Victor Zsasz

"Names... they don't really matter, do they? Not now. Nothing matters now... except the mark."

- Victor Zsasz

Victor Zsasz is a villain from the Batman series. He is a deranged serial killer convinced that life is meaningless, and that by killing his victims he is in fact saving them from their meaningless existence. He tracks his number of kills by carving a tally mark into his flesh for each one, saving a spot for Batman.

Biography
At the age of 25, Victor Zsaz was the CEO of an international company, ammasing much personal wealth in addition to family's fortune. His life took a turn for the worse when his parents died in a boating accident, sending him into a deep depression. Zsaz developed a gambling addiction, losing money in tournaments across the world. Eventually, he lost everything he owned to the Penguin at Gotham City's Iceberg Lounge. Feeling that his life was now empty and meaningless, Zsaz went to Gotham Bridge to commit suicide, where he was attacked by a homeless man when he refused to give him money. Acting on instinct, Zsaz grabbed his attacker's knife and saw in the man's eyes that all life was meaningless, and that nothing or anyone mattered.

After stabbing the man as a "gift" for saving his life, Zsaz decided to "liberate" others of their meaningless existence. While he primarily targets young women, he has no qualms over who he murders, and often slits their throats before leaving them in lifelike poses. He is diagnosed as insane as has frequently been incarcerated at Arkham Asylum courtesy of Batman, but often breaks out in order to resume his killing spree.

Arkham Asylum
In the videogame Batman: Arkham Asylum, Victor Zsasz is the first real villain that Batman will actually encounter after Joker escapes. He keeps an Arkham Asylum guard hostage in an electric chair, and Batman had to be stealty and use the gargoyles around the electric chair and knock Zsasz down without being seen. Later in the game, Victor Zsasz is ordered to get doctor Penelope Young to give up her research notes. He does this by threatening her with a knife, until the Batman comes to her rescue. What happened to Zsasz after being knocked out by Batman is unknown, but it is implied that he escaped while Batman was fighting Quinn's goons who had arrived, as his body was not seen in the room during it. Later on in the game, after Batman is drugged by Scarecrow's fear toxin, Zsasz appears in Batman's hallucination. He is not seen again after this. In some of the games' challenge modes, Zsasz is one of various thugs to be fought.

Character Bio
His profile in the videogame Arkham Asylum states:

A true sociopath, Zsasz grew up in a life of ease, but nonetheless, became a serial killer. Indiscriminate in his prey, body count is the only thing that matters to Zsasz. He takes pleasure in arranging the corpses of his victims in life-like poses before carving a mark for each of his victims into his own body. He is saving a special spot for the Batman.

Batman: Arkham City
Zsasz makes an appearance in Batman: Arkham City. He appears in one of the Side missions. In Arkham City, Zsasz would kidnap several political prisoners. He then would call a random phone somewhere in Arkham City and wait for someone to pick up the phone. Then he would threaten them that if they don't find another phone that was ringing in a certain ammount of time, he would one if not all the hostages. Batman does this several times and everytime he find the phone that's ringing Batman would tract Zsasz's location while at the same time, Zsasz would tell his story of why he became the serial killer he is.

Zsasz's Past
Zsasz was once rich and that he lost his parents when he was young. He took on gambling and started to lose money. After more gambling he started to regain his money. But when he gambled with the Penguin, Zsasz lost it all. Shortly afterwards, a thug pointed a knife at him and asked for money. Without knowing Zsasz grabbed the knife and rammed it into the thug, killing him. Zsasz said that plunging the knife into the thug felt good, but when the thug died, the feeling was gone. Before he knew it, Zsasz accidently cut himself with the same knife, and that felt just as good. so in order to feel the enjoyment, Zsasz decided to kill someone, and cut a tally mark into his skin for every kill.

After Batman manage to tract down Zsasz, Batman took out Zsasz and rescued the hostages.

Batman Begins
Victor Zsasz made a very small appearance as a minor villain in the Live Action Movie; Batman Begins. In the movie he was refered as Victor Zsaz and was protrayed by Tim Booth.

Placed on Trial
Gotham's Assistant District Attorney, Rachel Dawes states that Zsasz butchers citizens for the mob and is one of Carmine Falcone's thugs. Dr. Jonathan Crane testified in court that Victor Zsasz, one of Falcone's assassins, was legally insane and should be moved to Arkham for rehabilitation.

Zsasz's Release
Zsasz would later be released from Arkham, during Ra's Al Ghul and Scarecrow's reign of terror. While trying to escape, he and other escaped prisoners almost attacked Rachel and a young child. the two of them were rescued by Batman from Zsasz and the others. It was later confirmed that Zsasz is still at large.

Gotham
See Victor Zsasz (Gotham).

Facts

 * Real Name: Victor Zsasz
 * Occupation: Professional Criminal
 * Base of Operations: Gotham City
 * Eyes: Blue
 * Hair: Blond
 * Height: 5 ft 8 in
 * Weight: 150 lb
 * First Appearance: Batman: Shadow of the Bat #1 (June, 1992)

Attributes

 * Sociopath with no regard for human life
 * No pattern of killing, making him difficult to track
 * Compulsive need to kill others
 * Tally marks all around his body, one for each kill he has commited