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There will be other opportunities to peer behind the mask, Batman. For if you think you have defeated Gotham's ultimate criminal mastermind, think again.
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~ Hugo Strange upon his incarceration.
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The line between genius and insanity is often blurred.
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~ Hugo Strange to Batman.
Hugo Strange is a supporting antagonist in the cartoon show The Batman.
He was the chief of psychiatry at Arkham who wanted to learn more about the criminal mind and was obsessed with unmasking Batman.
In his first three appearances, he was voiced by the late Frank Gorshin, who also played the Riddler in the 1960s Batman TV series, Bele in Star Trek, and Brother Septimus in Are You Afraid of the Dark?. For the rest of the series, he was voiced by Richard Green, who also voiced Lord Orm in Justice League.
Professor Hugo Strange is a conniving psychiatrist as well as a calculating mastermind who gradually became Batman's greatest threat. His job as a psychiatrist ending after he toyed with his patients' well-being just out of curiosity, notably curing Arnold Wesker of his split personality Scarface - only to break his mind again. He cares nothing of innocent people as shown when he didn't look to find Detective Yin, instead focusing on finding out the Joker's past. He even made a robot to study Batman and bring him down. However, later on, he become so evil that he worked with The Joining to gain ultimate power and willingly sold out all of humanity to be destroyed by them, in return for all the knowledge in the universe. Even the Joker proved willing to help the police fight the Joining, whereas Strange helped the aliens incapacitate and capture the Justice League. This ultimately proved that Hugo comes off as the most dangerous and remorseless enemy that Batman has faced, even more so than the Joker at times.
History[]
Hugo Strange first appears during Ethan Beniits's court trail, while he reviews the seasons he has had with Ethan and claims that he is perfectly sane again. Whether or not Strange lied is left unclear.
One time Strange invented a machine that can go into people's minds. When the Joker kidnaps Ellin Yin, he and Batman use the machine to go into the Joker's mind. However, Strange appears more interested in figuring out Joker's past rather than saving Yin, learning that Joker got no attention from his parents. There, he meets Batman who he gains an interest in since he wanted to save Yin and stop Joker.
Although he claimed to have wanted to help the inmates at Arkham Asylum, Strange seemed more bent on finding out how the criminal mind really worked, rather than simply curing it. This would lead him to do some unholy actions.
A few weeks later, he is seen running a therapy session with the Joker, Penguin, and Ventriloquist and Scarface. He noticed Scarface hating Wesker and decided to cure them. After separating Scarface from the Ventriloquist, Arnold was able to became a puppeteer. However, Strange wished to test if Arnold was really cured by placing Scarface in Arnold's apartment. When Bruce visited Hugo to ask if Arnold is alright, he lied and said Arnold is doing great and would be happy to attend the gala. When Scarface is beaten, Batman found out that Hugo put Scarface in Arnold's apartment, retrigging his insanity. Strange lied and said that he was trying to see if the criminal mind could really be cured. Batman lost trust in him and said he will be keeping an eye on Strange.
Strange then decided to make a robot to study Batman. After taking the profiles of the Joker, Penguin, the Riddler, Mr. Freeze, and Clayface, he built D.A.V.E.. He told the most powerful people in Gotham City that DAVE will help stop criminals, to which Bruce has a hard time believing. After D.A.V.E. escapes, Strange lied and said that the glitch caused his escape. He let the robot run lose to observe Batman. Batman discovers Strange was behind the incident and pays him a visit in Arkham Asylum, where Strange tries to kill him. The hero orders him to shut down D.A.V.E., which Strange says he can't, because D.A.V.E. was made to know all there is to know. When the police find out that Strange was behind D.A.V.E., Strange gets arrested, thus losing his job at the asylum.
While in Arkham Asylum, Strange creates a toxin which makes Batman hallucinate that all Gotham citizens, including Gordon, Robin and Batgirl, are actually zombies. Strange explains his plans when Batman arrives to confront him and lies saying he took an antidote. He nearly tricks Batman into infecting all Gotham with the same toxin by passing the toxin as its antidote when Batman arrives at Arkham. However, before Batman uses the fake antidote, he realizes Strange's manipulation and doesn't activate a machine that would have spread out the toxin throughout Gotham while Strange gets sent to maximum security.
Strange later gets captured by Rumor, along with many other of his patients and members of Gotham City's criminal underworld. During his time captive, Strange desires to know more about Rumor's motivations by watching Bane try to break out of his cell. Additionally, Catwoman finds him annoying. Rumor tells him about his past, which Strange taunts him as he learns that Paul isn't a hero, but a man who wants to save his boss. He ends up being freed by Batman and gets taken back to Arkham Asylum once more when he tried to escape, instead of not joining the villains Batman and Robin fight.
When The Joining attack Gotham, Strange escapes Arkham and finds some alien tech, which he uses to contact them. He then makes a deal, saying he will help them if they give him all the knowledge in the universe, before leaving a robotic duplicate of himself behind to trick the guards and succeeding in contacting the aliens, offering them to capture the Justice League with their technology in exchange of the vast knowledge of the universe. After subduing Superman, Hawkman, Flash, Martian Manhunte,r and Green Lantern, Batman goes along with Green Arrow and Robin to Strange's bunker, where Strange captures them before they free themselves and their fellow heroes, only to be revealed that Strange drained up their powers and has given them to android replicas of the super-powered members of the Justice League. They escape and The Joining berates Strange for his failure to restrain them, but Strange reminds them that he warned them about underestimating Batman and demands his reward. The Joining does so, and unloads all the vast universal knowledge on Strange, but this proves to be so vast that it breaks Strange's brain cortex and renders him permanently catatonic. After defeating the androids and regaining their powers, the Justice League finds the catatonic Strange on his hideout and Martian Manhunter reads Strange's mind to find a way to defeat The Joining. In the end, The Joining is defeated, and the catatonic Strange gets send back to Arkham Asylum for the rest of his life.
Trivia[]
In "Strange New World", Strange's role in the episode was originally going to be filled by the Scarecrow. This makes sense considering that Batman suffers hallucinations throughout the episode thanks to a toxin made by Strange, which resembles the Scarecrow's iconic fear gas. However, the Scarecrow was restricted from appearing in the show due the version played by Cillian Murphy in The Dark Knight Trilogy.
This is the second animated version of Hugo Strange after his DCAU version