Max Shreck

Max Shreck was a ruthless business mogul who was the tyrannical archenemy and former boss of Selina Kyle and the former ally to The Penguin.

## **Biography**

### Early Life

Max Schreck worked with Fred Atkins in his store. One day, Max would kill Fred and put his hand in the toilet, hiding all the evidence. Later, he would tell the Penguin that Fred was fine, and that he was on a extended vacation (although Penguin didn't believe him).

Max Shreck became known as the ruthless and ambitious owner of the department store *Shreck's*. His only family was his son, Charles "Chip" Shreck, and it was implied by dialogue that he murdered his wife for her money. .

Shreck's goal was to build a supposed "Power Plant" for Gotham City's future. Standing in Shreck's way, however, was Mayor Roscoe Jenkins, who believed such a Power Plant was unnecessary. Bruce Wayne was also unconvinced of the need for a new plant, and opposed Shreck's plans.

### Deal with the Penguin

Later on, that same night, while Shreck gave the city a speech (he was viewed as "Gotham's Santa Claus"), he presented a public persona of being a philanthopist, stating in a speech that people may call him Santa Claus, but he is only "some poor schmoe who got lucky". While the speech was in progressm a giant novelty gift box lumbered towards the crowd, then the speech was cut short when, a group of clown-like criminals known as the Red Triangle Gang emerged from the box, attacking Gotham Plaza and demanded Shreck.

Chip valiantly defended his father long enough for Shreck to escape, although Shreck was caught in a trap and he fell into the sewer, where he saw the same gang and met their enigmatic leader: a mysterious Penguin-like creature, whose rumors were spreading. The Penguin demanded Shreck help him make his way to the surface in a positive light, and when Shreck at first refused, the Penguin blackmailed him with incriminating evidence of Shreck's past crimes (the Penguin had studied Shreck for a while in preparation for that). Shreck agreed to help the Penguin, but made it clear he wanted something in return, to which the Penguin agreed to such a deal.

### The Attempted Murder of Selina Kyle

Shreck then returned to his office, where he found his timid and shy secretary, Selina Kyle, doing a last-minute check-up for his meeting the next day with Bruce Wayne about the Power Plant. Kyle accidentally revealed that she found out the true nature about the Power Plant, that it would siphon off power from the Gotham electrical grid and give Schreck a hugely profitable energy monopoly. Shreck, out of fear that Kyle might let it slip, and his refusal to risk what he considered his legacy to Chip, pushed her through a window to her death. Unknown to him, however, Selina survived the defenestration, as multiple awnings cushioned the impact. She returned home seemingly unharmed, but when her answering machine played a robocall advertising a perfume, she became unhinged and began assuming the mantle of Catwoman.

The next day, during a speech, Mayor Jenkins' baby son was kidnapped by a Red Triangle Gang member, who fled into the sewer, where he was "attacked" by the Penguin, who then "rescued" Jenkins' son, brought him to the surface, and became a public hero. Shreck witnessed that, and demanded that the Penguin be granted access into the Hall of Records to search for his parents' names, and in the process, learned of his human name: Oswald Cobblepot.

The same day, Shreck met with Bruce Wayne at his office, who also opposed the idea of the Power Plant and accused Cobblepot of ordering the Red Triangle Circus gang to attack his speech. Shreck denied that, however, and they were then visited by a heavily plastered but "amnesia-suffering" Selina, who displayed a more confident attitude and even impressed Shreck, who vowed to kill her only if she tried to blackmail him. However, Shreck said to Chip that Selina's "change" didn't surprise him.

### The Penguin's Mayoral Bid

Shreck then revealed his plan: recall the elections by using the Red Triangle Gang's attacks to lower public opinion of Mayor Jenkins, then register Oswald Cobblepot in the election. Cobblepot thought this was a smart idea, and he promised to recompense Shreck by saying that the first action of Mayor Cobblepot would be to approve Shreck's power plant. Meanwhile, Selina, as Catwoman, started her own revenge crusade against Shreck and blew up an entire floor of his department store.

Shreck's plans to make Cobblepot the new Mayor were ruined, or more accurately, Cobblepot had sabotaged his own campaign. Earlier, Penguin attempted to murder Batman by crashing the Batmobile at high speed through remote control, which was thwarted by Batman. Penguin mocked Batman's impending doom by a video message played to the Batmobile, but his overconfidence was his undoing. Bruce Wayne preserved the message, part of which said how he had a low opinion of the citizenry of Gotham and how he will manipulate their sympathies to have him win the election. From the Batcave, Bruce Wayne jammed the radio frequency and caused the snippets from the Batmobile to play while the Cobblepot was debating incumbent Mayor Jenkins. Cobblepot's true personality and his schemes were uncovered, he lost his popularity, and was forced to return to the sewer. Shreck took advantage of the jeering crowd to disassociate himself from Cobblepot's idiotic move.

### Capture

At Shreck's annual "Maxquerade Ball", the Penguin crashed through and informed the party that his henchmen were targeting their first-born sons to murder in the sewer (in a twisted act of revenge for what his parents did to him). Penguin's intention was to take Chip and kill him, but Shreck, in his first and only noble act, begged that he be taken instead, on the basis that it was he, and not Chip, who manipulated and betrayed him. The Penguin accepted (as he would like to see him die a horrible death), took Shreck prisoner, and held him in a cage above a deadly vat of toxic waste, into which he planned to dump Shreck along with the firstborn sons of Gotham.

### Death

"*Selina - Selina Kyle, you're fired! And Bruce Wayne...why are you dressed up like Batman?*"
―Shreck to Batman[src]
"*Because he* is *Batman, you moron!*"
―Catwoman to Shreck[src]
"*Was.*"
―Shreck to Catwoman before he shot Batman[src]
When Batman intervened and tricked the Penguin into firing missiles at the Old Zoo (under which the Penguin's lair was), Shreck managed to escape from his cage, only to be ambushed by Catwoman, who was determined to kill him then and there. Batman arrived, and Shreck attempted to bribe him, only for Batman to push him back, having discovered his involvement with the Red Triangle Gang's attacks on the city, while Shreck's company has been completely shut down with Chip being arrested. Catwoman attempted to murder Shreck, but Batman tried to talk her out of it, claiming that Shreck deserved to stand trial and go to prison rather than be killed. When Batman, however, removed his mask and revealed himself as Bruce Wayne, Shreck used Fat Clown's gun and shot him. Batman doubled over, but was feigning harm (as he was wearing body armor) in order to protect himself. Shreck then fired four shots into Catwoman. She was not killed by those (although possibly harmed) claiming she had nine lives.

Catwoman, using a taser, sacrificed her penultimate life to electrocute Shreck, gave him a "kiss" by forcing both the taser and seemingly her lips to his mouth, pulled one of the generator cables at the same time, which engulfed both herself and Shreck in a massive explosion which was revealed to have killed Shreck, which fried him horribly and reduced him to nothing but a scorched and skeletal corpse.