Dc’s Villain of the Month campaign is just getting better and better. This time the individual being featured seems to never be included enough as of late. He full of question which answer could potentially mean your life. That’s right, the Riddler. Batman readers know that The Riddler is one of the four Gotham Rogues that will be presenting themselves in the pages of the upcoming September line.
There will be four separate issues in accordance to promoting this and what a challenge this may present in order to keep face with the 52 a month line. However, some lines are being disbanded such as the “Legion of Super-Heroes.” Edward Nigma will appear in “Batman” #23.2 by regular writer Scott Snyder (with an assist by Ray Fawkes) and artist Jeremy Haun.Snyder has spoken often at conventions about his love for the master of puzzles and his place in Batman’s rogue’s gallery, and in an interview with Comic Book Resources he explains how Riddler remains one of the very best Bat bad guys even as creators and readers have given him less time than the more murder-happy Arkham inmates. The writer digs into his own favorite Riddler stories, his view of E. Nigma’s desire to be the smartest man in the room and the reasons why the powerful combination of the two shows why Riddler is the only villain who can truly test Batman’s mind.
This should be an interesting match up. In the last 10 years The Riddler has barely been featured than more as one of Arkhams residents in and out and has not had a serious story line in quite some time. To say that we’re exciting for the return of the maniacal question slinger is an understatement. Snyder has speculated that many a villain will be seen in this set. Perhaps Joker, Penguin, or anybody for that matter, don’t be closed minded about the cast list. Snyder stated, He’s got some terrific stories, but he appears relatively infrequently when you look at his history, or sometimes he has more of a supporting role. So I thought it’d be fun to do an issue that shows why he’s so bad ass and why he is really one of the great Batman rogues.When you think about it, Batman is the world’s greatest detective, and a case is the same as a riddle a lot of the time. At least in fiction, you investigate a crime and add these pieces up to get your answer. There’s always some kind of closed circuit to that, but the Riddler is always about confounding that loop and confounding that notion of finding an answer. He loves putting forward something that has an answer, but it always becomes more and more buried. So he’s actually testing Batman’s most essential quality in some ways, which is his detection skill. It’s his ability to be smart enough to protect the city from threats that require more than brute force. And what the Riddler sees himself as — and this is something for me to explore — is someone working in a great tradition of riddles. He sees riddles as battles of wits that are all about life and death, which they’ve been throughout moments in history.”
Riddle me excited. This is going to be awesome.