Riddler

*I do riddles. I don't tell jokes.*
―Riddler to Joker.[src]
The **Riddler** is a criminal mastermind and foe of Batman. A brilliant mind obsessed with puzzles, Edward Nigma was forced into a life of crime after a failed technology demonstration. Utilizing technology and a small army of henchmen, Riddler would pull of complex schemes, leaving puzzle clues for the police and Batman to solve.

## Riddler

* Riddler
* Edward Nigma

### Powers

High intelligenceHighly calculating
Master strategist
Technological genius

## Appearances

### Portrayed by

Robert Englund (English)Hiroaki Hirata (Japanese)
Patrick Prejean (French)
Daniele Demma (Italian)
Stefan Fredrich (German)

## Physical Appearance

Riddler sports a gothic appearance. He has long black hair (with brown highlights) and puts black lipstick that extends to his cheeks. He wears green spandex with a big black question mark on its abdomen section. The sleeves only cover the upper part of his arm, and they resemble green question marks. He wears a green domino mask with white eye slits.

Young Edward.Edward's brief career as a trickster.Edward as a robber.
## Personality

Riddler is cold and strategic. He often thinks one step ahead of everyone and places riddles only he is smart enough to solve them. He has a need to prove he is smarter than everyone and has more knowledge. The only one that was able to outsmart him was the Batman, thus, Riddler always tried building harder riddles and death traps by each encounter to prove he is superior. He also does not like someone knowing something he does not, as he had a breakdown when Yin (falsely) told him Batman's identity is Ethan Bennett.

## History

As a boy, young Edward Nigma was fascinated by riddles and puzzles. However, Nigma's father despised the boy's intellectual pursuits and constantly shot down any puzzles the boy made. Nigma came to hate his sports-loving father.

In his early adulthood, Nigma briefly performed tricks on the streets, then he became a thief who expertised in safe cracking. The thrill of cracking the puzzle of a safe always excited Edward. Later, he gave up this career to pursue a more intellectual path being a scientist.

When he was older, Edward got a job at a university where he and his partner (and love interest) Julie invented a device which would enhance the human brain, giving its user amazing brain power. During the development stages of the device, a man named Chuck Gorman kept trying to get Edward to sell the right of the invention to him, an offer which Edward refused. During the demonstration of the device to the dean, though, the device malfunctioned. Edward subsequently accused Gorman of sabotaging the device and decided to get vengeance later by booby trapping Gorman's house with deadly puzzles and traps, turning his house into a death trap. While trying to survive his house of horrors, Gorman called the police, a call intercepted by The Batman who went to the house, and saved Gorman. Edward escaped, inspired by the Batman's appearance. Hoping to increase his chances of success against Batman, he donned a new identity...as The Riddler.

In his first appearance as Riddler, the Riddler planted bombs around Gotham City and asked Yin to solve multiple riddles to defuse the bombs. Riddler warned the remaining cops not to follow her, or there will be consequences. Batman silently followed her and helped her solve the riddles. Angel Rojas also decided to follow her, although Riddler spotted him, so he accelerated the van she was in towards the pillar of a bridge. He decided then to leave it all up to Yin. When Batman and Yin realized the remaining bombs were fake,Batman deduced Riddler was stealing information beneath City Hall, so they headed there. Upon arrival, Riddler's henchmen attacked and subdued Batman, rendering him helpless as Riddler sprayed sleeping gas at him, making him fall asleep. Riddler then trapped Batman and Yin and challenged them to a series of 20 questions to deduce Batman's true identity; if Batman answered falsely, Yin would get electrocuted. Eventually, Yin pushed the Riddler in front of the blast of electricity and electrocuted him. Batman used this opportunity to escape along with Yin. Batman fought the Riddler while Yin took down his henchmen. Eventually, Riddler was defeated and he tried to tell Chief Rojas that Yin was working with Batman, but Rojas did not believe him and sent him away.

Later in *Night and the City*, Riddler proposed to Joker and Penguin a competition to settle who will rule over Gotham: the one who defeats the Batman and unmasks him wins. Riddler then kept track of Batman and Yin as they ran away from the police. Joker and Penguin also gave chase. Batman and Yin were then cornered in a building, so Batman threw a smoke pellet. During the confusion, Riddler closed a pod and sent it flying back to him, believing he had captured Batman and Yin. It turned out he captured the two villains, so he ordered the Riddlemen to kill them. Joker and Penguin fought back and formed an alliance against Riddler. Batman then interrupted and defeated all three villains.

During his final onscreen confrontation with the Batman, wherein his backstory was revealed, The Riddler and Batman both worked out that Gorman hadn't been the saboteur of his invention on the demonstration in the university; Julie had done it so that she could accept the profits of her device which Gorman offered, to which Edward refused initially. The Riddler went back to the university where Julie still worked, tied Julie to a chair and tried to kill her with feedback from the device before he was stopped once more by Batman and Robin. Batman, taking sympathy on the Riddler, left Julie tied to the chair and allowed her to be taken into custody by the police. Julie looked over the tearful, unconscious Ridder and expressed guilt and remorse over being responsible for turning her former boyfriend into a villain.

In the episode *Rumors*, the Riddler was captured by Rumor. Once free he tried to fight Batman but got thrown into a cell with Mr. Freeze. After the fight, all the villians got arrested.

## Powers and Abilities

Riddler is a master criminal strategist, and has an affinity for riddles and puzzles - he prefers using elaborate methods of committing crimes on a wide scale, and cannot resist leaving clues to his crimes. This habit can be a major weakness and can be easily exploited.

Another weakness he has is that he dislikes figuring things out the easy way; this is shown when, instead of pulling off Batman's mask, he submitted him to a game of 20 questions with "yes" or "no" answers in order to deduce his identity, and quickly tried to drown out another from telling him the answer.

Whilst he is not athletically proficient, he very briefly held his own against Batman during their final confrontation. He kept getting better with each fight. He is very computer-literate and is an expert hacker and mechanic. Mostly, he resorts in hacking Gotham City's grids, controlling anything from the electricity distribution, being able to basically turn on and off any building anywhere (while often turning on the windows in a question mark pattern) to even starting subways and bridges with remarkable timing.

### Abilities

* **Genius Level Intellect**: The Riddler was a child prodigy and genius. As his name suggests, he is an expert at riddles.
* **Tactical Analysis**: Nigma constantly has a plan to test his enemies like Chuck Gorman and the Batman.
* **Mechanical Aptitude**: The Riddler has shown a lot of mechanical knowledge. At one point in his career, he single-handedly redesigned Chuck Gorman's house into a riddle-themed death trap.
* **Adept Thief**: Nigma states that, before he became the Riddler, he was a thief and master safe cracker. The thrill of solving the riddle of a safe was absolutely exciting to Nigma.
* **Hand-to-Hand Combat (Basic)**

## Equipment

* **Question Mark Staff** - A golden staff with a handle shaped like a question mark;the length of the staff has varied from being the length of a cane to as long as a bo staff. The staff has many functions, including:
	+ Sleeping Gas
	+ Remote - Riddler has used his staff to control things like elevator trap doors, electric doors, rockets,and a crane
	+ Bomb Detonator
* **Bombs** - Numerous bombs filled with a green substance that could only be defused by solving the riddle or game attatched to them. It was later revealed that the green substance was just lime flavoured gelatin and the bombs were fakes.
* **Lie Detector** - Used for a game of 20 questions with Batman and Detective Yin; the rules of the game were for Batman to answer 20 'Yes/No' questions asked by Riddler for him to figure out Batman's identity. Every time Batman lied, the Lie Detector would give Yin an electric shock, with each shock getting worse with each wrong answer.
* **Signal Transmitter** - Used to lead Batman and Detective Yin to a warehouse.
* **Rocket Pod** - Used to carry Batman and Detective Yin to Riddler's location at an offshore oil drilling platform, however, he instead ended up carrying Penguin and Joker.
* **Stun Sceptres** - Sidearms used by Riddler's henchmen.
* **Sickles** - While fighting Batman on a cargo ship, Riddler used two question mark shaped sickles as weapons.Crane.Bombs.Lie detector.Transmitter.Rocket Pod.Sickles.

## Relationships

### Love Interests

#### Julie

During his time as a scientist,Edward quickly fell in love with fellow scientist Julie, as he believed she understood him. He was left heartbroken after he realised she was the one who sabotaged his project and indirectly turned him into Riddler, so he tried to kill her. After the Dynamic Duo stopped him, he was left on the floor crying.

### Enemies

#### Chuck Gorman

Riddler was constantly annoyed by Gorman's offers about buying Edward's projects, to the point where he pushed him at one point. After his device was sabotaged, Riddler believed Gorman did it, and tried to kill him a few times. He quitted after realising it was actually Julie.

#### Joker

Riddler and Joker did not get along due to them being complete opposites. When Riddler tried killing Joker and Penguin to claim the title as Gotham's biggest villain, Joker called him a "lousy host".

#### Penguin

Penguin did not have as much of a feud with Riddler as Joker did, but he still disliked him.

#### Ellen Yin

Yin could not stand Riddler and his games. She found them both crazy. She would also often refer to Riddler as a maniac.

## Appearances

### Season 2

* *Riddled*
* *Night and the City*

### Season 3

* *The Apprentice* (*Mentioned only*)
* *Gotham's Ultimate Criminal Mastermind* (*In a photograph only*)

### Season 4

* *Strange New World* (*Mentioned only*)
* *Riddler's Revenge*
* *Rumors*

### *The Batman Strikes!*

* Issue 17
* Issue 34 " Shtick Shift"
* Issue 39 " Hostile Takeover"
* Issue 40 "The Burning Question"
* Issue 50

## Trivia

* Riddler's design is based on music artist Marilyn Manson, who was originally sought to voice the character.
* Riddler seems to be a capable combatant, something which most versions of the character are not.
* His original design ended up being used for Cluemaster.
* Riddler also has black hair in *Harley Quinn*.
* His design is very drastic compared to other versions of him, as he sports gothic attire.
* Riddler was the final Batman villain seen in the entire conintuity of *The Batman*.