Meanwhile, at real Wayne Manor, Alfred answers a knock at the door, finding Bruce Wayne pointing a gun at him, ready to fire. That is, until "Bruce" is knocked out by Batman.

And there you have it: Hugo Strange, criminal mastermind and brilliant manipulator, felled by poor eyesight. Man, between this and the "Zoinks!" and "Jinkies!" moments of the previous issues, it feels like Conway really was using Scooby-Doo as inspiration.
Seriously though, after all that build-up throughout the Rupert Thorne story, and all from Strange discovering Wayne's secret back in Strange Apparitions almost a decade earlier, this is kind of an ignominious death for such a major threat. Especially one as brilliant and methodical as Strange.
Clearly, Conway's successor, Doug Moench, thought so too. I was going to include that issue with this as a double-feature, but it deserves its own post, more so than even this story.
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Date: 2010-12-08 09:19 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-12-08 09:21 pm (UTC)Man, I want an Alfred PennyBot! Just, y'know, without the murderous tendencies.
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Date: 2010-12-08 09:34 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-12-08 09:44 pm (UTC)My god! He never took middle school high hygiene. He never saw the propaganda film!"
... Man, it's a good thing I didn't have photoshop around the time of Avengers Disassembled, or else I would have spend a whole day doing a mash-up of "I Dated a Robot!" with Vision and Scarlet Witch, narrated by Captain America, with Galactus as the Space Pope.
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Date: 2010-12-08 09:53 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-12-08 10:09 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-12-09 12:34 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-12-08 09:56 pm (UTC)Poor Hugo. He mighta been a contender if it weren't for that...
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Date: 2010-12-08 10:08 pm (UTC)Yep. A damn, damn shame.
;)
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Date: 2010-12-09 02:19 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-12-09 05:46 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-12-08 10:54 pm (UTC)Seriously, these kinds of stories were why I always wanted to live in this universe. This is what they're fighting for: tea and backgammon at the Manor!
Also props to how well the Dick!Bot dies. I can't think of another male superhero who would sprawl that provocatively.
Didn't realize that about Hugo Strange. It really does make him stand out.
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Date: 2010-12-08 11:09 pm (UTC)Also props to how well the Dick!Bot dies. I can't think of another male superhero who would sprawl that provocatively.
It's how he'd have wanted to go; in his Robin costume, sprawled on the bathroom floor with Bruce standing over him, naked...
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Date: 2010-12-09 12:37 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-12-08 11:17 pm (UTC)"I'm your biggest fan."
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Date: 2010-12-08 11:19 pm (UTC)Well, I suppose that's better than Hugo being Batman's Annie Wilkes.
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Date: 2010-12-09 12:25 am (UTC)Also, all he learned about fictional yoga Death-man taught him. >=P
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Date: 2010-12-09 12:36 am (UTC)Ha! I actually rather like the idea of tying Hugo to even the most obscure (although now less so) villains from the Bat-Manga.
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Date: 2010-12-09 06:24 am (UTC)Also, that scene where the 'Robin-bot' gets killed is fairly harrowing. It's pretty obvious at that point that it's not the REAL Robin who just got killed, but the narration is vivid enough to make you shudder at the possibility that it IS somehow.
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Date: 2010-12-09 07:32 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-12-09 08:02 am (UTC)The thing is, though, I don't think he has any particular admiration for what Batman DOES, he just admires what Batman IS. He's impressed by the psychological power that Batman wields, and the whole 'dark creature of the night' thing - he doesn't have any actual interest in fighting crime; he's a criminal, for cryin' out loud. My guess is that if he ever DID replace Batman, he'd just do so as a crimelord version - he'd try to convince everybody that he was the real Batman gone rogue. (Which, to be fair, would be a legitimate psychological weapon, considering how scared your average crook is of Batman - rival crimelords would drop like flies because their hirelings would be too scared to go up against the Bat.)
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Date: 2010-12-09 08:06 am (UTC)You nailed it. Prey explores these ideas even more thoroughly with how Hugo views Batman with a mixture of envy and loathing.
But damn, that actually WOULD be seriously effective and scary. Wow. And the thing is, crazy though he is, Hugo has almost always been depicted as brilliant and functioning enough of a madman to actually pull something like that off!
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Date: 2010-12-09 08:12 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-12-09 08:15 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-12-09 08:47 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-12-09 08:52 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-12-09 09:05 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-12-09 09:19 am (UTC)In the 70's, it was Ra's al Ghul. In the 80's, it was Black Mask and, to a lesser extent, the original Killer Croc. In the 90's, it was Bane. In the 00's, it was first Hush, then Dr. Hurt. These characters have all taken their places in the ranks of Batman's rogues, but none have really surpassed the Joker, no matter how they were intended in their creation.
The thing I've noticed is that Hugo is a niche villain for more than just comic readers. Comic readers know him, but most don't really KNOW him, or care that much. Those who do are generally the more hardcore, dedicated Batman fans, those ones who've read and loved stories from all different eras. His profile won't be raised unless someone like Grant Morrison uses him for a big event, or Christopher Nolan actually DOES use Prey as the basis for Dark Knight Rises.
In which case, be prepared to see the character EXPLODE. God, there'd actually be Hugo Strange fangirls. Can you imagine?
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Date: 2010-12-09 12:16 pm (UTC)This is not saying that I wouldn't like Hugo to get broader exposure - certainly I would; he's a cool character. It's just somewhat ironic that, by being presented as an 'ultimate Bat-villain', he may actually have some of the qualities that already define him as such watered down.
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Date: 2010-12-09 06:52 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-12-09 11:28 pm (UTC)no subject
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Date: 2010-12-10 10:57 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-12-11 12:33 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-12-11 01:00 am (UTC)One of these days, I have REALLY got to get things together and read 'Kraven's Last Hunt'.
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Date: 2010-12-11 01:13 am (UTC)Yes, you do! Actually, I'm kinda hoping I can request somebody posting it here, but even then, the 1/3rd page limit would rob the story of the power it has as a whole.
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Date: 2010-12-11 01:51 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-12-14 12:07 am (UTC)http://scans-daily.dreamwidth.org/2025064.html?thread=68205416
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Date: 2010-12-14 12:28 am (UTC)