One of Batman’s oldest villains, Clayface has a confusing origin, but still makes for great stories for the Dark Knight
Few heroes have as iconic and extraordinary a gallery of rogues as Batman. Only, in addition to the Joker, Two-Face, the Riddler and other iconic enemies, Batman still has other iconic opponents in his team who have never been brought to the cinema, but whose participation in comics has already proved more than once that they would pay off. great stories in a movie. Clayface is one of them.
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Despite having a non-threatening name, the character is a villain almost as old as the hero and a perfect ability to test the Dark Knight’s investigative skills. After all, who better to put the world’s greatest detective to the test than a criminal capable of shapeshifting and taking on anyone’s appearance?
Not surprisingly, the rumors that Clayface may appear below The Batman have already begun to emerge. And, while she’s not among the hero’s most remembered enemies, there’s no denying that she’d be a more than interesting addition to the film.
The many faces of Clay Face
As mentioned, Clayface is a very old villain from the Batman gallery, who appeared in the Golden Age. But his early appearances brought about a very different take on the villain fans know today. Appeared in 1940 on the pages of Detective Comics #40Basil Karlo was just an actor who goes crazy when he can’t make the switch from silent films to talkies and starts killing his colleagues wearing the mask of a clay monster.
This first version is little remembered for several reasons. First, because it’s pretty uninteresting. Furthermore, he only appeared in a few editions of the comic and disappeared for a few decades, saving himself only in 1961 already in this idea of ​​the villain capable of changing shape.
Era Detective Comics #298 that the character has reappeared, this time under the moniker Matt Hagen. He was an explorer who has found a magical source and, after immersing himself in it, sees that his body becomes malleable to the point of taking any shape he wishes. So, he decides to use his newfound powers for crime and starts a rash of robberies in Gotham.
What he didn’t expect was that the effects would only last 48 hours and with that, he ended up being defeated by Batman. In addition, Man-Bat discovered the origin of the new villain’s powers and found a way to seal the cave so that something similar would not happen again.
It just happened, or almost. This is because a third Clayface has emerged in Gotham to torment the hero. This time it was Preston Payne, a man with massive physical deformities who, in an attempt to cure himself, injected himself with a serum based on Matt Hagen’s blood. It also caused his body to take on that clay-like consistency with the added benefit that he felt a lot of pain in the process. It goes crazy and follows a very tragic plot in the best Frankenstein style.
And that’s when a fourth character appears who adopts the nickname. In this case, she’s a woman named Sondra Fuller. She follows the same bizarre logic of feeling ugly and wishing for some magic trick to make her look prettier which leads to some questionable experiments. It is then that she develops the shapeshifting powers we know.
This Clayface in particular is interesting because she’s the one who’s going to bring old Basil Karlo back into the stories. The idea of ​​the two was to bring together all the criminals who have already adopted the name to create a sort of league of their own, but the truth was that Karlo’s plan was to exploit the powers of his successors to become the last Clay – which ends up happening.
The multifaceted actor
Even after all that traveling, at least two other people have adopted the villain’s name and powers. Only, to be fair, they don’t matter, since DC has established Basil Karlo as the Clayface that was really worth it and has continued to work with the character as a recurring villain in Batman stories.
It is from this that he began to make more and more frequent appearances in the comics of the hero. The curious thing is that the editor has changed the tone of the character a lot and, for some time, it has become almost comical in his appearances. Some of that was even saved in animation. harlequinin which the villain carries this personality of the failed actor very strongly.
At the same time, some comics explore his side a lot, sometimes more brutal, sometimes tragic. At the time of new 52he was even treated as this monster suffering from his condition, while there are other stories where he took advantage of his shape-shifting ability to heal Batman.
Even so, Cara de Barro is a character who always produces good passages in comics. Since the 1960s, her force-shifting powers have tested Batman’s investigative and deductive skills, as well as bringing out some more sentimental stories of her as well.
In The man who wasn’t there, the villain takes the form of Bruce Wayne to commit crimes in Gotham and this means that the real Batman is confronted with very hard truths about himself. You know the idea of ​​going to therapy to deal with yourself? Because Clayface literally allowed it for the hero.
Clayface in theaters
Due to his grotesque and unrealistic look, we never got a cameo from the clayey villain in theaters. At most, it is in the aforementioned animation by harlequin and in the classic Batman: The Animated Series. In this 1992 cartoon there are some episodes centered on Basil Karlo and all of them memorable.
Despite this, there are some rumors pointing to the possibility of seeing the character on the big screen. Sources related to the coming Batman: Part 2 argue that Clayface could appear in the film.
The extent of this participation and even if it will actually take place is not yet known. However, it would be really nice to see this kind of more fantastical villain show up in the film in contrast to the concrete threats facing the Dark Knight. And, since director Matt Reeves’ proposal is to bring more of the detective side of the hero, it would make sense to put him in front of a shape-shifting criminal.
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Source: Terra
Rose James is a Gossipify movie and series reviewer known for her in-depth analysis and unique perspective on the latest releases. With a background in film studies, she provides engaging and informative reviews, and keeps readers up to date with industry trends and emerging talents.
