The Riddler (Edward Nygma - E. Nygma) is a supervillain appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics. He was created by Bill Finger and Dick Sprang, and debuted in Detective Comics #140 in October 1948. He is one of the most enduring enemies of the superhero Batman and belongs to the collective of adversaries that make up his rogues gallery.
The Riddler is depicted as a criminal mastermind in Gotham City. He has an obsession to incorporate riddles, puzzles, and death traps in his schemes to prove his intellectual superiority over Batman and the police. His real name—Edward Nygma— is a pun itself; an "enigma” is a person or thing that is difficult to understand. With this self-conscious use of an elaborate gimmick, the Riddler's crimes are often theatrical and ostentatious. He commonly wears a domino mask and either a green unitard decorated with question mark prints or a green suit and bowler hat. A black, green, or purple question mark is his visual motif. He commonly says "Riddle me this", before stating his riddles.
The Riddler has been adapted into numerous forms of media, having been portrayed in live action by the following: Frank Gorshin and John Astin on the 1960s television series Batman, Jim Carrey in the 1995 film Batman Forever, Cory Michael Smith on the 2014 Fox series Gotham, and Paul Dano in the 2022 film The Batman. John Glover, Robert Englund, Wally Wingert, and others have provided his voice ranging from animation to video games.
Fictional character biography Golden Age
The character's origin story recounts Edward Nigma's fascination with puzzles from a young age.Riddler is number 59 , IGN. After a teacher announces that a contest will be held over who can solve a puzzle the fastest, Nigma sets his sights on winning, craving the glory and satisfaction with victory. He breaks into the school at night to practice the puzzle until he is able to solve it in under a minute. Due to this he wins the contest and is given a book of riddles as a prize. His cheating rewarded, Edward embraced the mastery of puzzles of all kinds, eventually becoming a carnival employee who excelled at cheating his customers out of their money with his bizarre puzzles and mind games. He soon finds himself longing for greater challenges and thrills and dons the disguise of the "Riddler" to challenge Batman, believing him to be a worthy adversary. In his first encounter with the Dynamic Duo, Riddler first tried to confound the crime-fighters with his infamous double-entry Riddle Clues and then tried to kill them both in a booby-trapped glass maze on a pier, sealing the door so they could not leave the structure before it exploded, only for Batman and Robin to escape and the Riddler "vanishing" after getting knocked into the sea by the explosion, leaving only his trademark "?" floating in the water.Detective Comics #140 (October 1948)
Silver and Bronze Age Riddler's origin is the same as his Golden Age counterpart. The first Silver Age appearance of the Riddler introduced the villain when he was released from prison. Upon release, the Riddler swore he would no longer leave clues to his crimes. However, during his first attempt at a robbery he discovers that leaving clues has become a compulsion.Batman #171 (May 1965)
Post-Crisis In Batman: The Long Halloween, the Riddler appears as an informant. The Riddler is hired by Carmine Falcone to tell him the identity of the Holiday Killer. Falcone eventually loses his patience with Riddler and has his daughter throw him out on April 1. Outside Falcone's he is confronted by Holiday who fires several shots at him without harming him due to it being April Fool's, the killer also leaves several items pertaining to their identity at the scene.
In Catwoman: When in Rome, he joins Selina Kyle on a trip to Italy in search of his fellow rogue's origins. It is there that he manipulates her into believing that some of Batman's most dangerous foes are after her. He has his henchmen employ several gimmicks and weapons used by the Scarecrow, Mr. Freeze and the Joker to achieve this. He hopes to extract Batman's real identity from her, but to his dismay, she actually does not know or care.
In the three-part Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight storyline "The Primal Riddle", written by Steve Englehart, the Riddler engineers one of his greatest deathtraps: Batman is thrown into a narrow pit that is slowly filling up with water. The walls are electrically wired, and a set of bumpers are the only thing that prevents the water from touching the walls and causing Batman to die by electrocution. The only options Batman appears to have are death by electrocution and death by drowning, but as always, Batman manages to tamper with the trap's design and develop a route of escape.Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight #109-#111 (August - October 1998) After Harley Quinn briefly breaks free of her devotion to the Joker, she attempts to hold up a large party at Wayne Manor, only to find that the Riddler is targeting the building also. The two gangs engage in a firefight, but Harley gains the upper hand when Big Barda (who was secretly allied with her at the time) interrupts the conflict and captures the Riddler and his men. During the storyline, Riddler makes constant allusions to a "mystery" that is hidden within the mansion, and after his apprehension, damage done to the building causes the entrance to the Batcave to open. Riddler sees this, and then declares that he has "solved the riddle of Wayne Manor".Harley Quinn #6-#7 (May - June 2001) During this period, he attacks Black Canary and Green Arrow in Star City, and he is easily defeated. This event helps lay the foundations for Riddler's future confrontations with Green Arrow.
Batman: Hush In the 12-part storyline Batman: Hush, it is revealed that Riddler has cancer (specifically a brain tumor), which also afflicted the mother of Dr. Thomas Elliot. Riddler uses one of Ra's al Ghul's Lazarus Pits to cure himself and offers Elliot the chance to cure his mother as well, provided he pays a large sum of money. However, Elliott is eager for his mother to die to inherit her fortune. Elliott, who goes on to secretly become the masked criminal Hush, explains he wants to get revenge on his childhood friend Bruce Wayne. The two of them agree to work together and Riddler sets Killer Croc, Poison Ivy, Harley Quinn, Joker, Clayface, and Scarecrow out to destroy Batman, with Ra's al Ghul, Talia al Ghul, and Lady Shiva being temporarily drawn into the scheme as well.
During the psychotic break that follows exposure to the Lazarus Pit, the Riddler deduces Batman's secret identity; he then reveals his knowledge to Hush. He has Clayface shapeshift into Jason Todd to torment Batman, who is haunted by the former Robin's death. Batman first thinks that Riddler had stolen Todd's corpse and hidden it, but it was revealed in a later storyline, Batman: Under the Hood, that Todd was alive and had personally played a role in Riddler and Hush's scheme. When the Riddler threatens to expose Batman's secret identity, Batman mockingly labels it an empty threat.Batman #619 (November 2003)
Aftermath As revealed in Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight #185-189, the Riddler became homeless after his encounter with Batman. A chance encounter with an ex-NSA codebreaker gives him a positive environment in which to recover his mind. During that stay, he experiences an induced flashback that leads him to realize that his father had abused him many years ago. Envious of his son's academic achievements in school, and unable to understand his brilliance, his father believed he had cheated on his accomplishments and beat him out of jealousy. Once Riddler discovers this, he is able to understand his lifelong obsession as born out of a traumatic compulsion to prove his intelligence. Having made this connection, the Riddler spends some of his vast fortunes, acquired over many years of crime, to get minor plastic surgery and extensive tattooing, covering most of his torso with his trademark question insignia. He returns and kills the codebreakerwho had pieced together his identity but could not act on itthen promptly steals a priceless scroll out from under Batman's nose. In the years that followed, he largely turned away from crime to instead focus on gaining wealth and social influence.
After orchestrating a brutal series of assaults on Green Arrow, as revenge against his defeat at his hands during the "No Man's Land" era, Riddler gravely injures and almost kills both Green Arrow and Arsenal. He once again escapes before the Outsiders arrive to save them.Green Arrow (vol. 3) #50 (July 2005) Sometime between this incident and the events of Hush, Riddler was hired to steal artifacts imbued with mystical powers from one of Star City's museums, and then distract the authorities so that the related rituals could be commenced. He sends Team Arrow on a wild goose chase around the city and then reveals that he has an atomic bomb housed in the stadium where the Star City Rockets play. However, as a side effect of the ritual performed with the artifacts, the city is plunged into complete darkness, and Green Arrow uses this to his advantage, moving in and apprehending the Riddler.
Riddler later shows up in Infinite Crisis #1, with a group of villains attacking the Gotham City Police Department.Infinite Crisis #1 (December 2005) He is next seen escaping Arkham Asylum during the worldwide supervillain breakout engineered by Alexander Luthor Jr.'s Secret Society of Super Villains days after the prior supernatural disaster.Villains United: Infinite Crisis Special (June 2006) Riddler reappears as part of the Society's attack on Metropolis. He is defeated by Shining Knight and is struck in the head by the Knight's mace.
Riddler reformed In Detective Comics #822, the first of a series of issues written by Paul Dini, the Riddler returns, having spent much of the previous year in a coma due to brain damage after being struck in the head by Shining Knight. When he awakes, he is cured of his insanity and of his obsession with riddles, while retaining both his genius intellect and ego. He subsequently reinvents himself as a private detective, taking on the murder case of a wealthy socialite. Hired by the socialite's father, he proves that a photo of Bruce Wayne apparently implicating him in the crime depicts an impostor and briefly works with Batman to investigate the crime. He has suffered severe memory loss from the coma, and he barely remembers his own name. He does not appear to remember that Wayne and Batman are one and the same, although he does harbor some suspicions of once knowing something amazing about Wayne.Detective Comics #822 (October 2006)
The Riddler is a guest along with Bruce Wayne on board a ship during a party. During the party, an old friend of Bruce's falls overboard and is mauled to death by sharks. Riddler appears to solve the case with the suicide of the apparent murderer, and quickly takes the credit. However, Batman finds evidence that suicide was a setup to divert attention away from the real killer. Bruce suspects foul play, and eventually tracks down the killer, whom Riddler is also close to catching before Nigma is bludgeoned over the head by a shark-tooth club. The killer pushes Batman out the window and is about to drop him to his death, when Nigma wraps his tie around an arrow, lights it on fire, and shoots it into the killer's back. As the assailant rolls around screaming, Nigma taunts him, refusing to douse the flames. Batman extinguishes the flame and responds to Nigma's assertion that they are now allies with hostile dismissal.Detective Comics #828 (April 2007)
Return to villainy