Clayface
39 years ago - Basil Karlo is born.
18 years ago - 21-year-old Basil begins his acting career.
16 years ago - 23-year-old Basil has his big break in 'The Terror'.
10 years ago - 29-year-old Basil is heavily scarred in a car accident, ruining his film career.
8 years ago - 31-year-old Basil is contacted by Doctor Hugo Strange, given a chance to reshape his looks using Renuyu, an experimental byproduct of a tainted Sionis cosmetic. He becomes desperate and addicted and tries to steal the entire supply, inadvertantly becoming completely submerged. He becomes clayface, terrorizing Gotham and Sionis chemicals until he is stopped by Batman.
5 years ago - 34-year-old Basil discovers that a remake of 'The Terror' is being filmed starring Julie Madison. He haunts the production, systematicall killing cast and crew until he is discovered by Batman. He inadventantly loses part of himself which invents it's own identity, a copy of a long lost child named Annie. She befriends Tim Drake who deduces her origin and uses it trace a route back to Clayface.
3 years ago - 36-year-old Basil resurfaces during No Man's Land, taking over Pamela Isley's refuge in Robinson Park, but is defeated by both her and Batman. He's brought in by Argus, and agrees to work with the Freedom Fighters.
Clayface actually serves dual purposes within the ranking of Batman enemies. He's a huge threat, obviously; when he shows up you know the heroes are in for a huge challenge. Not many of Batman's enemies are what you would call superhumanly strong, but even among the ones that are Clayface's amorphous body and ability to shapeshift make battling him a unique part of the Gotham mythology.
While that alone would be enough, Clayface often turns up posing as other people. Having a huge monster that is both able to masquerade as people and is also an actor at heart and eager to trick people means that writers have a fantastic tool in their pocket to create misdirection in their stories. Sometimes they can go a little overboard, but it's always a shock when the person the story focuses on turns out to be Clayface in disguise.
While that alone would be enough, Clayface often turns up posing as other people. Having a huge monster that is both able to masquerade as people and is also an actor at heart and eager to trick people means that writers have a fantastic tool in their pocket to create misdirection in their stories. Sometimes they can go a little overboard, but it's always a shock when the person the story focuses on turns out to be Clayface in disguise.
Clayface's Comic HistoryThis is actually a really weird backstory, even by Batman villain standards. The name Clayface first appeared in 1940, VERY early in Batman's history. It applied to Basil Karlo, a former horror film actor that stalked actors on a movie set wearing a costume that evoked Lon Chaney's Phantom of the Opera. he had a clay-like makeup that he could use to sculpt his face, but it was entirely a persona that he put on.
It was a long, long time before the name appeared again. An entirely new version of the character, a body-sculpting amorphous monster, was introduced in 1961, this time with the alter-ego Matt Hagen. This clay-monster version of he character went on to take many forms and identities, sometimes even teaming up with each other. Even the original Clayface, Basil Karlo, was brought into the fold. There was also one version, I believe his name was Preston Payne, who built a sort of containment suit that I'm sure made a very good action figure. |
Our Clayface StoryThe Batman Animated Series focused on the Matt Hagan version of the character, which is actually a bit surprising since they usually favored more human, dramatic stories, but obviously it's hard to turn down a chance to animate a big awesome gooey monster that can turn his hands into hammers. They did a really great job of crafting a story for him, making him a vain actor that is addicted to a body-shaping cosmetic. There's actually elements of this elsewhere in both Batman and DC lore... we suggested that the chemical is related to the tainted cosmetic from Black Mask's origin story, and used perennial scientist creepo Hugo Strange as a connecting element. There's even precedent for people falling into chemicals and coming out with their body fundamentally altered; this character actually feels less outlandish in a universe that also includes Plastic Man.
I can't say that the Arkham series of games introduced this concept, but it seems to have perfected it: They used Clayface as a major villain in the game, but it's very clear that what we're looking at is Basil Karlo. They establish that the original version of the character is the one that has his body altered to monstrous proportions. This actually feels really appropriate, so we decided to adapt it. It feels like the best of the both worlds, and even allows us to adapt that original Clayface story and incorporate it into our version of the character. |
Clayface's FutureClayface is yet another longtime villain to have undergone a sort of face turn in the comics; he was offered a chance to work alongside the younger heroes of Gotham and quickly jumped at it, as if he had been waiting for a chance to reform the whole time. This doesn't work if we're using the original Basil Karlo version of the character who is notably a murderer, but we also have the absolutely hilarious take on the character from the Harley Quinn animated series, so we wanted to find a way to put him alongside the good guys. He's a great inclusion to the modern Freedom FIghters; they're a team that could use a monster on it's lineup.
Often, Clayface is defeated by being dilluted with water to the point where he actually washes away, meaning he needs a lot of time to reincorperate himself. This suggests that he's not going to age anymore. If this is true, then he's likely to be around for a good long while. The naturaly next question, then, is what is THAT going to look like? Is he just going to be the same big humanoid pile of clay swinging fists shaped like spikey balls? Or is he going to evolve? He's already accidentally made a seperate body for himself that develops it's own personality. Will he develop control over this ability? How powerful will this make him, to be able to divide himself up into a small army of gooey bodies to battle the future heroes of Gotham? the mind boggles. |